Good evening. Good to see you this evening. We give you welcome to our evening service. And if you're here for the first time, glad to have you with us. If you're watching online, we just trust that you'll be blessed by our service this evening. I want to welcome back Philip Campbell, who is our speaker tonight. Philip was with us this morning, and we were blessed with his ministry, and we just pray that the Lord will again use him this evening. Tuesday at half past seven, our Bible study and prayer meeting. The Reverend Norman Fox will be finishing his series. And if you were at the Trailblazers meeting a couple of Sundays ago, you'll know that we were asked to come on a Tuesday night and pray specifically for the Trailblazers. So if you're involved in the Trailblazers, then do come along and lift that meeting up in prayer. Saturday, sorry, Friday at half past seven, we're having our monthly Friday night prayer meeting again. Feel free to come along and pray for the work of the church, especially for the coming of our new minister and for his ministry here in the church. And then on Saturday, we have the induction service for Rodney Orr. We're delighted that this has finally come around and we are coming out of our vacancy. So there does need to be a lot of prayer for the days that lie ahead. And again, can you note that the time of the induction next Saturday is 7 p.m. Then next Sunday will be Rodney's first Sunday in the pulpit as our minister, and the services are at 11 in the morning and six in the evening, and Rodney will be speaking at both of those services. After the evening service, we will wait around the Lord's table for communion. Next Sunday is our 10th Sunday, and the entire offering goes towards our own folk. So I'm sure that you will give, but you will also pray for those of our fellowship who are serving the Lord in full-time work. And then, just can I remind you, off the Trailblazers, it runs from Monday week, the 3rd to the 7th of June, every evening from 6.30 to 8 p.m., and there are some leaflets if you know any children that might benefit and be able to come along, please take them and give them out. These are all the announcements and I'm just going to ask Geoff to come and lead us in prayer. Just before we come to prayer, just in the quietness and stillness of the church, maybe the Lord has laid someone or something on your heart. Why not bring it to Him now? Because we know that we worship a listening and an answering God. O God, our most gracious, heavenly and loving Father, we thank you, Father God, that we are found once again in your house, Father. We thank you that we have the freedom to come and meet freely. We don't have closed doors. We don't have to meet under cover of darkness or in an underground church. We have the freedom to come. We wouldn't be unmindful of our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church, Father, who meet, risking their lives, risking imprisonment or torture. And Father, we are so blessed here, Father. And Father God, again, we just thank you for all the goodness and mercy that you bestow upon us on a daily basis. We thank you for our homes, the food on our table, the clothes we wear, our family, our health and our friends. But Father God, may we never, ever take these things for granted. And Father, again, we just bring the work and the witness of the church here before you once again, and just ask that you would continue to bless. And Father, our desire would be to to win souls for the kingdom. Father, you've put us in this corner of your vineyard for a purpose. May the church be a lighthouse, a shining light in this needy area. And Father, again, we would just pray for Rodney and Amora and help them to make the final arrangements as they come over to us next week, Father. Give them safe and journeying mercies, undertake for them. And Father, may they settle in quickly into their new church, Father. And Father God, we would just pray for those of our fellowship who are unable to meet because of age or infirmity. We pray that as they listen to the CDs and DVDs, that they know that we are thinking and praying for them. and that they are not forgotten. And for all those who need a touch from yourself, you know them all and we lift them up once again collectively before you. And again, Father God. We thank you for our brother Philip, for the message that he brought this morning, the refreshment that we would be, we'd go and share, serve and suffer with our fellow brothers and those who as yet don't know the Lord. And again, Father God, we would bring you the members of our family, our friends who as yet don't know your saviour. Father, we would just pray that help us to tell them about what the Lord can do for them, that you would melt their hardened hearts, open their blinded eyes and ears that they may see. And again, Father, God, we thank you for all the departments and activities that go on during the week. And we just pray especially for the trailblazers as it starts next Monday, Father. We thank you that this is the only opportunity sometimes that these young people will ever hear the gospel. And Father, a little child shall lead them. So, Father, we don't know what will happen when they go home and tell their parents or guardians, Father. We would just ask your blessing for all those who will take part. We thank you for Sharon and Drew for organizing it all. And we would just pray and we would hear wonderful things that you have done during that week of mission. And now, Father, we look forward to hearing Philip once again tonight. And Father, we would just ask that you would bless him and that you would use him. And Father, again, we thank you for the praise team as they come to lead us in song. And Father, all these things we just ask in your wonderful and precious name. Amen. Good evening, everybody. It's a bit colder tonight, but I trust and pray that you feel the warmth of the fellowship in here tonight. And the first song that we're going to sing tonight is Abba Father. And isn't it wonderful and lovely that we are able to say Abba Father tonight, and that we do have a Heavenly Father? So if we stand and sing, thank you. Oh yeah! If you can, if you want to stay, stand and we'll sing our next song, Knowing You Jesus. You may take your seats, thank you so much. The next one we're going to sing is our offering hymn and when the bags get passed round, if you haven't come prepared, don't worry about it, just let the bag pass you by. And we're going to sing this one of three twice, so if the offering bags come up to the front when we finish, you just please stand and we'll sing the rest of it then. Thank you. We'll just give thanks for the offering. Thank you. Our dear Lord and heavenly Father, you are Lord, and we thank you that you are our Lord. And dear Lord, we just bring this offering before you tonight, Lord, and we just ask that you would accept it, Lord, and use it for the extension of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can just stay standing if you're able to, and we're just going to sing our last one, which is yet not out. Thank you. The praise is Jesus, my Redeemer. There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness, my freedom. My steadfast love, my deep and boundless faith. I've been through. This morning I omitted to say that I was walking up to church. I was on the way whenever the rain began. And I thought perhaps I might be refreshed in the way that Rishi Sunak was in Downing Street this week, but fortunately there was a cab just leaving nearby, so I hailed Adair cabs. And Jeff and Liz helped to propel me to the church this morning. in a drier mood than I might have been. You can sometimes bless people like that by bringing them along to church. So make sure that if you know somebody close by you and they'd like to come to church but they can't, well why not get them a lift in your car if you can possibly do that. Now we're going to read tonight from John's Gospel and Chapter 10. John's Gospel and Chapter 10. I see that everyone I was looking at this morning's got their Bible with them today, so that's good. This is a chapter, as I think I probably told you before. that in the primary school next door when we were growing up, we learned scripture by heart. That's a practice that I haven't heard much about these days, but it's a good thing. I remember some of the scriptures that I learned as a young boy there in primary school, and also, of course, in Sunday school and Bible class, too. So we're in John's gospel and chapter 10. And we're going to begin our reading of verse 7, and from then going there from 7 to 11, and then from verse 27. Verse 7 of John's Gospel and chapter 10. But Jesus Turned over the wrong page, forgive me. John's Gospel chapter 10 and verse 7. Forgive me. Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And the good shepherd, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. and I give to them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Now, before we turn to the word, let's bow before the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Lord and our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of being here together another Sunday evening. We thank you for the Lord's Day. We thank you for how special this one day in seven set apart for the worship of God. And we thank you too, Lord, that we can share fellowship with Christian believers as we feed on the word of God as it's preached from week to week. Fathers, we look ahead to the opening of our minister's ministry here in Abbots Cross. We want to commit him to you. We pray, Lord, that as Rodney comes, week by week, as he opens the Word of God to us, you will open up our hearts to your Word through him. And we pray, Lord, that we might be those who listen, those who take on board what the word of God says to us, and those who seek to obey it in our lives. Father, we thank you that here in Northern Ireland, we have indeed been privileged down through many years to have access to the scriptures and to the preaching of the word. Lord, we pray that we'll never ever take that for granted. We want to pray, Lord, for the preaching of your word across our city, across our province, across our island and country. And Father, how we pray that even tonight there might be many who will turn to find faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Father, that they will know him in a personal way, perhaps for the very first time. Lord, you know all that's happening in our world and all that grieves us when we see atrocities taking place in different places. And Lord, we pray that you'll come to those who are involved. And we pray, Lord, that there may be a wisdom that you impart so the bloodshed and destruction will come to an end. And Father, we do, Lord, pray for your people. in these different situations, and we grieve for them, and for what they and their families have to go through, and how we pray, Lord, that you will bring an end to these terrible things, but Lord, we pray that even through these, you will bring people to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And so we pray, Lord, that you'll open up your word to us right now. We pray, Father, that we may have ears to hear and hearts to obey. And we bring this, our prayer, in the worthy and precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Amen. There was a man who heard that the President of the United States went to a particular church in Washington. And so he decided that he would write to the pastor of the church. And he said to him, well, now, you may be interested to know that I'll be passing through Washington, perhaps on more than one occasion. And I would be very happy to make myself available to you if I could be of any help. Why was he interested in preaching? Well, you know why he was wanting to preach there at that church, because the president came from week to week. Well, he added something that he hoped might sort of prompt the pastor to give him an official invitation. And he said, well, you may not have heard of me before, but it has been said that I am one of the 10 finest preachers in the United States of America. Well, the pastor got the letter and he took his pen and he wrote back and he said, thank you very much for your offer, we do appreciate it. Unfortunately, our preaching schedule is quite filled up and we don't have room for anyone else. I was interested, however, to know that you're one of the 10 best preachers in the United States of America. Would you mind giving me a list of the other eight? But it's true that prominent people do find themselves in church. Our late queen was a worshipper of God, and she was always in church on a Sunday. I'm not sure exactly what Charles and Camilla's practice is, but I can imagine that they are quite frequently there, and I would love to think that so many of the Protestants here in Northern Ireland would take example from the royal family and be in church on a Sunday. But Queen Victoria found herself in church one Sunday morning, and she heard a sermon that impressed her. And after the sermon was over, she went and spoke to her chaplain. She had a question for him. And she asked him this, is it possible to be absolutely sure in this life of eternal safety? And the chaplain replied, I know of no way. that one could be absolutely sure. That was what the chaplain said. Was he right? Can we be sure in this life of being with Christ in heaven? Should we just hope for the best? And maybe that's what will happen. Well, as you can see, the title of the message this evening is, Can I Be sure. There should be a question mark after that, but there we are. Can I be sure? We're gonna look at this question. We're gonna ask whether or not from the Bible that we can be sure of salvation in Christ and a home in heaven. There are many things, of course, in our world of which we can't be sure. We can't be sure who's gonna win the next election. We can't assure whether our MP's going to get back. We can't be sure of the economy. We can't be sure. Well, there's loads of things we can't be sure of. But can we be sure spiritually of our state before God? If we can, it will only be because we trust in one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that's, of course, Jesus Christ, our Savior. So we're going to think about these things. I want to find out if we can be sure of the things that really matter. First thing I want to tell you is that we can be sure of pardon through Christ. Pardon through Christ. Romans chapter 6 and verse 23 says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. All of us suffer from the problem of guilt, and the reason for our guilt is sin. The evidence of sin, of course, is everywhere. We can see it in the evening news bulletins. We can see it in the attitude of people. We can see it in the horrible things that we sometimes read in the newspapers. And we can say to ourselves, well, now, isn't that terrible? Well, yes, it is. Yes, it is. Of course, the thing is, we mustn't think to ourselves that all of the sin is out there. The fact of the matter is that sin is also in here. It's in each and every one of us. Someone has put it like this, that sin is the root, and sins are the fruits. If you have an apple tree in your garden, you know that it's not an apple tree because it bears apples. It bears apples because it's an apple tree. It's in its nature to yield that kind of fruit. You and I are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. And in thought, and word, and deed, so often we remember the fact that we're burdened and led down with sin. It's our responsibility. We can't escape it. Remember how David said in Psalm 51, against thee, and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sights. All sin is against God. That's why Joseph was able to resist the lure of the temptation of Potiphar's wife. How can I do this great wickedness, he said, and sin against Potiphar? Is that what he said? No. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Sin is first and foremost against God. And you can see in the pilgrim's progress, pilgrim with his heavy burden of sin walking through the streets of the city of destruction and saying, what shall I do? What can I do? What could he do? Well Bunyan makes it clear, doesn't he, that there is a way for him to be rid of his burden of sin. You see, God has acted in his love. He sent Jesus to the cross and just as in Pilgrim's Progress, when Pilgrim came to the cross, the burden of sin was released from his back and rolled down a hill and into a cave and he never saw it. What we could not do for ourselves, God has done for us. So we can know pardon through Christ. Pardon. We can be justified, made just as if I'd never ever sinned. It's interesting, whenever you read through the book of Romans, you'll discover that the Bible tells us that we're justified by grace, we're justified by blood, and we're justified by faith. grace and blood and faith. And somebody looking at that for the very first time might think, well, that's a contradiction. I've heard people say that there are loads of contradictions in the Bible. Maybe this is one of them. Is it a contradiction? Well, I remember years ago a speaker came to Abbots Cross whose name was Trevor Knight. And Trevor Knight was a Bible teacher connected with young life and beach missions. And I can never forget the explanation he gave to what it means to be justified by grace and blood and faith. Let me remind you what he said. He said that sometimes on beach missions, when he's getting to know the kids, he would say, where do you come from? And one little girl at one of his beach missions said, I come from Manchester. Oh, Manchester, he said. Do you know where you get your water from? And her face lit up. She knew the answer. The Lake District. Manchester gets its water from the Lake District. And she even knew the right lake, Thirlmere. My, said Trevor, you have to go a long way for it. Oh, she said, it comes down the pipe. And then he turned to one of the little ones in the front and said, where do you get your water from? I get it out of the tap. Well, there's a contradiction, isn't there? Does it come from the Lake District? Does it come from the pipe? Or does it come from the tap? Well, you see, there's no contradiction there, is there? It starts in the Lake District, it's brought within reach by the pipe, and then whenever you want a drink of water, you turn on the tap. God's salvation. Justification begins in the grace of God that planned it. An eternity passed from the reservoir of the grace of God. He planned justification. He planned the plan of salvation. But it needed the pipe to bring it to us. It needed the Lord Jesus to come and die on the cross so that that salvation, that forgiveness, that new life would be available to us. but it doesn't become yours or mine until we turn on the tap of faith. And personally, we come turning from our sin and trusting in him. We're justified by grace and by blood and by faith. We can know pardon from sin. God has provided something you can be sure of. That's why we remind you this morning of what it says in Acts 319. repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. So my question to you this evening, my question to those of you who are listening online or listening to a recording of the message this evening, have you had that happen to you? Have you turned from your sin? Have you trusted in Christ as Lord and Savior? That's the way to be sure of pardon through Christ. But that's not the end. There's other things that we can be sure of. And the first is this, we can be sure of friendship with Christ. Friendship with Christ. In John's gospel and chapter 15, Jesus said, I no longer call you servants, I call you friends." And one thing that happens whenever we come to Christ and find forgiveness and a new life is that the relationship with God that was broken since the Garden of Eden is now repaired. And now the Lord is our friend. Remember what happened after the Lord Jesus died? What's the first thing that we're told? The veil of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. The veil of the temple was what stood between the holy place and the most holy place. And it meant that the way into the holiest of all was now open because of what Jesus did on the cross. And so we enter that new relationship, that friendship with Christ, and we know him alongside us through life's pathway. Before the throne of God above, I have a strong, a perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. The King is now. my friends. It's said many years ago that the Shah of Persia, going back a long way now, on one occasion he left his palace and he was looking for someone to build a relationship, a friendship with. And he went into the public baths and down below the baths where there was a man whose job was to keep the boiler stoked and the water warm. And there he was, down in the boroughs of the building, and the shaq came, dressed in ordinary clothes of course. The man didn't know who he was. And he sat down with him, and the man, the boiler man, he shared his lunch along with him, not realising the distinguished company in which he was. And the Shah kept on coming and eventually the Shah revealed to the man exactly who it was. Well, the man was thunderstruck. The Shah, the king on the throne, had come and had a meal with me? And the Shah said, well, is there something that I can do for you or for your family? Well, the man was so shocked he had to think for a minute or two. And then he said, Your Majesty, there's one thing that I would like you to do, and that is never to withdraw the precious gift of your friendship. You have come down from your palace and sat with me and ate my simple food, and we've talked together. Let's stay friends. Let's stay friends. And men and women, whenever you become a Christian, Jesus Christ becomes your friend. Brad and Alfie will remember the time when in the group we used to sing Jesus and me. I traveled alone along life's lonesome way. My burdens were heavy and dark was my day. I looked for a friend, not knowing that he had all of the time been looking. for me. Do you know the friendship of Jesus? Do you know the wonderful thing about having a friendship with Jesus is that every single day you can meet with him. You open up the scriptures, you talk to him in prayer, and you share everything with him. Do you know what that's like? Is that your experience down through the years of your life? Do you know the Lord Jesus? I became a Christian when I was 10. So by this stage, I ought to know the Lord a lot better than I did then. Men and women, I know some of you have been on the Christian pathway a long time to keep developing that friendship with Jesus. Pardon through Christ, friendship with Christ, and then you also know guidance from Christ. Guidance from Christ. Psalm 32 in verse 8 says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will guide you with my eye. You know that it was the task of the slave to stay close to the king and look into his eye and all the king had to do was to just move his eyes like that and the slave jumped to do exactly what he knew he was being asked to do. When you're close to the Lord and looking into his eye, he can guide you in the way that he wants you to go. Certainly I know in my own life how God has helped and guided us through the years. Somebody said that life has to be lived forward. but it can only be understood backwards. It's only as you look back on your experience, as you can see, that the Lord just shoves you slightly in one direction so that you miss that experience, or look this way in order that you made that right decision, etc. He's the one who helps and guides us, and we're very glad of that. Whenever I was working as an evangelist, sometimes you got a phone call from a church they'd never been to before, and you would check the diaries, and the diary was free, so you were able to go and take the particular meeting. And I said, well, I haven't been to your church before. How do I get there? and you get out your pen and you begin to write down the directions and the voice at the other end of the phone says, well now what you do is you take the A26, or is it the A62, and you take the third roundabout, the second roundabout and the third turn on the left. No, it's the third roundabout and the second turn on the, and you pass, Three churches, and one school, and two pubs. You can't miss it. You can't miss it. And sometimes you did. Of course, nowadays, we don't have that kind of problem. We've got Sat Nav. Boy, wouldn't it have been wonderful to have Sat Nav in those days. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. One thing that would be a real help if you were going somewhere you didn't know before is to have somebody beside you. who knew the way. You and I haven't passed through our lives in any sense before, but there's someone who knows the way. And when you have the Savior with you, what a joy that it is. He can lead you in the right direction. Some of you, maybe in recent times, if you use Our Daily Bread, you'll remember the reading that Catherine brought just a matter of a week or so ago when she explained and recounted how having left the church, having been in a meeting, she was on her own and she found herself in a pea soup of a fog. What was she going to do? And you know, you really miss the white lines when you can't see them. And so she lifted her heart to the Lord and she prayed, and no sooner were the words out of her mouth that a lorry came and turned onto the road in front of her. And a lovely outline of red lights on the back of that lorry. As if to say, follow me. And she did, she did. And she found her way through the fog. Do you remember what Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter three? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him. And He will direct your paths. And it's far better than satnav, because He knows you. He knows your heart. He knows you through and through. Trust Him for His guidance. We can be sure of it. We can be sure of it. Pardon through Christ. Friendship with Christ. Guidance from Christ. And then we can also be sure of eternity with Christ. eternity with Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 17 says, so shall we ever be with the Lord. On Friday night past, the Ulster Orchestra brought its concert season to a close with a performance of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony. It's a terrific piece of music. Its conclusion will send shivers down your spine and bring tears to your eyes. And some of you are saying, so what? So what? Well, I'll tell you what. Gustav Mahler's second symphony is subtitled Resurrection. And maybe you, being in a Christian church, might think to yourself, oh, that's talking about Jesus' resurrection. But you would be wrong. You would be wrong. Because Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 is not about Jesus' resurrection, but about the longing in the human heart for human resurrection. that we want something to be beyond this life. We want to be able to go somewhere better so that we can put the past and the pain, all of the things in this life that we struggle through, we want to put it all in the past so that we can attain eternal life. And the words that the choir and soloists sing in the final movement of the symphony are all about the desire for wanting to be resurrected, wanting to come back again and finally go to God, yes? And I have to say to you, I know, and the Bible teaches that there is resurrection, but that's not the end of the subject. You need to take account of some of the scriptures that I'm going to quote to you now. I have in front of me Daniel chapter 12. And here's what it says. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. You'll remember how Jesus spoke about a broad way and a narrow way, a broad way which led to destruction and a narrow way that led to life. And few there be, he said, that find. Matthew chapter 26 and verse 46. These shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous to life eternal. Are you getting the point? In case you haven't, I would have turned you to Revelation and chapter 20, almost the final chapter of the Bible. And this is what we read. Revelation chapter 20 and verse five. The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power. And then later on, we read in verse 15, that those who were not found written in the book of life were cast into the lake of fire. Yes, there is going to be resurrection, but there's a resurrection to eternal damnation as well as a resurrection to eternal life. So how can you be sure then of eternity with Christ? How can we be sure of this? Well, I wanted to remind you about the experience of a little girl called Monica Farrell. Don't know if any of you remember that name? She came here years ago along with Seamus Milligan and shared her testimony in the hall over there as it was at that time. She grew up in the city of Dublin. Young Roman Catholic girl in the Catholic family being taught all of the things that the Catholic church has to teach. And from an early age, She was confused and frightened about standing out in front of God to be judged. She just couldn't face that. And she wondered how she could survive in front of God as judge. She got a plan. She decided there was something she had to do on the day of judgment. And so she said, well, I'll get in early. I don't know how she was going to manage that and arrange that, but that was what she was going to do. She says, when you're seven years of age, you can organize anything like that. And so she said she would be there at the judgment, and she knew the Lord Jesus would be there. So she would go over and say to the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, didn't you die on the cross for our sins? And he would say, yes. And if you died on the cross for our sins, you must have loved us. And you'd say, yes. And you died in order that we could go to heaven? And he would say yes. And she would say, but Lord Jesus, I can't be sure of going to heaven because I'm not good enough. She said, would you allow me to do something? Whenever she was growing up as a young girl, her mom had a long, long skirt. And she loved to hide behind her mom's skirt. If ever she was threatened in every way, it was a wonderful place of refuge. And then she saw the Lord Jesus in his robes. Would you allow me to hide behind your robes and God won't see me? And then she said, would you just walk across to the gate of heaven and lean against it as if you're tired and I'll dive into heaven. And she would go into heaven and she would set up a chair, I'm safe, I'm safe. And then she would listen to the judgment and the name would be called out, Monica Farrell. Monica Farrell, for the third and last time, Monica Farrell. And Jesus would say to the father, Monica Farrell, that little girl, she's well and truly in heaven. I took her there myself. And the father would say to Jesus, well, son, if that's what you did, well, say no more about it. Well, she said, I didn't know if it'd work. I had all this planned, but I didn't know if it would work. And it was only later on that she discovered about the robes of righteousness given to Christians whenever they have their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. And it was later on in her life that Monica Farrell came to trust in Christ and have the assurance of salvation in her heart because of what Jesus did. had done. The Apostle Paul, whenever he was writing his second letter to Timothy and it was almost the end of his life's experience, he knew, he said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will grant me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing. Paul was sure, Paul was sure. Are you? Do you have the assurance of God's salvation in your heart? Are you sure of pardon through Christ? Have you experienced friendship with Christ? Have you known guidance from Christ? Are you confident? Are you sure of eternity with Christ? We began by thinking about Queen Victoria. and how the chaplain that she asked the question to had no idea of any way that anyone could know about assurance of salvation. Well, that incident happened to be reported in a paper called Court News. And whenever a Christian minister called John Townsend read that, he picked up his pen and he wrote to the Queen. And this is what he said. To her gracious majesty, our beloved Queen Victoria, from one of her most humble subjects, with trembling hands but with love-filled heart, and because I know that we can be absolutely sure even now of our eternal life in the home Jesus sent to prepare, I would ask you, most gracious majesty, to read the following passages of scripture. John 3 verse 16, Romans 10 verses 9 and 10, these passages prove that there's full assurance of salvation by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ for those who believe and accept his finished work. John Townsend got a reply from the palace, I quote, Your letter of recent date received and in reply would state that I have carefully and prayerfully read the portions of scripture referred to. I believe in the finished work of Christ for me and trust by God's grace to meet you in that home of which you said I go to prepare a place for you. Signed, Victoria Guelph. Yep. You can be sure. You can be sure. On the basis of the Word of God, you can be sure. Let's pray together as we pray. It may be tonight that God has spoken to your heart through His Word. It may be that in recent times you have doubts about whether or not your sins are forgiven, whether or not Christ is your Savior, whether or not you're headed for heaven. God does not mean us to stay in doubt. And so I encourage you. to spend these moments and use them to pray and ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you from your sin, to make you his child, to put you on the road to heaven and home, and to give you an assurance in your heart that he has done so. You can pray. You can call out to God. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Saved. That's his word. That's what he brings to your heart just now. And if you pray like that, and if you ask Christ to be your Lord and Savior, one piece of counsel that I would give you is this, that you should tell someone what has happened. Let them know. And when you confess before men what Christ has done in your heart, the assurance of salvation will be yours. Father, we do want to thank you for your presence with us. We thank you for the precious Word of God, which we have access to at any time, the preaching of it, which we can hear from pulpits here and across the country. Father, we pray that you'll do your work, your sovereign work, in the hearts and lives of individuals these days, and especially, Lord, just now, just now tonight. in Abbots Cross and in the homes of those who may be listening to. Oh Father, grant that each one will know for sure in their hearts that Christ is theirs and they are his. We bring our prayer in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Amen. I'm gonna sing a hymn to close with. It's one that I fell in love with the first time I heard it in New Horizon and Coleraine. It's one by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. See, what a morning gloriously bright with the dawning of hope in Jerusalem. It's the resurrection of Jesus that gives us the assurance and the confidence that we're on the right path along with him. Sing these words, think about them, and let them bless your heart too. One more time! Fight! Fight! you Friends, hallelujah. Let's bow in prayer. Gracious God, loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the assurance that comes to our hearts when we remember that our Savior, while he died on the cross, is no longer there. He is no longer in the tomb, but risen, living, alive forevermore. And Father, we look forward to meeting him one day, the one who loved us and who gave himself for us. Father, we pray that until that day, we may not only know him, but walk with him until that day comes when we see him face to face. Now we pray, Lord, that grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit might rest and abide with each one this night and forevermore. Amen.