Ephesians chapter 2, as we look at this New Testament letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the assembled saints in the city of Ephesus, and we've come now to the two verses that really give a summarization of the great truths that Paul has been teaching us as we looked at chapter 1 and then chapter 2 down through verse 7. So we come this morning to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. And once again, I say this is something of a summary of all that he said so far. And one of the great, great errors that we make in interpreting the scripture is that we often pull and pluck sections of scripture out of their context. And we need to be reminded that most of the Bible are letters that were written, and the flow of the letter makes perfect sense, and we must interpret it in that flow. And if you just pull some passages out here and there and don't understand the flow of the context, you're going to misinterpret what God is saying. So I can't go back over the 23 or 24 messages we've preached so far, but suffice it to say, perhaps this will mean more to you if you've been with us through the whole study. But I trust it'll be a blessing to all of us who are here today. I've entitled the message Saved by Grace Through Faith. Just what does that mean, saved by grace through faith, Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine. Paul says, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Two major truths jump out at us here that I want us to look at. The first one is that faith is the gift of God. In a moment, we'll look at the great truth on the assurance of salvation, and that is that faith is the assurance of salvation. And I hope to purpose by God's enabling to help us understand that very often and with sincere motives, we have placed emphasis and attention on man's actions and man's movements and man's works in order to be saved and often on man's actions or efforts or works in order to be assured of our salvation. And we're looking in the wrong places. And we need to sort of cut back or peel back the veneer of human thinking here and let the word of God speak to our hearts today. Well, let's look, first of all, that faith is the gift of God. Let me look at that word gift first of all, as we see it there in verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Now that word gift is nothing special, it was a common ordinary word for the common ordinary man in the Greek culture of this day. He would use this word when he was giving a gift to people, or he would use this word when he was bringing a gift to God. But now here's the question, and I'm confident I know the answer, but here's the question. When he says that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What is the gift of God? Is he saying up in verse eight that grace is the gift of God or that faith is the gift of God, or is he saying that both are the gift of God? Well, I think it's even bigger than that. You see the word that in verse eight in the new American standard is one gender and the word faith is another one is feminine. One is neuter, which means they don't naturally connect together. But when he comes to that phrase, the second part of verse eight and says that none of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What he's implying is that all of salvation, the whole of salvation is the gift of God. Now, what is one of the major reasons we believe that? Well, one of the major reasons we believe that is because all that Paul has said when he started, since he started writing this letter over and over and over and over again, Paul says, it's God's work, not man's. It's God's work, not man. Over and over. So now he summarizes it and says, let's get it all in a capsule form. By grace, you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. This whole salvation is not of man. It's of God. It's the working of God. That translation or interpretation, rather, of that text makes the point of the context, which is what I've been talking about, and it continues the flow of the verses so that they flow logically. In other words, he's not redundant when you view it that way, as you look on down in verses nine and verse 10. So he's saying that faith is the gift of God now. The gift of God, that faith is, is a part of the overall work of what we call the new birth or regeneration. When a person is born again or they are regenerate, God births within them a number of things. And one of those things that comes out of that new birth or that regeneration is faith. That is that new capacity to believe that what God says is right. Now, listen, not merely to believe it only in our minds, even though you must believe it in your mind, but you believe it to the point that it it stirs in your emotions. I reject an emotionless religion. True religion, true conversion sure affects the mind, but affects your heart and your feelings also. In other words, when the regeneration of God takes place in a man's heart, he doesn't only know he's a sinner because the Bible says he's a sinner. He feels he's a sinner before God. He doesn't just know in his mind that he rightfully stands into the judgment of God. The Bible says, if you've not believed, you're condemned or judged already. He didn't just know it in his mind. He feels the wrath of God bearing down on him. And when that faith in Christ explodes in the heart and you say, but Jesus hung on the cross and he suffered and bled and died, he took my judgment and my wrath. You don't just nonchalantly intellectually assent to that. You feel the joy and the release and the peace of that new confidence that Christ has taken my sin. So it's the intellect and the emotions that are involved when true regeneration or being born again takes place. And how do we know that this faith has to be a gift and it's not something derived from man's fallen flesh and fallen's nature? And that is, it is not in and of man himself. It is something that God must work in man. Well, let's review real quickly what Paul has already said about man's natural condition. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, he says, And you were dead. It's a present tense continuing action verb. You were being dead. You were in the state of death in your trespasses and sins. So the man that would say, well, God does his part, but then man must do his part, place faith in Christ. That's true in a sense, if at least you're understanding that when man does his part, God enables man to do his part. But if you just say, well, man's pretty good and man can believe, then how can a dead man believe? How can a dead man have faith? How can a dead man make a decision for Christ? And once again, interpret scripture in its context. And then verse five, what does he say there? Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved. While we were dead, while we could not see God, crawl to God, reach for God, desire God, dead men can't do that. In that state, we were made alive. And what happens when that birthing, that new birth, that life comes in a dead man, spiritually dead man? What does he do? He has faith in God. All of a sudden, he's believing things before he just had a shallow intellectual assent about. All of a sudden, he's committing his life to something that before he just had a shallow intellectual assent or understanding about. Something new has happened to him, including a birthing of faith that is a trust and confidence in God and in God's word and chiefly God's provision of salvation, his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you a lot of verses on this, because in evangelical life and in Baptist life in specific, we have just missed this and we've glossed over this and we've we've really come to a man centered works salvation. Evangelical sacramentalism, if you will, in the way we've approached evangelism at times. And I'm standing up to thunder out the message. We must cut off what is not biblical. And leave what is biblical. So if you will, Acts chapter three, verse 16, referring to a man that had been gloriously healed. And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus, which has strengthened this man whom you see and know and the faith which comes through him. Did you see that phrase? This man had faith, but his faith was that faith which comes through him, has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. So where did this man get his faith? It came through Christ. It did not derive out of himself. Now, Philippians chapter one, verse twenty nine. For to you, it has been granted. Now, the word granted there in this text is the same noun that the word grace comes from. For to you, you've been graced, you've been given a grace capacity or you've been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. In God's grace are God granted you that you could believe in him. It didn't come out of you, it was granted to you by God. Now I want to pause here and just make a statement that I think is very important in the context of church history. Why do you think our founding fathers of the Protestant Reformation, Baptists, Presbyterians, and others who teach salvation by grace through faith, why do you think this doctrine of the new birth, and that is that the new birth occurs and out of that experience, faith comes forth, why do you think that's so important? Here's why it's so important, because Roman Catholicism had ruled and dominated Christendom for 1,500 years. And Roman Catholicism said this basic thing. You, man, must do these certain things. And if you will do these certain things, these sacraments, then you can know that you're saved. And if you ask the Roman Catholic leaders, well, what about faith? They'll say, well, that's faith. When you exercise the faith and do these things, then you get into heaven. And they built a giant harlot church, a false church doing that. And so our forefathers who died in order to preach the truth stood up and said, it is not of man. It is not of the church. It is not of right. It is not a ritual. It is of the movement of God through the preaching of the gospel to birth new life in men. And when God births that new life, they know their centers. They repent of sin and they place faith in Jesus Christ. But it all comes from God. It does not derive from man or the church or the priest or the sacraments. That's why they were so passionate about these doctrines. But you know what we're missing today? Are you listening to your pastor? You know what we're missing today? Persecution. These guys had immense persecution, so they had to know that they know that they know that they were right because they were not going to die for error. They were not going to die for some shallow understanding of Scripture. They were not going to die for some shallow, glossy, going through the motions of religion. They had to know what the word said if they were going to die to forsake Roman Catholicism. Now, understand my heart. I'm not attacking Roman Catholics personally. I believe there are many Roman Catholics who trusted Christ and are going to heaven despite what they've been taught. I am attacking the system of theology, but not as a personal attack, but just attacking attacking rather the non-biblical truth that is in their system of theology. Well, look at first Peter one one or rather it'll be on your screen. Simon, Peter, a bond servant, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith. Of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So here we have. Peter explaining that there are others who are truly in the family of God who are truly Christians. who are truly God's children. Why would Peter say, we know you're truly a child of God, because you've received that capacity of faith, just like we have. And Peter says, I'm an apostle, so I know I've got it right now that you have the same faith in you toward Christ that I have. We know we're all of the same family of God. That word received there in first Peter one one can be interpreted to mean obtaining by divine will. Now, if that were the proper meaning in this context, you would say those who have attained by divine will, a faith, a new confidence and a trust in Jesus Christ. Has it not ever, has the glory of conversion not ever stirred you when you see somebody and they're sort of give you a blank stare when you share the gospel with them? Oh, I get a lot of blank stares while I'm preaching. Some of you look like a cast staring at a new gate sometimes, just kind of there. And they're just and they're very nice folks. They're sweet folks. They make good neighbors. They do benevolent things. But spiritual things just don't do much for them. They're just not really interested. And then all of a sudden, one day they come alive in faith. All of a sudden, one day they know they're a sinner. They know they're wretched. They know they're blind and lost and condemned before God. And all of a sudden, they know that Jesus saved them. They know their sins are washed away. They know they're forgiven. There's a peace and a joy there. How do you think that happened? Was there something in man that does that? Absolutely not. The fallen flesh can't do that. It's a reception that comes from God. It is the gift of God. Acts chapter 13, verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Now, that one is painfully clear, is it not? They preach the word and then the interpretation of the leaders of the church was and it's and it's written as inspired in errant scripture. All that believed were those who had been appointed unto eternal life. Those, therefore, that God gave the gift of faith. Now, I want to say something to you, and I always scatter this out throughout my messages when I'm teaching these truths. Folks, you don't know who's appointed unto eternal life. You don't know who God's going to give the gift of faith to. That's not our call. Amen. Our call is to preach to everybody, urge everybody, pray for everybody, plead with everybody, pray with tears for them that they would believe on Christ. But then after they believe, let's teach them the truth. God birthed that faith in your heart. Can you get that balance, church? We have all these paranoid folks running around saying that if you preach the truth, people won't witness. I got a good word for that. That is ridiculous and absurd. It's even heretical. Preach the truth. And the truth is God gives the faith that saves. And the truth is God saves in the preaching and the sharing of the gospel. And I'm going to preach to everybody, share with everybody, urge everybody, beg everybody to come to Christ. But I know only those he gives the gift of faith will be saved. No one's going to be strutting in heaven as if they did something and God owed them a debt to let them in. They'll fall on their faces and say from A to Z, it's grace and a gift, my holy father. Thank you for letting me in heaven. Well, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26 through 31. He's writing to the common folks who make up the church of Corinth. Now, understand there was some high up muckety mucks in the city of Corinth. I like what Adrian Rogers says. He says, if you've got an earned doctorate, you ought to feel blessed that God let you in the kingdom. He doesn't save many like that. That's what the text is saying. But God does say some, but according to this text, not many. He says, for consider your calling. In other words, you didn't get saved till God called you, brethren, that there were not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty and not many noble. He says, look in your church fellowship. There aren't too many of the high muckety mucks of the community in the church. God's not. Now, listen, he didn't say they're not too many because they won't get saved. He's saying they're not too many because God didn't call them to get saved. I don't care what you believe. That's what that text is saying. You can disagree with me, but you cannot violate the flow of what this text is saying. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. In other words, God's chosen those people that the world will say won't amount to nothing to save them and make them the highest of the high in his glorious kingdom, and the rest will be in the lowest of the low, banished from his kingdom. So he chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame those things which are strong and the base things of the world. And the despised God has chosen the things that are not that he might nullify the things that are that no man should boast before God. You know, now listen to me, if in the slightest way I do something that requires God to save me, I jump through the hoop, I pray the prayer, do something. If in the slightest way I am responsible for my conversion, my salvation, then in the slightest way I have something to boast about before God. But I didn't even have the slightest to do with it. It's all the work of God. Look at verse 30 there, that next to last verse, but by his doing, by whose doing, but by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That is just as it is written. Let him who boasts boast in the Lord. Not what I did, not I walked the aisle, not I prayed the prayer, not I went to the morning speech, not I went to the inquiry and none of that. That gives you some room to boast if you're saying, I did that, so God has to save me. But if you're going to boast, you have to boast in the Lord. God saved me. Even the repentance of sin and even the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he did all of that, too. Isn't God good? Just as a reference here. So Paul is saying to the church at Ephesus, for by grace you've been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God didn't come from you, it came from God. So let's get all that understood now. So saving faith, that is, that capacity to place all of our trust and reliance on Christ to save us, that came as a gift from God. But the Bible also teaches that serving faith is a gift from God. That is that after you're saved, the Bible says God blesses us with faith. That means a capacity to trust God's way of serving him and to walk in the spiritual gift he has given us when we serve our brother and sister in our local churches. So even serving faith is a gift from God. Listen to this verse, Romans 12, three. It says God has allotted to each a measure of faith. That's not talking about when they come to Christ for salvation. It's talking about as they serve Christ with their spiritual gifts. God even has to give you the faith that is. Now, listen, if I've got the. the gift of preaching or prophecy or exhortation or teaching, and I've probably got a little of all of those, then what's going to give me the confidence to do it God's way? The faith he's enabled me to do it with. He gives me a gift to proclaim it and teach it and instruct from it, even when Satan and the world works at many different ways to discourage me from doing that. But don't put me on the pedestal. All of you have gifts of service to your church here. And what's going to give you the capacity to take the time and do the work and minister to your brothers and sisters with the gift he's given you? Well, he's allotted each a measure of faith. He's given you a capacity to trust his way and to do it his way and for his glory as you serve one another. So even the faith to serve is a gift from God. And then of the spiritual gifts, one of the spiritual gifts is the gift of faith. And of course, it's a gift. That's why we call them spiritual gifts. That is, in this body of believers right now, there's some who have the gift of prophecy, some teaching, some administration, some help, some service, and some have the gift of faith. What does that mean? I believe this is what it means. It means when things are tough and times are not as good as they ought to be and people are being discouraged, God gives a few in the body that can stand up and say, God's going to get us through this. We can trust God. Let's go on for God, no matter what happens. Don't you like those kind of folks? But even they can't claim anything there. That's just they have a special spiritual gift to trust God when a lot of us are weak in our faith. So all I'm saying is saving faith, serving faith, and even that spiritual gift, which is faith, is all a gift from God. Let's get down to brass tacks, let's get down to where the rubber meets the road and perhaps do some repenting in our own hearts about the way we perhaps have made salvation something other than a grace gift when he gives that faith to trust Christ as Savior. Let me make this statement. Man's flesh, man's lower fallen nature desires desperately to lower faith That means to redefine faith so that he can say that it dwells within his fallen capacity, so that he can say he has that capacity to exercise faith without God doing anything. In other words, he's saying I may be fallen in sin, all men are fallen in sin, but at least I can express faith and be saved. Give me that much, fallen man would say. Give me that much virtue or that much goodness or that much wisdom that at least I can choose Jesus and be saved. So in this process, they seek to redefine faith and make saving faith some sort of practical exercise or practice or activity. Are you hearing me? Man through the ages, therefore, has taken salvation by faith, and almost every group would agree to that statement. But then he takes faith and redefines it, lowers it down to a man centered flesh level, and he makes saving faith into some sort of action, activity or exercise that he can do in his own strength. Now, isn't that what man does? Don't we like it to kind of get our hands on it, get it in our control? Get it within the narrow confines of this gray matter between our ears and get in our understanding. Oh, we're so prone to that. An example, you take our Roman Catholic friends or even our Episcopalian friends. and others who teach sacramentalism, they are sacramentalist. And what does that mean? That means they teach that going through the actions or the ritual of the sacraments of the church is the exercise of faith that saves you. Are you with me? Going through those rites and rituals, those sacraments, that is actually faith, the exercise of faith that saves. For example, the Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments that they say is the exercise of faith which brings salvation. Baptism is one sacrament. You go through baptism that expresses faith and some of salvation comes to you there. Communion is a sacrament. Holy matrimony, of course, administered by the priest is a sacrament of the church. Confirmation is a sacrament of their church. Reconciliation are penance. is a sacrament in the church. The anointing of the sick or extreme unction. Through that process, that exercise, there's faith that expressed and saving grace is administered to the person. Through the holy orders or ordination to the priesthood or some office in the church, they would say that that is a sacrament of the church. Now, let's veer from them. Let's talk about our Church of Christ friends. Our Church of Christ friends, though they would hate for me to say it, they actually do the same thing. I've actually had a church of Christ leader tell me, oh, you're saved by faith, but it is when your faith leads you to baptism that you're actually saved. So what are they trying to do? They're saying it's faith, but we want to put a tangible work, our practice, our exercise, our activity, because that way we can get our hands on it and feel like we've done what we're supposed to do. So whether it's baptism or Lord's Supper in the Church of Christ denomination, or whether it's the sacraments of Roman Catholicism or the Episcopalian church, all of that is simply works. It's just works. It is not salvation by grace through faith. Now, let's come home to where you and I are. Evangelicals through the years now, And badness in specific have been prone to fall into the same grievous error of turning faith into a work. And I'm confident with sincere motives and genuineness of heart, but nevertheless, I think we're prone to do that. And when we as evangelicals, our badness in particular, make faith into a work, we're nothing but sacramentalist. Some of our methods and some of our systems seem very prone to foster this error and some of our methods. And depending upon what said when those methods are taught and administered, they are downright heresy and they should be denounced. One of the things that you often hear when somebody is talking with someone who's struggling with the assurance of salvation is something like this. Did you pray the prayer? Did you meet it? Did you go down front? Did you mean it, etc., etc.? And then that person responds, I did that. You've heard that? Well, I did that. Brothers and sisters, did what? Did what? For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself. You see, the moment that phrase comes back, I did that, you're completely off track with the word of God. The moment that statement comes back, you're if you're not in it, you're tampering at the edge of sacramentalism, some activity or exercise that, quote, gets me saved. We're not looking for what we did or what we did not do. I prayed that prayer. Now, don't misunderstand me. You may have prayed a prayer at the time that you came to faith in Christ, but it was not the work, the activity, the exercise of that prayer that saved you. Are you hearing me? Don't stop encouraging people to pray and call on God, but do not tell them that prayer, that work saved them and go to effort to make sure they understand that it did not. There was a beautiful and wonderful thing to do when you got saved, when you did have true saving faith. And worse than that, it's not that you walk down the aisle. God help us that there are actual evangelical churches that have become so shallow, so careless that they're actually allowing people to think if they walk to the front, God saves them. Folks, I'm not telling you something that's not happening. This is happening. As if God's down at the front, he's not at the back. Now, let me ask you something. What does that smack of what does that sound like? Well, where do you go in the Catholic Church to get the sacrament so you can get saving grace down to the front where the priest is? And by the way, and listen, I'm not here to blast you or condemn you. This is not an altar. These are steps. There's wood under here and there's carpet on top. This is not God's altar. Hey, it's good if God's breaking your heart to come down here and pray, but it'd be just as good if you'd go to the cry room and pray, go to Sunday school room and pray, go to the parking lot and pray. What did a man gloriously say the other day? He left the church and went to his car and prayed and cried for 30 minutes, calling on God to save him. Hey, is he just as saved as the guy who came, quote, to the altar? You see what we're doing? Not intending to. And we become sacramentalist if we're not careful. I'll walk to the front now. How many of y'all, don't raise your hand, but how many of y'all remember the mourner's bench? Nothing wrong with it. They used to have revivals. They'd call people, come down to this morning. If you're mourning over your sinfulness, want to be safe, come down to this bench. Well, nothing's wrong with that as long as you don't imply to people that your exercise or activity of coming down to the bench is part of what saves you. Listen, my friend, if God's dealing with your heart and you feel like you're lost, don't take the time to walk anywhere. Call on Christ. Tell him you're a sinner. Say, save me, Lord Jesus, and he'll save you. Then come down front and tell us about it. Then go to Sunday school and tell somebody about it. It's Jesus that saves. Not Roman Catholic sacraments, and not Episcopalian sacraments, and not Church of Christ sacraments, and not Baptist sacraments. It is Christ that saves. Oh, church, help me, help me share this message. Why do you think we have 16 million Southern Baptists and only 5 million go to church? Because they've walked the aisles and they've prayed prayers, but they're not saved. They've done the Baptist sacrament, but they're not in the kingdom of heaven. It used to be, come to the mourner's bench. It used to be, go to the inquirer's room. And I've had many people tell me this, Brother Jeff, I just walked the aisle and filled out a card. And they told me I was going to heaven. I just filled out the card. Remember those days? Went to the front pew and they filled out the card? Again, trusting, bringing faith down and putting some sort of activity, exercise or work with it and teaching men. Now, you can know you're OK because you did that exercise. You did that activity. And then when they've done that activity and they struggle with their assurance and they ought to struggle with their assurance, if that's what we told them. Can I just give you my personal testimony, I was in my car, we're going to go along this morning, so just strap in and get ready. I'm driving back to college, I didn't know a badness from a wall and there's some similarities between the two. I didn't know anything, I promise you, I didn't know the Old Testament from the New Testament, but I heard the gospel on the radio that night and I just got saved. All I can tell you is I just got saved. I had trust in God, I had faith in God, I knew I was lost in the center, I knew Jesus saved me, I can't explain it, but I didn't pray a prayer. And I went year after year after year struggling and depressed and discouraged because everybody told me, did you pray the prayer? And if you prayed the prayer, did you mean it? And I, for one, am somewhat angry that I had to go through 10 or 12 years of searching and digging and studying to realize that's unbiblical. Yes, I may have prayed a prayer, but that's not what saves. But no one said, Brother Jeff, look at what the word of God says about conversion. Are there the marks of conversion in your heart and your thinking in your life now that were not there before? That's how you know you're saved. Not did you enunciate some certain prayer on your lips. something the flesh can do and something I did not do when I was gloriously converted in my car that night. So we tell folks, well, did you do that activity? And then when I struggle with it, well, did you mean it? And we just dig the ditch deeper and the further you go down that funnel, the harder it is to get back up to the truth. Anyway, all this is works. All this is work, sacramentalism, and it is worthless. And what makes it all the worse, it is sacramentalism and evangelical clothing. And evangelicals are the people who gave their life to break off from sacramentalism. They gave their life to be freed from that and just preach Christ and trust God to save souls. And not give fallen man shallow works to make him think that gets him into heaven. What does it say in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8? Plainly and clearly, it says, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's not of yourself. It's not of your prayer. It's not of walking the aisle. It's not of filling out the card. It's not of going to the mourner's bench. It's not of going to the inquiry room. It's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Romans 4.4. There's a good verse for us to sort of circle the field on now to the one who works his wages reckoned as a favor, not rather reckoned as a favor. But as what is due, in other words, if there was some work you did or you must do to get saved, now listen to me. If there's any and even the tiniest, tiniest thing. If it's of you and you must do it to get into heaven, then it's not grace. God owes you a debt. You did something God owes. That's what you're saying. God owes me a debt. I jumped through God's hoop. Now God owes me heaven. I did what God says. God owes me heaven. God did his part. I did my part. God's in debt to me. I've done my part. I got to get in heaven. That is heresy. That is wrong. God does it all and I get in heaven. That's the teaching of Scripture. Even the faith to trust what His Word says about my sinfulness, my lostness, my wretchedness, that I ought to go to hell, that I'm under judgment. When I come to grasp that and see that and feel it, that's God working. The old timers used to call it conviction. We don't give old folks any time to convict anymore. The moment they get the least anything, we say, run down the aisle, we're going to baptize you. I think we ought to slow it down and say, go get with God somewhere and find it out with God. Until you know you've come to the end of yourself and you've come to faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, Spurgeon hated this stuff, by the way. Spurgeon preached it in the 1850s when the invitation system started. And he hated it. He said, it's not necessarily evil, but he says, I think it's going to be prone to great misuse of the flesh. He said, I see a lot of dangers in it. Now, wasn't he a prophet? And he'd tell people, you don't need to come to me or come to anybody else. He said, you know, an old wounded deer, when it gets wounded, wants to go off and die in its own misery. And I'm going to tell you something. Listen to me. When the gospel is preached and God is moving, God is wounding men and He's wounding women. He's slaying you with guilt and condemnation and judgment. And you're wounded. And listen, what you really need to do is go get with Jesus. Say, I'm a wretched sinner. I'm worthless. I'm condemned. I'm going to hell. Save me, Jesus. And guess what? He will. Are you listening to your pastor? You get saved that way, and all of hell can't talk you out of it. But if somebody tells you, you've got to jump through this hoop, walk here, do this, do that, go there, do that, then you've got something for Satan to mess with you with the whole rest of your life. Did I walk right, go right, believe right, do right, and all that? No, no, no. I was just a wretched, lost, condemned, hell-deserving sinner, and I placed my faith in my precious Lord, and He has saved me. But if you did the least little thing Then God owes you something of a debt. I'm tell you something, God's not in debt to any man. Can I say this to you? It's mysterious. You see, that's your problem, you want to get it in some sort of nutshell, you want to give it five steps, you want to understand it, you want to put it in a little witnessing track, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, b God forbid, we remove the mystery. I don't want to remove the mystery. Jesus didn't remove the mystery. How did Jesus witness to Nicodemus? Nicodemus comes by night and says, I want to get in on this thing, Jesus. I want to know about eternal life, Jesus. Jesus said, Nicodemus, it's mysterious. You've got to be born again to get in the kingdom of God. Well, what? Who's got to jump through to get this born again? He said, Nicodemus, you can't get it like that. It's like the wind. The wind sort of a mystery, the wind blows where it will. You don't know where the wind is coming from. You don't know where it's going. It's mysterious. Folks, there's a mystery here. All we know where to preach and proclaim and urge and beg and witness. If you go out of here and you say, Jeff, no, that's not evangelistic anymore. If God didn't kill you, I will. I'm trying to get us back to true evangelism. With God doing it, we proclaim, we urge, we beg, we pray. We tell them to trust Christ, but we don't tell them to trust prayer, trust walking isles. They trust Christ. Amen. I'm more evangelistic now than ever have been because I'm free from that junk that used to hold me back thinking I was in charge. John MacArthur said something. John MacArthur was preaching at Louisville Seminary. He said something. And man, I believe, I agree with it one thousand percent. He said this. He said sovereignty. It's one of the things that's blessed me the most in the ministry. Here's what he said. If I thought in the slightest way the eternal souls of men was dependent upon me, I would leave the ministry immediately. Because I can't bear that burden. Amen, small group leader. Amen, soul winner. How could you bear that burden? How could you bear that burden? And God help the pastors that are getting in pulpit and beating their people up and saying people are going to hell because you ain't done enough. That's what the cults do. That's what the Mormons do. They're missionaries. Folks, we don't believe that. Amen. We believe a sovereign God's in complete control. We're just thrilled to get in on the process. But there is a mystery. A mystery we can't understand. I tell you, an old songwriter. Now, Satan's whispering in some of yours, well, that ain't Baptist doctrine. Well, first of all, who cares? Secondly, it absolutely is Baptist doctrine. I can give you a room full of Baptist history, Baptist doctrinal books and Baptist church policy manuals that teach these glorious truths. That's why I'm not ashamed to be a Baptist. I'm not like a lot of present day Baptists, but I'm like a lot of the old Baptists. I'm not talking about old time religion 100 years ago, I'm talking about old, old time religion 150 and 200 and 300 years ago. There's a mystery and the old songwriter said it. Listen to what he said. I know not why. God's wondrous grace to me he hath made known. Nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for his own. I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart. I don't know how it's a mystery. Or why believing in his word has brought peace within my heart. I don't know. I know not how the Spirit moves. convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word. We've been saying it for years, creating faith in Him. I know not when my Lord may come at night or noonday fair. I'm just so grateful, folks. Nor if I walk the veil with Him or meet Him in the air. It's not a great expression of the mystery of it all. But to know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I have a passion for my Lord to get all the glory Salvation is of the Lord. He does it all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Even my faith. Sin had left a crimson stain. He's washed it. White as snow. If God has impressed your heart, Maybe when you were a 7-year-old boy or girl or 12-year-old, somebody said, just pray this prayer, and you did it. But you haven't come to brokenness and repentance. You haven't come to lostness. You haven't cried out to God as your only hope through Jesus. Oh, dear friend, don't go to hell trusting some of that stuff we've told you. Come to Christ. Come to Jesus. Come to Christ. Trust Him. Trust Him. Don't trust the sinner's prayer. Don't trust the evangelist's words. Don't trust walking now. Trust Christ. Trust Christ. Now we come to our second point, a new material, and that is that faith is the assurance of salvation. Faith is the assurance of salvation. Now, here's a thought, and I hope this Sinks into your heart and mind, and it does for you what it does for me when I think this thought. We should not seek faith. We should seek Christ. Do not seek faith, seek Christ. You see, when you lower faith down again to some sort of human effort, activity or exercise that you can sort of do. Then then you kind of put the emphasis on seeking faith or seeking that exercise or seeking that activity. That's the wrong direction. Don't look for faith. Look for Christ. Don't lust for faith or quest for faith, quest for Christ. And in our efforts and sincere efforts often to evangelize and quote, bring as many as we can into the family of God, I'm I'm persuaded that I certainly have been guilty and perhaps all of us to some degree of pushing faith, exercise your faith, pray the prayer again, walk the aisle again, whatever it may be. And you're trying to emphasize exercise that faith. Well, we shouldn't be proclaiming Christ, announcing Christ, explaining Christ, extolling Christ, loving Christ, worshiping Christ and challenging people to go to Christ. And not put the emphasis on faith, but put the emphasis more on Christ. Now, when I talk about faith is the assurance of salvation, I'm picking up on that little phrase where he says, by grace, you've been saved two words through faith. Through faith, faith is the evidence, if you will, the manifestation that you are one of God's saved ones. It is what is present that you can sense, feel, and understand that gives you the assurance, I'm one of God's saved ones. I'm one who is in God's family. So the possession of faith is the assurance that God has saved us. Or you could say it this way, in Paul's vernacular, the possession or the presence of faith assures us that we are in Christ. Remember over and over and over again, he began with saying we're chosen in Christ. We were predestined to adoption as sons in Christ that in verse 13 of chapter one, we believed in time and space history in Christ. And then we're already seated in the heavenly places in Christ. It all happens in Christ. Well, how do I know, Pastor, if I'm one of those who's in Christ? Faith will be present in your heart. Faith will come alive in your life and in your heart. And we're going to explore that and look at that. And when that presence of faith is there, you can say that is there because I'm God's child. I'm one of those who is in Christ. I belong to him or that faith wouldn't be there. You put the emphasis on Christ, not on the faith, but when the faith is present, it gives you assurance. How many of us have been to seminars or conferences or heard preachers and I'm guilty of preaching some of this but I won't anymore and that is well If you doubt your salvation do this this and this if you doubt your salvation one guy says if you doubt your salvation Just go nail a stake down It's like nailing a stake down behind the barn and you nail the stake down said look at that devil I've nailed it down. I asked Jesus to save me. It's all over Well, then Satan or the world of the flesh or some other teacher messes with your mind and they say yeah But when you nail the stake down, did you mean it? Are you with me? Did you nail the stake down? Did you understand what everything that you meant when you nailed the stake down? And lo and behold, you grow in the Lord. And all of a sudden you understand more of what repentance is and more of what sin is and more of what saving faith is. And you go back and say, well, I nailed the stake down. I didn't know all that. So how do I know I'm really saved? You see what kind of endless dog chasing his tail thinking that is. And no wonder somebody I believe good Saved faithful children of God struggle because we pastors haven't taught you the whole truth we've come down to Psychological methods to try to give you peace of mind until instead of just telling you what God's Word says Look for the presence of faith. That's my first sub point. I've got three here and that is the presence of faith let's say that there was a blind man and I There's a surgery. I understand there's some surgeries now that can cure at least partial blindness or maybe some forms of blindness. But let's say there's a blind man and there's one surgeon who knows how to do a surgery that can restore his sight, at least partially restore his sight. And this man has never seen. And this man has always wanted to see, obviously, but more than anything, he's always wanted to see his little girls in beautiful dresses. And so this surgeon is a very benevolent surgeon and he arranges for this man to have the surgery. He's not going to charge him anything for the surgery. And just in a gesture of love and mercy, he even buys brand new dresses for that man's little girls. He performs the surgery and the day comes when the bandages will come off the eyes and the dresses the doctor bought are on the little girls and they're in that hospital room or an office visit room there. And all of a sudden the doctor takes the bandages off the eyes and the man, the light comes in. He's able to create an image in his mind to that miracle of sight. And the first thing he sees is those little girls in those dresses. Now, listen to me. His seeing is faith. That's what faith is. He didn't do it. He didn't fix it. He didn't even buy the little dresses for little girls. The surgeon did it all. All he did was just let it happen. But you know what? Him seeing is the assurance that the surgeon did the work. His seeing is not a work. He didn't do it, but it's the assurance the work has been done. Now, can you see that? No pun intended, by the way. But I think that's a great illustration. In fact, I look at it this way. Let's say you've had some sort of catastrophe in your life and maybe an automobile accident and your heart has stopped beating and you have stopped breathing. And someone comes along and clinically or technically you're dead there and they perform artificial respiration on you and they start massaging your chest and they start breathing into your lungs. And after a few minutes, you take that first breath on your own. Well, that breath is faith. You didn't do it. Somebody breathed the breath in you. It's just, but you can say this, that breath I breathe, this life I now have is evidence that he performed the resuscitation on me. That's faith. It's there. We need to biblically understand what it looks like and when we're tempted and when Satan tells us we're not a child of God and when those doubts come, and by the way, children of God can doubt their salvation, regardless of what any evangelist says. When that happens, you can go to the word and look for the evidence of faith that is present in your life to give yourself assurance of salvation. In John 15, 26, Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, he will bear witness of me. So when the saved person lives his life, there is one within him who is bearing witness of the reality of who Jesus Christ is. Now, what does that mean? That means you have placed your confidence in Jesus Christ. You're placing your trust in him. And the only way you could put confidence or trust in Jesus Christ is if the Holy Spirit bore witness within you. So when that confidence or that faith is there, then you can know I'm one of God's because I didn't put that there. Natural man would not have put that there. I don't have the capacity to exercise faith. God had to put that there. First John, chapter five, verse 10, shed some some light on this. The one who believes or has faith in the son of God has the witness in himself. The faith means I have the Holy Spirit in me, which means I'm God's child. But don't make this one building upon the other. Don't say, well, if I believe, then I get the Holy Spirit. No, he's saying you believe because the witness is there. Believing is there because the witness, the Holy Spirit is there, bearing witness that Jesus is who he says he is. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he's not believed in the witness that God is born concerning his son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. So if you're believing, Now, believing doesn't mean shallow intellectual assent, by the way. It means understanding intellectually the truth about Jesus and embracing with your heart and your will the truth about Jesus. And what is that truth? I'm a lost, wicked, depraved, hell-deserving, judgment-deserving sinner. But I place my confidence in Jesus and His death on the cross and He took my judgment there. And that's my total confidence to misjudgment is what Jesus did for me on the cross. I understand that with my mind. I feel it in my heart and my emotions. And as an act of the will, I want to love him, honor him, and serve him the rest of my life. That's believing. That's biblical saving faith. When that is present, how did that get present? What's the last part of that verse? Well, it says there, and the witness is this, what does the Holy Spirit do inside of you? That the life is in his Son. That the Son, trusting in Jesus, brings us eternal life. And when you have faith and confidence in the Son that brings eternal life, that very present, of that faith is assurance of salvation. So faith reveals that the witness of the Holy Spirit is within us and the witness of the Holy Spirit is there creating that faith. So that's what you need to be looking for. Not did I do this? Did I do that? Did I walk this aisle? Did I walk that aisle? Did I mean it? Did I understand it? That again is a sacramental work and that is not biblical. Look for the presence of confidence or trust in Jesus Christ. Now, there are weekdays, folks, and there are days when you wonder if you have faith, and there are days when you wonder if it's all real. I'm talking about over the pattern of time, you look for the presence of that confidence in Jesus Christ. And there should be a time, if you are younger, it may be more difficult to discern, but you should be able to look back and say, somewhere in this season of time. Some of you know the exact day and time, that's wonderful. Many truly say people don't know the exact day and time, and we should not tell them they have to know the exact day and time. It may have happened at an exact time, but the realization and comprehension of it all may not have occurred at the exact time. Even in my own experience, there's a season of time when I was becoming aware of my lostness and my guilt and my condemnation. And I started becoming aware of Christ and that he was my only hope of salvation. And I know during that season time, there was a new change in my life where my confidence, my trust, my loyalty, my honoring of Christ, it became real. That faith was present. So the presence of faith, now there's something else I want us to look at that assures us that we are a child of God. And that's what I call the amen of faith, the amen of faith. Romans, chapter eight, verse 16, is a wonderful and powerful verse of scripture. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now, I have misunderstood this verse my entire Christian life until this week. My whole entire Christian life, I really didn't understand how that worked. And since I didn't understand how that worked, I always chase other things to assure myself of my salvation. Here's what I basically thought that was saying. I thought that was saying the Holy Spirit is witnessing to my spirit, telling my spirit I'm a child of God. That's not really what that saying at all. What that saying is the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit, not to. With my spirit, here's what that means. It means they're both bearing witness together. They're both in agreement together. That's what the Greek word there for bearing witness means it. Now, here's what it means. What the Holy Spirit says, my new reborn spirit says, amen. Are you with me when the when the preachers preaching the word of God and the Holy Spirit takes the truth of the word of God that may be repulsive to the natural man? There's something inside of me that says, amen, that's right. Are you with me? That cold bearing witness, there's something in me that says that's right. And you know what? That's why I bow my head in the church service. Oh, dear God, I repent. I want to get right in that area because there's one inside of me that says the amen to what God says. And that is during your quiet time that starts happening. Have you ever just had your quiet time? Just sort of jumps out at you, just sort of grab. And I'm not talking about every single time. I'm not talking about every time you sit in church. But as a pattern, there's that amen pattern to the truth of God, what God's Holy Spirit says. I just say amen to it. Now, now, don't try to work this up. This just happens. That was placed in you. And it sort of surprises you at times because you say, you know, I used to wouldn't do that. I used to would rebel against that thought. I would resist that teaching. I wouldn't like what he just said. But now there's something in me that says, hey, man, that's right. That's right. It's the amen. And that is affirming to you. That is an assurance to you that you are God's child when that new spirit nature gladly agrees with the Holy Spirit and particularly the Holy Spirit's revelation of Jesus. Let me ask you something. As we have dived into Ephesians, have we not learned riches about God and about his son, Jesus Christ, that we had not thought about before? Haven't we? Amen? As I proclaim those truths, even though it was maybe strange or different than what you'd heard before, this little flesh in a box Jesus that we've sort of defined and we're all comfortable with through the years as we begin to teach about the glories of sovereignty and choosing and predestining and all that Jesus is and all that he does, it kind of stretched our thinking. But something inside of you said, Amen, that's right. I bear witness. That's what God's word says. And I agree with that. That pattern, the amen of the Holy Spirit, is what God has given you to assure you that you're a child of God. Is that not exactly what he says? The Spirit bears witness with, alongside with, together with my spirit to let me know I'm one of God's children. So don't go chase around in your mind, did I pray the prayer? Did I pray it right? Did I mean what I prayed? Did I understand what I prayed? Did I walk the aisle? Satan will kill you with that stuff. Look for these present evidences within your life today, this week, last month, the last six months. So this activity within the heart is the only true assurance of salvation. On the other side of the coin, there are lost church members because they have been taught a shallow doctrine on this, have said the prayer and have walked the aisle and jumped through the hoops and they're good folks and they're in church, but they're trusting in something other than Christ. They're trusting in their faith exercise, which is really just trusting their work, stuff they did. instead of confident trust in Christ. So, in other words, we're not trusting the works of Jewish legalism. Paul was attacking that very thing because that was infecting the Ephesian church. We're not trusting the sacraments of a system like Roman Catholicism or the Episcopalian church. We're not trusting the works faith of the Church of Christ denomination. And we're not trusting the sacraments that have found their way into Baptist and evangelical life. We're trusting Christ and that presence of that abiding faith. First of all, the presence of faith and that amen of faith that's living and working within us. This bearing witness activity is the faith that was given to us as a free gift at regeneration. So the question is, and here we come down to verse 9, is there anything a saved person can claim, or is there anything a saved person can hold to that he did that made him saved? Is there anything a saved person can hold to or claim, I did that, I'm saved? The answer is no. Now, listen, there are a number of things you can say that I do. There are a number of things you can say that I now feel the number of perspectives or values or convictions that you now hold that are evidences that you have been saved. But those things are not the things that got you saved. There's a huge difference between the two. And what we need to be in the business of doing is sitting there with one another and opening the word of God and examining what the biblical text says, saving faith looks like, feels like and acts like and seeking God on our faces. God, is this in my life? And I promise you, God will tell you yes or no. And once you get assurance that way, all of hell won't be able to take it away from you again. We'll look at verse nine, then. Not as a result of work so that no one may boast. That's the point. We are stripped, stripped of all boasting. There is no grounds for boasting when it's all of grace and when the faith whereby we realize our salvation itself is a free gift from God. Here's a couple of cross references for us. Romans chapter four, verses two and three. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Romans 3, 26 and 27. For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law works? No, the law of faith, the birthed faith that comes up in the heart is the new law of how a man gets to heaven. And when that birthing of faith and that presence of faith is there, that can give you assurance that you're heaven bound, you're God's child. So what is the key truth, the key truth? We are saved, listen, not by faith, but by the object of faith. Now, that's something that we have so missed in our churches. Here's what I mean by that. The evangelist preaches, the preacher preaches, come down the aisle and receive Jesus. Now, in effect, what are we saying if we don't explain? In effect, when you say come down the aisle and receive Jesus, what are you saying? If you would do this faith activity, you get in. So where's the emphasis? The emphasis is on the faith or the activity, not on Christ. Folks, we don't get saved by faith, we get saved by Christ. Are you hear me? Faith is the evidence that I am one of Christ. You won't get to heaven and say, Jesus, I'm glad I'm here, I'm so wise, I put faith in you. No, Jesus, I'm glad I'm here. Thank you that you saved me and birthed faith in me to trust you, believe on you, follow you, honor you and trust your word all my living days. We're not saved by faith in the truest sense. Now, in a figure of speech, we can say that it is not heresy, but in the final analysis, we're not saved by faith, we're saved by the object of faith. It is not your faith that saves you is the object of your faith. It is Christ that saves you. And once again, faith assures you of your salvation. Now, perhaps the Roman Catholic Church would have something to boast about, at least in their theological system. They could say, we have these works of faith. We have these sacraments. If you come in, you do these things, the priest administers these things, then you are a candidate for heaven. So perhaps a Roman Catholic hypothetically in their system can say, I have something to boast about. Perhaps the Episcopalian, another sacramentalist could say, we did those things. We walked through those motions. The priest administered the supper, etc, etc. So we have something to boast about. We can get into heaven. The Church of Christ, according to their theological system, would have something to boast about, perhaps, or at least that's what they would conclude. We have done the works that showed we had the faith. Based on that, we get into heaven. But those who are truly saved, and I want to say this, there are a lot of truly saved people in the Roman Catholic Church. I believe there are a lot of truly saved people in the Episcopalian Church. I believe there are a lot of truly saved people in the Church of Christ denomination, despite what they're taught. I believe that a lot of people truly saved in madness churches. And unfortunately, at times, despite what they're taught. And those who are truly saved know that it's not because they've done what God requires, it's because it's all of grace and it's all a free gift. And they know now, listen, they know there is no place for boasting. No place for saying that I am responsible for getting myself to heaven. There will be no boasting before God. Now, the third thing I want us to look at here, and that is understanding what this active abiding faith looks like. OK, Pastor, the presence of faith, if that's there, that means I'm a child of God. The amen of faith, that thing that that comes that's in me, that just amens the truth of God that's there. And I sense that. But what does this abiding faith, this abiding trust in God, what might it look like? How can I examine myself like the Bible says, examine yourselves, test yourself to see if you're in the faith? What would that look like? I want to take a little time and share with you. What one of the Puritan fathers did, this is by Thomas Boston, and he wrote this about himself. He examined himself as a Puritan pastor. You talk about guys that were meticulously committed to the word, the Puritans were, and that's why they're so referenced and loved by Bible believers today. And so here's what I want to do. I want to give you Thomas Boston's Evidences of spiritual life, or you could say evidences of saving faith is in me, saving faith abides in me. And I want you to check yourself out as I check myself out. Now, when I went through this, it gave me joy and assurance. And I think as we go through this together to help give you joy and assurance, number one and first thing Thomas Boston said was he says, I'm seeing and understanding things I could not see and understand before. Think about that. As I look back before my conversion and I think about what did I see and understand about God, and I look back since that time and that gives me assurance that I have saving faith. I'm seeing and understanding things of God that I didn't see and understand before. He has some sub points into that, he says, I now see the darkness of my heart. Do you increasingly, as time goes on and you study the word and you're in the preaching the word, see the darkness and depravity of your old heart? He says, secondly, another sub point, I see my ever present lust to disobey. Are you deeply aware of an ever present lust to disobey God? He said, I see it just it's uglier to me now than it ever was. And Thomas Boston says, and there's a lot of scripture to support these, that's an evidence I'm in the faith. Secondly, he says, I see Christ as precious, lovely and greatest of all, and I would be willing to lose all for him. He's not saying that that was instantaneous there the day he was saved. He's saying, as I'm growing as a Christian, that's what I'm seeing developing in my heart, that Christ is more precious, Christ is more lovely, Christ is more great than I ever imagined. And I'm more willing today than ever to lose all to honor him. Number three, I see my total and desperate need for Christ, I seek for him. Number four. I'm beginning to trust Christ in times of need and trouble. Have you noticed when you're a young Christian and you get in a time of crisis, you quickly run back to the flesh methods of dealing with crisis? But as you grow as a Christian, you begin to run to Jesus and your trust in him and the crisis is greater than it was before. That's an evidence here in the faith, according to Thomas Boston. Well, I like this one here. A fifth evidence, he says, is the spirit helps me in prayer. I start my prayer cold, but I end with life, joy and peace. Has that ever happened to you? Just gets warmed up as I have that time. He said that's an evidence saving faith is in me. I'm a child of God. Number six, the sixth thing he says, my sins are a burden to me. I loathe them. They make me sick. The longer I know the Lord, the more I loathe my sinfulness. Number seven, there is kindled a flame of love for Christ within me. Number eight. I have a love for his word that I did not have before. Even his commands that my flesh resist, I love. Does that ring a bell to you? The things in the word that my flesh repels, but there's a part of me that loves it. Because I love my Lord. I love the people of God, those who truly know him and honor him. I rejoice when the work of God thrives, does it bless your heart? God's been saving meeting and senior adult men here real regularly, something I don't know that we've ever seen like this before. Does that bless your heart? Rejoice when I see God doing those kind of works. Eleven, I love the ordinances of the church. I love the beauty and the glory of baptism and what it shows forth, and I love the beauty and the sweetness and the oneness of the Lord's Supper, the communion we take together. Number 12. I deeply desire to be clothed in his righteousness and stripped of my own. There's a part of me that yearns, God, when will I get rid of this flesh package and have my new body that won't have any desire, passion to sin and rebel? Thirteen. During times of trial and hardship, I am blessed in drawing especially close to Christ. I find that when it's a really tough situation, somehow I get closer to Jesus and the pain of that situation actually can be a blessing because of his nearness. He said that's evidence that I'm a child of God, I'm in the faith. Fourteen. There is a sickening in my spirit. And a righteous hatred of those who are hypocrites and give fiend obedience to God. It sickens me to see those who don't love God, but act like they do. He said, that's an evidence I'm a true child of God. Number 15, I know Christ better today than I did before. He's just saying overall growth is an evidence that you're in the faith. Number 16, I love Christ more than before. Seventeen, I have grown in faith, I trust him more than I did before. Eighteen, I am more watchful over my heart than I was before. Nineteen, I have more contempt for the world than I did before. I think that means before conversion, but also as a growth pattern, you're seeing that increase in your life. And then 20, I realize my inadequacy and my need of Christ as my Lord and God more than before. Now, if you came to me and said, Pastor, I'm struggling with whether or not I'm saved, that's what we'll go over. Plus, we'll look in depth at the words. I'm not going to take you to the circus of works. I'm going to take you to the word of God and examine, is that there and is it growing and is it real? So instead of us believing that we've done the proper work or we've done the proper ritual or we've gone through the proper motions, which again, listen, if that is true. If to any extent, again, you did something that completed the deal, completed the contract, as some might say. And you're trusting that for salvation, then to some extent, God is in debt to you. God owes you salvation because he made up the contract. He did his part. You did your part. If that's your thinking, then in some sense, God is in debt to us. But if not. And we just simply say there is a new thing inside of me is called faith. It abides in me. The amen is there. The fruit and the evidence is there. And it's all of grace and it's all the gift of God. And we are debtors to God and we are debtors to God's love toward us. Do you remember Robert Robinson? He lived in 1735 and died in 1790. And you should remember him because you're in debt to him. Robert Robinson was a teenage thug in the streets of London. He ran with a gang in London and rebelled and was always in crime and in trouble. And one night an evangelist was in town and he and his gang went to the evangelistic campaign just to scoff and deride the evangelist. You know who the evangelist was? The great George Whitefield. The man that literally shook two continents, preaching these very doctrines, the doctrines of grace, evangelizing those continents. And God was giving great fruit to his work. Well, Robert Robinson went to that evangelistic meeting and instead of scoffing and deriding Whitefield, he was gloriously converted and became a pastor himself. A bad this pastor. And wrote a hymn. That hymns called, come thou fount of every blessing. Remember that hymn? Here I raise mine Ebenezer, that's a monument to the gift of God or to the glory and work of God. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I am come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Here it is, Jesus sought me when a stranger. Wondering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood. Jesus sought me when? After I believed? No, he sought me when a stranger. See, these doctrines are not new and they're not new to Baptists. They're old and they're Baptists. Then he says it in verse three, Oh, to grace, how great a debtor! Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wondering heart to thee." Robinson is saying, I myself will wonder and leave, but God, you take the goodness that you have told me and bind me to you. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. That's the way we are in our flesh, even if we're saved. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts. Above faith is the assurance of salvation. Are you aware of the presence of faith in your life? Have you experienced the amen of faith in your life? Have you understood what active abiding faith looks like and you've identified it present in your life? If not, here's my advice to you. Get along with God. Get on your face and say, God, I want to know I'm your child. God, I want to know I'm saved. God, I want to know I'm born again. And God, I'm not leaving until you give me that assurance. Because if I can talk you into some sort of mental gymnastics and all this stuff in your mind, then somebody wiser or craftier can talk you out of it. But when God does it in your heart, you're sealed forever and ever and ever. The preceding message comes from the Expository Preaching Ministry of Senior Pastor Teacher, Dr. Jeff Knoblett. For more information or other materials that are available, contact Anchored in Truth Ministries at www.anchoredintruth.org or call us toll free at 1-800-565-PRAY