The True Position Of Assurance
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 2ND, 1864, BY C, H. SPURGEON, AT
THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of Truth, the
Gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you believed, you
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
Ephesians 1:13.
MANY sincerely seeking souls are in great trouble because they have not
yet attained to an assurance of their interest in Christ Jesus–they
dare not take any comfort from their faith because they suppose that it
has not attained to a sufficient strength. They have believed in the
Lord Jesus and they have His promise that they shall be saved, but they
are not content with this–they want to get assurance and then they
suppose they shall have a better evidence of their salvation than the
bare word of the Savior.
Such persons are greatly mistaken. But as that mistake is a very
painful one, and exercises the most injurious influence upon them, we
will spend this morning in trying, as God shall help us, to clear up
their difficulty. We want them to see that if they believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, even though they should not have attained to the precious
Grace of full assurance of faith, yet nevertheless they are saved! And
being justified by faith, they may rightfully enjoy peace with God
through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Their mistake seems to me to be this–they look for ripe fruit upon a
tree in spring and because that season yields nothing but blossoms,
they conclude the tree to be barren. They go to the head of a
river–they find it a little rippling brook, and because it will not
float a "Great Eastern," they conclude that it will never reach the
sea, and that, in fact, it is not a true part of the river at all. They
look upon themselves as being little children and such they are–but
because they cannot speak plainly on account of having been so newly
born, they therefore conclude that they are not the children of God at
all!
They see strong men in Christ Jesus performing great exploits. And
because they, as yet, are but young and feeble, they conclude that they
are not in the family of Grace. They compare themselves with giants in
the Church of God and then, because they rightly perceive the
difference between themselves and these mighty ones, they imagine that
they are not saved–that they cannot be numbered among the faithful and
have no part nor lot in this matter. They put the last things first.
They make comforts essentials. They consider that which is the fruit of
Grace to be the root of Grace. And herein they pierce themselves
through with many sorrows.
Perhaps they will not fall into this error again if they get a right
understanding of the text before us. The Apostle Paul here explains the
process by which sealing–the sealing of assurance–is obtained. There
are three steps by which the hallowed elevation is reached. The first
is hearing–they heard first the preaching of the Word. The second is
believing. And then, thirdly, "after that you believed, you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise."
I. To begin then, faith comes by HEARING. The preaching of the Gospel
is God's soul-saving ordinance. It has pleased God by the "foolishness
of preaching" to save them that believe. In every age God raises up men
who faithfully proclaim His Word and, as he departs, another arrives.
Elijah ascends to Glory, but his mantle falls upon Elisha. Paul dies
not until Timothy is in the field. This true Apostolic succession is
continued evermore, for when we know not where to find ministers, we
may rest assured that in nooks and corners the Lord is preparing men
for His work.
The true preacher has a claim upon men's attention. If God has sent
him, men should receive him. If he comes as an ambassador from the King
of kings, let his commission be proved and he has a right to receive
the careful and prayerful attention of all who come in his way. No,
more–God's true ambassador not only claims a hearing, but he wins
it–for there is an attractiveness in his theme which holds men by the
ears! "I, if I am lifted up," said Christ, "will draw all men unto Me,"
and among the other drawings there is this peculiar fact that men are
drawn to hear where Christ is preached!
He who preaches Christ has golden chains coming from his mouth with
which he binds men's ears, if not their hearts. They are not all bound
to salvation, but bound somehow they shall be–the savor shall go forth
even though it should be a savor of death unto death and not of life
unto life. The preacher claims a hearing and he wins it! What is that
message which we are to hear in order to the attaining of faith, and,
through faith, of full assurance?
Our text is very expressive, for it tells us, "You heard the Word of
Truth, the Gospel of your salvation." It is of little use to hear that
which is not the Word of Truth–no, it is worse than useless–for by
error we shall soon be misled. And if the preaching is not concerning
the Word of Truth, even though it should be a word of truth, yet it can
be of no value to the getting of faith–it must be the Word–the Word
peculiarly above all others having the Truth of God and substance in
it. There is no doubt that the expression here is a Hebraism for, "the
true Word," you heard the true Word.
O Brothers and Sisters, how joyous it is for us to know God's Word to
be true! We have proved it in our own souls and thus can bear our
witness to you concerning it. If we speak not according to the true
Word of God, reject us, for that which will bless you must have a,
"Thus says the Lord," to support it and must be based upon the
Revelation of the Most High–otherwise it cannot be of saving service,
seeing it is not the Word which is infallibly true!
No doubt that the expression signifies the highest truth, truth as much
the truth among other truths, as the Bible is the book above all other
books. What I must hear for my salvation is not an important doctrine
which may or may not be believed, but the Word without which men must
perish in their sins. We may also remind you that the "Word of Truth"
is a phrase peculiar to the contradistinction to the Law. Compare the
Revelation of Christ with that of Moses–Moses revealed much Gospel
Truth, but it was in shadows, not by a plain word of teaching–and
therefore we now declare that the Law was given by Moses–but Grace and
Truth came by Jesus Christ.
Christ is the Substance of all those shadows which Moses had to bring
before the people's minds. And therefore there is an emphasis about the
Gospel as being not metaphorical Truth, but solid Truth–the essential
Truth of God. As the mountain towers high above the surrounding plain,
so the great Truth that, "God was made flesh and dwelt among us"–the
faithful saying that, "Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to
save sinners"–towers above all other Truths of God and demands our
first and our best thoughts. And as the sun outshines all other lights,
even so the manifestation of Truth in the Gospel of Christ excels all
other Revelations. It is the Word of Truth.
But the text also adds, "the Gospel"–"the Gospel of your salvation."
You are to listen to the Gospel–to that which is good news–to a
something totally new to the world's natural religion–a something
which came fresh from God–God's great novelty–something good–good in
the deepest sense–infinitely good–good for your soul's best
interests–good in answering the craving appetite of your poor hungry
spirit. It must be good news–it must be evangelical doctrine to which
you must listen if you would get faith!
Faith does not come by seeing. Men do not get faith by looking at a
priest manipulating bread and wine, or sprinkling drops of baptismal
water. The symbols of the Church of Rome do not beget faith. They may
beget attention. They may please the fancy and delight the taste, but
they do not beget the faith of God's elect. It is the Gospel–the
Gospel preached and heard which does this through the power of the Holy
Spirit! We do not get faith through ordinances–no matter if God
Himself prescribed them. They are not the channel through which faith
comes. The Apostle expressly declares that, "faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God."
It is not through eye-gate, but through ear-gate, that salvation comes
to us. God may, and doubtless does, infuse Grace into us by channels
other than the sense of hearing. But, at any rate, the usual way in
which Grace comes streaming into the soul is by hearing–and that is
the hearing of the Gospel–not the hearing of tradition! Not the
hearing of supposition! Not the hearing of poetic imaginations, but the
hearing of that old evangel, which was first proclaimed by Jesus on the
Mount and afterwards by His Apostles and to this day is still
proclaimed with trumpet-tongue by those who know its quickening power!
You must hear the Gospel–and observe it is called "the Gospel of your
salvation." You will never get faith, dear Friends, unless you look
upon the Gospel as the great means of salvation and come earnestly
enquiring and desiring that it may be made to you the Gospel of your
salvation! Not of another man's, but of your salvation. I cannot say to
every unconverted man, "This Gospel will save you," but I can say
this–if you receive this Gospel, it certainly will–and that the
moment it is accepted by the heart it is the Gospel of your salvation.
Reject it–it will be a savor of death unto death to you! But if the
Holy Spirit shall come with it and command your will and win your
assent and consent, then it is, indeed, the Gospel of your salvation.
Are you a sinner? "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
Inasmuch as this is worthy of all acceptance, it is worthy of your
acceptance and is, in a sense, even now the Gospel of your salvation!
We know that Christ came to "seek and to save that which was lost." Are
you lost? Then in a sense it is the Gospel of your salvation, seeing
that you are lost. If you can grasp that cheering Word with the hand of
faith, you will say, "Yes, lost as I am, I believe Christ came to save
the lost and I trust Him alone to save me." Then it is the Gospel of
your salvation in a very high and special sense, seeing that now you
have been saved by it!
The great end, it seems to me, of the preaching of the Gospel is just
this–the preacher should always be aiming so to preach it that he may
find out those souls to whom this is the Gospel of their salvation–so
laboring to bring it home, both by persuading by the terrors of the Law
and by the love of Jesus! Then men shall–through the Spirit of God
accompanying the Word–be led, through hearing, to lay hold upon Christ
and so to be saved! Thus I have set forth what you have to hear.
May I beg you carefully to judge every preacher, not by his gifts, not
by his elocutionary powers, not by his status in society, not by the
respectability of his congregation, not by the prettiness of his
Church, the grandeur of the ceremonies, or the peculiar beauty of his
vestments, but by this–does he preach the Word of Truth, the Gospel of
your salvation? If he does, your sitting under his ministry may prove
to you the means of getting faith. But if he does not, you cannot
expect God's blessing, for you are not using God's ordinance but the
ordinance of man.
The hearing of the Gospel involves the hearer in responsibility. It is
a great privilege to hear the Gospel. You may smile and think there is
nothing very great in it. The damned in Hell know! Oh, what would they
give if they could hear the Gospel now–if they could come back and
entertain but a shadow of a hope that they might yet escape from the
wrath to come? The saved in Heaven estimate this privilege at a high
rate, for, having obtained salvation and eternal life through the
preaching of this Gospel, they can never cease to bless their God for
calling them by His Word of Truth.
that you knew it! On your dying beds the listening to a Gospel sermon
will seem another thing than it seems now. Now you may come out of
curiosity, and go away and forget it. But when grim Death and you shall
stand face to face, you will find it quite another thing to have had
God's Word spoken to you and you will hear such a word as this, "You
stumbled at the Word because you were disobedient and therefore woe has
come upon you to the uttermost." I must also add that if hearing is
really so gracious an ordinance, it becomes Christian men and women to
pray the Lord to send forth laborers into His vineyard–to entreat Him
to bless all efforts used to train our young ministers for future
conflict.
1 beg you not to forget to aid our Pastor's College both with your
gifts and your prayers! It should bring afresh to the thoughts of all
of you the duty of praying for those who are engaged in preaching the
Word, for their preaching is nothing, except as the Spirit goes with
it. And though, when the Spirit goes with it the shout of the King is
heard in our camps, let Him withdraw and there is nothing but
disappointment and dismay in the hosts of God. Pray for us, Brethren!
We trust we have a good conscience and endeavor to free ourselves of
the blood of souls. We want our hearers to pray for us and hold up our
hands as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses on the mount. Be
diligent in hearing the Word. If you are saved, still listen to it for
your soul's health. If you are not saved, neglect no opportunities of
listening. Lie at this pool of Bethesda–who can tell but you may yet
step in when the angel does move the waters–or Jesus Himself may come
and walk through those five porches and bid you take up your bed and
walk?
Waste no Sunday in going where you cannot hear the Gospel! And when you
hear the Gospel, hear it with all your ears–give your whole soul to
it–as the thirsty earth drinks in the descending showers, so drink in
the Word of God! As new-born babes receive the unadulterated milk of
the Word, so receive that which is able to save your souls! And through
hearing may faith come and through faith may you gain the assurance
which you so earnestly desire.
II. After hearing came BELIEF. We know that believing does not always
immediately follow hearing. There is a case told of Mr. Flavel having
preached a sermon which was blessed to a man, I think eighty-five years
afterwards, so that the seed may lay long buried in dust! Yet, had not
that man heard that sermon, speaking after the manner of men, he had
not received the quickening Word of God!
You may have heard the Gospel long in vain and it should be to you a
source of very serious enquiry if you have done so–it should set you
trembling lest the Word should never be the savor of life unto you. But
at the same time do not renounce the hearing because up to now you have
had no blessing, for faith comes by hearing. Continue to listen!
Continue to search the Word. And if your soul desires faith, God denies
not faith to any in whom He has really implanted a desire after it.
Faith will yet, we trust, come while you are hearing. This belief, you
observe, is called trusting. Kindly look at the verse–"In whom you
also trusted."
The translators have borrowed that word, "trusted," very properly, from
the twelfth verse. Do not, because you see it in italics, think that it
is not properly there. It is not in the original, but being in the
twelfth verse it is very rightly understood here. Believing, then, is
trusting. If you want it summed up in the shortest word, it is just
this–trusting Christ. A message comes to me upon good authority–I
believe it. Believing it, I necessarily trust it. My receiving of the
message is so far good, but the essential act, the act essential to
salvation is the trusting–the trusting Christ.
The process of faith may be thus illustrated. You know a friend of
yours to be perfectly reliable–you are in debt. He tells you that if
you will trust him to pay the debt, he will give you, on the spot, a
receipt for it. Now you look at him. You consider his ability to pay
it. You consider the probability that he means what he is saying.
Having once made up your mind that he is truthful, you could not then
say, "I cannot believe you." If you once know that person to be
truthful, I utterly deny that you can hold any argument about your
power to believe him!
So, if Jesus Christ declares that He came into the world to save
sinners, and, if He tells me, as He does tell me, that "whosever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"–if I am
already enabled by God's Spirit to believe in the perfect truthfulness
of Christ, I should be lying unto my own soul if I said I had not power
to believe in Him. Understand, power to believe in Christ is the gift
of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit has given that power to all men
who know the perfect truthfulness of Christ.
It must be so, if you just look at it for a moment–it must be so. If I
know the perfect truthfulness of a man, I lie if I say to him, "I
cannot believe you." Why, it follows, as a matter of course that I must
believe if I am convinced that he is worthy of credit. Just so, when I
am assured of Christ that His Testimony is worthy of my belief–I have
no right, then, to plead that I cannot believe Him. Mark, I am only
speaking to those who have got as far as that and there are hundreds of
you who have! When you tell me you cannot believe, I reply, "My dear
Friend, you can believe. In the Holy Spirit's giving you enough
enlightenment to know that Christ is faithful and true, that
enlightenment is your power to believe!"
And this is according to the rules of common sense as well as according
to the rules of experience. Do not stand, therefore, and say, "I cannot
believe what Christ says." Do you believe Him to be true? "Yes," you
say, "I dare not say otherwise." Then you can believe what He says. But
do you really believe that Christ is true? I fear you do not. I believe
that John discovered the secret of your unbelief when he said, "He that
believes not has made God a liar, because he has not believed on His
Son." That is the bottom line.
You really think God is a liar! Do you shrink from that charge? Ah, but
I must bring it against you again, for if you know God to be true, I
insist upon it and your own reason tells you it is so–that you cannot
help believing in a person you know to be true! I fear that you are
making God a liar. And if you deny that charge, then I arrest you at
the other point at once and demand of you that you do now exercise
faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ! It is trusting Christ that
saves the soul!
Now a few remarks about believing. Faith in Christ is the work of God's
Holy Spirit. In proof of this we have many Scriptures. No man ever did
yet believe in Christ until the Holy Spirit had quickened him and
illuminated his understanding so that he perceived the truthfulness of
Christ's Character and was then led to trust Him. But in the next
place, although faith is the work of the Spirit, it is the act of man.
The Holy Spirit does not believe for me–there is nothing for Him to
believe! Repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit
does not repent–He has nothing to repent of. He works in me to will
and to do, but I will and I do–He does not will nor do what I ought to
will and do.
If I have a person here who is ignorant and I teach him–when he
acquires knowledge, that knowledge is my gift to him and my work in
him. At the same time he acquires that knowledge himself, and it would
never have been his if he had not yielded up his faculties to be
taught. Man believes. And whenever persons say to you, "Well, if it is
the work of the Holy Spirit, how can it be the duty of man?" remind
them that while it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not the act of
the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit does not believe–it is the man who
believes.
The Spirit moves upon us and by His mysterious agency takes away the
natural unbelief of the soul and then we believe. But man is not
passive in the act of believing. A dead man does not believe–the man
is quickened and then his quickened spirit lays hold of the revealed
Truth of God. Observe this, further, that faith is due to Christ. The
faithful and true witness demands of me that I should believe what He
says. Sinner, this is the unkindest cut you can give to Christ– to
doubt Him. I tell you that all His sufferings on the tree did not
insult Him so much as when you say, "I cannot trust You."
What? Not trust the eternal arm on which the earth hangs? Not trust the
bleeding hands which have opened the gates of Heaven for the very chief
of sinners? Not trust the streaming side out of which there gushes
blood and water to cleanse the guilt and the power of sin? Not trust
God's own Son, the Mighty God, the Redeemer of Men? It is due to Him
that you should, with your whole heart, lean upon Him and give Him all
your confidence. This faith is essential to salvation. Assurance is not
essential, but no man can be saved unless he trusts in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You may get to Heaven with a thousand doubts and fears–you may
get to Heaven without some of those Graces of the Spirit which are the
ornaments of the Believer's neck! But you cannot get there without the
life-giving Grace offaith.
You must have that and so long as you continue to say, "I will not
trust Christ. I want dreams, visions, experiences, revelations. I want
terrors of conviction. I want this, I want the other"–so long you shut
yourself out of peace. Till you set your seal to God's Word, God will
never set His seal to your faith. Remark, again, this faith is not
required in any particular degree. In order to salvation, it is not
declared in Scripture that you are to believe to a certain strength–if
you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed–if that is a
mountain-moving faith, surely it shall be a soul-saving faith!
Faith is not to be estimated by its quantity but by its quality. If you
have no more faith than a smoking flax has of fire, yet He will not
quench you–if you have no more power of faith than a bruised reed has
of strength, yet He will not break you! If you are not a man, but an
infant in Grace–no, if you are scarcely a healthy infant, if there is
but faith in you, though you are cast out as unswaddled and
unwashed–yet He passes by and looks upon you! Can you but trust Him?
THAT is the thing. If you do but trust Him as a drowning man clutches a
rope. If you look to Jesus, as it were, out of the corner of your eye,
though there are so many tears in your eyes that you cannot see Him so
completely as you desire–though you cannot see Him at all to your
comfort–yet you see Him to salvation! If you have received Him, desire
great faith, but remember that little faith will carry you to Heaven
through Jesus Christ.
Observe, further, that this faith is very variable, but it is not
perishable. Faith may go to an ebb, as the tide does, but it will come
to a flood again. When faith is at its flood, the man is not,
therefore, more saved! And when faith is at its ebb, the man is not,
therefore, less saved! For, after all, salvation does not lie in faith,
but in Christ. And faith is but the connecting link between the soul
and Christ. Faith may take Christ up in its arms, like Simeon, and it
is true faith. But, on the other hand, faith may only venture to touch
the hem of Jesus' garment and that faith makes men whole.
Some of us can look the Savior in the face and even kiss Him with the
kisses of our mouth and others may only venture to come behind Him in
the throng, all timid and afraid–but faith, if it is faith, let it
change as it may–still saves. Faith–if it is faith–let it sink as it
may, never can drown–it may live in the flames, but it shall never be
burned. He who once gets this incorruptible seed, shall find it lives
and abides in him forever. This faith is worked in us by the Spirit of
God, according to the laws of the mind.
When God works upon matter, He works according to the laws of matter. I
do not find, apart from miracles, that God violates gravitation–that
He breaks any of the great laws with which He has stamped matter. And
when the Spirit of God comes to work on man, He does not break the laws
with which He regulates the mind. Now, it seems to be one of the laws
of the mind that a man should believe a thing not by trying to believe
it, but by force of evidence. If you now sit down, for instance, and
try to believe in the explosion of the powder magazines yesterday–if
you have any doubt about it, you may try, as long as you like, to
believe it–you cannot do it by trying. You must go through another
process. You cannot pump faith up from your own mind.
How do I get to believe in the explosion of the powder mills? There are
certain newspapers–I have confidence in those newspapers and as I read
the account–I believe it. Or I meet with certain persons who either
heard the explosion, or saw some of the effects produced thereby and
now I believe without any effort at all–I cannot help believing!
Belief comes necessarily from my having confidence in those who tell me
so. Now, the Spirit of God, when about to produce faith, frequently
leads men to think about Christ. Christ is set forth before them
crucified. They perceive that, "Here is a great wonder–God clothed in
human flesh to suffer for human sin!"
The mind thinks, "There is something here which meets my conscious
needs. I can see how God can be just, for He punishes His Son–and how
He can be gracious, for He forgives sin. I find it stated that if I
trust myself in this Son of God, who suffered as Man and now pleads His
infinite merits before the Throne of God–if I trust in Him I shall be
saved. I cannot trust in Him by simply saying I will try to do it, but
I look at the Bible–is that true? I look at the thing itself–does it
look like truth?" I ask friends who have tried and proved it and they
tell me that they have tasted that He is gracious. Upon this evidence
and specially upon perceiving the power of this Truth of God in my own
soul, I believe the Word of God. The Spirit of God, working thus, leads
me from the evidence given, to believe the testimony borne and I
believe it.
Dear Friends, if you want to get faith, it must come through the Spirit
of God! But it usually comes in this way–if the Word is not blessed to
you in hearing it and meditating upon it at home–thinking much of
Christ and His great work–what you have been doing is this–you have
been thinking of your sins only. What would you think of a judge who
sat upon a bench and who would listen to all the complaints against a
criminal, but as soon as the advocate arose to plead his cause, would
say, "No, I do not intend to listen to that"? You have been doing that.
Your poor soul stands on trial and you have been listening to the
accusations of Satan and your own sins!
And the moment Christ gets up to show you His great Atonement–the
moment the promise is quoted–you say, "It is presumption for me to
hope." My dear Friends, it is never presumption to listen to the Truth
of God. If it is true that in due time Christ died for the ungodly. If
it is true that he who comes to Him He will in no wise cast out. If it
is true that He has said, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." If it is true that He has said, "I have blotted out, as a thick
cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins," why not listen
to that as well as the other?
Surely you must look at the fair side as well as the foul. And while
your ear is hearing of the work of Christ and the promise of God, you
will be able to cry–
"I do believe, I must believe, That Jesus died for me.
"I could not have thought it! Oh, it melts me! I have been trying to
get a soft heart and could not get it, but I have it now all through
this. Here have I been hurrying to and fro, looking after faith and
assurance instead of looking to the Cross for it! But now I see it all
and I am saved, for I trust in Jesus Christ alone!"
I have said as much as may be needed this morning upon faith. I have
tried to be brief upon each point and packed as many things as I could
into the time. Now we are to have a few words about assurance.
III. The text says, "You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
I cannot take the fourteenth verse, except to hint at it–we will try
and preach on that this evening. Sealing, which is another name for
assurance, for the witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirit–that we
are born of God, is evidently distinct from faith. Please observe
that–for the text says, "After that you believed, you were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise." Believing, then, is not this sealing.
And assurance, although it is akin to believing, is not believing.
There is a distinction between the two things. I want you to notice the
distinction. In faith the mind is active. The text uses verbs which
imply action–"you trusted," "you believed." But when it comes to
sealing it uses quite another verb–"you were sealed." I am active in
believing–I am passive when the Holy Spirit seals me. The witness of
the Spirit is a something which I receive, but faith is a something
which I exercise as well as receive. In faith my mind does
something–in being sealed my faith receives something. If I may say
so, faith writes out the document–there she labors–but the Holy
Spirit stamps the seal Himself and there is no hand wanted there except
His own. He stamps His own impression to make the document valid.
Notice the difference between the activeness and the passiveness.
Then, again, man is commanded to believe in Scripture in many
places–but he never was commanded to be sealed. Faith is a duty as
well as a privilege, but assurance a privilege only. I never find any
man exhorted to get the sealing of the Spirit. I believe that every
Christian should pray for it and seek it, but I know of no command. It
is a gift, a priceless gift and, unlike faith, it does not constitute a
subject or command. Again, we read in Scripture that men are saved by
faith and live by faith, but neither salvation nor living are ever
imputed to sealing or to assurance. We are not saved by assur-ance–we
do not even live by assurance. The vital principle is couched in faith.
That is the shell which holds the kernel of the inner spiritual life.
I may be saved though I never had assurance. But even if I fancied I
had assurance, I could not be saved if I had not faith. To faith we say
salvation is promised, but to assurance such a promise is not given. It
is clear from the context that assurance follows faith–"after that you
believed." The Apostle does not say how soon. I believe that many souls
get full assurance with faith. I have known converts who have been as
certified of their interest in Christ as though they had been seventy
years experimentally walking with Him. But, mark you, this is not the
case always–perhaps not often.
Brookes gives the case of a Mr. Frogmorton who was one of the most
valuable ministers of his day, but was thirty-seven years without any
assurance of his interest with Christ. He trusted Christ, but his
ministry was always a gloomy one, for he could not read his title clear
to mansions in the skies. He went to the house of a dear friend, Mr.
Dodd, to die. Just before he died, the light of Heaven streamed in–he
not only expressed his full assurance of faith, but triumphed so
gloriously, that he was the wonder of all round about him!
He also tells us of one Mr. Glover, who had been for years without
assurance of his interest in Christ. But when he came to the fire to be
burnt, just as he saw the stake, he cried, "He is come! He is come!"
And instead of being heavy of heart as he had been in prison, he went
to the stake with a light step! Three martyrs were once chained to the
stake, two of them rejoicing. But one was observed to slip from under
the chains for a moment and prostrate himself upon the firewood and
wrestle with God and then coming back to the stake, he said, "The Lord
has manifested himself to me at the last and now I shall burn bravely."
And so, indeed, he did, bearing his witness for his Lord and Master.
So it seems there are some of God's saints who do not get assured till
even the last moment and I will not say that there are not some of them
who even, like some children, are put to bed in the dark. Christ went
up to Heaven in a cloud–Gideon saw the angel ascending in the smoke of
the incense and many a good man ascends with clouds of darkness round
about him–but still he goes to Heaven! I hope these cases are very
few–still we bring them forward to show you that assurance is not to
be looked for before faith. You might as well look for the pinnacle
before the foundation, for the cream before the milk, for the apples
before you plant the tree–for the harvest before you sow the seed.
Assurance follows faith.
Observe in the next place–and it is worthy of your notice–that
assurance is to be found where faith was found. Do observe those two
words, "in whom"–"in whom you also trusted"–"in whom you were
sealed." So that as I get my faith out of Christ, so I must get my
assurance out of Christ. The virtual means of my faith is Christ
Himself and the virtual means of my assurance must be the same. As I
think of what He did for me, I believe in Him. As I continue to
meditate upon that same thing, I have assurance of interest in Him. You
must feed upon the flesh and blood of Christ if you would grow into
strong men in Christ Jesus. A touch of Christ will heal you from all
disease–but you must hold Him fast if you would enjoy spiritual health
perpetually.
To believe in Christ will save you from Hell. To be assured of your
interest in Christ will give you a Heaven upon earth! Do not be content
with faith–be thankful for it, rejoice in it–but ask to have more.
And when you want to have more, go to Christ for it–the same fountain
which first quenched your thirst must be that which shall quench it
till you are taken up to drink of the River of Life which flows through
the midst of Paradise–which is no other than the Presence of Christ as
a refreshment to His people.
This assurance, like faith, is the work of the Spirit of God. "You were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." He does this in various ways.
Sometimes we get the seal of the Spirit through experience. We know
that God is true because we have proved Him. Sometimes this comes
through the hearing of the Word–as we listen our faith is confirmed.
But there is doubtless, besides this, a special and supernatural work
of the Holy Spirit whereby men are assured that they are born of God.
You will observe in one place the Apostle says, "The Spirit also bears
witness with our spirit, that we are born of God," so that there are
two witnesses–first, our spirit bears witness, that is, by evidences.
I look at my faith and see myself depending upon Christ and then I
know, because I love the Brethren and for other reasons, that I am born
of God.
Then there comes over and above the witness of evidence, faith and
feeling–the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit. Have you
not felt it? I cannot describe this to you, but you who have felt it
know it. Did you not the other day feel a heavenly calm as you
meditated upon your state and condition in Christ? You wondered where
it came from. It was not the result of protracted devotion but it stole
over you–you knew not how it was–you were bathed in it as in sunlight
and you rejoiced exceedingly. You rejoiced in Christ–that was your
basis of confidence, and that confidence came through the Spirit
bearing witness with your spirit.
This has occurred sometimes in the midst of sharp conflicts just when
dark despair seemed ready to overwhelm you. You may have enjoyed this
comfort under peculiar trials and losses of friends and you may expect
to have it when you come to die. Then, if ever in your life, you should
be able to say, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me (in a special
sense) You are with me." The Holy Spirit, then, must give it to us, and
we must wait upon Him to set His seal. And so to conclude, this is
desirable to the highest degree, for it is the earnest of the
inheritance. It is a part of Heaven on earth to get an assurance worked
by the Spirit!
It is not merely a pledge, for a pledge is given back when you get the
thing itself, but it is an earnest. It is one cluster from the vines of
Eshcol–one shekel of the eternal wage–money of the Free Grace reward.
What if I say it is a stray note from the harps of angels? It is a drop
of the spray from the fountains of life. It is one ingot of gold from
the pavement of Heaven. It is one ray of heavenly light from the
eternal Sun of Righteousness. O Christian, if you have ever known
assurance, you will pant till you have it again! You can never, after
seeing the sunlight, put up with the candlelight of your doubts and
fears in the dungeon of despondency.
But if assurance is gone, still hang onto Jesus–
"When your eye of faith is dim, Still hold onto Jesus, sink or swim.
Still at His footstool bow the knee, And Israel's God your peace shall
be." If you cannot feel His love in your heart, still trust Him! Oh, it
was grand of Job–"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." Truly, the
vitality of faith is such that if He should spurn me from His
Presence–if He never gave me another look of love this side of
Heaven–if He gave me up to the lowest depths and bade all His waves
and billows go over me, yet is He such a faithful God and so true that
I dare not even, then, doubt Him. Blind unbelief would do so, but
victorious faith says, "Never! He cannot lie. Let God be true and every
man a liar."
When faith is at her very worst, she is glorious and sparkles like a
jewel in the dark mine and God will come and take her up out of all the
depths and set her in His own crown as a precious jewel. "Your faith
has saved you," says Jesus. No, Lord, it is not faith that has done it,
it is Yourself. He takes the crown royal of salvation's glory, lifts it
right off from His own head and puts it on the head of the poor feeble
woman's faith. "Your faith has saved you: go in peace." And so will God
do with your tempest-tossed and exercised faith! He will put the crown
upon it and that faith of yours shall sing in Heaven!
Do not tell me that we shall have no faith in Heaven–nonsense! "Now
abides faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity." We shall find faith to be our sweet companion there. Shall I
not believe God when I get to Heaven? Shall I give up trusting my God
when I get there? No, I shall trust Him for my resurrection body! I
shall trust Him for the millennial splendor! I shall trust Him for the
gathering of the elect! Trust Him for an eternity of bliss! Trust Him
for my safe standing where He has brought me. And so, happy faith,
imperishable faith, shall live and reign when sense and sight are gone
past recall. The Lord give you to hear the Word, to believe in it and
afterwards to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.