Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

The truth of these passages we have sung of red. God’s preservation of his saints is once more our topic for this Lord’s day. I have two scripture readings. First we’ll read from Romans 8:37-39 and then 1 John 3:16-24. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

First in Romans 8:37-39.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And then 1 John 3 beginning in verse 16 and following.

By this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment.

Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

Let us pray. Father, we pray that you would use your word today to bring assurance to our hearts, to cause us to joy, and to cause us, Lord God, to increase consecration to you and to the purposes of the Lord Jesus Christ who has shed his life that we might live. May we live then, Lord God, unto him.

We pray also that the Sabbath school teachers would be effectual in speaking of your word to these young ones that are entrusted to their care, that they also might rejoice in the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and be further committed to obeying him. In Christ’s name we ask it over the purposes of his kingdom, not ours. Amen.

In Psalm 124, the following.

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick when the wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters had overwhelmed us. The stream had gone over our soul. Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as prey to their teeth. Our souls escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken. We are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.

I was listening to James Montgomery Boyce this morning preach on this sermon and it seems so applicable as an opening and closing for the theme today of perseverance and assurance.

The Huguenots apparently began their worship services with verse 8: “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.” To them that was a very important assertion to make at the beginning of worship. They were tremendously persecuted. Thousands died for the faith and their strong convictions to the teachings of the Reformation in France. And in fact, there’s a great history on the eastern seaboard of this country of the Huguenot immigrations here that would be a good topic for our Reformation day activities one of these years. There are some very interesting stories of cities that were built on the eastern seaboard by Huguenots escaping the sort of persecution they felt.

Well, we don’t have persecution of that type in this country, but we certainly have things in our lives that feel like they’re going to overwhelm us at times—feel like those floodwaters coming over us. The providence of God—I felt this way yesterday.

I’ve had a very busy time lately. I had made some doubts crawl up in my mind about a certain financial transaction I was involved with Friday night. I thought all of a sudden it was going to cost me a lot more money than it really was going to. I wasn’t sure. Financial concerns began to pile up on me. My time constraints of this homeschool bill and the things we’ve been doing these last few weeks at church and the family camp coming up and the talks, etc., began to well up on me.

I don’t bring this up to have you feel sorry for me, although I don’t mind your prayers. But all of us have these sort of things, don’t we? And the providence of God—he takes me through this yesterday morning in preparation for this sermon. If God is not on our side, then these things shall overwhelm us. That’s the way it feels to us. They’re going to overwhelm us. And we need to calm our spirits with the sure knowledge that God is on our side.

I don’t know your concerns. I know some of your concerns. I know that money can be a tremendous thing—feeling like it’s overwhelming us. You feel trapped. Maybe. I know time constraints. You look back on what you’ve done or not done with your children, and you feel overwhelmed with a sense of need to instruct them with a better understanding of the faith. You feel overwhelmed by responsibilities at work or maybe the tenuousness of your position at work. Maybe you don’t know if you’re going to be able to keep working and provide for your family. You feel overwhelmed with despair through the failings of other members of the household or friends or Christian brothers or sisters. Maybe there’s trouble in the extended family.

All kinds of concerns and the providence of God come upon us in our lives and feel like they’re going to overwhelm us at times. And it’s so important that we can say what the psalmist says—knowing that God is on our side, these things would have overwhelmed us.

Well, it’s a great promise then this text that God is on our side and these things shall not overwhelm us. But it’s only a great promise and it only brings comfort if we are assured of our right standing with God. Yeah. I mean, it’s a fine thing to read in Psalm 1, you know, that blessed are those that walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed are they and their fruit will prosper and their leaf won’t wither and they’ll be by the streams of living water. Okay, fine. God has some people in this world that he’s going to take care of. But what about me? If I don’t have the assurance of God’s preservation of me, that all these things are really cold comfort to me, aren’t they?

Well, I want to today to solidly secure in your mind this important Reformation truth, the doctrine of the assurance of God’s preservation of our own perseverance in the faith.

The doctrine of assurance is what we deal with today. And I would as we begin this, I would ask you if this morning you remembered your anointing from last week. Remember we wash and we get dressed, but in between there, what do we do? God anoints us. Holiness—everybody gets washed off their dirt and everything. Everybody gets dressed. But only the saints of God are anointed by God. And so it is an active thing that we do as well.

When we get up, remember I’ve encouraged you this last week and certainly this morning to get up and when you wash and cleanse and remind yourself of the forgiveness of sins, don’t forget that it’s to the end that you would be prepared to be anointed with the oil of God. I’ve got a skin condition—eczema—and you know I use this cream some my skin flares up. I use this cream called Cetaphil. It opens up my pores. So then when I put cortisone cream on it really sinks down in there.

I remember Hansen’s had a child with real bad eczema and this really helped them to realize that you put that stuff on dry skin, it doesn’t do any good. When you wash, immediately after you wash, your pores are open. Now, if you wait a little bit, they start to close up. But as you wash off your sins in Christ and then apply the anointing of the Holy Ghost, as it were, a commitment and a consecration to holiness, then we go forth prepared and then we’re clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

So, we have a need for personal holiness as we consider this topic. We’ll see that woven throughout this message and I would exhort you in your own walk to do that same thing.

By the way, next week at family camp, I’m going to next Thursday do a follow up on the courtship talk last year and I am planning at this point unless someone has strong objections to meet with men and boys for that talk and talk about personal holiness and its relationship to courtship.

In any event, in terms of our assurance of faith. The scriptures point out first of all, as do the Canons of Dort and the fifth head of doctrine in articles 9 through 11, that indeed we are assured of certain things. Now the object of this assurance as it’s portrayed for us in article 9 of the Canons of Dort is the doctrine really summarized in article 8. You also have as handouts today the summation of the heads of this head of doctrine and the articles and remember 1 through 7 sort of deal with sin as we have for the last couple of weeks.

That prepares us for the idea that we can’t preserve ourselves. Only God can preserve us. And then that’s article 8. And then articles 9 through 13 deal with assurance of preservation—that we can be sure we can know of a certainty that we are covenantally in the Lord Jesus Christ, that God will preserve us and we shall persevere in the faith. So let’s reread article number 8 at the first at the head of your outline for this sermon.

Title: Being Perseverance and Assurance under point one. Let’s understand what we’re talking about by assurance of salvation. We’re talking about the assurance of this. So it’s article 8.

Now it is not through their own merits or strength but through the undeserved mercy of God that they neither totally fall back from faith in grace nor persist in their backslidings and are finally lost.

Remember this is we’re picking up in the middle of this head of doctrine. We’ve talked about the sins of weakness, the blemishes that cling to the best of our works. We talked about the grievous sins we can sometimes commit. So it’s like the bookends, right? The secret sins we don’t know, the terrible sins, the grievous sins that we know about. And most of us have all kinds of sins in here in the middle. It’s why we confess sin at the beginning of the worship service.

Those sins in the providence of God are there. He uses sin sinlessly, right? He uses our sin sinlessly to demonstrate to us that it is only through the grace of God that we can be preserved in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s why it says so in light of the fact that we continue to sin and continue to have the effects of our Adamic nature—the nature of Adam—the old man. We got to keep putting it off because it’s there until we die in this body. We have the Adamic nature with us. Although our essential identity is in Christ, we have this Adamic nature and it sins.

So it’s not through our own merits or strength but through the undeserved mercy of God that they neither totally fall from faith and grace nor persist in the backslidings that are finally lost. As far as they are concerned, as far as we’re concerned, this could not only easily happen—this backsliding or loss of salvation—but would undoubtedly happen because we know that Adamic nature causes us to sin. We know that one sin violates the whole law of God. So, if it was up to us persevering so that God then would preserve us, we wouldn’t do it because of our sins and our Adamic nature. Okay.

But as far as God is concerned, this cannot possibly happen. Since his counsel can’t be changed, his promise cannot fail. The calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked. The merit, intercession, and preservation of Christ cannot be nullified. And the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be frustrated nor destroyed. Praise God. You see, all those repetitions are the reasons why we cannot lose salvation. But it’s utterly the result of God’s grace and mercy toward us because of our own sin.

That’s the assurance that we cannot—that God will preserve us and that as a result of his preservation we will persevere in the faith. That’s the assurance that we’re talking about under this head of doctrine here under this portion of this head of doctrine.

Now let’s talk about the certainty, the crux, the condition and the contents of this assurance again from article 9 of the Canons and then we’ll reference scripture.

First of all the certainty of this assurance. It is possible and realized. The article 9 says this: Believers themselves can be certain. Okay, so it’s possible and in fact are certain of this preservation and this is very important.

Now why do the church fathers assert this? Well, we can say that certainly there are some who know based on the scriptures that they are elect in Christ. They will persevere. Note that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him. He moves from the general to the specific. He moves from “the godly will be preserved. They’ll be heard.” But then he goes on to say, “the Lord will hear when I call unto him.”

The psalmist has personal assurance of God’s hearing him when he calls. Okay? He knows that he is one of those who have been set apart or elect for the purposes of God. So he can know it. Certainly that individual can.

Additionally, in Job chapter 19 verse 25—Bill Wade puts this at the bottom of his email messages, a very good thing to put it. There was a signature file to our email messages. Job 19:25 and following.

For I know not in general, but I specifically me personally know that my redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

He wasn’t assured just of some general knowledge that some Christians, some will persevere in the faith. He knew he would see God. He knew that he personally was redeemed. So Job knew it. The psalmist knew it. Job knew it. Paul knew it. Paul said, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor any of these things can separate us from the love of Christ, from the love of God in Christ.” Paul knew that he couldn’t be separated from the love of God in Christ. He knew it personally. So individuals can know it.

But more than this, the scriptures of course assert not just that particular individuals might know it—this is important for what the Arminians did with this doctrine as we’ll see in a couple of minutes. File that away that the scriptures definitely say that individuals can know it. But additionally, the scriptures tell us that this can be known of others.

I could have mentioned also Isaiah. I won’t read the text, but Isaiah also knew. Isaiah said that God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. Isaiah knew his salvation as well.

But the scriptures go on to assert Paul wrote for instance in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 he says knowing brethren beloved your election of God. You can know someone else’s election of God as well. And then he says for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. The gospel came to these believers in much assurance.

Also assert that in 1 John 5:13.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life, not for a season, but eternal life. And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Look at that. 1 John 5:13. These things have I written unto you. And who is the you? You that believe in the name of the son of God. That’s you. Yes. I mean he wrote to a particular people but he wrote to you who believe in the name of the son of God. Why? That you personally might know that you personally now fill your name in there—that you personally have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the son of God.

Kind of circular isn’t it? We’ll see that too as we go through this. That assurance ministers to perseverance. You’re to know these things so that you might continue and grow in your belief. You see, it’s a dynamic that goes on there. But the point is that you personally can know this. So the scriptures assert first of all the certainty as the Canons of Dort do—the certainty of this assurance. It is not just possible. It is actually realized by the saint.

Secondly, the crux of this assurance is God’s preservation and their perseverance in that order.

Psalm 3:

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, oh Lord, save me. And then verse 8, salvation belongs unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people.

Salvation being deliverance or preservation of these people by God. So the psalmist knew that the crux of this assurance is God’s preservation of his people.

Again, Psalm 46:1-3.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Therefore, we won’t be afraid. There’s a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy places of the tabernacles of the most high.

We know that we have eternal life because God preserves us. As the psalmist points out over and over and over again, the crux of our assurance is God’s preservation of us and then as a result of that, our perseverance.

Okay. The order is important—the way the Canons put it. We are sure quote of this preservation of the elect to salvation and the perseverance of true believers in the faith. Notice the wording there how good it is. Wish we were so careful with our words these days. But they thought this through. Preservation of the elect. See the elect aren’t elect because of anything they do. They’re elect because of the sovereign good pleasure of God and his counsel.

Yeah. God will preserve the elect and Believers then will persevere. You see, believers talks about the effect that has had on us, God’s election. And the effect of God’s preservation is our perseverance. So believers persevere. The elect are preserved. It’s the same person. But you see the order is very important that we maintain the sovereignty of God. As we said, if it was up to us persevering so that God then would preserve us, we wouldn’t do it because of our sins and our Adamic nature. Okay.

Third, the condition of this assurance is faith. This assurance the Canons say is according to the measure of their faith. So this says two things. First that this assurance is tied to their faith. And then secondly it talks about the idea that there is a measure of faith. And so if assurance is tied to faith then depending upon your measure of faith you’re going to have greater or lesser assurance. Okay. Two points that are contained here.

Well first of all then the condition of this assurance is faith. There’s a relationship—an inevitable relationship between faith and assurance.

Ephesians 3:12 talking about the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith. Assurance through faith, confidence through faith in him.

For the which cause, let’s see, 2 Timothy 1:12.

For the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against the day.

The confidence that God will keep us, preserve us. This is what we’re talking about here is based upon the fact that we know whom we have believed—or had faith in. Okay? So we have confidence through faith, assurance through faith. Our knowledge of his preservation is tied to the one in whom we have been brought to belief.

Then in Hebrews 10:22:

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.

Full assurance of faith. You see, assurance, its condition is faith. And by the way, it goes on to say not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together which we’ll point out in just a minute is also very important. Okay.

And again Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 said that our gospel came with full assurance. The scriptures are replete that this assurance has its necessary connection to faith.

1 John 5:10 and following.

He who believes in the son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe has made him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his son. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son.

So we believe that God has given us eternal life.

Now point of all these verses is that assurance and faith are essentially one. When I say condition, probably not a good word. I wanted to use an alliterated outline to help us remember it, but it’s probably not a good word. Because the idea that is conjured up in our minds is that if we have faith then we can get assurance. That’s not the idea. The idea is that faith is assurance. You see the difference? When we say that faith is the condition. You could imply from that we have to work up faith and knowing that we have faith. No, that’s not the point. Our faith is our assurance and our faith is not a work of ours. It is not contingent upon us.

Faith is the gift of God. Right? Faith works itself out. We do exercise faith. We ask for God to increase our faith so we can move in greater faith. But it’s not something we work up. It’s the sovereign grace of God that gives us this faith. And this faith only has sense insofar as its object and the faith is that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us eternal life or that God has given us eternal life in Christ.

So you see faith and assurance are—you know—essentially one thing. So understand that don’t mean by this that you have to work out faith so you can have assurance, that you know that you’re going to go to heaven, you know that God’s going to preserve you. No. To the extent that you believe and have faith in the word of God, to that extent you also have assurance of your eternal security in Christ. Okay.

Now it says that it’s depends on the measure of faith and there are times when our faith in God wanes and waxes—gets larger and smaller and smaller and larger. That faith wanes and waxes and so our assurance also can be quite low at certain points in time as our faith, our belief in what God has accomplished and said in his word gets low. There’s a relationship between faith and assurance that is—they’re inextricably tied together. Okay.

We read something here from Herman Hoeksema, Homer Hoeksema, in the Voice of the Fathers. Okay. He says:

“Just exactly because faith itself is assurance and just because the measure of faith and the viewpoint of its activity and well-being may vary, therefore the measure of assurance varies also.”

Okay. He also mentions here that we are taught in the Heidelberg Catechism that faith is a certain knowledge of all that God has revealed to us in his word and an assured confidence that remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation are freely given me by God merely of grace only for the sake of Christ’s merits.

Now that kind of faith then is our assurance of our eternal security. Okay. So the condition as it were of this assurance is faith.

And then finally in this point the content of this assurance according to the church fathers is church, forgiveness and life. We read now under point D from the Canons of Dort:

By which they—that is these the electing God, the believers—shall surely believe that they are and always shall remain true and living members of the church and that they have forgiveness of sins and life eternal.

So there are three elements that the fathers point out in terms of the contents of what this assurance is ultimately. What is the assurance? It is that God will preserve us and we’ll be will persevere but there is specific content they allude to as well and it’s interesting the content that they allude to it.

The first one is a little unusual. We would think of the back—the last two as true—that this the content of this assurance includes the forgiveness of sins and life eternal. That’s certainly very important for assurance. But this first one in terms of the affirmation that they are and always shall remain true living members of the church. We don’t like that much in our culture because we’re real individualistic. The church institutionally isn’t seen as very important. And so this document seems to assert this importance of the church.

Well, that’s because the scriptures do. That’s because the scriptures inevitably tie our salvation and our assurance of that salvation to our participation in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his body.

Let’s look at some scriptures. We read in 1 Corinthians 6:

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

Our bodies are the members of Christ. We are in vital union and connection with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We read in Ephesians:

No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord, the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his blood.

Okay? And remember the Hebrews text, I said that we have this assurance. So we’re on the basis of that assurance not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The assurance in Hebrews that I read of is linked to the maintaining relationship of the visible institutional weekly meetings of the church. Okay. So the church is very important in scripture in terms of our assurance.

The Lord Jesus—Ephesians 5 says a passage we normally just think about in terms of husbands and wives but the model is Christ to the church. He nourishes and cherishes somebody. Our assurance is of God’s preservation. That he’ll guard us and more than that he’ll bring us along in faith. That he’ll nourish and cherish us. That’s what our assurance is. But see, Christ, the only people that he nourishes and cherishes is the church, his bride. So if you’re outside of the church, then you’re outside of the preservation and nourishment of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So our assurance is vitally tied to the fact that we are now presently in the context of Christ’s church and we shall remain in the context of Christ’s church. Okay.

So the scriptures tell us in 1 John 2:

Who so keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.

So our assurance of union with Christ is being spoken of here. And that union with Christ is pictured in the scriptures as union with his body, union with his church.

And so the—if the assurance of this doctrine is so important in our lives and it is to keeping up in the light of difficulties and troubles—see how very important it is to maintain connection with the institutional church, the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s how we maintain assurance to a very great degree. The fact that you’re here and have maintained connection, the fact that people sit in churches today that use the Lord’s day for the worship of God and not just the Lord’s day, but are part of a vital organism of a local church is absolutely critical to their sense of assurance.

And people that flit about or that aren’t planted in a local church, those folks really are going to doubt or they should be doubting. They should have doubts enter in because of their lack of connection to the visible body of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this assurance the church fathers and the scriptures assert that God preserves us, guards us and nourishes us is connected to the fact that we are part of the church.

That we make this big distinction in our minds, the visible and invisible. Well, I’m not really local church, but I am part of the, you know, the invisible church. Well, the scriptures don’t. There is a distinction, of course. And if you can’t find a church in your area, it’s very difficult. But the point is that God wants us to see these things linked together. So, it’s important to make that point.

Forgiveness of sins is rather obvious. We believe as the Psalms assert Psalm 103:

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our infirmities. So, great is his mercy toward those who fear him. So far has he removed our transgressions from us.

We have assurance that God has dealt with these sins. Once we know and as we walk in the light, that light reveals more and more of our sins. And if it was not for the assurance of salvation and forgiveness of sins, we would be depressed. We would be thinking we’re not doing well. We would be perpetually self-centered looking at our sins and having no joy of our salvation, which the scriptures say our strength.

And so the contents of this assurance includes the church we are in and shall we remain part of the church, that we have forgiveness of sins and finally that we have eternal life.

Indeed in 1 John 5, as we read before:

These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that ye have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay so this is the content, this is the relationship to faith, etc. This is the kind of assurance we’re talking about here.

What is the ground of this then? How do we know these things? What how do we know these things?

First, negatively. Article 10 and paragraph 5, that’s one of the rejection of errors in this head of doctrine says that this assurance is not produced by a certain private revelation besides or outside of the word. Paragraph 5 says that without a special—this is the error they reject. Without a special revelation, we can have no certainty of future perseverance in this life.

So, first of all, the ground of this assurance is not some kind of special revelation from God apart from or outside of his word. So, some commentators spoke of this as a sickly mysticism that thinks that somehow I know that I’m eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he’ll preserve me and therefore I’ll persevere. I know this because the spirit whispered in my ear one day or because I used a Ouija board to discern it or because God came to me in a vision or a dream. Therefore, I know my assurance is based upon that special revelation outside of or away from the word of God.

No, the fathers are saying that is not the basis for assurance. We could add to this in our day and age that the basis for assurance is also not our point of action—the time in which we first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. We talked about this several weeks ago, but the idea is not that we somehow memorialize the day we prayed the prayer or made a decision in the past and use that as the grounds for our assurance of all these things. It’s not personal revelation apart from the word of God. It’s not some action of ours in the past.

It is rather a reliance upon the promises of God as spoken in his word with the internal evidence of the Holy Spirit and then our resulting desire for good works and a good conscience before God. It’s not past oriented. It’s not mystical oriented. It is present oriented. It is linked to faith in the present and it is word oriented. Okay.

Now the Arminians recognize that there were certain people—Paul, Isaiah, Job—who seemed to speak with a great deal of confidence of their eternal security. And so to make up for that they came up with this idea that well ultimately in our system no one can persevere. Nobody can have assurance because assurance is based in fact on our perseverance and you can’t know that at the beginning of your life. Ultimately there’s no assurance in the Arminian system.

But they did say well it seems like some people might know. So therefore it must have been special revelation to them that they knew that they would do well the rest of their lives. They’re willing to give that much, but it’s nothing really. In fact, it’s terrible because it points our assurance on the wrong things. And unless our assurance is based upon God’s word, not our word, nor a spirit word outside of the word of God, then it’s of no value to us.

Now, having said that, it is true that this assurance is personal. Okay? As I said at the beginning, our assurance is not based upon the general truths or the general promises of God that some people will end up in heaven that some people will triumph in this life. It is personal. In other words, it is a personal—we could say revelation but it is founded securely on the promises and the written word of God.

And so the fathers go on to say but not these things but sub point B now positively:

But by faith in the promises of God who has most abundantly revealed in his word for our comfort.

Okay, so it’s the promises of God that is the basis for our assurance.

Hebrews 6 beginning at verse 7 says:

Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel—remember we said that’s one of the bases for the perseverance of the saints. God’s immutability of his counsel—confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things which was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope, the assurance set before us.

So the writer to the Hebrews says it is the oath of God. It’s the promise of God to you personally that is the basis for the hope that’s in you and for the assurance you have of your salvation. It’s the promise of God. God promises you that as you see yourself in relationship to Christ covenantally and you see that he has given you faith, He promises you that you are members of the eternal church of Jesus Christ and he shall surely preserve you and you shall surely persevere in the faith. Praise God. It’s not some, you know, halfway kind of deal that he tells you might happen. It is a promise. It is a promise made upon his oath by which he cannot lie.

Now, God doesn’t need to take an oath. His word is his oath. But by these two immutable things, the scriptures tell us, he assures us of this promise that we might then have hope. It is hope. It is promise. It is a promise, however, that is not found in the ether someplace. Those promises of eternal life, of forgiveness of sins, of continuance in the Lord Jesus Christ, these are promises found in his revealed word to us in the scriptures.

We read in 1 John 5:13, again:

These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life, that you might believe them more.

So these promises by God are codified in the scriptures and those scriptures assert—how plainer could it get—that these things are written that you personally who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God might know, might be fully assured, might be able to say in the midst of all the overwhelming difficulties alike can bring our way sometimes. It’s okay because God has promised me that he’ll preserve me. And he has promised me that I indeed shall persevere not because I’m doing so good, but because his grace involves itself in my perseverance.

Romans 15:4:

Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Again, this hope, this assurance is based upon the written revelation of God’s promises to us.

What’s the basis of assurance? It is not a sickly introspection of how good we were this last week. At its base. That is not the basis for our assurance. The basis for our assurance is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ outside of ourselves and the promises of God outside of our ourselves contained in holy scripture.

The least child in this church—well three or four years of age—can sing “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. It’s not ‘I walk with him in the garden’ folks. It’s “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” The word of God witnesses the promises of God to us that Christ loves us and he shall surely preserve us and we shall surely persevere then in this hope. The Bible tells me so.

Now as I said this is personal. And I want to read again from the Hooks of his word. He says:

Indeed if I am to have assurance I must have God’s own word to me personally telling me that I am his child, assuring me that I am a true and living member of the church of Christ, giving me the certainty that I shall forever remain such a member of Christ’s church. I must have God’s word to me personally, assuring me, “it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

God himself must not only tell me that none of his sheep will perish, and none of his sheep can ever be plucked out of Christ’s hand or out of the Father’s hand, but he must tell me: “You will never perish. You can never be plucked out of my hand.”

And as you’re here today believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can appropriate these promises of God to yourself and know of a certainty at the center of your being that God will preserve you. You can never be separated from the love of Christ.

God himself must not only tell me that the elect, the saints have the remission of sins and life eternal, but he must assure me: “Your sins are forgiven. You are the heir of eternal life.”

Let us understand this clearly. Just as salvation itself is absolutely and solely the work of God, so the assurance of that salvation is the work of God alone and all the testimony to the contrary—rather all the testimony to the contrary—the word, the devil, the world, our own consciences that will accuse us—testimony to this to the contrary—there is but one voice, one word that is able to give me hope and assurance. There is but one voice that is able to give the lie to all those contrary voices, that is able to contradict them. That is the voice of God. The voice of God is found in his scriptures.

Now this voice is a personal voice to us as well as we read the scriptures. The spirit ministers to us.

And so secondly, the ground of this assurance is the testimony of the Holy Spirit to our sonship. And they’ll quote the Canons by the testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are children and heirs of God.

Romans 8:14 and following:

As many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

I don’t know how many times I cry that out in a week. A lot. I cry out, “Abba, Father. Help me. I don’t understand. I can’t see. But I know you’re with me. I know you’re leading me. I know you’re guiding me. And I know you’re going to preserve me, and I’ll persevere.”

And we receive the spirit that cries out in us, “Abba, Father.”

The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So it is an internal personal revelation but it is founded upon the word of God and the spirit takes that word of assurance and puts it on our hearts that our sins are forgiven, that we have everlasting life, that it’s okay that those waters won’t overwhelm us and the fear will be rolled back in the grace and providence of God.

And if we are children then we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together.

And then third, and third only, not first, the ground of our assurance is a saintly pursuit of a good conscience and good works.

Isaiah 32 says:

That the spirit be poured from us on high, the wilderness will be fruitful field. The fruitful field will be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And listen now, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.

We have stressed that the assurance is God’s sovereign assurance to us of his promise in his word through his spirit. But this promise also has as its undergirding grounds the saintly pursuit of a good conscience and good works. Our activity does minister as well to our assurance. As we said earlier, perseverance ministers to assurance. Assurance makes us persevere. The perseverance also increases our sense of assurance.

The work of righteousness shall be peace. The effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. You want maybe your faith waning, assurance waning. You want it to wax more. Do the deeds of righteousness. Pray God that he would grant you the grace to move away from sin and do those works of justice and righteousness. And assurance then grows as our faith grows as well.

James 1:

Be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. He goes away. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word. This one will be blessed in what he does.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Cannot be sung by those who do not seek a good conscience and works of righteousness and obedience to God’s law from the heart.

Now, we’re going to fail. Even the best of our deeds will be blemished by our sin. But that’s our heart’s desire to have a good conscience. Hopefully, this last month as we spoke about sin, God.