If you'll take your Bibles and
turn with me to Colossians chapter 2, I know that this has been on
the minds of more than one of you. You've expressed it to me
in the past several weeks. I know that some of you are wrestling
over it. Some of you have begun to see
its value and want a part in it. And so I want to talk to
you this morning about the assurance of faith, the assurance of faith. Now, assurance is simply confidence,
confidence that you're a believer, a child of God, and an heir of
everlasting life. That's what it is, confidence.
Do you have confidence that you're a child of God? And is that confidence
in accordance with His work? His purpose, His glory, His gospel. Is it in accordance with the
testimony of this book? That's the important thing. There's
all kinds of men and women who have confidence and assurance
who don't have faith. It's confidence and assurance
in an old experience, in a decision that they made, in an aisle they
walked, in a baptism where they were baptized. It's in a feeling. All sorts of things, but those
things are not according to the testimony of this book. And I say this to you, the Word
of God exhorts us in many places to the assurance of faith. It
does. This is not something that we
just want over and above what God has given us, but we're exhorted
in this book to seek these things. Listen to this in 1 Peter. This
is probably the most well-known exhortation in the Scriptures.
In 1 Peter 1 and verse 10, he tells us to give diligence, to
make our calling and election sure. Make it sure. Make it sure. Don't presume. He read to us in the Psalms a
while ago, David prayed, keep me from these presumptuous sins. Don't presume on these, make
these things sure. Make them sure. Paul told the
converted Jews in the book of Hebrews who had given all kinds
of evidence of their generosity and of their conversion to God
through that generosity and support of the ministry. He tells them
this, that every one of them should show the same diligence
that they showed in those offerings, the same diligence that they
showed in that generosity, the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end. And then in Hebrews chapter 10,
drawing his letter to a conclusion, and having showed them who were
familiar with these things, these were Hebrews, Converted Jews. And he went back to those who
were familiar with these things and began to show them these
pictures and types of the high priest and all these things.
And now he's in chapter 10 and he's bringing these things to
a conclusion. And talking to them about how
the Spirit of God who said in that day, and this was that day,
that He would come unto His own and He'd write His laws upon
their hearts. This covenant was a covenant
that was going to be made known by the Holy Spirit of God in
them. That He would reveal Himself
and take up His abode in them. That He would confirm this covenant
in them. Those who have the revelation
in them, He said, have a boldness. You ever think about that? When
you bow your head, you enter into the presence of
God. Do you understand what boldness it takes to do that? You will
if you ever find out who God is. You ever find out who God
is? Oh Isaiah, he condemned everything
and everybody until he found out who God was. Then he fell
down and put his hand on his mouth. He said, I'm a man of
unclean lips and I've been speaking to a people of unclean lips.
It takes boldness. Once you know what you are and
who you are and what you've done and who he is, what he's done,
it takes boldness to enter into his presence with a true heart. And that's what he's talking
about here. Boldness to enter into the holy place. to go where
only the high priest was allowed to go. To go in there, beyond
the veil, where the business was done. Boldness to enter into that holy
place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say His
flesh. And having this great high priest
over the house of God, we're able to draw near with a true
heart Watch it in full assurance, full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Scriptures often exhort us, I
preached to you last week, examine yourselves, would you be in the
faith? We worry about our health physically,
I'm getting to the age now when I get up in the morning and I'm
looking for bumps, looking for things. We worry about our health,
don't we? Things growing where they shouldn't
be growing. We worry about those things. Throat gets clogged up a little
bit. Maybe I better go have an x-ray. We worry about our health physically. Careful what we eat and what
we drink. Get up and look into the mirror and look for lumps
and spots and bumps and signs of sickness and disease. How much diligence do we give
to these spiritual things? That's why we don't have assurance.
That's exactly why. Know you're not your own selves.
How that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobate. Don't
you know these things? You don't know what you believe.
You don't know what you trust. You don't know what you hope
in. You don't know how your sins have been forgiven. You don't
know by whose righteousness you walk. Examine yourselves, and I'll
tell you this. This ought to give you a little
bit of hope. You can have faith without assurance, but you can't
have assurance without faith. You can't have it. Assurance
is not in you. You won't find it there. That's
why a lot of us are so disappointed. We just look. I'm waiting for
this. I don't even have words to say
it. But I'm waiting for this feeling. I'm waiting for this
something to flood over me, something to captivate me, something that
just takes everything else away from me and leaves me here. I'm
just waiting for this feeling. I'm waiting for this experience.
I'm waiting for those things and I'm wanting to call that
assurance. That's not assurance. That's
not assurance. You won't ever find assurance
in yourself. Let me tell you what you're going
to find in yourself when you would do good, evil is present
with me. The things that I would, I do
not. The things that I would not, that's what I do. You're
going to find total disorder You're going to find every reason
in the world to doubt when you look in here, because that's
all that's in there. It's just a big empty box. That's
all it is. The only thing in there worth
anything is what God puts in there, and what He puts in there,
He puts in there by faith. By faith. You have assurance, and faith
without assurance, but you can't have assurance without faith. It's not in the ability, faithfulness,
knowledge, potential of man to satisfy or please God. It's not
in him. Without faith, Paul said, it's
impossible to please God. That was the one thing about
Enoch's whole life. Enoch walked with God and he
was not. for God translated him, for before
his translation he had this testimony, he pleased God. Huh? He walked with God and walked
with God until he was not. He walked right into glory because
he pleased God. But, he said, without faith it's
impossible to please God. You see what I'm saying? Assurance is not in Christian
duties and works. You can never pray enough, give
enough, study enough, witness enough to generate assurance.
You can't do it. Assurance is not in your perseverance,
how long you've walked and had an interest in these things.
They've got no bearing on assurance. Paul said to these very men,
these Hebrews, he said, when for a time you ought to be teachers,
you have need that won't teach you again. It has nothing to
do with that. Some of you have been on this
road a long time and got very little assurance. Assurance cannot
be found in the ordinances. It's not in the table. It's not
in the pool. I bet you hear a dry center and
you come up a wet center. That's it. It's not in the pool. It's not in the church membership.
We join things and then we feel better. Why? Because I can put your name on
the roll. I can do that. I gave Winston
to do it. He can write it there in his
book. This one here, member of the church, accepted. That don't
mean your name's in the Lamb's Book of Life. And your name on this roll ain't
going to give you any assurance. Your name up there is going to
give you some assurance. And I know this for sure. Assurance
is not something you can get. I get so tired of hearing folks
say, I got saved. You didn't got anything. I got
saved. I'm going to get assurance. You can't get assurance. You
can't go down to the spiritual store and reach up there and
get you a box of assurance. It has to be given. It's given
to you of God. That's how you have assurance.
Salvation is a continual process. It's a present work. I pointed
that out to you over in Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 several times
in there. He said today and right in the
middle of the sentence he capitalizes the T on today. Why that? Because he wants you to understand
it's a present work, a continual work today if you hear his voice
harden not your heart. It's a continual process. It's
a present work. It's not a one-time climactic
experience. And many true believers have
no assurance because they don't know what assurance is. They
don't know what it is. They're looking for spiritual
plateau or some degree of godliness, some order in their lives, something
they do or feel to give them confidence that God's done a
work in them. Brethren, assurance is of faith
in the living God. That's what it is. Believe in
God as He is revealed in the person and work of Christ. Assurance
is the gift of God that comes through faith. Now, let me read
you my text over here in Colossians chapter 2. Let's just read through
these first several verses. Beginning with verse 2. Paul said that their hearts might
be comforted. Isn't that what we seek? Ain't
that why we want assurance? We want to be comforted. Under
God, I don't want to serve him a lifetime and find out he never
knew me. Huh? Had not I done many wonderful
works in thy name, had not I cast out devils in thy name, didn't
I sell out and come down to Taylor to preach for you? Didn't I do
these things? Didn't I give this up? Depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Under God,
I don't want that. I don't want that. Oh, that their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto
all riches. Now listen, all the riches of
the full assurance of understanding. to the acknowledgment of the
mystery of God, and of the Father, that is, God the Holy Spirit,
and the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge." It's all in him, it ain't in me. I've
been looking in the wrong place. It's all in him. And this I say,
lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Seek the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. You get caught up in that mess
and you'll find yourself seeking it and you'll find yourself getting
it. And you'll find yourself hanging on to a false refuge
and wake up in hell. This I say lest any man should
beguile you with enticing words. Now, for time's sake and confusion's
sake, I'm going to read you just two more verses here in this
chapter. Well, there's a couple verses in the first one, a couple
in the second one, but beginning with verse 6. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Now, watch that. Rooted. and built up in Him,
established in the faith as you've been taught. And then look down
at verse 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, which is
the head of all principality and power. You see that? That's
where assurance is. That's where it's at. Now, according
to these verses, all the riches are the full assurance of understanding.
And you can't believe what you don't understand, contrary to
what, well, I just believe. No, you don't. I used to hear one old fellow,
he said, I'm made to believe. You know, you're made unto sin,
that kind of thing. You can't believe what you don't
perceive, what you don't understand. And all of these riches are hidden
in God the Spirit, in God the Father, in God the Son. And the
way these mysteries and riches are received, huh? The way they're received, as
you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Walk in Him. Walk in Him. Learn of Him. Be taught of Him. Rejoice in
Him. You know, when the Lord invited
folks, He didn't invite them to come down an aisle. He said,
Come unto Me. Isn't that what He said? Come
unto Me. And to have assurance is to be
persuaded that God has purpose to save, is willing to save,
has the right to save, provides the way to be saved, and gives
us means to be saved. All the riches, the treasures,
the glory of the full assurance of understanding is in God. It's
not in me. And it's not in the church, and
it's not in the ordinance. It's in God Himself. And it's
given to us in Christ Jesus alone. Alone. in whom we are complete
and find all the fullness of God, all the fullness of the
mystery, all the fullness of evidence, all the fullness of
the blessing in Him. The only thing you're ever going
to know about the Spirit is what you know in Christ. The only
thing you're ever going to know about the Father is what you
see in Christ. Because that's where God's revealed. All these
treasures that are in the triune God, we have in Christ. And as
we receive Him, walk in Him, be rooted in Him, grow in Him,
learn of Him, embrace Him. Because that's where the glory
is. And that's where the comfort is. Now let me briefly give you these
five things, and I'll just touch on them as we go. The first thing
is this. If I'm going to have assurance,
I've got to be convinced of this, God's everlasting will and purpose
in all things, to save a people for the glory of His name. You're
not going to have assurance in a God who's doing one thing one
minute and something else the next, changing His mind to save
you on one occasion and then turning His back on you on another.
What kind of God do you got? One day he's willing to save,
and I know he's willing, he's willing. The next day he ain't
willing anymore. What kind of God do you got? This book declares
the unchangeable God. Unchangeable in His purpose.
The God of all purpose. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul
said, God chose us in Christ, predestinated us to the adoption
of Christ, made us accepted in the blood, redeemed us by his
blood, and therein," now watch this, "...therein he abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he
purposed in himself." And what is that will and purpose? That
in the fullness, the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might
gather together in one all things which are in Christ, both which
are in heaven on earth, under the earth, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. When you come to know a little
bit of something about the God of purpose, you'll begin to enter
into a little bit of assurance. God does things on purpose. Kathy and I were coming home
from Magnolia the other evening, and this fella, the older I get,
the more road rage I have, but I was driving down the road,
and I was doing the speed limit, or maybe a mile an hour or two
above it, This guy was right on my bumper. I couldn't even
see his headlights anymore. He's just right on my bumper,
and he's pulling the trailer. Got a four-wheeler on it going
to Deer Camp or wherever he was going. I'm going down the road,
and I'm getting more irritated as time goes on, and I'm looking
for a place just to pull over and let him go on. And he's just
like a bumblebee. He's zipping in one lane, out
the other. Finally, he shoots out around me. The car's coming
down the road, and he zips out around me and away he goes, and
he no sooner cuts in than a deer jumped out in front of him. Pow!
Hit that deer, tore that truck up. My window was just covered
with stuff, the impact of that deer. Was that an accident? Or did God save me from colliding
with that deer? Huh? My life's full of stuff
like that. Just full of stuff like that.
And so is yours. So is yours. And when you begin
to see all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the what? The called according to His purpose. Then you begin to have some assurance.
This God who purposes things does We purposely do things,
Russell, and then we fail. I set out to do this, and I wind
up doing that. I want to do this, but I can't. That's not God. God declares
the end from the beginning, he said, and from ancient times,
the things which are not yet done, saying, my counsel will
stand, and I'll do everything I'm pleased to do. Bounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence Salvation is not the reaction of God to some unforeseen
event or circumstance hidden away from the purpose of God.
God is God because He can declare the end from the beginning. And
He can see to it that the end comes to be exactly as He purposed
it to be. While our generation talks about
decisions and eye walkings and baptism, the early church was
told that God saved them and called them with a holy calling,
not according to their worth, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Purpose. God does things on purpose. If we ever learn something about
that, I can rest. I can rest. If this thing's of
God, it's going to be. It's going to be. They have no assurance toward
the living God because their God's always changed in their
mind. James said, Every good gift, every perfect gift, cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. And of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. They didn't talk about our walking
back then. They talked about the living God, the unchangeable,
irresistible God. It's the eternal, immutable,
irresistible purpose of God to save a people for the glory of
His name. And to fail is not to lose a
man's soul. That's not what God loses if
He fails to save you. If He fails to save one, for
whom he is purposed to save, he has given up his right to
be God. Do you understand that? He ceases
to be God. If anything or anybody can resist
him or change him or thwart him or dethrone him in any way, he
ceases to be God. And then secondly, assurance
comes as faith perceives the willingness of God. Do you believe
God is willing to save you? He's more willing to save us
than we are to be saved. Did you know that? All worldly religion believes
that God's willing to save some men who are worth saving. That's what I hear them talking
about. If you're willing, huh? If you'll accept, if you'll walk,
if you'll do, if you'll obey, if you'll if, if, if. But the gospel says Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Can you get hold of that? Is
there ever a time when you're convinced that you're not a sinner?
Huh? Everything you do, you know it,
don't you? Huh? Everything we do, I see sin in
it. Everything. I can't pray. I get
up here and I try my best, and I concentrate, and I look at
things, and I know the will of God, and I know what to pray
for, but he said, you don't know what to pray for like you ought
to. Why? Because you're full of sin. That's
why. Can't pray a good prayer. I can't get up here and preach
to you a good sermon. I always got something in it
that I go home and I I'm bad about this. I'll go home and
just take the message and the tape and throw them in the can.
I just don't even want to put them up. I don't want to put
them up because I'm so disappointed in this or that or something
I said or the way I said it or something about it because I'm
full of sin. But he came to save sinners.
Huh? So my being a sinner ought not
enter into this thing of assurance, should it? Should that deter
me from assurance?" He came to save sinners. He told those Jews,
because you say you can see, you're not blind. If you're blind,
I can do something for you, but you're not blind. He came to save the unsavable,
cleanse the unclean, heal the sick, give sight to the blind,
freedom to the captive, life to the dead. To the self-righteous religionists
of his day, the Lord said, the well need not a physician, but
the sick. Now, here's my revelation to
this man in whom you say you trust, old Moses. I will have
mercy and not sacrifice. Now, you go learn what that means.
You go learn what that means. For I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. His promise in the garden is
an evidence of His willingness. Noah finding grace in the eyes
of the Lord when a whole world full of men, every imagination
including his, was only evil continuously. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Huh? That's an evidence of God's
willingness to save. The continual declaration of
a substitute throughout the history of the world is an evidence of
God's willingness to save. His appropriation of preachers
and prophets and apostles and missionaries and evangelists
from the beginning of time is evidence of God's willingness
to save. The appearance of Jesus Christ
in Bethlehem's manger was enough to give old Simeon all the evidence
he needed. You want to know where assurance
is? He picked up that baby in his arms and he said, Now let
thy servant depart in peace, for I have seen thy salvation. How much more evidence can an
ignorant man require than the death of the Son of God on the
cross? Huh? And then thirdly, faith
gives assurance in that it understands God's right to save sinners.
God's holy. God's just and righteous. God's
good to the exclusion of all others. There's none good but
God. Old Bill Dad asked the question
of Job, how can man be justified with God? How can he be clean
that's born of a woman? The moon and the stars are not
pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm. What is man that he should be
clean, and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints. Yea, the heavens
are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man that drinks iniquity like water? God has to be just when he justifies
sinners. That's the only way they can
be justified. Bildad didn't see how that was possible. He didn't
see how that's possible. And you won't have any assurance
until you do. Huh? That man's brought to see
what he is in the light of who God is. Must be convinced of
a way of salvation that does not compromise the glory of God
and still reaches the chief of sinners. What a mystery. The riches of
the full assurance of faith perceived in the propitiation of Christ
the righteousness of God, that he might be just and justifier
of all them that believe on Jesus. So to have assurance of faith,
I must be brought to understand, at least in part, something of
the purpose of God to save a people for the glory of His name. I
don't have any assurance until I enter into that, at least in
part. And I need to understand how
God can save sinners without compromising His glory. And to
some extent that that salvation in that salvation that justifies
both God and the sinner is where the glory of God is seen. And then fourthly, and these things are not in any
kind of order as to our own experience, but I must be shown the way. It ain't in me. And it ain't in something that
I can read and figure out. That way is a person. A person. The Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I am the way. The way. I tell you, you're living in
a dream world if you think you can have any righteousness before
God except the righteous obedience of Christ imputed to us through
faith. I want you to listen to me. I
want to be righteous. God has put that desire in me.
I want to do right, don't you? I want to do things right. I want to operate the way I used
to. I want to do things right. I want to walk a godly walk.
I want to live a life that's honoring to God. But I cannot
live my life here in this world, in this sinful flesh, and have
daily communion with God apart from faith in His righteousness.
I walk in the light of His righteousness. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying that I have no confidence in the flesh, period. End of
story. It's not here. My daily walk
depends on His righteousness, His obedience. My naked soul
is exposed entirely to God apart from that covering. I don't have
one claim. Can you say that? Not one claim
in that day when my body is committed to that coffin and my spirit
rises up to be with Him and I stand before Him, I don't have one
hope of righteousness apart from his righteous obedience. Not
one. Nothing. Not a... any prayer,
any experience, anything, I don't have any hope anywhere except
in that righteousness. There's assurance in that. Assurance. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Is that what I
believe? Is that my hope? Can I walk in the light of that?
Can I do that every day? Walk in that light? Christ is my righteousness and
Christ is my redemption. I believe he put away my sins
by the sacrifice of himself. I don't believe he made it possible
for my sins to be put away. I don't believe he made a down
payment on my sins. I believe when he died, he put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. It's gone. It's gone. To all for whom he died, there
is no sin. That sin is gone. One time, He said, in the end
of the world, as He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And when He returns, He is not
going to return as the Lamb. Not going to return as a Lamb
to be offered up again. But when He appears the second
time, it is without sin offering unto salvation. The sins are
gone. Sins are gone. You'll never have
any assurance of faith until you see the eternal God appointing
Christ to stand in your place with all your guilt, guilty before
God. All your guilt, all your shame,
all your judgment, all your condemnation of God poured out on Him, exacting
from Him the full bill, everything you owe, taken from Him. And it satisfied God. You have assurance if you can
get hold of that. And if He did not sufficiently put away the
sins of His people, and He did as men say He did, died for the
sins of the world to make salvation possible, then thousands are
in hell today for whom Christ died and His death was of no
consequence whatsoever. He put nothing away, He redeemed
nothing, and He was an utter waste of time. But He did put
away our sins. And His death was sufficient
to redeem, and God declared it to the whole world when He raised
Him from the dead. You want evidence of assurance?
Go down to that tomb and see if you can find His bones. He
ain't there anymore. He's risen. And him, Ryder, said,
I serve a risen Savior, delivered for our offenses, raised
again for our justification. Assurance, my friend, is the
seated, justified, glorified Christ at the right hand of God,
expecting until His enemies be made His footstool. And then
fifthly, assurance comes if we avail ourselves of the means
that God has ordained. now i don't have time to get
into all the parts and pieces of this so let me just say this
if this world occupies your interest more than the worship of god
you needn't ever believe that you're going to have insurance
in fact if i was you i'd be doubting my salvation if this world holds
more in your eye than the means that god has ordained and set
aside i'm talking about worship I'm talking about assembling
ourselves together in worship. If that means more to you than
this, I don't know what you're hoping in, but if I was you,
I'd get rid of it. I'd get rid of it. I don't care
what it is that prevents you from coming here, it's not good.
He said, forsake not. Now, if there was some excuse,
he would have said it, wouldn't he? He said, I tell you the truth. Ain't that what the Lord said?
Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner
of some is, but exhort one another, and so much the more as the day
approaches. What day? What's he talking about?
Well, we're approaching the day of death. I'm reminded of it
more and more, ain't you? I'm approaching the day of trial.
you know you're going to be tried, don't you? I believe. We'll see. That's what God says. We'll see. We'll see. What about the day of temptation? We're coming to that. What about
the day of trouble? Now listen to what he says after
this. He said, for Satan's sake, no. The assembling of yourselves
together is the manner of so many. Take advantage of the means. Here's the means. Here they are.
All you got to do is come, sit down, listen. Don't forsake these
things. And so much the more, gather
together even more. Do it more and more. I'll tell
you how I know when folks get an interest, they invite me over
to the house because they ain't got enough from here. They have
to have more. So much the more, as that day approaches, don't
forsake these things. For if we sin willfully, are
you listening? After that we receive the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. If
you are going to take these things that God has ordained and cast
them aside, You're going to take His means and turn your back
on Him. You're going to take these things that God has graciously
given to you and just turn your nose up to it. Well, I'm going
to go over here. I'll get to that when I get time.
You're going to do that? There isn't any more. There isn't anything else. This
is the salvation. This is the hope. This is the
glory. This is the assurance. It's all
in Him. It's in the God of purpose. It's
in the willing God to save sinners. It's in all of these things,
and it's in the means. You're not going to be saved
apart from the means that God has ordained. It ain't going
to happen. Quit hanging on to it. Turn loose of it. Take advantage
of it. Embrace it. Rejoice in it. Because if you don't, there's
nothing else out there. That's what He's telling you.
There's nothing else out there. It's like trying to wade across
an unparted sea of iniquity. That's what it is. That's what
it is. When God got a staff and a man
going to raise the staff and split the sea, all these things
are going to happen. But if Israel had waded out there,
they'd have drowned. Why? Because God ordained a means
to do it. I'm telling you, don't put these
things aside. because there's nothing else out there. It's
just a big empty hole. It'll swallow you up and it'll
leave you naked before God who sees even your thoughts and intents. Don't do it. Don't do it. Come
here and be encouraged and hear and listen and rejoice and give
attention to these things of God. Our Father, help us in these days to come.
If you're gracious to us and merciful to us, give me the words
and the text and the truth, the illustrations, whatever it is
I need. And above all, the Spirit of
the living God to attend these words and make our hearts to
see where this assurance of faith is. It's all in Him. and then cause these hearts to
raise up in thanksgiving and give you all the glory for Christ's
sake. Amen. I know I don't have enough voice
left to sing, so you're dismissed.