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Assured Security in Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” — 2 Timothy 1:12.

In the style of these apostolic words, there is a positiveness most refreshing in this age of doubt. In certain circles of society, it is rare nowadays to meet with anybody who believes anything.  It is the philosophical, the right, the fashionable thing nowadays to doubt everything which is generally received; indeed those who have any creed whatever are by the liberal school set down as old-fashioned dogmatists, persons of shallow minds, deficient in intellect, and far behind their age.  The great men, the men of thought, the men of high culture and refined taste, consider it wisdom to cast suspicion upon revelation, and sneer at all definiteness of belief.  “Ifs” and “buts,” “perhapses” and “peradventures,” are the supreme delight of this period.  What wonder if men find everything uncertain, when they refuse to bow their intellects to the declarations of the God of truth?  Note then, with admiration, the refreshing and even startling positiveness of the apostle — “I know,” says he.  And that is not enough — “I am persuaded.”

He speaks like one who cannot tolerate a doubt.  There is no question about whether he has believed or not.  “I know whom I have believed.”  There is no question as to whether he was right in so believing.  “I am persuaded that be is able to keep that which I have committed to him.”

There is no suspicion as to the future; he is as positive for years to come as he is for this present moment.  “He is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.”  Now, there is a positiveness which is very disgusting, when it is nothing but the fruit of ignorance, and is unattended with anything like thoughtfulness.  But in the apostle’s case, his confidence is founded not on ignorance, but on knowledge; “I know,” saith he.  There are certain things which he has clearly ascertained, which he knows to be fact; and his confidence is grounded on these ascertained truths. His confidence, moreover, was not the fruit of thoughtlessness, for he adds, “I am persuaded;” as though he had reasoned the matter out, and had been persuaded into it — had meditated long upon it, and turned it over, and the force of truth had quite convinced him, so that he stood persuaded.

Where positiveness is the result of knowledge and of meditation, it becomes sublime, as it was in the apostle’s case; and being sublime it becomes influential; in this case, it certainly must have been influential over the heart of Timothy, and over the minds of the tens of thousands who have during these nineteen centuries perused this epistle.  It encourages the timid when they see others preserved; it confirms the wavering when they see others steadfast.  The great apostle’s words, ringing out with trumpet tone this morning, “I know, and I am persuaded,” cannot but help to cheer many of us in our difficulties and anxieties.  May the Holy Spirit cause us not only to admire the faith of Paul, but to imitate it, and to attain to the same confidence.

Some speak confidently because they are not confident.  How often have we observed that brag and bluster are only the outward manifestations of inward trembling — concealments adopted to cover cowardice!  As the schoolboy, passing through the churchyard, whistles to keep his courage up, so some people talk very positively because they are not positive, and make a pompous parade of faith because they desire to sustain the presumption which, as being their only comfort, is exceedingly dear to them.  Now, in the apostle’s case, every syllable he speaks has beneath it a most real weight of confidence which the strongest expressions could not exaggerate.  Sitting there in the dungeon, a prisoner for Christ, abhorred by his countrymen, despised by the learned, and ridiculed by the rude, Paul confronted the whole world with a holy boldness which knew no quailing; a boldness resulting from the deep conviction of his spirit.  You may take these words and put what emphasis you can upon every one of them, for they are the truthful utterance of a thoroughly earnest and brave spirit.  May we enjoy such a confidence ourselves, and then we need not hesitate to declare it, for our testimony will glorify God, and bring consolation to others.

This morning for our instruction, as the Holy Spirit may help us, we shall first consider the matter in question, that which Paul had committed to Christ; secondly, the fact beyond all question, namely, that Christ was able to keep him; thirdly, the assurance of that fact, or how the apostle was able to say, “I know and am persuaded;” and fourthly, the influence of that assurance when it rules in the heart.

I. First, then, dear friends, let us speak for a few minutes upon THE MATTER IN QUESTION.

1. That matter was, first of all, the apostle’s deposit of all his interests and concerns into the hand of God in Christ. Some have said that what Paul here speaks of was his ministry; but there are many reasons for concluding that this is a mistake.  A great array of expositors, at the head of whom we would mention Calvin, think that the sole treasure which Paul deposited in the hand of God was his eternal salvation.  We do not doubt that this was the grandest portion of the priceless deposit, but we also think that as the connection does not limit the sense, it cannot be restricted or confined to any one thing.  It seems to us that all the apostle’s temporal and eternal interests were, by an act of faith committed into the hand of God in Christ Jesus.

To the Lord’s gracious keeping the apostle committed his body.  He had suffered much in that frail tabernacle: shipwrecks, perils, hunger, cold, nakedness, imprisonments, beatings with rods, and stoning, had all spent their fury upon him.  He expected ere long that his mortal frame would become the prey of Nero’s cruelty.  None could tell what would then happen to him, whether he should be burned alive to light up Nero’s gardens, or be torn to pieces by wild beasts to make a Roman holiday, or become the victim of the headsman’s sword; but in whatever way he might be called to offer up himself a sacrifice to God, he committed his body to the keeping of him who is the resurrection and the life, being well persuaded that in the day of the Lord’s appearing he would rise again, his body having suffered no loss through torture or dismemberment.  He looked for a joyful resurrection, and asked no better embalming for his corpse than the power of Christ would ensure it.

He gave over to Christ at that hour his character and reputation.  A Christian minister must expect to lose his repute among men.  He must be willing to suffer every reproach for Christ’s sake.  But, then, he may rest assured that he will never lose his real honor if it be risked for the truth’s sake and placed in the Redeemer’s hand.  The day shall declare the excellence of the upright, for it will reveal all that was hidden, and bring to the light that which was concealed.  There will be a resurrection of characters as well as persons.  Every reputation that has been obscured by clouds of reproach for Christ’s sake, shall be rendered glorious when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Let the wicked say what they will of me, said the apostle, I commit my character to the Judge of quick and dead.

So also his whole life-work he delivered into the hands of God.  Men said, no doubt, that Paul had made a great mistake.  In the eyes of the worldly wise, he must have seemed altogether mad.  What eminence awaited him had he become a rabbi!  He might have lived respected and honored among his countrymen as a Pharisee.  Or if he had preferred to follow the Grecian philosophies, a man with such strength of mind might have rivaled Socrates or Plato, but instead thereof, he chose to unite himself with a band of men commonly reputed to be ignorant fanatics who turned the world upside down.  Ah! well, saith Paul, I leave the reward and fruit of my life entirely with my Lord, for he will at last justify my choice of service beneath the banner of his Son, and the assembled universe shall know that I was no mistaken zealot for a senseless cause.

So did the apostle resign to the hands of God in Christ his soul, whatever its jeopardy from surrounding temptations.  However great the corruptions that were within it, and the dangers that were without, he felt safe in the great Surety’s hands.  He made over to the divine trustee all his mental powers, faculties, passions, instincts, desires, and ambitions. He gave his whole nature up to the Christ of God to preserve it in holiness through the whole of life; and right well did his life-course justify his faith.

He gave that soul up to be kept in the hour of death, then to be strengthened, sustained, consoled, upheld, and guided through the tracks unknown, up through the mysterious and unseen, to the throne of God even the Father.  He resigned his spirit to Christ, that it might be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing in the last great day.  He did, in fact, make a full deposit of all that he was, and all that he had, and all that concerned him, into the keeping of God in Christ, to find in his God a faithful guardian, a sure defender and a safe keeper.

This was the matter, then, about which the apostle was concerned.

2. But next to this, the matter in question concerned the Lord’s ability to make good this guardianship. The apostle did not doubt that Christ had accepted the office of keeper of that which he had committed to him.  The question was never about Christ’s faithfulness to that trust.  The apostle does not even say that he was confident that Jesus would be faithful; he felt that assertion to be superfluous.  There was no question about Christ’s willingness to keep the soul committed to him; such a statement he felt it to be unnecessary to make.  But the question with many was concerning the power of the once crucified Redeemer to keep that which was committed to him.  Oh, said the apostle, I know and am persuaded that he is able to do that.  Mark, my dear friends, that the question is not about the apostle’s power to keep himself; that question he does not raise.  Many of you have been troubled as to whether you are able to endure temptation; you need not debate the subject; it is clear that apart from Christ you are quite unable to persevere to the end.  Answer that question with a decided negative at once, and never raise it again.  The enquiry was not whether the apostle would be found meritorious in his own righteousness in the day of judgment, for he had long ago cast that righteousness aside.  He does not raise that point.  The grand question is this, “Is Jesus able to keep me?”

Stand to that, my brethren, and your doubts and fears will soon come to an end. Concerning your own power or merit, write “despair” straightway upon its forehead.  Let the creature be regarded as utterly dead and corrupt, and then lean on that arm, the sinews of which shall never shrink; and cast your full weight upon that omnipotence which bears up the pillars of the universe.  There is the point; keep to it, and you will not lose your joy.  You have committed yourself to Christ.  The great question now is, not about what you can do, but about what Jesus is able to do; and rest assured that he is able to keep that which you have committed to him.

3. The apostle further carries our thoughts on to a certain set period, the keeping of the soul unto what he calls “that day.”  I suppose he calls it “that day” because it was the day most ardently expected and commonly spoken of by Christians.  It was so usual a topic of conversation to speak of Christ’s coming and of the results of it, that the apostle does not say, “the advent,” he simply says, “that day.”  That day with which believers are more familiar than with any other day beside.  That day, the day of death if you will, when the soul appears before its God.  The day of judgment, if you please, that day when the books shall be opened and the record shall be read.  That day, the winding up of all, the sealing of destiny, the manifestation of the eternal fate of each one of us.  That day for which all other days were made. Christ Jesus is able to keep us against that day.  That is to say, he is able to place us then at the right hand of God, to set our feet upon the rock when others sink into the pit that is bottomless; to crown us when others shall be accursed; to  invite us to paradise when sinners shall be cast into hell.

Here was the matter of consideration — can the Great Shepherd of souls preserve his flock?  Ah! brethren, if you have never searched into that question, I should not wonder but what you may.  When you are very low and weak, and heart and flesh are failing, when sickness brings you to the borders of the grave, and you gaze into eternity, the enquiry will come to any thoughtful man, Is this confidence of mine in the Christ of God warranted?  Will he be able in this last article, when my spirit shivers in its unclothing, will he be able now to help me?  And in the more dreadful hour, when the trumpet peal shall awake the dead, shall I indeed find the Great Sinbearer able to stand for me?  Having no merit of my own, will his merit suffice?  From ten thousand sins will his blood alone cleanse me?  Nothing can ever equal this matter in importance; it is one of most pressing urgency of consideration.

II. THE FACT BEYOND ALL QUESTION, namely, that God in Christ is able to keep that which we have committed to him.

The apostle’s confidence was that Christ was an able guardian.  So be meant, first, that Jesus is able to keep the soul from falling into damning sin.  I suppose this is one of the greatest fears that has ever troubled the true believer.  Have you never prayed that you might rather die than turn aside from Christ?  I know I have, and I have sung bitterly in my soul that verse,

“Ah, Lord! with such a heart as mine,

Unless thou hold me fast,

I feel I must, I shall decline,

And turn from thee at last.”

Now, troubled Christian, remember that your Lord is able to keep you under every possible form of temptation.  Ah, say you, the apostle Paul had not the trials I have.  I think he had; but if he had not, Jesus had; and Christ has ability to keep you under them.  Do I hear one say, “I am the only one of my household that has been called by grace, and they all oppose me; I am a lonely one in my father’s house?”  Now, Paul was precisely in your condition.  He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and he was regarded by his people with the most extreme hate because he had come out from among them to follow the Crucified.  Yet Paul felt that God was able to keep him, and you may depend upon it, though father and mother forsake, and brothers and sisters scoff, he whom you trust will keep you also firm in the faith.

“Ah,” saith another, “but you do not know what it is to strive with the prejudices of an education hostile to the faith of Jesus; when I seek to grow in grace, the things I learned in my childhood force themselves upon me and hinder me.”  And was not the apostle in this case?  As touching the law he had been a Pharisee, educated in the straitest sect, brought up in traditions that were opposed to the faith of Christ, and yet the Lord kept him faithful even to the end.  None of his old prejudices were able so much as to make him obscure the simplicity of the gospel of Christ.  God is able to keep you also, despite your previous prejudices.

“Ah,” saith one, “but I am the subject of many skeptical thoughts.  I often suffer from doubts of the most subtle order.”  Thinkest thou that the apostle never knew this trial?  He was no stranger to the Greek philosophy, which consisted of a bundle of questions and skepticisms.  He must have experienced those temptations which are common to thoughtful minds; and yet he said, “I know that he is able to keep me;” believe me, then, the Lord Jesus is equally able to keep you.

“Yes,” saith another, “but I have so many temptations in the world.  If I were not a Christian, I should prosper much better.  I have openings now before me, by which I might soon obtain a competence, and perhaps wealth, if I were not checked by conscience.”  Forget not that the apostle was in like case.  What might he not have had?  A man of his condition in life — his birth and parentage being altogether advantageous — a man of his powers of mind and of his great energy, he might have seized upon any attractive position; but those things which were gain for him, he counted loss for Christ’s sake; and he was willing to be less than nothing, because the power of divine grace kept him true to his profession.

But you tell me you are very poor, and that poverty is a severe trial.  Brother, you are not so poor as Paul.  I suppose a few needles for his tent-making, an old cloak, and a few parchments, made up all his wealth.  A man without a home, a man without a single foot of land to call his own, was this apostle; but poverty and want could not subdue him, Christ was able to keep him even then.

“Ah,” say you, “but he had not my strong passions and corruptions.”  Most surely he had them all, for we hear him cry, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  He was tempted as you are, yet he knew that Christ was able to keep him.  O trembling Christian, never doubt this soul cheering fact, that your loving Savior is able to keep you.

Doubtless, the apostle meant, too, that Christ was able to keep him from the power of death.  Beloved, this is great comfort to us who so soon shall die.  To the apostle death was a very present thing.  “I die daily,” said he.  Yet was he well assured that death would be gain rather than loss to him, for he was certain that Christ would so order all things that death should be but like an angel to admit him into everlasting life.  Be certain of this too, for he who is the resurrection and the life will not desert you.  Do not, my brethren and sisters, fall under bondage through fear of death, for the living Savior is able to keep you, and he will.  Do not, I pray you, look too much at the pains and groans and dying strife; look rather to that kind friend, who, having endured the agonies of death before you, can sympathize with your sufferings, and who, as he ever liveth, can render you available assistance.  Cast this care on him, and fear no more to die than you fear to go to your bed when night comes on.

The apostle is also certain that Christ is able to preserve his soul in another world.  Little is revealed in Scripture by way of detailed description of that other world.  Imagination may be indulged, but little can be proved.  The spirit returns to God who gave it, this we know; and in the instant after death the righteous soul is in paradise with Christ; this too is clear.  Yet whether we know the, details or no, we are assured that the soul is safe with Christ.  Whatever of danger from evil spirits may await us on our journey from this planet up to the dwelling-place of God, whatever there may be of conflict in the last moment, Jesus is able to keep that which we have committed to him.  If I had to keep myself, I might, indeed, tremble with alarm at the prospect of the unknown region, but he that is the Lord of death and of hell, and hath the keys of heaven, can surely keep my soul on that dread voyage across a trackless sea.  It is all well; it must be well with the righteous, even in the land of death-shadow, for our Lord’s dominion reaches even there, and being in his dominions we are safe.

III. We shall, in the third place, pass on to notice THE ASSURANCE OF THAT FACT, or how the apostle Paul attained to it.

“I cannot talk like that,” saith one; “I cannot say, ‘I know, and I am persuaded,’ I am very thankful that I can say, I hope, I trust, I think.”  Dear friends, in order to help you to advance, we will notice how the apostle Paul attained to such assurance.

One main help to him was big habit, as seen in this text, of always making faith the most prominent point of consideration. Faith is twice mentioned in the few lines before us.  “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.”  Paul knew what faith was, namely a committal of his precious things into the custody of Christ.  He does not say, “I have served Christ.”  No; he does not say, “I am growing like Christ, therefore I am persuaded I shall be kept.”  No; he makes most prominent in his thought the fact that he believed, and so had committed himself to Christ.  I would to God, dear friends, that you who are subject to doubts and fears, instead of raking about in your hearts to find out evidences and marks of growth in grace and likeness to Christ, and so on, would first make an investigation concerning a point which is far more vital; namely, this, have you believed?

Dear anxious heart, begin thy search on this point.  Dost thou commit thyself to Christ? If thou dost, what though marks should be few, and evidences for awhile should be obscure, he that believeth on him hath everlasting life; he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.  The evidences will come, the marks will be cleared in due time, but all the marks and evidences between here and heaven are not worth a single farthing to a soul when it comes to actual conflict with death and hell.

Then, it must be simple faith that wins the day.  Those other things are good enough in brighter times; but if it be a question whether thou art safe or not, thou must come to this, “I have rested with all my heart on him that came into the world to gave sinners, and though I be the very chief of sinners, I believe he is able to save me.”  You will get to assurance if you keep clear about your faith.

The next help to assurance, as I gather from the text, is this; the apostle maintained most clearly his view of a personal Christ. Observe how three times he mentioned his Lord. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.”  He does not say, “I know the doctrines I believe.”  Surely he did, but this was not the main point.  He does not say, “I am certain about the form of sound words which I hold.”  He was certain enough about that, but this was not his foundation.  No mere doctrines can ever be the stay of the soul.  What can a dogma do?  What can a creed do?  Brethren, these are like medicines, but you need a hand to give you them; you want the physician to administer them to you; otherwise you may die with all these precious medicines close at hand.  We want a person to trust to.

There is no Christianity to my mind so vital, so influential, to true, so real, as the Christianity which deals with the person of the living Redeemer.  I know him, I know he is God, I know that he is mine; I trust not merely in his teaching but in himself; not on his laws, rules, or teachings am I depending so much as on himself, as a person.  Dear brother, is that what thou art doing now?  Art thou put thy soul into the keeping of that blessed man who is also God, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father?  Canst thou come in faith to his feet, and kiss the prints of the nails, and then look up into his dear face and say, “Ah, thou Son of God, I rely upon the power of thy arm, on the preciousness of thy blood, on the love of thy heart, on the prevalence of thy plea, on the certainty of thy promise, on the immutability of thy character, I rest on thee, and on thee alone.”  You will get assurance readily enough now.  But if you begin to fritter away your realization of the person of Christ, and live merely on dogmas and doctrines, you will be far removed from real assurance.

Brethren, furthermore, the apostle attained this full assurance through growing knowledge. He did not say, “I am persuaded that Christ will save me, apart from anything I know about him;” but he begins by saying, “I know.”  Let no Christian among us neglect the means provided for obtaining a fuller knowledge of the gospel of Christ. I would that this age produced more thoughtful and studious Christians.  I am afraid that, apart from what many of you gather from the sermon, or from the reading of the Scriptures in public, you do not learn much from the word of God, and from those innumerable instructive books which godly men have bequeathed to us.  Men are studious in various schools and colleges in order to obtain knowledge of the classics and mathematics, but should we not be even more diligent that we may know Christ, that we may study him, and all about him, and no longer be children, but in knowledge may be men?  Many of the fears of Christians would be driven away if they knew more.  Ignorance is not bliss in Christianity, but misery; and knowledge sanctified, and attended by the presence of the Holy Spirit, is as wings by which we may rise out of the mists and darkness into the light of fall assurance.  The knowledge of Christ is the most excellent of sciences.  Seek to be masters of it, and you are on the road to full assurance.

Once, again, the apostle, it appears from the text, gained his assurance from close consideration as well as from knowledge. “I know and am persuaded.”  As I have already said, persuasion is the result of argument.  The apostle had turned this matter over in his mind; he had meditated on the pros and cons; he had carefully weighed each difficulty, and he felt the preponderating force of truth which swept every difficulty out of the way.

How many Christians are like the miser who never feels sure about the safety of his money, even though he has locked up the iron safe, and secured the room in which he keeps it, and locked up the house, and bolted and barred every door!  In the dead of night, he thinks he hears a footstep, and tremblingly he goes down to inspect his strong-room.  Having searched the room, and tested all the iron bars in the window, and discovered no thief, he fears that the robber may have come and gone, and stolen his precious charge.  So he opens the door of his iron safe, he looks and pries, he finds his bag of gold all safe, and those deeds, those bonds, they are safe too.  He puts them away, shuts the door, locks it, bolts and bars the room in which is the safe and all its contents; but even as he goes to bed, he fancies that a thief has just now broken in.  So he scarcely ever enjoys sound, refreshing sleep.

The safety of the Christian’s treasure is of quite another sort.  His soul, not under bolt and bar, or under lock and key of his own securing, but he has transferred his all to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, our Savior — and such is his security that he enjoys the sleep of the beloved, calmly resting, for all is well.  If Jesus could fail us, we might wear sackcloth forever, but while he is immutable in his love and omnipotent in his power, we may put on the garments of praise.  Believing as we do that eternal love neither can nor will desert a soul that reposes in its might, we triumph in heart and find glory begun below.

IV. Now, to close, what is THE INFLUENCE OF THIS ASSURANCE when it penetrates the mind?

As time fails me, I shall but say that, as in the apostle’s case, it enables us to bear all the obloquy which we may incur in serving the Lord.  They said Paul was a fool.  “Well,” replied the apostle, “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed; I am willing to be thought a fool.”  The ungodly may laugh at us now, but their laugh will soon be over, and he will laugh that wins forever.  Feel perfectly confident that all is safe, and you can let the world grin at you till its face aches.  What does it matter what mortals think?   What signifies it what the whole universe thinks if our souls are beloved of God?  You will, my dear friends, as you live in full assurance of God’s love, grow quite indifferent to the opinions of the carnal.  You will go about your heavenly service with an eye only to your Master’s will: and the judgment of such as cavil and carp will seem to you to be too inconsiderable to be worth a thought.  If you doubt and fear, you will be hard put to it; but if you are serenely confident that he is able to keep you, you will dare the thickest of the fray, fearless because your armor is of proof.  Assurance will give you a serenity within, which will qualify you for doing much service.  A man who is always worrying about his own soul’s salvation, can have little energy with which to serve his Lord.  But when the soul knows the meaning of Christ’s word, “It is finished,” it turns all its strength into the channels of service, out of love to such a blessed Savior.

O you that doubt, and therefore fret and care, and ask the question, “Do I love the Lord or no?  Am I his or am I not?”  How I wish this suspense were over with you.  O you who fear daily lest after all you be castaways, you lose your strength for serving your God.  When you are sure that he is able to keep what you have committed to him, then your whole manhood, excited by gratitude, spends itself and is spent in your Master’s cause.  God make you men to the fullness of vigor, by giving you a fullness of assurance.

Those who are unsaved in this place may well envy those who are.  That which attracted me to Christ — I have not heard of others brought in this way, but this brought me to Christ mainly — was the doctrine of the safety of the saints.  I fell in love with the gospel through that truth.  What! I thought, are those who trust in Jesus safe?  Shall they never perish, and shall none pluck them out of Christ’s hand?  Everybody esteems safety.  One would not insure his life where he thought there was a doubt as to the safety of the insurance.  Feeling that there was perfect safety if I gave myself up to the Redeemer, I did so; and I entertain no regrets this day that I committed my soul to him.

O may the Holy Spirit softly whisper in your ear reasons that shall persuade you to give yourselves to Christ.  I say, again, my testimony is that you cannot do a wiser or a better thing.  Oh! the happiness my soul has known in resting on my Lord. I wish you knew it.  I would not cease to be a Christian, if I might be made a king or an angel.  No character can be to me so suitable or so happy as that of a humble dependant upon the faithful love of my redeeming Lord.  O come and trust him, dear young friends!  You older ones, do you need that I should speak to you, when you are getting so near your grave?  You are now out of Christ — how soon may you be in hell?  You younger ones, I say, embrace this flying hour, and let this be the day of which you shall have to sing in after years —

“‘Tis done! the great transaction’s done;

I am my Lord’s, and he is mine:

He drew me, and I follow’d on,

Charm’d to confess the voice divine.

High heaven, that heard the solemn vow,

That vow renew’d shall daily hear:

Till in life’s latest hour I bow,

And bless in death a bond so dear.”

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

Vital Signs for Assurance: A Look at Ignorance by Jim Ehrhard

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

One of the greatest allegories of the Christian life is Pilgrim’s Progress.  In it, John Bunyan deals with nearly every aspect of Christianity, including assurance of salvation.  In fact, Bunyan ends his book in a most unusual fashion with the story of one named Ignorance.

Ignorance had met Christian and Hopeful earlier in the story.  There they tried to converse with him about the nature of true faith and the need to examine himself honestly.  But Ignorance would not listen to them.  After Christian and Hopeful receive a grand entrance to the Celestial City, Bunyan turns the reader’s attention back to the character of Ignorance.  Rather than cross the River of Death as do the others, Ignorance finds a ferry-man named Vain-Hope to take him across the River.  When he reaches the gate of the city, he expects to be granted entrance, but he is denied.  In fact, the King commands two shining ones to bind him hand and foot, carry him to a door in the side of the hill, and put him in it.  Then Bunyan ends with the most solemn of warnings: “Then I saw that there was a Way to Hell, even from the Gates of Heaven….”

Assurance of eternal life is important.  Jesus reminded His disciples that on the last day, “many will say unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but I will say to them, ‘I never knew you.  Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.”  Obviously many will experience the same surprise that Ignorance received when he discovered “that there was a Way to Hell, even from the Gates of Heaven.”

However, God has given us evidences in His Word by which we may know if we are really His children.  Many of the passages on assurance point to the fact that a believer is one in whom God has placed His life.  Those who are indwelt by the Spirit have the “seed” of God in them.  They are “partakers” of His life and, as a result, are changed.  (See 1 John 3:9; 2 Peter 1:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 13:5; Romans 8:9).  But what are the evidences of this change?

1 John has been written for just such a purpose.  In 1 John 5:13, John states his purpose in writing: “These things have been written to you who believe, that you might know you have eternal life.”  Notice he is writing to believers who need assurance.  Throughout his epistle, he frequently makes statements like “by this we know that we are the children of God….”  These are clues to evidences of eternal life.  They are written to help believers have assurance.  As we examine them, please examine yourself honestly to see if you are really in the faith.

To facilitate understand, we’ve called these evidences of eternal life “vital signs.”  In the medical field, one’s physical condition is often monitored by the use of vital signs.  Whenever an unconscious body is discovered, the first things examined are the vital signs to discover if the person is alive.  In a similar fashion, the Bible gives us spiritual vital signs to help us have assurance that we are alive spiritually.

Before we look at these, let’s consider a few important facts about vital signs.  First, vital signs are indicators; they do not cause or create anything.  They only report the person’s condition.  This is especially important when we speak about spiritual vital signs.  They do not “make” anyone a Christian.  Instead, those who have been born again by the Spirit of God have been made alive and therefore have these signs.

Second, they are accurate. They leave little doubt as to the physical condition of the person.  As you examine the vital signs in your own spiritual life, do not fool yourself into thinking that you are on your way to heaven if the signs are absent.  Just as a person whose vital signs are absent is physically dead, you are dead spiritually and need to be born again if these signs are not present.

Third, they are all necessary and related.  Can you imagine a doctor arguing with his nurse: “I know there is no pulse, blood pressure or respiration, but I’m sure he’s alive because his temperature is not bad.”  The body may have a temperature because it has recently expired – but it is still dead!  Don’t use the vital signs as a checklist and conclude that you’ve got one vital sign so you must be okay.  All the signs must be present for assurance of eternal life.

Finally, let me give you one important caution when examining the vital signs:  You need to look to see if they are PRESENT not to see if they are PREFECT. Can you imagine someone discovering he had a high temperature or high blood pressure and pronouncing, “I guess I’m dead after all”?  In the same way, you need to look for the presence of these signs, not for perfection in them.  However, should you find an area that is weak, this should be a warning that shows that, though you are alive spiritually, you are in ill health and need to take some corrective measures.

1. A Love of Fellowship with Believers. According to 1 John 1:6-7, believers have two basic characteristics: they are forgiven and they fellowship.  Those who profess to the followers of Christ that do not enjoy fellowship with other believers are to be held in suspect.  The new nature of the believer leads him to desire to e with his brothers and sisters in Christ.  Also consider 1 John 2:9-11; 3:10-5; and 4:20-21.  Each of these passages indicates that believers fellowship.

In the case of John Bunyan’s Ignorance, unlike Hopeful and Christian, he “prefers to walk alone.”  I would be deeply concerned about my salvation if I called myself a Christian and did not desire to be with other Christians.  One vital sign of spiritual life is a new desire to be with other believers.

2. A Deep Awareness of Sin. According to 1 John 1:8-10, another vital sign of faith is the awareness and admission of sin in our lives.  Often believers are criticized as those who think they are sinless.  However, a mark of true faith is that we come to acknowledge the fullness of our sin and flee to Christ.  John makes it quite clear – those who say they have not sinned are simply liars.  Believers sin, but they honestly admit their sin.  In contrast, non-believers are always denying their sin, or minimizing it rather than confessing it.

Therefore, one good sign of God’s work in our lives is admission of sin.  John Owen noted that he did not know any believer to whom sin was not a burden and a sorrow.  Richard Baxter said: “I think, if I could stand and mention all the other marks of grace…, it would appear that the truth and life of all of them lieth in this one.”  The difference is clear: Non-believers leap into sin and love it; believers lapse into sin and loathe it.

3. A Lifestyle of Willing Obedience. In 1 John 2:3-4, the lifestyle of the believer is contrasted with non-believers.  At first glance, it would appear that John is requiring sinless perfection.  1 John 2:29, 3:4-6, and 5:2 seem to echo the same.  However, an examination of the context (especially 1:8-10) and the grammar (the use of a present indicative verb indicating continuing action) obviously lead to another conclusion.  The passage is best translated with the idea that believers do not live lifestyles of habitual disobedience.

In fact, Paul’s experience in Romans 7 indicates the struggle in believers.  We are not sinless, but struggle with sin and desire to be free from it.  Such is not the desire of non-believers.  They may desire to be free from the consequences of their sin, but they would like to hold on to the sin itself.  True believers cry with the Apostle: “For what I want to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”  Believers do sin, but they deeply desire to be obedient and pleasing to God.

Be careful, at this point, not to delude yourself about your attitude toward your sin.  Does it really cause you grief?  Do you really desire to be free and obedient or do you just claim such a desire when it really is not present?  Be honest at this point – remember, a false assurance is worse than no assurance at all.

4. A Witness of the Spirit Within. John speaks of this vital sign in two places: 3:24 and 4:13.  Paul also speaks of the witness of the Spirit (see Romans 8:9, 16).  What is this “witness” of the Spirit?  It is not an emotional experience or certain spiritual gifts.  The witness of the Spirit may be measured in many ways, but here are a few of the most obvious.

In Romans 8:15, Paul says, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’”  One mark of this witness is that we are now drawn to God and we cry out to Him as our Father.  In Romans 8:14, we read, “As many as are lead by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”  This may indicate that believers are guided by God, but it most certainly indicated that they willingly follow His guidance (obedience).  Jesus also mentioned this as a characteristic of believers in John 10:3-5 and 27-30.  The Spirit not only gives guidance but more importantly leads us to follow the direction of the Lord.

In 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, we learn that a mark of a believer is a fresh understanding of the Scriptures.  The natural man cannot understand these things “because they are spiritually discerned.”  However, one mark of the work of the Spirit in a believer is that the Bible and the gospel which were once mysteries to him now make perfect sense.

In Ephesians 4:30, another witness of the Spirit is noted.  When a believer sins, the Spirit is grieved.  According to Galatians 5:22-23, another mark of the presence of the Spirit in our lives is the fruit He is producing.  There are other ways to examine the witness of the Spirit in our lives, but these are a few to get you started.

5. A Hunger for God’s Word. This is one vital sign John does not directly spell out, but other passages indicate that this is the nature of a true believer.  In 1 John 4:6, John indicates that those who are truly believers listen to the teaching of God’s Word.  Such was the response of new believers in Acts 2:42.  Peter also indicates that new believers “desire the pure milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:2-3).  Those who say that they love God but have not an appetite for God’s Word are only fooling themselves.

6. A Willing Confession of Christ. 1 John 2:19 states: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”  Here, John gives a couple of evidences.  One is the issue of perseverance – those who are His, may stumble and struggle, but they will not ultimately fall.  The other evidence is identification with Christ.  Anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus who does not openly identify with Him is to be held suspect.

Jesus said the same: “whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words … of him also will the Son of Man be ashamed…” (Mark 8:38).  The Apostle Paul echoes the importance of open identification with Jesus: “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  Are you unwilling to be known as His?  Are you unwilling to be identified with Him?  Those who truly believe “cannot help be speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

These are some evidences that you are a child of God.  Would you honestly examine yourself by them?  As you do, let me leave you with two cautions and one warning.

Two Cautions

1. Beware of Impatience. In 1 John 3:9, God’s life in us is described as His “seed” in us.  The analogy refers to the seed of the male bringing about conception, but the similarities to a seed planted in the ground are also helpful.  In both cases (the baby and the plant), one must give the seed time to grow before all the evidences of life are clear.  If you are a new believer, you should expect to see some evidence of God’s life in your life.  However, just as one would not plant a seed one day and uproot it the next because it did not bear fruit, so you must be especially patient with new believers and allow time for the evidence of life to grow.

2. Beware of Perfection. As we mentioned at the outset of this article, you need to look for EVIDENCE not for PERFECTION when examining these vital signs.  Matthew Henry notes that the Holy Spirit usually changes the “affections and the attitudes” before He changes the “actions.”

One Warning

Beware of Presumption. Don’t take for granted that you are a believer just because you made a decision, had a religious experience or are a member of a church.  You must “examine yourself to see if you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).  Many have thought themselves to be saved only to discover that there really was no life in them.

Such was the case with John Wesley.  In his days at Oxford, Wesley was very serious about religion.  Along with Whitefield and his brother, Charles, he formed a group that met together that was so pious that they were scornfully called “the Holy Club.”  Wesley even felt the call to missions and went to preach to the Indians in Georgia.  His experience there only led him to realize that he lacked the life about which he preached.  He left dejected saying, “I came to convert the heathen, but who shall convert me.”

On the ship home to England, he met a German Moravian pastor who quizzed Wesley about his salvation: “Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?”  Surprised, Wesley could not answer.  “Do you know Jesus?” the Moravian persisted.  “I know He is the Savior of the world,” Wesley replied.  “True, but has He saved you?” the German queried.  Wesley responded, “I hope He has died to save me.”  “Do you know yourself?” the pastor pressed.  “I do,” Wesley affirmed, but later added in his journal, “I fear they were vain words.”

Wesley knew that something was missing in his life, but he was not about the let the Moravian know his plight.  Upon his return to England, John Wesley really “heard” the gospel and became a new creature in Christ.  But many in their presumption are never honest about their condition as was Wesley.  They live their entire lives confident that they will enter into heaven though the evidence of their life indicates otherwise.  If this is your condition, you, like Ignorance, will learn that there is “a way to hell even from the Gates of Heaven.”

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

A Test of Assurance: How May We Know Whether We Love God? by Thomas Watson

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

He who loves God desires His presence. Lovers cannot be long apart, they soon have fainting fits, for want of a sight of the object of their love.  A soul deeply in love with God desires the enjoyment of Him in His ordinances, in word, in prayer, and sacraments.  David was ready to faint away and die when he had not a sight of God.  “My soul fainteth for God” (Psalm 84:2).

He who loves God does not love sin. “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).  The love of God, and the love of sin, can no more mix together than iron and clay.  Every sin loved, strikes at the being of God; but he who loves God, has a hatred of sin.  He who would part two lovers is a hateful person.  God and the believing soul are two lovers; sin parts between them, therefore the soul is implacably set against it.  By this, try your love for God.  How could Delilah say she loved Samson, when she entertained correspondence with the Philistines, who were his mortal enemy?

He who loves God is not much in love with anything else. His love is very cool to worldly things.  His love to God moves swiftly, as the sun in the firmament; to the world it moves slowly, as the sun on the dial.  The love of the world eats the heart out of religion; it chokes good affections, as earth put out fire.  The world was a dead thing to Paul: “I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me” (Gal. 6:14).

He who loves God cannot live without Him. Things we love we cannot be without.  A man can do without music or flowers, but not food; so a soul deeply in love with God looks upon himself as undone without Him.  “Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them who go down into the pit” (Psalm 143:7).  Alas! how do they show they have no love to God who can do well enough without Him!  Let them have corn and oil, and you shall never hear them complain of the lack of God.

He who loves God will be at any pains to get Him. What pains the merchant takes, what hazards he runs, to have a rich return from the Indies!  Jacob loved Rachel, and he could endure the heat by day, and the frost by night, that he might enjoy her.  A soul that loves God will take any pains for the fruition of Him…. “I sought him whom my soul loveth” (Song of Solomon 3:2).  How can they say they love God, who are not industrious in the use of means to obtain Him?

He who loves God prefers Him before estate and life. (1) Before estate – “For whom I have suffered the loss of all things” (Phil. 3:8).  Who that loves a rich jewel would not part with a flower for it?  (2) Before life – “They loved not their lives to the death” (Rev. 12:11).  Love to God carries the soul above the love and the fear of death.

He who loves God loves His favorites, the saints (I John 5:1).  To love a man for his grace and the more we see of God in him, the more we love him, that is an infallible sign of love to God.  The wicked pretend to love God, but hate and persecute His image….  Can it be imagined that he loves God who hates His children because they are like God?

If we love God we cannot but be fearful of dishonoring him, as the more a child loves his father the more he is afraid to displease him, and we weep and mourn when we have offended him….  That Peter should deny Christ after he had received such signal tokens of His love, this broke his heart with grief.  “He wept bitterly.”  Are our eyes dropping tears of grief for sin against God?  It is blessed evidence of our love to God; and such shall find mercy.  “He shows mercy to thousands of them that love Him.”

Use. Let us be lovers of God. We love our food and shall we not love Him that gives it?  All the joy we hope for in heaven is in God; and shall not He who shall be our joy then, be our love now?  It is a saying of Augustine, “I would hate my own soul if I did not find it loving God.”

Excerpted from A Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson (1692)

Posted in Thomas Watson |

A Conversation on Assurance by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Doubtless not a few of our readers wish they had the opportunity for a personal conversation on the subject, so that they could state their difficulties and ask questions on anything that is not yet clear to them.  We have therefore decided to write two further articles in the form of dialogues, introducing widely different characters, who express a desire to discuss the subject.  The first is,

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Good morning, Mr. Editor, I wish to have a talk with you about those articles on “Assurance” which you published in last year’s “Studies.”

The Writer: Be seated, please.  First of all, may we courteously but frankly inform you that our time is already fully occupied in seeking to minister unto God’s dear children, yet we are never too busy to do all in our power to help a needy soul.

Carnal Confidence: O, I am not seeking help, my purpose in calling is to point out some things in your articles where I am quite sure you erred. I consider that in your articles you have made a very difficult and complicated matter out of what is really very simple.  According to your ideas, a person has to go to a lot of trouble in order to discover whether or not he is saved, whereas if a man believes God’s Word he may be sure in a moment.

The Writer: But are all those who believe God’s Word really saved?  Did not the Jews of Christ’s day believe implicitly in the Divine authorship of the Old Testament?  Does not the Devil himself believe the same?

Mr. Carnal Confidence: That is not what I meant: my meaning is that, if I rest upon some verse of Holy Writ as God’s promise to me, then I know He cannot disappoint me.

The Writer: Saving faith is not faith in the authenticity of any verse of Scripture, but rather faith in the Person of Him who gave us the Scriptures, faith in the Christ who is made known in the Scriptures.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Yes, I know that, and I do believe in God and in His Son, and I know that I am saved because He says so.

The Writer: Where in Scripture does God say that you are saved?

Mr. Carnal Confidence: In John 5:24, in Acts 16:31, and many other places.

The Writer: Let us turn to these passages please.  In John 5:24, the Lord Jesus describes one who has “passed from death unto life.”  He tells us two things about that individual, which serve to identify him.  First, “he that heareth My word.”  That is definite enough.  But of course it means far more than simply listening to His Word with the outward ear.  Returning to John 5:24; the one who has passed from death unto life, says Christ, “is he that heareth My word.”  Let us turn then to other passages where this term is found: “they are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refuse to hear My words” (Jer. 11:10); “because ye have not heard My words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north” etc. (Jer. 25:8,9); and see 35:17, Zechariah 1:4, Matthew 7:24, John 10:27.  In all of these verses, and in many others which might be given, to “hear” means to heed what God says, to act upon it, to obey Him.  So he who “hears” the voice of Christ heeds His command to turn away from all that is opposed to God and become in subjection to Him.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Well, let us turn to Acts 16:31, that is simple enough.  There is no room allowed there for any quibbling.  God says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  God says that to me; I have believed on Christ, and so I must be saved.

Writer: Not so fast, dear friend.  How can you prove God says that to you? Those words were spoken under unusual circumstances, and to a particular individual.  That individual had been brought to the end of himself; he was deeply convicted of his sins; he was in terrible anguish of soul; he had taken his place in the dust, for we are told that he “came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas” (Acts 16:29).  Now is it fair to take the words of the Apostles to such a man and apply them indiscriminately to anybody?  Are we justified in ignoring the whole setting of that verse, wrenching it from its context, and giving it to those who have not any of the characteristics which marked the Philippian jailer?

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I refuse to allow you to browbeat me and move me from the simplicity of the Gospel.  John 3:16 say, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Now I have believed on the Son, and therefore am fully assured that I possess eternal life.

Writer: Are you aware of the fact that in this same Gospel of John we are told, “Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them” (John 2:23, 24)?  There were many who “believed” in Christ who were not saved by Him: see John 8:30 and note verse 59!  John 12:42, 43!  There is a believing in Christ which saves, and there is a believing in Him which does not save; and therefore it behooves every sincere and earnest soul to diligently examine his “faith by Scripture and ascertain which kind it is.  There is too much at stake to take anything for granted.  Where eternal destiny is involved, surely no trouble can be too great for us to make sure.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I am sure, and no man can make me doubt.  I don’t claim to be perfect, but I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.

Writer: We didn’t ask if you were perfect; but have you been made a new creature in Christ, have old things passed away, and all things become new (2 Cor. 5:17)?  Are you treading the path of obedience, for God’s Word says, “He that saith I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).  It is not the adulation of our lips, but the affection of our souls, which He requires; it is not an intellectual assent, but the heart’s surrender to Him which saves.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: You are departing from the simplicity of the Gospel; you are making additions unto its one and only stipulation.  There is nothing that God requires from the sinner except that he believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Writer: You are mistaken.  The Lord Jesus said, “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Mr. Carnal Confidence: That was before the Cross, but in this dispensation repentance is not demanded.

Writer: Then according to your ideas, God has changed the plan of salvation.  But you err.  After the Cross, Christ charged His disciples, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations” (Luke 24:47).  If we turn to the book of Acts, we find that the Apostles preached repentance in this dispensation.  On the day of Pentecost, Peter bade the convicted Jews to “repent” (Acts 2:38).  Reviewing his ministry at Ephesus, Paul declared that he had testified both to Jews and also to the Greeks “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21); while in Acts 17:30 we are told that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent.”

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Then do you insist that if a person has not repented, he is still unsaved?

Writer: Christ Himself says so: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).  So too if a man has not been converted, he is yet unsaved: “Repent ye therefore and be converted, that you sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).  There must be a right-about-face: there must be a turning from Satan unto God, from the world unto Christ, from sin unto holiness.  Where that has not taken place, all the believing in the world will save no one.  Christ saves none who is still in love with sin; but He is ready to save those who are sick of sin, who long to be cleansed from its loathsome foulness, who yearn to be delivered from its tyrannizing power.  Christ came here to save His people from their sins.  It is obvious that if the Holy One indwells me that His presence must have wrought a radical change both in character and in conduct.  Unless this be the case with us, then our profession is vain, and all our talk of trusting in Christ’s finished work is but idle words.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I consider all you have said to be but the language of a Pharisee.  You are occupied with your own fancied goodness and delighting in your own worthless righteousness.

Writer: Pardon me, but I rather rejoice in what Christ’s Spirit has wrought in me, and pray that He will carry forward that work of grace to the glory of His name.  But we must bring our discussion to a close.  I would respectfully urge you to attend unto that exhortation addressed to all profession Christians, ‘Give diligence to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10).

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I shall do nothing of the sort: I hate the very word ‘election.’  I know that I am saved, though I do not measure up to the impossible standard you want to erect.

Writer: Fare thee well; may be please the Lord to open your blind eyes, reveal to you His holiness, and bring you to His feet in godly fear and trembling.

Excerpted and edited from A. W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, September, 1932.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Assurance by J. C. Ryle

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

In the words of Scripture, which head this page, you see the Apostle Paul looking three ways: downward, backward, forward.  Downward to the grave, —backward to his own ministry, —forward to that great day, the day of judgment.

I invite you this day to stand by the Apostle’s side a few minutes, and mark the words he uses.  Happy is that soul who can look where Paul looked, and then speak as Paul spoke!

He looks downward to the grave, and he does it without fear.  Hear what he says.

“I am ready to be offered.” I am like an animal brought to the place of sacrifice, and bound with cords to the very horns of the altar.  The wine and oil have been poured on my head, according to the custom.  The last ceremonies have been gone through.  Every preparation has been made.  It only remains to receive the death-blow, and then all is over.

“The time of my departure is at hand.” I am like a ship about to unmoor and put to sea.  All on board is ready.  I only wait to have the moorings cast off that fasten me to the shore, and I shall then set sail and begin my voyage.

Reader, these are glorious words to come from the lips of a child of Adam like ourselves.   Death is a solemn thing, and never so much so as when we see it close at hand.  The grave is a chilling, heart-sickening place, and it is vain to pretend it has no terrors.  Yet here is a mortal man who can look calmly into the narrow house appointed for all living, and say, while he stands upon the brink, “I see it all, and am not afraid.”

He looks backward to his ministerial life, and he does it without shame.

“I have fought a good fight.” There he speaks as a soldier.  I have fought that good battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, from which so many shrink and draw back.

“I have finished my course.” There he speaks as one who has run for a prize.  I have run the race marked out for me: I have gone over the ground appointed for me, however rough and steep.  I have not turned aside because of difficulties, nor been discouraged by the length of the way.  I am at last in eight of the goal.

“I have kept the faith.” There he speaks as a steward.  I have held fast that glorious Gospel which was committed to my trust.  I have not mingled it with man’s traditions, nor spoiled its simplicity by adding my own inventions, nor allowed others to adulterate it without withstanding them to the face.  “As a soldier, —a runner, —a steward,” he seems to say, “I am not ashamed.”

Reader, that Christian is happy who, as he quits this world, can leave such testimony behind him.  A good conscience will save no man, —wash away no sin, —not lift us one hair’s breadth toward heaven.  Yet, a good conscience will be found a pleasant visitor at our bedside in a dying hour.  Do you remember that place in “Pilgrim’s Progress” which describes Old Honest’s passages across the river of death?  “The river,” says Bunyan, “at that time overflowed its banks in some places; but Mr. Honest, in his life-time, had spoken to one, Good Conscience, to meet him there: the which he also did, and lent him his hand, and so helped him over.”  Believe me, there is a mine of truth in that passage.

He looks forward to the great day of reckoning, and he does it without doubt.

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” A glorious reward, he seems to say, is ready and laid up in store for me: even that crown which is only given to the righteous.  In the great day of judgment, the Lord shall give this crown to me, and to all beside me who have loved Him as an unseen Saviour, and longed to see Him face to face.  My work on earth is over.  This one thing now remains for me to look forward to, and nothing more.

Observe that the Apostle speaks without any hesitation or distrust.  He regards the crown as a sure thing: as his own already.  He declares with unfaltering confidence his firm persuasion that the righteous Judge will give it to him.  Paul was no stranger to all the circumstances and accompaniments of that solemn day to which he referred.  The great white throne, —the assembled world, —the open books, —the revealing of all secrets, —the listening angels, —the awful sentence, —the eternal separation of the lost and saved, —all these were things with which he was well acquainted.  But none of these things moved him.  His strong faith overleaped them all, and only saw Jesus, his all-prevailing Advocate, and the blood of sprinkling, and sin washed away.  “A crown,” he says, “is laid up for me.”  “The Lord Himself shall give it to me.”  He speaks as if he saw it all with his own eyes.

Such are the main things which these verses contain.  Of most of them I cannot pretend to speak, for space would not allow me.  I shall only try to set before you one point in the passage, and that is “the assured hope” with which the Apostle looks forward to his own prospects in the day of judgment.

I shall do this the more readily, because of the great importance which I feel attaches to the subject of assurance, and the great neglect with which, I humbly conceive, it is often treated in this day.

But I shall do it at the same time with fear and trembling.  I feel that I am treading on very difficult ground, and that it is easy to speak rashly and un­scripturally in this matter.  The road between truth and error is here especially a narrow pass, and if I shall be enabled to do good to some without doing harm to others, I shall be very thankful.

Reader, there are four things I wish to bring before you in speaking of the subject of assurance, and it may clear our way if I name them to you at once.

I. First, then, I will try to show you that an assured hope, such as Paul here expresses, is a true and Scriptural thing.

II. Secondly, I will make this broad concession, —that a man may never arrive at this assured hope, and yet be saved.

III. Thirdly, I will give you some reasons why an assured hope is exceedingly to be desired.

I. First, then, I will try to show you that an assured hope is a true and Scriptural thing.

Assurance, such as Paul expresses in the verses which head this tract, is not a mere fancy or feeling.  It is not the result of high animal spirits, or a sanguine temperament of body.  It is a positive gift of the Holy Ghost, bestowed without reference to men’s bodily frames or constitutions, and a gift which every believer in Christ ought to aim at and seek after.

The Word of God appears to me to teach that a believer may arrive at an assured confidence with regard to his own salvation.

I would lay it down fully and broadly, that a true Christian, a converted man, may reach that comfortable degree of faith in Christ, that in general he shall feel entirely confident as to the pardon and safety of his soul, —shall seldom be troubled with doubts, —seldom be distracted with hesitation, —seldom be distressed by anxious questionings, —and, in short, though vexed by many an inward conflict with sin, shall look forward to death without trembling, and to judgment without dismay.

Such is my account of assurance.  I will ask you to mark it well.  I say neither less nor more than I have here laid down.

Now, such a statement as this is often disputed and denied.  Many cannot see the truth of it at all.

The Church of Rome denounces assurance in the most unmeasured terms.  The Council of Trent declares roundly, that a “believer’s assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence;” and Cardinal Bellarmine, the well-known champion of Romanism, calls it “a prime error of heretics.”

The vast majority of the worldly among ourselves oppose the doctrine of assurance.  It offends and annoys them to hear of it.  They do not like others to feel comfortable and sure, because they never feel so themselves.  That they cannot receive it is certainly no marvel.

But there are also some true believers who reject assurance, or shrink from it as a doctrine fraught with danger.  They consider it borders on presumption.  They seem to think it a proper humility never to be confident, and to live in a certain degree of doubt.  This is to be regretted, and does much harm.

I frankly allow there are some presumptuous persons who profess to feel a confidence for which they have no Scriptural warrant.  There always are some people who think well of themselves when God thinks ill, just as there are some who think ill of themselves when God thinks well.  There always will be such.  There never yet was a Scriptural truth without abuses and counterfeits.  God’s election, —man’s impotence, —salvation by grace, —all are alike abused.  There will be fanatics and enthusiasts as long as the world stands.  But, for all this, assurance is a real, sober, and true thing; and God’s children must not let themselves be driven from the use of a truth, merely because it is abused.

My answer to all who deny the existence of real, well-grounded assurance is simply this, —What saith the Scripture? If assurance be not there, I have not another word to say.

But does not Job say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, 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”?  (Job 19:25-26)

Does not David say, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me”?  (Psalm 23:4)

Does not Isaiah say, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee”?  (Isaiah 26:3)

And again, “The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”  (Isaiah 32:17)

Does not Paul say to the Romans, “I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, not height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”?  (Rom. 8:38, 39)

Does he not say to the Corinthians, “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”?  (2 Cor. 5:1)

And again, “We are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.”  (2 Cor. 5:6)

Does he not say to Timothy, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him”?  (2 Tim. 1:12)

And does he not speak to the Colossians of “the full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2), and to the Hebrews of the “full assurance of faith,” and the “full assurance of hope”?  (Heb. 6:11; 10:22)

Does not Peter say expressly, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure”? (2 Peter 1:10)

Does not John say, “We know that we have passed from death unto life”?  (1 John 3:14)

And again, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”  (1 John 5:13)

And again, “We know that we are of God.”  (1 John 5:19)

Reader, what shall we say to these things? I desire to speak with all humility on any controverted point.  I feel that I am only a poor fallible child of Adam myself.  But I must say, that in the passages I have just quoted I see something far higher than the mere “hopes” and “trusts” with which so many believers appear content in this day.  I see the language of persuasion, confidence, knowledge, —nay, I may almost say, of certainty.  And I feel, for my own part, if I may take these Scriptures in their plain, obvious meaning, the doctrine of assurance is true.

But my answer, furthermore, to all who dislike the doctrine of assurance, as bordering on presumption, is this: it can hardly be presumption to tread in the steps of Peter and Paul, of Job and of John.  They were all eminently humble and lowly-minded men, if ever any were; and yet they all speak of their own state with an assured hope.  Surely this should teach us that deep humility and strong assurance are perfectly compatible, and that there is not any necessary connection between spiritual confidence and pride.

My answer, furthermore, is, that many have attained to such an assured hope as our text expresses, even in modern times.  I will not concede for a moment that it was a peculiar privilege confined to the Apostolic day.  There have been, in our own land, many believers who have appeared to walk in almost uninterrupted fellowship with the Father and the Son, —who have seemed to enjoy an almost unceasing sense of the light of God’s reconciled countenance shining down upon them, and have left their experience on record.  I could mention well-known names, if space permitted.  The thing has been, and is, —and that is enough.

My answer, lastly, is, it cannot be wrong to feel confidently in a matter where God speaks unconditionally, —to believe decidedly when God promises decidedly, —to have a sure persuasion of pardon and peace when we rest on the word and oath of Him that never changes.  It is an utter mistake to suppose that the believer who feels assurance is resting on anything he sees in himself.  He simply leans on the Mediator of the New Covenant, and the Scripture of truth.  He believes the Lord Jesus means what He says, and takes Him at His Word. Assurance, after all, is no more than a fall-grown faith; a masculine faith that grasps Christ’s promise with both hands, —a faith that argues like the good centurion, if the Lord “speak the word only,” I am healed.  Wherefore, then, should I doubt? (Matt. 8:8)

Reader, you may be sure that Paul was the last man in the world to build his assurance on anything of his own.  He who could write himself down “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15) had a deep sense of his own guilt and corruption.  But then he had a still deeper sense of the length and breadth of Christ’s righteousness imputed to him. —He, who would cry, “O wretched man that I am” (Rom. 7:24), had a clear view of the fountain of evil within his heart.  But then he had a still clearer view of that other Fountain which can remove “all sin and uncleanness.” —He, who thought himself “less than the least of all saints” (Ephesians 3:8), had a lively and abiding feeling of his own weakness.  But he had a still livelier feeling that Christ’s promise, “My sheep shall never perish” (John 10:28), could not be broken—Paul knew, if ever man did, that he was a poor, frail bark, floating on a stormy ocean.  He saw, if any did, the rolling waves and roaring tempest by which he was surrounded.  But then he looked away from self to Jesus, and was not afraid.  He remembered that anchor within the veil, which is both “sure and steadfast.”  He remembered the word, and work, and constant intercession of Him that loved him and gave Himself for him.  And this it was, and nothing else, that enabled him to say so boldly, “A crown is laid up for me, and the Lord shall give it to me”; and to conclude so surely, “The Lord will preserve me: I shall never be confounded.”

I may not dwell longer on this part of the subject.  I think you will allow I have shown ground for the assertion I made, —that assurance is a true thing.

II. I pass on to the second thing I spoke of.  I said, a believer may never arrive at this assured hope, which Paul expresses, and yet be saved.

I grant this most freely.  I do not dispute it for a moment.  I would not desire to make one contrite heart sad that God has not made sad, or to discourage one fainting child of God, or to leave the impression that men have no part or lot in Christ, except they feel assurance.

A person may have saving faith in Christ, and yet never enjoy an assured hope, like the Apostle Paul.  To believe and have a glimmering hope of acceptance is one thing; to have joy and peace in our believing, and abound in hope, is quite another.  All God’s children have faith; not all have assurance.  I think this ought never to be forgotten.

I know some great and good men have held a different opinion.  I believe that many excellent ministers of the Gospel, at whose feet I would gladly sit, do not allow the distinction I have stated.  But I desire to call no man master.  I dread as much as any one the idea of healing the wounds of conscience slightly; but I should think any other view than that I have given a most uncomfortable Gospel to preach, and one very likely to keep souls back a long time from the gate of life.

I do not shrink from saying, that by grace a man may have sufficient faith to flee to Christ; sufficient faith really to lay hold on Him, really to trust in Him, —really to be a child of God, really to be saved; and yet to his last day be never free from much anxiety, doubt, and fear.

“A letter,” says an old writer, “may be written, which is not sealed; so grace may be written in the heart, yet the Spirit may not set the seal of assurance to it.”

A child may be born heir to a great fortune, and yet never be aware of his riches; live childish, —die childish, and never know the greatness of his possessions.

And so also a man may be a babe in Christ’s family; think as a babe, speak as a babe; and though saved, never enjoy a lively hope, or know the real privileges of his inheritance.

Reader, do not mistake my meaning, while you hear me dwell strongly on assurance.  Do not do me the injustice to say, I told you none were saved except such as could say with Paul, “I know and am persuaded, —there is a crown laid up for me.”  I do not say so.  I tell you nothing of the kind.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ a man must have, beyond all question, if he is to be saved.  I know no other way of access to the Father.  I see no intimation of mercy, excepting through Christ.  A man must feel his sins and lost estate, —must come to Jesus for pardon and salvation, —must rest his hope on Him, and on Him alone.  But if he only has faith to do this, however weak and feeble that faith may be, I will engage, from Scripture warrants, he shall not miss heaven.

Never, never let us curtail the freeness of the glorious Gospel, or clip its fair proportions.  Never let us make the gate more strait and the way more narrow than pride and love of sin have made it already.  The Lord Jesus is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.  He does not regard the quantity of faith, but the quality. He does not measure its degree, but its truth.  He will not break any bruised reed, nor quench any smoking flax.  He will never let it be said that any perished at the foot of the cross.  “Him that cometh unto Me,” He says, “I will in no wise cast out.”  (John 6:37)

Yes, reader: though a man’s faith be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed, if it only brings him to Christ, and enables him to touch the hem of His garment, he shall be saved, —saved as surely as the oldest saint in paradise; saved as completely and eternally as Peter, or John, or Paul.  There are degrees in our sanctification.  In our justification, there are none.  What is written, is written, and shall never fail: “Whosoever believeth on Him,” —not whosoever has a strong and mighty faith, —“Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.”  (Rom. 10:11)

But all this time, I would have you take notice, the poor soul may have no full assurance of his pardon and acceptance with God.  He may be troubled with fear upon fear, and doubt upon doubt.  He may have many a question, and many an anxiety, —many a struggle, and many a misgiving, —clouds and darkness, —storm and tempest to the very end.

I will engage, I repeat, that bare simple faith in Christ shall save a man, though he may never attain to assurance; but I will not engage it shall bring him to heaven with strong and abounding consolations.  I will engage it shall land him safe in harbour; but I will not engage he shall enter that harbour in full sail, confident and rejoicing.  I shall not be surprised if he reaches his desired haven weather-beaten and tempest-tossed, scarcely realizing his own safety, till he opens his eyes in glory.

Reader, I believe it is of great importance to keep in view this distinction between faith and assurance. It explains things which an inquirer in religion sometimes finds it hard to understand.

Faith, let us remember, is the root, and assurance is the flower. Doubtless you can never have the flower without the root; but it is no less certain you may have the root and not the flower.

Faith is that poor trembling woman who came behind Jesus in the press and touched the hem of His garment. (Mark 5:27)  Assurance is Stephen standing calmly in the midst of his murderers, and saying, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”  (Acts 7:56)

Faith is the penitent thief, crying, “Lord, remember me.” (Luke 23:42)  Assurance is Job, sitting in the dust, covered with sores, and saying, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” (Job 19:25)  “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” (Job 13:15)

Faith is Peter’s drowning cry, as he began to sink “Lord, save me.” (Matt. 14:30)  Assurance is that same Peter declaring before the Council in after-times, “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11, 12)

Faith is the anxious, trembling voice, “Lord, I believe: help Thou mine unbelief.”  (Mark 9:24)  Assurance is the confident challenge, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  Who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33, 34)  Faith is Saul praying in the house of Judas at Damascus, sorrowful, blind, and alone. (Acts 9:11)  Assurance is Paul, the aged prisoner, looking calmly into the grave, and saying, “I know whom I have believed.  There is a crown laid up for me.” (2 Tim. 1:12; 4:8)

Faith is life.  How great the blessing!  Who can tell the gulf between life and death?  And yet life may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful, trying, anxious, worn, burdensome, joyless, smileless to the very end.  Assurance is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigour, activity, energy, manliness, beauty.

Reader, it is not a question of saved or not saved that lies before us, but of privilege or no privilege. —It is not a question of peace or no peace, but of great peace or little peace. —It is not a question between the wanderers of this world and the school of Christ: it is one that belongs only to the school; —it is between the first form and the last.

He that has faith does well. Happy should I be, if I thought all readers of this tract had it.  Blessed, thrice blessed are they that believe.  They are safe.  They are washed.  They are justified.  They are beyond the power of hell.  Satan, with all his malice, shall never pluck them out of Christ’s hand.

But be that has assurance does far better, —sees more, feels more, knows more, enjoys more, has more days like those spoken of in Deuteronomy: even “the days of heaven upon the earth.”  (Deut. 11:21)

III. I pass on to the third thing of which I spoke.  I will give you some reasons why an assured hope is exceedingly to be desired.

I ask your attention to this point especially.  I heartily wish that assurance was more sought after than it is.  Too many among those who believe begin doubting and go on doubting, live doubting and die doubting, and go to heaven in a kind of mist.

It will ill become me to speak in a slighting way of “hopes” and “trusts.”  But I fear many of us sit down content with them, and go no farther.  I should like to see fewer “peradventurers” in the Lord’s family, and more who could say, “I know and am persuaded.”  Oh, that all believers would covet the best gifts, and not be content with less!  Many miss the full tide of blessedness the Gospel was meant to convey.  Many keep themselves in a low and starved condition of soul, while their Lord is saying, “Eat and drink abundantly, O beloved.  Ask and receive, that your joy may be full.”  (Song of Solomon 5:1; John 16:24)

1.  Let us remember, then, for one thing, that assurance is to be desired, because of the present comfort and peace it affords.

Doubts and fears have power to spoil much of the happiness of a true believer in Christ.  Uncertainty and suspense are bad enough in any condition, —in the matter of our health, our property, our families, our affections, our earthly callings, —but never so bad as in the affairs of our souls.  And so long as a believer cannot get beyond “I hope” and “I trust,” he manifestly feels a degree of uncertainty about his spiritual state.  The very words imply as much.  He says, “I hope,” because he dares not say, “I know.”

Now assurance goes far to set a child of God free from this painful kind of bondage, and thus ministers mightily to his comfort.  It enables him to feel that the great business of life is a settled business, the great debt a paid debt, the great disease a healed disease, and the great work a finished work; and all other business, diseases, debts, and works, are then by comparison small.  In this way, assurance makes him patient in tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of evil tidings; in every condition content, for it gives him a FIXEDNESS of heart.  It sweetens his bitter cups, it lessens the burden of his crosses, it smooths the rough places over which he travels, and it lightens the valley of the shadow of death.  It makes him always feel that he has something solid beneath his feet, and something firm under his hands, —a sure friend by the way, and a sure home at the end.

Assurance will help a man to bear poverty and loss.  It will teach him to say, “I know that I have in heaven a better and more enduring substance.  Silver and gold have I none, but grace and glory are mine, and these can never make themselves wings and flee away.  Though the fig tree shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” (Hab. 3:17, 18)

Assurance will support a child of God under the heaviest bereavements, and assist him to feel “It is well.”  An assured soul will say, “Though beloved ones are taken from me, yet Jesus is the same, and is alive for evermore.  Though my house be not as flesh and blood could wish, yet I have an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.”  (2 Kings 4:26; Heb. 13:8; 2 Sam. 23:5)

Assurance will enable a man to praise God, and be thankful, even in a prison, like Paul and Silas at Philippi.  It can give a believer songs even in the darkest night, and joy when all things seem going against him. (Job 2:10; Psalm 42:8)

Assurance will enable a man to sleep with the full prospect of death on the morrow, like Peter in Herod’s dungeon.  It will teach him to say, “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety.” (Psalm iv. 8.)

Assurance can make a man rejoice to suffer shame for Christ’s sake, as the Apostles did.  It will remind him that he may “rejoice and be exceeding glad” (Matt. 5:12), and that there is in heaven an exceeding weight of glory that shall make amends for all. (2 Cor. 4:17)

Assurance will enable a believer to meet a violent and painful death without fear, as Stephen did in the beginning of Christ’s Church, and as Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Taylor did in our own land.  It will bring to his heart the texts, “Be not afraid of them which kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” (Luke 12:4) “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59)

Assurance will support a man in pain and sickness, make all his bed, smooth down his dying pillow.  It will enable him to say, “If my earthly house fail, I have a building of God.” (2 Cor. 5:1).  “I desire to depart and be with Christ.” (Phil. 1:23)  “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” (Psalm 73:26)

Reader, the comfort assurance can give in the hour of death is a point of great importance.  Believe me, you will never think assurance so precious as when your turn comes to die.

In that awful hour, there are few believers who do not find out the value and privilege of an “assured hope,” whatever they may have thought about it during their lives.  General “hopes” and “trusts” are all very well to live upon, while the sun shines, and the body is strong: but when you come to die, you will want to be able to say, “I know” and “I feel.”

Believe me, Jordan is a cold stream, and we have to cross it alone.  No earthly friend can help us.  The last enemy, even death, is a strong foe.  When our souls are departing there is no cordial like the strong wine of assurance.

There is a beautiful expression in the Prayer-book service for the Visitation of the Sick: “The Almighty Lord, who is a most strong tower to all them that put their trust in Him, be now and evermore thy defence, and make thee know and feel that there is none other name under heaven, through whom thou mayest receive health and salvation, but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The compilers of that service showed great wisdom there.  They saw that when the eyes grow dim, and the heart grows faint, and the spirit is on the eve of departing, there must then be knowing and feeling what Christ has done for us, or else there cannot be perfect peace.

2. Let us remember, for another thing, that assurance is to be desired, because it tends to make a Christian an active working Christian.

None, generally speaking, do so much for Christ on earth as those who enjoy the fullest confidence of a free entrance into heaven.  That sounds wonderful, I dare say, but it is true.

A believer who lacks an assured hope will spend much of his time in inward searchings of heart about his own state.  Like a nervous, hypochondriacal person, he will be full of his own ailments, his own doubtings and questionings, his own conflicts and corruptions.  In short, you will often find he is so taken up with this internal warfare that he has little leisure for other things, little time to work for God.

Now a believer, who has, like Paul, an assured hope, is free from these harassing distractions.  He does not vex his soul with doubts about his own pardon and acceptance.  He looks at the everlasting covenant sealed with blood, at the finished work and never-broken word of his Lord and Saviour, and therefore counts his salvation a settled thing. And thus he is able to give an undivided attention to the work of the Lord, and so in the long run to do more.

Take, for an illustration of this, two English emigrants, and suppose them set down side by side in New Zealand or Australia.  Give each of them a piece of land to clear and cultivate.  Let the portions allotted to them be the same both in quantity and quality.  Secure that land to them by every needful legal instrument; let it be conveyed as freehold to them and theirs for ever; let the conveyance be publicly registered, and the property made sure to them by every deed and security that man’s ingenuity can devise.

Suppose, then, that one of them shall set to work to bring his land into cultivation, and labour at it day after day without intermission or cessation.

Suppose, in the meanwhile, that the other shall be continually leaving his work, and going repeatedly to the public registry to ask whether the land really is his own, —whether there is not some mistake, —whether, after all, there is not some flaw in the legal instruments which conveyed it to him.

The one shall never doubt his title, but just work diligently on.

The other shall hardly ever feel sure of his title, and spend half his time in going to Sydney, or Melbourne, or Auckland with needless inquiries about it.

Which, now, of these two men will have made most progress in a year’s time?  Who will have done the most for his land, got the greatest breadth of soil under tillage, have the best crops to show, be altogether the most prosperous?

Reader, you know as well as I do.  I need not supply an answer.  There can only be one reply.  Undivided attention will always attain the greatest success.

It is much the same in the matter of our title to “mansions in the skies.”  None will do so much for the Lord who bought him as the believer who sees his title clear, and is not distracted by unbelieving hesitations.  The joy of the Lord will be that man’s strength.  “Restore unto me,” says David, “the joy of Thy salvation; then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.” (Psalm 51:12)

Never were there such working Christians as the Apostles.  They seemed to live to labour.  Christ’s work was truly their meat and drink.  They counted not their lives dear to themselves.  They spent and were spent.  They laid down ease, health, and worldly comfort, at the foot of the cross.  And one grand cause of this, I believe, was their assured hope.  They were men who could say, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1 John 5:19)

3. Let us remember, for another thing, that assurance is to be desired, because it tends to make a Christian a decided Christian.

Indecision and doubt about our own state in God’s sight is a grievous one, and the mother of many evils.  It often produces a wavering and unstable walk in following the Lord.  Assurance helps to cut many a knot, and to make the path of Christian duty clear and plain.

Many, of whom we feel hopes that they are God’s children, and have true grace, however weak, are continually perplexed with doubts on points of practice.  “Should we do such and such a thing?  Shall we give up this family custom?  Ought we to go into that company?  How shall we draw the line about visiting?  What is to be the measure of our dressing and our entertainments?  Are we never, under any circumstances, to dance, never to touch a card, never to attend parties of pleasure?”  These are a kind of questions which seem to give them constant trouble.  And often, very often, the simple root of their perplexity is, that they do not feel assured they are themselves children of God.  They have not yet settled the point, which side of the gate they are on.  They do not know whether they are inside the ark or not.

That a child of God ought to act in a certain decided way they quite feel, but the grand question is, “Are they children of God themselves?”  If they only felt they were so, they would go straightforward, and take a decided line.  But not feeling sure about it, their conscience is forever hesitating and coming to a dead lock.  The devil whispers, “Perhaps, after all, you are only a hypocrite: what right have you to take a decided course?  Wait till you are really a Christian.”  And this whisper too often turns the scale, and leads on to some miserable compromise, or wretched conformity to the world.

Reader, I believe you have here one chief reason why so many in this day are inconsistent, trimming, unsatisfactory, and half-hearted in their conduct about the world.  Their faith fails.  They feel no assurance that they are Christ’s, and so feel a hesitancy about breaking with the world.  They shrink from laying aside all the ways of the old man, because they are not quite confident they have put on the new.  Depend on it, one secret cause of halting between two opinions is want of assurance.  When people can say decidedly, “The Lord He is the God,” their course becomes very clear. (1 Kings 18:39)

4. Let us remember, finally, that assurance is to be desired, because it tends to make the holiest Christians.

This, too, sounds wonderful and strange, and yet it is true.  It is one of the paradoxes of the Gospel, contrary, at first sight, to reason and common sense, and yet it to a fact.  Cardinal Bellarmine was seldom more wide of the truth than when he said, “Assurance tends to carelessness and sloth.”  He that is freely forgiven by Christ will always do much for Christ’s glory, and he that enjoys the fullest assurance of this forgiveness will ordinarily keep up the closest walk with God.  It is a faithful saying in 1 John 3:3: “He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure.”  A hope that does not purify is a mockery, a delusion, and a snare.

None are so likely to maintain a watchful guard over hearts and lives as those who know the comfort of living in near communion with God.  They feel their privilege, and will fear losing it.  They will dread falling from their high estate, and marring their own comforts, by bringing clouds between themselves and Christ.  He that goes on a journey with little money about him takes little thought of danger, and cares little how late he travels.  He, on the contrary, that carries gold and jewels will be a cautious traveller.  He will look well to his roads, his house, and his company, and run no risks. The fixed stars are those that tremble most.  The man that most fully enjoys the light of God’s reconciled countenance, will be a man tremblingly afraid of losing its blessed consolations, and jealously fearful of doing anything to grieve the Holy Ghost.

Reader, I commend these four points to your serious consideration.  Would you like to feel the everlasting arms around you, and to hear the voice of Jesus daily drawing nigh to your soul, and saying, “I am thy salvation?” —Would you like to be a useful labourer in the vineyard in your day and generation? —Would you be known of all men as a bold, firm, decided, single-eyed, uncompromising follower of Christ? —Would you be eminently spiritually-minded and holy? —I doubt not some readers will say, “These are the very things our hearts desire.  We long for them.  We pant after them: but they seem far from us.”

Now, has it never struck you that your neglect of assurance may possibly be the main secret of all you failures, —that the low measure of faith which satisfies you may be the cause of your low degree of peace?  Can you think it a strange thing that your graces are faint and languishing, when faith, the root and mother of them all, is allowed to remain feeble and weak?

Take my advice this day.  Seek an increase of faith.  Seek an assured hope of salvation like the Apostle Paul’s.  Seek to obtain a simple, childlike confidence in God’s promises.  Seek to be able to say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed: I am persuaded that He is mine, and I am His.”

You have very likely tried other ways and methods and completely failed.  Change your plan.  Go upon another tack.  Lay aside your doubts.  Lean more entirely on the Lord’s arm.  Begin with implicit trusting.  Cast aside your faithless backwardness to take the Lord at His word.  Come and roll yourself, your soul, and your sins upon your gracious Saviour.  Begin with simple believing, and all other things shall soon be added to you.

Posted in J. C. Ryle |

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