Spiritual Assurance vs. Carnal Presumption

I want to speak to you today
on the subject, spiritual assurance versus carnal presumption. Now
this is an important message, and I'd like for you to get your
Bible. Would you get a Bible, please,
and open it to Isaiah chapter 28. I hear from many people who
say in their letters, we follow with you as you're teaching God's
in our own Bibles. We read our Bibles along with
you, and I'd like for all of you to do that. I don't want
you to believe anything because I say it. I'd like for you to
see it in God's word. The Bereans searched the scriptures
to see if these things be so. It's not right for us to form
our theological opinions and then approach God's word. Let
us approach God's word and then form our theological opinion. Let's subject our thoughts to
the word of God. He said, your thoughts are not
my thoughts, and your ways are not my ways. So let's come to
God's word as a little child. Let's come to God's word with
an open mind and an open heart and say, Lord, I'm just a child.
Teach me. Reveal thy word to me. Reveal
thy way to me. Speak to me through thy servant.
I believe I'm God's servant. I believe God called me to preach
the gospel. And I'm trying to be true to your soul. and I'm
trying to be faithful to God's word, and I'm trying to preach
for the glory of Jesus Christ. And I want you to turn to Isaiah
28, and let's think on the subject of assurance. Spiritual assurance
versus carnal presumption. A lot of difference between having
assurance and having presumption. First of all, assurance is not
hard to find. Assurance of salvation is not
difficult to find. Actually, if you take a poll
of ordinary people on the streets, in the offices, in the stores,
in the homes, you'll find more optimism about eternal life than
you find doubt. You'll find more confidence than
you'll find fear. In fact, for every one person
who believes that there's a possibility he could face God in the judgment
unprepared and be sent to hell. For every one you find who fears
being lost, you'll find ten who are not afraid at all. They just
know everything's all right between them and God, you know, and they're
going to heaven when they die. Ten out of eleven, maybe more
than that. But my friends, you'll find assurance,
first of all, where you expect to find it, among the faithful.
Now John said, We know that we've passed from death unto life.
We know that. And then Job said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and though worms destroy this body, yet
in my flesh I'm going to see the Lord. I myself, not another.
Paul said, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have
believed. I'm persuaded he's able to keep
that which I've committed to him against that day. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. The Apostle Peter said, we are
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Now, these men, that's
assurance, that's confidence, and you expect to find it among
these men. But I want you to note this. Their confidence and
their assurance was not in their feeling and not in their experience. You don't hear the Apostle Paul
say, I know I'm saved because I had an experience. I know I'm
a child of God because I feel like I'm a child of God. I know
I'm a child of God because I'm doing the best I can. I go to
church every Sunday and give my tithe and try to live right
and pay my debts, and therefore I know I'm no saint. Every one
of these men had assurance, but that assurance was based upon
Christ Jesus. The Lord is my shepherd. I know
whom I have believed. I know my Redeemer living. We
are redeemed with the blood of Christ. Luke wrote in the book
of Acts, led by the Holy Spirit, other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Christ the Lord. You not only
find assurance, though, among the faithful, but, my friends,
you find assurance among the religious but lost. Now, we know
the Pharisees were religious. We also know they were lost.
We know that they were Orthodox. We also know that they didn't
know God. They rejected Christ. Christ
tells us that. He calls them hypocrites. He
calls them whited sepulchers. He calls them a generation of
snakes, vipers. Therefore they were deeply religious,
but they were lost. But do you know what they said?
One of them stood in the temple and prayed thus with himself,
I thank you God, I'm not like other men. Why God, I'm not an
extortioner, I'm not an adulterer, I'm not unjust. I tithe my income,
I fast twice a week, not once, but twice a week, and I give
alms to the poor. I'm not even like this publican.
I'm all right." You'll find assurance among religious men whom Christ
calls a generation of snakes. You'll find assurance among religious
people of whom our Lord said they're hypocrites, they're whited
tombstones, they appear beautiful on the outside, but inside they're
full of dead men's bones. You'll find religious drunks
who sing songs like this, "'Build me a mansion next door to Jesus,
and tell the angels I'm coming home.'" Now, that's confidence.
He doesn't want a cabin in the corner of glory, he wants a mansion
next door to Jesus. And he wants all the angels to
lay down what they're doing and stand out there by the gate and
welcome him home. But my friends, the saints of
old didn't sing songs like that. The saints of old said this,
Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and God
I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. But assurance
is not hard to find. You find it among the religious
but lost, and my friends, you'll find assurance among the wicked.
When Adolf Eichmann was arrested and put in prison, this man whose
hands dripped with the blood of six million people, this man
who had murdered six million, or been responsible for many
of the six million people who were slain in Hitler's gas chambers
and torture concentration camps He was sitting there in a prison
cell and a preacher came to see him. And this preacher began
to talk to this man about his soul, the fact that he was going
to meet a holy God. And this preacher suggested to
him from the Bible that there's one God and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And do you know what this murderer
of people said? I don't need a mediator. I can
go directly to God myself. Now, my friends, assurance is
not hard to find. You'll find some of the most
wicked people on earth who feel like that they'll be sure to
wind up in heaven. And I'll tell you this, here's
a tragic thing. If you'll look at the book of
Matthew, chapter 7, verse 22, you'll find people who bring
that carnal presumption even to the judgment. It says in Matthew
7, 22, they shall say to me in that day, in the day of judgment,
in the day when they stand before the great white throne of God.
They shall say to me in that day, Why, Lord, we preached in
your name. Surely we're not lost. Surely
we're not going to be separated from thee. Surely we're not going
to be cast into the place of weeping and wailing. We preached
in your name, and we cast out devils in your name, and we did
many wonderful works in your name. But I will say unto them,
Christ said, I never knew you." What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying this, that this thing of confidence, religious confidence,
religious assurance, is not hard to find. You'll find it among
the faithful, of course, among the believer, among the men who
know Christ, but you'll also find it among the Pharisees and
the religious but lost people. You'll find it among those people
who are most wicked, and you'll also find it even at the judgment. So it's not enough just to have
assurance. You say, I know I'm all right.
Well, now, let's go on with the message. It's not enough to have
assurance. Let's make sure that we're not
deceived. You say, well, I know I'm not deceived. If a man is
deceived, he doesn't know he's deceived, or he's not deceived.
I can be deceived, you can be deceived, and the only way we
can find out whether or not we're deceived is to look into the
Word, not look into our hearts. The scripture says the heart
is deceitful above all things. Well, if I know my heart, well,
that's the very instrument you don't know. The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. And Christ said in the
last days Antichrist shall rise. and shall go to and fro, and
deceive, if it were possible, the very elect." That's mighty
powerful. So let's look into God's word.
First of all, in Isaiah chapter 28, it says here in Isaiah 28,
"...wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that
rule the people in Jerusalem." These are religious leaders.
These are preachers and prophets and evangelists and And pastors,
these are the rulers of the religious people. Because you have said,
we have made a covenant with death. Now my friends, we're
not afraid to die. That's what he's saying here.
You've made a covenant with death. We're not afraid to die. Most
people die pretty easily. Most people don't fear death.
They have some opium of religion or drugs or something to make
them die easy. But they don't care what's out
yonder, and they don't care who's out yonder. And he said, this
is what they've done. They've made a covenant with
death. And go on. He said, and with hell are we
at agreement. In other words, they're saying
this, we believe in hell. We think there ought to be a
hell, but not for me. Not for me. We think that some
folks ought to go to hell, but not me. We think some folks are
going to hell, but not us. We have an agreement with hell.
Now read the next line. And when the overflowing scourge
shall come through, to whom is he speaking? Religious leaders
and religious people. The people who rule there in
the holy city. They rule in the religious world.
He says when the overflowing scourge, the wrath of God, shall
pass through, it won't come unto us. It may sweep away others,
but not us. That's confidence. That's presumption.
For we have a refuge. It's a refuge of lies, but we
have a refuge. And we have a hiding place. We're
hiding under falsehood, but at least we're hiding somewhere.
We've got a refuge. Now here's what they're saying,
these religious people. It's carnal presumption. They
said we're not afraid to die. We preach there's a hell, we
believe there's a hell, we think there ought to be a hell, but
not for us. And when the judgment day dawns and the wrath of God
falls upon people, it won't come unto us. We've got a place to
hide. God says it's a refuge of lies. We've got a foundation on which
we're building, and God says it's a false foundation. Now
watch this next verse, verse 17. Judgment, God says judgment,
well I lay to the lion. Now, what's he talking about
there? Well, let me illustrate. Most of you men have done carpenter
work. And you know, besides a hammer and a saw and a nail, you've
got to have a chalk line. If you're going to do good work
in building a house, you've got to have a chalk line. What does
a chalk line do? You put it at a given point,
take it to another given point, strike it, and everything that's
outside that line has to be cut off. You can put your eye on
it and it looks pretty straight, but put the line on it, it's
a different story. God says, I'm going to lay the
line of judgment and the line of righteousness and measure
you by it. You're going to be measured by
God's holiness. You're going to be measured by
God's righteousness. The line which shall be stricken
is God Almighty's line of holiness, and you're going to see, and
I'm going to see, just how far off we are. how far off our religious
profession, how far off our standard of holiness, how far off our
personal righteousness when God strikes the lance. Look at the
next statement. He said also, righteousness is
going to be put to the plumb bob. Do you know what a plumb
bob is? Well, most of you men do. You've got a brick wall here,
and you drop a plumb bob, and you're going to see if it strikes.
Now your eye will deceive you. You can look at that wall and
say it looks pretty good. And we look at folks live. We
can't see their hearts, and we can't see their imagination,
we can't see their attitude, we can't see their motive. We
can't see the jealousy and hatred and envy and lust and all these
things inside. And we put our little eye upon
their religious profession. We say, well, they're all right.
But God's not going to put the eye on them. He's going to put
the plumb bob on them. the plumb bob of holiness, the
plumb bob of absolute, immutable, immaculate holiness, God's holiness. And he says, when I put the lion
down and when I drop the plumb bob, I'm going to sweep away
your refuge of life. That's when it's going to be
exposed. He says, your hiding place is going to be filled with
the waters of wrath when I lay judgment to the lion and righteousness
to the plumb bob. Now let me make some statements.
I wouldn't offend you for the world, but these things need
to be said. When God stretches the line of his righteousness,
when God Almighty drops the plumb bob of his perfection, these
money-loving, glory-seeking, gospel-butchering preachers are
going to be exposed. The true motive of men's hearts
is going to be exposed. If our motive has not been the
glory of God, We're going to be exposed when God drops the
plumbob of righteousness and the line of holiness, that's
so. And these Bible-quoting, church-going, race-hating, compromising,
cheating deacons and Sunday school teachers who went to church on
Sunday and lived the other six days lying, stealing, swearing,
cursing and cheating people, they're going to be exposed.
The human eye doesn't see these things, but God sees them. And
he says, I'm going to expose your refuge of lies, I'm going
to route you out, I'm going to flush you out of your false refuge
in that day of judgment. The overflowing scourge of God's
wrath is going to pass through. I'll tell you something else.
The cold-pouse legalist who called Jesus Christ Lord with his lips,
While his heart was far from Christ, who cleaned up the outside
and appeared beautiful to men, while on the inside he was full
of corruption, excess, and dead men's bones, he's going to be
exposed. And the dear folks who sang in
the choirs, dressed in their robes of piety, singing, O how
I love Jesus, and then the rest of the week with their tongues
gossiped and slandered and abused other people, they're going to
be exposed. There's a day of wrath, there's a day of judgment
coming. There's a day, God says, when
I'm going to drop the plumb bob and I'm going to snap the line
and your sins are going to be exposed. And I'm telling you
this, the hotshot, well-dressed Hollywood evangelist who's gone
up and down the country robbing churches living off the fat of
the land while they compromise the word of God and give false
hope to millions of people in order to report souls won to
Jesus, report baptisms, report successful campaigns, are going
to be exposed. The songwriter said, I dreamed
that the great judgment morning had dawned and the trumpet had
blown. The nations were gathered for judgment before God's shining
throne. From that throne came a great
shining angel, and he stood on the land and the sea, and he
swore with his hand raised to heaven that time was no longer
to be. The moral man came to the judgment,
but his self-righteous rags would not do. The men who had crucified
Jesus had passed off as moral men too. The rich man came to
the judgment, but his riches had melted and vanished away.
A pauper he stood before the Lord, his debts too heavy to
pay. The man who had no use for the
gospel, not today. I'll straighten it out by and
by. No time now to think of the word of God. Well, at last he
found time to die. And oh, what a weeping and wailing
as the lost were told of their fate. They cried for the rocks
and the mountains, they prayed, but their prayer was too late.
God says, you've made, you religious folks, you say you've got a covenant
with death, you're not afraid to die. You say you're in agreement
with hell, you think there ought to be a hell, but not for you.
You say you've got a refuge, you've got a hiding place, but
I'm telling you this, God says I'm going to lay judgment to
the lion someday. I'm going to snap the line of
my righteousness and measure you by it. I'm going to drop
the plumbob of righteousness and measure you by it, and when
I do, your self-righteous rags are going to be exposed, your
refuge of lies is going to be exposed, and your foundation
of flesh is going to be destroyed, and your hiding place is going
to be flooded with God's waters of wrath. He says in verse 18,
and he said, you will be trodden down by it, and it will be a
vexation, verse 19, only to hear the report of it. Not to be involved
in it, but only to hear the report of it. It's going to be a terrible,
horrible experience just to hear the report of it. A vexation
just to understand what's going on. of false refuge. But my friends,
there is a hiding place. There is a refuge. Back here
in verse 16, after the Lord says all this to the false professor,
to the carnally presumptuous, he says, therefore, I say unto
you, I lay in Zion a stone. There is a refuge, and that refuge
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone. He's the stone
over which the builders stumble. He's the stone which the builders
rejected. He's the stone, the cornerstone,
he's the foundation stone which God laid first, upon which he
built his holy temple of living stones, true believers. And the
true believer builds on Christ. Not on his fearlessness, and
not on his faithfulness, and not on his feeling, but he builds
his hope on Christ. Let me go back to those confessions
that I gave in the early part of this message. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. He restores my soul. He leads
me in paths of righteousness. He does all this for me. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. Peter said, we are redeemed with
the blood of Christ. The true believer rests on the
stone which God laid, not the stone which I have laid or am
laying. My assurance comes not from my
religion, from my works, from my self-righteousness, but from
my Lord. What does the believer believe
about this stone? Christ is God, who has come in
the flesh. Christ is our representative,
who faced the law and obeyed it. Christ is our substitute,
who took our sins to the Calvary's cross and paid for them. Christ
is our risen justifier. Christ is our advocate, our high
priest at the right hand of God. Christ is our coming king. Christ
is our life. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye appear with him in glory. Who is the
hiding place? Christ. Who is the refuge in
time of storm? Christ. I will say of my God,
he is my refuge. He is my strength. That's the
place to hide. If you want to be safe from the
overflowing scourge of God's wrath, flee to Christ. He's the
city of refuge. Hide in Christ. If you want your
building for eternity to stand, don't build it on the shifting
sands of religion, morality, works, goodness, so-called. Build
it on the rock. Christ Jesus. God said, I laid
this stone Man didn't lay it, the Baptists didn't lay it, the
Methodists didn't lay it, the Presbyterians didn't lay it,
the Catholics, God said, I laid it. It's God's salvation, God's
gospel, and God's son. Now what's the second thing?
He said, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, and other foundations
can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ the Lord. And
this stone is a tried stone. How was Christ our Lord tried?
Well, when he came down here to this earth robed in human
flesh, He was tried by the law. The scripture says he was tested
in all points, as we are, yet without sin. Christ was a human
being. He is God. He was in the world. The world was made by him, the
world knew him not. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God and was God, and the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. Listen to this scripture. God
was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. So Christ,
as a was tried, this stone was tried by the law of God, and
it stood, faithful, perfectly faithful. This stone was tried
by man. They tried every way. It was
tried by Satan. Satan took him up on that mountain
of temptation and said, if you're the son of God, cast yourself
off. If you're the son of God, make this stone into bread. If you're the son of God, worship
me and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. He stood. He was
tried by men, they called him a wine-digger, they called him
a devil, they spit upon him, they scourged him, they put a
crown of thorns on his head, they slapped his face, they plucked
out his beard, they cursed him, they swore against him, they
hired false witnesses against him, never opened his mouth.
He was tried, and finally Pilate said, I find no fault in him.
He was tried by the Heavenly Father who said, this is my Son
in whom I am well pleased, my stone, my foundation. is a tried
stone. And I'll tell you this, I try
him every day, and I find in him my comfort, I find in him
my security, I find in him my sufficiency, and he never fails. He never fails. I don't care
what the situation is, he never fails. I find in him all I need.
He's made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption,
all I need. He's a tried stone. And then
God said, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation. Don't you rest
in that false foundation. Don't hide in that refuge of
lies. God said, I'll flush you out of it someday at the judgment.
Hide in Christ. I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone. What's this? A precious cornerstone. Now Christ the Lord is not only
precious to the Father, he's not only precious to the angels,
but he's the most precious thing to the believer. We hear about
his precious promises, we hear about his precious word, we hear
about he is precious. Behold, he is precious. Not only
the precious blood, but he is precious. His name yields the
richest perfume, sweeter than music, his voice. His presence
disperses my gloom and makes all within me rejoice. I should,
where he always must now, have nothing to wish or to fear, no
mortal as happy as my summer would last all the year. And
content with beholding his face, my all to his pleasure resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. While blessed with a sense of
his love, a palace a toy would appear, and prisons would palaces
prove, if Jesus would dwell with me there." And then something
else about this stone God says it's a stone, it's a tribestone,
it's a precious cornerstone, and it is a sure foundation. It shall not fail. Swift to its
close, ebbs out life's little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its
glories pass away. Change and decay, all around
me I see. O thou who changest not, sure
and steadfast, abide with me. A sure foundation. I hope you'll
join us next Lord's Day, and if you'd like to have this message
on cassette tape, we don't have them printed, but we do have
them on tape, the announcer will give you our mailing address
and we'll be happy to mail you this message or any other message
you hear on this telecast on cassette tapes. Until next Lord's
Day, God bless you, everyone.

Spiritual Assurance vs. Carnal Presumption

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Spiritual Assurance vs. Carnal Presumption

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