One of the glorious things about
heaven that I know by faith and not by experience, that there
will be no dullness in the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
how I look forward to that. No dullness, no I mean, all of heaven is going
to be spent simply, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall
still repeat. And the wonder of that will go
greater and greater and greater. I've entitled the message for
this evening, The Evidence of Salvation. Now, if God has saved a man,
there will be evidence. There will be. You know, the
primitive Baptist view that you may just wake up in heaven and
find out you've been saved. No, no. That's completely erroneous. The view that You've had some
kind of life altering experience back in the past. You must've
been saved then. Although you give no evidence
now, that's not true. There will be evidence. My question
is, what is the scriptural evidence? I want to know if I have the
scriptural evidence. I want to bring myself to this
test. Now, Paul had been enumerating,
and I'm going to go briefly over them, all the spiritual blessings
that every believer has in Christ Jesus. And he says in verse 15,
wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers. Now, what is the evidence? Now think about the blessings
he enumerated. I hope that we can get a hold
of what we have in Christ Jesus. He said, you've been chosen by
God. Think of that. God chose you
before time began to be holy. And beloved, if he chose you
to be holy, you know what? You are holy. And without blame,
without blame justified in his sight. He loved you. He predestinated you to be just
like Christ. He adopted you into his family. You really are his child. His child by adoption, His child
by birth. He birthed you into His kingdom. He's made you accepted in the
beloved. I mean, you're accepted. God
finds you well-pleasing. He hath graced us is the word.
He hath graced us in the beloved. You have redemption. All your
sins are paid for. You have the forgiveness of sins. And he has abounded toward you
all the riches of his grace. He made known to you the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure. Do you know the
gospel? He made it known to you in the
revelation of Himself. He has purposed that you're going
to be gathered together in that great gathering when He gathers
together in one all things in Christ. And you are going to
be a part of that heavenly choir. You're going to have worship
that's not like worship here. We're so dull. No, not there. You have obtained an inheritance. Whatever Christ inherits, you
inherit. You have trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ. You've believed. You've been
sealed by the Spirit of God. You have the earnest of the inheritance
right now. Now this is true of every believer. And Paul says to these Ephesians
in verse 15, wherefore I also, now how do you know these people
have these unspeakable gifts? And they're unspeakable, aren't
they? There's not a more sublime passage in all the Word of God
that tells us what the believer has in Christ for the glory of
His grace. How do you know these people
have this, Paul? How do you know? Well, he gives this simple answer.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. and your love to all the saints. Now here we have the evidence
of salvation. The evidence that God elected
you, that he predestinated you, that he made you holy and unblameable,
that he loved you and called you. Here's the evidence, faith
in Christ and love to his people. Let me say before I go on that
anything but these two things that you derive assurance from
is a false assurance. Now understand that. Anything
that you derive any assurance from that is not these two things
is a false assurance. If your assurance comes from a past experience.
I remember when I learned grace. I remember when I had a life-altering
experience in religion. Or if your assurance comes from,
well, I am living in such a way that I think shows God's grace
is on me. I am trying to battle sin and
I'm trying to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, looking at myself, I believe that the
Lord has done something for me. I can tell by the way I am. Now, if you gain assurance from
any of those things, it is a false assurance. You will not be saved
if that is what you are doing. That's how important this is.
Now, does that mean we don't care about our lives and our
conduct? No, not at all. I want to honor
Christ in my life, don't you? I want to glorify his grace.
I want to live as become a saint. I do. I'm not indifferent about
those things. Every believer wants to honor
him, but I get absolutely no comfort from anything that has
anything to do with me. I can't look at my life and say,
well, I must be saved. Look at me. No, as a matter of
fact, when I start looking at my life, I think I must not be
saved. And I think that's the way every believer is. That's
when you lose your assurance. If you can gain assurance by
your life, you're deceived. You're just
deceived. The only thing that a believer
is allowed to draw assurance that the Lord's done something
for him is faith in Christ, and love to his people. Now, let
me say this real briefly. I can say this so confidently. Do you love Christ? Now, I'm not asking you. Don't
think about yourself. I'm talking about thinking about
him. Do you love his sovereignty? Do you love his holiness? Do
you love his power? Do you love his beauty? Do you
love his righteousness? Do you love who he is? Do you
love his attributes? You say, yes, I do. Now let me
ask you something else. Do you love everybody who loves
him? If somebody loves him, they really
love him as he's revealed in his word. Do you love that person? Yes, you do. That's something
that you can answer with the yes. What is the evidence? Faith in Christ and love to his
saints. And this is not an isolated scripture.
Let me look at a few others. Turn to Galatians chapter five, verse six. For in Jesus Christ, Neither
circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith,
which worketh by love. Turn to Colossians 1. Verse three. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. and of the love which
you have to all the saints. Now, I'm not asking you how much
you love them. We ought to love everybody more, shouldn't we?
No question about that. But every believer loves every
saint because they're saints of God. You don't love them necessarily
because they're lovely. You love them because who they
are, they're saints of God. And yes, they are lovely in Christ. That's how you love them. Love
and faith. Turn to 1 John 3. 1 John 3. Verse
14. We know that we passed from death
to life because we love the brethren. Look down in verse 23 of the
same chapter, and this is his commandment, that we should believe
on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Now there's faith. We
believe on the name of his son. Now his name is his attributes,
it's his characteristics. I am relying on His justice to
save me. I am relying on His love to save
me. I am relying on His sovereign
will to save me, for Him to will my salvation. I'm relying on
His power to save me. And I really believe that the
only way I want to be named is in His name. I believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only name I find any
hope that God will save me, it's for Christ's sake. It's because
I'm in him. I believe on his name. Do you? Do you believe on his
name? And not only does he say that,
but that we should love one another as he gave us commandment. Now, back to our text, Ephesians
chapter one. Paul does not say, since I heard
of your numerical growth, Now see, God must really be blessing.
He doesn't say, since I heard of all the things you were doing
to spread the gospel. He said, since I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus. He's the Lord. That means he's
the dictator. That means he's the one whose
will is always done. That's what Lord means. You know,
somebody called me recently and they said, have you heard anything
about the Lordship controversy? That ain't no controversy. He's
Lord. There's no controversy about
that at all. He's Lord of everybody. And I
love thinking about this. He's everybody's Lord. He's Lord
both of the dead and the living. That man dead and sins, Christ
is their Lord. They're in His hand. He's gonna
use them for His glory. And they can't do anything without
Him being the first cause behind it for His own glorious purpose.
He's the Lord of the dead. I like the thought of going out
tomorrow and just looking at people going by that don't even
know the Lord, and saying, He's their Lord. They don't know it,
but He's their Lord. They'll find out one of these
days, every knee's gonna bow to Him, but all are under His
Lordship. He's the Lord of the believers.
Oh, he's, God has made this same Jesus whom you crucified, both
Lord and Christ. And I, you know, we sing these,
these hymns that I love, but there's still something, right?
You're like, I love the hymn, crown him with many crowns, but
I think you can't crown him. He's crowned by his father. He's in absolute control. I don't
crown him. He's the Lord. He crowns himself
as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. He's the altogether
glorious Lord. He's my Lord. I love what Thomas
said, my Lord and my God. He's the Lord Jesus, how we love
his name. We love to sing of Christ our
King and hail him, blessed Jesus. For there's no word here ever
heard so dear, so sweet as Jesus. Now here's why we love his name.
Matthew 121 says thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sins. Turn with me for a moment to
Hebrews chapter 11. I heard of your faith in the
Lord Jesus. Now look in Hebrews chapter 11,
verse one. Now, faith is the substance. It's the ground or confidence,
the proof. Now, faith is the proof of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. Now, right off the bat, What
we hope for, we can't see, right? Doesn't scripture say that? What
a man sees, why does he yet hope for? What we hope for, we don't
see. And there are some things that
we certainly can't see. I cannot see my name written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. I cannot see that I stand before
God without seeing that God looks at me and He sees someone who
has never sinned, who has the very righteousness of His Son,
holy, unblameable, and unreprovable on the side of God. I can't see
that. I can't see that I have a holy nature that does not commit
sin. I can't see those things. Well,
how do you know you have them? Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Do you look to Christ right now
as all you have to bring you into God's presence? That's the evidence that you're
elect, that you're chosen, that you're holy, that you're unblameable.
That's the evidence that you've been predestinated into eternal
life, looking to Christ only. That's what faith is. Turn with
me to 2 Timothy 1. We touched on this this morning.
2 Timothy 1. Now these words are what Paul
calls the form of sound words. Hold fast the form of sound words
in verse 13. Now this is sound words, healthy
words, words of truth. And this is the outline of the
gospel. And this is where he says, I
know whom I have believed. We're gonna get there in a moment,
which I think is the most, I reckon this is the most important verse
of scripture to describe faith. He didn't say, I know what I
believe. He didn't say, I know when I
believed. He said, I know whom I have believed. Let's see what led him to make
this statement. Look up at verse eight. Be not
thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me, his prisoner. but be thou a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Now, when
I read him saying this to Timothy, he's saying this to Timothy and
to every other timid person. Now, there are people that have
personalities that are just more timid. There are people who don't
mind conflict. There are people who just wilt
before conflict. They don't like the idea of it.
Timothy was one of those people. A lot of God's people are one
of those people. And what does he say? Don't be
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. What I'm getting ready
to say, nor of me, his prisoner, but you be a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Don't you
want to do that? I want to be a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. I want to preach the gospel. I want to preach in such a way
that folks get mad at me. Not believers, but unbelievers. I want to be persecuted for Christ's
sake. I want to be. Every believer
does. The timid believer, the the seemingly
more courageous believer. Everybody wants that, but Paul
is reminding us to be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. And how do we do this? According
to the power of God. Lord, let me be a partaker of
the afflictions of the gospel according to your power. And
here's everything we believe in this Four word phrase, who
hath saved us. That's everything we believe,
isn't it? God hath saved us. He didn't make us savable. He
didn't try to save us. He didn't offer salvation to
us. He saved us. By grace you are saved. He saved us. You know, anything
that's contrary to that in any way is not right, is it? He saved
us. And he called us. The saving
came before the calling. I love knowing that. The saving
came before the calling. You know what that means? That
means I saved completely outside of my personal subjective experience.
It doesn't have anything to do with what I've experienced. I like it that way. He saved
us, and I mean plumb saved, so you can't be anything but saved.
He saved us, and He called us. He called us by the gospel. Wherever He saves somebody, they
will be called by the gospel through the invincible, irresistible
power of God the Holy Spirit. He saved us, and He called us
with a holy calling. Oh, it's a holy calling. You
know anything God does is holy, isn't it? What's holiness, God? You know, I reckon that's the
best definition of holiness there is, isn't it? God. God. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works. We know better than that. Not
according to our works. You see, salvation is not of
works, lest any man should boast. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand. And what is that
purpose of God? Not of works. That's God's purpose. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. He saved us, he called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. All you have in time, you had
in eternity. I love what Greg Elmquist said
a couple of years ago, and it's one of the statements that has
just rang so true as I see the scripture more and more. When
we get to heaven, we'll find out we've always been there.
Always been there in the land. Always been there in the beloved. I've always been there. Time's
just a blip. Can't wait till it's over. And
then that glorious worship will be going on. Now this purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ. And here's what he did, he abolished
death. He abolished death. Now, what
does that mean? I just buried my mother yesterday. She died. What does that mean? Well, the reason for death has been
removed, and now everybody that Jesus Christ died for lives eternally
before God. The reason for death has been
removed. The sting of death is gone. You
see a wasp coming at you, you're scared to death, but what if
the stinger's gone? Well, I can't do anything to you at all. You
might get scared of it anyway. We get scared of death. I mean,
there's so much we don't know about it. So he says, I'm not
afraid of death. You're lying. There's things
you're afraid of. I don't believe that for a second.
But I do know this, the sting is gone. and he hath abolished
death by putting away the reason for death, the sin. 1 John 3,
5, he was manifested to take away our sin and in him is no
sin. And that means that if I'm in
him, I have no sin. He abolished death and brought
life and immortality to life through the gospel, the gospel
that I'm preaching right now. Where into I'm appointed a preacher
and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. That's what
my purpose is, is to preach this gospel. For the which cause I
also suffer these things. You know, Paul was riding from
prison. And he said in this same epistle, the time of my departure
is at hand. And I love the way he called
death a departure. I'm going to depart from this
place into the very presence of Christ. But he knew he's getting
ready to be beheaded. And he was perhaps going to be
killed in just a few days. But yet he says, I'm appointed
a preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles for which cause
I also suffer these things. That's why I'm in prison right
now. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed. I repeat, he didn't say, I know
what I believe. I'm not interested. I know when I believed. I don't
know when you believed. If you're looking back to experience,
you can do it if you want, but it's certainly not safe. That's
not what Paul said. He didn't say, I know what I
believe. He said, I know whom I have believed. Somebody says, I know God. He
knows me. Well, I hope so. Do you know
who he is? See the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
Lord. He's Jesus. He's Christ. He's God. In Him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's the Christ I know. The
one who's in absolute control of everybody and everything.
The one who must be successful. The one who cannot fail nor be
discouraged. Is that the Christ you know? You can't believe in an unrevealed
Christ. I know whom I have believed.
And I'm persuaded. How are you persuaded, Paul?
You see, when the Lord persuades you, you're persuaded. That's
the only way you're ever gonna believe anything is if he persuades
you. And when he persuades you, you'll be persuaded. You'll be
convinced. No man can talk you out of this.
You're the gospel we believe. You can throw anything you want
at me. I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded that Jesus Christ
is all in salvation. I'm persuaded this Bible, this
book is the word of God. I'm persuaded that salvation
is by grace. I'm persuaded that the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness there is. I'm persuaded. I know
whom I have believed, and here's what I'm persuaded about, that
He is able. That's my persuasion, that He
is able. He's able to save me without
any contribution from me. He is able to save them to the
uttermost. but come unto God by him. You
believe that? You believe he's able to save
you to the uttermost? Romans 4 21 says, Abraham staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised,
he was able also to perform. Jude said, now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Paul said in Philippians 3, 20
and 21 concerning Christ, who shall change our vile body
that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body according
to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to
himself. Now, faith is in Christ's ability. And please hear this statement. I'm not gonna say anything more
important than this. To have faith in Christ is to have no
faith in yourself. Faith in Christ excludes faith
in yourself. If you have any faith in yourself
or your ability, you have no faith in Christ. Paul says he's able to keep that
which I have committed to him. Now, if I believe that salvation
in any way to any degree is dependent upon me doing something. I don't care if it's at the beginning
of salvation, me receiving Him, my act of reception, my anything
I do. In the middle, I make myself
more holy, progressively more holy and less sinful through
my acts of obedience. If I think there at the end I'll
be rewarded some higher reward in heaven because of my works
here on earth, I've never committed. You see, you only commit when
you commit all of your salvation in every aspect there is to Him. It's what you do. You do this
intelligently. You know it's by the grace of
God, but just like Potiphar did with Joseph, you put it all in
his hand. You don't want to do anything
else. And to believe in salvation by works in any way is a failure
to commit. You only commit when you trust
him only. as everything in your salvation. You really don't have anything
else. He's all you got. He's all you want. You don't
want it to be any other way. Simply that all God sees is Jesus
Christ. Now that's what it is to commit
to him. You really believe that all God sees, this is your only
hope. This is your only hope that all
God sees is Jesus Christ. That's all I want him to see
with me. I just know that sure that I'm a foot and a half high.
That's what I want to see. I want all God to see is the
Lord Jesus Christ. I know whom I believed and persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day, that day of judgment. Now he said, this is what I heard.
I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love to all
the saints. Now, none of us feel as though
we love enough and we don't, we don't. Who are the saints? They're the
ones he has sanctified. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. They're the holy ones,
chosen to be holy, chosen to be holy in election, declared
to be holy by cross death, made holy when God the Holy Spirit
gave life to them in the new birth, Let me tell you what every saint
has in common. They all see the Lord Jesus as all. And they love,
all love everybody who sees the Lord Jesus as all. They all love him as he's revealed
in scripture with every being, attribute that he has, they love
him for who he is. and they all love those who love
Him. There's nothing to jar this heavenly
melody. And I can say this, anybody who
loves Jesus Christ, I love them. I love them. I may not even like
them, but I still love them because they love Him. I love what Paul said, if any
man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, Let him be anathema,
maranatha. And we understand that. He that
loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of
him. We all see Jesus Christ as altogether lovely. And everyone
who sees Christ is altogether lovely. We love by this. We know
we pass from death to life because we do love the brethren. Now, what is the evidence of
salvation? And you can know whether you
possess these two things. Faith in the Lord Jesus. And
it's this simple. The Lord said to those two blind
men, do you believe that I am able to do this? Yes, Lord. That's what faith is. It's believing
his ability. It's relying on his ability.
I'm relying on his ability to save me. That's faith in Christ.
and love to all those that he loves, all those who love him. And if somebody loves Jesus Christ
as he's revealed in his word, you love that person. Now, these
are, this is the evidence of salvation, faith in Christ and
love to all the saints. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might have this precious gift of faith in the Lord Jesus. Lord, we can't work it up. We can't produce it. We can't
choose it. We ask that you would give us
this faith in thy blessed son. And Lord, we do believe that
he is able. to save us without any contribution
from us. Lord, that's all of our hope.
And Lord, give us this love to thy people. Lord, truly, anyone that loves
your person, they're our friend. We love them. I bless this message
for the Lord's sake. In his name we pray.