All right, brethren, let's turn
to Colossians chapter 2. I got a phone call this week. And I've gotten, I've had this
conversation before. I didn't know this person, never
met him before. And it was a lady, dear lady,
she's up in years, she's a widow. And I've heard this conversation
before. But she began to speak to me
and she began to tell me how that Christ is all to her. He's all to her. She confessed
her sin, her total inability to contribute anything to her
salvation. She told me how that she was
She read in the scriptures, she believed that Christ laid down
His life for His particular people. He accomplished their redemption.
He ascended on high where He ever lives to make intercession
for them. And she told me this statement. She said, I believe
Christ is all. She said, I believe that He alone
accomplished my redemption. She said that He accomplished
the redemption of His people. And she said, and I believe Christ
is my only hope of salvation. But I want to know that he did
it for me. She had no assurance that he
did it for her. Everything she said was true. And she said, he's my only hope
of salvation. But I need to know He did it
for me. That breaks my heart. That's
a perplexing thing, and it breaks my heart. Generally, when somebody
does not have assurance, it's because they're looking in the
wrong place. Christ is the only place to find
assurance. God's Word is the only place
you're gonna find assurance. When we start looking back over
our lives, or we look back to an experience, to a time when
we made a profession or something like that, that's not where you're
going to find assurance. Assurance is in Christ. That's
the only place you're going to find assurance. There are some people that are
presumptuous that tell you they have assurance. They can take
you back to the time and place when the preacher one night guilted
them enough and they don't feel sorry enough for this little
Jesus that couldn't do anything lest they let him and they felt
sorry enough for him that they walked an aisle, said a sinner's
prayer, walked a Roman road, gave their heart to Jesus and
got saved. I hope God used this word to
bust that presumption wide open to bits. But somebody like this
lady, I don't want to give her false
assurance, but I want her to have assurance. Some people claim you can't have
assurance. That's false too. Apostle Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I think we complicate faith sometimes. You know, the two blind men that
came to the Lord, and they were following Him, and they were
crying unto Him. And our Lord, they were crying out for mercy.
They confessed Him to be the Son of David. They confessed
Him to be the Messiah. And they cried out to Him for
mercy. And He turned to them and said, do you believe I'm
able to do this? And they said, yes, Lord. And
he said, according to your faith. And he gave him sight. That's
what Abraham believed God was able to raise Isaac from the
dead, that he's able. We have these religious cliches
we pick up from religion that we think are the commandments
of God or the word of God that aren't anywhere in the scripture. and we keep going back to those,
and they won't give you assurance. It's not the Word of God. It troubles me when I hear somebody
that truly says they believe on Christ, they believe He's
the Son of God, but they don't have assurance. You know, a lot of times you
look for an experience And not only that, but you compare whatever
your experience is with somebody else's, and it may be different.
When you go through the Gospels and you look at all the different
people Christ healed and revealed himself to, there's a lot of
various things that took place. Don't put God in a box and think
that he just gonna call his people one way. There's some things
that are going to be consistent about it, using the word, using
the gospel, what have you, but not everybody's got the same
experience. Well, we all have unbelief and
doubt. Believers have unbelief and doubt. We do. Because we have two natures. Our sin nature is nothing but
unbelief and doubt. That's where we, that's where,
that's what the opposite of assurance is, is unbelief and doubt. But
the new man is where God gives assurance. He gives some steadfastness. We can see this in David. On
one occasion, David's old nature was stronger, and he cried out
in Psalm 35.3, he's speaking to God, say unto my soul, I am
thy salvation. He asked God, say unto my soul,
I am thy salvation. And then another time, he had
assurance in his heart, and he wrote, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Surely, that's assurance. Surely,
goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life, and
I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So you see, sometimes
you have assurance as a believer, sometimes you don't have as strong
of assurance, or maybe you don't have any. But God's gonna keep you confident
and looking to Christ all the time. I've been everywhere through
the scriptures since I talked to this lady trying to figure
out where I was gonna preach tonight. But I've preached on assurance.
I've preached three different messages on this thing of assurance.
I'm gonna try to touch on each of these points tonight in one
message. Turn with me to Colossians 2. I think I've seen some things
here that I didn't see. Last time we looked at this passage.
You know, I have a habit of looking at a passage and I think, well,
we just preached on that not long ago and I'll go and look
at the date on my notes and it was seven years ago. Colossians 2, here's the assurance
of understanding. Listen to this, Colossians 2.2. Paul said he prayed that their
hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto
all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Now,
you see that, the full assurance of understanding? You know, when
we read in the scriptures the faith of Christ, That means Christ's
faith. It's his faith. When you read
here, when you read here the assurance of understanding, it's
assurance that comes with true spiritual understanding. Assurance
that comes with true understanding. Now Christ is the assurance of
spiritual understanding. We know the gospel is concerning
God the Father, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of God
is concerning God the Father and His Son, Christ Jesus. It says, in whom are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is where you're gonna get
understanding. It's where you're gonna get understanding. Christ is the light, in thy light
we shall see light. of God is Christ made unto his
wisdom. We're going to learn about God
the Father looking to Christ. And we're going to see what God
the Father's purpose is looking to Christ. And we're going to
see what he's done for us looking to Christ. He's the assurance
of understanding. Now, to have this we have to
be born of God. Somebody will say, well, I know
that. I know we have to be born of
God. We have to be born again or we can't receive spiritual
things. I know that. Okay, you know that as a doctrine.
Have you experienced that? There's a difference. Have you
experienced being born of God? It's given through the word of
God by which the gospel is preached. You know, people will say, well,
I wish God would speak to me and give me assurance. God's
word is as good as if God spoke from heaven to you. In fact,
Apostle Peter was on the Mount of Transfiguration and God did
speak from heaven to him. And after he told that, he wrote
this, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Talking about
scriptures. This word right here, when you
read it, do you believe the word of God? This is God speaking
to his children right here. You read this. Take God at His
Word. Take God at His Word. He's going
to describe His people in here. You're not going to look in here
and see your name and be able to say, well, there's my name.
And that's a good thing, because if your name was written there,
it could be somebody else He was talking about that has the
same name. But when you read there and it says, this is the
record, God gave His Son, and He says, He that hath the Son
hath life, Well, I believe the son. So there's the record. I have life. Take God at his
word. It's what his word says. Take
him at his word. A common problem people have
with assurance is people want a feeling. Martin Luther wrote,
feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My
warrant is the word of God. Now what else is worth believing?
I'm glad assurance is not in my feelings because there's a
lot of times I don't feel like I've ever even known God or been
known of God. But I trust his word even when
I don't feel that way. This is the word, this is the
record right here. But now notice this, I want you
to see this. Notice he says there in verse two, he says, he being
knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance
of understanding. Do you remember when Paul said,
knowledge puffeth up? Just bare understanding, bare
knowledge of doctrine will puff you up. But charity edifies,
builds up. A sinner can learn true doctrine
and yet not have a spiritual understanding knit with the love
of Christ for him personally. That's what we're talking about
first. When he says knit together with love, yes, he's talking
about them as brethren, but he's also talking about when you are
given this spiritual understanding, you're gonna be knit together
in love with God the Father and God the Son. You see, this thing
has to go from being a doctrine to being a personal thing to
me. It has to be personal to you.
You have to hear about God's love for you personally. Look at 1 John 4, hold your place
there, and let's go over here real quick and look at this.
1 John 4, verse 9. And he says this, 1 John 4 and
verse 9. He says, and this was manifested,
the love of God toward us. And when he says us there, he's
talking about every believer he's writing to, and he's saying
God manifests his love to me personally, and you personally,
and you personally. To us, he manifests his love
to us personally, not to us meaning everybody in the world, to his
people personally, to me and you personally. And he says,
because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that
we might live through Him. This is the mystery of God. This
is the mystery of God the Father and God the Son. God loved His
people and sent His Son into the world that we might live
through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Now look down at verse 15. Now, whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. That's how you were born of God
and how you were given this understanding. And look at this, and we have
known, we have an understanding, we have some knowledge, and we
believe the love that God hath to us. We believe the love that
God had to me personally. See, this dear lady's problem
was she believed the doctrine. She believed Christ accomplished
the redemption of an elect chosen people. She'd been all her life
in false religion. But she was saying, but did he
do it for me? Well, when God gives assurance,
what he's gonna make you know is God loved you. He doesn't
love everybody. He loves his people. Who he loves
he saves. We just read it. He manifests
his love and sin in his son that those he loves, they're gonna
live through him. And he's gonna bring them to
confess him. And when he enters in and you're born of God and
you confess him, it's because you know the love that he has
for you personally. You know he did it for you personally. And it stops being a doctrine
then. Right now, Kristen, you're learning
the doctrine of having a child. When you have that child, it's
gonna be all together different then. There's gonna be a love
there that you never experienced before. And it's not gonna be
doctrine anymore. It's gonna be real. And that's
what we're talking about here. When he does this, it becomes
so real and personal. Paul said, I could have the gift
of prophecy. I could understand all mysteries.
I could know all knowledge and have all faith so that I could
remove mountains. But if I don't have charity,
and that begins by knowing God's love to me. Christ coming and
laying down his life for me is how I'm going to be constrained
to love him. And if I don't have that, I'm nothing. It's the difference
between learning the doctrine that Christ is all and being
able to state, I believe Christ is all. It's the difference between
that and Christ being your all. There's a huge difference. A huge difference. The first
one doesn't include God giving love. I can know Christ is all
and be puffed up about it and argue with folks about it. But
if Christ is my all, Now I know something of the love of God.
Toward a miserable, wretched sinner like me, that's gonna
give me some assurance. Because if he loved me when I
didn't love him, when I hated him, nothing's gonna stop him
from loving me. And he sent his son. You know
that woman at the well? Remember when Christ first came
to her, she kept interrupting him, telling what she knew. You
ever met? Folks that know some doctrine
and they're puffed up and they just, you can't get a word in
the edge of their mouth, they're going to tell you, oh I know,
I know the doctrine of such and such, and she was doing all that,
oh I know the doctrine of this mountain and that mountain and
the other thing. But when Christ revealed himself in her and she
went home, This was what she started saying, come see a man.
It quit being about a doctrine. She said, come see a man which
told me all things that ever, ever I did is not this the Christ. It became about a person. So
that's what this assurance of understanding is having an assurance
that Christ, that God loved me. I'm one of the elect. He sent
Christ for me. Christ laid down his life for
me. He accomplished my salvation. He revealed himself in me. And
the doctrine now becomes so much more valuable because now you
have assurance by it. Now let's look secondly, go to
Hebrews 10, and then we'll hear the doctrine right here in this. But we're going to see this is
how he gives the assurance of faith. The assurance of faith. You know, he gives you the assurance
of understanding. Gives you the understanding and
this gives you the assurance of faith. Watch this, verse 22.
Hebrews 10.22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. Now again, the assurance of faith
is assurance that comes with faith, and that assurance is
in the object of faith. That assurance is in Christ.
Let me show you that now faith You know, just like understanding
is given by the Holy Spirit of God. He has to wash us from an
evil conscience. He washes us with the blood of
Christ. He makes us understand the gospel and see and know the
blood of Christ. And he purges your conscience
with the blood of Christ. An evil conscience is a guilty
conscience. There's no assurance in a guilty
conscience. A guilty conscience feels like
I need to do something else. Because a guilty conscience is
trying to soothe that guilty conscience. And so it's trying
to do something else to silence that guilty conscience. But the
Holy Spirit purges the conscience of sin by the blood of Christ. Back up there in Hebrews 9.14. He says, how much more shall
the blood of Christ do through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works? That's
those works trying to soothe the conscience. He purges you
from those to serve the living God. And when he does that, the
believer ceases doing his dead works. Because he found something
that took care of that guilty conscience. Look over at verse
to Hebrews 10.2, he says, those offerings would have ceased to
be offered, and look at the end of that verse, because the worshipers
once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. This
is a wonderful thing about the assurance of understanding and
the assurance of faith. When the Holy Spirit has purged
your conscience, I know I'm a sinner, and I mourn my sin, and I hate
my sin. But I don't go around feeling
guilty for my sin. I don't feel guilty for my sin.
There's times you do. There's times he's convicting
you and turning you and you do. But I'm saying I'm not condemned
by my sin. I know that. I mourn my sin being
against Christ, and I don't want to sin against God. I want to
honor Him. If I could keep the law perfectly,
I would keep the law perfectly. I try to do the things I preach,
but I fail miserably. But I don't come into condemnation,
and I don't have a conscience that's burning and worrying that
God's going to put me out and cast me off because I have this
assurance of faith What is that? Well, the Spirit
teaches you this understanding, the assurance of understanding.
He teaches you that Christ came and did God's will. He says there
in verse 10, Hebrews 10.10, by Christ doing God's will, we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one
time. He says in verse 14, for by one
offering, he perfected forever them that are sanctified. He
did it. He perfected everybody he died
for. That's why we don't preach that
he died for everybody, because if he died for everybody, every
single person is gonna be saved. And everybody's not saved. There's
people in hell right now. He didn't die for them. but he
perfected everybody he died for. Now here comes the Holy Spirit
that's gonna purge our conscience and teach us that. Verse 15,
whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. Again, that's
personal. He's saying us because he's speaking
to a group, but he does that to each of us individually. When
he comes in the season of his love, he purges your conscience
individually, personally. For he said before, this is the
covenant, this is the everlasting covenant of grace that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
laws. What's that? That's that full
assurance of understanding. I'm gonna put the gospel in their
heart. I'm gonna write the truth in their heart and they're gonna
know me. I'm gonna write it in their hearts and in their minds.
Look, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. One problem with assurance, is
when you start looking back over your life and you start seeing
your past sins. God has to give us assurance
that he doesn't remember our sins anymore. You're not going
to find assurance looking there. Here's where you're going to
find it in God's word, hearing the spirit of God in your heart
saying he doesn't remember our sins anymore. Christ put them
away and he does this to you personally. Now look at verse
18. Now where remission of these is, there's no more offering
for sin. That's why we're not still going back to the law and
offering works under the law. That's why we cease from dead
works. There's nothing else to offer. God is happy. He's satisfied with his son. He got the job done. There's
nothing else to be offered. As the spirit of God taught you
this in your heart, It is done. Has he taught you it was done
for you personally? That's what he does when he teaches
it to his child. Having therefore, brethren, boldness. You know what that word is? Assurance. That's what the word is, have
an assurance, the assurance of faith to enter into the holiest,
to enter into God's presence and be received by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having
a high priest, having Christ as my high priest make an intercession
for me, let us draw near with a true heart. Now we have a true
heart. You know, you could know all
doctrine, and not have the love of the truth in you, not have
the understanding of God's love for you personally in you, you
could know all this doctrine, but if your conscience hasn't
been purged with the blood of Christ to know that he did this
work for you, that there's no more offering for sin, you won't
have a true heart. Won't be a true heart. It's a
feigned faith. It's a hypocritical faith. But
when he does this, it'll be a true heart. And look, and you draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Does that
mean my assurance is gonna be so full it's gonna be perfect?
No. It means my assurance is gonna
be fully set on Christ only. He's my full assurance of faith,
Christ is. Not me, not the quality, I mean
the quantity of my faith. It's the object of my faith.
He's my assurance that God's going to receive me. And this
is because our hearts are sprinkled from that evil conscience and
our bodies washed with pure water. Now let's look back at Hebrews
6. Now, of course, you can see how these are all linked because
when he's giving you this understanding of the gospel, you have assurance
through the understanding of what the gospel is that Christ,
that God the Father chose me because he would, because he
loved me. And that love's in Christ. And he manifests that
love by Christ coming forth and laying down his life. For me
personally, I began to have an understanding, not just of doctrine,
but of the living word now. It's alive to me now. And my
conscience purged, and knowing God doesn't remember my sin,
now I can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith
that's in Christ. He's my assurance that I have
boldness to enter and God will receive me. And that is going
to lead me to have a full assurance of hope for something to come,
yet to come. Look here, verse 11. Hebrews 6.11, we desire that
every one of you show the same diligence, he means persevere,
to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you be not
slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherited the promises. He's saying, If you have this
full assurance of hope, you persevere in that hope, just like Abraham
did, like David did, like Job did. They had not received the
promises in their day, but they saw them afar off, and so they
persevered in hope. Now, God-given hope is not, I
hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. I'm trying to stop saying that
phrase, I hope whatever, because that's just wishful thinking.
That's not hope. The hope God gives is a confidence
that God shall give me what God has promised me and what he's
confirmed with an oath to me, and he's gonna fulfill it in
and by Christ. It's a confident expectation
of a sure end. Remember we saw Sunday, I know
the thoughts I think towards you, thoughts of peace, to give
you an expected end. That's what my hope is. I have
an expected end. I'm not just wishful thinking
that it might come to pass. It is a sure hope. This is why when I've talked
to this dear lady, this is why I told her, I said, it's a strange
statement you've made that Christ is all your hope of salvation. But I need to know if he did
it for me. Because you can't have hope without faith. And
when you have hope, you have a confident expectation of what
God's gonna do. That's what hope is. Well, look at this. How does
he give it? Verse 13, when God promised to
Abraham, this is how he gave Abraham hope. He promised to
Abraham, and God could swear by no greater, so he swore by
himself. Saying, surely, there's assurance. Assuredly. There's assurance. Surely, God said surely. That's
my assurance. God said surely I will. Surely blessing, I will bless
thee. Multiplying, I will multiply
thee. And so after Abraham had patiently endured in the assurance
of hope, after he went through his life in the assurance of
hope, he obtained the promise. Now listen to him explain that.
Men swear by the greater. An oath to confirm your word
is an end of all strife. You swear and you enter under
oath, then that's it. You're saying you're gonna tell
the truth and that your word is sure. Well, God, willing more
abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, how unchangeable that counsel of peace is, He
confirmed his counsel, his promise by an oath. He didn't have to
do that. He's God. He can't lie. If he tells you
something, he said, I'm going to do it. But he went beyond
that and confirmed it by an oath. He swore by himself because he
could swear by no greater. So that by two immutable things
now, two things that can't change. in which it's impossible for
God to lie. In his promise and in his oath,
God can't lie in either one of them. We got two unchangeable
things now, so that we might have a strong consolation, me
and you who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before
us. God promised, God confirmed his
promise with an oath, and where were these promises at? They're
all in Christ. They're in Him, they're by Him,
they're yes and amen in Him. That's why our hope is a confident
expectation that God shall give us this promised end. Now watch
this. This is why God-given hope is
full of assurance. Verse 19, this hope we have is
an anchor of the soul. An anchor is sure. This is assurance,
this is the anchor of my soul. It's sure and it's steadfast. It's full of assurance, it's
steadfast, immutable, immovable, and this hope's in Christ. Where's
this hope at? What he's saying here is this
hope is Christ. This hope enters into that veil,
into the holiest place in God's presence where the forerunner
is for us, again, it's personal, where I see that he is for me
entered in there. That's where my hope is. Even
Jesus, who is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. So
that makes my hope sure and steadfast. God gave me his word, he promised
he can't lie. He swore by himself, by his name,
And he can't change that. And all of this is in Christ
who came forth and manifest that name. That's why it says the
promises of God, I guess, name in. So I have a sure and steadfast
hope. like an anchor of the soul, and
he's seated at God's right hand as my high priest, and he's my
forerunner. He's showing me I've already
entered in for you, and you're seated there, and there's a good
hope, a good expected end, a confidence in an expected end that I'm gonna
be there with him. So you see what I'm saying? The
assurance of understanding is Christ, God's love for us in
Christ. Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? My assurance of faith is Christ. He's the one whose blood purged
my conscience and gave me this faith to enter into God's presence. And then my hope, assurance of
hope, is Christ. Now if a person wants hope, or
wants assurance. Let me just say this and I'm
done. I'm out of time. But if a person wants assurance,
if they see the gospel and believe the gospel and they want to know,
they want more assurance, that's a good indication you got life.
Especially if you go into God and asking God to give it to
you. Remember John Newton, "'Tis a point I long to know, oft it
causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not?" Don't ever think now that that's some sort
of form of humility. It's not. If I think that God
can't save me because I'm too sinful, that's just as self-righteous
as thinking he saved me because I'm so good. Both of them are. And that's not a sign of humility
to say, oh, I just don't know if I'm his or not. That's not,
that's not. Now if you're honest about it
and you're saying, I do, because God's people do, we do wax and
wane in our assurance. But if you're seeking it and
you want it and you know you want it and you want it from,
for God to give it to you in Christ, that's a good indication.
You got life. Have you ever heard the answer
that John Newton's friend wrote to that song? I can't read the
whole thing, I'm out of time. Let me read you some of it. His
name's Daniel Herbert, friend of John Newton. He listened to
that poem, or that song, "'Tis a Point I Long to Know," and
he wrote this. What is this point you long to
know? Methinks I hear you say, "'Tis this. I want to know I'm
born of God, an heir of everlasting bliss. Is this the point you
long to know? The point is settled, in my view.
If you want to love your God, it proves he first loved you."
That's what I'm saying. I want to know Christ died for
me. I want to feel the seal within. I want to know Christ's precious
blood was shed to wash away my sin. I want to feel more love
to Christ. I want more liberty in prayer.
But when I look within my heart, it almost drives me to despair. I want a mind more firmly fixed
on Christ, my everlasting head. I want to feel my soul alive
and not so barren and so dead. I want more faith, a stronger
faith. I want to feel its power within.
I want to feel more love to God. I want to feel less love to sin. I want to live above the world
and count it all but trash and toys. I want more tokens of God's
grace, some foretaste of eternal joys. I want, I know not what
I want, I want that real special good. Yet all my wants are summed
up here. I want to love, I want my God. Is this the point you long to
know? The dead can neither feel nor see. It's the slave that's
bound in chains that knows the worth of liberty. So where a
want like this is found, I think I may be bold to say that God
has fixed within thy heart what hell can never take away. However
small thy grace appears, there's plenty in thy living head. These
wants you feel, my Christian friend, were never found amongst
the dead. That's a good answer to that
song. If you want assurance, a dead
man don't want assurance. A self-righteous man does not
want assurance. If you want assurance, there's a good indication in
that want that you got life. I pray God will bless that. I
don't know any other way to give somebody assurance than to preach
the gospel to them and pray God gives them assurance. So I hope
he does that. All right, Brother Art.