The author and finisher. And notice that our is in italics. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
author and the finisher of faith. Faith. Who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set
down. at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your
minds." Looking unto Jesus. That is our call and that is
our grace given to us that we find in him our all in all. I haven't heard what the what
the latest is with the airline shutdown but hopefully our preachers
will be able to do you think so okay all right because some
of them are flying in tomorrow and I heard it was going to take
a couple of days to recover from this thing. So, um, pray the Lord will get them all
here safe. Um, next Wednesday night, we
will not have our regular Wednesday night service. So, um, you plan
accordingly. All right, let's, let's pray
together. Our merciful heavenly father, We find great encouragement in
knowing that your people have been given the faith to look
to Christ and to rest all the hope of their salvation in Him. Like these saints of old, Lord,
we struggle also with this race that's been set before us. But
oh, what great hope and comfort we find in being reminded once
again that we're to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, rest in Him,
believe on Him. And Lord, we know that what you've
called on us to do, you must provide. And so we ask, Lord,
that you would cause us Cause your face to shine upon us. Cause
us Lord to come, bid us to come and Lord turn us and we shall
be turned. We pray for Donnie and Gabe and
Todd and Chris and ask Lord that you would provide for their safe
travel here. And we pray more importantly
that you would provide a message to their hearts, from your heart
to our hearts. And we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's stand together once again,
hymn number 75 and your hardbacked hymnal, number 75. so ? Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide ? ? The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide ? When other
helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide
with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joy grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? ? Who, like Thyself, my guide
and stake can be ? ? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with
me ? ? Hold Thou Thy Word, O God of my heart ? before my closing
eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. As morning breaks, Please be
seated. If he does that, we will abide in Him. Let's turn in our Bibles to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. I've titled
this message, A Full Assurance. A Full Assurance. And I want
to make a very clear and simple
point at the outset of this message Assurance of salvation is not
what we're looking for. We're looking for Christ. Assurance of salvation comes
as the result of that. If we look to see if we're saved,
we're going to find ourselves looking to something other than
the Lord Jesus Christ for that assurance. and that will take
away our assurance. But if we have a full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledging of the mystery of the gospel,
which is what we find in our text tonight, then the Lord will
comfort our hearts with the peace and the hope and the joy and
the love and the the assurance that we so long
for. So, chapter 2 of Colossians, beginning
at verse 1, I would that you knew what great conflict I have
for you and for them at Laodicea. Paul mentions the church at Laodicea
several times in the letter to the church at Colossae. They
were sister cities and he told them to make sure to take this
letter over to the church at Laodicea. You remember that's
the church that's mentioned last in the seven churches of Revelation. the church that was lukewarm. And by the time that John wrote
the letter to the churches in Revelation,
the church at Laodicea had fallen into gross apathy and indifference. But here, years earlier, Paul is expressing his love for
the church at Laodicea and for the church at Colossae. Now the
Apostle Paul had never been to either of these churches, so
they had not met him. For I would that you knew what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." Now, Paul is expressing his heart's
desire and love for them. And as a penman of scripture,
we see the grace that God has given to this man to express
the infallible Word of God to these believers. My point here
is that the first thing that we're sure of is that the Bible
is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God. We're sure of that. We're certain
of it. Faith believes every word that
God has spoken. And if we're going to enjoy assurance
of our salvation, it's going to be based on the authority
and the infallibility and the inerrancy of Scripture. The Lord has given to certain
men though well he he said that the scriptures are not by private
interpretation uh holy men of god wrote as they were moved
by the holy spirit and all scripture all scripture is given by inspiration
of god and all scripture is profitable profitable for doctrine profitable
for reproof profitable for correction, profitable for instruction and
righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished.
So here's what we're sure of. If we're going to have any assurance
of our salvation, we're sure that the apostle Paul was son
of God. And that the things that he wrote
were things that were given to him of God. Now, he expresses in this first verse having great conflict in his
heart for the churches at Colossae and for the church at Laodicea. This certainly is a feeling that
every parent has had for their children. Every believing parent
has had for their unbelieving children, I should say, a great
conflict of heart. It certainly is an experience
that every pastor has for the flock that the Lord has called
him to shepherd. The word conflict here means
to be concerned. to care, or to bear the burden,
or to even fear. This word conflict can be translated
fear. And this is a real experience that believers
have for those who are not believers. And so Paul says, I wish that
you knew how much of a conflict I have. I wish you knew how concerned
I was for you. Now, is this concern, is this fear,
is this burden not what brings us to the throne of grace to
intercede and to ask for His mercy? for our children and for
one another. He's saying to them, I wish you
knew how I felt toward you so that you might know the urgency
of the matter. Oh, how urgent this matter is. It's interesting to me that the
two men that God called to write much of the scripture, the Apostle
Paul and Moses both expressed a similar concern for Israel. You remember when the Lord told
Moses that he was going to destroy the children of Israel after
they had built the golden calf and and broken God's law so grievously
and the Lord was going to just start over with Moses and the
Lord and Moses interceded for the children of Israel and said,
Lord, blot me out of thy book. Blot me out of thy book. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter
nine says, I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren. I don't know how a man could
have that feeling towards anyone else apart from the grace of
God. The Lord had given these two men a special grace. There is no greater expression
that a man could make, and I'm certain that when these men made
these statements, they weren't speaking off the cuff or with
any sort of exaggeration. They were expressing what God
had put in their hearts. And I think if there's anything
that a man could say to convince me that he was called of God,
it would be that. It would be that. Incredible grace that the Lord
gave to these two men. As they intercede on behalf of
the children of Israel, they are bearing a burden and a conflict
for the churches that are really beyond expression. And yet, they
are also expressing the burden to a lesser degree, I suppose,
that we feel for each other and for our children and for our
loved ones. To consider verse 1 prophetically, we could certainly see that the
conflict, though greater than I know anything about, willing
to sacrifice his own salvation for the salvation of Israel,
there is a conflict that is much greater than even what the Apostle
Paul experienced. And if we consider this passage
prophetically and think of it in terms of what the Lord Jesus
Christ experienced, his conflict is beyond comparison. Paul said, I could wish to be
accursed. The Lord Jesus Christ was accursed.
Look at, let's read it again. For I would that you knew what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. We've not seen the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. We walk by faith, not by sight. The conflict that he experienced
in the agony of the cross and in bearing the sins of his people
and all the shame and all the suffering that goes with that
is beyond expression. It's beyond comprehension. His
suffering, the separation from his father and him drinking the
bitter dregs of God's wrath as he went to Calvary's cross bearing
our sins in his body upon that tree. Having his heavenly father
plunge the sharp sword of justice into his heart and satisfying
God's holy law by sacrificing his own son. These are things
beyond our understanding. And yet we glory in knowing that
as the apostle Paul A God called Penlan of Scripture
suffered in his heart conflict for the churches and for his
brethren, even though they had never seen him. So the Lord Jesus
Christ, consuming the fire of God's wrath and like the You remember in Exodus when the
Lord instructed Moses on the Passover lamb that they were
to consume it all and what they didn't eat they were to burn
with fire. And here we see a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered on Calvary's cross when the full, full consuming fire
of God's wrath fell on Him. So he's saying to us, oh, I wish
you knew the great conflict that I have for you. Those of you
that have not seen my face in the flesh. If you could, if you
could, if you could grasp and here's, here's what we have.
some assurance, here's what we have. The point is that this
is God's recorded word given to us by God's man who has been
given a special grace and a special burden to bear a willingness
to sacrifice his own eternal salvation for the sake of his
brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ did sacrifice
his life and his union with his father for the sake of his people. And here we are, like the church
at Laodicea and like the church at Colossae, having never seen
the face of the Apostle Paul. We do see. Here's the assurance
of faith. We see that these things were
written by God and these things were given to us by God and these
things are true. And And this is the hope of our salvation
that the Lord Jesus Christ, we bear just a small burden for
the souls of our loved ones compared to what Paul bore and he bore
but a small burden compared to what the Lord Jesus Christ bore.
And so we look unto Jesus who is the author and the finisher
of our faith. having not seen him. Listen to
what Peter said in 1 Peter 1. Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom though now you see him
not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. There's the eye of faith. We want We want assurance. Here's what we're sure of. We're
sure that God called Paul and Moses and all the other men that
he used to write his word, that he gave us his infallible revelation
of Christ. And though we have not seen him,
our faith is resting in things that we've not seen, not with
the physical eye. We've only seen them through
the eye of faith. But, oh, how glorious it is to
have that sight. And how much more important it
is that we have the eye of faith over any physical sight. The natural man says, I'll believe
what I see, and faith believes and therefore it sees. We see
what we believe. We see who we believe. You remember Thomas, doubting
Thomas. I'll not believe unless I see
with my own eyes and put my hand into his wounds. And the Lord
appeared to Thomas. You remember what the Lord said
to Thomas? When Thomas fell at his feet as soon as he saw him
and said, oh my Lord and my God. And the Lord said, Thomas, it's
good that you believe now that you've seen. But oh, how blessed
they are who have not seen and yet believe. He's talking about
us. We've not seen with our physical
eye what the Lord has revealed to us through his word. in our
hearts, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet we believe. We walk by faith. We're not looking
for fleshly evidences. We're trusting all our hope,
all our hope in the revelation that God has given us in his
word of Christ. One day, one day we will see
him. We'll see him as he is and we'll
be made like him. Paul said in first Corinthians
chapter 13, we look through a glass darkly now, but then face to
face, face to face. Paul's saying, oh, I wish, I
wish you knew what great conflict I have for you, those of you
that have never seen me in the flesh and have seen my face in
the flesh. If you knew what conflict God
has put on my heart for you, you would understand better the
urgency of your own salvation. And here's what our Lord is saying
to me and you. If you knew, if you knew what
conflict I have for you, what concern, what care, what I've
done for you, out of that care and concern and love for you, you would look to me and rest
your hope in me. And your heart would be comforted.
Look at verse 2. What does this result in? Or
what is Paul's prayer for the church? That your hearts might
be comforted. Notice that comfort is to the
heart and how glorious it is when the Lord gives us faith
to believe his word and to look to Christ and rest in him what What comfort the Lord gives to
the heart. Even when the body may be greatly
discomforted, Paul's not praying. He said, I pray that God will
comfort your heart. That's what the Lord said to
Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 40. Comfort ye my people, speak ye
comfortably to them. Speak comfortably. And that word
comfortably in Isaiah chapter 40 is speak to their heart. The
message of the gospel comes from God's heart to a man's heart,
like the Apostle Paul, to the hearts of God's people. And it
speaks peace. It speaks comfort. It speaks
hope. When we know what great conflict
the Lord Jesus Christ experienced, to accomplish the salvation of
His people when we know how trustworthy and how faithful He is to His
Word and to His promises. That your hearts might be comforted.
Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 47. Ezekiel 47. Look at verse 12. For by the
river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side,
on the side that we're on now and on the side that we'll be
on when we cross the Jordan, shall grow all trees for meat. Now you remember the word meat
isn't just a reference to the flesh of an animal in the Bible.
Meat is a reference to food. And so he's talking about the
fruits of grace. And shall grow all trees for
meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof
be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit
according to his months, because their waters they issued out
of the sanctuary. And the fruit thereof shall be
for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine. for medicine. All the medicine that God gives
to the heart, to comfort the heart, even when perhaps the medicine for the
body falls short of bringing a full cure. The medicine from the leaf of
the tree of life. That's what this is. This is
the tree of life. This is Christ. This is that same tree that was
in the garden that Adam and Eve ate from, the tree that God protected
after the fall. He set seraphim at the east gate
with a flaming sword to protect the tree of life. Why? Because Adam had fallen and this
tree of life could not be taken from like it had been when he
was in the garden. Turn with me to Revelation 22. Much of the book of Revelation
is just a repeat of what is in the
book of Ezekiel. And in the book of Revelation,
look at chapter 22, verse 1. And He showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and out of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street
of it, on either side of the river was the tree of life, which
bare twelve manner of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The leaves of the tree were the medicine for the soul to give
hope and salvation and comfort. That's what Paul's saying. I
pray that your hearts might be comforted as this, as the fruit
from the tree of life and the leaves of the tree of life become
the medicine for your heart, for your soul. this tree produces fruit all
the time. Now the scripture refers to the
believer as trees of righteousness which are the plantings of the
Lord, but like trees in the natural world we don't produce fruit
all the time. Sometimes the Lord sends a cold wind of winter to
to cause that tree to lose its leaves and to drive the sap down
into the roots to give it a greater foundation so that it can bear
fruit once spring comes. But this tree, the tree of life,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's planted by a river of life and he produces
his fruit and his leaf does not wither. And we come to Him when
we're barren, and when we're hungry, and when we're lonely,
and when we come to Christ and we feed on that fruit that He
gives us. The trees of righteousness, which
is the plantings of the Lord, they grow slowly. They sometimes have to suffer
The hardship of not just winter, but storms that God sends to
blow some dead wood off the tree. You know, that's part of it,
isn't it? That's part of it. But here's
what the Lord said. Here's what Paul's saying. God
has given me a great conflict for your soul. And He's given
me His Word, even though you've never seen my face. to express
unto you that God might apply these things to your heart in
Christ and comfort you. Now, going back to Isaiah chapter
40, what was the comfort that Isaiah was to speak? when the
Lord said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably
unto Jerusalem, speak to their hearts, and tell they, you see,
this is different from a works religion that's always trying
to, always trying to, change men's outward appearances. We're, we're hoping and speaking
and preaching and praying that God will do a work of grace in
our heart, in our hearts. Man-made religion is all about
you know, whitewashing the tomb, but the grave is still full of
dead men's bones. It's all about cleaning the outside
of the cup while the inside of the cup is full of corruption.
The Gospel, this is a matter of the heart. That's where we
need God to do a work of grace, in our heart. And as the heart
is, so the mouth will speak and so the life will follow. The
Lord, I need you to work in my heart. We can turn over a new
leaf and we can change behavioral patterns and do those sorts of
things and take pride in thinking that we've got a better life
now, but only the Lord can change the heart. Only He can take out
a heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. Only He can put the
love of Christ in our heart and the mind of Christ in our heart
and true comfort in our hearts. The other difference between
the Tree of Life that we just read about in Ezekiel and in
Revelation to the Trees of Righteousness, which are the plantings of the
Lord, is that that Tree of Life was cut down once. It was cut
down. But from the root, from the stump,
came the life of the Tree of Life. The Lord, John the Baptist said,
the axe has been laid to the root of the tree. And there will
come a day when this tree will be cut down. But from that day,
Job said, the root of the matter is in me. There's my hope. And like you read Sunday, Robert,
though this body will will meet its corruption, yet in my flesh
I shall see God, I shall see my Redeemer." That was his hope. Our hope is in the resurrection
as the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead so that when the
axe is laid to the tree, to the root of this tree, that we have
the hope. We have the hope of knowing that
as he was raised, so shall we. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. He conquered hell. Here's our hope. God gave the Apostle Paul some
very, very special graces to give to us. God's infallible
word. Our hope rests completely in
the faithfulness of God to keep his word. And though we've not
seen his face, our prayer is that he would comfort our hearts,
comfort us, in our sin, comfort us in our trials and in our tribulations. Lord, I need comfort. And so
when the Lord told Isaiah to comfort the people, he said,
tell them, tell them that their warfare is accomplished. Tell them that their iniquity
has been purged. It's been put away. That's our
comfort. There's our hope. The Lord Jesus
Christ actually successfully put away all the sins of his
people when he, when he met the conflict with his father over
the souls of his children. Go back with me to our text in
verse two. that their hearts might be comforted.
I want your heart to be comforted. I need my heart to be comforted.
I need to be comforted in knowing that my sin will not charge me, that
it's been put away, and that the sacrifice that Christ made
was completely sufficient all by itself. to satisfy the demands
of God's justice for my sin. I need to be comforted in knowing
that the trials and tribulations that the Lord sends are sent
of God and that He means them for good. And He will bring about
His own glory in all things. I need to be comforted in knowing
that all the disquietedness of my own heart and my own soul
and all the confusion of this world and this life. We have
a tree on this side of the river and on the other side of the
river, and it bears fruit all year round, all year round, 12
months out of the year, a different fruit. And its leaves are for
our medicine and they are for our healing. So we come to that
tree and we eat from that tree. Look at the rest of verse two,
being knit together in love. Being knit together in love.
We are sewed together in the same fabric of grace. We're part
of the same tapestry of hope. We're members of the same body
of Christ. Part of the same family of God.
And if I love Christ and you love Christ, then we love each
other. Oh, we may aggravate one another. We may disappoint one
another. We may offend one another, But love covers a multitude of
sin. Covers a multitude. Those things
happen in your marriages, don't they? They happen in your home. They happen with your children.
But what happens? If there's love there, the love
conquers those things. My hand loves my foot. If my
foot stubs its toe, My hand doesn't criticize it or make fun of it.
My hand's the first thing to reach down to help it and to
care for it. So it is in the body of Christ,
being knit together, knit by the grace of God, knit together
in the family of God, in love. Brothers and sisters in the family
of God, banded together, Banded together. You know, I'm
really not concerned about any external attacks that might come against
this assembly. I'm not concerned about that.
Because I know that if that happens, God will give us the grace to
knit our hearts together and to bind ourselves together and
to circle the wagons and look to Christ and resist those. Do you know what I am concerned
about? Those things that might come from within. That's my concern. That internal divisions That's why this thing of having
our hearts comforted and being knit together in love are part
of the same, they're part of the same fabric. You can't have
one without the other. Where there's vain glory and
strife and you see it, It happens every, you show me strife between
two people and I'm going to show you some bang glory because it's
always, somebody's not getting the attention, somebody's not
getting the act, whatever they think they deserve and so they
get offended and that's bang glory and offenses and strife
all come together don't they? They just do, it always works
that way. Whether it's in your family or whether it's in a church
or whether it's in government or whether it's in, you know.
I was having to deal with having to deal with somebody with the
city of Apopka this past week and and well it became very clear
that their political power was going to have to be bowed to
and respected if we were going to get what we needed. Vain glory
and so you know it just it just the way we are it's it's here's
Here's hearts being comforted and being knit together in love
unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding. All
the riches, the sure hope, the peace, the strong consolation,
the love. These are the riches of grace
that God gives to the heart to comfort the heart and to knit
us together in the love of Christ by his word. Full assurance of understanding.
What is it that we fully understand, that we're sure is true? Well, look at the next phrase. To the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. What a glorious picture of the
triune Godhead. It begins with God, Theos. Theos, to the mystery of God.
What is the mystery of God that we bow to, that we're sure of? We're talking about having assurance,
a full assurance of hope. Having our hearts comforted and
being knit together in the love of Christ. What are we sure of?
We're sure that God is sovereign. We're sure that he's omnipotent.
We're sure that God the Father chose a particular people according
to his own will and purpose before the world ever began. We're sure
that the Lord Jesus Christ successfully redeemed those whom the Father
chose. We're certain of that. Why? Because God's given us that
revelation in scripture to a full understanding of the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. These
are the things we're sure of. And the assurance of a faith,
is what gives the believer the comfort of heart and hope, peace,
joy, rest. The truth of who God is and what
it is He's accomplished for the salvation of His people is hidden
to the natural man. That's why it's called a mystery.
The natural man cannot see it. Natural man is bound to believe
in the strong delusion that God has sent and they will believe
the lie. And what is that? That man has
a free will and that God is obligated to reward him for whatever decisions
he makes and whatever works that he performs. That's just the
natural. What are you sure of? The full
acknowledgement, the full assurance of hope. The mystery of God and of the
Father and of Christ, the Anointed One, the One sent of His Father
in the full power of the Spirit of God to accomplish the salvation
of His people. And that's exactly, you see,
we're sure of that. If we believe God, we're just
sure of that. We're sure of who he is, the
sovereign, all powerful, successful, surety,
savior of his people. This is what we're sure of. This
is what Paul's praying for. He says, I wish you knew the
conflict that I have for you. God gave him a great conflict
as he gives you and as he gives me, but not to be compared to
the conflict that the Lord Jesus Christ experienced for us. Even though we've never seen
his face in the flesh, we've seen We've seen His glory in
the gospel and in our hearts, that our hearts might be comforted,
being knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. We acknowledge
the mystery of God. We believe, we know this mystery
has been made known to us. This is our assurance. God gives
us this hope. Oh, the rest and the peace and
the assurance of grace and love will be the result of us looking
in faith to Christ. Our Heavenly Father, thank You
for Your Word. We pray that you would speak
grace and peace and hope and comfort to our hearts by revealing
to us the full assurance and acknowledgement of the mystery
of who you are and what you have done. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 352, 352, let's stand together. ? Jesus, lover of my soul ? Let
me to thy bosom fly ? While the nearer waters roll ? ? While
the tempest still is high ? ? Hide me, O my Savior, hide ? ? Till
the storm of life is past ? ? Safe into the haven guide ? ? O receive
my soul at last ? Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless
soul on Thee. Leave, ah leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stained,
? All my help from thee I bring ? Cover my defenseless head ?
With the shadow of thy wing ? Thou, O Christ, art all I want ? More
than all in thee I find Praise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. ? False and full of sin I am
? ? Thou art full of truth and grace ? ? Plenteous grace with
Thee is found ? ? Grace to cover all my sin ? ? Let the healing
streams abound ? ? Make and keep me pure within ? Thou of life,
the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity.