Morning is the full assurance
of hope. It is my desire and my prayer
to God for you that as I stand here and teach and preach the
gospel to you, that four things will come to pass in your lives. As a result of hearing these
things that I preach and teach, I hope that God will do a work
in you and when he does, four things are going to come to pass
in your life. First of all, you will be convinced
by the word of God, by the death of Christ, and by the power of
God's Holy Spirit that you are a helpless, hopeless, totally
depraved sinner before God. Well, you say that's a horrible
thing to pray for. No, it's a vital thing. It's
a necessary thing. You're never gonna seek God until
you find out you need God and that you don't have God, that
you're a sinner, a helpless sinner, hopeless sinner. By nature, he said, a child of
wrath, even as others. And then secondly, I hope this
will come to pass. I hope that you'll come to see
that salvation is 100%, 100% in the hands of a sovereign God
who saves whom he will and hardens whom he will. He's under no obligation
to save anybody except the obligation which he's put himself under.
There's nothing you can do or say to obligate God to save you. I heard a man say this from the
Pope at one time. He said, God's only obligated
to call you one time. God's not obligated to call you
at all. No, sir. He's not. God's not
desperate to save sinners. Every religion across this country is depicting God to be desperate. He's desperate to save sinners. God's not desperate. He's not
pacing the floor. When Christ went into glory,
he sat down, expecting to his enemies to be made his footstool.
He's not anxious. He's not nervous. Salvation's in the hands of a
sovereign God. He doeth all things after the
counsel of His own will. He worketh everything. Paul said, he said to Moses,
when he showed Moses his glory, when he revealed himself to Moses,
he said, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, Paul said, it's not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. Mercy is not in your hands, it's
not in your will, not in your want to. It's in God's hands
and God's will. Romans 9, 17, for the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up. that I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he'll harden." What's that mean? That means he'll turn
him over to himself. He'll let him keep on thinking
just like he's thinking right now. He'll let him be satisfied
with that old religion Let him be satisfied with something he
heard from a friend. He'll find it, he'll grasp it,
he'll find hope in it. Every grain of corn, now listen
to me, every grain of corn in Egypt was in the possession of
a sovereign. You wanted corn, you had to go
to Egypt. But you didn't just get corn
because you went to Egypt. You got corn by Pharaoh's permission. The corn belonged to him. It was his, and he alone could
disperse it as he willed. And he would disperse it in Joseph,
who's a picture of Christ. Salvation's in the hand of a
sovereign. It's dispersed through his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, I hope this,
I hope you'll come in here and listen to me, and follow me in
the word of God, and I hope that by the mercy of God, I hope this
also will come to pass in your lives, that God the Holy Ghost will
shut you up to Christ. You won't be able to see salvation
in anything but him. You won't be able to see any
light in anything but Him. You won't see life, you won't
see mercy, you won't see justice, you won't see anything except
Christ. That He'll destroy every hope
that you had convincing you of sin and then that He'll shut
you up to Christ. You want mercy, here it is, it's
in Him. It's in Him. Kiss the Son. lest he be angry and you perish
in a moment. All whom God in sovereign grace
has purposed to save, he'll bring to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen to what our Lord said to the Jews in John chapter six,
verse 37. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They gonna come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And he said
some other things about coming down from heaven and being the
bread and coming down from heaven and accomplishing the will of
God. And they began to murmur. They said, who does he think
he is? He's saying he's God. They began to murmur at him.
And Jesus answered them down in John 6, 43, and he said to
them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. They brought to the Son because
he's the one mediator between God and men. There is no other
mediator. The Pope's not a mediator. The
preacher's not a mediator. Christ is the only mediator.
He's gonna mediate between God and me. They're brought to the Son because
the Father chose them in the Son and made His Son the surety
of the everlasting covenant. They're brought to the Son because
He's their federal head and representative. You can't accomplish righteousness
before God. I don't care how hard you try,
I don't care how much you set your mind to it, you cannot do
anything that's righteous before God. All hope of righteousness
is in Christ, who pleased the Father. He's our federal head and representative. And we're brought to the Son
because He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. We're brought to the Son because
He alone is the atonement for our sins. He put away our sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. Our sins are gone in Him. God
didn't erase our sins, He put our sins in Him and He bore our
sins in His own body on the tree. He suffered the wrath of God
for us in our place. We're brought to the Son because
He's our justification and in Him we've obtained eternal redemption. We're brought to the Son because
He's seated at the right hand of God and He alone can make
intercession for us. He's our High Priest. He prays
for us. We're brought to the Son because
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in
Him alone are we complete before God. It's my desire at the end of
the day that you have nowhere else to go but to the Son. Go
to the Son. he that hath the Son hath life,
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Everything, now listen to me,
everything that God has for sinners is in His Son. You have the Son,
you have the Father, and you have all that the Father has
purposed for you to have. And then fourthly, As I teach
and preach the gospel to you, it's my desire and my prayer
to God that He will establish you in Christ and give you the
full assurance of hope unto the end. And so it is in the heart of
the Apostle Paul that the believing Jews here in Hebrews 6 verse
11 should have the full assurance of hope unto the end. I've gone through the scriptures
and selected five places that I hope will help you to find
this full assurance of hope. It tells us, now assurance is
in Christ, okay? Assurance is in Him, it's not
in you. It's not confidence in your confidence,
it's confidence in Christ. Assurance is in Him. As you see
Him, as He's testified by God in the Scripture, and you see
His accomplishments, and you see God's will being done in
Him, His love being demonstrated in Him, His mercy being demonstrated
in Him, as you see these things, you become more and more confident
in His sufficiency to save your soul. Well, how much does a man
have to know to be saved? He has to know enough to venture
his soul on Christ. And I went through the scriptures
and I found five places that all speak of assurance in Christ,
but it tells us why this assurance is in him. Are you ready? Let's go through these five things. The first thing is the assurance
of election, of election. What is the assurance of election
that God chose a people in Christ? Isn't that it? God chose a people
in Christ. It's not a random thing. It's
not a universal thing. God chose to save a people in
His Son. And His Son went forth and accomplished
the redemption that God purposed for them. Now, I was raised in a denomination
that did not believe, preach, or even tolerate anybody that
would preach eternal election, the election of God's saints
to salvation. But if you go through the scripture,
you're going to be hard-pressed. You're going to have to take
out half the New Testament if you're going to do away with
election. Because it's commonly written of in all the letters,
all the epistles to the churches. It's written in the general epistles. It's written in Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. Our Lord taught it. His disciples
taught it. You're going to have to rip out
half your Bible if you're going to get rid of election. To ignore or to deny or to teach
something contrary to election is to teach something that's
not written in the Bible. The Bible teaches the eternal
election of God's saints to salvation. Listen to this. 2 Thessalonians
2.13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because,
are you listening? He'd given thanks to the Father
for these Thessalonians. Now he said, here's why. Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And not only did he choose you
to salvation, but he chose you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief in the truth. Now it didn't say that he chose
the means to save them, but he chose them to salvation and the
means also to bring it to pass. A good example of this might
be the Gentile believers over in Antioch. In the book of Acts
you can read about it. Paul preach Christ and Him crucified,
Christ the fulfillment of all the Old Testament scriptures,
and the Jews got angry and went around trying to stir up trouble
and wouldn't even show up, and when they finally did show up,
it was to stir up and cause trouble, and Paul said, well, since you
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting light, he said, behold,
we turn to the Gentiles. And he quoted the Old Testament
scriptures concerning God's promise to the Gentiles. And he said,
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. They were glad. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Huh? My subject is the assurance of
election. How does a poor fallen sinner
come to any real sense of assurance that God has chosen him? Don't you think that's a bit
presumptuous that a man said, you know, God's chosen people
to save in Christ. And he's accomplished this glorious
redemption for them. And Christ not only accomplished
it, but he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of
God. And he's controlling providence and sending out his preachers.
And he sent the Holy Spirit as his gift upon his church. And
he's revealing all these things. The guy stands up and said, I'm
elect. Wouldn't that be a bit presumptuous? Well, that's what you say when
you hold your hand up and say, I'm saved. That's what you say, and I'm
elect. Well, how does a poor sinner have any real sense of
assurance that he is chosen of God? Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
1. Paul didn't give thanks to God
for his election of somebody, he thanked God for the election
of the Thessalonians. Where'd this persuasion come
from? How'd he know they were elected?
What was his confidence in their election? 1 Thessalonians chapter one, verse
four. Knowing brethren beloved, your
election of God, because, that's what that word for means, because
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but it came in
power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. In 2 Peter 1, verse 10, we're
told to give diligence to make our calling and election sure. Can that be done? Paul said he
knew their election. He knew their election. Now the
Holy Spirit here in 2 Peter 1, verse 10, the Holy Spirit puts
our calling before our election. Now election, if you look at
it in time, election comes before calling. But if you look at it
from the believer's experience, calling comes first, and then
election. How does a man know his election? By his calling. By his calling. He said, God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. That's 2 Thessalonians 2.14. God's elect are not called in
their closets by hearing voices. They're not called by some personal
revelation that they received out in the desert. They're not
called through strong emotional experiences. They're called by
the gospel which comes not in word only. But it comes in the
power of the Holy Ghost. It comes creating life within
you. It comes giving a new birth.
It comes making you meet to be partakers of those enlightened
saints. It comes in power. Life-changing
power. You look over in 1 Corinthians
2, verses 4 and 5, and Paul said the gospel came to them in demonstration
of the Spirit. He didn't come talking about
things, he demonstrated. He demonstrates what life is
because he creates life in you. You'll spend the rest of your
waking life trying to figure out what that life is and how
to tell somebody about it. He demonstrates, he demonstrates
his mercy to you. Demonstration of the spirit.
When the gospel comes in power, he sets before us the Son of
God accomplishing our redemption, giving to them a perfect righteousness,
dying in their room instead, raising them up with Him into
glory where they're seated with Him in the heavens. And such
assurance comes to them by the Gospel of Christ that they rest
their souls in His hands. And that's what He says here,
it came to you not in word only, but in power and in the Holy
Ghost. Now listen, with much assurance, Assurance that you're
saved? No, assurance of Christ's sufficiency. His sufficiency. You can't help
but rest your soul on Him. Why would you want to keep your
soul in your possession when there's one here who's already
accomplished salvation? This is God come into the flesh.
I'd much rather He keep my soul than myself, wouldn't you? Well,
when do people do that? When they hear the truth. And
when the truth comes, not in word only, but when it comes
in power and the Holy Ghost. That's the assurance of election.
It's assurance of Christ. And then secondly, in Colossians
chapter 2, 2, Paul desired that their hearts might be comforted.
being knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance,
now listen, of understanding. The full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. Now let's talk a little bit about
this assurance of understanding. The first thing I would tell
you about this understanding is that it is the crux of eternal
life. Understanding. Well, I just don't
understand. Well, I can't help you there. I can't help you there. All I
can do is present the facts, but the Holy Spirit of God can
give you understanding. It can give you understanding.
Understanding is the crux of eternal life. It is, I believe,
what Paul calls in Ephesians 1.14, the earnest of our inheritance. It is the spirit of promise in
you. What does the spirit of promise
do when he enters in? It makes you to understand. The Holy Spirit giving to us
the spirit of wisdom and revelation, Paul goes on to say, in the knowledge
of him. And then here again, Christ himself
is our assurance. He's our understanding. In 1
John 5.20 it said, and we know that the Son of God hath come
and given to us an understanding. That we may know Him that's true
and that we're in Him that's true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. Now listen, this is the true
God and this is eternal life. Understand it. In Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. And then when Paul wanted to
express his hope, he said it this way. He said, I know whom
I have believed. I know him. What do you know
about him, Paul? I know what God said about him.
That's what I know. I know he's God over all, blessed
forever. I know that all his people's
accepted in the blood. I know that God's glory is revealed
in his face. I know whom I have believed.
I know he's my high priest and he enters within the veil and
he's He's my anchor. I know that he's my representative
because he tells me I'm seated with him in glory. I know whom I have believed.
I don't believe in poor little Jesus, boy. My soul, you can
go down to Mexico. Mexico's full of Jesus. That's
Jesus. You go down there, there's Jesus
on every corner. I know, Paul said, whom I have
believed. How'd he come to know Him? God
showed Himself to him in the Scriptures. The assurance of hope, a full
assurance of hope, is an assurance of understanding. And that understanding
we have demonstrated to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
thirdly, the Scripture speaks of the assurance of judgment. And this, again, is the Lord
Jesus Christ. It said that He is the assurance
of judgment by the revelation of Jesus Christ in His resurrection. Turn with me to Acts chapter
17. The Apostle Paul was going as
God's providence led him, and he would speak the gospel to
whoever, wherever an opportunity was given to him. He believed
that God controlled all things and all providence, and when
the Holy Spirit opened up a way and opportunity was there, he
stood up and preached. And in this chapter is recorded
a sermon that he preached on Mars Hill. Now Mars Hill is where
all the the philosophers, all the, this is in Athens, Greece.
This was the heart of all philosophy. And they gathered there around
Mars Hill, and they gathered to either tell or hear some new
thing. That's the only reason they gathered
there. And when you walked around there, there was monuments to
this God and that God and some other God, and some of them,
they just said to the unknown God. And Paul saw that monument,
and he said, that's the one I'm gonna preach to you, that unknown
God. He went on to preach the gospel
to them. The gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ. Christ
crucified, resurrected, and exalted into glory. And he told them
that God was revealed in His Son and not in these Statues
of gold and silver and stone, graven by the art of man's device,
and that God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent of such
things. Repent of the God of your imagination. There's just one God, and He
revealed Himself in His Word and in His Son. To turn from the gods of their
imaginations, Acts 17.3. Because he hath appointed a day
into which he'll judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's gonna judge the world. Whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead. He gave assurance
to all men that there is a judgment by the death of his son on that
cross, and assured all men that they would stand before him because
God raised him from the dead. And the one he raises from the
dead, according to the old prophets, is the same one that's gonna
judge the world. So there is a great and final
judgment reserved for all men of all ages, all countries, and
all types of faith. And God assures all men that
this judgment's coming by the judgment of His Son and our substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That all sin must be paid for
as the sins of God's saints were paid for by the suffering and
death of Christ. And by His resurrection, He gives
us a two-fold assurance. First, that the judgment of God
upon His elect has been manifest. It's been manifest in divine
righteousness and God's justice has been fully satisfied. He
was delivered, Paul said, for our offenses and raised again
for our justifications. And then secondly, that he himself,
having been raised from the dead, is a fit and righteous judge
to judge all men. So how does that make this world's
assurance different from the saints? Well, the saints have
an assurance of satisfied judgment. Judgment satisfied. Their judgments
passed. He tells us in Romans chapter
one, or chapter eight, verse one, he said, there is therefore
now no condemnation, no judgment, to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Their judgment's
passed. Their judgment fell, but it fell
on their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then fourthly, we have the
assurance of righteousness. Now this is one I'm pretty sure
you may not have ever looked at or read, so I want you to
turn there with me to Isaiah chapter 32. We're talking about
the full assurance of hope, which is in Christ. And our judgment's
satisfied in Him. Our election is in Him. All of
these things are in Him. And then he gives us the assurance
of righteousness. And we're talking about assurance
of salvation in Christ and what constitutes this thing, the assurance
of election, of understanding, and of judgment satisfied. And
now he talks about the assurance of our righteousness in Christ.
Now these verses here in Isaiah 32 are talking about the kingdom
of God as it's established in the hearts of chosen sinners.
those who have been reconciled to God by His Son. He talks about
His Spirit being poured upon us from on high, judgment taken
from us and righteousness established for us and in us. Verse 17, Isaiah 32. And the
work of righteousness shall be peace, peace with God and peace
with one another. Now watch this. And the effect
of righteousness, quietness, and what? Assurance forever. What is the effect of that imputed
righteousness of Christ? What is the effect of it? What
happens when a man learns and understands that Christ is his
righteousness? He quits talking, don't he? Quits
boasting. Shuts his mouth. Shuts his mouth. And what else? Assurance. Huh? I no longer labor for a righteousness
to gain God's favor. I have a perfect righteousness
in Christ. And I'm assured of that forever.
Because Christ is God. By his righteous obedience, including
his death on the cross, we have a perfect righteousness in him
and a full assurance of being accepted in glory forever. Listen to these verses. Paul
said, you think you got something to brag on? I got a lot more
than you do. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
I was circumcised on the eighth day. My whole life has been a After
the law, he said, as concerning the law, he said, I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. But he said,
when I discovered what I was, I took all my righteousness,
all my hope, and I went out and threw it on the dung heap. And
then he said this. He said, oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in him. Now listen, not having my own
righteousness, Well, we want everybody and our
grandma to notice our righteousness, don't we? We're going to give
an offering. We want to be sure everybody
sees it. We got something to say. We're going to say it down
in the marketplace where everybody can hear us. Paul said, I don't
want to be found in my righteousness. I want to be found in his, in
his righteousness. and the righteousness which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith or faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And
what quietness and peace this will yield to the soul that truly
understands it. It will give him assurance and
quietness forever. And then fifthly, and I'll hurry,
the Scripture teaches us something about the assurance of faith. Faith believes God. It believes God. And you know,
there's hardshells out here that believe if you're elect of God,
you're gonna be saved no matter what. That's just not so. God's
election includes the means, it includes the preaching of
the gospel, it includes the assembling of ourselves together, it includes
being taught over and over again, established, matured in the gospel. It's inclusive of all the means.
It's inclusive of His providence. It's inclusive of all these things.
Nobody's going to be saved who don't believe. He that believeth
not shall be damned. That's pretty clear, isn't it? And faith believes God. In Hebrews
10, 22, the apostle writes, let us draw near. Draw near to what? Draw near to God with a true
heart. Now listen to this. In full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. Without assurance of faith, one
cannot draw near to God. You let that sink in. Without
assurance of faith, one cannot draw near to God. Christ said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Well, how do believers approach
God? Hebrews 10, 19. 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. We come to the Father
by faith in his Son, and we come in the full assurance of faith.
Well, what are you saying, preacher? You saying if I don't come with
strong faith, you can't come? No. Not what I'm saying. The full assurance of faith is
Christ. Is it not? You going to come
without Christ? Well, what if my faith is that
of a grain of mustard seed? Don't matter if it brings Christ.
Huh? Are you with me? Here's the full
assurance of faith is in the person. Not in how strong your
faith is, it's how strong your Savior is. And that mustard seed faith can
bring a perfect Savior, a sovereign Savior, and he can come right
into the presence boldly of the Father and make his request. it's Christ himself and if he don't come with Christ,
he's not coming. He might come in words, but he
ain't coming. He ain't gonna draw near to God. And so we come back to our text
in Hebrews 6 where he's talking about having the full assurance
of hope unto the end. And he tells us down in verse
19, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made a high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. This is the full assurance of
faith in Christ. It's Christ. And I tell you,
when you discover that, your faith will grow too. That faith
will grow stronger and stronger. There'll be more and more understanding.
There'll be more and more assurance. But assurance is in the Savior.
The more you know about Him, the stronger your assurance is
gonna get. It's all in him. It's not, I'm telling you, it's
not in you. And I don't care how much I preach
it and teach it and write it and put it in a book or put it
and publish it in the newspaper, men are still gonna look themselves
in the mirror and look at themselves and look at their own righteousness
and their own faithfulness and all this and they're gonna say,
I just don't have any assurance. Well, you shouldn't have. You're
not gonna have any until you look to him. When you look to
him, you're gonna have all the assurance that God give him.
for poor sinners all in here. Thank you.