Let's just read these verses
again. There are so few of them, and
they are such lovely verses. We'll read Colossians chapter
two and verse one. For I would that ye 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, that their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto
all 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. And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. And
ye have therefore, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and
established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. And once again, Amen. And may
the Lord bless these words to us. We've been thinking a little
bit about the opening verses of this passage in Colossians. And as we move into chapter two,
I want just to draw your attention to a particular subject this
evening, which I think will be of help to many of us. The purpose of my address this
evening is the subject of assurance. And I want to take opportunity
from Paul's words in verse two of chapter two of Colossians. Because verse two speaks to us
of something which the apostle calls the full assurance of understanding. the full assurance of understanding. And when we think about this
subject of assurance, perhaps we have got in mind what that
word means. and what it should feel like
to have assurance. We often speak of it, we often
allude to it. We sometimes talk about the fact
that believers should possess it. And as a definition which
might be given for it, perhaps we could speak of a settled confidence. that an individual has of their
personal and indeed certain interest in the Lord Jesus Christ and
in his death. A settled confidence of an individual's
personal salvation. And what I want you to note from
what we see in the second verse here is that while that definition
is perhaps familiar to many of us and is perhaps something that
we might readily settle upon as being the meaning of assurance,
Paul seems to allude to something in verse two with respect to
his desire for these Colossians and indeed the Laodiceans because
he keeps both of these cities. They were cities that were close
together. You perhaps remember some of
the maps that we showed in the earlier part of our study where
the city of Hierapolis, Laodicea, and Colossae were close together
and this letter that he wrote was intended certainly for the
Colossaeans but also to be read at Laodicea. It says that towards
the end of the book. This letter is to be read in
Laodicea and Also there is a reference there to the church at Hierapolis. So we find that the apostle is
speaking at the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter
two of a desire that he has that the Colossians and the Loetians
and the Hierapolisians would have a full assurance, a full
assurance Now I think that's interesting and I want to just
dwell on it for a moment because it seems to me here that when
we speak about assurance and we speak about an individual's
personal certainty about their salvation, then that definition
in itself may not be entirely adequate because the apostle
is making reference to a full assurance and by implication
there seems to be suggesting that it is possible to have a
partial assurance from which you develop into a full assurance
or in some way a restricted or a limited assurance. And I think
that that is supported by scriptural example. And I think that it
is also supported by the experience of the church down through the
Christian age and the experience of individual believers that
we both know and indeed our own hearts. The point I'm making
is this. Their assurance in an individual's
life's experience is something that rises and falls, grows and
diminishes, excels and falls back, ebbs and flows. And I think this subject of assurance
is both relevant and important because it is a subject that
is of great concern to many believers. Indeed, I doubt that there is
a believer, a true child of God, who does not fear at one time
or another, to one extent or another, for their soul's eternal
well-being. Indeed, I think that many of
us find ourselves asking questions about our Christian experience,
and about our faith and about what we really believe. And if I'm not altogether mistaken,
some of us will find ourselves asking questions like, what if
all of this is nonsense? What if I'm being deceived in
these things that I believe. What if I'm not a part of God's
family? What if I'm not a child of God? I just think I am. What if I'm
a reprobate? and there is no salvation for
me and the Lord Jesus Christ didn't die for me. Now I don't
want to cause a problem where there isn't one, but I'd say
that the person who is truly deceived as far as their Christianity
is concerned is the one who doesn't query their salvation. It's the
person who has never worried about where they stand before
God. And I would say that the person
who has never worried about their soul's eternal state is rather
the person who ought to be worried. And that those who are concerned
about their standing in Christ are the ones that display and
evidence a true sense of the Spirit's work upon them. Let me ask a couple of questions,
if I may, in the introduction to what I have to say this evening.
Why is it, why do so many believers struggle with their personal
assurance? Why is it that so many of us
feel a lack of assurance in our lives? Why is there this deficit
of confidence in our personal interest in the blood of Jesus
Christ? I think that part of the answer
to that question or those questions is that it is because our assurance,
our settled comfort and confidence in Christ is a key point of attack
by the devil. Let me just say that again. It's
because our assurance is the key point of attack by the devil. You see, the devil cannot rob
a child of God of their salvation. That is God's gift to us and
it cannot be taken away. God has his people and he gathers
that people by the preaching of the gospel. He gathers that
people and he receives that people into union with him because of
the sacrifice and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That is powerful. That is effectual. And the salvation
which God bestows cannot be undone. It cannot be lost. It cannot
be removed. And the devil knows that. But
he also knows that he can attack the enjoyment of that salvation. And this is where he gears his
opposition. He attacks the child of God in
order to deny them the enjoyment and the comfort of their union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, their standing in Christ, and the experience
of their sins forgiven. Personal assurance is a deep
experience for the child of God. It's something that speaks to
the depths of our heart. Something that, in a way, is
not to be carried lightly, like a badge to be prided around,
or a grace to be flaunted. It's much deeper than that. It's
much more significant. It's much more profound in the
mind of a believer to ask questions about our personal assurance. And while we have ground for
our hope and we have a substance undergirding our faith in the
testimony of the Word of God, in the promises of God towards
us, in the evidence of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, we realise and we know because
of the widespread testimony that people make to
Christianity and the clear way in which we see that testimony
being superficial and frail, that it is in many cases no more
than a mere presumption. But that knowledge that so many
professors of Christ are false professors. So many who testify
of salvation are presumptuous testifiers. So many who say that
they are Christian have no more understanding of a union with
the Lord Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins in their
heart than they have of any other religion. But the truth is, we
wonder whether we too might be deceived with them. The trouble
is that free will, once again, that terrible teaching of free
will has brought into the preaching and the teaching of Christianity,
a deception which allows men and women to imagine that mere
acquiescence to a simple notion, that mere acceptance of a statement
is the essence of Christian experience. People think that because they've
signed a piece of paper or they've joined a church, or that they're
on familiar terms with the minister, that they raised their hand at
a gospel rally, or that they have gone to confirmation classes
as a child, that they were christened as an infant, in some way means
that they are united to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they are not troubled by the fact that their lives do not
exhibit any real sense of a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. But then there are those who
know the deceit of their own heart. There are those who have
come to terms with the weakness of their flesh. And such individuals
attest that their assurance is both fragile and delicate. It's like a flame on a candle
on a windy night that needs to be protected from the storm. It's like a word that must be
whispered because anything more than a whisper and it just seems
to vanish away. At the smallest controversy,
at the meanest contradiction, the confidence and the comfort
and the assurance that we feel can simply vanish. The writer to the Hebrews, he
speaks of a full assurance of faith. in chapter 10 and verse
22. And then a little bit earlier,
he has made reference to the full assurance of hope. And I
take those two phrases to mean much the same thing. But what it shows us that they
are connected. They are connected to, assurance
is connected to our faith and our hope. but assurance is also distinct
from them. You can have faith without having
full assurance of faith. You can have hope without having
a full assurance of hope. the feelings and the providences
and the circumstances of life, the opposition that we face in
this world, the troubles that we encounter, the tribulations
that we endure, they cannot take away our faith. They cannot destroy
our hope, but they can shake our assurance. They can, as it
were, blot out, as a cloud, our view of the peace of God. And they can cause us to be troubled
and stirred up in our souls with respect to our spiritual well-being. Let me say this. Assurance, like
all spiritual blessings, is a gift from God. It is a gift that is
given and is granted by God according to the will and purpose of God. Now it is true that some spiritual
gifts are permanent and fixed. and others are supplied to a
greater or lesser degree according to the need that we have at a
particular time. Like Samson's strength, for example. It came and it went at different
times according to the needs that he had. And that is not
in any way to legitimize the sin of unbelief. because it is
a sin when we don't believe in God. It is a sin when we doubt
God because God is true. God is holy. The things that
God has said are to be believed and to be relied upon and to
be depended upon. But what the child of God often
feels is that there is an anxiety in our own breasts, in our hearts. whereby doubt creeps in and we
find ourselves fearing and we find ourselves uncertain and
we find ourselves challenged and we come under a darkness
of doubt and uncertainty. Salvation is a gift from God
that cannot be lost or removed. Faith is a gift from God that
is irrevocable. And yet faith can be little. The Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples that. He said to them, O ye of little
faith. And so while faith in its giving
is certain and sure, it will never be taken away. That faith
comes and goes, ebbs and flows, is sometimes little and is sometimes
greater. And wisdom and spiritual knowledge,
they grow. They grow, which means that they
are less at one time and they are greater at another time.
We learn patience by the trials of our faith that we are called
to endure. There is a learning process,
there is a developing process. All of these gifts are not given
in their entirety to the people of God all at once to be enjoyed
all at once. but rather there are some that
are given, never to be taken away, and there are others that
are given for the moment of trial and for the difficulties that
we might be experiencing. And assurance is one of those
that is spoken of as aspiring to fullness, which means that
it may be less than full, it may be imperfect, it may be incomplete, Assurance is our confidence and
trust and faith and belief in Christ. As such, it is a target of Satan
and it may be attacked by him in any number of ways. Satan may attack our assurance
if we fall into sin. Satan will attack our assurance
if we give place to false doctrine. Satan will attack our assurance
if we succumb to temptation, or we find ourselves courting
the world, or becoming infatuated by the things of the world. and
forgetting Christ, and forgetting his worship, and forgetting his
testimony. Our assurance most certainly
will be attacked by Satan then. But I think principally, the
main area of the lack of assurance in an individual is because we
find ourselves looking to ourself instead of looking to Christ. We allow the weaknesses of our
flesh. We allow our sin and our unworthiness
in this flesh to loom larger in our apprehension than Christ's
grace. We allow the frailty and fear
of our circumstances to swamp God's promises to us. We forget about the Holy Spirit's
power because we become preoccupied by our own weakness. We forget
about the efficacy of Christ's blood to forgive our sins because
our sins are set before us by the devil. And he says, you're
not good enough, you're not worthy. And thereby, he attacks our assurance. And we get caught, we get caught. We get caught like a deer in
the headlights of a truck. And we can't dodge the truckload
of devilish self-condemnation that comes down to meet us. and that perceived failure, that
perceived failure which is in our life to live up to what we
imagine a real Christian should be like or to live up to what
we think a real Christian should do or feel or think. And we look around us and we
see others and we think they're doing so much better than us
because we compare ourselves to others. Well, so much for the problem.
And I think perhaps many of us will recognise that it is a problem
in our lives. Question is, is there a solution?
Is there a solution to the question of our lack of assurance? Well, I believe that there is. And when we lose our assurance. When our assurance takes a beating,
for whatever reason that might be, I think this little passage
in Colossians chapter two might provide for us some help in both
thinking about our lack of assurance, and as it were resetting our
appreciation of where our confidence ought to lie and how our assurance
should be nurtured and edified and nourished and grown to where
it becomes that which the apostle desired for the Colossians, a
full assurance of the knowledge of God. So here's what I have
for you this evening. Like all good procedures to remedy
a problem and a bad situation, we've got a seven-step plan.
And I want us to look at what the Apostle Paul here says about
the great conflict, fear, and care that he had for the Colossians,
because that's exactly what he says when he speaks at the beginning
of chapter two in verse one. He says to these Colossians,
I would that ye knew what great conflict Now, if you have a margin
there in your Bibles, you'll see that that fear or care. The Apostle Paul had a fear for
the Colossians. He was anxious about them. He
had a conflict for them. And he has told us about that
conflict in the last verse of chapter one. He says, I labour,
striving according to his working. So the Apostle Paul was labouring
for the Colossians. Not only for the Colossians,
but for the church at Laodicea as well, and for as many as have
not seen his face. What was he labouring for? What
was he conflicted about? Why did he have this fear? He
had this anxiety because he wanted their hearts to be joined together
and comforted, knit together and comforted, and that they
might enter into a full assurance of the understanding of the gospel. So here's the first point that
we have in these verses for our comfort and reassurance this
evening. Believers are vulnerable and
the Apostle Paul labors for believers. for these Colossians, for the
Laodiceans, for the Hyrupoleans, for us today, for all who are
in Christ. The Apostle Paul suffered. The
Apostle Paul was suffering as he wrote this letter in prison. Let me ask you the question again.
Are you ever tempted to say, this is all nonsense? What if I'm deceived? The Apostle
Paul says, I am in prison for you right now. I am anxious for
you right now. I am spending my life and my
health for you right now. The Apostle Paul is working and
labouring. The Apostle Paul is conflicted
and suffering for men and women like us, men and women. who have
battled for us. Do you realise that this gospel
which we have today is a message which has come to us at great
cost? Men have died, have died to put that Bible that you are
holding into your hands right now. And those men who died and
women who died as well, those men and women who were persecuted
to make this Bible available to us in our hands, these were
men and women who were committed, committed to the cause of Christ,
committed to the Lord Jesus himself. Men and women whom God used in
his overarching purpose and providential goodness to put those scriptures
that teach us the way of salvation into your hands tonight. And
he called on those men and women to lay down their lives in order
to put that Bible into our hands. And there are men who have sacrificed
their health to preach the gospel of truth to us. There are men
who have spent their whole life establishing a church in order
to maintain a testimony to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we ask ourselves, is this all nonsense? God moved mountains to bring
this message to us. Saul of Tarsus, He knew that
it wasn't nonsense because that man was met on the road to Damascus
by the Lord Jesus Christ himself and he served the rest of his
life testifying to the things that Jesus Christ taught him.
This way of life is not nonsense. It may be hard. It may be difficult. It may be costly. But it is great,
and it is valuable, and it is precious, and it is of the utmost
importance that we give ear to it. The Lord Jesus Christ told
his disciples, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And for 2,000 years men have
lived and died in pagan cities and in mountain villages, by
land and sea and air, to bring this gospel to us today. This is not nonsense. The blood
of the martyrs was spilled in order to make this gospel known
to you, and God's providence is at work in doing so. And here's
the second point of the seven that I'm going to draw to your
attention. It is our obligation, therefore, to make use of the
means of grace that God has given to us. That's what the Apostle
Paul was saying at the end of chapter one of Colossians, where
he wrote, I also labor, striving according to his working, which
worketh in me mightily. That labouring that the Apostle
Paul was doing was preaching the gospel at towns and villages
all over the known world at that time. We've been thinking on
a Sunday of how he went into Turkey and how he went from town
to town, city to city, preaching the gospel because that gospel
is the means of grace. So you tell me that you struggle
with assurance. Okay, I believe you, I know what
you're talking about, because I do too. But I say this to you,
if you struggle with your personal assurance, attend to the means
of grace that God has given. Because assurance will not come
by any other way than hearing this gospel, that the Apostle
Paul preached. By being under the teaching of
the Scriptures, by being in the fellowship of the Lord's people,
by witnessing the evident hand of a gracious God around about
us. This is what God has done. This
is the provision that God has made for the gathering of his
church and for the well-being of his people. So we are compelled
to use it. There isn't another way. Now if you tell me that you don't
have assurance and you don't care about that, well then that's
another matter altogether. Not believing in the gospel is
one thing, but having little faith and longing for assurance
is something else entirely. Having a desire to feel that
interest in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, feel that
comfort of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, know something
of the grace of God in our hearts, having that as a desire, having
that as a burden, is something entirely different from being
completely careless about whether you have any assurance or not.
And the person who desires to know Christ makes use of the
means that Christ has provided and waits upon the Lord for his
presence. Here's the third thing. Let us
understand that the workings of God in a believer's heart
and a believer's life is a process. God is at work over a long period
of time and deals with us over a long period of time. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. made conformable to Christ Jesus. But that conforming of our lives
to Christ, that work of God in our lives is a work in progress. And it happens sometimes in ways
that we think take a long time. Heart comfort. and the bonds
of love that we feel for one another and a feeling of personal
assurance is the fruit of gospel truth. And yet these fruits,
these riches of God's grace and goodness, they don't open to
the Lord's people like a safe door would open with all of its
riches inside and we just help ourselves and take what we want.
The Christian life is a marathon, it's not a sprint. It's a life
journey of valleys and mountaintops. And the valley bottoms are invariably
much bigger than the mountaintops. It takes longer to get through
a valley. and up the other side than it
does to cross the mountain top and start going down again. Paul
prayed for the blessings of these people and he warned them of
tribulation and we should hope for and expect both. Here's the
fourth point of the seven that I have for you. We must look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what Paul's telling us
in verse three. He says that he is praying, verse
2, he is praying, he's conflicted, he's anxious and he's fearful
that our hearts might be comforted, knit together in love and unto
all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God, that's the gospel, and of the Father
and of Christ. in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. So it's to Christ that we must
look because it's in Christ that are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. What is assurance? It is the
knowledge of our interest in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where do we find such knowledge. Where will we get such wisdom?
In the Lord Jesus Christ where it is hidden. The Lord Jesus
Christ and his gospel and his promises and the promises that
are implicit in that gospel must be the source of our assurance,
not our feelings. Those are fickle, those are frail,
those come and go. But this is spiritual. The mystery
is here in Christ. The truths are hidden in the
eternal wisdom of God. And God will reveal them to us
at the time that He sees fit. And He will give us that comfort
and that confidence according to His perfect timing. These spiritual mysteries, they
open like a flower. They don't open like a jack-in-the-box. And the sweet scent of truth
takes time to come into the experience of the Lord's people. Here's
the fifth thing that I want to mention. We need to learn this. Look what verse four says. I
say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Don't be beguiled with the enticing
words of quick fixes, easy answers and false hopes, because that's
not what the Christian life is. And again, I'm beginning to sound
a little bit like a broken record here, but again, we must lay
this accusation of the lie at the door of free will and Arminianism. It is this free willism, it is
this easy believism, where you just need to make a conscious
decision, just need to make a hand gesture, just need to show yourself
in some way to be faithful to a congregation for a matter of
a short period of time, and you've got every freedom to imagine
that you are one of the children of God. And free will works religion,
mocks the weary pilgrim who struggles daily with a heart load of pain
in this spiritual journey that he is on. See, just believe,
just raise your hand, just come to the front. Jesus is the answer. And these are beguiling lies
that promise Easy salvation when the reality is altogether tougher. Perhaps you're familiar with
the little hymn, it says, I am a pilgrim and a stranger. Rough
and thorny is the road, often in the midst of danger, but it
leads to God. Clouds of darkness oft distress
me. Great and many are my foes. Anxious cares and thoughts oppress
me. But my Father knows. This isn't
easy believism. This isn't the beguiling, enticing
words of the free will preacher. Paul is much more careful than
that when he speaks to the Lord's people. And to be warned of the
pitfalls of our Christian experience is to be prepared, forewarned,
precautioned. Here's the sixth point that I
want to make. Was that five I gave you? Yeah,
here's number six. A rose, by any other name, is
still a rose. And you can call it what you
will, it's still a rose. And this is the point, that the
Lord's people prevail. The Lord's people are the Lord's
people. And the Apostle Paul tells us
that in verse five. He says, though I be absent in
the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. The
Apostle Paul couldn't be with these people. He longed to be,
he wanted to be, he was anxious for their spiritual wellbeing,
he had to write to them from prison, and perhaps he had got
the information that he had about these people from Epaphras who
seems to have been in Rome with him at this time. Maybe it was
some apostolic insight that God gave him. Whatever, he knew that
these people were keeping going. He knew that these people were
keeping on. He knew that these people were
roses. flowers in the garden of God,
no matter whether they felt the pressures and the trials and
the troubles of their life. Why? Because they kept on. They
believed that the Lord would not forsake them, though they
felt as if they were constantly forsaking Him. And these evidences
are here for us too. What was it that encouraged Paul?
The fact that the people pressed on. The fact that they stayed
under the sound of the preaching of the gospel. The fact that
despite the darkness and the hardships and the persecution
that they must experience, yet they kept on. And that's what
you do too. We spoke on Sunday about remembering
Lot's wife, and we said that the lesson there was no turning
back. We wait upon the Lord. We wait
for His timing. We wait until He gives us that
comfort in our soul, because we're not going to find it anywhere
else. And we face our trials with a
resolute determination that we are going to hold on as long
as we are able. And in that determination, the
Lord Jesus Christ preserves us for himself. And the Apostle
Paul knew that that was what was happening in the lives of
these Colossian saints. And it's what happens in the
life of the Lord's people everywhere. Dark and troubled is our path,
but it leads to God. And here's the last point that
I want to make. The Lord Jesus Christ frequently
told his disciples, frequently spoke to men and women on this
subject. He said to them, take up your
cross and follow me. I wonder why the Lord repeated
that so often. I wonder why he had to say that
so many times to men and women of his day. because there is
a cross to bear for every child of God. And your cross will be
different from mine. Your pathway will be different
from mine. There will be much about these
paths and these crosses which are similar, and there will be
much which differs. But we have a cross to carry,
and we have a Saviour to follow. And the Apostle Paul says in
verse 6, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in him. Walk in him. That requires action. That requires engagement. Remember what we said about the
deer being stuck in the headlights? What do we say to the deer stuck
in the headlights? Move! Move! Walk in Him. Be under the sound
of the gospel. Be in the place where the preaching
of the gospel is made. Be in the company of the Lord's
people. Be under the direction of the
means of grace which the Lord Jesus Christ has given us. Walk
ye in Him. and the Lord will provide the
comfort and the assurance that we need. He says in verse seven,
rooted and built up in him. These are marks of life. To be
rooted is to be alive. A stillbirth doesn't grow. To
be rooted is to be alive. And yet the roots are not seen.
but it's constantly seeking out the nourishment that will do
the plant good. It takes a long time for those
leaves to show, even longer for the flowers to be revealed. And
the roots have been growing all the time, in the darkness, in
the cold, in the place where there doesn't seem to be much
in the way of light and help and joyous experience. and yet
that day will come. There needs to be that time of
building up and we will experience that growth at different rates
and in different ways. But note this, that it is the
Lord's true people who are thus hurried and agitated about spiritual
matters. It is the Lord's true people
that feel the weight of this unworthiness on their soul. It
is the Lord's true people that are sensitive to these spiritual
attacks by Satan. And it is the Lord's true people
that long after that assurance of an interest in the blood of
Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of their sins and their eternal
home in glory. The world cares nothing for these
things, but the people of God desire after them. So we will
keep on keeping on. I've got a couple of hymns that
I want to read to you in closing and these are perfectly fulfilling of the points that
I have been endeavouring to make this evening. One is by John
Newton and we spent a little bit of time thinking about him
a few weeks ago. We mentioned he was born around
1725, died in early 1800s. He was a slave trade captain, ship captain, and he
was also a slave himself before he was converted and then was
a preacher of the gospel and a writer of hymns. And a man
called Daniel Herbert, whom you perhaps have not heard about
before, was a Methodist and again a writer of hymns and poems.
He published three volumes of hymns in his lifetime and he
called those hymns, this is a lovely name for his hymn book, hymns
and poems, doctrinal and sentimental, for the citizens of Zion who
are longing to know their election of God and to love evangelical
truths. That's a fine title for a book
of poetry and hymns. Let me read these two hymns to
you. The first is John Newton's, and
then we'll have a little break and I'll read Daniel Herbert's
to you. But listen to the words and see
if you can enter into anything of the experience of what these
men are talking about. 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? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull, this lifeless
frame? Hardly, sure, can they be worse,
who have never heard His name. Could my heart so hard remain,
Prayer a task and burden prove, Every trifle give me pain, If
I knew a Saviour's love? When I turn my eyes within, All
is dark and vain and wild, Filled with unbelief and sin, Can I
deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? Yet I mourn my stubborn will,
find my sin a grief and thrall. Should I grieve for what I feel
if I did not love at all? Could I joy his saints to meet,
choose the ways I once abhorred, find at times the promise sweet
if I did not love the Lord? Lord, decide the doubtful case. Thou who art thy people's son,
shine upon thy work of grace, if it be indeed begun. Let me love thee more and more,
if I love at all, I pray. If I have not loved before, help
me to begin today. After John Newton wrote that,
a man called Daniel Herbert wrote these words. And I think that
there's an answer in the way in which Daniel Herbert wrote
this hymn to the weight and the darkness that appears to have
been on John Newton as he wrote his hymn. And indeed, it's entitled,
What Is This Point You Long to Know? Herbert wrote, 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. For if you want to love
your God, it proves He first has loved you. 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 or 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, that 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 is 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 the living head. These wants you feel, my Christian
friend, were never found amongst the dead. Amen. Well may the Lord bless
our thoughts this evening, and may he teach us from the testimony
of these Saints of old, from the faithfulness of the Apostle
Paul, and from the clear testimony of the Word of God, that while
our assurance may well be weak and lacking, that God's grace
is firm and true and that he will hold us when we cannot uphold
ourselves. Let's have a word of prayer and
then I'll bring the broadcast to a conclusion. Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for this time that we've been able to spend together.
We thank Thee for the words of Holy Scripture that teach us
to lean and to look upon Christ. And we pray that we will be wise
unto salvation. We will have that full assurance
of the understanding of the mystery of God and the Lord Jesus Christ
and those things that are hid in Him. And we pray that thou
wilt keep us, though we feel often under a darkness and a
bleakness of soul. Keep us under the sound of thy
word. Keep us in the company of thy
people. Keep us ever looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And keep us faithful to thyself. And we pray our God that in thy
due time thou wilt be pleased to reveal to us those comforts
and joys, that peace and assurance of the knowledge of our sins
forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ. Now go with us in the
days that lie ahead, we pray. Bless each one who is here under
the sound of thy word. Bless us in our homes, bless
us in our families, bless us in our testimony, bless us in
our witness. And may the Lord Jesus Christ
be real to our souls, to the glory of thy name and the praise
of our Saviour. Amen.