Assurance of Salvation

Hebrews chapter 6, and we are going to be reading verses 13 through 20.

! Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13. And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.

God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

He has become a high priest forever. In the order of Melchizedek. A dear old Scottish believer was paid a visit by her preacher, who asked her, Janet, what would you say if after all that he had done for you, God should let you drop into hell at last?

Even as he likes, she replied, But if he does, he'll lose more than I do. Now, on the surface of that, it sounds a bit saucy and a bit arrogant, doesn't it?

As if not having Janet in heaven would be a greater loss to God than her losing out on heaven. But what sounds like a sassy answer at first, upon further thought, is really the answer of a solid faith.

One that will lead us into rich veins of truth that are full of comfort and assurance, the assurance of salvation for the people of God.

So tonight we're considering the topic of the assurance of salvation. Do you know for sure that you are saved? Do you know that if you should die tonight, heaven would be yours?

You are more sure of that than anything else. Can you say, of Jesus Christ, I am his, and he is mine forever and forever.

Are you confident that you will not perish but have everlasting life? To be certain of it. That's the assurance of salvation that we're speaking of tonight.

The first thing I want to say is this, by way of introduction, is that the full assurance of salvation is possible. Many places in the Bible we read that we can know for sure.

Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know I have a Redeemer, and I know he's mine, and that he lives. David says, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and surely after that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

It's a certain thing, a surety. Peter tells us to make our calling and election sure. And John says in 1 John 5, 12, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And so the very first thing that we need to realize is that assurance of salvation is something possible to the believer in this life, to have a hope that is not iffy but is certain.

The second thing I want to say is that full assurance of salvation is not only possible, it's important. If Satan cannot rob you of your salvation, and he can't, if you're a true believer, he will try to rob you of the full assurance of your salvation.

If he can't keep you from going to heaven at last, he will try to make your trip there miserable, full of doubts and fears and wondering whether you will make it at last.

In that way, he would paralyze you, paralyze you with doubts and fears that would keep you from enjoying him and would make you no help to others in bringing them to heaven with you.

So the settled assurance of our salvation is of great importance. Now, it's not necessary for salvation to be assured that we are saved.

Or what I mean is you can truly be saved and not be fully assured that you are saved. So it's not necessary for salvation, but assurance is necessary for our healthy spiritual life and for usefulness to others.

Our confession of faith, I think, has one of the best chapters on assurance of all the chapters in it. And I would just commend it to you for your reading.

But it summarizes some of the benefits of assurance of salvation. It says that we have by assurance greater peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It's hard to have a calm peace in life, isn't it, if you don't know for sure if you're at peace with God? It's hard to have an uninterrupted joy in the Lord when, for all you know, in any moment, you might drop into an eternal hell.

No, the fruit of assurance of salvation is a greater peace and joy. And it's a greater love and thankfulness to God.

Nothing swells your love to God like the assurance that he has saved you from eternal torments. And even as we just sang and thought about, nothing lifts and fills the heart and mouth with thanksgiving, like knowing that salvation is yours.

And then it also increases strength and cheerfulness and dutiful obedience. It's the assurance that he's saved you that powerfully motivates you to live your life, not for yourself, but for him.

Well, those are no small gains in the Christian life, are they? Peace, joy, love, thankfulness, strength, cheerfulness, and obedience.

They are the fruit of the assurance of salvation. Now, Satan knows this, and so he attacks the believer's assurance and hope. God knows this, and so he has done things and said things in his word to strengthen our assurance.

And it does bring honor to God to have children traveling to heaven full of confidence and joy of his salvation. And that, perhaps more than any other reason, is the reason Satan makes our assurance a target that he shoots at.

He's an enemy of God getting glory. He's made a lifetime job of it. And so he will seek to steal our assurance because it would thereby rob God of his glory.

So it's possible. Assurance of salvation is possible. It's important, and therefore it is our duty to make every effort and to make our calling and election sure.

Well, we come then to the issue of how. How does God bring us to a settled assurance of salvation? Our confession of faith mentions three ways, and I've likened it to a stool with three legs.

That's the illustration that's often been given to it. You know that a stool with one leg is a bit wobbly, and a stool even with two legs is a bit wobbly. But give it the third leg, and there's some stability.

And so this assurance of salvation that is sure and certain and stable has these three legs upon which it rests. And the first is the inward evidence, and I'm not giving them in any order other than to say the last one because I want to spend the most time on it.

The first leg is the inward evidences of the graces of the Holy Spirit. The inward evidences of the graces of the Holy Spirit.

Wherever the Holy Spirit comes to live, he always renovates the house from the inside out. He never leaves things as he finds them, but he changes the heart and life where he lives, and he has his own architectural and decorating style.

Do you remember the architect Frank Lloyd Wright? What comes to your mind when I mention that? Some of you art students, remember freshman art in college.

You would have to see some slides of buildings that he had drawn up the plans for. Well, he had his own style, didn't he?

His distinctive style was the cantilever. It was his signature mark. Well, in the same way, the Holy Spirit has his own distinctive style.

His homes look a lot like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he makes them look like. His heart, his virtues, his graces, his affections, a supreme love for God and a love for our neighbor.

That's what you start to see in the home where the Holy Spirit lives. There's a love for holiness, a love for what we once hated and a hatred for what we once loved.

There's a love for the Lord Jesus where the Holy Spirit lives, a desire to keep his commands, to hear his voice, to fellowship with him, to talk to him.

These are the evidences, you see, that the Holy Spirit is present there. These are the supernatural results of his presence occupying the heart.

So you can see how this gives assurance of salvation. How do I know that I've been saved and that God has put his spirit in me? Well, you see it by the results of the Holy Spirit.

And you say, I know that's not me. I know what I'm like. I know how I was born. I know how I was. This is an evidence that God has come and taken up his dwelling place in my heart and made me a new creature in Christ Jesus.

And that gives us assurance. What about you? Where his spirit dwells, he leaves his footprints upon the house.

Well, the second way that we are assured of salvation is the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Romans chapter 8, 15 and 16.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you receive the spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

So the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts. Yes, he renovates the life, but he also comes there to assure us that God is our father and that we are his children.

Now, it's not an audible voice that we hear, but he gives testimony. He bears witness. He gives us this awareness, this settled assurance that this great God is our father.

And that we're his children through faith in Jesus Christ and that he listens to us when we pray with a heart of a father. It's the same spirit that dwelled in Christ that moved our Lord Jesus in his humanity to pray, Abba, Father, Father.

That same spirit lives in us, moving us to say, Abba, Father. Father. He assures us that it's so. It's one of his important ministries to us.

And by the way, isn't that the language that our Lord Jesus uses when he teaches us to pray? When you pray, say, what? Our Father who art in heaven.

That's a mark of a true Christian. They have a sense that this great God is my father. We don't pray, God, if you are our father in heaven.

No, we pray our father. We can't even pray right without assurance of salvation that this God is our father. That's the spirit's ministry to us to help us to pray as children coming to a gracious, good, wise, and almighty father.

So the spirit produces evidences of grace in our lives. He bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God and he's our father. And the third leg of assurance is the faithfulness of God to his promises and to his commitments.

The faithfulness of God to his gospel promises and commitments. I will look in vain for a promise in the Bible that says, John Heaney will not perish but have everlasting life.

It's not in there. I've read through the Bible and you have too. But there is a verse in there that says, whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Now, believing is a conscious thing. It's something we're aware of. We know if we're not claiming any other righteousness before God, any other reason God should save us except what Jesus has done.

We know when we're not trusting ourselves but we're really putting our weight on what he is and what he has done. That that's all our hope for salvation.

All of our hope for heaven is on him. That's faith. And I'm aware of it when I trust in Jesus. I'm conscious that I am trusting in him, his blood and righteousness as we sang.

And if that's true of me, then I draw sweet assurance from the promise that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

And from every other gospel promise that whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, soul rest.

And so we lay hold of the promise. These are not promises coming from some smooth-speaking politician who wants our vote. They're not promises coming from a used car salesman who wants to make a sale.

They're not promises coming from the devil, the author of lies. But they're promises coming from the all-faithful God who cannot lie, Titus 1, 2, and 3, the hope of eternal life which God who does not lie promised before the creation of the world and now has brought to light in my preaching, Paul says.

Our hope of eternal life rests upon a promising God, a God who does not lie. So how certain can we be of our salvation if we are trusting in Jesus to save us?

As certain as we are that God will keep his promises. This is something that God is ever wanting to assure us of, his faithfulness to keep his promises.

We read it here in Hebrews chapter 6. Notice how eager he is to assure Abraham that he will keep his promise to him.

Hebrews 6, 13, and 14. When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.

He swore an oath. Now why do men swear an oath? Well, he tells us in verse 16, men swear by someone greater than themselves and the oath confirms, makes firm, assures, an oath assures that what is said and puts an end to all argument.

That's why men swear oaths to make certain and to assure people that what I'm saying is true. I swear before God as my witness that this is true.

It's a way of assuring that what we are saying is true. It confirms the word. Now God is so wanting to assure Abraham and his heirs of his faithfulness to his promises that he stoops and swears an oath.

Now on the one hand it should be enough for Abraham just that God promised. Just believe me, Abraham, I'm a faithful God. But no, God is kinder than that and he stoops to swear an oath just so that Abraham will know for sure that God's going to keep his word.

And since there was no one greater than God to swear by, men swear by God, God swears by himself. Genesis 22, you can read of it.

I swear by myself that I will keep my promise and I will make your descendants like the stars of the heavens and I will bless all nations through your offspring.

He puts himself on the line. I swear by myself. His entire being is put on the line so there could be no higher assurance than this.

As surely as I exist, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. So it's a double assurance, isn't it, that he gives to Abraham? A sure assurance to have his promise plus a sworn oath.

Why? Verse 17 says, because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised. He confirmed it with an oath.

He wanted us to be very sure that his promise would happen so he added an oath making the promise even more sure in their eyes. Verse 18, God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled, notice we, this isn't just something for Abraham, this is something that we might be sure of because of these two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie.

We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged, may be fully assured that we will not come out empty in the end, that God will not drop us into hell at the end.

For God not only does not lie, you notice there in verse 18, it is impossible for God to lie and he can't lie about his promise and he can't lie about his oath.

Doubly sure. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure, sure and steadfast. You see, our hope for eternal life is not an iffy thing at all, it's a sure thing, it's a settled thing.

What does this teach us about God? It teaches us that God wants his people to be fully assured of their everlasting salvation and he is stooped to our weakness to make us fully assured.

He not only wants us to make it to heaven at last, but he wants us to travel there without doubting and fearing, but certain and sure of it, greatly encouraged at its certainty, knowing that if Jesus is our representative, our forerunner and he's already made it, that we too, his people, will be there to join him.

If he's there on our behalf, we too will be there. It's a certainty. So we travel heavenward with our soul already anchored in the haven of rest because our forerunner, our representative, our head is there.

We too will join him. Steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, a full assurance of salvation because of the faithfulness of the saving God who has promised and sworn an oath to keep his word.

God's promises are his verbal commitments to us. He is committing himself to us in promising something. He's putting his name on the line like you do when you write a check.

You're saying, I'm good for this much. And when God makes a promise, he's putting his name on the line. He's putting himself on the line and saying, I'm good for this. And so it's a certainty.

He's putting his faithfulness on the line, his integrity, his credibility, his truth, his righteousness, his justice, his reputation.

So this brings us back then to the response of the old Scottish woman. Janet, what would you say if after all that he has done for you that God should drop you into hell at last?

Even as he likes, she replied, but if he does, he'll lose more than I do. Janet knew she was trusting in the Lord Jesus to save her.

And she knew of God's promises in the gospel that no one trusts in him in vain. No one who trusts in him will ever be put to shame, but that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

So if God lets one of his own who is trusting in Christ perish at last, he would lose more than they do. For he would lose his good name.

He would lose his faithfulness, his integrity, his credibility, his truth, his righteousness, even his Godhead. So Janet is right.

She would lose heaven. But he would lose more. And I wonder if we've learned to drink in the comfort from God's promises like Janet did. She knew his character to be true.

My salvation is sure is God's concern for his own good name. His own good name is his reputation, his credibility, his trustworthiness, his faithfulness.

The wise man says that a good name is more desirable than great riches and that it's better than fine perfume. And God's good name is dear to him too. Psalm 138 says he's exalted above all things, his name and his word.

Above all things, his name. Do you think he's ready to trash his name? To let one trusting in him and his promise fall into hell and thereby lose his good name?

Janet knew it wouldn't happen. So we need to see that in these gospel promises God has put his name on the line to save all who come to him by Jesus Christ.

He wants us to be fully assured. We see that with Abraham how he not only promises but he stoops and even swears an oath. You know he even went one better than that with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.

God had promised Abraham offspring like the stars of the heavens and that they would come from his own body even though he was then childless and that to that offspring he would give the land of promise and though he had no children the Bible says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness but then Abraham though he believed God he wanted stronger assurance and so he asked God how can I know?

Yes I believe and God counted it for righteousness and the next thing we see is Abraham says but how can I know? How can I be stronger in my assurance that these things will happen?

Well again we can say Abraham God has given you enough what more can he say to you than what he has said and yet this God is so tender with his children that he will stoop even lower to assure Abraham that he will keep his promise and he does so by entering into a covenant with him and God told Abraham to bring him a heifer a goat and a lamb dove and a pigeon and he didn't need to tell Abraham what to do with him Abraham knew how to cut a covenant in those days and so he took the animals and he cut them in half and then he arranged the pieces opposite of each other half of the heifer here and the other half here and he made a row of the two halves with a pathway between them he cut these animals in two and arranged them across from each other except for the birds he kept whole and set them apart from each other and then

God tells Abraham that it will be a long time before his offspring inherit the land 400 years of being mistreated as slaves but then God would bring them out and into the possession of the promised land and God tells Abraham to know this for certain that's his words this is God's words to his son Abraham know this for certain be fully assured of this Abraham how but how God how can I know well by what happened next the cutting of the covenant as the sun set and darkness fell God gave a visible manifestation of his presence to Abraham we read that a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and then passed between the pieces of the animals God was making covenant commitments to Abraham to give the land to his offspring and this passing between the pieces was what

O. Palmer Robertson calls an oath of self malediction it's an oath an enacted oath instead instead of just a spoken word and I swear by myself now God is enacting it's it's by his action that he's entering into this oath this covenant oath of self malediction in which he's calling down covenant curses upon himself if he does not keep his word to Abraham he's saying in essence by walking through the pieces if I ever break my covenant promise to you may I be treated as these animals that have been torn apart now you say where does this idea come from we don't have anything like that to compare to but it's not such a foreign concept as may first appear I wonder how many of you when you were younger and you said something and your buddy said

I don't believe it and you answered cross my heart and hope to die stick a needle in my eye now how many of you said those words come on fess up okay some of you are too spiritual to say them but you know what I'm talking about when somebody is trying to make sure that you know that what they are saying is true they would take an oath of self malediction may I have a needle poked in my eye may I die if what I'm telling you isn't true or if I don't keep my word and do what I say that's what God is doing here amazing stooping so low to Abraham to say Abraham if I don't keep my word may may I be torn apart may I be annihilated can you see what God said it has to happen because I can't undo myself I can't become less than what I am the great I am the eternal

I am and so God is saying to Abraham my promises are sure believe them be fully assured that all that I have said will happen turn over to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 where we have a faithful a trustworthy saying given to us about the Lord Jesus 2nd Timothy 2 11 and following here is a trustworthy saying it's a saying about Christ Jesus if we died with him we will also live with him if we endure we will also reign with him if we disown him he will also disown us if we are faithless he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself now Paul is talking about anyone who wants to live a godly life will suffer persecution but some people to escape persecution may deny

Jesus Christ so he says if we disown him he will disown us we need to know that we need to know that if we disown him he will disown us you say that sounds awful harsh Paul those are the very words of Jesus aren't they remember the Lord Jesus words in in Matthew chapter 10 verse 33 whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge him before my father in heaven but whoever disowns me before men I will disown him before my father in heaven so if we disown him we say we don't know him like Peter did but we don't repent like Peter did then he will disown us the next the last phrase here in this trustworthy saying if we are faithless doesn't follow he will be faithless it says if we deny him he will deny us but it doesn't say if we are faithless he will be faithless no it says if we are faithless he will remain faithful as faithful to his promised threats as he is to his promised blessings you see that what's his promise threat if you disown me

I will disown you so if you disown me and you are faithless I will remain faithful and do exactly what I said and disown you for the final phrase he cannot disown himself he cannot disown himself he said he would disown us if we disown him now if we disown him and he doesn't disown us he would be unfaithful he would not do what he said but he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself that's something he cannot do I want you to see from this faithful saying about our Lord Jesus that what he saying is that Jesus Christ is faithful that's his character that's who he is he's absolutely faithful to all that he has said whether he's threatening or whether he's promising blessing for

Jesus Christ to not remain faithful to his threat would be to disown himself it would be to become what he is not it would be to ungod himself he would no longer be God because God is not a man that he should lie he would cease to be the truth and so he would cease to be God so if I am trusting in Jesus Christ and I don't deny him ultimately if after all of this he would then drop me into hell well then he would lose more than I I would lose heaven but he would lose his deity he'd no longer be God you see what Janet had seen to she'd seen to the core of the issue that God is faithful and he can't disown himself he can't undo himself he is who he is and and so it is certain no he won't lose his good name he won't lose his faithfulness he won't lose his credibility his trustworthiness his deity

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and so he said of his sheep who listen to him and follow him I give them eternal life and they will never perish the kind of life I give them it's eternal you can rest on that dear sheep you will never perish God has said to his people never will I leave you never will I forsake you to forsake you as his child would be to forsake himself be to deny himself this he cannot do so the promises of God from a faithful God give to the child of God rich assurance they give us a foundation to stand upon to know we're on solid ground he cannot go back on his promises he cannot disown himself so believe that whoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life drink in the comfort of his assurance he will will keep you from falling and present you faultless before his presence with great joy he will keep you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ God who has called you into fellowship with his son is faithful but what he has done his righteous life perfect obedience to God's law and his atoning death by his blood if that's your only trust for heaven you're not on shaky ground if God would let you drop into hell at last what would he be saying about his son's blood and righteousness do you think he would do that or will he not honor his son for his great act of sacrifice and his great act of obedience even unto the death of the cross that would say that the blood and righteousness of Jesus is not enough to save you can you fathom that

I can't does the blood of Jesus really cleanse from every sin as he promised or doesn't it does Jesus blood of the new covenant secure all the blessings of the covenant for every believer or doesn't it one of the promises is that their sins will be forgiven and remembered no more he has said that nothing can separate you from God's love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord so do you see from the promises that he's made that he cannot save all who trust in his son it's all or nothing Janet had it right her soul was safe in the hands of Jesus and she knew that he could never let her be lost and dear believer in Jesus though your faith be weak if it is true faith and you are resting the weight of your eternal soul on the

Lord Jesus alone to save you your salvation is sure it is as sure as God is true he has sworn it he has put himself on the line and he's not about to ungod himself to disown himself if he lets just one of you fall into hell who are clinging by faith to Jesus the whole of religion is a farce there is no God there is no way there is no truth there is no life but thankfully these things are not the case that he is true and he will save all who come unto God through Jesus Christ well this is part of your inheritance it's part of as a sinner trusting in Jesus so live up to your inheritance not only for your own joy and peace and happiness but also for the honor of God it speaks well of

God to have his children fully assured of his love for them what kind of a father is it whose children don't know whether or not he loves them don't know if they're safe in his care what kind of a savior is it whose people are not quite sure whether or not he'll save them so we honor our Lord and savior we honor our God by being fully assured that what he's promised he also will do rejoice and rest fully assured in what God has promised we're going to sing a song that we sang not recently or not long ago 582 as our confession of our trust in this savior and it's my hope is built on nothing less we sang of the blood and righteousness of Christ we're going to sing of it again and now we're saying that my hope my confident expectation of heaven is on this

Jesus himself and upon a life I did not live upon a death I did not die another's life another's death I rest my whole eternity can you say that tonight would almighty God waste the life and death of his own beloved son for one who's trusting in him the apostle Paul says in Galatians 2 21 if righteousness could be gained through the law Christ died for nothing now can you imagine that God would put his son through the torments of hell for nothing no God forbid and so Paul like Janet puts that out there to shock us if righteousness if you could be right with God if you could be saved by your own law keeping then Christ died for nothing and I would add to that tonight that if righteousness cannot be gained through

Christ's blood and righteousness that Christ died for nothing if as a sinner I come and cling to the blood and righteousness of Jesus and that's not enough then Jesus died for nothing you see it's preposterous it just can't be and what it says believers is that we're safe we're secure we're on solid ground and if Janet could trust in Christ's blood and righteousness and still be dropped into hell at last well then Christ died for nothing so verse 3 says his oath his covenant his blood support me in the whelming flood when all around my soul gives way he then is all my hope and stay we've looked at his oath we not only have his promise we have his oath he is sworn by himself he cannot deny himself we have his covenant he's passed between the pieces and said if I don't keep my promise may

I become like these pieces annihilated cursed God and then his blood his blood that has purchased men for God let's rest upon his oath his covenant his blood and rejoice in him and make our way to heaven rejoicing telling others of the peace and joy that comes from believing well let's stand and sing 582 my hope is built on nothing less if your trust is not in Christ you can call on him even as you sing and as we sing tonight call on him put your trust in Jesus blood and righteousness and he will save you let's pray God we thank you that you understand us you know our frame you remember that we are dust there are many things that change in our lives our feelings change from day to day and sometimes we feel saved and other times we don't we thank you for such unchangeable things as our

Lord Jesus Christ as his blood blood shed a finished work a righteous life already lived the law already perfectly obeyed an oath a sworn oath swearing by your own name a covenant in which you called down curses upon yourself if indeed you will not keep your word how you stooped to us to make us see just how faithful you are to make us see that trusting in Jesus we are secure and so help us then to make our calling and election sure not to give ourselves any rest until we know for a certainty through our Lord Jesus Christ so help us to travel to heaven with joy and peace that comes from believing with a contagiousness that would gather others around and that we might be able to say to them come with us and we will do you good for the

Lord has spoken good concerning Israel his people thank you then for this Lord's day thank you for the help and the blessings that fell upon the connecting to advance weekend don't let any of the words that have been spoken fall to the ground unbelieved!

and lived upon unimproved but rather bring forth fruit from all the word that has gone forth even that which was scattered upon our hearts today we ask in Jesus name and for his praise amen for to him to have to to to have him!