Okay, what I want to do is basically
take off where I was last week. What I did was, I went back and
I wanted to revisit Assurance. I just felt like when we dealt
with it about a month ago, I really felt that I wanted to say
more and think more about it. And last week we spent,
again, quite a bit of time on just talking about the
counterfeit Christian, and how the devil tends to
promote false assurance, false peace, false joy
in the false Christian. But the devil is very strategic -
we hear about his stratagems, his wiles. We know about those from Scripture. He attacks assurance. Of course, you got a lost person, he wants
to convince them everything is okay. He doesn't want them
thinking it's not okay. He doesn't want them pursuing Christ. When you have the Christian on the other
hand, he can't steal away their salvation, but what he wants to do
is make them miserable, and there's no better way to
make Christians miserable than by having them doubt whether or not
they're genuinely converted. And he's got strategic ways
that he seeks to attack. (P) We have a number of different
people in our church that seem to have a
susceptibility to this. I think the reality is, the devil
is going to try to attack assurance in every genuine Christian at some time. And I don't think he uses
the same mannerisms, the same methods, with every
single one of God's people, because he knows our propensities,
he knows how each one of us is wired. And there are certain
ways that each one of us is wired differently than the next person. I want to go through some of these, and the first one we began
to deal with last week, but it's basically this:
He comes to the Christian and he says, "You can't
know that you're saved." To some he seeks to convince,
"You just can't know." And the thing is, a lot of times that
attack comes through false teaching. You say, "What do you mean?" I mean, there are circles where
basically the mindset is that if you're overconfident about
your being a Christian, it's presumption. And it's viewed that way. It's actually anathematized in
the Roman Catholic Church. (P) Now we don't need to go there. The Roman Catholic Church
doesn't have the gospel, they've abandoned that. For them to say you can't know— see, if you can know "I'm a
Christian," you don't need them. They are there telling you,
"Well, if you look to us - you can't know - but we're probably going to
get you through in the end. But you need us, and you
need the priesthood; and the priesthood makes money that way
because you need them to get you through, because you can't really
know, you can't be certain." But there's other circles. There's circles of Reformed people. There are circles where you have to be
so unworthy and so miserable, and we talked about this last time. Some of those circles, I
mean, I'll call them out. I was exposed to them in Michigan. There's a group called The Strict Baptists. I remember rubbing shoulders with some of
those guys when I was first converted, and it's the same kind of
circle, it's the same flavor, that John Sytsma came from. John was an elder in Netherlands
Reformed Church. (P) Again, these churches seem to put
a preeminence on being miserable. In fact, their assurance comes
from lacking assurance. It's like you need to go
about with this mindset, "Oh, I'm so unworthy, and woe is me, and we
just can't know, and we're all hopeful." And it seems like they're waiting
for this experience to take place. And so, you get these circles where
it's almost sinful and terrible to say that you have any
assurance whatsoever. And when you go into
those kinds of circles, you find that the
people are miserable. And so, that's great! I mean, the devil would love to have,
not just individual Christians, but whole churches where the people
are just morbid and miserable. And one of the things
that I've noticed is, the singing rarely is lively
in those circles. It's more like a dirge. It's more like everything
has to be depressed, and dragged out, and dull,
and almost mournful. You want to know about it? Sid, what did they call "It
is well with my soul"? "IS IT well with my soul?" They
retitled it in those circles. (P) Anyway, open your Bibles to 1 John 5:13. We have to go back to this. There's many other verses, but
as we talked about last time, it's very evident from many doctrines
in Scripture - the doctrine of prayer - we're supposed to boldly
approach the throne of grace. Boldly. How're you going to boldly
come if you're full of doubt? When you come to the
doctrine of the fear of man, the doctrine of money and
greed we looked at last time, coming from Hebrews 13; you
have so many doctrines - the doctrine of peace,
the doctrine of joy - these different doctrines
which are basically built on the assumption
that you have assurance. When you look at 1 John 5:13, it's one
of the clearest texts in your Bibles, that those who believe are being exhorted-- you have to recognize, this is
towards the end of the letter. And what he's really referring to is,
the entire letter has been written so that you who believe in
the name of the Son of God may know that you have eternal life. The New Testament exhorts us to assurance. You see, there are people
who are afraid to be happy. They think it's presumption. But don't, don't be afraid to be happy. Don't be afraid to be full of joy. Don't be afraid to be a
people who are confident. How can you boldly approach the throne of
grace unless there's confidence there? (P) So, that we may know. Listen, the thing about it is, when you get these people
with the long faces in some of these circles who
are afraid to be happy, "Oh, we are so unworthy, who are we?" But you know what they're doing?
They're looking at themselves. We are unworthy. Of course we're unworthy! We're all unworthy. Do you know what the foundational
doctrine of assurance is? It's the doctrine of
justification by faith. We have to come back to that reality
again and again and again, that we are bad people. We are bad people who have gone to
Christ because we're bad people. We're diseased people; we have
these running sores of the soul. We go broken, we go bankrupt; and what we find in Christ
satisfies everything. It satisfies the Father. It pays fully. It gives us everything that
we need for salvation. We are accepted in Him. That is the foundation. I'll tell you, every single lie
the devil throws at God's people, I'll guarantee you this,
you have to come back to the doctrine of
justification by faith. We're justified by faith. We have to come back to that
doctrine again and again, where it's "I am unworthy, but praise God my hope is in
Him and what He has done." (P) Look, as Christians, are
we new creations? Yes! Have we been set free
from the dominion of sin? Isn't that what Romans 6 says? Yes! But the thing is, sin is
still a plague to us. And we still, like little children, do sin
and need the Advocate with the Father. And we have sins that we need to confess, and He's faithful and
just to forgive our sins. We need to go back. We need that Advocate. We need the cleansing of the blood. That's the root. (P) Okay, so one of the ways
he comes in is this: "You can't have assurance." And like I said last week, I
was just informed recently that we have a sister in our church
who believes that you can't have assurance. And I think one of the
text, or sort of texts, is like that found in Matthew 24, that says, "The one who endures
to the end will be saved." And so what people begin to think is, "Well, if I have to make it all
the way to the end to be saved, and I haven't actually made it
all the way to the end yet, how do I know I won't fall out?" Now that may seem logical, and some people have run with it that way. In fact, the sister in our church
was using that very logic. Do you know what the problem
with that logic is? 1 John 5:13. That is a major snare to that logic. You see, that is what keeps
us from carnal logic. What? Scripture. You've got to know your Bible. This is essential in every
aspect of doctrine. The way you keep from excess, the way you keep from error
is you know your Bibles. Because, typically, when you begin
to go down a road of logic, what you have to do is you
have to begin to ask yourself, "Does Scripture square with that? Does Scripture in other places back that? If I'm comparing Scripture to Scripture, is the case made everywhere in
every way I look at this?" (P) And you would say this: To say
that I need to endure to the end - do we need to endure to
the end to be saved? Yes. But that doesn't mean I can't be confident
that God has already saved me now, even though I have to endure to the end to ultimately and fully be
saved to the uttermost. We are being saved. Scripture says we were saved, we're
being saved, we will be saved. There is a process of salvation. But that doesn't in any
way undo the reality that I was justified in the past,
and that I belong to the Lord, and that I already have eternal life. I mean, He says if I come to Him
He will raise me up on the Last Day. What that means is, when I
went to Him in the beginning, the fact He's going to raise me
up on the Last Day is certain. And you say, "Where is that?" That's several places in John 6,
John 6:44 being one of the passage. I think the other one is John
6:64 if I'm not mistaken. (P) But here's another way
the devil comes at us. He will say to us, "If you... Isn't it amazing, his
strategies, his wiles - it's oftentimes pushing us to the excess. And it's like way out here on this edge, "You can't know you're saved!
It's presumption." "Oh, you're the kind who's
convinced from 1 John 5:13 that Christians should have assurance. Okay, I'm going to come at
you from another direction: If you don't have assurance,
you're not saved." All the way the pendulum swings,
all the way out to the other side. And so, now he comes in and he says,
"If you doubt, you can't be saved. How could you be saved if
you don't have assurance?" But notice the wording of 1 John 5:13. It's essential that you notice this. Again, we have to confront...
Look, the devil is a liar. So how do you confront a liar? With the truth. Thy Word is truth. That's where we go. I guarantee you this, God has told us
that Scripture is God-breathed and it is there to make
the man of God complete. When it comes to doctrine,
reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness,
it will arm you. Our defense against the devil is Scripture. And I'll tell you this,
I know this for a fact: Every single lie that we are
confronted with by the devil; the answer to it, the truth that
answers it, is found in Scripture. Guaranteed. Never think that you're being attacked
in some way or by some lie that there isn't a sufficient answer to
in Scripture if you'll dig and find it. (P) But notice here. 1 John 5:13.
Notice what it says. "I write these things to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God that you may know that
you have eternal life." Do you see what's happening? These people are believers already, but John is recognizing
they may lack assurance and need to be encouraged to know
the reality of who they are. Do you see that? He says he's writing to those who believe,
that they may have assurance. His whole point is he recognizes
true believers may lack assurance, and that's why he's writing this book. And you know what? That's essential because we get
conscientious individuals. I mean, we tend to get people sometimes
who are over much self-examining. You say, "Self-examination is biblical." Is it? Yep. 1st Corinthians 11, 2nd Corinthians 13,
both of them tell us to examine ourselves. But you get some people who
examine themselves way too much. They look at Christ too little, and
they look at themselves too much. People that do that are going to
end up miserable, typically. (P) And of course, God knows
that there are those who are wired that way—too scrupulous. But again, we need to come
back to this reality, we've got to remember all the
time: we are justified by faith. Anybody quote Romans 5:1? "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ." Right. Notice that. "Being justified by faith,
we have peace with God." Don't eliminate the aspect of
peace that God deals with, like in Isaiah, where that person
whose mind is stayed on Him, He will keep in perfect peace. Don't just look at it like, "Well,
theoretically I'm not at war with Him." Does it mean that? Yes, it means that. But don't get away from the fact that
Jesus says, "My peace I leave with you." When the Scriptures talk about peace, it doesn't just mean that
the warfare has ended. He's talking about, remember, "Come
unto Me and I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest for your soul." But where does that flow from? Justification by faith. I mean, the reality is (1 John
5:13), I can be a believer but need to be encouraged in my assurance. And if I'm a believer,
by faith I'm justified, and my standing is
perfect in Christ. (P) Look, the reality is this, you may
have doubts about your standing, but if you know yourself to be a sinner,
and you've ceased to rely on your own works and look only to the Lord, and you're not putting
confidence in the flesh - I mean, remember Philippians 3 - you're
not putting confidence in the flesh; if that's true of you, and you
say, "I'm full of these doubts, and I don't have any hope except
Christ's blood, His righteousness. I don't have any hope. I know I
can't perform this well enough." Listen, maybe you're there, saying,
"I just don't know where I stand." But if you can say, "I know my
only confidence is in Christ." If you say that, you're a Christian. You are a Christian. Nobody whose hope is in Him and His
cross work, His life, His perfection; if that's where your confidence
is, you will never be ashamed. No matter how you may doubt in this life, no matter how you may
tether back and forth, no matter how you may struggle. Now look, the reality is this, if you lack assurance you're
a defective Christian. You say, "What do you mean?" I mean, you're supposed to have assurance. God wants you to have assurance. 1 John 5:13 is pressing you towards
having that assurance. (P) And, like I say, there's so
many doctrines in the Scripture that tend to bear witness to this reality. Like what? The doctrine of joy - "Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again, I say rejoice." But I'll tell you that, even right there, you can find in that text the
doctrine of justification by faith. You say, "Where?" Well, I would say this, Paul
didn't come along and say, "Go look in the mirror,
examine yourself over and over and over, and
find joy in that." He said, "Rejoice in the Lord." What does that mean? It means I'm rejoicing in what
the Lord has done for sinners. That's the reality. You see, Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. There's never a reason [not to]. In other words, no matter what
lie the devil comes with, God is saying, "Rejoice
in the Lord always." See, there's always a reason
for the genuine Christian to look at what has happened there. And you know what I find? I find that true Christians, as much
as they may doubt and struggle, and have the scrupulous conscience
be over self-examining, you put them in front of a good
song being sung, up on that screen, and you get their mind off
of themselves for a second, and they're rejoicing inside,
because their hope is there. They see that Christ set
forth in "And Can It Be," or they see it up there in those songs, and suddenly they light up inside. Their confidence is there. (P) Then they're done singing, and now
they're listening to the preaching. And unless it's absolutely
on "justification by faith" (they glory in messages like that). But oh, if you start getting
messages on Christian conduct, and the way the Christian should live, then all of a sudden, "Woe is me!" And the preacher, he's looking at Grace
House women who have false professions, and he's bringing out the
shotgun and taking aim — bang! And you know who he hits? He hits the sister in the third row back,
who he wasn't even aiming at (he's every bit confident
she's a Christian); and she's just taking it
right between the eyes. And she's like, "Ohh, I must not be saved." That's what happens a lot of times. Look, the truth is, Scripture
wants us rejoicing. And if we're not rejoicing we
should be dealing with ourselves. You say, "What do you mean
dealing with ourselves?" I mean, you know how David
dealt with himself? He asked, "Why are you
cast down, O my soul?" He dealt with himself. Lloyd-Jones has a
book on Spiritual Depression, where it's
based on that reality. Dealing with yourself. If you're not rejoicing, you
should be dealing with yourself. You say, "What does that even mean?" I mean, you should be preaching
the gospel to yourself. You should go back to the
doctrine of justification and really remember what it is,
and what you have to rejoice in. Again, I come back to this,
if your confidence is in Him; you know you're a sinner, you feel it, you feel you have no
confidence in the flesh. (P) What's another strategy of the devil? How about this one: "You're no
Christian because of your past." Now, that can come out in two ways. Perhaps there are people, I
mean, I've heard of examples. I don't feel vulnerable to this
attack, maybe some of you do. Maybe you could speak to it. Anybody here ever feel
vulnerable to attacks because of the greatness of
your sin in the past? (P) [James]: When you say "in the past,"
are you referring to post-conversion? (P) [Tim]: Either. Just from the past. Maybe no, not as a Christian. I want to deal with that
under another heading. But I'm talking your past
life when you were lost. Maybe you lived so wickedly
when you were lost. You raised your hand, but you were
thinking after you were saved, right? [Brother]: "I was thinking both." You've actually struggled with that? You've struggled with doubt over
how bad you were when you were lost? [Brother]: "Yeah." But again, we come back to the
doctrine of justification by faith. It's really the answer to that. (P) Do any of you remember what
happened to Mrs. Lloyd-Jones? When they were at Sanfields in South Wales, she was on a bus one day,
and a guy got on the bus. And he very pointedly asked
her if she was saved. Hey, this is the pastor's wife,
and this guy was very bold. He asked her if she was
saved, and she wasn't. Does anybody remember what she
struggled with, as far as her past? Being too good. It wasn't her badness she struggled with. She felt like if she could have
been one of these wretched people like she saw being saved through
her husband's preaching; she felt like, then she could know she was
converted if her life had transformed. But you know where Lloyd-Jones took her? Again, back, not to the
doctrine of regeneration, because you know what? The doctrine of regeneration
is a glorious doctrine. But that person who basically
lived a very moral life, and that got converted, that stark
difference is sometimes harder to see. That can especially be true
with children who get saved, people saved in their younger years, people who were raised in very godly
families and didn't go off into all the sin and debauchery that many of us have. And then to be radically saved out of that. And so you get these people,
and sometimes I think, that, in their past, can be a
hindrance as much as anything. (P) How about this: Variations in experience. And what I don't mean here
is, my experience vs yours. When I talk about variations in experience, what I mean is you come to
the Lord and you get saved, and you experience an incredible joy. But as you live your Christian life,
you come into seasons that are dry, and you feel dead. In fact, brother Kyle was telling
me at the Men's Retreat, he's thinking about bringing some
messages on the dark night of the soul. And you come into those seasons,
and you can begin to think, "What is this?" I mean, Christianity was
so glorious in the past, but now it just seems like I'm
walking around in the dark. And you can feel that. I mean, have any of you ever been
to the place in the Christian life where you feel like you lost something? It's like that closeness that you had, that joy that you had, the
sweetness that you had; you look up one day and
it's, "Where is it?" And the devil's right there, and
he's saying, "It was never real. You were like the one in
the Parable of the Soils. You sprang up quickly and you've withered. You weren't real." You see, we can be
vulnerable right there. (P) Brethren, I would say this, if
your life knows nothing of this, you don't know anything
about these variations, you don't know anything about seasons
of dryness or God hiding His face; the reality is, that is suspect in itself. That would seem more dangerous actually. That seems more like the counterfeit that
the devil is just kind of leaving alone, because the reality is,
with the true child of God, the devil is going to attack us. He is going to level
assaults on our assurance. And the truth is, that God
in no way promises us that He will prevent the
devil from doing that. In fact, we know that He does allow
the devil to do those things. He allowed the devil to sift Peter. He allowed the devil to do
to Job what he did to Job. Let's just watch David. You know what's beautiful about the Psalms?
It's all experiential. Go watch David. Over here, he is praising the Lord,
he's talking about his own righteousness. Over here, he's bemoaning his sin. Over here, he's asking
himself why he's cast down. Isn't that the life of the Christian? I mean, that's the reality, that
there are ups and there are downs. There's this reality. (P) One of the things as well is,
like I've noticed, I know this, that we're still in the body. And so often, our physical condition... I mean, I highly recommend
that people exercise. You know why? I am convinced
that lack of exercise - if you let this body
grow sluggish and unfit, and you allow yourself to
eat rotten, it affects you. I mean, having migraines affects me. Having different physical things happen. We can be up and down, we
can be back and forth. There's variations in our experience. There's physical elements to all of it. But I'll tell you this, the
confidence in the midst of all of it are these promises like,
"Through many tribulations." But at the same time, the work that
He starts He's going to finish. He is going to raise me
up on that Last Day. I recognize this, there are times
He's going to withdraw His face. It tests us. It shows how badly we want Him. You remember what was happening to David? He was saying, "My soul is
thirsting, it pants for God." There are times God hides His
face on purpose to test us, but it can be miserable seasons. (P) But the devil can be right
there and just say, "You see, you've gone into this
season and God has hid His face because God hates you. You're not His." But that's not true. Again, it comes back to the
doctrine of justification by faith. And what do I mean? Faith is, you trust what Christ did on
that cross, and you know no other trust; because if that's where your trust
is, we can trust in that love. You remember the song "Love
That Will Not Let Me Go"? And if my hope is in Christ,
it's not going to let me go, because that is what it is
to be a real Christian. (P) And then, let's come over to the
other variation in experience, in the sense of "my experience is
different than your experience." I've seen Christians who struggle
with assurance because of that. You know what? Martin Lloyd-Jones was against
testimonies for this reason. And I know people who have
heard Paul Washer's testimony, and they hear different
radical testimonies, and they look at that and they say, "I
wasn't saved that way, so I'm [not real.]" And you know what happens? The devil will come right in there and say, "Yeah, those radical conversions
are the only true ones. The reason your experience wasn't like
theirs is because you're not real." But again, it comes back
to justification by faith. Where's your hope? God doesn't say you have to have a
certain experience to be saved; God says you need to trust
His Son to be saved. And you know what? All you have to do, again,
if you go to Scripture, the answers to all these things
are found in Scripture. (P) In the previous one, go look at David. Go look at the experiences of God's people. In this one I would say the same thing: Look at the salvation experiences. How was Timothy saved? "Well, I grew up under a godly
grandmother and a godly mother." Do you know when you were saved? "No, I
was exposed to the Scriptures as a child and I don't really know when I was saved." That's what my wife would say. She would say she knows the year,
maybe even the three months; but if you asked her to peg
the day, she doesn't know. If you asked the apostle Paul to tell you
the day, he knows the exact day. You see, the biblical
experiences are different. And so, we can answer the devil that way. Some people feel like - bang! -
the switch came on in a dark room. Other people, it's more
like the sun rising. You can't really tell exactly when it went
from being dark to being light. It just kind of happened slowly. Or you even think about the salvation
experiences of the Macedonians over against the Corinthians. You find the Corinthians are still walking
in all sorts of sin after they're saved; and yet it seems like the Macedonians,
who Paul set forth as such an example, it seems like they excelled and
were running so much better. (P) It's like, even in our experience that way, some get saved and they
can take off running. Again, my wife's experience and my
experience are radically different, and what God did with us in the first
several years after we were saved. I mean, I kind of feel like God allowed me
to come out of the gates at a full run, whereas my wife got out of the gate slower. But she picked up speed to the
point where she passed me. I mean, that's what it feels
like has happened. (P) Another big one is this: it's
misinterpreting God's dealings with us. Do you know how often
Scripture has to tell us, "If you're God's children,
you're going to suffer. And if you don't suffer, you're
not legitimate children"? Do you know why Scripture has to emphasize
the suffering of the Christian so much? Because this is such a
huge place of attack upon God's people to
challenge their assurance. Why? You know why. Because we're vulnerable. Okay, we watch our friends: they
get married, I don't get married. What am I Lord, a stepchild? And the devil is right there to say,
"That's exactly what you are." Every Christian feels this. They feel the loneliness
of suffering something that, at least, they're
imagining nobody else suffers. And the devil is right there
to tell you that too: "Look at this. Look at what
God is putting you through. He's not putting anyone else through that." Actually, He's putting a lot
of other people through it, and they're going through other trials; and many of them much
worse than your trials. But the devil is right there to
say, "No, their lives are good. You're the one who's got
the raw deal here." (P) And then what happens is,
we're kind of like Habakkuk, we're looking for an answer:
"Lord, answer us here. How can this be? How can all
this be happening to us?" And there is silence. And oftentimes, the Lord brings silence
because He wants us to trust Him and He wants us to seek Him
all the more diligently. But the devil is there, saying,
"He won't even answer you. Come on, if you had children you'd answer
your children if they were crying out. What kind of Father do you think He is? He doesn't want anything to do with you." And, in our immaturity or in our
childishness, we listen to the devil. We actually listen to him,
and it's like, "Yeah." We go into this pity party. But remember what Hebrews 12 says,
there's discipline for the child of God. And if you're not exposed
to that discipline - the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
and chastises every son whom He receives. And you remember what Paul and
Barnabas told those churches as they were going through all
the churches there in Acts 14? "He was strengthening the
souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations
we must enter the kingdom of God." Now you got to hear him. You
got to hear what he was doing. He was encouraging them
to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations
we must enter the kingdom. (P) Encourage them to continue in the faith? Yes, because when you
face trials, that is exactly what's being
challenged - your faith. Are you going to trust the Lord? Or are you going to throw in the towel? That's the test. That's always the test. I like how Jesus said it in John 16:1, "I've said all these things to you
to keep you from falling away." I often think about that text. "I have said these things to you
to keep you from falling away. In other words, if I didn't tell
you that you were going to face the kind of persecution
you're going to face, if I didn't tell you ahead of time, you guys would probably
become so discouraged, and the devil would get a foot
in there, and you'd fall out. I'm telling you this to
keep you from falling away. Don't fall away because they
put you out of the synagogues, because they treat you the way
they're going to treat you— and they're going to put
some of you to death, and they're going to persecute you,
and they're going to reject you, and they're going to do the things
to you that they've done to Me. And when they do that,
don't question the Lord. You need to know ahead of time
that this is what's coming. This is what you're going
to be faced with." (P) Look, God has ordained your sufferings
so that they will be different. Sometimes our sufferings are simultaneous. Sometimes we suffer because of
the same event or circumstances, you know, a trial can come
on a whole church at once. But oftentimes, God is constructing
our sufferings uniquely for us. And what happens is, we recognize
that we're getting treated differently than others are being treated. And it can lead us to unhappiness,
it can lead us to insecurity, it can lead us to self-pity, it
can lead us to misunderstandings. Listen to this text, you know this, "If you are children, you are heirs
of God and fellow-heirs with Christ - what? - provided we suffer." You're only a child if you suffer. But the devil is right there to say, "You're not one of God's children
if He treats you like this." And Scripture is saying, "You're not God's
child UNLESS He treats you that way. It's not meant to destroy
us, it's meant to test us. It's meant to strengthen us,
it's meant to build us up. "Provided we suffer with Him in order that
we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the
glory that is to be revealed to us." That's the reality. (P) God puts us through the wringer,
He puts us in the fire, to take the dross out, to make
us pure, to make us like Christ. God often hides His face. You know what? If you carry your children
around all the time - you want them to learn to walk - but you actually carry
the child all the time. You put him on your shoulders all the time. Guess what he's not going to do.
He's never going to learn to walk. But you throw your child out,
not just on level ground, throw them out where there's a
bunch of obstacles and everything, and what you're going to find is
they're going to learn to stand, they're going to mature. This is what the Lord does. You remember what the Apostle Paul says? "I've learned how to be
abased and how to abound." What? You're a child of the King! How dare you even talk about being abased? Don't these Charismatics all say, "If you
don't have riches and all manner of stuff, it's because you lack faith, it's
because you are this or that. I mean, certainly, God wants you rich!" No. Actually, God never said that He
wants you rich in this world. In fact, it's often the poor that He saves. And the reality is that
the apostle Paul said, "I have learned to be both abased,
and I've learned to abound. I've learned to have
everything taken away." (P) He abases us because, why? The truth is, difficulty in life
produces - what does it produce? It produces prayerful people. You ever notice you pray
desperately when things get hard? God wants us to be prayerful people. We tend to not be so prayerful
when the sun is shining, and the bank accounts are
full, and everything is good. We know that. Trials tend to make us
think, to dig, to pray. They strengthen us. I remember some years ago reading
the Pastor Shi biography. He was a Chinese pastor ordained by
Hudson Taylor, back in the 1800s. China is the same in many ways today
as it was back then, 150 years ago. They sued everybody. They're still like that.
They sue everybody. And so, those Christians who were
in that church with Pastor Shi, they determined that as Christians
they would never sue anyone. And when the lost people found that out,
they tried to take advantage. They would move fences so that
they would take their land. Number of things happenned. And what Pastor Shi recognized
is, when it was a new believer, if the new believer lost, say, their land, or the lost people came in and took
some of their geese or their pigs, what they noticed was
that, trusting the Lord, God would allow those
things to be restored. And they would be all happy, and
their faith would be vindicated. (P) But they noticed very specifically
that the more mature the Christian was, the less likely God would have the thing
restored that they were gypped out of, or swindled out of, or
had stolen from them. He recognized that because the more mature
and more able to deal with that, God pushed them further
to mature them more, to develop more thoroughly
the spiritual muscle. Brethren I'll tell you, it's
through these difficult times that we really come to know the Lord. And I'll tell you, there is nothing
that so exalts the Lord Jesus Christ, as coming across a suffering Christian, who their hope and their joy is just so... I mean, I think just recently
about Rione, and watching her; over against, you know, you're
struggling, and you're miserable, and you're full of self-pity.
What a horrible testimony. Because remember what Paul said,
I count these sufferings to be as nothing, compared to this glory that's
going to be revealed to us. In fact, to the Corinthians, he talks
about "momentary light affliction." It's not even to be compared to
the eternal weight of glory. That's the reality. (P) Now here's another place
the devil comes in, and this goes back to
what Travis was saying. This is a big one: When we fall into sin. When we fall into sin (and I brought
this one up last week actually,) but when we fall into sin,
the devil is right there: "Look at you. You can't be a Christian." But again, we need to remember, what's the devil trying
to say to us right there? "True Christians never sin." That's not true. True Christians do sin. And if you say you don't, 1st John 1
would say that you're not even genuine. The truth is, true Christians sin. And all you have to do is
go to Scripture to see it. We can go and we can point out
sin on the part of David, sin on the part of Abraham,
sin on the part of Noah, sin on the part of Peter, sin
on the part of the Corinthians, sin on the part of the Hebrews,
sin on the part of the Galatians. We can go to Scripture and find
God's people, even Paul himself; I mean, you remember they
smote him on the cheek because he spoke in a way that he wasn't
supposed to speak about the high priest. But the reality is, he himself
said he pressed towards the mark and he hadn't yet achieved, he hadn't laid hold yet of what
he was being laid hold for. He was stretching and seeking earnestly
to achieve, and reach, and go on. (P) Listen, if the devil comes in and says "because you've sinned you
can't be a Christian," where does that come from?
Are you gonna buy that? Are you gonna fall into
that, and say, "Oh yeah. After all, true Christians must be perfect. All Christians are perfect. And yeah, I haven't been perfect,
so I must not be a Christian." Of course, the Bible doesn't teach that. In fact, if you say you have no sin,
then you find yourself having a problem. We are going to sin. We're not yet perfect. Does sin have dominion over us? No. Romans 6:14 says, "Sin shall
not have dominion over you." But we sin. There is sin
that comes into our life. And it's almost like, well, yes,
we were these horrible sinners when we first came to Christ. But it's like the devil
would have us believe, "Yeah, but now that you
say you're a Christian and you believe you've been
saved, now there's no excuse. You knew better, and you sinned in the
midst of great light, and so that's it." He can come in and make you feel
like you've just lost everything. The devil can throw people
into utter despair. (P) It's like, now that we're Christians,
well, you have no right to sin. But the fact is, let me
tell you what that is, it's you going back to a works mentality. Because you have to remember
what Colossians 2:6 says; we keep looking at that over the years. But Colossians 2:6 is basically the
text that emphasizes the reality that the way you start the Christian life
by faith, is the way you continue. Remember this: "The just
shall live by faith." That faith is not ambiguous. That faith is in the work
and person of Jesus Christ. Don't look at faith as something separate. Sometimes we can hear 'faith',
and it's like, "Oh yeah, yeah," and it just becomes this
nebulous, ambiguous thing. Like, "Oh yeah, we have this.
What is this?" Well, you need to remember what it is: It is me looking outside myself
at what Jesus Christ did, and having confidence totally in who
He is and what He accomplished. That's the reality. And when the devil comes
in, and he begins to say, "You sinned, you can't be God's," you just look at him and say,
"You know what you're wanting me to do? You're wanting me to feel accepted
or not accepted based on my works. But the just shall live
by faith, not by works. You're calling me to continue in a
different way than I started." (P) Colossians 2:6, somebody open that. Somebody open up your Bible
to that text and read it. "Therefore, as you received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and
established in the faith." Right. Walk in Him the
same way you came to Him, the same way you received Him,
the same way you started. How did you start? See, this is what we have to remember. When I came to him that
first day, I was broken. I was at the bottom. I
didn't have any hope. I didn't have any place to go, but to Him. I didn't have any hope; I was
bad, and I was going to hell. See, that's how I came. And what he's saying is,
that is the way to walk, where you come to Him and you recognize, "Without Him I'm broke,
I'm empty, I'm bankrupt, I'm unworthy, I deserve hell." It's the same way. I tell you, we keep coming back to this, but the doctrine of justification
by faith is the Satan-resister. This is the reason why God would have us
come back to the Lord's Supper, again and again and again. You know why? He wants us to look at that
cross, again and again and again, and see on that cross Christ
being made sin in our place. That's the reality. (P) And then I would say this, the devil is
very quick to come in and accuse us, and tell us that certain things
are sin when they're not sin. We kind of dealt with this about 3 weeks
ago when we talked about the Blitz. But he comes in and he does that. It's like, "You can't do that, that's sin!" And then, last week, I mentioned
what Luther said to Melanchthon. He told Melanchthon, "Sin boldly." The reality is this, our faith, (see,
whatsoever is not of faith is sin), but our faith comes by
hearing the word of Christ. And what Scripture says, Jesus
said, "My sheep follow Me, and they know My voice." And the thing is, the devil comes
in like an angel of light, and he will speak like he's God, and
he will tell you, "That's sin!" And it's not sin, but he's dealing with
people with sensitive consciences. And he'll tell you, "That's sin,"
and he'll bring you into bondage. You remember that truth of Galatians 5:1? For freedom, Christ has set you free. You are free. Only don't use the freedom
for the sake of the flesh; use your freedom to love. Even the rich are told, God has
given them those things to enjoy. He wants them to be liberal, and to help,
and to look out for times of need. (P) But we can get into this... sometimes it's just by the
conviction of other people. We can get around other people with
convictions that don't come from Scripture, and their convictions
assault our consciences. And the devil can use people like that and seek to bring us into bondage,
and rob us of assurance. Because you get to the
place where you feel like, "Oh, I have to do what that
person's conscience [believes]. And then it's like, when you follow
that path, there's not joy in it. And then if you resist
it, the devil's saying, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And you were really believing
that you should do that." And sometimes you just have to say, "Stop!
What does Scripture say? Does God forbid that anywhere in Scripture? Not just deductive reasoning
because God said that over there, and I'm supposed to draw third- and
fourth-level [conclusions]. (P) You need to listen to what God says. We need to listen and
be taught by Scripture. The devil will seek to wreak
havoc on scrupulous consciences, and it'll rob us of our assurance. And again I would say, Luther was
saying, "Melanchthon, sin boldly." He wasn't really telling him to sin; it was that he didn't
really believe it was sin. It was just an over-scrupulous conscience,
and, in other words, "burst out of it." (P) Another area of attack is not
just that we fall into sin, this is probably even a bigger
one: We fall into the same sin. That becomes hard because
it's like, Scripture says that if we're practicing unrighteousness, I mean, basically, 1st John says
that if we continue in sin, it's emphasizing we're not born of God. And what the devil will tell you is, "Scripture says that if you're in Christ,
sin will no longer have dominion." And what he'll come in
and tell you is this, "You keep falling into that
same sin over and over. You're practicing it, it's
habitual, you can't be real." But see, here's the thing: again,
you have to remember this, we are radically new people. And I know this about the true Christian,
they hunger and thirst after righteousness. Do you desire that? I mean, answer me. If we could chop off your
left hand right now, and you'd be perfect and never sin again, how many of you would be ready to do it? I'd put my hand up there right now, if chopping it off was gonna make
me perfect the rest of my life. I'd say, "Take it, I want to be perfect." You know, if you're honest with yourself,
whether you really desire the world, you desire all the things of the flesh, you desire the things that
this world has to offer. You know if the only reason you
want heaven is to escape hell, or whether you desperately
want to be with Christ. (P) But I'll tell you this, you come to
Scripture, and you know what I find? I find that the unbelief of the
apostles in the four gospels, it was repeated. Jesus came to them and rebuked them
for the same thing, over and over. But you see, the devil's crafty. He'll say, "Well, that
was before Pentecost. After that, and you're after that, so..." Okay. Well, let's go after that. I remember preaching through those
seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. I was blown away. I was blown away, especially
by churches like Sardis: "You have a name that you are
alive, and you are dead." And yet, there's Jesus saying,
"Put away that false hope. Repent. You come to Me."
And His arms are open. I look at Laodicea. Listen, if you have a name that
you're alive but you're dead, how long were they living in that? How long were they doing that? Was that a one-time sin, a two-time sin, a three-time sin, a five-time
sin, a ten-time sin? They had gotten to the place where the very
name that they claimed to be was a lie. They were claiming to be
alive, but they were dead. (P) Lukewarmness: How long did
that go on at Laodicea? Ten days? It sounds like
it was a chronic thing. And yet He says, "Repent." He says, "Those I love, I'm disciplining." How long had they been walking
in not having their first love at Ephesus, before He stepped in and
called them to repentance? How long do you think the Galatians
had resorted to another gospel? One day, two days, three days, ten days? How long do you think that the Hebrews
had been drifting away from Christ? A month? A year? How long do you think the Colossians
had been living in carnality? What's my point? My point is this: those
are obvious examples where people were not
only living their lives and having fallen into
some sin, some weakness, some terrible distortion,
some lukewarmness, some loss of first love, some hypocrisy, some carnality that was obvious; some drifting from Christ that
obviously was pronounced, it was repetitive, it was happening; and Christ steps in and
calls them out of it. (P) Now listen, if with all the calls
and all the scripture light, if a person turns their back to that, and keeps willfully going
back to their sin; yes, obviously, you continue to do that
because that's your heart's desire, you really don't hunger and
thirst after righteousness, and you go back to that. I remember after first being
saved, just being distressed because of certain sins
that I was convicted about. And I would draw the line in the
sand, and it's like, "No more." And then I'd fail. And
I remember the sorrow. But see, there was never
sorrow when I was lost. Never. The only sorrow I ever experienced
when I was lost is if I got caught, or there was some kind of negative
ramifications for the sin that caused me earthly, worldly
grief because of the embarrassment, or because of the cost, or
because of something like that. There was never any inward sorrow
because I had offended God. Never. Listen, the devil doesn't produce that, and the world doesn't produce that, and the flesh doesn't produce that. That comes from God's
garden - a sorrow for sin. Not just the consequences
of it, but a sorrow over it because we greatly hunger and
thirst for righteousness. (P) Now I'm going to quickly
go on to the last one here because this is another
one, and I experience this, and I know many people do. But, "the unpardonable sin." There's an area here, where,
because of repetition, because of the amount of light,
the devil will come in and say, "You've committed the unpardonable sin." I don't know if any of you
have dealt with that. I've dealt with that. I know
Bunyan dealt with that. I want you to open up to Mark 3. We got about 12 minutes till 9:30, and I'll
just use this last little chunk of time to have us think about
the unpardonable sin. Because again, when the devil
comes to God's people, and says, "You've committed
the unpardonable sin," the answer lies in Scripture,
as to how to respond. And I think if we just look,
Mark 3, listen to this. What Jesus is saying
is, these guys are entirely against all
reason and all logic. (P) Notice, Mark 3:22, "The scribes
who came down from Jerusalem were saying that Christ is
possessed by Beelzebul, and 'by the prince of demons
he casts out the demons.' And He called them to Him and
said to them in parables..." Now, here, He is appealing to their logic. But you see, when people blow away logic, they don't want to hear it,
because they are so against, such an antipathy for Christ,
such a hatred for Christ. It's kind of like you
hear in politics today. Nobody cares what the truth is. They've already got their minds made up. You see, that's what
we're dealing with here. They've already got their minds made
up, that Christ is to be rejected. This is arrogant, proud, vehement
rejection against all the facts. They can look reason and logic in the face, and they're carried away
by their hatred. (P) He said, "How can Satan cast
out Satan?" Very basic appeal. Well if you thought for a second,
you'd say, "Oh yeah, he can't." I mean, maybe you'd figure
out some way that he could. "If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up
against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's
house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man." See? It's all reason. It's all logical. "Then indeed he may plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, all sins will
be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the
Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin'– for they were saying, 'He has
an unclean spirit.'" (P) Look, the devil will be right there to say
you've committed the unpardonable sin because some thought
flashed through your mind. "I had some thought," you know. We've heard this. Somebody will make a vow and break the vow. Or they'll say, "If I
think a certain thing, then I'm selling my
soul to the devil." People will go through the craziest things. You have to recognize
what's happening here. These guys, they're arrogant, they're
proud, and they're rejecting; and it doesn't matter
what reason Jesus brings, what logic He brings, they say, "No.
It's of the devil." They can have the brightest light
shined right in their face - Jesus doing these miracles and
casting out these demons - and they say, "We will NOT believe!" That's different than the person who falls or the person who has a thought
shoot through their mind. Entirely different. (P) Luke 11: 19-20, that's
cross-reference to this, "If I cast out demons by Beelzebul,"
again he appeals to this logic and reason, "by whom do your son's cast them out?" Well, see, the people in their generation, they considered if they cast a
demon out, they did it by God. When they say "sons," they don't mean
necessarily their biological kid that's running around at home. It's just like, you guys do this; people of the Jewish religion do this; people in your midst do this;
your disciples do this. "Who do you guys say they
cast out demons by?" "Well, we think that's of God." "Uh, okay, and you watch
Me cast a demon out, and you're going to come to
the opposite conclusion?" Again, it's the appeal to logic and reason. It's against all reason and logic. What you have to see about these guys is,
they are completely denying Christ. They hate Him. They're denying the Christian faith. They're ridiculing the Spirit. They're not just a man who falls into sin. They are proud, they're
arrogant, they are defiant. And listen, you get this sense
of arrogance and defiance in the text in Hebrews, that seemed
to deal with this as well. (P) Heb 6:4-6, "It is impossible, in the case
of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly
gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the word of God
and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to
restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again
the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt." Again, is this a person
who had a stray thought, or thought a blasphemous
thought about the Holy Spirit, or fell into the same
kind of sin repeatedly? It says this is a person who's
been exposed to amazing light, and they fell away. "What do you mean they fell away?" They went away from the Christian faith. They turned their back on the
realities of the faith itself. That's like the sin that is
unto death in 1st John 5. You say, "What's that sin?" Well, listen, if you let 1st John speak, what is it in John that
is a sin unto death? 1 John 2:17-19 says, "They went out from us
because they weren't of us." Again, that's the falling away.
They went out from us. (P) Listen, if a person falls into sin, where it's like, "No, I'm turning
my back on the whole thing." You close the Bible. "I'm
not reading that anymore. I'm going back. I'm going
back to the way it was." With the Jews: "I'm going
back to my old religion. I'm turning my back on Christ. I'm going back to the Judaistic deal here,
that my forefathers have known. I'm done with this. I'm out of here." This is the sin unto death. They went out from us. They went out. They left the church.
They turned their back. This isn't a person who stumbled. But you see, the devil's
right there to say that. The devil is right there to say to
people who are trusting Christ, "Well, look, you had that thought." Or, "You fell into this sin too many times. You've committed the unpardonable sin. You've had so much light,
and you did that?" But you have to see,
this is aggravated. (P) Or you go to Hebrews 10:26, "If
we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains
a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation
of judgment, and a fury of fire that will
consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law
of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do
you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled
under foot the Son of God?" See, it is a trampling. It's like, "No!" It's like, "Yes, I'll walk on that.
I'm out of here. I've heard the truth and you know what? I would really rather
have my other religion, or I'd really rather have my
other sin, and I'm out of here. I'm turning my back on it.
I'm falling away. I'm trampling on this blood of Christ. I'm profaning the blood of the Covenant." It's outraging the Spirit of grace. It's like you come face to face
with this, and there's defiance. "I'm out of here. I'm going away.
I don't believe this. I think this is all a crock. I want my sin. I want whatever..." They went away. They go back.
They bailed out. They're gone. They've turned
their back to Christ. (P) I mean, we've seen this happen,
where somebody's like, "Yes, I've come face-to-face
with the truth, and the reality is, "I want my
homosexuality. I'm out of here." And they're gone. Or there's people who go
back to the old lifestyle. "This is just... I'm gone." But there's a defiance there. I remember when I was first saved. It was like I had this mindset
that if I thought this thought, like if I had a bad thought
about the Holy Spirit... And I remember being in my
apartment, on my knees, with my head against the
wall, holding my ears, because I didn't want
to think this thought. And it was like I was being
bombarded by this thought, and I didn't want to think this
thought, and then I thought it. And then the devil is right there
to say, "Ahhh! You committed it. Now you're hopeless. Now you're miserable. Now you can't be saved." And it's like, "Aah!" (P) But thankfully, the Lord was much more
powerfully working in my life than that. Again, where do you go? Back to the cross. Back to the doctrine of justification
by faith, that He saves sinners. And I found greater hope in that, than
misery in what the devil was telling me. That's where the peace and
rest are gonna be found - going back to the cross,
keeping our eyes on Christ, resting and trusting; coming with our sins, even if they're
repetitive, and confessing them. And Scripture says He's faithful and just. You see, we got to take
Him on those promises. It doesn't matter as a Christian
how many times you fall. Those promises are true,
that if you will go to Him, He's faithful and just to
forgive you your sins. The blood of Jesus Christ will
cleanse you from all that. And we have an Advocate. (P) Listen, no matter how many times you sin, Jesus still says, "Come unto
Me, I won't cast you out." No matter what you've done, if you
go to Him He won't cast you out, because that promise is always
good no matter what else is true. It is. There's no other promise
that undoes that promise, that if you go to Him you'll find rest; if you go to Him He won't cast you out; if you go to Him His blood will cleanse. Those promises are true all the time. That's the heart and soul of our salvation. Don't let the devil rob
you of those promises. Those need to be in your mind. "No matter what he's saying to me, if I go to Christ, I know
He will not cast me out." And if He's willing to say
to a church at Sardis, "Look, you've been living this lie. You have a name, and the
whole thing is false. Just repent. Repent." I mean, it's amazing how
longsuffering He is. (P) Father, I pray that you'd very
much encourage our assurance. Help us to ward off the
stratagems of the devil. We pray that you'd equip us with truth. And we ask for it all
in Christ's name. Amen.
