All right. Welcome to our service
this morning. It's good to see all of you here.
Thankful that the Lord, once again, has been pleased to bring
us together to worship in spirit and in truth as we open his word
and seek his blessings in Christ. I will mention in the past few
weeks, we've had some problems with our live streaming. And
of course, this is mainly for the people watching by live stream.
But we're hopefully by next weekend, we'll have it all cleared up.
Of course, anything a man does is not perfect, so that'll be
a good lead into the message this morning. We're gonna be
talking about assurance of salvation. in Hebrews 6. But anyway, hopefully
we'll have all that cleared up. But let's continue to pray for
those on our prayer list as they face the illnesses and the preparations
and the procedures that they go through. I want to open with
a word from 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20, that fits right with
the message. I might be referring to this
in the message. Verse 20 of 2 Corinthians 1 says,
for all the promises of God in him, that is in Christ, are yea
and in him amen. That means sure and certain.
Unto the glory of God by us. Now he which establishes with
you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed
us and given the earnest of the spirit. in our hearts. May the Lord bless His word to
our hearts. All right, let's get our bulletins,
turn to the call to worship, sung to the tune of Majestic
Sweetness. Let's stand and sing our call
to worship. ? How rich the depths of love divine
? ? Of bliss abound the store ? ? Dear Savior, let me call
Thee mine ? ? I could not wish for more ? ? I could not wish
for more ? On Thee alone my hope relies, Beneath Thy cross I fall. My Lord, my life, my sacrifice,
My Savior and my all, My Savior and my all. How great thy wisdom,
power, and grace, that in redemption shine! The heavenly host with
joy confess, The work is all divine! The work is all divine! Before His face they cast their
crowns, those crowns which Jesus gave. And with ten thousand,
thousand tongues proclaim His power to save. Proclaim His power to save. Heavenly Father, once again we
come to you in praise of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his name,
upon his honor, in his merits, all through your mercy that we
find in him who is our mercy seat. The blood that he shed
to put away our sins so that we stand before you without sin
charged to our account. The righteousness that he wrought
out by his obedience unto death in which we stand, having it
charged to our account. And so we have the Spirit, dear
Lord, who led us to Christ, who gave us life from him, the resurrection
of the dead, that we look to him and rest in him and plead
his merits alone all the days of our lives, and especially
as we stand before you. We pray, dear Lord, you would
bless us today, bless us in your word, bless us through our hearts
and keep us knit together in the love of the truth and the
love of Christ. We pray for those who are watching
by live stream that you will bless them, guide us and direct
us, bless those who are sick and afflicted with the healing
that only you can give if it be your will. We pray this in
Christ's name and for his sake, amen. Be seated and let's turn
to hymn number 175, Standing on the Promises. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Sing the third. Standing on the
promises of Christ the Lord Bound to Him eternally by love's strong
cord Overcoming daily with the spirit's sword Standing on the
promises of God On the last verse now Standing on the promises,
I cannot fall. Listening every moment to the
Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all
in all. Standing on the promises of God,
now the chorus. ? Standing, standing ? Standing
on the promises of God, my Savior ? Standing, standing ? I'm standing
on the promises of God Thank you. I promise you I do that,
not because I'm wanting to hurry through it. but it's just a matter
of stamina for me. Especially when you get one with
those high notes. Of course, I could just go low
on you, so. Anyway, I appreciate that. Thank
you, Andrea, for playing the piano for us. Gonna be looking
at Hebrews chapter six. The title of the message is God's
God's counsel, promise, and oath. Those three words we're going
to deal with. Counsel, the counsel of God, promise, the promise
of God. We read there in 2 Corinthians
1 20, all the promises of God are in Christ, and the oath of
God. From Hebrews 6, and over in verse
17 and 18. But let's begin. This passage
in Hebrews 6 begins with showing the tragedy of a person who comes
so close to true faith in Christ, but then falls away. It says in verse 6, if they shall
fall away, how it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance,
seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put
him to an open shame." And of course that's talking about total
apostasy, falling away from Christ. And of course you know how a
lot of people deal with that subject. They say, well, they
were saved, but then they lost their salvation. And that's not
what happened. The Bible does not support such
heresy, and that's what it is. A lot of people will say, well,
you know, you're just preaching the Baptist doctrine of once
saved, always saved. Well, we do believe that if God
saves you, you are saved, period. You will never fall away. He will keep you. The Bible teaches
that. And it also goes on to explain
how that those who have a claim of salvation in the truth, but
then apostatize from it, fall away from it, turn against it,
And that's what he's talking about here, that they were never
saved to begin with. John says that. He says if they
were of us, they would have remained with us. And the reason is, is
not because they're so good and much better than those who fall
away. It's because God preserves his people under glory. Salvation is full and free in
Christ. As we said, all those promises
of God in Christ are Yay and amen. It's not all the promises
of God in you are yay and amen. You don't make them sure and
certain. And that's why people who believe you can lose your
salvation, that's a matter of pride. They think, you know,
somebody falls away, but I wouldn't do that. Or I'm better than that. Maybe they won't say it that
way, but that's what they mean. I'm better than that. No, we're
no better than them. As Paul said, I quoted this in
the lesson this morning, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And by the grace of God, I will
be what I will be. That's the way it is. I mean,
it's all of grace. And that's not a doctrine that
opens the floodgates of sin and disobedience. It's not a doctrine
that gives you license or freedom to sin. If you think that, you
don't know the truth. Because we know that the grace
of God revealed in the gospel is not just a doctrine in the
head. It's a living reality within
the heads, the hearts, the wills, the attitudes of God's people.
It's our way of life. We do believe the doctrine. The
doctrine is so important. You can't be saved without the
doctrine. Because it's the doctrine of grace, the doctrine of life.
Paul said that he thanked God to the Roman believers that they
were children of disobedience, unbelievers, but they've obeyed
from the heart, the new heart. You know that's the new heart,
don't you? God said, I'll give you a new heart, not the natural
heart. He said, you obeyed from the
heart, that form of doctrine, that stamp of doctrine, that
seal of doctrine, teaching, truth, gospel that you were brought
under. being then made free from sin,
you became servants of righteousness, servants of Christ. So Paul starts,
or the writer of Hebrews starts out in this chapter talking about
that, but he says in verse nine, look at Hebrews six and verse
nine. He says, but beloved, we are persuaded better things of
you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. I'm telling you something of
a tragedy. And a lot of people believe that we say things like
that, or those things are in the Bible, to basically, as they
would say it, maybe this way, quote, to scare the hell out
of you, unquote. And that's not what they're there
for. To make you uncertain. Because you know, if you're uncertain,
you might work harder to try to get certain. And a lot of
preachers think that way. Keep them on the edge, like a
razor's edge. I heard of a message that a preacher,
who claimed to believe sovereign grace, preached at a conference up north,
and he said the Christian life is like walking on a tightrope. And if you've ever seen a tightrope
walker, they've got that big bar that they have to balance
that. He said, you got that big bar
and you're walking that tightrope of salvation, and on one end
of the bar is the imputed righteousness of Christ. This is how he said
it. He said, but on the other end of the bar is your righteousness,
your works, and you gotta let them bounce out. Was that the
way the Christian life is? I tell you, if it is, you can
tilt to that left side and you're falling off. That's the way it
is. The Christian life is not walking
on a tightrope, holding a bar. The Christian life is standing
on a rock, Christ Jesus, standing on the promises. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. The Christian
life is realizing that my standing before God, now think about this,
my standing before God is in Christ. I'm washed in His blood,
I'm clothed in His righteousness, that has never and can never
change. And I'll say it this way, it
has never and can never change no matter what you do. Now, if
you claim that for yourself and you fall away from it, you've
never had that standing. And again, that's no excuse or
opening the floodgate of sin. If that's the way you think about
it, you don't know it. Standing in Christ. All the promises of
God. How many of those promises do
you think he's talking about there? I know this, he said all
of them. Whatever God has promised his
people is made sure and made certain in Christ. The glory of his person and the
power of his finished work. And so the Christian life, is
living in a state of grace, struggling, struggling every day, don't we? I told the folks in the early
lesson, I said, you know, we talk about how we do love God,
we love Christ, we love his people, but not perfectly. We get in
our way, don't we, of the flesh, we struggle. But we always end
up looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And
that's where the assurance comes from. I wrote an article and
put in the bulletin called Christ-Based Assurance. And you can call it
different things. You can say Grace-Based Assurance. You could say Gospel-Based Assurance. Righteousness-based assurance,
he who is righteous, they're at peace with God. And I put
in here, I'm not gonna read the whole article to you, I think
you can read. So anyway, you take the time to read. But I
said the problem with works-based assurance, now that's what a
lot of people have. Works-based assurance, am I working enough?
Well, I think I am. Well, how much is enough? The
problem with works-based assurance of salvation is the same as the
problem with works-based salvation. It's the product of unbelief
and the poison of self-righteous legalism. Have you done enough? And here's the key I want you
to see. Well, it denies the glory of God as revealed in the glorious
person and finished work of Christ for his people. But here's a
sentence that you need to understand. Whatever gives me assurance of
salvation, whatever it is, it can only glorify God and exalt
Christ if it meets the requirement of perfection. Completeness. Now, does anything I do meet
that requirement? And the answer's no. I'm here
to worship God. Will that worship meet the requirement
of perfection? You're not gonna believe this.
It doesn't. You do believe that. Because
you know me. Well, I know you too. I know
all men." How do you know all men? Because what the Bible says.
That's a statement that falls upon all people. Well, what do
we do to meet the requirement of perfection? We look to Christ
who is our perfection. For he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified by one offering. When offering, he's
removed all the, look to Christ. And that sounds so simple, and
I say it all the time, but I want it to be simple, and I wanna
say it all the time. Because that's Christ-based assurance. Well, Paul says, I keep saying
Paul, I actually believe Paul was the human instrument that
wrote Hebrews, but there's a lot of so-called scholars that'll
disagree with me, so I try not to get into an argument with
them. He says, but beloved, we are persuaded better things of
you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
Now, I've told you about these who have a profession of faith,
but they fall away, but I'm persuaded better things of you. And I could
say that of you and me and the people of God. We're not always able to see
within, well, we can't see within the hearts of people. We just
know what we say and what we do. he said I'm persuading and
so he begins to encourage them and he goes in to a lesson that
we all need to get and that is how can I have assurance of salvation
and so as he goes on he says in verse 10, God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love which you've showed toward
his name. Glorifying God That doesn't mean he's gonna reward
me based upon my works as if I've earned his blessings or
deserve them. But they glorify him toward his
name. That's what that means. In that
you have ministered to the saints and do minister. That's your
love for one another. Just like I've told you, if you
wanna really find out how much you love God, pick a brother
or sister in Christ whom you consider to be Your worst enemy,
maybe. And how much do you love them?
You see what I'm saying? I'm just trying to bring it down
to brass tacks here. So he says in verse 11, and we
desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the
full assurance of hope to the end. What is that hope? That's
the hope of the gospel, the hope that we have in Christ. It's
the certain assurance of salvation and glory based upon a true,
and certain ground. And what is that? That's the
person and work of Christ. And so that you be not slothful.
Don't use this as a way to be lazy in being obedient, being
a good steward, but followers of them who through faith and
patience, that's endure, inherit the promises. Now, here we get
into the Meta. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. God swore to Abraham. Now, you
know, when we were kids, we'd go around all the time. I swear
to God, I swear to God. Well, that's what God did. He
swore to himself, by himself. All right, hold on to that. Verse
14, saying, surely blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. Now, he didn't swear by Abraham.
And if he had, it would have fallen. Remember when Abraham
went into Egypt, see? If the covenant that God made
with Abraham had been conditioned on Abraham, that covenant would
have fallen right then, when Abraham told Pharaoh that Sarah,
his wife, was his sister instead of his wife, because he didn't
want to be killed. You say, well, that's not so
bad. Well, he broke the covenant. But the covenant wasn't conditioned
on Abraham, say. Who was it conditioned on? Conditioned
on God. Surely, Blessing, I will bless
thee. Now, Abraham didn't deserve that
or he didn't earn it. Romans 4 tells us that among
all kinds of other scriptures, but Abraham believed the God
who justified the ungodly. And when God found Abraham, where
was he? He was an idolater in the land of the Chaldeans. I
actually heard a preacher say one time, well, Abraham wasn't
worshiping those false gods. He was different. No, he wasn't. He's like all of us by nature.
We're all idolaters by nature. You say, well, I've never bowed
down to a tiki God or a stone. No, but we had a God of our imagination,
a God who was not like the God of the Bible. That's idolatry. That's where idolatry begins
in the mind, in the heart. And so verse 15, and so after
he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Abraham
patiently endured. Now, patient endurance means
depending on God. That's what that means. Depending
on God. And he obtained the promise,
the promise that God swore by himself that he would give to
Abraham. And he says in verse 16, for men barely swear by the
greater. In other words, if you're gonna
swear by something in an oath, you wanna swear by something
greater than yourself. And so, men verily swear by the
greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Once you make that oath and swear, all right, that's the end of
all argument. That should settle the matters,
what the Bible says. And look at verse 17, wherein
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise,
now that tells you a lot right there. The promises that we receive
are bequeathed to us by the death of the one who earned the promises. We're heirs, see. We inherit,
Peter said that. We have an inheritance incorruptible
because we didn't have anything to do with it as far as making
it or earning it. So it's an inheritance. So we're
heirs of promise. And he says, the immutability
of God's counsel. Now notice the word counsel there.
That has to do with the wisdom of God. Now that's God's counsel.
Now our assurance of salvation is based upon God's counsel. What God says according to his
wisdom, The agreement, you could say the covenant made between
the Father and the Son and the Spirit before the foundation
of the world. Notice it's not C-O-U-N-C-I-L. That's when people get together
and you have a meeting of the minds. Like the city council, that kind
of thing. See, God didn't have a meeting
of the minds with Abraham or with you or any of the heirs
of promise. This is totally from God, it's from his wisdom, his
sovereign will, his good pleasure. Ephesians 111 says, God works
all things after the counsel of his own will. Psalm 1 talks
about those who do not walk after the counsel of the ungodly. In
other words, what ungodly people tell us and advise us to do,
we don't do. False preachers preaching a false
gospel, that's not the counsel of God. That's their counsel
and it's no good. And so God's counsel is immutable,
it's unchangeable. You know this thing about eternity
and time, people argue over that and stuff like that. God doesn't
learn and change. He doesn't move along like we
do in the process of time. God changes our mind, our bodies
change. God's counsel is immutable. And what is his counsel? It's
in the gospel. How he saved sinners. You think
about how, you know, the old build dad, the shoe height back
in the book of Job chapter 25, he asked these questions and
they're good questions. How can a man be clean who's
born of woman? How can God justify the ungodly? How can sinners be justified
before God? Now I'm gonna tell you something,
you better listen to God's counsel. And it's never changed. It was
the same for Adam and Eve and it'll be the same for the last
sheep that's brought into the fold. It'll never change. Salvation, full and free, conditioned
on the glorious person and the finished work of Christ, all
accomplished in all the promises of God. That's God's counsel. That's the wisdom of God. No
man could have answered that question The councils, you know,
when you hear about all these religious councils in the past,
the Council of Worms, the Council of Trent, and the Council, they
couldn't have come up with this. And if they did, it would change.
But God's council, oh my soul, never changes. This is the way
that God has saved sinners from the beginning, in the middle,
and in the end. Grace, grace, grace. That reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's his counsel. And he's
never counseled anybody any other way. He's never told sinners
that they can be saved by giving their heart to Jesus. or by letting
him into your heart, or inviting him, or by being baptized, or
by doing good works, or by making a decision for Christ. He's never
counseled that. He's always counseled that salvation
is of the Lord by grace, through faith, which is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. That's his counsel. His counsel always begins with
himself. Who God is. You know, that's
what salvation is really about. It's not about who we are. We
know who we are, we're sinners. If salvation were conditioned
upon us, it would fail. But it's about who God is. And
that's what he was talking about here. To his glory in his name. For all the promises of God in
Christ are yea and amen, to the praise of his glory. Who is God? God is the creator. God is the
governor. God is love, grace, mercy, compassion,
all of those things, but God is judge. He's righteous, he's
true. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Better listen to the counsel
of God now. What does God say? God says he
chose a people to save before the foundation of the world and
gave them to Christ and gave them that salvation in Christ
according to his purpose and his will, which never changes. That's why we talk about justification,
you know. God judges his people to be righteous
in Christ. He doesn't hold them accountable.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, yea rather is risen again and is seated at the right
hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us.
You know what? That's never changed. That's
the immutability of his counsel. And you know something, if we
would ever find a verse in the Bible that indicated that God
had ever changed on that council, it would really blow our whole
assurance out of the water. It'd sink our ship. When God justified a people,
he didn't change his mind toward them. He was always reconciled
to his people in Christ. But now our state, we fell in
Adam, We're born dead in sin, spiritually depraved, in unbelief,
and God, because of His counsel, He changed that. Our standing
didn't change, but our state did. We came from being children
of disobedience, servants of sin, to servants of righteousness,
by the grace of God. And He's never counseled any
other way. And so he says, look back at
verse 17. He says, heirs of promise, the
immutability of his counsel. Now the next word I want you
to focus on is the word promise. Promise. Look back at it. He
says, he made promise to Abraham, verse 15, so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise, that's Abraham, Now he promised
Abraham many things. The things that he promised Abraham
that pertain to us are the things of salvation, eternal life and
glory. Salvation conditioned on Christ.
Justification by the righteousness of Christ freely imputed. That's
what Romans 4 explains, that God talks about the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
And he's quoting David in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. So there's a promise. So he says
in verse seven, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise. Well, what is God's promise?
What did he promise to people? Well, we're going to see that
that promise is immutable too. Look at verse 18. that by two
immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie.
Now, what are the two immutable things? God's counsel and God's
promise, all right, that we might have strong consolation, strong
comfort, that's assurance, Christ-based assurance, who have fled for
refuge. Now, salvation is fleeing for
refuge. To whom or to where do you flee
for your refuge? Ask yourself that question. Well,
I fled to the front of the aisle. I shook the preachers out. I
fled to the baptismal pool. I fled to church and not missed
a sermon. That's not where you flee to
for salvation. You flee to Christ. And that's
to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. Now, what is
the hope set before us? Well, what is God's counsel on
that issue? flee to Christ, flee to his blood, flee to his righteousness. And he says in verse 19, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, anchored. We're anchored
there. I'm stuck right there, and I
wanna be stuck there. And he says, both sure and steadfast.
You all have heard the story about the string band, the bluegrass
band, all these guys are up there playing the mandolin, the guitar,
the banjo, and the fiddle. and the bass, and they're all
going up and down that neck, you know, like that, playing
those notes. And there's one guy in the back, he's just right
there. Never even moves his hand. And after they get through playing,
some guy goes up to him and says, now, I saw those guys playing
all these notes, and you just stayed right there. And he said,
what's the problem? He said, well, I found the note. They're
still looking for it. Well, we found the note. We're
not looking for it now. We're looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. So which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, sure and certain, can't be moved,
and which entereth into that within the veil. Now you know
who that's talking about, Christ entering in the veil. Remember
that veil in the temple that separated the holy place from
the holy of holies? The high priest went in with
the blood, sprinkling over the mercy seat, that's Christ. And
he says in verse 20, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
notice that for us entered, not for himself, but for us, that's
the heirs of promise, that's the elect of God, that's the
sheep of Christ. And even Jesus made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Won't go into Melchizedek today,
but Melchizedek was the emblem of an eternal priesthood. Aaron
and Levi, they were emblems of a temporary priesthood. But Melchizedek
was a type of Christ. Some say that he was actually
a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. I'm not gonna argue over
that, but it was an eternal priesthood. And that's what he's talking
about. So God's counsel and God's promise. Now what is that promise?
God promises to save each and every sinner who comes to him
through Christ, pleading his blood, his righteousness. The
Christ of the Bible, not a counterfeit Christ now. Not one who is not
both God and man in one person. That's the Christ we come to
God through. One mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. None other name given among men
whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. The one who settled the matter
of eternal salvation and glory at the cross. He redeemed us
when He died, when He obeyed unto death on that cross. He
ensured the salvation of His people. That's the promise of
God. All conditions, all requirements, all stipulations for His people
to obtain that inheritance is in Him. That's the promise of
God. And everything that God has said, that's what it's about.
Well, what about this oath? Well, here's the kicker. This
is something, this'll really float your boat. This'll anchor
you down. You know what an oath is, it's
a vow. It's swearing. Remember what he said here. He
said, verse 16, for men barely swear by the greater. They swear
by, you know, Christ talked about that, you know, how the Pharisees,
they had a really, an elaborate system of swearing oaths that
would allow them a loophole, which meant that they could get
out of keeping the word, all right? And he chastised them
for that. He said, you think you're keeping
the law, but you're not. Well, when God willing more abundantly,
or for men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife." In other words, ideally, when men swear an oath,
strike an agreement, that oath should settle the matter. Now,
we know it doesn't always do that, but that's what it should
do, ideally. Well, wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. confirmed it by an oath. And what was his oath? Well,
he tells us that by two immutable things, his counsel and his promise,
or you might say his promise and his oath, in which it was
impossible for God to lie. God cannot lie. He is truth. We might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. So what did God do? Well, there's
nothing greater than God. He could not swear by anything
greater than himself. So what did he do? He made an
oath, he swore an oath on himself. And what that means is this,
his counsel that never changes, his promise that never changes
is backed up, backed up and made sure by everything that God is. in His glory. What does that
mean? It means it can't fail. It's
not backed up by your faith in Him. Now, if you're a believer,
you do have faith in Him, and that's a gift from God, that's
a glorious thing, that's a miracle of God's grace. But your faith
is not yet perfect. My faith is not yet perfect,
it will be. Paul wrote that it'll give way
to sight when we go to glory. But God's faithfulness, God's
righteousness, God's promise is backed up by the perfection
of a God who never changes. What an oath, that's a covenant
oath. I've told you before, and this
is another series I'm probably gonna do, I tell y'all about
these things all the time, but the covenants. You remember there
are covenants that are between two, like multilateral covenants,
bilateral covenants, and that's when there are conditions laid
down that both parties on either side of that covenant have to
meet in order for the covenant to go through. For example, God's
covenant with Israel under the law of Moses was a bilateral
covenant. Now, there were certain issues
about his dealings with Israel that weren't bilateral, but their
staying in that land of promise that he promised Abraham and
their prospering in that was conditioned upon them, and they
failed. Any bilateral covenant that God makes with sinful human
beings will fail, because the sinful human beings will not
fulfill their part. But then there's unilateral covenants,
and that's all conditions on God, and they'll never fail. That's His covenant of grace.
That's His covenant of salvation. And that is revealed to us that
God has engaged every attribute of His nature in the glorious
person and finished work of Christ, the blood, the righteousness
of Christ, that He freely imputed to His people. His honor, His
glory is engaged behind that. He swore an oath. And he could
no more, listen, put it this way. God could no more send a
sinner to hell for whom Christ died than he could deny himself
or deny his promise or darken his counsel. Isn't that something? So we who have fled to Christ
for refuge, we can have strong assurance, consolation and comfort. Fleeing to Christ, resting in
Christ. That's God's counsel, God's promise,
and God's oath. And it's summarized in the phrase,
a just God and a savior. That's every attribute of God
engaged to save his people from their sins, all conditioned on
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's Christ-based assurance.
All right, let's sing hymn number 70 as our closing hymn. Holy,
holy, holy, God is thrice holy. Well, you know, another verse
that you can think about is Colossians, what is it, 2.9, where it says,
for in Christ, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you're complete in him. That's what I'm talking
about. That's that Christ-based assurance.
All right, let's stand and let's sing holy, holy, holy. Thank you, brother. ? Holy, holy, holy ? Lord God
almighty ? Early in the morning ? Our song shall rise to thee
? Holy, holy, holy ? ? Merciful and mighty ? ? God in three persons
? ? Blessed Trinity ? ? Holy, holy, holy ?