Let's turn now to Paul's epistle to the Romans, chapter 8, and we read verses 28 through 39. Let's hear the Word of God to us this morning from Romans 8, 28 through 39. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May God bless his precious and sacred, comforting word to our souls. Dear congregation, in our catechism studies, we've been looking, as you know, at the doctrine of faith. And we've considered, from question 21 of the catechism, Lord's Day 7, six messages on what faith is and how faith functions in the life of the believer. Embedded in that answer is also this expression that faith consists of an assured confidence, implying a very close connection between faith and what we call assurance of faith. And as you know, Reverend Kuypenhoven, Reverend Benezuac have been continuing through the catechism, whereas I've been lingering here and They've given me permission to give a number of messages from certain Lord's Days. And I want to continue with Lord's Day 7 by now moving to a series of sermons on assurance of faith. How does that differ from faith itself, if at all? And what are its possibilities? And what are its foundations? How do you lose assurance? And how do you cultivate assurance? And how do you renew assurance? So, we're hoping to look in a half a dozen messages or so at this very, very important subject of assurance of faith. So this morning, I want to Look at several texts with you, but probably the one we'll focus on the most is Romans 8, 38 and 39. I'll read that now and also read question 21 again. Romans 8, 38 and 39, I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In question 21, what is true faith? True faith is not only a certain knowledge whereby a hold for truth for all that God has revealed to us in His Word, but also in assured confidence. which the Holy Ghost works by the gospel in my heart, that not only to others, but also to me, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits. So with God's help, we want to look at this theme of assurance, and this morning, in this introductory sermon to this vast subject, I only want to look at its importance, its importance. And I have two thoughts. First, I want to give you five important reasons you need it, or you should seek to grow in it. And then I want to give you five important reasons you may lack it, five reasons you need it, and five reasons you may lack it or at least lack a great deal of assurance. What is assurance of faith? Lots of people misunderstand that. Lots of people today think it doesn't mean much more than faith. They really see assurance and faith as synonyms. But that's not what our forefathers meant when they spoke of assurance of faith, nor in the Scriptures. Assurance of faith is not separate from faith altogether, and we'll look at that in more detail next sermon on this subject, but assurance of faith is conviction that I definitely possess saving faith and that I belong to Christ and he belongs to me. And that I will enjoy everlasting salvation. because I am in Christ. So a person who has assurance in any significant degree, not only believes in Christ's righteousness as his salvation, but knows that he believes and knows that he is graciously loved by God. In other words, a person who has assurance does not have to say when someone says to him, are you saved? Well, I'm really not sure, but I can't deny that I have a little, little bit of hope. No, a person who has assurance may say, by the grace of God, I am saved, and all my righteousness is in Christ, all my hope is in Him, and I am able to see by the grace of the Holy Spirit, evidences in my life that my heart and my life have been changed, and I give all the praise to God. Thanks be to God. Jesus Christ is my Savior. I belong to Him, and He belongs to me. Now, this assurance is very broad in scope. It includes all kinds of things. It includes freedom from the guilt of sin. It includes joy in my relationship with the triune God. And it includes a sense of belonging to the family of God. If I have assurance I know I'm in the family and that other believers are my brothers and sisters. James W. Alexander, the son of the famous Archibald Alexander, the Princeton professor, defined assurance this way. Assurance carries with it the idea of fullness, fullness, such as of a tree laden with fruit or a vessel's sails stretched by a favoring gale. You see, assurance of faith is this full feeling where the wind of the Spirit, as it were, is blowing in my life and I know in whom I believe. I'm not stagnant and dry and dull, but I'm full of the life of God. That's what our forefathers meant by assurance. And so assurance is known by its fruits. What fruits? Close fellowship with God. Childlike obedience and submission to God. Thirsting after God to know Him better. And longing to carry out the Great Commission. Assurance prayerfully anticipates revival. Assured believers long for the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Assured believers view heaven as their real home, and they long for the coming of Christ and their translation to glory. Now, this assurance has always been a vital subject. Its importance is more critical now, however, Because I believe we live in a day of minimal assurance. 25, 30 years ago, I determined that this subject was very important in my own life and the life of our churches. And so I went to my doctoral dissertation advisor and I said, I want to do my doctoral dissertation on this subject of assurance of faith. Oh, he said, that's wonderful. We need it today. But I went to another professor, and that professor said, well, why would you do that subject? Everybody has it today. And you see, that's part of the problem. All around America today, all Christians think they have assurance. But they don't, because the fruits don't convey that they have it. You see, if you have assurance, you have a burning desire to fellowship with God. You yearn for His glory and for heaven. An intercession for revival is vibrant in you. And these fruits are missing. Perhaps more than ever before. And today the church is far too worldly. And when the church's emphasis on earthly happiness, selfish happiness, overshadows her conviction that she's traveling through this world on her way to God and glory, she's not rich in assurance. So we need this subject. And I'm hoping and praying that this series of sermons will greatly help those of you who are babes in grace and you are wrestling to grow in assurance. I hope it will help you immensely. But I also hope that those of you who think you have assurance but aren't showing the fruits will be shaken up a bit and examine your soul. And I hope that those of us who are backsliding will realize that when we backslide, our level of assurance decreases correlatively. Because you can't persist in high levels of assurance when you have low levels of obedience. So, this subject has a lot to say to everyone. Also to you who are unsaved. Because I hope to show you in this series of sermons that assurance of faith is something far more rich and glorious and beautiful than anything you'll ever find in this world. So my goal with the Spirit's blessing will be to stir you up to jealousy. that you too might have this rich portion of assured believers and live with fullness in your sails to the glory of God, living out the purpose for which you were put here on this earth. So let's look then, first of all, at five important reasons for seeking to grow in assurance. Reason number one, Soundness of faith in life. Soundness of faith in life. You see, our understanding of the assurance of faith determines the soundness of our grasp of all of spiritual life. You can be sound in many areas. You think you can be orthodox and yet be unsound in this understanding of assurance and your entire spiritual life will be crippled as a result. Let me just mention two problems here. The first problem goes by the label, easy-believism. Easy-believism. You see, many people today think they're Christians But all they have is what's called easy believism. And tens of thousands, millions, we fear, based on the word of God, will wake up in hell to their eternal horror. You see, the problem with easy believism is that people with it have not examined whether their faith is genuine and well-founded. You might better call it easy assurance-ism than easy believism because they claim assurance without having a foundation for it. And what they're doing is they're substituting head knowledge for genuine heart knowledge. Yeah, I believe the Bible. Oh, of course, I believe I'm a sinner. Jesus came and suffered and died for people. He just didn't believe in Him. I believe in Him. Well, you're saved. Oh, don't worry about any feeling about it or any fruits, really. You just Believe and you're saved and everything's fine and you can go on and live the way you want to live. You don't have to deny yourself in any way. You don't have to make many changes in your Christian life. Just believe and everything's okay. That's the way many people counsel today. And millions of people are brought in to think that they have Christian faith and Christian assurance through this kind of easy-believers mentality. Like one of the evangelists of this school of thought recently written a book saying, it shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to convert someone. This is just easy, a 10-minute chat, and it's done. Well, this is not assurance of faith whatsoever. This is not what we call the experiential persuasion in the soul that the Savior of the universe, the creator of the world, the one who hung on the cross, is my God and my Savior. On the other hand, however, We are unsound in faith in life if we embrace what you might call hard believism. Hard believism. There are some genuine children of God, and our people, as you know, of course, are prone more to fall into this direction, who do not believe that they are children of God, even though there's all kinds of evidence in their lives that they are. And there's a kind of a... hard believism that takes over. They're looking for evidences that they have no right to expect. And so people will say something like this. Well, yes, I long after God. Yes, I can't deny a hunger and thirst after righteousness. Yes, I can't deny I've been made spiritually poor. Yes, I can't deny I mourn over sin. All these marks of grace, which show that they are a child of God, but I don't do it enough, or I don't do it consistently, or I still keep falling into sin, as if all God's people don't have that problem. And so they say, well, I'm afraid I can't be assured of my faith, or I would be more consistent, or I would be more this, or more that. You see, ultimately they're grounding their assurance then in the level of degree of sanctification that they reach. And that's a very dangerous thing to do. John Calvin said, if you ground your assurance on the degree of sanctification that you reach by your own effort, that is sure damnation. So hard-believism is not the way to grow in assurance of faith. The second important reason why we need to grow in assurance is peace with God. Peace with God. Assurance is inseparable from the peace and comfort of the gospel. Assurance is necessary if we are going to be people whose lives are contagious by the peace and the joy and the hope that flow out of us so that people look at us and say, this isn't a shallow peace, hope, and joy, but there is something substantive here, there's something real, there's something profound, there's a genuine, humble peace and joy and hope that exudes from that person that I would love to possess. That's the way we want to live. And you see, when you have this assurance of faith, there is a profound joy in your soul. There's a foretaste of heaven on earth. That's why Thomas Brooks, the Puritan, wrote his 350-page classic on assurance, by the way, one of the best books ever written on assurance, and called it, Heaven on Earth. We should desire great levels of assurance as Christians because we are exhibits of the gospel. Philippians 2.13 says this way, that you may be blameless and harmless as sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. And how does a Christian shine as light in the world? It's when he is humbly manifesting on solid scriptural grounds this great joy and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ that flows out of an assurance that he is mine and I am his. And so you see when God's people Don't show this when they're just always, always packed full with doubts and fears, and their heads hang down, and they appear sad and grieving. You don't stir the jealousy of the ungodly, do you? And you're so focused upon yourself that you're not at peace, and you miss this peace that passes all understanding. Now, please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that true Christians won't have times of sorrow over sin and difficulties and doubts. Oh, absolutely. True peace knows times of true war. But scripture is abundantly clear that normatively, Christians exhibit peace and joy in the Lord when they walk in assurance of faith. Thirdly, Christian service. Christian service. An assured Christian is an active Christian. Paul said of the Thessalonians, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And that gospel was so blessed in Thessalonica that the result was there was much assurance. And Paul goes on to say, 1 Thessalonians 1, 7 and 8 now, so that you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you sounded out It's an old-fashioned expression. Actually, from you evangelized the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad. Isn't that amazing? He's saying Thessalonians, wherever you went, it's like your life was a sounding board. It was sounding out. It was evangelizing with your words and your actions and your whole manner of conversation. Because you were living in much assurance, it just oozed out of you the gospel. They evangelized by their zeal. for God and they got that zeal because they had assurance that God belonged to them and they belonged to God. You see, a Christian without assurance is seldom very concerned about good works, seldom very concerned about Christian service, seldom very concerned about evangelism because he's all wrapped up in himself and whether or not he is a child of God. And when that question is not resolved, am I a believer or not, it's hard to be more than half-hearted about helping others in the service of the Lord. So it's important to grow in assurance. Thomas Goodwin said, an assured Christian is 10 times more active than an unassured one. J.C. Ryle says this, this is a profound statement actually. A believer who lacks an assured hope will spend much of his time in inward searchings of heart about his own state like a nervous hypochondriacial person. He will be full of his own ailments, his own doubtings, his own questionings, his own conflicts, his own corruptions. In short, he will find himself so taken up with his own eternal welfare that he has little leisure for other things and little time for the work of God. Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that a believer won't go through this period of tremendous difficulty. Or at times won't come back to it to some degree. But you and I must be striving, seeking, praying for greater measures of assurance so we don't dwell here permanently for years on end. but rather grow in assurance so that we may be more useful in the kingdom of God. In other words, an assured Christian realizes that conversion, initial conversion, is not an end in itself. Too often when we tell our conversion stories or testimonies to other people, we tell about how we were convicted of sin, how room was made in our souls for Christ, how we got to Christ, how we embraced Him for the first time, and then we stop, as if that's the end of conversion, but that's only the beginning of conversion. Conversion is not an, initial conversion is not an end in itself. We're converted for a reason. We're converted to serve God. We're converted so that our lives may be a sounding out. First Peter 2 verse 9 says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of peculiar people. Why? That you should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You see, that's hard to do when you don't have much assurance. God converts us. and desires assurance for us, that we might show forth His praise. We are to serve Him, we are to serve our neighbor. And if we lack assurance, our service at best will be much less enthusiastic. Now, fourthly, communion with God. Communion with God. This is a very important one. Assurance is valuable because it enriches our communion with God. And if you're a Christian, I don't have to ask you the question, do you want to have communion with God? That's your greatest desire in life. Lord, I want to commune with you. I want to be close to you. I want to know you. How can you be really close to God, in close communion with God, when you're afraid that God is angry with you all the time? A child is always afraid that his dad is angry. Can't feel very close to his dad. That child can't relax and accept his dad's expressions of love and say, Dad, I know you love me, when the child feels that dad is angry with him all the time. Such an atmosphere, close relationship is impossible. But when a child can say, I know my dad loves me. You see, then communion is possible. So it is with a believer. When a believer can say, my beloved is mine, and I am his, communion is so sweet, so much richer. Fellowship is so much warmer. There's a trusting relationship. There's a mutual bond. There's the kind of fellowship that a child wants with his father. And you know the Bible is full of practical examples to illustrate this. It's not just the father and the child. The Bible uses the husband and wife for the same purpose. The husband-wife relationship, the bride-groom-bride relationship, the head and the body relationship. And you see, when these things are in place on good grounds, like Romans 8 said in verse 33 and 34, we are justified, we are not condemned, because it is Christ who died, yea, rather than is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, ever making intercession for us. When we can embrace that experientially for our own soul, then we can say, the last two verses of Romans 8, I am persuaded. By the way, Paul uses the strongest possible word there for confidence and assurance. The strongest word in the Greek language, I am absolutely 100% persuaded that nothing shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. Now that's sweet communion. When you are married for many years and you love your wife, you love your husband immensely, you have such assurance, don't you, that that husband, that wife is going to be faithful to you. And you understand a little bit of the mystery of marriage that Paul says when he says, you don't even own your own body. Your wife owns your body, and you as a husband own her body, and you trust each other in your ownership of each other. These two shall be one, and you love it that way, and you are sure your wife, your husband, will not be unfaithful to you. No matter what happens in life, you trust that love. Well, that's a thousand times more with the Lord, because He is infallible. He cannot sin. His love is irrevocable. And so Paul says, I am absolutely persuaded. That what? Well, nothing. And he gives us four couplets, doesn't he? It's actually beautiful. Notice the text. Neither death nor life, there's couplet number one, shall separate me from the love of God. Neither death, Paul? Really? Death separates from everything. The funeral this week with Chad Klein, how difficult it was. What separation from a 31-year-old man? It was hard. You could feel the separation. You can feel it in the family, the grief, the tears. What do you mean, Paul, death won't separate? Well, for a Christian, death just is, as one old Scottish divine, is our wheelchair that rolls us into the presence of God and Jesus Christ forever in glory where wheelchairs will be needed no more. That doesn't separate. That just brings me into his presence. But nor does life separate. All the challenges of life, they don't separate you from, no, no, all the challenges of life for a true Christian who has assurance just make me all the more dependent upon Jesus and his incredible love. Then couplet number two, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, these are actually That's actually a couplet, even though it says three things, but the principalities and powers refers to the devils, the fallen angels. You know that, of course, from Ephesians 6. So neither the good angels nor the bad angels, neither angels nor devils shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know, Paul said even if an angel were to come from heaven and preach another gospel to you, don't believe him. An angel couldn't separate us. But even a devil couldn't separate us. The devil is so strong. Yes, but I'm in the love of God. And God will use all the devil's devices to make me the more cast upon the Lord. And so even the devil You can't separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. John Calvin says something beautiful about the devil. He said, the devil is sometimes our best doctor. And you say, what Calvin? What are you talking about? Well, he says, because Jesus uses all his devices to actually heal us. So he turns the devil's devices on their head. The devil comes to afflict us, and he thinks he's going to destroy us, and God uses the affliction to draw us closer to Jesus. Even the devil can't separate you. The devil's a fallen angel, but the Lord to whom you're united is the living Lord of heaven and earth. The Lord has more power than the devil. And the third couplet, nor things present, nor things to come. You know, you look back and you say, in my past, nothing has separated me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanks be to God. But oh, if you knew what I'm in right now, if you knew my trials right now, I'm afraid I'm gonna be separated. If you knew what I was facing for the future, the uncertainties of next week, I'm afraid I'm gonna be separated. No, no, no, says Paul. This love is powerful. It's powerful because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You'll never be separated. And all your impossible fears, all the waves that are coming in at you as you stand on the beach heads of the oceans of this life, they will all, like large waves, just fall with a whimper at your feet. And God will use even the incoming waves just to throw you more upon His Son. And then finally Paul has this couplet at the end that just kind of includes everything. Nor height, nor depth, or any other creature. In other words, absolutely nothing. Not the depths of depravity, not the depths of sin, not the depths of affliction, not the depths of cancer, or heart attacks, or huge difficulties. No, they just drive me to Christ. Nor the heights, the heights of popularity, the heights of worldly success. God will use these things too. Not to make me proud and self-sufficient, but to humble me as I realize how dependent I am upon Him. You see, nothing shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. When you've got this assurance, you see, you actually believe that, you trust that, and that's such, well, it's such a peace, such an inward joy. You can wake up in the morning and say, by the grace of God, I get to serve the Lord today and I get to be in his word today. I get to have devotions with him today. I get to speak hopefully a good word to someone about him today. Praise the Lord. I get to commune with my Savior today. What a different spirit that is from those who don't have any assurance and who just fear what the day will bring. And then fifthly, lastly, holiness to the Lord. Holiness to the Lord. Assurance makes a person more holy. That's an inevitable fruit. Every man, says John, 1 John 3, 3, every man that has this hope in him, that's not a remote hope or just a tiny bit of hope, that's an assured hope, purifies himself. even as he is pure. That is, he is pure in Christ and so he goes about to purify himself to reflect the joy of this assurance. So we can flip this around and we can say assurance that does not lead to a more holy walk is a false assurance. Real love for the Lord, real assurance of His love gives power to live a holy life. Now, a holy life means that in myself, I remain acutely aware of what a poor, needy sinner I am. Holiness doesn't mean that you think you're such a great Christian. The more holy you are, the more you live out of Jesus Christ, the more you obey Him and His commandments, and the more you see your own sin and your own need. Holiness is simply this, He must increase and I must decrease. So for these five reasons, Every Christian should be striving to grow in assurance. Every Christian should love assurance, long for assurance, pray for assurance, examine himself in the ways that lead to assurance, so that he might live, she might live fully to the glory of God. Let's sing. From Psalter 2.12. 2.12, this is Psalter where the believer has doubts, you see, and fears, but notice how he turns to the Lord at the end of stanza two and then all of stanza three and ends in the Lord and regains that lost sense of assurance. 2.12, let's sing the second tune. ♪ Peace of mind ♪ Now I trust and I hope that many of you are thinking right now to yourself, but assurance is so wonderful, but why do I have so little of it? Maybe you're a believer and you struggle a lot, and why can't I lay hold of that assurance more? Why can't I grasp it more? That's a very good question to ask because normally you're not going to be healed until you understand where the sickness lies. And you need to ask that question. Now, there are many, many, many reasons why people lack assurance or why they don't grow in it, but I just want to give you five that I have found in pastoring you over the past quarter century, five that are not rare in our circles. The first is this, false conceptions of the character of God. You know, if I say to you, just tell me, without thinking, when I say the word God to you, what's, gut level, gut level, what's the first thing you think of? You think of mercy? Grace? Love? What do you think of? Justice? Anger? You see, some people just can't seem to grow in assurance because they don't understand the heart of what Paul is saying in Romans 8, that when Paul says, verse 31, And so some people, and some of you, You think you're so much more willing to be saved sometimes, and God is willing to save you, but actually, God is for the salvation of sinners, and we, by nature, are the ones standing in the way. We think our character is okay, and God's seems to be an obstacle, but actually, God's character declares His willingness for salvation and assurance, and our character is what stands in the way. And so what we then try to do, as a net effect of course, is because since God seems to be against us, we try to find some way in which we can look in ourselves, all by ourselves, to find reasons in ourselves to claim salvation. And you'll never find it, of course. The more you look in yourself apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, the more frustrated you'll be and the more you'll end up condemning yourself. And so you end up wallowing in constant doubt year after year after year. Let me ask you this question. You know, of course, the story of the so-called prodigal son or prodigal brothers or the merciful father, whatever title you give it. But you know in that story that the father of the prodigal represents in Jesus' mind what His Father is like, what God is like, and what Jesus Himself is like. So the father's looking out with eyes of mercy for his son. He sees him. He runs with legs of mercy. He throws his arms of mercy around him. He kisses him with lips of mercy, though the son smells like a pigsty, and tears of mercy fall upon him. Is that what you think of God? A father in those days was not supposed to run. That was improper, unethical, below the dignity of a father. But Jesus says, my God, my Father is so eager for the salvation of sinners, He runs the prodigals. Do you understand the heart of God that way? God is eager and delights in the salvation of sinners, has no desire in your death, far more willing to save you than you are to be saved. See, if you don't have an understanding of the character of God, you will often be hindered in growing in assurance. The second is a lack of clarity and justification by faith alone. The lack of clarity and justification by faith alone. Back a few chapters in Romans 3, of course, verses 21 through 28, Paul gives us the clearest statement in all the Bible about how a man may be just and how God in Christ and how God can be just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. And we're told, for example, in verse 26, that God declares Christ's righteousness that God might be just and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. Now, people who lack assurance have very vague conceptions often of justification by faith alone. They think that somehow justification by faith alone is a work rather than a gift. But you see, we are saved by faith alone because faith is simply the instrument that receives it. But God, the Holy Spirit, gives us that gift. So it's not easy believism. It's not hard believism, if you want a word for it. It's Holy Spirit believism. The Holy Spirit enables us to do what we cannot do, that is to believe and embrace the message that all my salvation, not 99%, but 100%, is founded and grounded in Jesus Christ, who took my place on the cross, and therefore I'm justified in His righteousness by faith when I embrace that, by the internal gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit's willing to give that to me, the Son is willing to do that for me, and the Father's willing to decree that for me. It's not an unwilling God. All three persons of the Trinity are willing. And so, what happens, you see, is that when you don't envision this clearly, you're trying somehow, someway to do a little bit of your justification by something that you do, or even maybe by your faith, whether the insane faith purely is a gift of God. And that never works, you see. That's why in the Roman Catholic system, there really is no such thing as assurance of faith, because you're saved partly by your works and partly by God's grace. And if we have anything to contribute to our justification, you can never have assurance, because, well, what happens if you mess up on that again? And you will because you're a sinner. You can never be assured. The beauty of the gospel is that the salvation that saves us is justification in Jesus Christ, which is wholly, as Luther put it, wholly alien to us. In other words, the righteousness that saves us, the justification that saves us, is totally outside of ourselves. That's what gave Luther his peace, his joy, his liberty. He was trying to do it himself. And then the scales fell, and he saw it was completely done by Christ. And all he has to do is just simply receive it, which the Holy Spirit gives to him anyway. And so he receives it in all the salvations in Christ, and it gives him peace and joy. And you see, that fosters assurance, because it's all in God. And that gives peace that passes all understanding. Number three. Disobedience and backsliding. In other words, lack of understanding the consequences of these things. I mentioned before in this sermon already that high levels of assurance can't persist with low levels of obedience. But often people don't realize that. And so someone can be saved and say, yes, I'm justified by faith alone. I have my salvation in Christ. I'm quite sure I'm a believer. But then they stumble into this sin or that sin and they don't keep up their daily devotions. They don't use the means of grace. And before you know it, they're back into doubts and fears. And you can almost predict it. Because they're not using the means of grace. They're walking in the way of obedience. And it's actually good that they lose their assurance. How would you feel? Well, let's just take an example. Say you're a husband and you start cheating on your wife. Should you lose the assurance that you've got a good marriage and that you've got love between you? Of course you should. How foolish it would be to say, I love my wife, she loves me, we have this wonderful relationship and you're committing adultery with another woman. You're playing games with yourself. A Christian is playing games with himself when he has this wonderful assurance and declares all kinds of things, and he's living in sin by neglecting the means of grace or by committing spiritual adultery, by flirting with the world. And so there's a tension here, isn't there? You may be encouraged when you see the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, you'll be conscious of areas where you fall short, but you bring those shortcomings to the Lord Jesus Christ, you ask for forgiveness, you stay in the means, and you will grow in assurance. But if you slip into this mode of not using the means and you just walk in disobedience and distance grows between God and your soul, you're going to lose your assurance. Now, we had a former elder in this church who gave me a phone call about 20 years ago, just as I was leaving for the airport. And he said, I'm in such bad condition. I'm in such bad condition. I can't pray. I can't think. I can't... God is far from me. I'm a reprobate, he said. All hope is gone. Can I come and see you? I said, oh, I'd love to talk to you, but I'm just leaving for the airport. I said, let me just ask you a real quick question. What's your daily devotion time like with the Lord? Are you spending, you know, your 30 minutes or so with the Lord every day? Oh, no, no, he said. I'm so backslidden and the Lord would be so angry. I'd be such a hypocrite to do that. I can't even open the Bible. I said, brother, you forced yourself to open the Bible. You forced yourself to read 10 minutes a day, pray 10 minutes a day, meditate 10 minutes a day. Even if you think the Lord will be angry with you, as soon as I get back next week Tuesday, you come and see me. When I got back on Tuesday, there was a little notice on my chair. No need to see Elder so-and-so. All is well with his soul. It was back in the way of obedience. You see, John says it this way. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. You can't not keep his commandments. You can't live a lifestyle of sin, a practical atheism, and expect to keep your assurance. Number four. Ignorance of satisfying evidences of grace. Ignorance of satisfying evidences of grace. This is a big one for some of you. I'm sure Reverend Van Der Zwak and Reverend Kyvenhoven will agree with me in this. When we talk to some of you who don't have assurance, we say, well, what are you looking for to get assurance? And you don't even know. You really don't know. You don't know what you're looking for. But you see, the Lord has not left us in the dark in his word about what to look for to know whether he's worked in our soul. He's given us a whole list of things in Matthew 5, 3 through 12. He's given us eight marks of grace there. He's given us another eight or nine, I think, in Galatians, what is it, 5, 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit. So you need to just lay those things in front of you. You need to go to prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you. And you need to say, have I been made poor in spirit? Have I been made to mourn over sin? Have I been made to spiritually hunger and thirst after righteousness? Or go to the Galatians 5 passage. Do I know love and joy and peace and self-control? Has God worked some of these things in me to some degree? And if he has, He certainly doesn't do that in the reprobate or in the unsaved. If he has, you certainly don't do it for yourself. The devil certainly doesn't do it in you. There's only one conclusion. It's the Holy Spirit. And therefore, you have evidences that you are a child of God. So don't look for high, high, extraordinary spiritual experiences as proof that you have assurance of faith that you're in Christ, but look for the ordinary marks of grace which our catechism summarizes so beautifully by an experiential acquaintance with your sin and misery, an experiential acquaintance with your only hope for salvation to be in Christ, an experiential acquaintance with a yearning desire to live out of gratitude and holiness to God. If those three things are there, my friend, you are a child of God. And you may rest in what God has done in your soul through Jesus Christ. Number five, the lack of acknowledging what God has done. The lack of acknowledging what God has done. Thomas Brooks has something wonderful to say about this. He says this, Some Christians take the side, listen carefully now, of their old nature, trying to prove that the new nature doesn't exist. And what does he mean by that? Well, he says, let me tell thee, it is thy wisdom and thy duty to remember the command of God that doth prohibit thee from bearing false witness against thy neighbor. The same command enjoins thee not to bear false witness against the work of grace upon thy own heart, against the precious and glorious things that God hath done for thy own soul. How dare you bear false witness against the work of God in your own soul, and keep off assurance from yourself, and keep your own soul in darkness, by your old nature testifying against your new nature? See, what Brooks is saying is, your new nature is your real person. The old nature is the old man that's trying to get back in. But the new nature is the core of who you are. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus. And when you see what God has done in your soul, you're not to deny these things. You're not to despise the day of small things. But you're to examine yourself and say, yes, I don't see as much as I'd like to see, but I do see the root of the matter in me. Praise God, I'm a child of God. Now, Lord, how can I get more assurance? How can I grow in grace? But you're not to say, because I don't see enough of these things, I'm going to let my old nature run rampant over me and say, well, there's not enough, so it's all nothing. That's like a child. One bite out of a cookie throws the whole cookie away. Because there's one bite out of it. You see, too much self-examination will destroy you, and too little self-examination will destroy you. You need to balance here. You need to examine yourself and come to a conclusion by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Yes, if the Lord has worked these marks in me and if he has, you may know you're a child of God and you may ask to grow in assurance and know if those marks are not there. If you haven't ever been made spiritually poor, you haven't hungered a thirst after righteousness, you don't know all these things, you're not a child of God. Don't be satisfied with a perhaps, or a mere, I hope it may one day be so, or I have a little bit of hope once in a while it is so. And don't be satisfied on the other hand with a rash presumption. But listen to Peter, make your calling and your election sure. Amen. Gracious God, please bless this sermon, this introductory sermon that sets the foundation for delving further into this wonderful and precious doctrine of assurance of faith, and use this sermon to greatly instruct those who struggle with this. We look to Thee, Lord, to be the after preacher. make it well, and help us to go to the Bible, and to go in prayer to Thee, and to go to the cross for the ultimate ground of our assurance of faith. Please go with us in future messages in this series, and give that this series may do a great deal to clear up the doubtful state of many. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.