Teaching Resources International

“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, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” — 1 John 5:13

John wrote to believers — “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”  It is worthy of note that all the epistles are so written.  They are not letters to everybody, they are letters to those who are called to be saints.  It ought to strike some of you with awe when you open the Bible and think how large a part of it is not directed at you.  You may read it, and God’s Holy Spirit may graciously bless it to you, but it is not directed to you.  You are reading another man’s letter: thank God that you are permitted to read it, but long to be numbered with those to whom it is directed.  Thank God much more if any part of it should be used of the Holy Ghost for your salvation.  The fact that the Holy Spirit speaks to the churches and to believers in Christ should make you bow the knee and cry to God to put you among the children, that this Book may become your Book from beginning to end, that you may read its precious promises as made to you.  This solemn thought may not have struck some of you: let it impress you now.

We do not wonder that certain men do not receive the epistles, for they were not written to them.  Why should they cavil at words which are addressed to men of another sort from themselves?  Yet we do not marvel, for we knew it would be so.  Here is a will, and you begin to read it; but you do not find it interesting: it is full of words and terms which you do not take the trouble to understand, because they have no relation to yourself; but should you, in reading that will, come upon a clause in which an estate is left to you, I warrant you that the nature of the whole document will seem changed to you.  You will be anxious now to understand the terms, and to make sure of the clauses, and you will even wish to remember every word of the clause which refers to yourself.  O dear friends, may you read the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ as a testament of love to yourselves, and then you will prize it beyond all the writings of the sages.

This leads me to make the second remark, that as these things are written to believers, believers ought especially to make themselves acquainted with them, and to search into their meaning and intent.  John says, “These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”  Do not, I beseech you, neglect to read what the Holy Ghost has taken care to write to you.  It is not merely John that writes.  John is inspired of the Lord, and these things are written to you by the Spirit of God.  Give earnest heed to every single word of what God has sent as his own epistle to your hearts.

Value the Scriptures.  Luther said that “he would not be in paradise, if he might, without the Word of the Lord; but with the Word he could live in hell itself.”  He said at another time that “he would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible.”  The Scriptures are everything to the Christian — his meat and his drink.  The saint can say, “O how I love thy law!”  If we cannot say so, something is wrong with us.  If we have lost our relish for Holy Scripture, we are out of condition, and need to pray for spiritual health.

This much is the porch of my sermon, let us now enter more fully into our subject, noticing, first, that John wrote with a special purpose; and then going on to assert, secondly, that this purpose we ought to follow up.

I. First, John Wrote with a Special Purpose.

Men do not write well unless they have some end in writing.  To sit down with paper and ink before you, and so much space to fill up, will ensure very poor writing.  John knew what he was at.  His intent and aim were clear to his own mind, and he tells us what they were.  According to the text, the beloved apostle had one clear purpose which branched out into three.

To begin with, John wrote that we might enjoy the full assurance of our salvation.  “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.”  Many who believe on the name of Jesus are not sure that they have eternal life; they only hope so.  Occasionally they have assurance, but the joy is not abiding.  They are like a minister I have heard of, who said he felt assured of his salvation, “except when the wind was in the east.”  It is a wretched thing to be so subject to circumstances as many are.  What is true when the wind is in the soft south or the reviving west is equally true when the wind is neither good for man nor beast.  John would not have our assurance vary with the weather-glass, nor turn with the vane.  He says, “These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”  He would have us certain that we are partakers of the new life, and so know it as to reap the golden fruit of such knowledge, and be filled with joy and peace through believing.

I speak affectionately to the weaker ones, who cannot yet say that they know they have believed.  I speak not to your condemnation, but to your consolation.  Full assurance is not essential to salvation, but it is essential to satisfaction.  May you get — may you get it at once; at any rate may you never be satisfied to live without it.  You may have full assurance.  You may have it without personal revelations: it is wrought in us by the Word of God.  These things are written that you may have it; and we may be sure that the means used by the Spirit are equal to the effect which he desires.

Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, John so wrote as to attain his end in writing.  What, then, has he written with the design of making us know that we have eternal life?  Go through the whole Epistle, and you will see that it all presses in that direction; but we shall not at this present have time to do more than glance through this chapter.

He begins thus: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.”  Do you believe that Jesus is the anointed of God?  Is he so to you? Is he anointed as your prophet, priest, and king?  Have you realized his anointing so as to put your trust in him?  Do you receive Jesus as appointed of God to be the Mediator, the Propitiation for sin, the Savior of men?  If so, you are born of God.  “How may I know this?”  Brethren, our evidence is the witness of God himself as here recorded.  We need no other witness. Suppose an angel were to tell you that you are born of God, would that be a more sure testimony than the infallible Scripture?  If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God. John has thus positively declared the truth, that you may know that you have eternal life.  Can anything be more clear than this?

The loving spirit of John leads him to say, “Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.”  Do you love God?  Do you love his Only-begotten Son? You can answer those two questions surely.  I knew a dear Christian woman who would sometimes say, “I know that I love Jesus; but my fear is that he does not love me.”  Her doubt used to make me smile, for it never could have occurred to me.  If I love him, I know it is because he first loved me.  Love to God in us is always the work of God’s love towards us.  Jesus loved us, and gave himself for us, and therefore we love him in return.  Love to Jesus is an effect which proves the existence of its cause.  Do you love Jesus?  Do you feel a delight in him?  Is his name as music to your ear, and honey to your mouth?  Do you love to hear him extolled?  Ah, dear friends!  I know that to many of you a sermon full of his dear name is as a royal banquet; and if there is no Christ in a discourse, it is empty, and vain, and void to you.  Is it not so?  If you do indeed love him that begat and him that is begotten of him, then this is one of the things that is written “that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

John goes on to give another evidence: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.”  Do you love God?  And do you love his children? Listen to another word from the same apostle: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”  That may appear to be a very small evidence; but I can assure you it has often been a great comfort to my soul.  I know I love the brethren: I can say unto my Lord,

“Is there a lamb among thy flock

I would disdain to feed?”

I would gladly cheer and comfort the least of his people.  Well, then, if I love the brethren, I love the Elder Brother.  If I love the babes, I love the Father; and I know that I have passed from death unto life.  Brethren, take this evidence home in all its force. It is conclusive: John has said, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren;” and he would not have spoken so positively if it had not been even so.  Brethren, never be content with sentimental comforts; set your feet firmly upon the rock of fact and truth.  True Christian assurance is not a matter of guesswork, but of mathematical precision.  It is capable of logical proof, and is no rhapsody or poetical fiction.  We are told by the Holy Ghost that, if we love the brethren, we have passed from death to life.  You can tell whether you love the brethren, as such, for their Master’s sake, and for the truth’s sake that is in them; and if you can truly say that you thus love them, then you may know that you have eternal life.

Our apostle gives us this further evidence: “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”  Obedience is the grand test of love. If you are living after your own will, and pay no homage to God, you are none of his.  If you never think of the Lord Jesus as your Master, and never recognize the claims of God, and never wish to be obedient to his will, you are not in possession of eternal life.  If you desire to be obedient, and prove that desire by your actions, then you have the divine life within you.  Judge yourselves.  Is the tenor of your life obedience or disobedience?  By the fruit you can test the root and the sap.

But note, that this obedience must be cheerful and willing.  No doubt some for a while obey the commands of God unwillingly.  They do not like them, though they bow to them.  They fret and grizzle because of the restraints of piety; and this proves that they are hypocrites.  What you wish to do you practically are doing in the sight of God.  If there could be such a thing as holiness forced upon a man, it would be unholiness.  O my hearer, it may be that you cannot fall into a certain line of sin; but if you could, you would: your desires show what you really are. I have heard of Christian people, so called, going to sinful amusements, just, as they say, to enjoy a little pleasure.  Ah well, we see where you are!  Where your pleasure is, your heart is.  If you enjoy the pleasures of the world, you are of the world, and with the world you will be condemned.  If God’s commands are grievous to you, then you are a rebel at heart.  Loyal subjects delight in the royal law.

“His commandments are not grievous.”  I said to one who came to join the church the other day, “I suppose you are not perfect?” and the reply was, “No, sir, I wish I might be.”  I said, “And suppose you were?”  “Oh, then,” she said, “that would be heaven to me.”  So it would be to me.  We delight in the law of God after the inward man.  Oh, that we could perfectly obey in thought, and word, and deed!  This is our view of heaven.  Thus we sing of it:

“There shall we see his face,

And never, never sin;

There from the rivers of his grace

Drink endless pleasures in.”

We would scarce ask to be rid of sorrow, if we might be rid of sin.  We would bear any burden cheerfully if we could live without spot we shall also be without grief.  His commandments are not grievous, but they are ways of pleasantness and peace to us.  Do you feel that you love the ways of God, that you desire holiness, and follow after it joyfully?  Then, dear friends, you have eternal life, and these are the sure evidences of it.  Obedience, holiness, delight in God never came into a human heart except from a heavenly hand.  Wherever they are found, they prove that the Lord has implanted eternal life, for they are much too precious to be buried away in a dead soul.

John then proceeds to mention three witnesses. Now, dear hearers, do you know anything about these three witnesses?  “There are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”  Do you know “the Spirit?”  Has the Spirit of God quickened you, changed you, illuminated you, sanctified you?  Does the Spirit of God dwell in you?  Do you feel his sacred impulses?  Is he the essence of the new life within you?  Do you know him as clothing you with his light and power?  If so, you are alive unto God.

Next, do you know “the water,” the purifying power of the death of Christ?  Does the crucified Lord crucify your sins?  Is the water applied to you to remove the power of sin?  Do you now long to perfect holiness in the fear of God?  This proves that you have eternal life.

Do you also know “the blood?”  This is a wretched age, in which men think little of the precious blood.  My heart has well-nigh been broken, and my very flesh has been enfeebled, as I have thought upon the horrible things which have been spoken of late about the precious blood by men called Christian ministers.  “O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united.”  Beloved friends, do you know the power of the blood to take away sin, the power of the blood to speak peace to the conscience, the power of the blood to give access to the throne of grace?   Do you know the quickening, restoring, cheering power of the precious blood of Christ which is set forth in the Lord’s Supper by the fruit of the vine?

Then in the mouth of these three witnesses shall the fact of your having eternal life be fully established.  If the Spirit of God be in you, he is the earnest of your eternal inheritance.  If the water has washed you, then you are the Lord’s.  Jesus said to Peter, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me.”  But ye are washed, and therefore the Lord’s.  If the precious blood has cleansed you from the guilt of sin, you know that it has also purchased you from death, and it is to you the guarantee of eternal life.  I pray that you may from this moment enjoy the combined light of these three lamps of God — “the spirit, and the water, and the blood,” and so have full assurance of faith.

One thing more I would notice. Read the ninth verse: the apostle puts our faith and assurance on the ground that we receive “the witness of God.” If I believe that I am saved because of this, that, and the other, I may be mistaken: the only sure ground is “the witness of God.”  The inmost heart of Christian faith is that we take God as his word; and we must accept that word, not because of the probabilities of its statements, nor because of the confirmatory evidence of science and philosophy, but simply and alone because the Lord has spoken it.  Many professing Christians fall sadly short of this point.  They dare to judge the Word instead of bowing before it.  They do not sit at the Master’s feet, but become doctors themselves. I thank God that I believe everything that God has spoken, whether I am able to see its reason or not.  To me the fact that the mouth of God hath spoken it stands in the place of all argument, either for or against.  If Jehovah says so, so it is.  Do you accept the witness of God?  If not, you have made him a liar, and the truth is not in you; but if you have received “the witnesses of God,” then this is his witness, that “He hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”  I say again, if your faith stands in the wisdom of men, and is based upon the cleverness of a preacher, it will fail you; but if it stands on the sure Word of the Lord it will stand for ever, and this may be to you a special token that you have eternal life.  I have said enough upon this subject; oh that God may bless it to you!  May we be enabled, from what John has written, to gather beyond doubt that we have the life of God within our souls.

Furthermore, John wrote that we might know our spiritual life to be eternal. Please notice this, for there are some of God’s children who have not yet learned this cheering lesson.  The life of God in the soul is not transient, but abiding; not temporary but eternal.  Some think that the life of God in the believer’s soul may die out; but how, then, could it be eternal?  If it die it is not eternal life.  If it be eternal life, it cannot die.  I know that modern deceivers deny that eternal means eternal, but you and I have not learned their way of pumping the meanings out of the words which the Holy Spirit uses.  We believe that “eternal” means endless, and that if I have eternal life, I shall live eternally.  Brethren, the Lord would have us know that we have eternal life.

Learn, then, the doctrine of the eternality of life given in the new birth.  It must be eternal life, because it is “the life of God.” We are born again of the Spirit of God by a living and incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth forever.  We are said to be “made partakers of the divine nature.”

Surely, this means, among other things, that we receive an undying life; for immortality is of the essence of the Life of God.  His name is “I am that I am.”  He hath life in himself, and the Son hath life in himself, and of this life we are the receivers.  This was his purpose concerning his Son, that he might give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him.  If it be the life of God which is in a believer — and certainly it is, for he hath begotten us again — then that life must be eternal.  As children of God, we partake of his life, and as heirs of God, we inherit his eternity.  “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ calls the life of his people eternal life. How often do I quote this text!  It seems to lie on the tip of my tongue: “I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”  And again, “He that believeth in him hath everlasting life.”  It is not temporary life, not life which at a certain period must grow old and die, but everlasting life.  “It shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”  This is the life of Christ within the soul. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”  “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”  “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”  If our life is Christ’s life, we shall not die until Christ dies.  If our life is hidden in him, it will never be discovered and destroyed until Christ himself is destroyed.  Let us rest in this.

Mark again how our Lord has put it: “Because I live, ye shall live also.”  As long, then, as Jesus lives, his people must live, for the argument will always be the same, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”  We are so one with Christ that while the head lives the members cannot die.  We are so one Christ that the challenge is given, “Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?”  A list is added of things which may be supposed to separate, but we are told that they cannot do so, for “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”  Is it not clear, then, that we are quickened with a life so heavenly and divine that we can never die?  John tells us in this very chapter, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.”  He does not go back to his old sin, he does not again come under the dominion of sin; but, “he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

Beloved, I entreat you to keep a hard and firm grip of this blessed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.  How earnestly do I long “that ye may know that ye have eternal life!”  Away with your doctrine of being alive in Christ today and dead tomorrow.  Poor, miserable doctrine that!  Hold fast to eternal salvation through the eternal covenant carried out by eternal love unto eternal life; for the Spirit of God has written these things unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

Once more, John desired the increase and confirmation of their faith. He says, “That ye might believe on the name of the Son of God.”  John wrote to those who believed, that they might believe in a more emphatic sense.  As our Savior has come not only that we may have life, but that we may have it more abundantly, so does John write, that having faith we may have more of it.  Come beloved, listen for a moment to this!  You have the milk of faith, but God wills that you should have this cream of assurance!  He would increase your faith.  May you believe more extensively.  Perhaps you do not believe all the truth, because you have not yet perceived it.

There were members of the Corinthian church who had not believed in the resurrection of the dead, and there were Galatians who were very cloudy upon justification by faith.  Many a Christian man is narrow in the range of his faith from ignorance of the Lord’s mind.  Like certain tribes of Israel, they have conquered a scanty territory as yet, though all the land is theirs from Dan to Beersheba. John would have us push out our fences, and increase the enclosure of our faith.  Let us believe all that God has revealed, for every truth is precious and practically useful.  Perhaps your doctrinal belief has been poor and thin.  Oh that the Lord would turn the water into wine!  Many of you live upon milk, and yet your years qualify you to feed on meat.  Why keep the babes’ diet?  You that believe are exhorted to “go in and out, and find pasture;” range throughout the whole revelation of God.

It will be well for you if your faith also increases intensively.  Oh that you may more fully believe what you do believe!  We need deeper insight and firmer conviction.  Many of you only skim the pools of truth.  Blessed is the wing which brushes the surface of the river of life; but infinitely more blessed is it to plunge into the depths of it.  This is John’s desire for you, that you would believe with all you heart, and soul, and strength.  He would have you believe more constantly, so that you may say, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.”  It is not always so with us.  We are at times chicken-hearted.  We play the man today, and the mouse tomorrow.  Lord have mercy upon us: we are an inconsistent people, fickle as the wind.  The Lord would have us abide always in him with strong and mighty confidence, being rooted and built up in him.

He would have us trust courageously. Some can believe in a small way about small things.  Oh for a boundless trust in the infinite God!  We need more of a venturesome faith: the faith to do and dare.  Often we see the way of power, but have not the faith which would be equal to it.  See Peter walking on the sea! I do not advise any of you to try it, neither did our Lord advise Peter to do so: we do well enough if we walk uprightly on land.  But when Peter had once taken a few steps on the sea, he ought to have known that his Lord could help him all the rest of the way; but alas!  His faith failed, and he began to sink.  He could have walked all the way to Jesus if he had believed right on.  So  is it with us: our faith is good enough for a spurt, but it lacks staying power.  Oh, may God give us to believe, so that we may not only trip over a wave or two, but walk on the water to the end!  If the Lord bids you, you may go through fire and not be burned, through the floods and not be drowned.  Such a fearless, careless, conquering faith may the Lord work in us!

We need to believe more joyfully. Oh what a blessed thing it is when you reach the rest and joy of faith!  If we would truly believe the promise of God, and rest in the Lord’s certain fulfillment of it, we might be as happy as the angels.  I notice how very early in the morning how the birds begin to sing: before the sun is up or even the first grey tints of morning light are visible, the little songsters are awake and singing.  Too often we refuse to sing until the sun is more than up, and noon is near.  Shame on us!  Will we never trust our God?  Will we never praise him for favors to come?  Oh for a faith that can sing through the night and through the winter!  Faith that can live on a promise is the faith of God’s elect.  You will never enjoy heaven below until you believe without wavering.  The Lord give you such faith.

II. THE PURPOSE WHICH JOHN HAD IN HIS MIND.

The Word of God was written for this purpose; let us use it for its proper end.  he whole of these Scriptures were written that “we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing we might have life through his name.”  This Book is written to you who believe, that you may know that you believe.  Will you suffer your Bibles to be a failure to you?  Will you live in perpetual questioning and doubt?  If so, the Book has missed its mark for you.  The Bible is sent that you may have full assurance of your possession of eternal life; do not, therefore, dream that it will be presumptuous on your part to aspire to it.

Our conscience tells us that we ought to seek full assurance of salvation. It cannot be right for us to be children of God, and not to know our own Father.  How can we kneel down and say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” when we do not know whether he is our Father or not?  Will not a life of doubt tend to be a life of falsehood?  May we not be using language which is not true to our consciousness?  Can you sing joyful hymns which you fear are not true to you?  Will you join in worship when your heart does not know that God is your God?  Until the spirit of adoption enables you to cry, “Abba, Father,” where is your love to God?  Can you rest?  Dare you rest, while it is a question whether you are saved or not?  Can you go home to your dinner today and enjoy your meal, while there is a question about your soul’s eternal life?  Oh, be not so foolhardy as to run risks on that matter!  I pray you, make sure work for eternity.  If you leave anything in uncertainty, let it concern your body or your estate, but not your soul.

Conscience bids you seek to know that you have eternal life, for without this knowledge many duties will be impossible of performance.  Many Scriptures which I cannot quote this morning stir you up to this duty.  Are you not bidden to make your calling and election sure?  Are you not a thousand times over exhorted to rejoice in the Lord, and to give thanks continually?  But how can you rejoice, if the dark suspicion haunts you, that perhaps, after all, you have not the life of God?  You must get this question settled, or you cannot rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.  Come, brothers and sisters, I beseech you, as you would follow Scripture, and obey the Lord’s precepts, get the assurance without which you cannot obey them.

Listen, as I close, to this mass of reasons why each believer should seek to know that he has eternal life. Here they are.

Assurance of your salvation will bring you “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” If you know that you are saved, you can sit down in poverty, or in sickness, or under slander, and feel perfectly content.  Full assurance is the Kohinoor amongst the jewels wherewith the heavenly Bridegroom adorns his spouse.

Assurance is a mountain of spices, a land that floweth with milk and honey. To be the assured possessor of eternal life is to find a paradise beneath the stars, where the mountains and the hills break forth before you into singing.  Full assurance will sometimes overflow in cataracts of delight.  Peace flows like a river, and here and there it leaps in cascades of ecstatic joy.  There are seasons when the plant of peace is in flower, and then it sheds a perfume as of myrrh and cassia.  Oh, the blessedness of the man who knows that he has eternal life!  Sometimes in our room alone, when we have been enjoying this assurance, we have laughed outright, for we could not help it.  If anybody had wondered why a man was laughing by himself alone, we could have explained that it was nothing ridiculous which had touched us, but our mouth was filled with laughter because the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we were glad.  That religion which sets no sweatmeats on the table is a niggardly housekeeper.  I do not wonder that some people give up their starveling religion: it is hardly worth the keeping.  The child of God who knows that he has eternal life goes to school, be he has many a holiday; and he anticipates that day of homegoing when he shall see the face of his Beloved for ever.

Brethren, full assurance will give us the full result of the gospel. The gospel ought to make us holy; and so it will when we are in full possession of it.  The gospel ought to make us separate from the world, the gospel ought to make us lead a heavenly life here below; and so it will if we drink deep draughts of it; but it we take only a sip of it now and again, we give it no chance of working out its design in us.  Do not paddle about the margin of the water of life, but first wade in up to your knees, and then hasten to plunge into the waters to swim in.  Beware of contentment with shallow grace.  Prove what the grace of God can do for you by giving yourself up to its power.

Full assurance gives a man a grateful zeal for the God he loves. These are the people that will go to the Congo for Jesus, for they know they are his.  These are the people that will lay down their all for Christ, for Christ is theirs.  These are the people that will bear scorn and shame and misrepresentation for the truth’s sake, for they know that they have eternal life.  These are they that will keep on preaching and teaching, spending and working, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and they know it.  Men will do little for what they doubt, and much for what they believe.  If you have lost your title deeds, and you do not know whether your house is your own or not, you are not going to spend much in repairs and enlargements.  When you know that heaven is yours, you are anxious to get ready for it.  Full assurance finds fuel for zeal to feed upon.

This also creates and sustains patience. When we know that we have eternal life, we do not fret about the trials of this passing life.  I could point to the brethren here this morning, and I could mention sisters at home, who amaze me by their endurance of pain and weakness.  This I know concerning them, that they never have a doubt about their interest in Christ; and for this cause they are able to surrender themselves into those dear hands which were pierced for them.  They know that they are the Lord’s, and so they say, “Let him do what seemeth him good.”  A blind child was in his father’s arms, and a stranger came into the room, and took him right away from his father.  Yet he did not cry or complain.  His father said to him, “Johnny, are you afraid?  You do not know the person who has got hold of you.”  “No, father,” he said, “I do not know who he is, but you do.”  When pain gives us an awkward nip, and we do not know whether we shall live or die, when we are called to undergo a dangerous operation, and pass into unconciousness, then we can say, “I do not know where I am, but my Father knows, and I leave all with him.”  Assurance makes us strong to suffer.

This, dear friends, will give you constant firmness in your confession of divine truth.  You who do not know whether you are saved or not, I hope the Lord will keep you from denying the faith; but those who have a firm grip of it, these are the men who will never forsake it.  A caviller in an omnibus said to a Christian man one day, “Why, you have nothing after all to rest upon.  I can prove to you that your Scriptures are not authentic.”

The humble Christian man replied, “Sir, I am not a learned man, and I cannot answer you questions; but I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I have experienced such a change in character, and I feel such a joy and peace through believing, that I wish you knew my Savior, too.”  The answer he received was a very unexpected one: the unbeliever said, “You have got me there; I cannot answer that.”  Just so: we have got them there.  If we know what has been wrought in us by grace, they cannot overcome us.  The full-assurance man baffles the very devil.  Satan is cunning enough, but those who know and are persuaded, are birds which he cannot take in the snares of hell.  When you know that your Lord is able to keep that which you have committed to him until that day, then you are firm as a rock.  God make you so.

Dear brethren, this is the kind of thing that will enable you to bear a telling testimony for your Lord. It is of no use to stand up and preach things that may or may not be true.  I am charged with being a dreadful dogmatist, and I am not anxious to excuse myself.  When a man is not quite sure of a thing, he grows very liberal: anybody can be a liberal with money which he cannot claim to be his own.  The broad-school man says, “I am not sure, and I do not suppose that you are sure, for indeed nothing is sure.”  Does this sandy foundation suit you?  I prefer rock.  The things which I have spoken to you from my youth up have been such as I have tried and proved, and to me they wear an absolute certainty, confirmed by my personal experience.  I have tried these things: they have saved me, and I cannot doubt them.  I am a lost man if the gospel I have preached to you be not true; and I am content to bide the issue of the day of Judgment.  I do not preach doubtingly, for I do not live doubtingly.  I know what I have told you to be true; why should I speak as if I were not sure?  If you want to make your own testimony tell in such a day as this, you must have something to say that you are sure about; and until you are sure about it I would advise you to hold you tongue.  We do not require any more questionings; the market is overstocked.  We need no more doubt, honest or dishonest; the air is dark with these horrible blacks.

Brethren, if you know that you have eternal life, you are prepared to live, and equally prepared to die. How frequently do I stand at the bedside of our dying members!  I am every now and then saying to myself, “I shall certainly meet with some faint-hearted one.  Surely I shall come across some child of God who is dying in the dark.”  But I have not met with any such.  Brethren, a child of God may die in the dark.  One said to old Mr. Dodd, the quaint old Puritan — “How sad that our brother should have passed away in the darkness!  Do you doubt his safety?”  “No,” said old Mr. Dodd, “no more than I doubt the safety of him who said, when he was dying, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’”  Full assurance, as we have said before, is not of the essence of salvation.  Still, I beg of you to note this, that all along through these many years, in each case, when I have gone to visit any of our brethren and our sisters at death, I have always found them departing in sure and certain hope of seeing the face of their Lord in glory.  I have often marvelled that this should be without exception, and I glory in it.  Often have they said to me, “We have fed on such good food that we may well be strong in the Lord.”  God grant that you may have this assurance, all of you!  May sinners begin to believe in Jesus, and saints believe more firmly, for Christ’s sake!  Amen.

“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.”