Well, here in the book of 1st
John, the Gospel, or the book of 1st John, chapter 5, I want
to read verse 1 and then I want to read verse 12 and 13. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And every one that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. And verse 12, he that hath the
Son, he that hath the Son of God hath life, and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you, says John, that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. Last Sunday as I began
the service out in Indiana, I was preaching an entirely different
message than I'm preaching to you this morning, but I made
this statement. Whose I am is more important
than who I am. Now you think on that a little
bit. Whose I am is more important
than who I am. You remember back maybe in the
book of Numbers, I think it's chapter 30, where David, the
Amalekites had come and had stolen away his wife and his goods,
and his men were pursuing after the Amalekites, and they ran
across a young lad who had been left behind on the road, and
he hadn't had anything to eat or drink for three days. And
so when David's men found him, they gave him food and water. And David asked this young man
a question, a very important question, my friend. And I wish
this morning that you would listen very carefully to what we have
to say about this. This question was this, to whom
belongest thou? Who do you belong to? Now this
fellow belonged to an Amalekite. He was the servant to an Amalekite.
But to whom do you belong? Beloved, we belong, every one
of us belong to either God Almighty or the devil. Yes, we do. Jesus said, you've been bought
with a price. Speaking to those that are saved,
you have been bought with a price. I've shed my blood for you. I
have endured the wrath of Almighty God on your behalf. I have redeemed
you, not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with
my precious blood. I have bought you. You're my
property. You belong to me. Now that's
a believer. He belongs to Christ. All believers
are owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. They belong to God in Christ. And then those that are outside
of Christ, those that are lost, those that are unbelievers, the
Bible says Jesus made the statement. He said to the Pharisees, ye
are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye
will to do. Ye are of your father the devil.
And so all of those who are not in Christ, all of those who have
not been separated or called out by the call of God's Spirit
out of the world unto the Lord Jesus Christ, they belong to
the devil. And so you need to ask yourself this question, and
I believe that this is one of the greatest questions that you'll
ever be faced with as long as you're in this world. To whom
do I belong? Am I a saved soul? Is my soul
one that the Lord Jesus Christ has invested His very life and
His blood in? Or am I a lost soul? And does
the devil, has he taken me captive at his will? And am I in his
hands? And we need to ask ourselves,
to whom do we belong? My sins are blotted out, I know,
says the old song. They're buried in the depth of
the deepest sea. My sins are blotted out, I know. How wonderful it is to know that,
to know of a certainty that our sins are blotted out, that they've
been cast into the depths of the deepest sea, and that they're
no longer held against us, and that they will not appear at
the judgment, and we'll have to face them again. Thank God
we'll not have to ever face our sins if we be in Christ. Fannie
Crosby wrote, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine. As we think about assurance this
morning, I wanted to preach just a very simple message on this
subject because I believe that the Lord would have me to do
it. Long ago I learned that when the devil starts telling me what
I shouldn't say, I know exactly what I should say. And I learned
that sometime back. And sometimes the devil says,
well, there ain't any need to preach on assurance again. Everybody
you preach to knows they're saved and they don't have any doubt
about it. Well, my friend, I don't believe a word of that. I don't
believe a word of it. I know there are some people
here that know they're saved, but there are others that do
not know that they're saved. And there are some here this
morning, and you might not admit it, but you are here this morning
and you probably believe in your heart that a person can be saved
and yet lost again sometime between now and eternity's dawn. You
may believe that. There's somebody here this morning
that may have that feeling in their heart that they maybe have
gotten lost again after the Lord had saved them. Well, we believe
this morning that we ought to try to clear up all of these
mistaken notions and that we ought to try to tell you the
truth about assurance. Now, I remember reading one time
where Albert Einstein, people thought that He was a very certain
man, and he said, my calmness might betray thoughts that are
not real about me. He said, I think that all of
my theories are right on various and sundry things. But he said,
I don't want to just think I'm right. He said, I want to know
I'm right. Now, beloved, there are many,
many people who profess to be saved, and they may think they're
right. But do you know of a certainty
that you're right, that you're saved, that you know the Lord,
and that your sins have been put away? Well, now let's talk
just a little bit about this 13th verse here. And like I say,
it doesn't bother me that this is a familiar verse or that maybe
we've said something about it in times past. I just want this
morning, because I believe overwhelmingly that this is what the Lord would
have me to talk about. And there are some other things
that I want to talk about, maybe even today, but I won't be doing
that because I feel impressed of the Lord to go in this direction. Well, how simple, how very simple
is all of this? These things have I written unto
you. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. He says, These things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life. and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God." How very simple, I say,
is all of this. I believe of all the writers
of the Old and the New Testament that John is one of the very
simplest writers. However, we know that regardless
of how simple the writer of Scripture is, salvation is yet by the revelation
of God's Spirit. that no one can believe in their
hearts. And oh, salvation is a heart
work, is it not? It is indeed a heart work. A
man must believe in his heart. You remember, the Ethiopian eunuch
was asked by Philip, or was told by Philip, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized. if you believe with
all of your heart. And so salvation is a heart work,
and only God is able to work on the heart. A preacher can
preach to your ears, but he can't work on your heart. The Spirit
of the Lord only is able to bring you a clearness of mind and heart
about these things. Not only is he simple, but John
is exceedingly practical. These are written, he says, and
then he explains the purpose of his writings. These epistles
are not written to dazzle anybody. No, they're not. Nor to lead
you into some unscriptural expectation or some speculation. Neither is it to gratify your
curiosity about salvation. But these are written that you
may know that you have eternal life. What could be more important
than a soul knowing of a certainty that they have eternal life. This is one of those green pastures
where the sheep of God lie down, often lie down, in this area
of assurance, this area of knowing. How wonderful it is to be able
to lie down, your head on your pillow, regardless of what's
happening around you, regardless of what's going on in your life.
and to be able just to rest your soul in the fact that you know
that you're in Christ and know that your sins are pardoned and
put away. It is infinitely more to our
benefit to know that we have eternal life than to be able
to predict the future. I don't know what you think you
know about the future, but I'll tell you how much you know about
it. You don't know anything about it. You know exactly the same
amount about it as I do. None of us know anything about
the future, but it would be better, much better for us to know that
we're in the Lord and to know that our sins are pardoned and
put away and to know that we stand firmly on the rock Christ
Jesus and to be able to predict the future about ourselves or
others. It would be exceedingly more
of a benefit. It is more practical and important
for us to know that we have eternal life than to be able to explain
all of the deep mysteries of the Bible or to speak with tongues. Have you ever had anybody say
to you, have you spoken in tongues? Do you have the gift of tongues?
Well, my friend, I don't make any bones about it. I've never
spoken in tongues. I've had enough problems speaking
in the English tongue, much less speaking in some foreign tongue,
but I do have often been confronted by those who felt like that if
I hadn't spoken in tongues, as they call it, that I'm not saved.
But my friend, I've always told them that they had an experience
that I didn't have, and they were welcome to it, every bit
of it. That I didn't need any of it, I didn't figure I needed
any of it. If I had Christ, I had everything God demanded of me.
And if I had Christ, I had all that I needed. if I had Him,
if I knew Him. So it is of more practical importance
for us to know that we have eternal life. I say practical importance
that we know that we have eternal life and to be able to speak
in some unknown tongue, which we say might be by the Spirit.
Well, I doubt that. Some Spirit, of course, but I
doubt the Spirit of God. John writes to lead his brethren
into the assured knowledge of their personal possession of
eternal life. Let us first of all then consider
to whom John was writing here. These things, he says, have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. He said, I'm writing to you that
believe on the name of the Son of God. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And so he's writing to those. This is the end. To what end
is he writing? He says that you may know that
you have eternal life. First of all then, to whom was
this written? We don't want to be opening, I think I've said
this a time or two to you in the past, but I certainly don't
want to open somebody else's mail, do you? I don't. So the
question is, to whom was this written? Well, this epistle and
this text in it were written for all those who believe. on
the name of the Son of God. Is it written to you? Is this
written to you? Is this mail for you? I mean,
is this something you ought to be opening up and looking into? No person, young or old, is excluded
from this text unless he's an unbeliever. If you're an unbeliever,
then, of course, there's nothing here for you. Now, it is not
written to unbelievers. It is for all who trust in Jesus. For all who is believing on the
Son of God, as the Philippian jailer was instructed, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It would
be fatal for a man to think, ever think that he has eternal
life if he was not a believer on Jesus Christ. It'd be fatal. If you ever believe or anybody
ever believe that you meet and discuss this with, that they
have eternal life, find out what it is they're trusting in. Find
out if it's the Lord Jesus. Remember John said, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. It's not the
man who's religious. It's not the man who has several
degrees. It's not the man or woman who's
trusting in news and dose. It's the man who believes that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God by the revelation of the Spirit
of God in their heart. He that believeth not shall not
see life. If you don't have the Son, you
don't have life. You don't have eternal life.
Jesus Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and you only have eternal
life when you have Him. When you're in Him, and when
you're trusting and believing, depending upon, leaning upon,
casting all the weight of your soul upon Him, trusting all that
He is and all that He's done on your behalf. Then and then
only do you have it. He that believeth not shall not
see life, shall not see it, either in this world or in the life
to come. How then could he have any assurance of possessing it
if he doesn't have it? And the only way to have it is
to have it in the Lord Jesus. Dear friends, do not dream of
being sure that you're saved apart from making sure that you
have trusted yourself with the crucified Son of God. Make sure
that you've trusted in the Lord Jesus. There was a man that once
came to D.O. Moody and said that he was worried
because he didn't feel saved. He didn't feel saved. And Moody
asked, was Noah safe in the ark? And the man said, certainly he
was. Well, what made him safe? His feelings or the ark? And
the man got the point. How foolish he said I've been.
It is not my feelings. It is Christ that saves. Christ is God's Ark. And you
can stumble around and unless, my friend, you trusted yourself
with the crucified Son of God wholly, casting yourself upon
Him unreservedly, trusting Christ and believing on Him, there is
no other grounds for assurance. The Atonement of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, gives assurance of salvation to all who trust
it, but none besides. The Lord Jesus shed His blood.
Oh, His blood propitiated the Father. His blood satisfied the
Father. His blood atoned for our sin,
covered our sin. And our sins have been under
the blood, thank God, from the time that we believed. And I
believe that they were under the blood from the time that
the Father, that the Lamb was crucified in the mind of God
before the foundation of the world. I believe our sins were
under the blood, but experientially they were under the blood when
we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he that believeth
on the Son, John 3.36, listen to the plain language of the
Word of God, how remarkable it is to have assurance. But my
brother, my sister, it is so important that we believe first
the Word of God, and then feelings come afterwards. Feelings come
after you say, I don't have no feelings about this. Do you believe
the Word of God? First of all, we believe the
Word of God. We believe the testimony of the
Word of God. And then the feelings will come.
It's kind of like a man who was a Christian. He was carrying
a huge sack of potatoes on his back. And some fellow asked him,
said, well, how do you know you're saved? And a fellow stumbled
around under that heavy sack of potatoes a few minutes, trying
to get an answer for him, and directly he just let go of the
sack of potatoes and it fell. And the man said, well I suppose
that maybe you know you're saved because of the lessening of the
weight. He said that's right. He said the lessening of the
weight of the guilt of sin and the sorrow of sin. He said, the
lessening of the weight. He said, the weight of my guilt
is gone. It's all gone. And through faith
in the Word of God and the testimony of Scripture, what God has done
with my sin, I know that my sin is pardoned. I know it's gone.
The lessening of the weight. And you that have been saved,
you know that there was a time when the weight of sin, it dropped
off. It dropped off. And you wouldn't
care anymore. You noticed that your conscience
was clear. You noticed that you could fellowship
with God, a thrice holy God. You could come into His presence.
You could talk to Him and you could fellowship with Him. You
noticed that. Well, it was because of that
lessening of the weight of sin and the guilt of sin. Your sin
had been pardoned. It had been put away. He that
believeth on the Son I'm talking about you believing the Word
of God. Listen to what the Word of God says. He that believeth
on the Son hath, H-A-T-H, everlasting life. And he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
And so the question is, am I a believer on the Son? If I am a believer,
I have everlasting life. I've got it as a personal possession. I have it right now in my soul. I speak therefore to all of you
who have come to Christ. However imperfect, however imperfect
and undeveloped may be your faith or your spiritual life, may as
yet be, I speak to you. I was visiting my brother that's
in a nursing home. He's younger than I am in Indiana.
And as I was visiting with him, I asked him, Bob, have you ever
trusted Christ? And he said, yes, about eight
or nine years ago I did, about the time of our mother's funeral. I preached my mother's funeral
in Indiana. And he said right after that he had trusted Christ.
But he made this statement. He said, things are not as deep
with me as I'd wish they were. I'm not as deep in these matters
as I would like to be. And so I plan to send him tapes. I plan to keep in touch with
him. I hadn't seen him since 1993. But I plan to stay in touch
with him. And so I speak therefore to all
of you this morning who have come to Christ, however imperfect
and underdeveloped your spiritual life may as yet be. Now we may
gather from this address being made to all the people of God
and to none besides that there are some believers in this world,
true believers too, who just hadn't got all these matters
together. as the old expression is, don't have all their ducks
in a row. They may not know all the ins and outs of these truths.
But my friend, if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you
have eternal life. You have it as a present possession. For instance, certain professors
believe that even if they are now saved, they may yet be lost. I mentioned a while ago, and
they're everywhere, people that believe this. Everywhere you
find people that believe that they had a whole lot more to
do, that they had everything to do with their salvation. When
the truth is and a true believer finds out, discovers, and he's
glad to know it when he does find it out, that he had absolutely
nothing to do with his salvation. Charles Spurgeon said that when
he first got saved he thought he had a lot to do with his salvation.
But then after a little while he found out he had less to do
with it than what he thought. A little while later he found
out he had less yet to do with it than what he thought. And
after a while he found out he didn't have a thing in the world
to do with it. And that's exactly the truth. Nobody has anything
to do with their salvation. Salvation is altogether the work
of God from the beginning to the end. Salvation is of the
Lord. And nobody ever gets saved except
the Lord. save them. But now whenever God
does the work, that work is eternal. Nobody can add anything to it
and nobody can take anything from it. Isn't that glorious? Isn't it wonderful that nobody
can change that? God changes not. Somebody said
what man does cannot change what God has done. What man thinks
cannot change what God has done. What man thinks cannot change
what God has said. Do you believe that? Cannot change
what God has said. What man determines cannot change
what God has decreed. Can't change it. What man wills
cannot change what God has wrought. The Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannul it? Who shall disannul it? Salvation
is God's work. When you're thinking about salvation,
quit thinking about you and your little part in it. Just quit
thinking about it. Just start focusing on the fact
that it's all of God from the beginning to the end. And then
you'll see, surely you'll see, in a little while, that salvation
that you had no part in. Therefore, if you are eternally
secure, in the Lord Jesus, that that's not due to you, that's
due to the faithfulness of your God, that's due to the faithfulness
of Christ, that's due to the efficacy of the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and His thoroughness in saving us from our sin. He said that the Father had given
Him a work, He said, I glorify Thee on the earth, I have finished
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. My friend, don't blaspheme
God and do not Cast a slur upon the work of Jesus Christ by suggesting
that you can get lost again after you get saved. Ain't no way.
God saved you, then you're saved. Jesus said, I glorified thee
on the earth. Father, I glorified you. I did
it just exactly like you said. It must be done. I didn't leave
anything half done. I did it all. And I finished
the work which you gave me to do. And I have saved my people
from their sins. I've done it. It's accomplished.
It's all done. Finished. And so my friend, do
not suggest for a moment that you can be saved one day and
lost another. John said eternal life. He mentions
eternal life. These things have been written
to you that you may know that you have eternal, eternal, eternal
life. Don't ever forget that. Not temporary
life. Not temporary life. Well, how
happy are you that this is not temporary life? Well, I'm mighty
happy about it. Not temporary life. We were begotten
again unto a living hope. Old Peter said, in the day of
our regeneration, we were begotten unto a living, living, living
hope. The new birth from above by the
Spirit of God is a birth to an endless life. its birth to an
endless life. So therefore we have eternal
life. Being born again not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which what?
Liveth and abideth. How long? Forever. Forever. Forever. So we have been born
with that incorruptible Word of God, which has a life, which
God has given it, and He said to live forever. And life lives
on forever. Jesus said at the well of Samaria,
Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well
of water springing up into everlasting life." A well of water in him
springing up into everlasting life. I want you to get this
next statement and get it well. How much comfort God's people
lose by not laying hold of the absolute immortality of the new
life. I will not venture to say how
much they lose, but my friend, this much I will say, that to
me it is the very crown and glory of the gospel that when God lays
hold of a poor soul and the Holy Spirit imparts the new life,
that soul has received an everlasting blessing. Amen? That soul has
received an everlasting Blessing, not a temporal blessing, but
an everlasting blessing. Oh, my soul, it certainly is
wonderful to think about that there's been begotten in us an
everlasting blessing. I mean, what God started in us
is never going to come to an end. Never, never, never come
to an end. He said, I will never, never,
never leave thee nor forsake thee. I won't ever. I'm with
you, and I'm not ever going to leave you. Lord, I'm with you
always. I'm with you always. He's with
us now. He'll be with us for all eternity.
We shall be with Him for all eternity. Hallelujah. What a
glorious, glorious truth. Well, most in the religious world,
along with their preachers, read this text like this, that you
may know that you shall have eternal life. Well, I beg their
pardon. The text does not say anything
of the kind. It is that you may know that you have eternal life,
even here at this present time. It is that you may know, not
shall have at some later date, but you got it right now if you
believe on the Son. You got it now. Not something
that you're going to wait on until you see whether or not
you prove out. If you believe on the Son, by
the operation of the Divine Spirit, you are a child of God. You're
an heir of heaven and you belong to the Lord. The spiritual life
which is in the believer at this moment is the same life which
shall be in him in heaven. Same life. Same life. The grace
life is the glory life, isn't it? The grace life is the glory
life. In the bud. In the bud. The same life, only less developed. but it'll be developed to the
full when we leave this world and go into the presence of our
God. Death sets a seal on that which
is, but it produces nothing. It produces nothing. When a believer
dies, he goes into the presence of God. His soul is alive. He'll
be with Jesus forever and ever. When death comes, we'll be gone.
When I'm here, death is not here. I'll be with the Lord when the
Lord calls me out of this body. And we'll be in His presence.
I have the same life I got this morning. Same life. More developed. More developed. But I have the
same life. Heavenly life. Eternal life.
Spirit life. Our believing life, to put it
simply, is eternal life. That's what it is. So you see,
when we're talking about a person believing, we're talking about
a person starting. Something's starting in you.
It's going to last forever. It's not a temporary situation,
as we've said. I've got to hurry on. Well, to
what end? That's to whom he's written.
Written to believers. Those who believe. To what end,
as John written, that you may know that everybody who believes
in Jesus Christ has eternal life. His first meaning is, this is
not a fact about you and a few others only, but it's a general
truth. Every man that believes on the
Son of God has eternal life. Somebody said, boy, that's simple,
isn't it? It is, but some of you don't
believe it. Some of you never have owned it. Some of you never
confessed it. Some of you never submitted yourself
to the Lord in baptism because you believe this. It's a general
truth that every man that believes on the Son of God has eternal
life. You say, well, you mean if I'm not a church member? That's right. You say, well,
you mean if I'm not, if I disappointed my folks last
week? Well, if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that
it's all right for you to disappoint your folks. I'm not going to
tell you that. But I am going to tell you this,
that salvation doesn't have anything to do with you either disappointing
them or not disappointing them. Salvation is you believing on
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now this is not a matter
of opinion, but a matter of revelation from God. 1 John 5 and 1, as
we've been reading it several times, and I illustrate it by
saying that when you're driving a railroad spike in an oak log
that you'll hit it a few licks and then you'll come back and
hit it again. Drive it a little bit and come back and drive it
a little bit more. Well, 1 John 5.1, Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. I hit it again. There
it is. The Spirit of God said it. It
must be true. It just must be true. If you
believe on the Son, if you believe that Jesus Christ is born of
God, then you have eternal life. He that hath the Son hath life.
Told somebody's going to preach very simple this morning, that
simple. He that hath the Son hath life. If we receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater. How many times
must he say it before we believe it? How many times? We're going to have to hear it.
Full assurance is possible, and if it is possible, we should
desire it, should we not? It will produce gratitude, oh
my, the gratitude that it produces to know that your sins are forgiven
and you're saved. It will help you live above the
world because the victory that overcomes the world is even our
faith. Wasn't that what you read? That's what he read. That's the
victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. The only people
who overcome the world are the people who believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Well, it will inspire our service
to God. I don't know of anything that's
going to build a fire under people anymore than knowing for sure
they're saved. not have to grapple with that
anymore. Not have to be, for that to be
up in the air. You'd just be surprised. You
people are sheltered people. You'd be surprised how many people
there are out here in this world that grapple with that every
day. Am I or am I not saved? Do I know the Lord or do I not
know the Lord? It's a mystery. People do not
know, but once you know, And the Lord reveals it to you, makes
it known, and you have the witness of the Spirit within, that you
are a child of God. It will inspire service to God. And I'm looking to see God liberate
some people here, some young fellows. Liberate them to preach
the gospel. I just look for it. But I'll
tell you what, they've got to be anchored first. They've got
to be anchored. And I'll tell you, somebody that's
anchored is a person that's going to grow head and shoulders past
everybody else. If you know that God has saved
you. If you know of a certainty. And it's not presumption for
you to go out and say, I believe that God has saved me and I've
got something to say and I'm going to stand up and say it.
I've got something to say. I've got something to talk about.
I've got something that somebody needs to hear. God has given
me eternal life and I know that He's given me eternal life. It
will inspire service to God. A person who doesn't know they're
saved isn't worth a plug nickel, as the old saying is, in the
service of God. What good can he do? We've got
to know what we believe, and we've got to stand, and if we
do know, then we will stand, and we'll have a word. I told
you, I think, some time ago about the fellow who came to the church
service, and the preacher preached, And the fellow comes to the back
door as he's going out and said, well, I don't believe a thing
you said, but I believe you do. And that, my friend, is important.
That those who are in the service of God know what they believe.
And don't you ever stand up to preach if you don't know you're
saved. If you don't know that salvation is in a person in Jesus
Christ, don't stand up to preach. Don't talk about preaching until
you've got this settled in your mind. Well, we don't have to
waste time in calculating evidences. He said, I've written these things
to you that you might believe on the name of the Son of God.
Perpetually examining ourselves. For we have examined ourselves,
have we not? We have examined ourselves. And
I'll tell you what happened when I examined myself and turned
thumbs down on myself. I said, it's over. It's done.
Ain't no way. There's no way. No salvation
for the likes of me. Ain't no way in this world I'm
going to get out of here and go to heaven. Can't do it. I
turned thumbs down. All the evidence. I've done all
the sifting around to see if there's anything good. Didn't
find anything. So what did I do? Just cast myself
upon Christ and believed in the name of Jesus Christ. You know
what I got? Eternal life. That's what I got. I got eternal life. And those
of you this morning that will just quit this endless, this
perpetual examining of yourself to see if there's some good thing
in you that you could nail down, that you could have some confidence
in. My friend, you're in rebellion
against God. Forget it. Cast yourself on Christ. Believe in Him. Trust Him. You
better trust Christ rather than ever trust anything you find
in yourself. Because nine times out of ten,
if you found something good, it wouldn't be there tomorrow.
Or it wouldn't be there next week. It'd be gone before you're
another year older. So learn to trust Christ. It
is possible to have full assurance. And if it is, it's your duty. I say to you, it's your duty
to obtain, to obtain, to lay hold of it. It's your duty to
do it. Believe the Word. You know, I told you about how
remarkable it is that first you believe, and the feelings come. I've had some feelings. Bless
God, I've had some feelings. I praise God for it. But first
is the belief of the Word. Because there have been plenty
of days when I didn't have any feelings either. But if you believe the
Word, the feelings will come. If you believe the Word. Well,
I'm going to have to quit. The time's gone. I wanted to
talk more about, I wanted to give you a little bit more on
the definition of faith, but the time is pretty well gone. So I think we'll close for today
and maybe take that up at another time. But I trust that the Lord
has given you some understanding this morning of this very simple
but profound truth, that these things, the Word of God says,
are written that you might believe. on the name of the Son of God,
and that you might have eternal life, know you have it, and that
you might just go on believing, go on believing on the name of
the Son of God.