Tonight we're gonna be in the book of Proverbs, the 14th chapter. Our topic is the elect's confidence. Two times in this chapter, or in our text rather, the word confidence is used. One is referring to the brutish man, the sinful, unrighteous, self-righteous, ungodly, wicked man. And the other one's talking about the Lord's elect, And so both men have confidence in something, but only one can be right. And this evening, I'm hoping the Lord will teach us what the elect's confidence is.

Throughout our brief time upon this earth, our Lord be our teacher, we will learn that we are constantly let down. We're let down by each other. We're let down by the world. We're let down by coworkers. And we let ourself down a lot too, don't we? Matter of fact, my opinion, that's the biggest one. Constantly doing that which I would not, as Paul said. That which I would do, I desire to do unto the Lord. I desire to seek his face more, desire to read his word more, desire to grow more in him. And yet I find myself, the day has passed, and I haven't spent the time that I wanted to spend with my Savior. That's embarrassing, isn't it? And yet he says one look from you ravishes his heart, ravishes his heart.

The reason we let ourself down and reason everything around us lets us down is because we're not meant to have confidence in ourself. We're not meant to have confidence in the flesh. We're not meant to have confidence in each other in the facts of looking to someone else to justify ourself of our salvation. We don't look at each other like that. We can have confidence in our brothers and sisters in love, but I'm saying that having confidence in the things around us is something we no longer do because we look through the spiritual eyes that the Lord has given us. We don't look at the physical anymore. And so the world looks at everything from a physical standpoint, but the believer still has that physical standpoint. And yet the Lord has given a completely new set of eyes that can see through things, that can look to Christ through eyes of faith. And that is where our confidence comes in.

Men that do not have this spiritual insight cannot see spiritually. They can only see carnally. Therefore, their confidence is in what they do or what they don't do or what they have done or moral reformation. It could be a bunch of things. But to the believer, our confidence is not what we do or what we do not do. It's all about what the Lord Jesus Christ did, what he accomplished. Paul said this. 2 Corinthians 4, for our light, affliction, which is but for a moment worketh in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

We look through the spiritual eyes, we look on things not seeing the eternal things. How do we do that? Well, that's the gift of the Lord by grace. He gives us faith to see him, believe him, trust him. It's interesting because our flesh might feel at some point that something's right, like we could do this, it'd be okay, it's right. But our Lord has revealed that ain't right, don't do that. And the Lord's given us the ability to say truth, Lord, I trust you. And sometimes we still fall flat on our face. I'm not saying we don't do that, but I'm simply implying that the Lord's given us that ability in looking unto him rather than taking matters into our own hands. We are able to rest in his finished work rather than feeling like I've got to fix that, or I got to do that. It's finished. It's finished. That's the confidence that we have.

Now to the contrary, the wicked, as they're called in this chapter, the self-righteous, the ungodly, that's all the same thing. They have the same thing in common. The Lord Jesus Christ has left them to themselves. And they look to the physical things to determine their salvation, to determine their rest, to determine their refuge, to determine their help. And that word confidence, it means refuge. That's what it means, refuge. And that's what they're looking to is what they're doing and what they're not doing as their confidence.

This is all because they can only look at physical things because physical things are with our sight, temporary sight. They've not been born again. But by the grace of God, the Lord's people look to Jesus Christ alone through eyes of faith. He is alone, the elect's confidence. That's what our title is, the elect's confidence.

Let's read this together. Proverbs 14, verse 13 through 26. Last week I started reading verse chapter 13, so I'm making sure I'm in the right spot this time.

Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the ends of the mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going. The wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident.

The fool rageth and is confident. That's the first one right there, isn't it? The fool rageth and is confident. I'll tell us what that means in just a minute.

Verse 17, he that is soon angry, dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is hated. The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The evil bow before the good. and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. The poor is hated, even of his own neighbor, but the rich have many friends. He that despises his neighbor sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. Do they not err that devise evil? But mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. In all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly. A true witness deliver his souls, but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.

Here's our last one. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.

So we see the two contrasting right there. The first one, Back in 16, wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. Then you have the, that's the non-believer, that's the fool. And then you have the wise man, which is by the Lord's grace alone. It says, in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge.

And we have seen those contrasts here of those whom Christ loves, those whom Christ died for, those who Christ has redeemed versus those who Christ left to themselves. We see a lot of different parallels, total opposites, totally polar opposites.

Why? Because they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit mind the things of the spirit. Somebody might say, well, I'm still in the flesh. That's true. That's true. But Christ said, you must be born again. And we're born of the spirit above. A new heart's given, and the Lord gives faith to believe God. Whatever God has said, you have two natures. Whenever Rebecca was with child, the Lord told her, you're gonna have children. And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? She was having problems with her stomach because they were fighting inside of her. And she was told by the Lord, because you have two nations inside of you, two different people.

And we know before you, they were even warned, Jacob, if I love Esau, if I hate him, from Romans chapter nine. And so that's a picture of the new man and the old man. And he said, it said unto her that the elder shall serve the younger. Well, that's our flesh. That's our flesh that serves the new man created in righteousness, the creature created in righteousness.

There's never been a creature born that didn't have a nature, not one time. No, every creature born has a nature. And the Lord's people, when we're born again, we're given His holy nature on the inside, the new man that looks to Him in all things and believes on Him in all things and is confident in Him alone in all things.

So what is our confidence? Well, In verse 16, as we said, it says a wise man feareth and departeth meekly, but the fool rageth and is confident. Now this is the fool, the wicked, also called the simple, the proud and the evil described here in our text. But that word rageth means go their own way. They go their own way. I would have thought raging would have been something, physical violence maybe or something, but it literally, the translation is go their own way. It means God has left them to themselves. That's what that means. That's all that that means. They go their own way.

You and I would have been just the same. We would have done exactly the same and we will today if the Lord takes his hand off of us. We'll go our own way. That's what he said in Isaiah 53, all we like sheep. I've gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all." That's the good news, isn't it?

They're confident. The word confident in this verse also, right? Just means go their own way. And they're confident to go their own way, to trust in or feel secure. That's what confident means here. They trust in and feel secure for going their own way. They're confident in the lie. Do we see that? The lie. Well, what is the lie? Well, there's several lies, but the biggest one is probably that you can be your own God. And you say, well, I've never heard that before. Well, that's what men are saying whenever they say, choose Jesus. Or they say, make Jesus Lord of your life. He already is. You can't make him something, he already is. That's why we don't preach it that way. It's not what the Bible says. The word receive is, that's passive. If you find yourself being the recipient of grace, it's because grace alone. It's not because of a decision we made.

So they're trusting in the lie that they can make their own choice in salvation. And this is what most churches preach and what most people believe. They look to a decision they made, a prayer that they prayed or something that they have done in contribution to add to or to take away from the finished work of Christ. That is their confidence. That is their confidence.

Now, Our confidence, look at verse 26, in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge. Our confidence is not so. Our confidence is not in ourself, not in a choice that we made, not in a decision that we made, not a prayer that we prayed. Our confidence Our comfort, our assurance comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, the prayer that he prayed, the intercessory prayer that he prayed, the life that he lived, the decision that he made to become a man and die for his people, the work that he accomplished, all of his works, the perfect life, the perfect death, burial, and resurrection. That is our confidence, not in ourself, not in our flesh. We see that there's no good thing in our flesh. He is our confidence. He is our refuge from the wrath of God.

Psalm 62 says, in God is my salvation and my glory, the rock of my strength and my refuge is in my God. God's chosen people are the only ones who have a place of rest in this world. It's interesting because the old man never takes ownership for the sin that it has. The old man don't see it. The new man takes ownership for the sin of the old man, but it's already gone. Isn't that amazing? The old man won't take ownership of it. So that's our sin. And the Lord says, I've already put it away. I've already put it away.

Well, why do I say that on top of what I was saying here about living in this world, what we go through in life and how our Lord is our refuge. We have one place to rest. Well, because a lot of times what we're feeling as believers is we wrestle in the flesh with our sin, we're bothered by our sin, we sorrow over our sin, we hurt, and we need to be reminded that that sin's already gone. Lord just already put it away. You tell a believer that, it does not make them want to sin more, it makes them never want to sin again, because we see how glorious and wonderful it is to be sin-free in the sight of God.

We struggle because we see our sin, and we're constantly looking or trying to look unto the Lord on how we handle certain situations at different times, because we don't want to be a reproach on the church, or we don't want to, there's many different reasons why we do what we do, but we're looking unto our Savior the entire time. That's the whole point.

People that's never heard the truth, that's not been spiritually born again, they don't have that burden. They don't have that burden. They can't think of their sin. They don't see their sin. They don't sorrow and grieve and hurt. And some of them may have the thoughts that I'm about to say, but my thoughts are, well, if I was really, you ever heard this one before, this one creep up on your, in your ear before? Well, if you were really a believer, you would not do that. If you were really one of his, you would have never done that. Has that ever been whispered in your ear before?

That's because we're not looking to our confidence. We're looking to ourself at that time. And that's what our adversary constantly does is he constantly comes up and he accuses us of sinning. And he goes to the father and accuses us before the father. And all he's doing is just pointing to Christ and the blood of Christ and said, what Lord says, what sin there? It's gone. I put it away. It's gone. That's our confidence. That's our confidence that we now can come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy. and find grace to help in the time of need because our sin has been taken away. We've been given full assurance. We can rest on the Sabbath. We've made to be confident, not in ourselves, but by the Lord Jesus Christ, by grace alone. Paul said this, Philippians 3.3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We're made to have no confidence in the flesh. We're made to have no confidence in anything else other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's his bread that satisfies. It's his fountain of living water that quenches our thirst, his blood. It's not what we do, it doesn't fix it. He fixed it. It's already fixed and ain't broken anymore. Salvation is accomplished by the Lord for his people. We have confidence in that.

You ask a believer, Anytime, do you know, you're 100% sure if you died right now, you'd go to heaven. Their answer would be, I know that God is sovereign and he successfully redeemed his people. And if he didn't die for me, I have no hope of eternal life. That's what they would say. They're not gonna look at you and say, yeah, because I do this and I don't do that. I'm positive. I'm going to go, I'll be, I'll be in heaven.

No, we don't. We have confidence in one thing. I cannot examine myself and say, okay, now I know I'm a believer because of this. I know I'm a believer because I believe Jesus Christ accomplished salvation. That's what I believe. And the Lord has to be the one to reveal that. That's not a decision I made. The Lord had to open up my eyes. I was blind and in darkness. I was dead and dying. And the Lord came to where I was and opened up my eyes and showed me Him high and lifted up. And I said, I was wrong. I'm undone. I'm vile. I never knew I was this bad. I had no idea. I thought I was doing pretty good. I found out that I'm a worm. I'm no man. I'm a dead dog sinner.

And then the Lord showed me Jesus Christ and showed me that he became the worm that I am so that I might be made the righteousness of God in him. He took every sin of his people and he put them away by the death and the sacrifice of himself. He satisfied God's demands. There's our confidence.

The world that we live in is going to try to distract our mind and go back to the confidence that they have, whether it be confidence. I mean, it could be monetary, it could be things, it could be power, popularity, pleasure, whatever it may be, this is their confidence. But also in the religious realm, it could be what they do as part of their salvation or evidence of their salvation. And they're constantly going to seem like that they're at peace, that they're at peace.

I'm reminded the scripture tells us that they came to the Lord or the Lord said this, that these people said, we have made a covenant with death and with hell we are in agreement. And the Lord said, he said, you're a fool. He said, because when the overwhelming scourge comes, your covenant, I'm going to disannul it. Your covenant's not going to work. And that's what people are doing. They're making a covenant with death, thinking that they're going to be okay. I don't do this anymore. I don't do that anymore. I live a good life. You know, I do this.

Brethren, that's not good enough. We've got to have Christ being our confidence. Nothing that we do can be our confidence. Lord, if I'm confident in this flesh and what I do is any part of my salvation, strip me of it tonight, right now, get it out of me. Search me and know me because if I have confidence in myself, I'm not looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that simple. We are made to have confidence in nothing else besides the Lord Jesus Christ. So I pretty much already preached the first point I was gonna make, but the first point would be, we are made to be confident that he that began a good work will finish it. Will finish it. Philippians chapter one verse six says, being confident of this very thing. There's some things we're confident about. Do you know that? Scripture tells us clearly, being confident is one thing. He that begun a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ.

What good work? What good work did he perform? It's his salvation for his elected sinners. That's the work that he performed. Well, I thought you said it's already finished. I did. We just haven't been able to experience glorification yet. That's the last part. That's it. Everything else is already done. It's already happened in God's eyes, but you and I just haven't experienced it yet. I love that. So nothing can stop it. I can't mess that up. That's good news.

Now the good work is the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of his chosen people. It's how God saved his people from their sin. It's how God saved sinners. That's the work that was completely given to the Lord Jesus Christ. The father gave him the book. He was the only one worthy to loose the seals and open the book thereof, which indicated the wrath of God, the perfect wrath of God to be poured out upon him. He didn't hand me the book and he didn't hand you the book because none were found worthy. And they were in heaven at this time. Think about that. None were found worthy, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse, the scripture says.

And the Lord Jesus Christ took that book and he endured the seals of that book to satisfy God's law, to satisfy God's demand, to satisfy God's judgment, to satisfy God's justice. He didn't ask my opinion. He didn't ask my permission. He didn't ask for my help. He didn't need me to lend him a hand. It's finished. It's finished. There's our confidence. There's our confidence. He took our guilt. He took our shame. He took our separation. He drank the bitter cup of damnation. His soul was made to be an offering for sin. His blood being the sin atoning, the only sin atoning substance that's ever been. Think about that. No other blood put away sin. No other blood put away sin. All of those Old Testament sacrifices were looking to the cross. They were done by faith looking to the cross. That blood didn't make the sin go away. It was just honoring what the Lord had said and it covered it for the year. Then they had to do it again.

But when this man had offered up himself one time for the sins of his people, He purged our sin and sat down thereby. How did he do that? By his own blood. God's elect have confidence in our successful Redeemer that the salvation is not an offer to man, but it was offered to God and God was satisfied with that offer. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He was satisfied with the offer of Christ on the cross. And he saved his people from their sin. That means it's gone. And I can't iterate that enough.

Somebody here tonight, if you felt, or somebody listening, if you felt heavy, guilty, and we do, sometimes we do. That's why Christ said, come unto me all ye that are labored and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. We're laboring and toiling and we're burdened and we're concerned about things. And all it is is unbelief and our sin whenever we're worried about things. We're not looking to Christ, we're not looking to our confidence. And then the Lord reveals himself to us, and then we feel guilty even more, like I should have cried out sooner. And the Lord says, fear not David, I've put away your sin. You're not gonna die, nor it's not gonna kill you. Why? Because Christ endeared the wrath necessary so that all that we get from the Lord is goodness and mercy and grace and peace and love and joy unspeakable and full of glory. That's what he gives his people. We can be confident in the Lord and what he accomplished. Lord is pleased to look on Jesus Christ and pardon his people. He sees us as worthy. I want you to think of that word worthy. Worthy sons and daughters of God. That is what the blood of Christ accomplished. Worthy. Would you feel worthy? No. Unworthy, unclean. Lord said, I've made you worthy.

We're going to turn over to Isaiah here a little bit. But he said, I bought you, I redeemed you, you're mine. You're mine, you're worthy. Made the very righteousness of God in Christ, made as holy as the Lord is himself. You're saying the flesh is holy? No, the flesh didn't change a bit. It's gonna die and go back to dust, but the new man created in righteousness, it's created in holiness. Scripture says this, that's not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy. It's according to his mercy. That's our confidence. Are you confident in the Lord's mercy and grace? I can't be confident in mine. You confident in your love towards him? No. Confident in your belief towards him? No. But I'm confident in his love. I'm confident in his obedience. I'm confident in his faithfulness. That's our confidence, says the Lord's people. That's our confidence.

I'll read this again, Philippians 1.6, being confident of this very thing, he, which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, which brings us to our second point. He started the work and he's going to see it through. God's elect have confidence that he is going to keep his people. He's never going to leave them. He's never going to forsake them. The Lord said, all that the father give me shall come to me. And he that cometh to me on no wise cast out. All the father give me, I have lost none. He's not going to lose one, not one sheep. He's going to keep us. to the very, very end for his. He's going to keep us all the way. And the same confession we have right now of Jesus Christ and how precious he is and what he accomplished on the cross will be our only hope as we lay on our bed or I assume it'd be deathbed. I'll call it that. And we're taking our last breath. Our hope is still going to be this. This is still going to be our confidence. If we're the Lord's, he's going to keep us believing this over anything else, denying ourself and believing him. We have confidence that he keeps his people.

Oh, the miserable state of self-righteous religionists that keep having more reformation, rededication. You remember, I don't know if any of you, what kind of churches y'all came from, but they used to have altar calls and things, one of them I was from, and they had a lot of times people get rededicated. My wife went to a free will Baptist church and they actually got re-saved. They'd lose their salvation. That's a scary thought, isn't it? And I'm not picking on anybody right now. I'm not making fun of anybody. I'm just simply saying, this is what people really truly believe is how it is. Now I got to rededicate myself. I've got to, I've got to, my morals need to be better. And they're confident in that for a while. And then maybe they backslide again. And they got that out of the old Testament when the children of Israel would wander away from the Lord, but they may backside for a time. Then the third of the Lords, they'll say, well, I'll bring him back. And they'll just have to rededicate. They'll have to do this. And they come to an altar again.

And that's not my confidence. What I do and what you do is not our confidence. What I do is not what I look at to determine my salvation in any way. I look to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. I look to his prayer, his dedication. I look to his service unto the Lord and unto his people. I look to his work. And then I also look to his hand in life, knowing that he is guiding, he is directing as the seated successful redeemer of his people on his throne, that nothing's going to touch me unless it comes through his hand. Nothing can happen. He's going to keep his people. That's what he said. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He's not gonna lose one.

I'm confident, we can be confident together in the Lord that he is going to keep his chosen people. Listen to this verse. I got it. Well, I got emotional whenever I saw this because 1 John chapter 3 verse 21 says, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. Does your heart condemn you? Then you're looking in the wrong place. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. If your heart If your heart condemn you not, then we have confidence towards God. The only way that you can approach the throne of grace, the only way that we can approach God is if our heart doesn't condemn us because our confidence doesn't remain in us. It remains in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's keeping us looking unto Him, looking unto Him. We just read over there in Psalm 27, I'm going to paraphrase this, but it said, When thou said, seek you my face, then my heart said, thy face will I seek. Oh Lord. Is that not the truth of it? Lord, I need you to cause me to look. I need you. Don't give me an invitation. I don't want it. I don't need an invitation. Make me look. I want to look. But I constantly am forgetting and I'm constantly being distracted by the thoughts of this life and the things of the world and the pressures of life in general. Lord, give me Christ. Cause me to stop and look to you in all things, in all things. Make me know that you're my confidence in all things.

Only God's chosen people have true confidence in God alone. Our hearts, Do not condemn us. Why? Because we believe Christ whenever he said that he by himself purged our sin by his own blood, he sat down. When he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down. It means it's gone. Are you confident in that? That the sin that he put away is gone? Absolutely. That's my only hope is he put my sin away. That's my only hope. He hath saved his people. This is what he said in Isaiah 43. I told you we'd hear that in a little bit. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overthrow, overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned. Neither shall a flame kindle upon you. Why? Because he keeps his people.

That was the verse, actually, that Bobby and I were looking at as we were praying to come up here, trying to determine whether or not the Lord was in it. That's what we were supposed to do. My Bible fell open. We were in a parking lot early on Sunday. I fell open, I looked at that, and I read that, and I let her read it, and we just looked at each other. And he said, well, if that's what the Lord's saying, I'll be with you. Walk through the fire, you won't be burned. You go through the waters, the flood won't overtake you. I'm gonna keep you. Why? Because I bought you, I redeemed you, you're mine.

If that's me, Lord, I'll go wherever you want me to go as long as you don't leave me to myself, as long as you go with me. That's what Moses said. Moses was talking to the Lord and the Lord looked at him and talked to him to the bush and he said, fear not Moses for I will be with you.

If you heard that from the Lord, how would that make your day feel like? How would you? The Lord's with me. Well, you're hearing it right now. That's what he's saying to his people. He feeds your confidence. He's with you. He's with you. He says, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. I'll go with you all the way, even to the end. Even when the fire comes around you, even when the water comes around, they won't hurt you.

The overwhelming scourge that's gonna destroy those who are non-believers that the Lord's left to themselves. No, the believer is gonna look to Christ and be found in his righteousness alone. We are confident in his power His will, His ways, we're confident in His sovereignty. Him keeping us the way that He chose to.

What a terrible state it would be if the Lord had saved us and then left us to ourself. But He gave us a comforter, didn't He? It's like He told the disciples, if I go not away, the comforter cannot come. But the Lord sent His comforter, His Spirit, to His people that ministers unto us, that directs us, that causes us to look to Christ. Causes us to look to Christ. left to ourself, it'd be miserable.

But here are the good news. Psalm 121, the Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.

How long is evermore? Forever and ever and ever and ever. And he's never gonna stop. He's never gonna stop because he can't lie.

Which brings us to our last point. We have been given good confidence that we will awake in his likeness. We will awake in his likeness, whether by our resurrection or by the way of the grave. He said, when we see him, we shall be made like him, for we shall see him as he is, going to be made just like him. As a matter of fact, that's how the father sees it right now. We just can't see it. It's on the inside. We're in Christ seated in the heavenly right now. We can't see it that way because we're still in the flesh, but that's what scripture talks about. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I don't know if it'll be the resurrection when he comes back with the shout, the voice of the archangel, trump of God shall sound the dead and Christ will rise first. And we are, which are alive and remain, shall be called up together to be with him in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. I don't know if that's how we're going to go. If it was to not, that'd be just fine with me. But if it's not, we go by the way of grave. Either way, to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.

We're an awake, perfectly righteous, having never sinned one time in the image of what God loves the most, his darling son. Confident in that. I'm confident in that. How can you be confident in that? Well, because he put our sin away. That's the only way we can be confident in that. He put the sin away of his people.

He said, 1 John 2, 28, now little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. You don't have to be ashamed when he returns, because he finished everything. He's not going to look at you. I remember even in religion, people would say, oh, they take that verse that says God's going to bring every deed, whether it be good or whether it be evil, as if it's going to be projected onto a movie screen for everybody to see. And that was a scare tactic they had. You better be living right. If you don't, a projector is going to show everybody everything. Everybody's going to know everything about you.

For the believer, and I say this on the authority of God's word, for the believer, all that's left is good. You're going to have, if it is a video, which it's not, you know that, but whatever it's projecting, it's going to be Jesus Christ, 100%. We're not going to be on the screen. He'll be on the screen. It's all about him. We're in him. We died in him and therefore died into death, died into hell, died into the grave. And now being in him, our life is hid with Christ in God. Whenever he sees us, he'll see his son. and say, enter in thou good and faithful servant. Enter in thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many.

That's our confidence, isn't it? That's our only hope. What a comfort it is, brethren, to know we have confidence in our successful Savior. I'll quote one more verse, or read one more verse to you. Corinthians 5, 6 says, Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." We desire to be with the Lord is what he's saying, and that's true. I am confident. that everything he did, he was successful in doing. And these people have been made perfectly righteous. And if he was to return and I am in him, we have nothing to fear whatsoever. If you're in him, you have nothing to fear whatsoever. The wrath of God has ceased for the believer, for the elect of God forever and ever and ever. He's not going to bring up sin against you. Our adversary will, but it doesn't matter because the Lord says they're gone. I put them away.

Three things we're confident in. We're confident in his finished work and salvation of his people. We're confident in him keeping us to the end. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. And lastly, we are confident that we will awake in his likeness. We'll be made just like him before we'll see him as he is. This is the Alex confidence.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take these words and bless them for your glory and honor in Christ's name, amen.