But I trust that if you're taking notes you have everything in front of you and you're ready to go and let's see if we can add to that tonight. If you're just joining us, our current Sunday school series is aimed at helping Christians pursue assurance. And all of us right now are either leaning towards doubt or assurance. And assurance, we've defined, is the God-given awareness that you are saved. That is the God-given awareness that you are saved and doubt is the absence of that awareness. The purpose of this whole series is to find out how we can have this greater experience of assurance and at the same time experience less doubt in our lives. How can we pursue confidence that we are Christians? And how can we know that God has forgiven us? And how can we know that we are his children? And so this is a series for saved people that might have some doubt in their lives. And we spent the first two weeks of this series introducing the ideas of assurance and week one and doubt last week. And during the remainder of these lessons, I kind of want to give you a roadmap to where we're going. But during the remainder of these lessons, we're going to be talking about the pursuit of assurance. And in this pursuit, we're going to be talking about two very important, but very different elements of this pursuit. We're going to look at the sources of assurance and the indicators of assurance and the sources of insurance, the sources of assurance. include God. God is a source of assurance. Another source that we're going to look at next week is the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a source of assurance. And then beyond that, we're going to move on into the the indicators of assurance. And we're going to look at those things and those ways our lives have changed since trusting God and trusting the gospel. So that's where we're going. That's going to be at least four more weeks. I'm not going to say, my work schedule is not going to allow me to be here that long. I can't imagine. But that's where we're going in Sunday school is we're going to look at the sources and then we're going to look at the indicators. And when I say sources of assurance and indicators of assurance, let me just kind of give you an analogy to kind of help. paint the picture of what we're talking about and the difference between a source and an indicator. So picture a vehicle, F-150, black or red, either one, that's fine. Just picture a vehicle in your mind, the design of a car. And in the design of that vehicle, there is a huge, profound difference between the accelerator, which is the gas pedal, and the speedometer, which is the gauge that tells you how fast you're going. I mean, they're related in some ways, but there's a huge difference between the two. And if you want the car to go faster, I think most of us understand, if you want the car to go faster, you push on the accelerator. You put weight on the accelerator and then the car moves. Now, of course, when we do that, the result of putting weight on the accelerator is the speedometer also moves. But we wouldn't, I hope, we wouldn't say the speedometer moving is the ultimate basis or the source of the car moving. That's what, you know, I push here, I see this and I go forward. This speedometer is not what caused you to go forward. It just confirmed, it was an indicator that the source that you applied weight to is working. Tonight, we're gonna talk about the source. Now, if we want more speed, again, it would be ridiculous. It would be just absolutely absurd to move the speedometer needle and to expect the car to go faster. That's not what we do. But here's the point. If we want to get more and stronger assurance, the way we do that is not fiddle with the speedometer, but understand the source. Okay, now get this though. Do you realize fiddling with the speedometer or the indicators is precisely what many Christians do. That's what Christians do. Instead of looking at the source of their assurance, they're focusing on the indicators and they're trying to adjust that. Let me, let me, let me, you're like, ah, you're losing me. I don't want to lose you because think about this. Doubting Christians, Christians who doubt their salvation, Christians who doubt, am I really saved? Am I really forgiven? Christians who, they feel guilty because of their sin. They say, man, I'm still a sinner. Yes. And so what do they try to do? They're like, man, I don't know how God can save me. And I'm wondering. And they're like, can I really be saved? So here's what Christians do. The first thing they do is they try to do more good things. And so by trying to do more good things, they feel worthy of heaven. You know, another thing doubting Christians do, they lack love for other Christians. And they're like, you know, I hear I hear and I read that you're supposed to love each other, and I'm, you know, I'm not, it's too peoply outside, and I'm, you know, I'm an introvert, and I don't love the brethren, but I know I'm saved, and I know I'm supposed to. So, okay, I'm gonna really try hard to love people. I'm gonna really go out of my way, and I'm gonna try to love people, and maybe then I'll know that I'm saved because I'm trying to love people. You know, another thing Christians do when they're doubting is they're not regularly confessing their sins. And they say, man, I know I've heard teaching. I've heard preaching. I read my Bible. If I'm saved, I'm supposed to be confessing my sins. I'm going to have to start confessing my sins. And then I know that I'm a Christian. Now, I hope I hope that you're seeing the problem with all these scenarios. In each one of these cases, what's happening is the person is taking the speedometer needle and moving it. They're taking the indicators of their assurance. Good works, love, confession and acknowledging of sin, awareness of sin. Those are indicators and they're trying to move the needle for assurance and say that those are the sources of their assurance. And that's wrong. They are focusing on the indicators and not the sources. And during this series in Sunday School, eventually, absolutely in about two weeks from now, we are going to be looking at the indicators of your salvation in your life. And they are important. But there is an order to how we pursue assurance. And it does not begin with us. It begins with God. So take your Bibles to the book of Titus. Let's start there this evening, the book of Titus chapter three. Again, this week, we're gonna look at one source, God. Next week, we'll be looking at another source, the gospel, and then we'll get into the indicators. And the thing about the indicators is, and if you're like me, you're sitting in a car, maybe you have some things in the way, dashboard, belly, I don't know, you can't see the gas pedal. I can't see the gas pedal when I'm sitting down. I can feel it, but I can't see it. But I do see the speedometer. And so that's what happens. That's what we base our assurance on. But that's wrong. In Titus chapter 3, we're going to start reading verse number 3. It says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. this is a faithful saying and these things i will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in god might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto man now i wanted to start here uh this evening because there's two things i want us to know just right away verse number five verse number five says not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us but then paul concludes in verse number eight and he says to be careful And he says to be careful to maintain good works So it says not by works, but it says then to be careful for good and maintain good works So what is that saying? And we could we could spend a whole evening here and and I've been tempted to do that But we're not going to but let me just tell you the flow of salvation The flow of salvation is not works to get grace. I think most of us understand it's grace that leads to works and We understand that. That's the flow of salvation. And as goes our salvation, so goes our assurance. It is the exact same in our pursuit for assurance. We put our weight on the accelerator, the source, and we look at who God is and what he has done. Then and only then we look to ourselves the indicators in our lives because of salvation to make sure that we are recipients of that grace of God. That's the order. And that's why we have to do what we're doing in Sunday school and the order that we're doing it. Before we explore indicators of assurance, again, let me say, we need to remind ourselves of the ultimate source of that assurance. So tonight, again, we're going to start that. And the first source is the character of God. And I really think we want to start writing some stuff down if we're taking notes, the character of God, because that's what we want to look at tonight. Now, in the world of science, there is no more prestigious institution than the United Kingdom's Cambridge University. Cambridge University has a lab called Cavendish Laboratory. Cavendish Laboratory is home to more than 200 years of Nobel Prize winning research. At this laboratory, they discovered the electron. at Cambridge University. Not only did they discover the electron, they discovered the neutron there, and at this laboratory, in the last 200 years, they discovered the structure of DNA. Over the last two centuries, there's been 30 Nobel Prize-winning scientists come from Cavendish Laboratory on Cambridge University's campus. It's amazing. As you approach the laboratory, and you go to the front doors, written in Latin on an oak plank above the doors, reads this, and this is beautiful. The works of the Lord are great, sought out by all of them that have pleasure therein. That's Psalm 111, verse two. Now in 1974, Cavendish Laboratory relocated on another part of campus and what happened was is is a new sign was put up above the door and it said the works of the Lord are great sought out by all of them to have pleasure therein except this time was in English because no one could read Latin anymore the point is the point is I was shocked to find out, and if you read the story and you research why did Cambridge University, above the door of the science laboratory, why did they have a Bible verse? And it has to go back to who the lab was named after and his love for scripture and his appreciation for God. And if I'm shocked, And if you're shocked at eminent scientists inciting scripture as their inspiration for work, and if you're thinking at home tonight, that is shocking. It's because as a society, we've lost our sight of how important biblical ideas were to the foundation of Western intellectual life. I mean, our society has forgotten our own history. And that was Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Just think about in the United States. And think about colleges that were started over 300 years ago. Harvard, Yale, Princeton. They were all started on a biblical foundation and a preaching foundation. And to forget our history is to forget who we are and why we're here. And I say all that to say this. No wonder, no wonder when you look around today to even think that that's even allowed on a college campus anywhere, Psalm 111 too. But to think, no wonder remembering is such an important part of Scripture. You could do a Bible study on the word record or record because you can't have a record of something unless you record it. But it's amazing how many times God talks about the record is this, or you need to record that. And why is that? It's because of remembering. And God knows the gravitational pull on human awareness, which draws us toward forgetting. That's just, it's just like, we're just born that way to forget. And God knows that about us. God's people are always in danger of losing their memory, and we looked at that last week in bits and pieces of things that we do remember and things we don't remember, and God knows that about us, and we are in constant danger of forgetting who we are and whose we are. We're in constant danger of that, and God knows that. But get this. How we remember God affects how we live. And assurance is no exception. What we remember about God affects our assurance. So tonight, I wanna remind you three characteristics about God. This is what I would want you to know. This is what I would want you to remember. Number one, number one, first, Remember, God is unchanging. Go to Numbers chapter 23. If you turn to Numbers chapter 23, in verse 19, it's beautiful here. Numbers 23, 19 says, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? And hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Now, Sunday night, hopefully you were tuning in here on the live stream. Preacher mentioned this, that God is unchanging in his message from Hebrews. And he related it to a term that might have been new to a lot of listeners. The term was the immutability of God. Now, when preacher said that, I was greatly impressed. That's a Latin term. I like Latin. And don't start sending me Latin jokes. I won't get them. But what that means is, that means God's quality of not changing. And preacher preached that on Sunday night. And he gave a lot of verses and passages of scripture that we're not going to revisit tonight. But let me tell you this about the immutability of God. There are several basic logical reasons why God must be immutable. And I want to share them with you. Why it is impossible for God to change. You know, there are some things in the Bible that I read and that I hear and I say, I have to really chew on this to understand this. And even then I can just barely scratch the surface of comprehension. But let me just tell you, God's ability to be unchanging, hopefully I can communicate this, it is very basic that everyone can understand. Number one, first, If anything changes, it must do so in some chronological order. There must be a point of time before something changed, and there has to be a point of time after something changed. I think we can all agree in our lives, we've all had a change. And you can pinpoint, this was before the change, whatever the change is, this is when the change happened, and here is after the change. Change happens in chronological order. Therefore, for a change to take place, it must happen within the constraints of time. I think we should all understand that. However, God is eternal and exists outside of the constraints of time. Therefore, God is unchangeable. I think we can all nod our heads at home to that. Let me give you another one, because these are just as basic. The immutability of God is also necessary for his perfection. So hear me out. If anything changes, it must change for the better or for the worse. That's the only reasons in the universe for changes to take place. If it is different but stays the same lateral, that's not a change, because I just said it stays the same. So anything can only change for the better or for the worse. Now let's think about that and let's put that in place of God. For change to take place, either something is needed or something is added. which is a change for the better. And if something is needed that is lost, then that's a change for the worst. But since God is perfect, he doesn't need anything. I think we understand that. And therefore, he cannot change for the better. If God were to lose something, he would no longer be perfect. Therefore, he cannot change for the worse. I mean, see how basic this is when preachers preach this, and we're like, immutability, Latin, what preacher does Latin? Let me give you a third reason. The immutability of God is related to his omniscience. Now, when someone changes his or her mind, they do so when there's new information that has come to light. You know, you're like, well, I didn't think you like Brussels sprouts. Well, I do now when I found out they're healthy. Oh, new information changed your mind. You know, that's how it works. New information came to light. Now I think everyone has already come to this conclusion because God is omniscient. He cannot learn something new that he didn't already know. So he cannot change. See how basic that was? I mean, there's some things when I read in the Bible, like God cannot change. You just think about it for a little bit and you're like, oh yeah. Now let me just address something because I know there's people at home saying, well, what about when the Bible says God changed his mind? When, to be clear, when that happens, what's happening is it must be understood that the circumstances changed or the situation changed, not God. Not God. God is unchangeable. Now, knowing that, this affirms the doctrine of God's immutability. He is unchanging and He is unchangeable. So for God to be the source of our assurance, we need to remember that. I mean, what an amazing, I'm just saying, what an amazing way to start talking about God and remembering about God, knowing He is unchanging. That is one thing we need to remember, because we forget things. So the first thing, God is unchanging. Number two. We need to remember that God is merciful. Look in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter number two, God is merciful. In Ephesians chapter number two, just read four or five verses. We're gonna start reading in verse number four. It says, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us. through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved, through faith, and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Now one of the reasons that Christians lack assurance is their guilt and shame that they experience for their sins. That's a big one. You're like, I'm not supposed to be acting like that, I'm saved. And then you act like that. And then you act like that again. And we feel guilty of our sin and we're ashamed before God. And so what happens is, is then that just kind of allows, if we're not confessing that, it allows the devil to play on it. And if our flesh is just like, well, I thought you were holy. I thought you were one of his. I thought you were a churchgoer. And so then we start to doubt our salvation. And if we forget who he is and what he has done and only look at our works, we only look at our indicators in life, We may question why he would love us. I mean, that's what happens. And then we question if he still does, or if he ever did at all. And we question these things, and this usually happens at night when we're trying to go to sleep. And we're like, well, I thought I did. I thought, didn't I pray? I thought when I was doing good for a while, I was doing, did you hear that? I was doing good, that's what happens, that's what people say. I was doing good for a while, and then I sinned again. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to excuse it, but welcome to humanity. I mean, that's what it is. This is moving the speedometer and ignoring the accelerator. You're looking at your sin life. You're looking at the thing that confirms the speed, and you're not looking at the accelerator. If you are saved, you should know you don't deserve it. You're laying there in bed going, oh, I'm a sinner. I'm a wicked sinner. I don't even deserve it. You don't deserve it. None of us do. You know, that's a good sign. You never deserved it. You forgot God is merciful. You need to remember God is merciful. God's mercy is his willingness to help sinners in their need, even though they don't deserve it. That's mercy. God's willingness to help sinners in their need, even though they don't deserve it. Mercy is God having pity towards sinners who haven't earned it. You didn't earn anything from God. What's our need? Our need is we're declared guilty. We're under God's wrath. That's our need. We have no hope in ourselves to change the situation. Listen to me. There is nothing we can do to change our sinful record. There is nothing we can do to change our sinful record. And there is no way, it is impossible for us to change or make God less holy so that he overlooks it. We can't do that. We want to, we want to believe that, well, God, I've been really busy lately calling people, doing good things. God surely is so busy looking at that that he's forgotten about the other sin that I've done. We can't make God less holy so that he overlooks our record of sin. So how does God show us mercy? Write this down. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That is how God showed us mercy. That's how he showed us mercy. And we need to remember that God is unchanging and God is merciful. And third tonight, let's remember that God is faithful. Take your Bibles to Psalm 89. In Psalm 89, let's just look at the first eight verses there in Psalm 89. It says, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known the faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever and build up my throne to all generations. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord. thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about thee? You know, when we reflect on God's character, we must remember that God is faithful. Again, these are assurances. These are the sources of our assurance. If we can remember that God does not change and that God is merciful and that God is faithful, it will help you. It will help you not doubt if you're His. Now, when we look at the Old Testament and we look at the word faithful in relation to God, it is used to describe him as one where certainty rests. I mean, you know what you're looking for? I mean, if you're doubting, aren't you looking for something certain? Aren't you wanting to rest that mind of yours? It's just going crazy. Am I saved? Am I not saved? I'm filthy. Don't you want rest? Certainty rests on God. That's what faithfulness means in the Old Testament. God and the promises he makes are worthy of our certainty. He is faithful because he can be totally relied on to perform what he promises. Let me just give you some, I think I have three verses. Let me give you three verses from the Old Testament. Write these down if you need to, just read them and cling onto them. Psalm 36, five. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. That's amazing. I love the assurance and comfort that adds. And Psalm 119, 90. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations. thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. And Isaiah 25, 1, O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done wonderful things, thy counsels of old are faithful, our faithfulness and truth. I mean, the Old Testament just rings out of God's certainty and the rest that it provides. Now, you may be asking, what does this, this certainty, what does this have to do with my assurance? The answer is everything. Everything. Listen to this. Write this down. If you're in my Sunday school class, you know this is bolded in a whole different color in my notes. It's that important that I want you to understand this, but we should not have assurance because we feel like we are holding on to God. but because we can know He is holding on to us. That's why we have assurance. Let me say that again because I want you to get a hold of this. We should not have assurance because we feel like we are holding on to God, but because we can know He is holding on to us. That is the faithfulness of God. And what happens is we forget that. That is why we must remember these things. And like I said, God knows that pull on the human mind of forgetfulness, and He wants us to remember. And how can we remember? Well, look in the Bible. Like I said, anytime God says, record this, you know what He's saying? Rehearse these things. Talk about these things. Testify about these things. Talk to each other about these things six feet away. That's what God's saying in the Bible. That's what it means. And we can do that today. So let me review. God is unchanging. The sinful decisions you have made your regrets since you've been saved. They have not changed God's mind about forgiving and adopting you. They haven't changed his mind about that. He's unchanging. I'm not saying there's not consequences, but I'm saying God hasn't changed his mind about your adoption into his family. He can't. He's unchanging. Not only that, remember that God is merciful. If you are struggling with doubt because you don't feel worthy of salvation, you are right. You are not worthy. None of us are. You are unworthy, but God only saves sinners. So you're in luck. Isn't that good? And number three, remember that God is faithful. He never abandons his people. If you are his, He will never abandon you. And you remember those things, you're relying on the accelerator and not the speedometer. You're relying on the source. Now in Exodus chapter 13, if you were to look at Exodus chapter 13, you scroll down to verses 17, from 17 to verses 22, we read about how the Hebrew children followed this pillar of cloud, of fire, and they traveled through this cloud and a fire, and they traveled through the wilderness, and they saw this pillar, and that was their assurance. That's what that was. I mean, sure, it was a good waypoint guide and GPS, absolutely, sure it was, but they looked at it, and they had assurance of God's presence. Today, just like we just did, we can look to the Bible. for assurance of God's presence. We can be reminded of his unchangeable characteristics, his mercy, his faithfulness. We can look through all those things and we could use the word of God to know that God is with us throughout our journey in life, just like it was in Exodus chapter 13. Remembering who God is, is a wonderful source. assurance. And next week we're gonna be looking at another vital source and that's gonna be the gospel. And so we'll just continue that, we'll continue looking at that source and then we'll move on to the indicators that a person will have in his life. Preach it. Thank you, Brother Chris, appreciate the lesson. God is unchanging, God is merciful, and God is faithful, and that is why we can be assured. We can rest in His assurance.