John Newton, the Anglican preacher
who lived nearly 250 years ago, wrote many of our best, most
God-honoring, Christ-exalting, most commonly sung hymns. Newton wrote, God of wonders,
all thy ways, are matchless, godlike, and divine, but the
fair glories of thy grace more godlike and unrivaled shine."
Newton wrote glorious things in the yearspoken Zion city of
our God. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in the believer's ear. And of course, John Newton wrote
that great hymn, Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. And there's another hymn that
Newton wrote that's not very well known. It's not in many
hymn books and never has been in many. But it expresses the
experience of many, if not all, God's saints in this world. I want to say all, but we'll
leave it at many. Listen carefully. "'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 do 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 did not know the Savior'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 so 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 God's 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 it all, I pray. If I have not
loved before, oh God, help me to begin today. This evening I want to try to
help you through struggles with assurance. The struggles that
we all have at one time or another, many try to deny their existence. But the fact is, they're struggles
we all have at one time or another. My text will be 1 John 5, verses
10 through 13. You can be turning there and
just listen for a few minutes. This text sets before us three
helps to assurance. Three helps to assurance. But
before we look at the text, let me say a few things about assurance. First, understand this. There
is a false assurance. There is a false assurance. People
sometimes come to me and want to speak to me and give them
some assurance. Some of you have, and you know
that I won't do it. I will not attempt to convince
you that you're saved. I won't do that, not for anybody.
Not for anybody. I won't answer any questions
that might seem to indicate that I can convince you that you know
God. I won't do it for anybody. Not
for anybody. Because if I can convince you of life, somebody
else can unconvince you. If I can give you peace, somebody
else can take it away. If I can give you assurance,
somebody else can destroy it. But be assured there is such
a thing as false assurance. And this book warns us about
it. We read in the scriptures about five foolish virgins in
our Lord's parable. Those five foolish virgins slept
peacefully. Just like the other virgins.
They were very comfortable, just like the other virgins. They
had much assurance. And in the last day, many will
stand before God who will say to Him, Have we not done many
wonderful works in your name? Even in the day of judgment,
confidently stand before God in full assurance to whom the
Lord Jesus will say, Depart from me, you that work iniquity. I never knew you. He had such assurance. He had
to be a child of God. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. A false assurance is nothing
less than the proud, presumptuous confidence of a religious hypocrite. Let me give you just three marks
of a false assurance. I would suggest that you listen. False assurance always. always
looks back. It always looks to yesterday.
It always looks to an old experience that stays old. You ask somebody,
what's your confidence before God? Oh, I believe in Jesus and
I remember. I believe in Jesus and this is
what happened. I believe in Jesus, and oh, what a change I experienced. False assurance looks back to
an old experience that stays old. If you've got to look to
yesterday to find assurance before God, you don't have any reason
to have any. That's just fact. That's just
fact. Brother Larry Brown was raised
in a house where his mother and daddy, I presume since you were
a baby, raised you in the house of God, worshiping God. Faithful
man and woman faithful man and woman and Brought the church
early not your children. You've had a lot of things you
could look back at and rejoice it and give thanks for But that's
where you get assurance. You don't have any You don't
have it false assurance is always based upon something experienced
or something done by you and Always. Thoughts assurance always
looks to your works, your prayers, your feelings, your repentance,
your devotion, your faithfulness, your steadfastness. It looks
to something, looks to something. I heard Brother David and Maurice
talking about a church where they both attended when Maurice
was in school down in Clarksville, where David's from. It's his
home church. And they taught rewards and all
that stuff. And they gave out Sunday school
pens. You've never been a church that gave out Sunday school pens,
have you? You're talking about a comedy routine. Old men who
can't stand up straight, pry out a little Sunday school pens
and wear so many, they'll stoop them over to wear them. And they
get them every year. They've been faithful in Sunday
school. I've been in Sunday school. Hadn't missed a Sunday school
in 21 years. Well, not many folks can say
that. No, and I wish you hadn't. Wish you hadn't. I've read my
Bible through once a year, every year for the last 25 years. Not
many folks can say that. I wish you hadn't. I wish you
hadn't. False assurance always finds
peace somewhere in something in you. Always. False assurance, thirdly, cannot
bear examination. It cannot bear examination. What
is your hope before God? What is it that gives you peace
before God? What is it that causes you to
think that when you leave this world, you will enter into the
glory of God? Whatever it is, let's bring it
to the book and examine it. Bring it to the book of God and
examine it. Forget about what mom and daddy
said. Forget about what your brother or sister say about you.
Forget about things that went on yesterday. What does God say
about your faith? What does God say about your
hope? What does God say about your
peace? With great reason, we should
fear false assurance. A refuge of lies is worse than
no refuge at all. A refuge of lies is the greatest
means by which Satan binds men in darkness and delusion. But the Word of God makes it
plain that there is true, confident assurance which the children
of God can and should enjoy on this earth. Yet not all of God's
elect have that assurance. And not all of them have it all
the time. All who are born of God have faith. Faith is essential. Faith in Christ is necessary. But not all who have faith in
Christ have the blessed peace of assurance. And there's a reason. We should be careful to keep
this distinction. and recognize it. Faith is the
poor trembling hand of that woman who said, if I could just touch
the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. That's faith. That's faith. Assurance is Stephen
standing calmly in the midst of his mirror saying, I see the
heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of
God. That's assurance. Faith is the penitent thief crying,
Lord, remember me. Assurance is Job saying, I know
that my Redeemer liveth. Assurance is Job testifying,
the root of the matter is in me. Assurance is Job saying,
I'm going to see him, though he slay me, yet will I trust
him. As that anxious trembling voice,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Assurance is Paul saying
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. This is
faith. I believe that Jesus is the son
of God. This is assurance. I know whom
I have believed and that he's able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. Now while it's possible
for a person to be saved and not have an assured confidence
of his salvation, it's not possible for that person to walk in peace
and comfort and confidence before God. Every believer should seek
the blessedness of the full assurance of faith, the full assurance
of understanding, the full assurance of hope. Those things are spoken
of in the book. Paul said, I'm laboring that
you may have this full assurance of hope, full assurance of understanding,
full assurance of faith. Come into God with full assurance
of faith in Him. Full assurance. Oh, what a blessing. There's nothing that can give
peace and comfort like assurance that Christ is mine. With this assurance, Job can
bear the horribly painful loss of his wealth and his sons and
his daughters and his health all in one day. All in one day. And worship God. With this assurance, Job can
bear the mockery of his foes and his wife saying to him, why
don't you cuss God and die? Painful as that is, he can bear
it and worship God and sin not. Assurance gives peace. Assurance
gives a fixedness of heart, a fixedness of mind that sweetens every bitter
cup. lightens every load and smooths
every road. Nothing will ever make a man
so bold in the cause of Christ as assurance of a saving union
with Christ. Nothing will make a man so bold
in serving the Redeemer as an assurance of his saving interest
in Christ. Nothing will make a man or woman
so bold in confessing Christ as the assurance that he or she
belongs to Christ and Christ belongs to you. There's nothing
that will enable a person to deny himself, take up his cross
daily, deny himself and follow Christ for the glory of God. like the assurance that Christ
is mine. You see the value of assurance?
See the value of assurance? Assurance of God's everlasting
salvation, James, makes this world vanity in our eyes. Without it, we keep grabbing
and trying to get. Assurance makes everything here
temporary in our eyes. assurance gives us peace in doing
away with that which is contrary to the will of God, the glory
of God, and the service of God. And there's nothing that will
enable anyone to have strength and peace and joy in the hour
of death like the assurance of pardon forgiveness and acceptance
with God. We know if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now it's one thing to talk about
that. One thing to quote the scripture.
One thing to preach about that, one thing to read about it and
sing about it. It's another thing to face eternity
immediately before you with confidence so that in your soul you can
say, yes, I know, I know that as soon as this earth, the house
of this tabernacle is dissolved, I have a building of God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. I know that to
be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I'm
confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and
to be present with the Lord, for that's far, far better. Now, God has given us in his
word as his children, the personal experience of his grace, the
promise of his word. and the ministry of the gospel
to help us in this matter of assurance. Let's look at those
three things in our text. First, we have the present personal
experience of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 10,
1 John 5. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath to witness it himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his son. Now we have the witness of God
in the written revelation of Holy Scripture. But you will
never know Christ. You will never believe God. You
will never trust God's Son. If all you have is the written
word and the preached word, it will never happen. You can try
to believe all you want. You can decide to believe all
you want. You will not believe God if all
you have is the witness of the written word and the preached
word. You've got to have the word of
God written on your heart by God the Holy Spirit. And nothing
else will give you faith. Nothing else will cause you to
believe God. When you have this witness, the
witness of God in himself, John says. All who believe, that one
who believes, has the witness of God in himself. Now notice
the language. This is a present experience.
It is not he that believed. It is not he who when he was
six years old or 16 years old or 60 years old made a decision
for Jesus. It is not he who was baptized. It is not he who changed his
life, who gave his life to the Lord. It is he that believeth. It is a present tense experience. Life is a present thing. It's a present thing. We now
live and breathe. And we walk before God by faith
in Christ in just this way. The just shall live by his faith. The believer is a man, a woman
who lives before God, trusting the Lord Jesus. We believe the
record God gave of his son. Yes, sir. We we believe the testimony
of God given concerning his son in Holy Scripture. We believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, as the Christ of
God, trusting him and him alone as our savior and redeemer, recognizing
that he and he alone fulfill all the scriptures. Understanding
that He and He alone brought in everlasting righteousness.
He and He alone put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
We understand that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. God in
our flesh who accomplished redemption for His people. He saved His
people from their sins. But we believe more than the
testimony written in the Word. We believe the testimony of the
written Word Because God has inscribed it in our souls. God's
given us faith in his son. This is what we read back in
Hebrews chapter 10. Turn back there a minute. Look
at it again. Hebrews chapter 10. Now paul has been in the first
14 verses here Declaring to us how that christ finished redemption
he with his own blood and then once into the holy place Having
obtained eternal redemption for us He by himself purged our sins
with his blood and sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high The lord jesus christ is that one who has perfected
forever them that are sanctified all chosen of god before the
world began Now then, watch what it says in verse 15. Whereof
the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. The Holy Ghost is a witness
to us, us who believe. He's a witness in you. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness of God in himself. He's a witness to us. After that
he had said before This is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days saith the Lord I'll put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds Will I write them? I'll make them
new creatures. I'm gonna tell them what I've
done I'm going to cause them to love what I've revealed and
I'm going to give them faith in my son. That's the promise
of the new covenant As surely and as necessary a promise of
the covenant of god's grace as the blood atonement of christ
And the finished work of righteousness on our behalf. That is the witness
of the spirit within us That gives us faith That gives us
faith now faith Is the gift of god It's the operation
of God. If our faith is genuine, it is
God's witness in our hearts by which he confirms in our souls
that which Christ has done for us and that which God has done
in us and is working in us by his grace. So that this faith
is the gift of God. We come to believe on Christ. when God the Holy Spirit works
faith in us. I understand that. I understand that. Now, understand
this. Every exercise of faith, is the
operation of God the Holy Ghost. If you believe God now, it's
because God works faith in you. If you believe God today, it's
because God works faith in you. If you believe God tomorrow,
it's because God works faith in you. And there are times for believers, for me and for you, when try
as we may, We just can't believe God. And I'll tell you why. Because
Rex Bartley, faith is not a decision you make. Faith is not a work
of the flesh. Faith is not the exercise of
your will. Oh, no, no, no. Unbelief is a
decision you make. Unbelief is the result of the
exercise of your will. Unbelief comes by your choice.
Because he will not believe God, the wicked shall be damned. But
faith, faith is the gift of God. Faith is the operation of God
the Holy Spirit in you. Faith is the fruit of God the
Holy Spirit. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. What witness? Witness that he's
God's. Witness that he's God's. I can't
read the Lamb's Book of Life. I've never seen it. You either.
But I know my name's written there because God the Holy Spirit's
given me faith in Christ. I've never seen the roster of
God's elect of you. But I know my name's there because
God's given me faith in his son. The witness of his spirit so
that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. I know Christ redeemed me. I
know God the Spirit has called me because He's given me faith
in His Son. And Paul says, we who trusted
in Christ, after that you believed, you heard the word of truth,
after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. Sealed. Now certainly that means
preserved, by all means. But it means more than that.
As circumcision was the seal of the old covenant God made
with Abraham, the new birth by which God the Spirit works faith
in us, this circumcision of the heart is the seal of God's covenant
grace in you. The seal of God's covenant grace
in you so that God the Holy Spirit comes to the heaven-born soul,
the sinner redeemed by Christ and chosen by God the Father
and giving him life in Christ, works faith in him and seals
to his heart. This blessed declaration of grace,
God is your God and you're his child and all the blessings of
the covenant are yours by faith in him. The believer from his
own heart's experience affirms what Christ has done for his
soul. And this assurance is the assurance of faith. The
believer's heart bears witness with all the revelation of God
in the gospel. The unbeliever chooses not to
believe God and makes God a liar And for that, he'll go to hell.
All right. Look at verses 11 and 12. The
Lord God has given us the promise of his word. And this is the
record that God had given to us eternal life. And this life
is in his son. This gift of eternal life. Yes,
it has to do with the endless duration of life. It has to do
with the infinite measurelessness of this life that's ours in Christ.
It's eternal life. It was ours in Christ before
the world began. Christ our life. Christ who is
our life. Is that the language of scripture?
We had eternal life in God's Son, our covenant, surety, and
mediator, for as long as he, the Son, our surety, mediator,
has life before God, that's eternal life. That's our life. In the
experience of grace, he gives us this life. Now, this eternal
life has something to do also with the quality of life. It
is life in Christ. Life with Christ. Henry Scrogold
called it the life of God in the soul of man. The life of God in the soul of
man. God the Son comes and takes up
residence in his people by his spirit, giving us life, the very
life of God in us. This eternal life is Christ himself
This eternal life is Christ himself Christ in you the hope of glory
now, here's God's promise He that hath the son hath life Every
soul born again every soul believing on Christ Every soul that has
Christ living in his heart and This moment has that eternal
life that Christ Jesus has from everlasting before God to everlasting
as I assure it. Eternal life, eternal life. Given
to us by God's free grace. Eternal life is life that cannot
be destroyed eternal life is life that continues forever Eternal
life. This is the first resurrection
That's what John called it in Revelation. The angel called
it in Revelation 20 verse 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the first resurrection. It is a resurrection from the
dead It is God giving new life to sinners who died in Adam.
It's a resurrection from the dead and This eternal life being
united to Christ by a living faith is the witness of God in
our souls That we are his now look at verse 13 Here's a third very great help
God's given to assurance for his people He's given us the
ministry of the word These things have I written unto you in that
believe on the name of the Son of God. John, the pastor, the
apostle, is writing to these folks who are separated from
him by time and distance. And he can't reach out and put
his arm around them, as I will you when you leave the building
tonight. He can't take them by the hand, as I will you when
you leave the building tonight. He can't say to them, This is
what I want you to know, as I often do you, speaking word of encouragement,
commendation to you, or reproof and correction to you. But John's
heart is with these people. His heart is with these people.
And he writes to them for this purpose, that you may believe,
that you may know that you have eternal life. That you may know
that you have eternal life. I labor, I labor, I labor. That you might have the blessed
peace of this assured life with God in Christ Jesus the Lord. That's what I want for you. That's
what I want for you. And you read the book, Ephesians
chapter 4, Philippians 1, Colossians chapter 1, chapter 2. One reason
God gave his church the established ministry of the gospel, the established
work of the gospel ministry. One reason God gives his church's
pastors after his heart is that you may no more be tossed to
and fro with every wind of doctrine, but that you may be grounded
and settled and rooted in Christ Jesus. Grow up in him as a new
man in Christ Jesus in the full assurance of understanding in
the full assurance of faith in the full assurance of hope And
nothing aids in that Like faithful instruction in the word of the
gospel under the power of God's Spirit Gospel preaching is essential
for a well-grounded assurance. It's essential for God's service
to expound the doctrine of the gospel. If those who hear us
would grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. It is possible
and it is desirable for the people of God to have this assured faith
in Christ Jesus. And those who have the eternal
life will go on believing. This is what it says, that you
may believe or keep on believing on the name of the Son of God. You see, true faith never quits. First Peter chapter 2 verse 5,
to whom coming, to whom coming, to whom coming, not to whom I
have come, not to whom I shall come, to whom coming. True faith is continually coming
to Christ, believing his word, trusting his grace, having the
witness of God in us, which is faith in his Son. After Newton
wrote that hymn I read to you earlier, to the point I long
to know, his friend who lived not far from him, Daniel Herbert,
Got a copy of it. And Herbert wrote back to his
pastor. Herbert was a Baptist pastor. Newton was an Anglican
preacher. This is what Herbert wrote back
to it, trying to help his friend and God's people in times struggling
with assurance. 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 loved you. Is this the point
you long to know? The dead can neither feel nor
see. It is the slave that's bound
within chains that knows the worth of liberty. So where a
want like this is found, I think I may be bold to say that God
has fixed within thy heart what hell can never take away. However small thy grace appears,
there's plenty in thy living head. These wants you feel, my
Christian friend, were never found amongst the dead. Some years ago, Shelby and I
got on a plane. I forgot where we were going.
But when we got on the plane, there was a woman, at least as
old as Shelby was at the time, sitting right behind her, and
they got talking. And she was petrified. I've been on a plane
with some scared folks before. This gal was petrified. She was petrified. When the plane
started to take off, she was still holding Shelby's hand and
liked it. Y'all might not know, Shelby had a little arthritis
in her hand. Not as bad then as it is now, but this gal liked
to kill her squeezing her hand. I mean, just squeezing tight
as she could. And when the plane started to
land, she reached up and grabbed it again. She was petrified.
But she was on the plane. And she was just as safe on the
plane as Shelby and I were. And frankly, we don't even think
about flying. Don't think about it. If the
plane bobbles around an edge, it bobbles around in the air.
There's nothing you're going to do about it. It's kicked around
in the pockets. It's kicked around in the pockets.
There's nothing you're going to do about it. And if it lands,
that's OK. And if it doesn't, that's OK. It's coming to the
ground. And we're coming to the ground with it, one way or the
other. But anybody on that plane is just as safe as we are in
the blessed, comfortable peace and security of being on that
plane. And it is not the measure of
your faith in Christ. It is not the strength of your
faith in Christ. It is not the might of your faith
in Christ. Oh, he's a man of such mighty
faith. No, no, no, no. If I can touch him, he'll make
me whole. If I can touch him, he'll make
me whole. God give you faith in him. And
God give you the blessed assurance, he that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine, air of salvation, purchase of God, born of the Spirit, washed
in his blood. I want to live like that all
the days of my life, and I want to die in just that same state,
confident in the full assurance of hope and understanding and
faith in Christ the Lord. Amen.