Great Doctrines of Salvation
Courtney Hemenway · Mar 21, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926158113938

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are on chapter 7 of Mark Bank's Basic Doctrines of Salvation. And we should be on chapter 7. Does everybody have sheets for that? I was afraid to say that. I do not know where the extras. There were a whole bunch of extras. I don't know if they got put in the back somewhere. Phil's been doing all the remodeling.

So, yeah, I do not like one. Oh, yeah. You don't do that. Go and make some copies. All right. Thank you. All right, question one. I would encourage you to read the material. There's a whole week in between, and so like three or four pages usually per chapter. So I encourage you to read them. There's some good topics, good things, interesting thoughts in there.

One that we'll touch on a little bit here, whether you agree or disagree with some of the things he says in there, on a whole it's very good information, and on these basic topics of salvation. So, the first one, question one, chapter seven, assurance. What does assurance mean? Yes. Anybody? that we're eternally safe and safe. Good. That's Mark Fink's actual definition. Any others? Sure. As in school, they would never allow me to define the term with the term.

So Webster's has assurance defined as pledge, number one, insurance, not assurance, insurance, Third is security and self-confidence. Which of these are good definitions and which are bad, according to the Christian definition of assurance? What would be a bad one, or incorrect, let's put it that way, of Webster's? Pledge, insurance, security, self-confidence. Thank you. Self-confidence. If you have self-confidence, that's the worst. Anything of yourself is not what you want to do.

So, Marchbanks defines it as to know that we are saved and safe eternally. Others have defined it as confidence in what we know based on scriptures. I like that definition too. So, confidence based on what we know in the scriptures. The Greek word for assurance is plerophoria, which means perfect certitude, full conviction, or complete understanding. So, any of those I think are pretty good ones. Assurance basically is just, now I've just told Monique, being assured. You know, it's that confidence.

I like to want confidence in knowing what the scriptures say. Do you have that? We'll go through this and I'll get to some questions that I've had to ask myself and the change in my assurance over the years. Anybody else need the lessons that you need to respect? Or do you have a question? Do you need it? Alright, next question. What proof do we have that our justification is perfect and complete? How do we know? What is the proof that our justification is perfect and complete? Because that's part of this assurance. I don't know where the rest of them went. Upstairs, all of the stacks. So, what proof do we have?

Usually there's two things. Easy. The Bible. The Word. And? The Holy Spirit. Those are the two. Between the Word and the Holy Spirit, those are the two proofs that we have that our justification is complete. And what is justification? Confidence. Righteousness. Yeah. Say it a little louder. That confidence in your voice. Everybody is so confident. Righteous standing before God. Righteous standing before God. I'll get a couple verses. I'll go through a couple of these. We have a lot of verses to go through today, so I'll go through some.

John 1.29. Again, I'm looking at it as God's work to take away the sins of the world and to declare us righteous based upon His work. That's our justification.

So if we look at John 1.29, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who, what, takes away the sin of the world. So this is John declaring about Christ that he would take away the sins of the world.

And then in Ephesians 1.7, it says, In him we have redemption. through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us." So Christ came, we are told to take away the sins of the world, and then in him we have redemption through his blood. Titus 3, 4, and 7. But when the kindness of our God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us.

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

These scriptures go to what? That it was Christ's work on the cross. What did he do? He took away the sins of the world. And that's one of those things that I always get back to when we touch upon this in the identification class. Are all the sins paid for? We always use the guy across the street. That poor guy, he's been using so many things. Okay, the guy across this way, in a brown house over here. Are his sins paid for? Their sins paid for? So what's the deal? Are they saved?

Go ahead. You don't have to whisper to me. That's chicken. Telling my meat to say that. I see that chicken maneuver. Come on. You can speak up. You have to believe it. You have to believe what? That he died for you and that your sins are forgiven. Right. Because the only question remaining right now, and this is what I get to, it's kind of everybody worries about the sins, all these different things. That's taken care of.

There's only one question that remains right now. Sin issue has been taken care of. So there's only one question left, and that is, do you believe Jesus was the Son of God who came to the earth, fully man, fully God, died on the cross, paid for your sins, was resurrected, that God was satisfied with the payment, and do you believe that? That's the only question remaining right now. There isn't about your sins or anything like that? There's no other question. They've been paid for. The only question that remains is, what about Christ?

Do you believe? That's the only question. All these other peripheral things are in the way. That's the only question that will take you from eternal, with God as your eternal judge, or God as your loving Father, and our intimacy with Christ living in Him. The only question that remains is, who is Christ? And do you believe it?

Simple. We make it all complicated. That's the only question that remains for all humans. That's it. So, when we look at these verses, it says he's taken away the sins of the world, we have redemption in through His blood, He saved us. So, the scripture is very complete in telling us about, that we have proof, that we have justification. It's perfect and complete. He did everything. And we'll get into some more verses on that, about what our role is in this, and what His is in our life, and our life in Christ.

Okay, third question. What is the assurance of salvation not based on? Marchbank had some really good things in here. What is it not based on? Us. Us? What other things? Our work. Works? What else? What is it not based on? Experience. Experience? Yep. What else? our faithfulness. What else? Do you guys have the Lesson 7? Yes. Okay. Yeah, Marsh Bay, well, any other thoughts? I mean, what is it not based on? Okay, emotions, we heard, our works, faith. Yeah, it's not based on emotions. It's not based on feelings. It's not based on visions or experiences.

A lot of people do that. I remember early on, if Christ was just sitting in the front pew today, everybody would be changed. Yeah, probably for that day. Think of all the disciples. Think of the apostles even. They were with him 24-7 for all the years of his ministry.

How did they do? Not so good at the time. I mean, you know, our famous man, Peter, you know, three times, you know, denied him. So, you know, it's not based on feelings, not based on visions. Even if Christ, I think, returned, sat in this class, right, you would be changed for the day. Maybe a couple of days. After it's gone, three days, five days a week, a year, whatever. we'd be right back in the same thing.

So it's not based on feelings, emotions, or experiences. Mark Marchbanks puts it this way, it is not to hope that we are saved. It is not to pray that we shall at last be saved. It is to know that we are here and now saved by God's grace, apart from any supposed merit on our side, or any present or future faithfulness on our part.

I think that's great. If it relies on us, will it fail? Absolutely. It will fail. This also goes into, if you who have been in our grace class, what is the definition of grace? Unmerited blessings. Unmerited and unlimited blessings. Unwarranted. Unmerited, unwarranted. Blessings based on the finished work of Christ on the cross. And so the unmerited part, it's nothing that we do. Nothing.

And the more you realize this, how many times, and I look back at my own life, for a lot before I got into the understanding of the identification truths, again I've brought this up many times, I'm a type A-er. I'll go out and slay the world. I will go out and you give me a task, it's done. I'll do six things at a time. I'm multitasking, I can do it.

And I always thought doing stuff, that God would just be a little happier with me if I did X. I taught. I built a church. If I was an elder, if I was whatever, that God would smile a little bit more on me because I did those things. 20 plus years of doing that. Again, that's why I have the flat forehead from hitting the wall. God didn't, it didn't make any difference as far as His approval of me by anything that I did.

My assurance, you know, and I'm getting a little bit ahead of what I wanted to get on the question, but this may be a point. And I want to see an honest raise of hands here. This is an official vote count. And how many, how many, either early on, middle, or even recently, have doubted their salvation.

Have you ever done that? I mean, seriously. We'll get into it a little bit. I remember, and have you ever had this experience? And this is where you have the doubt. I remember early on in my Christian life, and my wife being a believer and all that, I've come home, and she's supposed to be there, and she wasn't. Have you ever had that thought? I mean, I've been left behind. Have you ever had that? Anybody? Raise your hand. Anybody have that?

I mean, it's a really weird thought. And it's a bad thought. And I remember, I mean, there are days where, yeah, I mean, she was supposed to be home, or I was downstairs, and she had to take off for some reason. I come up, and there's nobody there. You know, there's that momentary flash of, uh-oh. I've had a lot of those early on in my Christian life.

And we'll get into it. Since identification truths, I have no doubt, never have, won't ever have it again, based on the things we'll touch on at the end. But it's a real thing, this assurance. And as we get into some of the later verses and some of the identification, you should have that assurance, without a doubt, ever again. and we'll touch on that because the assurance involves a lot of it about how we believe, what we believe, when, you know.

If I'm not assured of these things, if I only can trust this much and I don't trust this, when am I going to start doubting all the other stuff? Isn't it when you say I'm never not going to have assurance again, isn't that kind of like a vow that you can't really make?

It's not a vow. It's just an understanding, I think. We'll touch on it when we get a little bit later. It's not a vow. It's just a total understanding where identification comes in. And we'll touch on that towards the end of this. And it's not a vow. It's just there's never going to be a doubt anymore because of what I know in identification. It just can't happen. So we'll get into that. And hopefully, I'll get into it. I really have never sensed that, and I can't even envision a scenario where I would doubt it again, because of what identification means.

Mark Banks also goes on to say, many, for example, believe that the Lord's keeping power depends on their own faithfulness to the Lord. Such a view makes salvation to be a result of human merit rather than God's grace and plainly contradicts such statements of the scriptures as Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. And if we look at that, it 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, that no one should boast.

Again, if you look at the scriptures, it is replete with assurances for us. If you look up 2 Timothy 1, 12 and 13, For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. And then Philippians 1, Six, for I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Again, confidence, convinced.

When you understand what Christ has done and your part in this, that there's nothing that you can do. It's all on Him. You can rest in that fact. And it's not anything that we warrant or merit in this, it's all done by Him. Doesn't that take a lot of burden off you? I love that part of that. When you really understand that, that it's nothing of you, all the burden is gone. You just have to believe that that is true and understand the Scriptures. If that is truth, you don't have to worry about it.

If we know what assurance is not based on, how may we know that we have eternal life And what is such assurance based on? So, we know it's not based on emotions, feelings, anything that we do. So what is it based on that we know we have eternal life? And what is the assurance based on?

Believing God's Word. Exactly. It's simply believing God's Word. It's to believe the record that God gave of His Son. That record is given in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4 and reinforced in 1 Thessalonians 1, 5. So we'll look up those. 1 Corinthians 15, 3 I think is one of the simplest gospel messages in a nutshell. For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Basically, that's the gospel message right there. Do you believe that? And then in 1 Thessalonians 1 5.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with what? With full conviction or assurance. What did we say at the beginning? What were the things that we needed for this? The Holy Spirit and the word? It's reinforced by scripture. It's through the conviction, through the Holy Spirit, and the Word. Again, it's based on the conviction by the Holy Spirit. It's not what we do or anything, the emotions, the feelings. It's what the Holy Spirit, through the Word, gives us that conviction or full assurance.

Rest in that. Relax in that. And I said we'll get into it a little bit more. As you understand the identification truths, I really think, at least for me, that was one of those ones that just absolutely changed the way I have my assurance. Well, and now we've given it away here.

Holy Spirit, okay? If we look up Romans 8, 16, and 17, it's not just me telling you that, or Mark Banks, Romans 8, 16, and 17, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we what? Are children of God. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. So the Spirit himself is the one who bears witness that we are children of God. So it's the Holy Spirit working in us that will convince us, convict us, give us that assurance that we are children of God, or many of the other scriptures, that we are in him. Everybody on it? OK. Questions? Pretty straightforward on this lesson. OK, I need somebody to look up Hebrews 12. Let's do 9 through 12. Somebody want to do that? Who wants to do that? Bruce? You got that one.

Proverbs 4.18.

And then who wants to do Proverbs 4.18? I'm going to call on somebody. Calvin, you want to do that one? Yeah.

Proverbs 4.18. And then we'll also look up John 1, 12, and 13. Steve, you want to do that one? Yeah. And then Chris, you want to do 2 Corinthians 5, 17? Yeah. OK. So how do these verses help us understand God's method of assuring us of our position? So we're looking at our position. So Hebrews 9 through 12. Which chapter? What's that? Which chapter?

2. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels to the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor That he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone For it was fitting for him for whom are for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings and for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one.

For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. There are a lot of things in here about him doing the work. And then also what that puts us in the position. For he both, in verse 11, for we both who sanctifies and those who are sanctified, us, are what? All from one Father, for which he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So those who are sanctified, which are us, are all from one Father.

How does that work? Miraculously. Mystically. Are we all from one Father? Yes. How? Positionally, we're all in Adam, and then we're in Christ. Yep. New man. New creature in Christ. So, that's the identification part of this. Through the identification, we are all of one family now. In Christ. That's where all from one Father. Okay, Proverbs 4, 18.

But the path of righteousness is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. So, the full day. This is also translated as perfect day or when we step into eternity. So, we are there until the full day. which is when we step into eternity. So our position is we are here, but we will eventually step into eternity in being all one from the Father, and the full day, again, is the perfect day when we will see Him face-to-face, basically, as stepping into eternity. All right, John 1, 12-13.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children. nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." So again, children of God. Do you believe you're children of God? That's where the assurance is. If you are a child of God, you have that assurance.

And it's those who believe in His name who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So, our family lineage now, as Bruce said, is out of Adam and we're in a new family. And this is where I'm getting to on the identification. That is the key to my assurance, is which family I'm in and where I'm positionally at right now. And that's where we're born, not of blood, not of flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. We're born of God now. And what confidence that gives us.

And I'll touch on that as we get down here a little bit. But that's where I can Sorry, I don't have doubts now. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone in Christ, he is a new creature. Behold, things pass away. Behold, new things have come. This is one of the keys in, I think, the identification.

This is where, again, Holly, where the confidence, I'm a new creature in Christ. Through the identification, if we look at Romans 6 and our co-crucifixion and our placement in Him, If I'm in Him, is He ever going to die? Is He ever going to change? Is anything going to change in that position?

I'm a new creature. In the Greek, it's new in kind, new in quality. It's not just a refurbished old man. It's a brand new creature. And that new creature, when you look at it, it's in Christ. When you look through Ephesians, through all the epistles of Paul, I'm in Him. So if I'm in him, if I've died positionally on the cross, I'm dead. My new creature is in Christ. Everything that's true about Christ is now true about me, except for deity. I believe that.

So how does that ever change? How can I ever lose that? How can I ever change that? How does Christ ever change? And so now I realize I'm a new creature in Christ. I can't get out of that position. And we'll get to one of my anchor verses when I was a new believer.

And I used that when I suddenly wasn't at home. I left behind or I just, you know, there'd be challenges and doubts and temptations and I would doubt it. I had a verse that I'd go to. And that was my kind of, oh, when I have that doubt, I'd run over here and I'd go, oh, oh, oh.

I don't have that anymore because I'm a new creature in Christ. I really don't. And that's what I say. It's not a vow. It's just an understanding that my old man is dead. I can't creep back into that dead body again. And if I truly believe that, there's no way I can get back there. I'd have to go up on the cross, go around, go back down.

And if I'm in Christ, there's never a change in Christ. And if I'm in him, And I just ask you guys to go through the scriptures and just, if you have a computer program, it's really easy, just do In Him, In Christ and see all the promises that are true about you in Christ. Now that you are a new creature in Christ, it's amazing what you have in Him. I'm thinking of it that you can be assured that that's what Jesus did and you have salvation, but it seems like you can't say I'm always gonna have faith because maybe God will use not having faith for good. Yeah, this is just about assurance of my position. Okay. I like faith in a lot of things. Yeah. Oh, it's not that... It's not saying, oh, you're good now. No, no, no, no. No, no, that's a great point.

This is just about my salvation. My assurance in salvation. I just, I can't envision anything that would that would take me out. I know, but as far as that goes, I've just never ever since this, I've never ever had a thought. I also, what gives me a lot of confidence is I'm understanding that God is sovereignly in control of things. And when you tie all these things together, God is sovereignly in control of things. One of my isms, He never says oops. Oh, I missed that. I'm sorry, Courtney. Never.

So if I believe he's sovereignly in control, if anything comes my way, he allowed it. And as I've said this many times, you know, ministries, I'm on the board of directors of the camp, and they occasionally bring up, you know, Satan's challenging me. Oh, Satan's challenging me. And I always get that, and I think I've told you, you know, challenging the ministry, and say, well, you know, one, we talk about, is Satan omnipresent? So like I said, we've talked about this several times, if Satan's really on your case today, you're special. Because you're the only person in the whole world where he's on it and you're being challenged. So number one, that is Satan really doing. But the bigger point is, I always ask the people, who allowed that? Who allowed Satan to work on somebody? We do. No, who allowed it? God did.

When you defeat a foe, what do you do? You put them to work for you. Strange as that sounds, Satan is used for God's purposes now. Does that mean your enemy works for you? Yeah. If you capture a country, what do you do? You put them to work. They work for you now. Slaves. Slaves, basically. Or they're under your control now. Not anymore. Let's get out a comment of the politics of today. But no, you actually put up a work for you, basically. And that's really what Satan's a defeated foe. He's defeated. So now God allows, I mean, he allows him to work, you know, in his purpose, for his purposes.

Strange that sound, but so he's in control of all things. So I have one thing I keep saying, if anything happens, if you tie all of it together, that he's in control, if in the scriptures where, is there anything that can separate us from the love of God? No. So, and that's why I always commit, and I'm horrible at memorizing verses, but my one that I've always, and for some reason God has just allowed me to do this, is James 1.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Doesn't that boggle your mind? Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

What? You're crazy. But if God's in control, He loves you the same today, tomorrow, and forever. His grace is unlimited poured out on you. In trials you can consider it joy because God is working in your life. God is doing something for a purpose. So no matter what happens, in blessings and in trials, you know God's love is never changing.

So that and with the identification truths, I have the peace, that's the other one, peace that surpasses all understanding, the rest that he promises, all those things. So, you know, when you start really digging into all the scriptures, identification of truth is number one. And then you start looking into grace and all the things that fit together. God's in control, you know, and I just rest in that fact. And so I, you know, my assurance is based on not only you know, the identification, but all the scriptures that you look at and the faith in that. And as I say, I blow a lot of things in faith. And God works on those.

And He'll work on me until I step into eternity, you know, about those areas where I don't have faith, or I don't believe His Word in my heart. So, yeah, I mean, it's... I don't envision, but I've never had a case, or I can't envision a case about doubting my salvation. I'll screw up faith on other things he said, and I don't believe it, or I think I believe it, but then God tests me, and it's like, nope, you're not there, so. But you know, God wills things to happen, right? He wills things to happen. Yeah, He's in control. Right, and some things are so horrible, you kind of say, my gosh, what's happening here? I question that often. You know, and I saw on the news the other day, Franklin Graham and discussing Haiti. How do you tell somebody a loving God and Haiti? How do you say what went on in Haiti or name your disaster? What would you say?

I want to hear some thoughts. Well, this is definitely a left-hand turn and an assurance, but just... It sounds lame, but I think it would say it's God's plan. It's all part of the plan, but that isn't very compassionate to someone who's suffering. Any others? Well, it's nature. Sin is death and destruction. I mean, it's a dying world. And that's a thing that he's going to use as in the all things. using death and destruction.

Others? I mean, you know, he asked Franklin Graham in his interview, and it was kind of like, he didn't quite have any thoughts. He just said Jesus loves you. Yeah, basically, yeah. He didn't really have a good answer. Any other thoughts? I mean, how would you answer that question? Come on, some of you guys on the stage. I mean, things happen in the fallen world. Yeah, it's a dying world. other thoughts. How would you answer that?

Because, I mean, we as believers, you know, when people, you know, talk about Haiti, how do you have a loving God do that? Well, when you make that statement, it makes it sound like God, we deserve to be treated that way. We don't, we deserve damnation. So for God, that the world is how it is, I mean, it's gracious that we have every day. So the way the statement the question to ask, it's almost like we deserve God to be loving and kind to us.

And He doesn't have to. Yeah, oh, no, you're right. Yeah, I see, I see your point. You know, I guess the thing is that I always just go back to He's sovereignly in control and using it for His purposes. And I don't understand why He does those things. I don't understand. But I rest in the fact that he's in control. And that he's using it for his purposes. I can't tell you why, but I know he allowed it. And I have full confidence in his purposes.

You know, if you look back, and I always go back to Job and the discussions with Job and God, and where he goes, you know, Job is kind of, And God says, OK, where were you when I created the world? Where were you when I did this? Where were you? What would you do?

And that was the Great Bridge version of what went on. And it really puts you in a very short section in Job, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's really putting it in perspective where we don't understand all of God's purposes. We are very finite. He is infinite. And we don't understand those things. And his purposes.

I can't tell you, and I tell people, I don't understand, but I know there's a purpose in there. You know, several of the thousands that lost, maybe there'll be millions that come to know him and be comforted by the peace. I don't know. And I fully say, I confess I don't know, but I know that he is in control of that and that he still You're using, however, time as a perspective.

I mean, we can look at Chile, we can look at Thailand, we can look at San Francisco, but why not step back and look at Egypt, Greece, Rome, all of these empires fell because they became self-reliant instead, depending on God. And, like I said, I don't know the reasons, you know, what were the specifics of Haiti, Chile, you know, whatever. I mean, the earthquakes in California, anything. You know, people die.

I don't understand why he chose that. All I know is that he's in control. And I rest in that fact. I have that peace that surpasses all understanding, knowing that he's in control. He is sovereignly in control. He didn't even smite Joe. He allowed it, but he didn't take his hand and go, I'm going to kill you, or I'm going to torture you. That's not what God does. No, he allowed it. He allowed it. It's not him going, I'm going to play with you. You know, that's as we get into this, you know, and I've talked about this. I've worked it out on my own, you know.

Is God just waiting there with a stick sometimes? You feel that he's just going to bop you one? If you step out and do something wrong, is God just going to bop you with a stick? You know, if I don't do it, bam! A lot of times I feel that way, but I realize that's the dumbest thing I ever can think of.

God loves me. God will do everything in his powers to draw me to him in love. Look at those verses. Are we ever separated from his love? No. There's nothing. Read the whole list. What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. So, and then when I think of, you know, I guess my point is that it's not predicated on us. And if I do something, God's just going to, well, that means it's related to me and what I have to do. It shouldn't be based on us. Nothing. It's unmerited. Because if it relied on us to do anything, then it wouldn't be grace. And it wouldn't be of Him. So, I mean, whether the people were bad or, you know, Job, if he did something wrong or whatever, you know, he knew Job. And he allowed Satan to go through it to a degree. And what, at the end, he realized who God was and relied on Him.

Exactly. See, when you start building all this, when you really start building the foundation from identification on through grace and all this, it fits. It's not based on anything we do. And grace is not based on anything we do. And if it was, it's horrible failure. And rest in that fact. Like I said, the peace, the rest, all those things come from knowing that. It's not up to you. It's up to Him. We have to believe it. That's the only thing we have is to believe. And is that any meritorious act? No. It's nothing. It's no work. Just believe. All right.

Got off on the very left-hand tangent on that one. What are we on? Question six? We have a couple minutes to finish that one. What then causes the lack of assurance on part of many believers? But what is that process? Doubt. Unconfessed sin. What? Unconfessed sin.

You know, that's one of the ones that was kind of an interesting one in the notes that he brought up. That was a second thing that he had. The first is really ignorance or disbelief of God's Word. You know, that's really, Mark Spaniel puts it this way. Since we've seen, oops, let me do something here.

Since we have seen assurance comes from a knowledge of trust, and trust in the truths revealed about Christ in the Word. Not to know the Word means not to have assurance. There are doubtless those who have seen themselves as sinners and have trusted Christ as Savior, but they have not been fed up the Word. Therefore, they lack that glad and joyous assurance which God wants us to have and which honors Christ. knowledge of the word, and then belief in that. And again, the non-meritorious act is belief. But Mark Spanx also, to what Chris said, Mark Spanx also brings unjudged and unconfessed sin in a Christian's life will dim his assurance. What do you think about that one? That's what it is, right?

But as far as your assurance, and this is one of those ones where I was kind of like, hmm, I didn't know if I really understood what he was trying to get at. She don't have to confess every sin you have, all the sins have already been taken care of. Right. And to me, I was trying to figure out how he got it into assurance and I wasn't really quite, but you brought it up. So, I mean, what was your thought on that? No, I just, I was reading it.

Because I was I was kind of curious about that it was like how it diminishes our assurance and again confess You know the sins have all been paid for the confession is really just agreeing with God I'm not acting like who I'm supposed to be So I was trying to figure out how that really if anybody else had that thought how how unconfessed sin was was affecting your assurance Well, maybe just like you You know, you think about something you did and something you said and why are you confessing it now if it's already, if it's history passed, it's already forgiven. Why are you confessing it? I mean, is it because you lack assurance that you are forgiven and that's why you're confessing the sin that is already forgiven from the past? Yeah, yeah.

I guess it's walking in the flesh as opposed to walking in the spirit. If you haven't said the same about your sin, if you haven't ever done that, you can't be assured. If you haven't realized that, hey, God took care of my sins, if you've never done that, you can't be assured. I'm just in a believer, if you've never come to, you know, believe. Other thoughts?

You were a jerk to your wife, and you came home, and she wasn't there, then maybe you would have that feeling of maybe I got left behind. Not anymore. No, I really don't, because it's not predicated on me. It's not predicated on me. Maybe that's what you think though, like that's kind of what the sin would be. No, I would just think, Jericho shouldn't be there. No, that wouldn't make any difference. It really doesn't. There's no scenario that I can picture that really affects my assurance.

I am a new creature in Christ. My old Adamic nature is dead. It's dead. So I'm a new creature in Christ. I still have the flesh and the two natures within me, but I have a new creature in Christ. There's nothing that can change that. If I believed And I reckon myself dead, co-crucified with Christ. I'm a new creature in Christ. There's nothing that's going to change that.

I'll set you up. The anchor verse that I had before was John 10, 28. And that's the one where it says, you're in God's hands, and I can't climb out, nor is anybody going to pluck me out of God's hands. That was my anchor verse. And if I doubted, I'd run back to that. I can't get out of God's hands.

Oh, I'm hot, warm and cozy again. And then, you know, something happened, you know, before, left behind or whatever, or I just, am I really a Christian? I'm acting like an idiot. Am I really a believer? You know, all those doubts, oh, they run back. I'm in his hands, okay, you know. So I had this battle back and forth all the time with, not all the time, but just when something would come up really, stupid or like I wouldn't doubt my salvation, I'd run back to that verse.

I don't do that anymore. Even though that's a very good verse, I don't, I never even think of that anymore because I'm a new creature in Christ. Yeah, and we're late, I'm sorry. I don't have my name in it. Okay, we'll take a look. Alright, let's close real quick.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for who you are. We thank you again for the intimacy that we have with you. We thank you that you are sovereignly in control. And we rest in that. We realize the peace and the comfort that is in that knowledge that you're in control. We do thank you that we are new creatures in Christ. And Father, what that means. You see us in your Son. We have new life in your Son.

And we just rest in that fact. And Father, we do have assurance through your Word, through the Holy Spirit, and we just thank you again for all that you do, because it's nothing of what we do other than believe. And we thank you that you set it up that way, because it would have failed miserably otherwise. And we thank you for who you are and what you mean in every one of our lives.