Bible Lesson 106

THE FOLLY OF SELF ASSURANCE VS SPIRIT ASSURANCE

For by one offering He (Christ) has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Hebrews 10:14

“Believing God is not religious auto-suggestion. It is not the flesh engaged in positive thinking. It is the Christian, the one in whom Christ lives, taking God at His Word.” Vance Havner

Galatian 2:20

In this lesson, we want to warn as many as possible about the folly of self-assurance of salvation. We have, as people who call themselves Christians and church-members, taught and led people to the point that we do not consider that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in the world and especially in the salvation of those who are called by God and justified, sanctified and born again. We have more or less, become the spirit that assures people that they are saved, and normally the only test of a professor’s faith is a simple question that asks ‘does this person say that they believe in Christ’.

We have begun, like many of our public school teachers, to teach the answers to people who do not know the questions and couldn’t care less about the question. To prove my point let me show you how many preachers, teachers, and evangelist do that very thing.

We begin by putting the cart before the horse to coin a phrase, by beginning our preaching and teaching by telling everyone who will listen that Christ loves us all when Christ does not love us unless and until we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ (John 14:15, 21-24; John 15:9-10). The unsaved do not know the love of Christ or the Love of the Father according to the Word of God the Bible. If you doubt that go back and read John 14:21 again. We are instead under the Wrath of God (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Contrary to popular belief we cannot shred the Trinity (separate the God Head, Father Son, and Holy Spirit). Much of today’s belief system seems to think that God was kind of brutal or at least mean-spirited since He commanded that those who broke any one of the Laws was to be stoned to death. Those people like Jesus better because he seems to be more loving and compassionate and easy to get along with. Don’t fall for that heresy; because Whatever God did in the Old Testament was agreed upon by Jesus the three personalities involved in the Trinity are always of the same mind. So, when we read that God commanded the death of certain sinners, we have to understand that Jesus and the Holy Spirit both said ‘Amen’.

Sinners are church-members or church-members that are sinners like the new up-to-date Jesus that the modern church has invented. They like the idea that all saved people are still sinners, and they like it when preachers tell them that Jesus loves them even when they are disobeying God; however, I would refer you back to those verses in John 14 to be read and understood as you ask yourself where that kind of thinking comes from.

What those verses say, if you don’t have a copy of God’s Word, is that unless you and I are people who have been called out of the world, at least the sinfulness of the world, people who have been regenerated and justified and sanctified and born again by the power of God, we are not loved by God, and that includes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus says there ‘He that has my commandments ‘and keeps them’.he it is that loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father (God), and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.’ That is the bottom line on the love of God, and it will never change (John 14:21-24). I challenge anyone to find one verse of scripture that says anything other than that.

Oh, I know that John 3:16 says that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ That does not say that God loves everybody and if you read on through verse 21 of John chapter three, you will find that everyone who does not believe in Christ is condemned. The New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek word for believe is a verb rich in meaning it is a belief that radically changes the person who believes, to the point that they will love Christ enough to obey Him. I also know that in First John chapter four and verse eight, it says that God is love; however, it does not say that love is God. Love is an attribute of God but it is not the only attribute of God; because God has the attribute of hate and he hates sin and disobedience to the point that he will dismiss all those who die guilty of sin into an eternity of torment and pain in hell. We have to be ashamed of ourselves for the way that we have begun to leave what only God can do and fool people into believing that they can save themselves by joining our little group of self-deluded people. The gospel is clear that Salvation belongs to God and it only comes to those whom God chooses to ‘quicken’ or bring from death in trespass and sin, back to life in the Spirit. We have ignored that in favor of building large congregations, and so we stand now with, in all probability, as congregations with more people lost than people saved by God’s grace.

We thought that we could go into business for ourselves and leave God out of the salvation equation. We wanted larger congregations, more tithes, and offerings, so we could build bigger facilities to accommodate more unsaved people. We have accomplished nothing more than to fool simple people into believing that they are saved, leaving them to base their eternal lives on self-assurance, which is no assurance at all. What makes this ball of wax so damning is that as a result of this kind of thinking going on for so long now, people believe that they are saved by joining a church group and being wet in that group’s baptistery. I did not say that they were baptized; I said they simply got wet. They went into the baptistery as dry sinners and came out as wet sinners destined for hell. Salvation and assurance of salvation are based upon faith or belief, but we have found that it is really hard to believe in the Biblical sense; because it is so hard to obey. Therein is the problem, it is hard for preachers and teachers to tell seekers that if their belief is strong enough to save them that they must and will obey all that Christ has commanded them to do. The visible church found that not many would take on that challenge, and so the church just backed off and began to save people without them having to obey at all.

That is what Jesus Christ said would happen when He preached the Sermon on the Mount (See Matthew 7:14). The cornerstone of saving faith is obedience. If you have saving faith then you are obeying all that Christ calls you to obey in the Bible, and it’s possible because you are a new creature because you have been born again (Ephesians 2:10; 2nd Corinthians 5:17; John 14:15). Those who do not obey are not ever sure of their salvation. They always hope they are saved, or wish they were saved, or think they are saved, but they remain unregenerate and disobedient and under the wrath of God. Assurance is tied to true belief or true faith. Assurance does not come from some kind of auto-suggestion. It does not consist of the flesh engaging in positive thinking. It is the humble born again person, the one in whom Christ lives, taking God at His Word, (Galatians 2:20).

Assurance can be tested in different ways and if you are interested you can see if your assurance level is where it should be. First I would say that you can test your assurance of salvation by how firmly you hold the truth of the Bible the Word of God. If you do not believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, without error, and written as a guide for your path, you are not saved and can have no assurance of your salvation; because the Bible is the only place where we find the Grace of God, and Faith to believe, (Romans 10:17). Blaise Pascal has said and I agree, ‘If we let ourselves believe that man began with divine grace, that he forfeited it by sin, and that he can be redeemed only by divine grace through the crucified Christ, then we will find a peace of mind never granted to philosophers. He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.’

See John 14:27. It seems incredibly doubtful that a person who truly believes, has the sealing of the Spirit, has been put to death as the sinner, and raised a new creature alive in Christ with the old things passed away and all things become new, can help but have assurance; because faith is trusting God; and that means trusting Him to do all that He says He will do, (Ephesians 1:13; Romans 6:1-8; Ephesians 2:10; 2nd Corinthians 5:17). God never begins something and then turns aside without completing it. It the same way in our salvation and we find in Philippians 1:6, that the Apostle Paul writes to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and says, ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.’

Paul again reassures us of our place with God as He says in 2nd Timothy 1:12, ‘For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He can keep what I have committed to Him against that day.’ Faith and belief, if real and God-given, are the strongest agents that we know on this earth, outside their giver who is God. We need to remember that the Bible is our food, that is if we are children of God, and we feast upon what God has promised and we believe without a doubt that He can give all things to us. It is our job to study and commit scripture to our minds and hearts. That is the way that we comply with 2nd Timothy 1:6-7, which tells us to ‘Stir up the gift of God which is in you’.for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.’

The problem that I see in our society is that people never really want to turn it all over to the One that they say they trust and believe in. Could that be the reason that someone who reads this is never quite sure of their salvation, never able to turn it all over and to rest in Jesus’, Oh, we do all the churchy things and we make a noise like we are the chosen people of God but it always has a hollow ring to it.

We sing ‘Standing on the Promises’, but do we think about what we say as we sing that old hymn’ We sing, standing on the promises of Christ my King, Thro’ eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing. Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, By the living Word of God I shall prevail. Standing on the promise of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, overcoming daily with the Spirit’s Sword. Standing on the promises I cannot fall, listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior as my all in all’..I’m standing on the promises of God. What a great old Hymn, and how we love to sing it, but do we think about the words that we say as we sing’ If we think about what we are saying, why is there so little assurance in congregations today’

The problem appears to be that we sing that we are standing on the promises but all we are doing is sitting on the premises. If we were standing on the Promises and we believed that those promises could never fail why aren’t we sure of our salvation and our connection with God through Christ’

If you think that I am overreaching on this issue of assurance, just begin to look at the church that you attend. Watch to see how many people are nervous Nellie’s, who dodge taking a stand for the Lord, refuse to pray and cannot carry on a conversation with you about the Bible. That, to me, indicates a person who does not know God through faith in Jesus Christ. How can you be someone whom God has called to be saved, called to an inheritance in heaven, forgiven and placed in Christ Jesus, and not be energized to at least want to tell everybody you meet about Him. A Pastor friend of mine has a testimony that says that in his salvation experience he was ‘a beggar that found some bread and it was his job to tell other beggars where to find that bread’. That is what excites, pleases, and is the life’s blood of the person who is saved.

How can we be saved and not be excited about it and thankful enough to at least obey the Great Commission, which commands us to tell, and teach and baptize whenever and wherever we go’ Now, I well know that not everyone who is saved is called to be pastors, or missionaries, or even theologians, but that is not all of the work that the Lord left for us to do. There are widows to be cared for and orphans and the poor to be ministered to. There are young people to be trained in the ways of the Lord and everyday little jobs that we can do to minister, in the name of Jesus Christ. The list is almost inexhaustible and there are urgent needs right next door to most of us who read this. The problem is that many who call themselves Christians or church members choose to ignore these needs. Now that doesn’t mean that if someone all of a sudden begins to help widows and orphans and the poor that they can think that they are saved. Anyone can do that kind of thing but the truly saved person does it continuously because they know that God wants them to do them.

What about people who have to struggle to live, have all sorts of troubles and even disasters in their lives, can they have the assurance of their salvation’ Trouble and struggles are the ear-mark of people who are saved, so yes, they should and will have assurance if they are saved. I don’t know where the church and congregations ever got the idea that to be saved by God’s grace meant that the person saved would have an easy life, a life without sickness and hardship, and care. If you think that then think about what God in the flesh suffered while here on the earth. Jesus Christ, God with us, God in the flesh, was hunted by King Herod, who wanted to kill Him, He spent forty days and forty nights without food or water as He was tempted by Satan, was hated by the church leaders (Pharisees, and Sadducees and Scribes).

He had no place to lay his head, no home, no regular meals, and was hounded by those in need. Jesus spent His time doing the will of the Father, which included being nailed to a cross with the sins of all those who would ever be saved on His shoulders. He was nailed to the cross and bled and died and was buried; but on the third day, He arose victorious over sin, death, and the grave and ascended forty days later back into heaven from whence He has come and was seated at the right hand of God. He is coming again and probably very soon and we need to cast ourselves on Him for the forgiveness of our sin. He never sinned but was made sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2nd Corinthians 5:21).

One of the things that we are promised as we live the Christian life here on the earth is suffering, in fact, in Philippians 1:29, we read ‘For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.’. God speaks to us through the writer of Romans and says in verses 16- 17 of chapter 8, ‘The Spirit Himself bears witness without our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs’.heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer from Him, that we may also be glorified together.’

Then the Apostle Peter, inspired by God, writes ‘But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.’ (1st Peter 5:10). The Christian life is a life that brings suffering, perhaps it’s not being fed to the lions in the coliseum, or being burned at the stake although that may be in the future, it is nevertheless, a life of suffering. We suffer the alienation of family and friends if we truly believe and live the way the Lord commands us to live. Many have lost jobs and positions of trust because the lost world cannot tolerate the precepts of our Savior. Jesus Christ told His disciples this’..’Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise against parents and cause them to be put to death, and you will be hated by all for My Name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.’

Many will ask, with suffering and all that goes into living for Christ, how can we possibly have the assurance of our salvation’ The answer is in the question and the answer is that with a man of the flesh, it is impossible to have assurance in these kinds of conditions’..but with God, nothing is impossible. God does promise us suffering if we are truly saved and walking in the light, and we will suffer but it won’t be the kind of suffering that the lost have to endure. In promising us suffering God also promises us that our slate will be clean before Him because we believed in His Son Jesus Christ who died to redeem us from sin (Galatians 3:13). We are reconciled to Him, and think about it, even if I knew I would have to go to hell, I would still yearn to be made right with my Creator (2nd Corinthians 5:20). We are promised peace even amid our suffering because we know that the suffering we face on the earth is temporary, we never have to walk the way alone, God is right beside us (John 14:27).

We are promised Grace to teach us and guide us in the right way (Titus 2:11-12). We suffer but we are promised that we need to worry about nothing (Matthew 6:25-34). We are promised that inheritance in heaven (Matthew 25:34). We are promised eternal life in all of its fullness (Romans 6:23). Last but not least we shall see Jesus (Revelation 22:1-5). The promises of heaven and eternity with God, where there is no pain, suffering, death, disease, no handicaps, or encumbrances’just perfect peace and freedom from sin (Revelation 7:16-17). Heaven is going to be worth it all, but heaven was made especially for those who believe enough to be assured of their salvation. There is no way for us to separate true saving faith and belief. Saving faith is faith that believes that everything in the Bible is true. Real Christians believe the Bible even when it is not true for them at the moment. They believe so strongly that they know for a certainty that what God has said will apply to their lives at just the right moment.

Who can we think about that had that kind of faith’.that faith that made them sure of God and His promises’ We can begin with Noah, who even though he could not have known for sure what God meant when God said to build a boat because it is going to rain. Noah probably had never seen it rain, the earth was watered by God heavy mists and fog (Genesis 2:6; Genesis 7:11-12). Noah faced a gigantic job in building a large ark or boat, plus all of the fun that was poked at him during the one hundred and twenty years that he worked. Noah was convinced without a doubt that God could and would bring to pass what He had said, and Noah was not disappointed by God. Then there was Abraham who was commanded to leave his birthplace, friends, and family and travel to a place that he did not know. He trusted God to not only provide him with a son but to build a great nation out of his loins. God does all things in His own time so Abraham had to wait until he was a hundred years old, but God did not fail him. Then we can look at Job, who was a perfect man before God, a man who had a large family and flocks and herds that made him very rich, then we see that he suffered much when his homes, children, flocks and herds were all destroyed. That just started his suffering because he developed a bad case of boils and was close to death. Did he lose his assurance’ not! Job said this after all his problems ‘.’ I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God.'(Job 19:25-26).

What I hope this lesson has caused you to think is ‘.just how strong is my faith in God. Think about what you believe and just how strong your assurance is.

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob