Have you ever wondered if you're truly saved? Yeah, it's something that, do
you know that only true believers wonder if they're truly saved?
Unsaved people don't even think that way. They don't even, doesn't
even enter their imagination. Spurgeon used to say, only saved
people wonder if they're saved. The only ones. Oh my, do you
know we can have full assurance? Here's a question. For anyone
who will listen to this message, for us here tonight, who are
we trusting in right now for the salvation of our soul? The
Lord Jesus Christ, right? That's the answer. Remember our
Lord asked the apostles, he said, Who do men say that I am? And
he says, what think ye of Christ? What do you think, personally?
Not what our mom and dads thought, not what our brothers think,
or sisters, not what our children think, but what do you think?
What do I think of Christ? Oh my. And you know when Isaiah
chapter 32 verse 17, it says of this, in the work of righteousness
shall be peace, in the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever. Assurance forever? Yep. It's Isaiah 32, 17. Quietness and assurance and first
of all it says, in the work of righteousness shall be peace.
Who have we sinned against? We sinned against God, didn't
we? So therefore, we need to be able to have peace with God,
but in ourselves, we can't make peace with God. But praise be
to God. All who have rested and trusted
in Christ Jesus our Lord, he's our peace. We are at peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my. And the Hebrew word,
therefore, assurance, in Isaiah 32, 17, it means security. Security. It primarily means
security or calm assurance. It can also mean assurance or
confidence as to those who dwell in safety because of God's almighty
protection. It also means to lay down safely.
or insecurity, or to walk securely, or assuredly, again, this only
comes by resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other
way, is there? There's no other way for a sinner to feel and
to know that they're saved except to rest and trust in Christ.
You see, we believe in salvation in Christ alone, period, don't
we? There's nothing added to that. There cannot be anything
added to that. If man adds any works, he pollutes
the work. It's not a work of grace then.
We are saved, beloved, Brother Dave and Brother Zane, we are
saved by the pure, free, sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus
alone, by his shed precious blood, redeeming our eternal souls. Period. Hey, rest in that. He did a perfect
work, as we looked at a few weeks back, already finished. Already
finished, done. I preach a gospel that's already
been accomplished. Good news, it's already been
accomplished and there's nothing for us to do except look to Christ. And the only way we look to Christ
is because God gives us the ability to look to Christ and then we're
made well. What does made well mean? Well,
it means we willfully run to Christ. People get all worked up. You
guys don't believe that. You don't believe you exercise
your will. I believe we have to be acted
upon before we will ever come to God. You must be born again. I met a Catholic lady this week
with a friend of mine. We were talking to her. And she
said, oh yeah, I believe this and I believe that. And I looked
at her and I said, are you born again? She kind of looked at me and
I said, do you know what it means to be born again? She gave me
an honest answer. She said, I don't know. What
does it mean? I said, well, it's a working
of God, the Holy Spirit that works in us. And we're born again
of the Holy Spirit and given faith to believe on Christ, and
we trust Christ then. And I said, you know, she didn't
have a Bible there. I said, go to John chapter three
when you get home and look at it. I pray she did. I don't know
if she did, but she received it. You must be born again. And I
told her this. I said, you know, you're trusting
in the fact that you're a Catholic. But our Lord said you must be
born again. That rules out any church affiliation. That rules
out baptism. That rules out Sunday or Saturday
worship like the Seventh Day Adventists like to do. That destroys
all the cults. You must be born again. It's
a work of God the Holy Spirit, right? And as a result of that
mighty work, when people ask us, what do you think of Christ?
We say, He's my everything. He's my Savior. He's my Lord. He's my Redeemer. And I only
find assurance in Him. If I look at myself, I have no
assurance. Do you? No. Anxiety. Amen, brother. Quickly, too,
right? Quickly. That's why we need to
just keep our eyes on Christ. You know, I see people writing
books about how to grow your faith and how to do this and
how to do that. Just look to Christ. Look and
live, brother. Amen. And do we ever stop looking
once we look? We don't. We keep, well, by God's
grace, right, we look. I heard a fellow, I heard a fellow
today talking to someone. And he said, well, he was talking
to me, actually, and he said, well, you know, we sin about
once a day. Yeah, that was my response, too. Once a day. I sin once a second,
if not more, do you? Multiple, right? Isn't that amazing
that someone would think of that? Are they only sin once a day?
All we are is sinners. But we're safe sinners, aren't
we? By grace, amen. That's the key right there, brother.
In Christ. In Christ. Oh my. And think of this. Grace to cover
all what? Amen. All my sins. All my sins. I mean past, present, and future. All my sins. Isn't that wonderful? And knowing that, we can have
a full assurance by looking to Christ, beloved. He's our security. What it is, is our salvation
is in no way dependent upon us. It's all wrapped up in Christ. You ever hear, don't put all
your eggs in one basket? Well, put all your eggs in God's basket.
That's Christ, right? Christ and Him alone. There's
no hope outside of Christ. None at all. Oh my. Turn if you would to Hosea, chapter
two, verse 18. My, oh my. We lie down safely in Christ,
beloved. Oh, and the same word that's
translated assurance in Isaiah 32, 17, which again I'll read
it again. In the work of righteousness shall be peace. Shall. I didn't even notice that. Shall. Shall be peace. Peace with God.
The work of righteousness was accomplished by who? The Lord
Jesus Christ and him alone, right? Him alone. The work of righteousness
shall be peace. In the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. Assurance forever. So that word
assurance there is translated safety at the end of Hosea 2.18.
Same Hebrew word. Let's look at that. And in that
day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field,
and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things
of the ground, and I will break the bow and the sword in the
battle, and make them to lie down in what? Safety. Same Hebrew word which means
security, security or calm assurance, confidence. See, our confidence
isn't in ourself, is it? What did Paul write in Philippians,
which we're going to look at? He said, I have no confidence
in the flesh. The believer has no confidence in our flesh. Why? Because we're sinners. And we
sin more than once a day, don't we? saying at least twice, I love
you guys. Oh my, oh my. But isn't it amazing? We have
assurance, we have security, we have peace with God through
Christ Jesus our Lord. We who are rebels, we who are
shaking our fist at God before he saved us, we now have peace. And you know,
I want us to really sit and think. We were the objects of the Father's
love from eternity. When we were conceived, he knew,
he loved us. When we were conceived, before,
even before that, his love was, but his love was the same when
we were conceived. He still loved us with that everlasting
love when we were born. when we were born. We're born
and our hearts are deceitful, right? We speak lies from the
womb. But being one of his people, his love is set upon us. And
all through our life, the cake mix, all through the cake mix,
all through the mixing of our life events, all good and bad,
all of it, all of it, just, he loves us. And then scripture
talks about the time of love, when we heard the gospel for
the first time. When we heard the gospel preached, we said,
Lord, I'm a sinner. Because we're born again. The
only reason we cried out for salvation to Christ is because
we've been born again of the Holy Spirit of God. It's a work
of God, isn't it? And then we struggle through
life. Our assurance may have been like
this, right? Our assurance still may be like
this. But the one thing we can know from these words, the assurance
and safety in their Hebrew definition is we have security in Christ. It's not based upon us. And God's love never changes
for us, based upon us. Good thing. And God's love for
us is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves us because
we're in Christ. But He loved us. Just think of
that. There's no cause for Him to love
us. There's no cause for Him to choose us before He chose
us. There's no cause in us. All for His glory. All for His glory.
All for His honor. All for His praise. And we, beloved,
we the blood-washed saints will praise Him in glory forever. Forever. Oh my, it's wonderful. Now let's turn to the New Testament,
Hebrews chapter 6, the New Testament. And we see that the believer
in Christ has this security, this full assurance that's spoken
of in the Old Testament there, which is salvation in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone. That's the only way we
can have a full assurance of our salvation. If man adds just
a pinprick of his works, there's no assurance. There's no assurance
at all. Remember what I keep telling
you what Norm said, if we'd only believe what the word of God
says, right? If we'd only believe it. Even as believers, if we'd
only believe it. See, God's people believe what
the word of God says, but there are some times when we get filled
with doubt, right? Yeah, we're children. We're just
little kids. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my. Look at this in Hebrews
chapter 6. We start in verse 10 and we read
to verse 12. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward
his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
See, God's people, like we looked at in Sunday school, right, on
Sunday, we serve the Lord with gladness because of what he's
done for us, because of what he's done. You don't have to
poke and prod God's people. We desire to serve and support
the local work and support the furtherance of the gospel because
we're born again. My oh my. Look at this, and we desire that
every one of you do show the same diligence to, look at this,
the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Look at that. Full assurance
of hope until the end. Joshua and I went out for lunch
today and we were talking about hope. First of all, he started
talking to me about, he said, Dad, do you know that there's
a billion, over a billion galaxies, or yeah, I think he said, stars
in the galaxy? And I said, man, that's a lot
of stars. And he said, and do you know they can't even count
how many galaxies are in the whole universe? They've only
got to a certain point. And I said, isn't God amazing?
Isn't the Lord amazing? He just spoke that out into existence. And then he said something about
different religions and stuff and how they hope, but they hope
in someone that was at one time on this earth that there's pictures
of or they, you know, they make a religion out of somebody or
something. He says, but I said, but isn't it amazing the scripture
says that we hope even though we don't see? even though we
can't see Christ, but yet we hope in Him and we trust in Him.
And I said, if you hope, and he answered, he said, yeah, if
you hope and you see something, then there's no hope, is there?
And I said, no, there's no hope, because you've seen the person.
Dave's smiling, because you've seen the person. So we hope,
and you know what? We will see Christ. When we,
the minute, the millisecond we breathe our last breath, yeah,
the millisecond we breathe our last breath, we're in glory. Sister Kathy's in glory, brother.
She's worshiping the Redeemer. She's praising His mighty name.
Whew, my. Isn't that, that's beautiful. That's wonderful. And we'll soon
be there. Because our life is like a vapor.
Our life, it'll be like a millisecond, right? Because 70 years to the
Lord is nothing. 10 years to the Lord is nothing.
It's not even a bleep on the calendar of eternity, is it?
Nothing. And in an eternity, there's no
time. Can you imagine that? that song, when we've been there
10,000 years, no one will be counting them. Because time's
not there. But I love how Newton brought
that to our view. But there won't be any time. Because time is for us. And you
ever think of this? When we looked at that word,
I was telling you guys about how he emptied himself. Marcus brought
that up. He emptied himself when he came down to this world. He
came into time and space for one reason. Are you a believer? Are you a believer? He came to
save you from your sins. He came to save us from our sins.
And now where's he? He's back outside of time and
space, isn't he? He's up in glory. Back, backward,
what do you say, Father? I want to be with you again,
right? I'm paraphrasing this. In our
study in John 17, just give me the glory I had with you. I just
want to be with you again. Oh my, and now he's our mediator. He's our go between. He's the
one, when we can't even utter a prayer, He's interceding for
us. And He intercedes for us all
the time, because we sin more than one time a day, don't we? I pray for my friend. Oh my. We sin so much, and yet He's
so faithful. And oh my. I'll tell you what. Turn if you would to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Excuse me. Paul's bringing forth
that he desires that everyone who he's writing to would show
the same diligence and exercise of faith as, of love and faith,
which is just ministering to one another, forgiving one another,
bearing one another's burdens, showing mercy, especially to
the household of faith, right? And also trusting the Redeemer.
That's all part of it, isn't it? More so trusting the Redeemer. Trusting Him. And not only that
we would keep the hope of eternal life before us, but that we would
grow to a full and confident assurance of it. When I found out that salvation
wasn't dependent upon me, and not dependent upon what I
did, that was absolutely incredible. I think the Lord saved me then,
because anytime we're trusting in ourselves or anything we do,
we don't have a proper perspective of Christ, do we? No, we don't even have a proper
perspective of God. Henry used to say, if a man can
talk you into salvation, he can talk you out of it, right? But if God's saints are saved,
if they're truly born again by the Holy Spirit of God, They're going to trust Christ
to the end. Only because, you know why? It's the P of the tulip,
right? Perseverance of the saints. He
keeps us looking to him. He keeps us looking to Christ,
doesn't he? Oh my. He carries us. Look at this in
Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verses 19 to 25. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, the only
way we can enter into the presence of God is with the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. By a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us, through the veil that is to say his flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of God. We have a high
priest, beloved. His name is Jesus Christ our Lord. We have
a, look at us, having. Not maybe, we have a high priest,
oh my. Let us draw near, look at this,
with a true heart and full assurance of faith. See that word assurance? It means most certain confidence. And that's not presumptuous.
We all want to stay away from presumption, don't we? But that's
a full assurance, that's a confidence of resting in Christ and trusting
in Christ. And that can only be given to
us by God. Even though we go like this sometimes, right? Know
this, beloved. Know this. When we're going like
this, because we do. Dave, you mentioned anxiety and
stuff. We all get it. We go up and down. We ebb and flow, right?
Our faith is, it could be strong one minute and just down weak
to nothing the next second. But know this. Our salvation
is totally secure in Christ. It'll never change. That's our
assurance. That's where the believer has
full assurance. Not in anything we do, but based
upon what Christ has done. It is a finished work. He has
saved my soul. Again, I always got to mention
this because people say, people take it and say, well you say
that, people will do whatever they want. No they won't. Because
Paul even talked about it in Hebrews there. We will desire
to serve our King, won't we? We're already sinners. But think
of this. Dave, did you ever want to serve
Christ before the Lord saved you? Didn't know, did you? Didn't have a clue. Didn't have
a clue. Same before you even went to Bible college or anything,
did you desire to serve Christ before that when you didn't know
him? No. There you go. It was a duty. When I was in religion, it was
a duty. And if people weren't doing certain things, that's
when I said, well, how can that person be a Christian? I was
such a hypocrite. Oh my. But Dave, we didn't even
care. We were just dead in sin, doing
whatever we thought we wanted to do, whatever we desired. And
had no thought of God. You know? Isn't that amazing?
Now, let me tell you. Now, who fills your mind, who do you
think of at least once every day? Amen. Isn't that amazing? And it's more than once, isn't
it? I'm just saying. But isn't that,
what a change though. What a change that God's wrong,
right? He takes the rebel, who curses his name, or even if you
didn't do that in our works, we were sinning against God. We were saying, I'll not have
this man rule over us. Didn't matter if we were religious
or totally just irreligious. It doesn't matter. We were saying,
I'm not going to have this man rule over me. Now we say, Lord,
you're my king. You are my king. Use me for whatever you want
to do. Use me for the furtherance of your kingdom. For your glory. For your honor. Not for supposed
crowns and rewards. Right? Because Christ is our
reward and there's no greater reward than Christ. For his glory. For his honor. For his praise. Look at this. Let us draw near with a true
heart. That's a born-again heart, beloved.
That's a new heart. In full assurance of faith. Who
is our faith? Our faith has one object. That's
Christ, right? Having a heart sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. We've
been washed in the precious blood of Christ. My, oh my. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith. without wavering, for He is faithful
that promised." Look at that. Let us hold fast to Christ because
He's faithful. The scripture says He's obtained
eternal salvation. Let's rest in that. Even when
we're like this with our faith, let's rest in that. He has obtained
eternal redemption for us, the scripture says. It's not based
upon us, beloved, hallelujah, right? It's based upon Christ
and his finished work. For he's faithful that promised.
We can be like this, right? But he's faithful, he's constant. Norm used to tell me too, and
it's so true, even when we're unfaithful, he is faithful. Isn't that amazing? Oh, what
a Savior we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. What a Father we have. What a Holy Spirit that regenerates
us and shows us these things of Christ, these wondrous things
of Christ. And then look at this, let us
provoke one another to love, the first of the fruit of the
Spirit. And this love is not love, natural love, this is love
from the Holy Spirit of God given to us. It's a fruit of the Holy
Spirit. And to good works. Now we don't
know, God's ordained us to good works and we don't even know
what they are. We have no clue. Ephesians chapter one, or chapter
two brings that forth. God's ordained us to good works,
but remember in Matthew when the Lord has the believers all
there and he says, well, when you gave one of my servants a
cup of water, you did it unto me. So don't go around filling
the taps and handing a cup of water to me. It doesn't mean
not, right? No, but you guys know what I
mean. Just out of love, right? Out of concern. My oh my. Why do we pray for
one another? Because of love. Why do we pray for Sister Linda
and Brother Brian with her loss? Because we love her. We feel their pain. We bear their
burden. Our hearts are affected by what our brothers and sisters
in Christ are going through. Yeah. They're knit together.
Yeah, actually it says knit together in love, brother. Yeah. Knit
together. I used to watch my mom knit. Remember that? Knitting, and all them strings
get all attached, don't they? And then she'd like to make those
things to put her pots on, doilies. And when she was finished, it
was beautiful. But they're all knit together.
They're all intertwined, twisted together. That's what we are,
beloved. That's a good, there's a message
for you, Dave. You know, you got two you gotta
put together, man. Oh my. Look at this. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembly
and ourselves together, as is the manner of Psalm is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
So we're to gather together. We're to gather together. We're
to worship together. And if someone can't physically
be here, well, they can watch online, right? But there's a
special blessing to being with God's people. Carolyn says the
same as you, Zane, that it's different. It's different. Yeah. And that's part of the blessing
is people don't realize this, too, though. Think of this, too,
saints of God, that you're a blessing to other believers as much as
they're a blessing to you. Isn't that amazing? That's why
we stand around afterwards, church and talking. Because our hearts
are, again, knit together in love. Knit together in love. Family reunion. Yeah. Family reunion every week. Every week we get a family reunion.
It's wonderful. My. My oh my. Listen to this. For
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance, same Greek word there, this is 1 Thessalonians
1, 5, and 6. As you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake, and ye became, because of the
power of God, ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having
received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. See,
believers receive the word of God with joy, whether it be in
affliction or non-affliction. We receive it, but how do we,
it comes by the power of God, beloved. It comes by the, it comes with
power. God's power. Oh my. See, we preach salvations of
the Lord. It's all of Him. My. Now turn if you want to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Same Greek word here. We've
been looking at. It'll be translated full assurance
in the English. In Colossians chapter 2 here,
it'll be translated full assurance, same single Greek word. Colossians
2 verses 1 to 3. For I would that you know 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, that their
hearts might be comforted, there it is Dave, being knit together
in love. Look at that. And that love again
right there is the love of the Spirit. a foreign love that's
now we have. It is, isn't it? But now we have
it. We didn't have it before. No,
no. Tim James has a message called
Just Words. To unsaved folks, preaching the
gospel is just words. It's a different language. But
for us, oh my, those words are sweet, aren't they? They're so
sweet. Look at this. that their hearts
might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all
riches of what the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom
this being Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
they're all hidden Christ if you have Christ you have all
all the wisdom All the wisdom, all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge in Christ, in Christ. It's all in Him. It's not in
us. Man thinks they're wise, we're nothing. But I'll tell
you what, God's people are wise unto salvation through Christ
Jesus our Lord, aren't they? God's people are wise. They've
been made wise by God. My, isn't that amazing? Now I
ask you, can we have full assurance of salvation? Well, the scriptures
plainly put that there for us, hasn't it? We can, from what
we've looked at tonight already. We can see that the believer
can have full assurance. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
35. Isaiah 35. Beloved God, assurance of personal
salvation only comes through trusting and resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And sinner friend, if you're
listening and you don't know Christ, cast yourself upon him. He's the only hope. He's the
only hope of sinners. There's no other hope outside
of Christ. As you said earlier, Brother
Zane, look and live. Look to Christ and live. There's no hope
in anything else. Everything else is a false refuge,
but Christ is a sure refuge. Look at this. Look at this in
Isaiah, chapter 38, 5, verses 8 to 10. This is wonderful. And then highway, singular. One
highway. What did Christ call himself?
I am the what? The way. One way. One highway. This is a single
lane highway, beloved. Oh my. And then highway shall
be there and a way, look at that, singular, a way. And it should
be called the way of holiness. What did the demons with the
Gatheron Demoniac, they said, we know who thou art, thou holy
one of God. This highway, this way, is called
the way of holiness. Now some people take that and
go, Well then, I can make myself more holy. No, this is talking
about holiness in Christ. We are not holy outside of Christ,
are we? We're unholy outside of Christ. Yeah. Look at this, the unclean
shall not pass over it. But it shall be for those, the
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion
shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It
shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall what? Walk
there. Beloved, do you know we're walking
on this highway? And where does it lead? It leads to glory, beloved. Yeah,
brother, it leads to glory. We're walking on this highway.
And the only reason we're walking on this highway is because God
put us on the highway, right? What's it called? The narrow
way. Remember there's two ways? There's the broad way that leads
to destruction. Now, few find that narrow way,
don't they? Lots of folks find that broad
way. Oh, it leads to destruction. It leads to eternal damnation.
But oh, this way here. Yeah, who made you to differ?
That's right. Oh, look at this. And the redeemed shall walk there,
and the ransomed of the Lord shall return. The ransom? Yep,
the ones he paid for with his precious, precious blood. The
ones he purchased at Calvary's cross. The ones he cried out,
it is finished. Their salvation is complete.
He obtained eternal redemption by his substitutionary work.
of dying in the ruined place of his people on Calvary's cross.
Look at this. And come to Zion. We're going
to Zion, beloved. And songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads. What are the saints doing in
glory right now? They're singing songs of deliverance, aren't
they? Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Worthy is he. Oh, he shares blood for us. He purchased us. No, they won't
kick us out, brother, because we're washed in the blood. Yeah,
forever. And you know what? We're going
to have wonderful voices and glory, aren't we? I can't wait.
I can't wait, too. I hope we're all close together. We can look at each other and
go, this is amazing. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Oh,
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall obtain
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sorrow shall flee away. You
know, there'll be no more sorrow in heaven. There'll be no more
sighing. We won't have trouble with our bodies like we do now.
I won't have any more insomnia, brother, because I'm getting
old, right? Oh, my. But isn't it true, though?
This is wonderful. That fills our hearts with joy,
doesn't it? Not, not, not, you know, that's just bonus, but
to see Christ, to see the Redeemer, to join the heavenly choir, to
praise His name, and to see Him whose hands and feet are pierced
for us, for our salvation, the one who shed His blood to redeem
us from all our sins, beloved. My. My. Rejoice at what God's word says
here in Isaiah. Rejoice. Now turn if you would
to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. Oh my. Eternal life only comes through
the Lord Jesus Christ and the only ground of assurance that
the believer has is in Christ. There's nowhere else. There's
nowhere else. My. It's only in Christ and Him
alone. Look at these words written by the Apostle John. Remember,
John was an ear witness and an eye witness. He saw Christ like
we see each other. He heard Christ. And he's a beloved,
I love that, he's the beloved disciple that laid his head upon
the breast of Christ. You know, he heard the heartbeat
of God. He heard the heartbeat of the God man. You ever think
of that? My, I remember putting my head on my brother's chest
when I was little and I could hear their hearts beating. My
oh my. Isn't that amazing? Look at this. Look what he says here in 1 John
chapter 5. Look at what words of comfort for the believer.
What words of assurance for the believer. Start in verse 10 and
go on to verse 12. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, here
it goes. This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. Do you remember when we
were going through the book of Acts? And the council said, you
don't preach in His name anymore. And they left there rejoicing
and said, we're going to keep preaching Christ. Because look
it, eternal life is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only
in God's Son. Look at this, he that hath the
Son, Hath life. Is there any like, well, maybe
in there? Yeah. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. It's so, the divide is so clear
there. And the only one who's made the
hath, the ones that hath life, from the ones that hath not life,
the only ones who's made us to differ is God and God alone.
the pure, sovereign, free grace of God shown to us in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Isn't that wonderful? We are
mercy beggars and we've received mercy from God, from the God
of the universe, from the one who made billions of stars in
one galaxy, let alone the billions that are out there, beloved. He knows every star. by name. Isn't that amazing? Oh, my. Oh, my. How great is our God, beloved? How great is our Redeemer? And now we can get a glimpse
into how low he came down. He emptied himself, made himself
of no reputation, emptied himself for us. for our salvation. Praise his mighty name. That's
all we can say, right? All we can say. He's a speechless
beloved. Man, the believer in Christ,
they found the ransom. They found the Savior, haven't they? The
only Savior of sinners by God's grace. And we have God's word to rest
upon, don't we? We just saw it. We have the words
of God to rest upon. Listen to this. For by grace
he is saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are
his workmanship. My dear brothers, we're his workmanship. We're his workmanship. We're
vessels of honor. We're his workmanship. He's chipping
away, conforming us to the image of Christ, isn't he? Listen to
this. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Not in ourselves. Not in anything we do. In Christ
Jesus, it says in Ephesians 2, verse 10. Unto good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Why are we here? Why are we here
worshiping God? Because God's ordained, hasn't
he? Beloved, what a great God we
have. What a great God we have. Oh,
my. This salvation's a full assurance.
So if the salvation's a full salvation, then it would make
sense that the assurance of God is a full assurance, isn't it? If it's eternal salvation, then
that means it's eternal salvation, doesn't it? It doesn't mean,
well, it's eternal if you twist God's arm, or he twists your
arm, and you want to receive it. No, no one wants to receive
it in our natural state. God must make us willing. For
by grace he is saved through faith and not of yourself. It's
a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. freely
gives us a salvation in Christ, beloved. My, my. Do you know we can't be justified
from the law of Moses at all? We can't even fulfill the law
of Moses and we can't justify, we can't be justified by the
law of Moses. But praise be to God, Christ
fulfilled the law of Moses in the ruined place of his people.
So does the law have a claim on us, brother? No claim. No claim, sister. Amen. No claim.
No claim. Because the law was satisfied,
fulfilled, honored by God the Son 2,000 years ago at Calvary's
Cross in our Roman place. And what did he cry? It is finished. Done. Done, beloved. Let us rest in that. Let us take
joy in that. See, that's where our assurance
can come from, isn't it? Right there, the finished work of Christ,
what He's done. giving thanks unto God the Father
which hath made us meet, that means qualified in the Greek
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered
us from the power of darkness. Oh, it was so powerful we couldn't
deliver ourselves, but you know what? He who's greater than the
power of darkness delivered us, beloved, delivered us. Oh my, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear son, born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Right there. Redeemed by the blood of Christ,
even the forgiveness of sins. Praise his mighty name. And then
as a result of that, there is therefore now no condemnation
to those in Christ Jesus, which are in, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. No judgment in the Greek. My,
oh my. And then listen to this. Before
Christ ascended to glory, the sins of his people were removed
and judicially purged by his blood. How do we know that? Listen
to this in Hebrews 1.3. Who being the brightness of his
glory and the image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins. Purged our sins by himself. He
did it. We didn't do nothing. We did
the singing, but we didn't do anything to
purge ourselves. He sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Do you hear what the scripture said there? For chosen
sinners, Christ purged our sins, beloved. With his own blood. Purged them. In a result of this
wondrous salvation wrought by Christ, Christ says, you'll never perish.
You're mine. I made you. I bought you. You're mine. You're a gift from
the Father to me. And no one, absolutely no one,
no man, shall ever pluck us out of his hand. That's assurance, isn't it? Is
that assurance? That's assurance. The God, God
in the flesh, the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ said, no one's
going to pluck you out of my father's hand or my hand. No
one. My, my. Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, and the
sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man
enter in, he shall be saved. What? He shall be saved. be saved, and shall go in and
out and find pasture. Shall be saved. It is finished. Finished. Oh, but beware, lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Oh, let us just trust in Christ and Him alone. Someone comes
up and says, well, there's these traditions. No, they're garbage. Christ in him alone is all I
need. I don't need nothing else. By
the grace of God, I'm trusting him. For in him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead body, in Christ, and ye are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power. He's
in full control. He's sovereign, and we're complete
in him. Oh, my beloved. Now that's assurance, isn't it?
That's right! I'm going to close with this,
though. Listen to this. Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy How are
we holy? In Christ. And without blame. How are we without blame? In
Christ. By his precious, precious blood.
Amen, brother. We should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. His will, His will, beloved,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the beloved, accepted in Christ, accepted, justified
in Christ, sanctified in Christ, redeemed in Christ, accepted
in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege for we who are
the people of God. Let us rejoice in this full assurance.
As you said, Brother Dave, that's assurance. We have full assurance
in Christ, not in ourselves. So let us just rest and trust
in the perfect, finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
let us rejoice that he did it all for us. Brother Dave, can
you close us in prayer?