Go with me if you would now to
Isaiah 32. Isaiah chapter 32. A brother who lives in another
location sent me an email recently asking me if I had a message
on assurance. And I didn't know if I did or
not. You know, I don't remember, I
don't know. I knew and I know that I have
touched on that subject many times. But I didn't know if I
had a message specifically on the subject of assurance. And I didn't know if I had a
message that had the word assurance in the title. So I did a search
on Sermon Audio, and I couldn't find any messages with the word
assurance in the title. And I went to all of the verses
in the Bible that have the word assurance in them. to see if
I had preached a message from that verse of scripture and I
couldn't find any messages from any of those verses of scripture.
So I wrote this brother back and I said, I'm sorry, but I
don't believe I do. If I do, I don't know about it.
I don't think I have a message on assurance. In looking for
him, As I started looking for him and as I started reading
some of these verses that talk about assurance, I was so blessed
by the subject. Just so blessed by this subject
and blessed by what the word has to say about this subject. So for that reason, I'd like
to bring you a message tonight. A message tonight titled assurance. All right. We're gonna use Isaiah
32 verse 17 for a text. And I'm gonna read this and see
if the Lord will let you enter into this, all right? Isaiah
32 verse 17, it says, and the work of righteousness shall be
peace. And the effect of righteousness
Quietness and assurance forever. Does that bless your heart? The
work of righteousness shall be peace. That's the work of righteousness. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness, and assurance forever. That's the effect. Now I have
a three-point outline for this message, all right? A three-point
outline on assurance. Number one, the object of assurance. And as I go through these, I'm
gonna spend most of our time on point one. So after I've been
there a while and I say point two, don't get worried. But point
number one is the object of assurance. Point number two is the ground
of assurance. And point number three is the
enjoyment of assurance. Now, I sincerely pray this will
be as much of a blessing to you as this has been to me. This
is something that I know from having many conversations with
different people, a lot of believers struggle over this. A lot of
believers do. And I pray this will be such
a help and such a blessing. The word assurance means certainty. Being certain. It means confidence being confident. It means free from doubt without
doubt, without doubt. We just read the apostle Paul.
He said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded without doubt. So when we say that our three
points are the object of assurance, the ground of assurance, and
the enjoyment of assurance, what we're saying is the object of
our certainty and confidence. The ground of our certainty and
confidence and the enjoyment of our certainty and confidence. Now let's begin by asking this
question. What do we need assurance in? When we talk about assurance,
saying that we want assurance, what are we wanting to be assured
of? For a child of God, we're wanting
to be assured of salvation. We're wanting to be assured of
the fact that we belong to Christ. We want to know that His blood
was shed for us. We want to know that it was shed
specifically for us. And we want to know that the
blood put away the sin. We want to know that the blood
put away all the sin. We want to know, is it really
gone? Is it really taken care of? We want to know that the covenant
he made included us. And there's no doubt about it.
I mean, no doubt about it. We're going to end up with him.
You know, when people leave this world, they're going to one or
two places and we want to know, we need
to know we're going to be with him. I need to know that personally. I need to know that I want to
be with him. I need to know, and all of God's
people need to know that our sin has been covered. Our debt
has been paid and we're going to leave this world and we're
going to spend eternity in his kingdom with him. That's what
a believer needs assurance in. That's what he or she wants to
be confident of, certain of, without any doubt. They want
to know, I am his and he is mine. No doubt in my mind, no doubt
about it. How can that kind of assurance come to us? How can that kind of assurance
come to us? It all starts with the object
of our assurance. Here's where it starts. Now in
this verse that we just read, the object of this verse is righteousness. Let's read it again. Isaiah 32
verse 17, it says, and the work of righteousness shall be peace
and the effect of righteousness. Quietness and assurance forever,
and see if you can retain that and hold onto that for a minute,
all right? The work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness
is quietness and assurance forever. Through the scripture, we see
that our righteousness is a person. Our rightness. Our goodness is
a person. This is talking about a person. If you look with me at verse
one of this chapter and your Bible over, over the beginning
of chapter 32, at the top of my page, it says of Christ's
kingdom. It's just speaking of Christ,
the person. Verse one says, behold, a king
shall reign in righteousness. And princes shall rule in judgment
and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind and a cover
from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a man is that for us. And that man is Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So verse 17 is talking about
Christ and we could read it this way. We could read verse 17 saying,
and the work of Christ shall be peace and the effect of Christ
quietness and assurance forever. Our righteousness, our rightness. Our goodness, when we need assurance,
what we're asking is, am I good enough? Tell me, am I good enough? All right. Our righteousness
is a person. It's a person. The work of our
righteousness is performed by that person. And the effect of
that righteousness can only come from that person. Now turn with
me, if you would, to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, verse 1, it
says, "'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.'"
And I want to, every time I read these verses right here, I enter
into what the Apostle Paul is saying. His heart was just so
hurting for people and so burdened for people. And every time I
read these verses, I become burdened with him. I think about people
and I just, I feel for him. He said in verse two, I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God and they do. And they do, they have a respect
for God. They have thoughts of God and
they are trying to please God and they're trying to do right
by God. They have a zeal of God. They'll go and tell others about
God. But he said, the problem is it's not according to knowledge. Only God can give that knowledge.
And verse three, he said, here's the problem. They being ignorant
of God's righteousness. That's where all error lies. When men and women are in error
and they're, it's because they are ignorant of God's righteousness. God's Holy Spirit has to reveal
God's righteousness. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness. And what that means is the one
God provided for his people. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And what is it? Verse four says,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. What the apostle Paul is saying
is my heart breaks for those who do not show the evidence
of being saved. And the reason they don't show
the evidence of being saved is because they are looking to the
wrong place for righteousness. And for us believers, this is
where we can start to be helped. Once we understand this, maybe
the Lord will help us to stop that. Stop looking to the wrong
place for righteousness. Paul said, this is where they
have totally gone wrong. And this is what the flesh wants
to do. And we're still flesh. He said, the reason that they
don't show this evidence of being saved is because they're looking
to the wrong object for righteousness. They are looking to themselves
instead of looking to Christ. They're turning their eyes to
themselves instead of turning their eyes to Christ. We will
never see righteousness. We will never find righteousness
when we are looking to ourselves. We look to ourselves and we're
just so frustrated with it. Just so frustrated. I'm just
not seeing it. I'm just not seeing it. Why can't
I just see it? Well, we will never see it, never
see righteousness when we look to ourselves, because the scripture
says outside of Christ, there is none righteous, none righteous. And if we don't ever truly see
righteousness, and if we don't ever truly find righteousness,
then we will never truly experience and know the effects of righteousness,
which is, if we held on to our verse of scripture, the effect
of righteousness is assurance. Does that make sense? Now, let
me very simply say it this way. Assurance is in Christ and not
in us. Assurance is in Christ and not
in us. We will never find assurance
if we are looking within. If we're looking to our flesh,
we're gonna never find it. We'll never see it. We will never
see the purity we need to see. We will never see the goodness
we need to see. We will never see the worthiness. We will never see the obedience. We'll never see those things
until we look to Christ. Until we look to Christ. Now,
I quote this to you all the time. John Newton wrote this song or
poem or whichever it is. But this is a good illustration. John Newton wrote, "'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?" What he's
saying is, I need some assurance. That's what he's saying. He said,
if I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? And can anybody enter into that?
Hardly sure can they be worse who have never heard his name.
What he's saying is, I look just like every other sinner on earth. I can't see a difference in me
or anybody else. In my flesh, I look just as sinful
as I always did. That's what he's saying. He said, could my heart so hard
remain? If I truly was a child of God,
would my heart still be this hard? Prayer, a task and burden prove
every trifle give me pain. Every little silly thing just
tear me all to pieces. If I knew a savior's love, he
said, I'm looking for some sign of being one of God's people.
And he said, I'm not finding it. I'm not seeing it. Well, in answer to him, I say
this respectfully, I highly, I esteem that man so much higher
than myself, but in answer to what he's asking, the answer
is brother Newton, you're looking to the wrong place. You're looking to the wrong object
for assurance. Every time you turn your eyes
within, all you will see is something that is dark and vain and wild,
filled with unbelief and sin, and you'll never be able to deem
yourself a child. Never. We will never find the
assurance we need and we so desperately want. as long as we are looking
to our flesh. What's wrong with me? What's
going on with me? Wrong object. Wrong object. Assurance is not found in here. But the moment that we stop looking
to the flesh, the moment that we mortify the deeds of the flesh. And there came a point in time
where the Lord opened up that scripture to me. A lot of people
believe that that means stop sinning, kill the deeds of the
flesh. That's what you need to do. Kill
the deeds of the flesh, mortify the deeds of the flesh, stop
sinning. It's not what that means. It
means stop looking to the flesh. Kill the deeds of the flesh in
your own eyes. Everything your flesh could do,
every deed, every work, slay it. Get rid of it, count it all
done. Make the deeds of your flesh
dead to you. Everything I've ever done is
dead to me. It means nothing to me. Make it so that there's nothing
left to look to. The moment that the object of
our assurance becomes Christ alone, I mean Christ alone, that's
the moment we'll have it. That's the moment we'll have
it. That's the moment we'll have the assurance that we so desperately
want and so desperately need. How perfect does a person have
to be to stand in the presence of God? I want to be a good person
and I want you to be a good person. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. Should we strive
to be Christ-like? Yes. Should believers act like
believers? Yes. But how perfect does a man
or a woman have to be to stand in the presence of God? Here's
the answer. As perfect as God himself, anything less than God
himself will not stand in his presence. We will never see that
in ourselves, never. But we will see that every time
we look at the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to see something that
is as perfect as God himself because he is God himself? Look
at the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to see someone who's
worthy to stand in the presence of God? Look at Jesus Christ. Know that if we are in Him as
He is, so are we in Him, only in Him. How obedient does a person
have to be to walk through the gates of heaven? We have all
these commandments and laws. How obedient does a person have
to be? Every jot and every tittle, that
means every dot of the I, every cross of the T, you cannot break
one. You cannot break one. We will
never see that in ourselves, never. When we look to our flesh,
all we will see is broken law after broken law, that's it. But every time we look at the
Lord Jesus Christ, we will see someone that the Father can say,
well done, thou good and faithful servant. And if we're in Christ,
whatever God says to him, God says to us in him. The moment that we take our eyes
off of Christ, that's the moment that we will lose all assurance. Like when Peter was walking on
the water, You know, he was doing something that's impossible.
You think, that was impossible. You know, believing on Christ
is impossible, except God does it in us. Here Peter is walking on the
water. And as long as he had his eyes on Christ, he was doing
the impossible, doing something that with man is impossible.
But the moment he took his eyes off of Christ, he lost it all. When we take our eyes off of
Christ, that's the moment we lose all assurance. And if we wanna regain that assurance,
the only way we can do it is by turning our eyes back to Him. That's the only way. Away from
ourselves, only looking to Him. So He is the object of our assurance. Aren't you glad I told you not
to be worried? Here's point number two. He is the ground of our assurance
in this way. Turn with me to Acts 17. Acts
17, verse 22, this is where Paul said, He stood in the midst of Mars
Hill and he said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all
things you are too superstitious. And that word means religious.
And that's, that's a great problem for so many. They're just too
religious. That's the big problem. Verse 23, he said, for as I passed
by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription
to the unknown God. whom therefore you ignorantly
worship, him declare I unto you, God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if
happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and
have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said,
for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance,
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." What
he's saying is, for all who are the offspring of God, for all
who are the children of God, God has provided a judgment for
them. God has provided a conviction,
He's provided a condemnation, He's provided a punishment of
suffering for them in that man whom He hath ordained, Christ
Jesus the Lord. Christ has settled their account,
paid their debt, put away their sin, wiped their slate, totally
clean. Now, how can they know? How can
they know that so? How can they be certain that
Christ accomplished that for them? What is the ground for
their confidence in that? Verse 31, because he hath appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all. in that he hath raised him from
the dead." When God raised Christ from the dead, He proved the
debt is paid. When He raised Him from the dead,
in raising Christ from the dead, He declared to all of His offspring,
in Him, with Him, because of Him, I'm going to raise you also. As I raised Him, I'll raise you."
So the object of our assurance is Christ Himself. The ground
of our assurance is in the fact that God the Father raised Him
from the dead. And the enjoyment of our assurance is in this right
here. Go with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews 10 verse 14, it says,
"'For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after that He had said before, This is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there's no more offering for sin. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say His flesh, and having an high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The enjoyment
of our assurance is in the fact that we can draw near to God
with a true heart, knowing that Christ has made us acceptable. You see, this holy God, this
holy God who must punish sin and hate sin, and then you see
what you are, The only thing that can bring is fear. Adam
and Eve ran and hid, but in Christ, because of what He did, because
He's our object, because we have the ground of the Father raising
Him from the dead, we can with absolute freedom, absolute happiness,
absolute peace, walk straight up to the throne of God Almighty. Christ made peace for us. The work of righteousness, the
work of Christ was peace. Christ made peace for us. And
the effect of righteousness, the effect of that work is we
get to draw near to God in full assurance that we'll be received. How enjoyable it is to know that
whoever the Father draws to Christ, him or her that comes to Christ,
that person will in no wise be cast out. No wise be cast out. We can come in full assurance. And I'm not going to read Hebrews
4. You know that we have a high
priest who was touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Let's draw
nigh that we may find mercy and grace to help in time of need.
That is the enjoyment of our assurance, being able to come
boldly right up to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace
to help in time of need. Our assurance is in Christ, not
in us, only in Him. It's His work, not ours, His
ability, not ours. The ground of our assurance is
in the fact that God raised Him from the dead. He died because
of us, but God raised Him from the dead. And the enjoyment of
our assurance is in the fact that in Christ, we are as accepted
as He is. just as accepted as He is. In
Him we can walk right up to God Almighty. Now that is assurance. If a soul can with a clear conscience
walk right up to the throne of God, that's assurance. Pray God will give it to all
of us.