We're going to turn back now
to Ephesians 1. There are several kinds of preaching.
There's reckless shooting from the hip, and then there's what some people
call scattergun preaching with a large pattern of buckshot that's
just thrown out there hoping that it'll hit something. And
then that's that preaching where we take dead aim, take our time
and see if we can hit the target. And tonight that's what I'm going
to try to do on the subject assurance, taking dead aim on the subject
assurance. In Ephesians 1 verse 13, in whom
you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. in whom also, after that ye believed,
ye were sealed." And that's another word for assurance, seal, confidence,
confirmed. You were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. Now, we're not all alike. We
don't all have the same experience. We trust the same Lord, we're
redeemed by the same cross. We are cleansed by the same blood,
our names are written in the same book of life, we are in
the same family, but we are not all alike. As the stars differ
from one another in glory and snowflakes are all different,
God's children are different. And there are Believers right
here in this congregation, like Believers of old, who are blessed
with a great confidence in Christ, a great confidence of your saving
interest in Christ. You have great assurance of your
interest in the Redeemer. Now, that's truly a blessing.
I'm sure I wouldn't question your experience, not one time.
You may be able to say with Job, I know that my Redeemer liveth. That's a blessing. You may be
able to say with David, the Lord is my shepherd. Spurgeon said
not ought to be or shall be or could be, but he is my shepherd. You may say with John, we know
that we have passed from death unto life. We know that. But there are others here tonight
and they're just as truly saved, just as sincere in their faith,
just as much a child of God and love just as much. There are
those here tonight who at times feel a strong assurance, at other
times experience tremendous doubts. I mean real doubts, fears and
troubles concerning their relationship with Christ. They experience times of darkness. Is the Lord clean gone? Will
he never hear me again? Could I possibly be his child?
Now, there are times when you feel, yes, I have confidence
and assurance and faith and I can sing with the rest when we all
get to heaven. But there are times when it's
just not that real and not that strong. And then, alas, alas,
there are those who spend most of their time, there are others
here, there are others right here who love Christ. They know
the Lord, they're redeemed. They know whom they have believed.
But they spend most of their time weeping with Newton and
crying, "'Tis a point I long to know." Oft it gives me anxious
thought, Do I love the Lord, or no? Am I his, or am I not?"
They are actually people who love Christ. And I read several
experiences, I didn't prepare to bring them to you, of men
who ministered all their lives, and yet even when they came to
their deathbed, were starved for some assurance of their own
interest in Christ. That's right. on the deathbed
were stars for some confidence, some sign, some assurance that
they belonged to the Lord. I believe much of our trouble
today, I believe I speak for myself and for my friends and
for this church family, I believe most of our trouble lies in four
things. When I speak of those who have
so many doubts and fears about their interest in Christ, do
you believe the Bible? I certainly do. You know I do.
Do you believe you are a sinner? Without doubt. Do you believe
Christ is the only Savior that God will redeem a people that
is purposed to show mercy? You know I believe that, Preacher.
Well, do you trust Christ alone? Have you committed it to him?
Do you pant after the living God as your soul resting in Christ
and his grace and plus nothing, minus nothing? You know that
I am. But I have these doubts, and I live in doubt, and I live
in fear, and my soul is troubled and greatly sorrowful. Well,
maybe our trouble lies in one of these four areas. The first
one is this. We compare ourselves with the giants in the church
of God. We read about men like Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob. We read about men like Isaiah,
and David, and Paul. And because we cannot duplicate
their prayers, I'll be honest with you, when you read Solomon's
prayer in the study, that troubles me. I can't pray like that. There's
just no way I can pray like that. I've tried my best to pray like
that, and I can't do it. And when we read about men in
the Bible, men who tackle armies like David, single-handedly,
going against the giant Goliath, is there not a cause? He believed
there was. And when I stack myself up beside
the faith and feats of these men, Well, you think, well, I'm
not a child of God at all. You ever go through that? That's
one of our problems. We go over here and sometimes
we preachers, and I say this to the young preachers in the
congregation, sometimes we preachers hold up Paul and James and John
for our people to duplicate their feats and their faith. And our
folks look at that and they say, that's not for me. There ain't
no way. And they just go back into these
fears and doubts. Well, there's not any apostles
today, and I don't aspire to be one. And I don't expect you to be
an apostle. They say, well, Paul could heal the sick. Yeah, but
I'm not Paul. Well, Paul could speak in other
tongues. Well, Paul did this and Paul
did that, I know, and praise God for Paul. But I am not Paul. And when I try to be, I'm going
to make a mess out of it. And we just cannot and must not.
And this is one of the problems that our people have, is that
we're holding up these giants of faith and these giants of
the Church of God. And we're saying, looky here,
looky here. Well, and then secondly, I think
another problem that we have And thank God for books, and
I don't want to be misunderstood. Somebody might misunderstand
this, but we read the biographies of men like Bishop Rowe. We read
the biographies of Spurgeon. And I've read them. We read the
biographies of Newton and Isaac Watts. We read the memoirs of
Gill. And we read about these great
leaders of the past. And the writers are careful to
point out only their good points. Very careful to point out only
their good points. And seeing none of my weaknesses
in Bishop Rowe, well, I draw the conclusion that I'm not as
spiritual as he is and probably don't even know the same Lord
he knows. I see none of my infirmities in Charles Spurgeon. I see none
of my weaknesses in John Gill. I see none of these things, you
see, because the fellows that wrote the book, they're not going
to write those things in the book. And to begin with, they
don't know about them. And so this is what we do. And
it's all well and good. And I pass them around and study
how Newton came to know the Lord and how Bunyan came to know the
Lord. But you never have the opportunity to sit in the quietness
of the night and have Bunyan reflect to you from his own heart
his doubts and his fears and his failures and things of that
nature. And the times he struck out. And we see sermons by great men,
but their bad sermons aren't in there. Nobody saves the bad
sermons. Here a man preaches 20,000 sermons
and we have 20 in a book. Well, I'd like to hear the other
14,980 and see if he came up to power on those, you know.
But nobody saved them. Nobody saved them. And then I
think the third area where we have difficulty and causes us
to lack an assurance is we look We look for a full harvest of
fruit on a very young tree. Now, I don't know a great deal
about apple trees and pecan trees and pear trees, but I did set
out some in the yard of the parsonage over there, and I set them out
very young and very small. And I didn't go out the next
year and expect to have a bushel of apples hanging on that little
tree, you know. I didn't go out the second year or the third
year or the fourth year and expect to make my living that summer
from selling apples out in front of the house. When I had one,
I just rejoiced, you know, there's one little old nubby, scrubby
apple hanging on that tree about the third year, and I said, well,
it is an apple tree after all. It is an apple tree. I believe
we're going to have something here one of these days, if we'll
wait. And this is the thing about a man is saved, or a woman is
saved, comes to know the Lord, they're infants, they're babes
in Christ. And we expect the full harvest of fruit the first,
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh year. That doesn't
come that way, Joe. We wait on our children to grow
up, let's wait on our brothers to grow up. We wait on our children
to grow up with patience and forgiveness and understanding.
Let's wait on our brothers and sisters to develop and mature
as God is pleased to enable them. Let's wait on ourselves to grow
up. Don't despair because you can't bench press 400 pounds
when you're two years old. You can't carry your weight even.
You say, I'm not doing anything. Well, wait around. God may give
you something to do. Maybe you don't have the tools
to do it with. Maybe you need to be a little patient. You go
out and the fruit is small, or the fruit is scarce, or maybe
there's just some blossoms. But I tell you this, if there's
a blossom, there's life. If there's a bud, there's life.
If there's one little old scrawny fruit, there's life. And that's
an apple tree. And if I can see some evidence
of love, or joy, or peace, or humility, or long-suffering,
or meekness, or gentleness, or kindness, that's a Christian,
some evidence, in the bud, in the blossom, or in the fruit.
But perhaps our greatest fault, and this is the fourth, perhaps
our greatest fault in this matter of assurance, now I'm staying
on the subject, and this is very important if we're going to do
any preaching at all and accomplish anything, perhaps our greatest
fault in this matter of not having assurance, is that we desire,
and we're all guilty of this, we desire some evidence of assurance
other than the Word. I really think, Jay, that's the
biggest problem of all. I think we can dispense a little
bit of maybe trying to be an Abraham and trying to be a Bishop
Ryle, or trying to produce the greatest fruits and the greatest
sermon, the greatest song, the greatest this and the greatest
that. Perhaps our greatest fault is that we desire some evidence
of assurance other than the Word of God. I repeat, not content
with his promise, not content with his Word. Not content with
what he says, we look for assurance based upon something else. That's
a mistake. That's a mistake. Now, I plan
to spend my time tonight in stating clearly this premise, this proposition,
this introduction. I'm saying that every person
who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ with a true sincere heart,
every person who believes on Christ, And I know I don't have
the time to bring through all of the ways you come and all
of these things, but I'm saying you believe on Christ as your
Lord and Savior with a true, sincere heart. Whether you have
assurance or not, you're saved. You're saved if you believe on
the Lord Jesus. It doesn't say he that believeth
and has assurance shall be saved, it says he that believeth on
the Lord Jesus Christ hath everlasting life. It doesn't say, he that
believeth on the Son of God and knows that he is a child of God
and knows that he's one of God's elect is saved. It says, he that
believeth. He that believeth. That person's saved and that
person's justified and he enjoys the peace with God and of God. Yes, sir. Let's put first things
first. The fruit of grace is not the
root of grace. You see what I'm saying? The
fruit is not the root. The root precedes the fruit.
Job says, the root's in me! I don't care what the appearance
is, I don't care what the evidence is, I don't care what your summarization
is, the root is in me! The root of the matter. I believe. I believe. The fruit of grace
is not the root of grace. Comforts are not essentials.
Comforts are not essentials. And I'm saying assurance is a
comfort. It's not an essential. Faith is an essential. Faith
is an essential. Assurance is not an essential.
And I say don't seek assurance. Don't strive for assurance. Seek
the Lord. Desire to know Him. Hunger after
Him. Thirst after Him. Look unto Him. Let these comforts come as He
gives them. Comforts are not essentials.
Assurance is the result of faith, not the cause of faith. Assurance
is the result, not the cause of faith. Now, in our text, Ephesians
1 verse 13, four words attract our attention. This is what you
tried to get the fellas to do yesterday morning in school.
Just what I'm going to do tonight. I didn't know that that's what
you worked on until you told me yesterday. If you're going
to deal with a text, this is more of what we're trying to
say. If you're going to deal with a subject, deal with it.
Don't go off chasing a rabbit. Deal with that subject. For sure.
And if you're going to deal with a text, find the key to that
text. There are four words in this text. Look at it. See if
you find them. In whom you trusted. You also
trusted. You said trusted in italics.
Well, it's right above that in the verse preceding it. You see
the verse preceding it, that we should be to the praise of
his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom you trusted.
You trusted, that's the first word. After that, you heard. You heard, there's the next word,
it sticks out right at us. You heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom you believed. You heard,
you trusted, you believed, and then you were sealed. Sealed. Now, if you're talking on assurance,
that's what we're talking about. Now, if I was talking on the
gospel, the thing that would stick out here is the gospel
of your salvation, the word of truth and the gospel of your
salvation. If I was preaching on the Holy Spirit, we'd deal
with the sealing of the Holy Spirit, but we're dealing with
assurance. And it says something, you heard and you believed and
you trusted and you were granted assurance or confidence or seal
by the Holy Spirit. All right, let's look at them.
First of all, you heard. You see, the reason I'm using
that first is it said you trusted after you heard, so heard is
first. You can't trust what you don't hear. You can't call on
him whom you do not know, and you can't know him if you don't
hear of him. So you heard! That's the first
thing, you heard! Faith, repentance, assurance
all depend on hearing. Hearing. Faith comes not by seeing,
by hearing. It's not through the eye but
through the ear that salvation comes to me. So put away your
puppet shows. That's right. It's not through
the eye, it's through the ear salvation comes to me. Put away all your little doggies
you know that They'll attract their eye and put away your motion
picture camera and put it away. If you want to entertain, all
right, I'm not finding fault with entertaining. I'm just simply
saying, you say, well, make it plainer for people to remember
what to see more than what to hear. Men do not see by what
to see, they see by what to hear. That's what it says here. You
hear! They come in by hearing! That's what I'm saying, hearing.
with the eye of faith, he that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him." But that's not seeing him in the flesh, because many
saw him in the flesh and nailed him to a cross. Somebody said,
let others see Jesus in you. They didn't see Jesus in Jesus.
Being here, they've come at my head. You heard, the preaching
of the gospel is the soul-saving ordinance, the preaching of the
gospel. is the soul-saving ordinance. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Of his own will beget
he us with the word of truth. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach unless God sends them? I say
in every age God has raised up men who faithfully preached his
gospel. In every age. I don't believe
he's ever left himself without a witness. Elijah may ascend
to heaven, but his mantle falls on Elijah. Paul may die, but
not until Timothy is on the field. And every generation, God has
had his true preacher. And his true preacher has a claim
on your attention. If God sent him, you ought to
hear him. He who preaches Christ has life
flowing from his lips. The word is known to thee even
in thy mouth. Faith comes by hearing. What
is the message we hear? You heard the word of truth.
You didn't hear a lot of speculation, you didn't hear a lot of intellectual
nonsense, you didn't hear a lot of criticism of the Bible, you
didn't hear a lot of man's logic and thoughts. You heard the word
of truth. Preach the word We never run
out of something to preach as long as we've got a Bible. The
Word. You heard the Word of truth.
God's inspired Word. If they speak not according to
the Word, it's because there's no light in them. I believe preachers
ought to preach the Word. They ought to read God's Word.
We've tried here through the years, every service, to read
at least a part of a chapter from God's Word. That's 25 years
in this building. Every service, Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night, Thursday, Wednesday, read God's
word. Make much of the word. God will
bless his word. He said, My word will not return
to me void. And you not only heard the word
of truth, but you heard the gospel of your salvation. The gospel
is the good news of Christ incarnate. God became a man. Will God indeed
dwell on the earth? He did. He did. It's the good
news of Christ crucified. Did Christ shed his blood for
sinners? It's the good news of Christ
risen. He's not here, he's risen. It's the good news of Christ
ascended and Christ interceding. It's the good news of redemption
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what you heard. So
that's the first thing in this matter of assurance, whether
we got Repentance, conviction, faith, awakening, quickening,
assurance, interest, whatever. It starts by hearing, hearing,
hearing, hearing, hearing the word of truth, the gospel of
salvation. You heard it, you heard it. And
this thing someone says the hearing of the gospel involves great
responsibility. What you heard this morning and
what you're hearing tonight is a gift of God. It involves responsibility. The damned in hell know about
that responsibility. The saved in heaven know about
that responsibility, and someday you personally will know about
that responsibility. It's no light thing to hear the
word of truth. It's no light thing. It's no
indifferent thing. It's like Jesus of Nazareth passing
by. You just think what a moment
What a moment for this town of Jericho! What a moment for this
crowd of people! What a moment for this blind
Bartimaeus! What a moment! Somebody said,
Jesus of Nazareth! The Lord's Christ, the Messiah
that's been talked about and preached about and prophesied
and promised and typified, he's passing by where? Here! When? Now! What a responsibility! Yet he
is. And I barely believe he is. I
believe he's any word. I believe he's not only the incarnate
Word, I believe he is the written Word. He is the Word of God.
Christ is the Bible. And when it's read in the power
of the Spirit, when it's read in the unction of God's Spirit,
he barely is passing by. What a responsibility I have.
Secondly, hearing is followed by the word belief, in whom you
trusted after you heard the word of God, the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom you believed. Now, brethren, hearing is no
good, except it be received by faith. Let me show you that.
Turn to Hebrews 4. Hearing is no good. It just adds
to a man's condemnation. It just increases his responsibility. It just adds to his awful account. Hearing is no good except it
be mixed with faith. Hebrews 4, verse 2. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. But the word, the word, the word
of truth preached unto them did not profit them Why? Because it was not mixed with
faith in them. They didn't believe it. There
it is right there. They didn't believe it. They
didn't believe it. Let me tell you something. When
the word of truth is preached, when the gospel, the word of
truth, the gospel of salvation, your salvation, who's of your
salvation, We're not talking about our salvation, we're talking
about your salvation, the gospel of your salvation. And when it's
preached, this is the only gospel, this is the gospel, the gospel
of God, the only gospel. It's the gospel of your salvation,
it's your only door, it's your only hope. It's got to be believed. Got
to be believed. Now, assurance is not essential,
but this is. I don't have to have assurance,
but I do have to believe, because without faith it's impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. Assurance is not essential. Faith
is. He that believeth not hath made
God a liar. I talked to a man, I cannot to
save my life remember who it was. But believe it or not, he
was a friend. I can't remember who it was,
but he either knew or was a friend, or knew about the man who was
the secretary to old Kaiser Bill in Germany, World War I fame,
Kaiser Bill. Some of you older folks here
remember Kaiser Bill. Charlie, remember Kaiser Bill?
That was me, wasn't it? But Brother Neal said, if they
won't laugh with you, they won't cry with you, so find out soon. Reel in and go home. But anyway,
this fellow said that he knew Otto. And he said that he was
a secretary to Kaiser Bill, and Kaiser Bill read the Bible all
the time. And he said one day his secretary
Otto came in the room, and Kaiser Bill was sitting there reading
the Bible, and he looked up and he said, Otto, here's a fearful,
awesome statement. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ
said, If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your
sins." He said, Otto, think about that. If you believe not, if
you believe not, not if you heard, but if you believe not that I
am he, you'll die in your sins. I don't need assurance, but I
need that faith. I need that faith. And listen to me, faith
is not judged. Let's come down another step.
I say assurance is not essential, faith is. Here's the next thing
with how much faith. Faith is not judged by its quantity,
but by its quality. God doesn't require a mountain
of faith, or faith that can move a mountain. It's the quality
of faith. Is it genuine? Is it sincere? Is it of the heart? That's the
faith. It's faith with one object, that's
objects of Christ. It's faith with one object, and
that's Christ, or that I may know him, that I may win Christ
and be found in him. Then we come to the next plateau,
this thing that preaching, hearing, is no good if it's not mixed
with faith. We've got to believe. Assurance
is not essential, and even greatness of faith is not essential. It
doesn't matter how small divine is. if it's got a big post to
grow on. The vine may be as big around
your arm, but it's going to fall if that post is removed. That
vine may be as tiny as a thread, but if it's wound around that
strong, immovable post, it will be right there when the cows
come home. So that's faith. It's not the
quality, it's the quantity. Then faith embraces Not just
the part of God's Word that I understand. I wouldn't have much to rest
on, would I? It's not just the part of God's
Word of which I approve. But faith embraces all of the
Word of God. Because here's what we say, here's
what faith says. It doesn't say, I believe in
the Word of God, I believe in the Bible, I believe in prayer.
I don't want to offend here, and I want you to be real careful
that you understand what I'm trying to say. Faith's language is not, I believe
in prayer, or I believe in God, or I believe in the Bible, or
I believe in Jesus. Faith's language is, I believe
God. See what I'm saying? Though he slay me, I trust him. Not I trust his providence. Not
I trust his care, I trust him. It may look like he's letting
me totally down, but I trust him. I believe him. I may not understand a thing
he says, but I believe him. I may not understand a thing
he's doing, but I believe him. Now that's what faith believes
God. It believes God. It lays hold
by faith on God. It believes God. It may not understand,
it may not even approve. But he believes God. Like Job
said, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Praise the Lord.
Shall not the judge of the earth do right? I believe God. All right, here's the third word.
Trust. You trusted. You heard. You heard. You heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. You believed it. You're with
me? I'm still with you, aren't you?
I say, that's me. That's me, Paul. You're talking
about me, because I sure believe God. To whom shall we go? And the third word is trusted.
You're trusted. Now, trust, somebody says another
word for belief, but I think it carries belief just a step
further. In whom you trusted, or on whom you relied. See back at verse 12, that we
should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. I hear the word of truth. I hear
the gospel of my salvation. I believe what I hear to be God's
word. I believe God. But the essential
act, the essential act is something that is required and expected
and something that will certainly come forth. The essential act
is trusting, all right? Saul of Tarsus said, I heard
you, I believe you, what would you have me do? I know whom I
have believed, I am persuaded he is able to keep that which
I have what? Committed. There's a committal. I know we
don't like the language some of the modern preachers use,
this is your hour of decision, but actually when it comes right
down to it, If you explain what you mean, there is a time of
decision. There is. There is a, my Lord,
and Thomas said, I won't believe till I see the prince in his
hand. Our Lord said, here they are, Thomas. And he fell on his
face right there. Committal. My Lord and my God. I'm not playing, Ralph said we're
not playing mumbly peg or tiddly winks. It's a committal. It's
a committal. My life, my love I give to thee,
thou son of God who died for me. Simply trusting every day,
trusting through a stormy way, even when my faith is so small,
I'm trusting Jesus. That's all. Somebody said this,
when my eye of faith is dim, I'll hold the Christ sink or
swim. Still at his throne I'll bow
my knee and Jesus Christ my hope shall be. It's in his hands. I trusted him. Now, watch this,
and let me see if I can make good on this, the last word.
You heard, you believed, you trusted, you were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise. Anybody get the difference in
the way those things were stated? You heard. You believed. You trusted. You were sealed. That's different, isn't it? That's
different. Okay. Let's see if we can make
good on it and see if we can help ourselves a little bit here.
The word sealed is another word for assurance. I know that. Confirmation. After you heard, After you believed,
after you trusted, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Look at the next verse, which is, or who is, the earnest, that
word's pledge or token, earnest money, earnest money, we use
that term, but pledge or token, which is the pledge or token
of our inheritance until it becomes a reality. What's the pledge,
the token? He is the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is. The Holy Spirit's my assurance. He is the pledge. He is the token. I heard, I believe, I trusted,
by God's grace, I know that, that I was sealed by the Holy
Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit of promise There
seems to be a distinction here between faith and assurance. Watch this. In faith, the mind
is active. I heard, I listened, I counted
the cost, I gave consideration to what I heard, all by God's
grace. You know what I'm saying. I believed, I trusted. But when
it comes to sealing, it doesn't say, I sealed myself. It says, you were sealed. In
other words, I'm active in faith, I'm passive, Jay, in this sealing
business. I'm passive. I'm active in faith,
I'm passive in this sealing. The witness of the Spirit is
something I receive. Something I receive. In faith,
my mind does something, my heart does something. In sealing, my
faith receives something. It receives something. So here's
what I'm saying. I'm saying when it comes down
to it, assurance is something that is given. Confidence is
something that comes from God, from his Spirit. Now then, the
Holy Spirit is our assurance of our interest in Christ. He's
our pledge, our token. Now watch this. We're born of
the Spirit. We are convicted of sin by the
Holy Spirit, we are baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit,
we are taught by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit beareth witness
with our spirits that we are children of God, and the fruit
of holiness is the fruit of the Spirit. So as the Spirit of the
living God uses the Word, and this is what I say to us, we
need to read the Word. We need to pray, we need the
witness of the Spirit day by day. It is difficult for any
of us to have assurance of our salvation when our affections
are divided and our interests are divided. You see what I'm
saying? Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. I believe the more I read the
word, the more my assurance is going to grow. The Holy Spirit
is the one who teaches me the Word. He is very present. He is the Spirit of promise.
Now, this is what Spurgeon said. He's the Spirit of promise twofold,
in that he is the promised Spirit. God said, I pour out my Spirit
upon all flesh. If we be sons of God, we're led
by the Spirit. We're led by the Spirit. We're
the sons of God. He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is not
of his. But not only that, but he is
the spirit of promise in that he applies the word of promise. He applies the word of promise.
We're not going to understand the scriptures or enter into
or profit by the scriptures by how much mentality we have. It's
how much of his spirit we have. That's the thing there. I hear
his I do believe Christ, I do trust Christ, but I am sealed
by the Holy Spirit. So let's don't seek to establish
an assurance based on our trusting or our hearing or our believing.
This assurance comes to us as the Spirit of God comes to us.
As we grow in faith, as we grow in knowledge, as we grow in understanding,
as we grow in understanding of his word, he is my assurance.
He is my assurance. My assurance is the spirit of
the living God. His spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are sons of God. My business is to do this. My business is to believe his
word. My business is to hear it, to
believe it, and to trust him. Trust him. And if he's pleased
in his grace and mercy to strengthen me in confidence and strengthen
me in assurance and strengthen me in the presence and power
of his spirit, I'll give him thanks and I'll give him the
glory. But that's his work. You heard, you believe, you trust
him in his own time, according to his blessed will, through
his blessed spirit, that assurance will come for your good and his
glory. But the assurance is not an essential. Faith is the essential. The fruit
is not the root. The root bears the fruit. Our
Father, we're grateful for thy promise. We're grateful for thy
word. We believe we can say tonight,
most sincerely and from our innermost being, I do believe, I will believe
that Jesus died for me. And through his blood, his precious
blood, I am from sin set free. He is my rock and my fortress,
my refuge and my salvation. And if it please thee to increase
that confidence and assurance of a saving interest in Christ
for your glory and for our good, we'll give thee thanks and praise.
But we do not ask thee, our Father, we do not ask thee for that which
is contrary to We ask for a spiritual maturity and growth as it pleases
Thee. We ask for the good gifts, but
we covet the most important thing, that we may love Christ and be
found in Him. For His glory and praise we offer
these petitions. Amen.