Is assurance confidence before God not presumptuous? That is a huge question for thousands and thousands of people. Is assurance not presumptuous, is it appropriate? How is it possible for a sinner to be confident before God? Welcome to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, for many a huge question. And I’m thinking of godly people, Christ’s people. Who have never really come to a place of having confidence about their own standing. They trust Christ and yet they doubt themselves and feel their own worthiness. And in some cases I’m thinking of people who’ve done that to their dying day and will have gone straight into the presence of Jesus. Because we’re not saved by the level of our assurance, we’re saved by Christ and by the strength of our saviour. But, the bible speaks about us rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. So there’s something better than going through life with great uncertainty about whether I shall ever make it. And how wonderful to enter into more joy and more confidence because we’re seeing what Christ has done for us and who He is more clearly. That’s what we’re going after when we’re talking about growing in faith and faith becoming stronger and entering into this marvelous assurance that is possible for a Christian believer. Last time we began to look at seven insights for increasing our faith. If you’ve missed any of them do please come to our website and you can hear them there. Today we continue exploring the seven insights, so if you can, join us in Romans chapter 5. Here’s Colin. Some of us maybe asking this question, is assurance not presumptuous? Is it appropriate? How is it possible for a sinner to be confident before God? When Wesley wrote, for example, bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own, would it really be appropriate for a person like you or me to sing that or to say it? Try to get this clear in your mind, it will help you greatly. If salvation rested on your work, assurance would be nothing but pride and presumption. If salvation rested on your work, on what you do for God on the extent of your faith.’ And so forth and so on. You’re serving, you’re praying, you’re ministering, and so forth. If salvation rested on your work, assurance would be nothing but pride and presumption. It would be saying, I got what it takes, God. Look at my Christian life. My friends, if you’ve been following in this series, you will have grasped, I hope by now, that precisely salvation does not rest on your work for God, but on God’s work for you, in Jesus Christ. Not on the righteousness that is developing and growing within your life, but is always partial in this world. But on the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, made yours through the finished work that He accomplished on the cross. And because our salvation rests not on our Christ but Christ’s work for us. Far from exalting ourselves, Christian assurance exalts Christ. Because it is not confidence in what we have done for Christ, but it is confidence in what Christ has done for us. So if you have come from a background in which it’s kind of inculcated in your mind to think that it’s somehow inappropriate to have joyful confidence before God. Then I want to commend to you the basis of Christian assurance which is that it does not rest in what you are doing for Jesus Christ but in what He has done for you, and therefore confidence in this exalts not yourself, but exalts Him, glorifies God wonderfully. Now, that is precisely why when you read through the Bible, you find that it is full of the most marvelous joyful expressions of Christian assurance, or to put it another way, full grown faith which is what you want to pursue and what I want to pursue in my life. Listen to the tone of it, the joy of it, the triumph of it and ask the question, is this not what you would want more of in your life? I know whom I have believed and I am convinced, the apostle Paul says, that he is able to guard what I have trusted to him, against that day. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that on the last day He will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, Job says, yet in my flesh I will see God. Wouldn’t you want that kind of assurance on your deathbed? My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. I have said, the Lord always before me and because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken, for I am convinced, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Friends, that is the assurance of faith. It’s beautiful. A full-grown confidence in Jesus Christ. And it is to be desired, and it is to be pursued, and that is what this series has been all about. So let me fifthly say this, that as we pursue this growth and this development of faith – Lord, increase my faith. Lord let me know more of this kind of assurance. Let me give you this further encouragement. Assurance of faith will make you much more fruitful in serving Jesus Christ. Now, again, Bishop Ryle has a very helpful analogy here, and sometimes, as you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s his picture, I’ve adapted it. Two men are both given a farm. The farms are exactly the same size and the soil in the farm is exactly—in each farm is exactly the same quality. They are given the same gift. They are given these farms freehold. The gift of the land is registered with the county and all the legal process for the transfer of full and permanent ownership of these two farms is complete. The first man receives his gift with joy and from that day he sets to work cultivating his farm. He plows. He sows. He weeds. He waters. And he harvests day in and day out. Marvellously productive farm. Then Bishop Ryles says this, suppose in the meanwhile that the other man shall be continually leaving his work and going repeatedly to the public registry to ask whether the land really is his, whether there is not some mistake, whether after all there is not some flaw in the legal instrument which conveyed it to him. Now here is the obvious question, which of these two men will have the greater harvest? And the answer of course is so obvious, isn’t it? The man who works the field produces more than the man who spends half his days inquiring about whether the field is really his? And here’s why for some of us if we could settle this matter of assurance, if we could grow into a settled faith, you would be a much more productive Christian. You’d be spending too much time going around and around in circles, asking you whether you really are! Assurance of faith will make you a much more fruitful Christian. In the book of Hebrews Paul says, you know, some of us should have moved on by now and not constantly be relaying the same sort of basic things as if we had never really received them. It’s time to settle, you put your faith in Jesus Christ, the gift of salvation is yours. Now, he has given you this great trust, he has given you the Holy Spirit. Time for you to move into fruitfulness of life. The years are passing, don’t spend them circling around asking the same, same, same, same, same, same, same questions and never moving. You say, remind me, how am I supposed to cultivate this assurance, then how do I move forward? That’s what our whole series folks has been about. You cultivate assurance how? By drawing near to Christ and how is that done? We draw near to Christ how? By hearing his word. Be careful how you hear. So it’s right here that faith grows. If it’s not growing here, it will not grow. We draw near by serving with the love of Christ. We draw near by feeding on the bread of Christ. Use the opportunities of service. Use the opportunities of hearing the word week by week and through this summer. Use the opportunities at the Lord’s table to come and to feed faith on him. Use the opportunities of worship to declare his praise. Don’t let these things pass you by. Use the opportunities of prayer. To draw near, pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, exercise this marvelous gift and use the opportunities to walk in obedience and to make godly choices. These are the habits of a growing Christian Life. This is how it happens. This is why some are moving forward and this is why some are not. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and continuing to look at the seven insights to help us increase our faith. The series is called The Anatomy of Faith and this message is called Rejoicing in the Work of Christ and if you’ve missed any of the series or if you want to go back and listen again you can do that online. Come to our website openthebible.org.uk and there you can stream any of the previously broadcast messages. You’ll also find us as a podcast on your favorite podcast site. Just search for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Back to the message now, we’re in Romans and chapter 5 as we continue the message, Rejoicing in the Work of Christ. Here’s Colin. You may be saying, Colin you have no idea the tough circumstances I’m in right now. I want to say to you, the tougher the circumstances you are in right now, the greater that invitation to draw near to Jesus Christ in all these ways really is. Hudson Taylor was a great missionary who pioneered evangelism in China in the latter part of the 19th century. Some of you will have heard his name, he was a man of extraordinary faith and he endured great trials in his life. In the single year of 1870, Hudson Taylor endured the affliction of the death of his young daughter and the death of his son and the death of his wife, in that order, in one year, 1870. I read from his biography. Days of sorrow and nights of heaviness came through a physical breakdown in 1871. Anyone surprised? Mr. Taylor found that a badly deranged liver made him sleepless and led to a painful depression of spirit. His case was increased by chest trouble, which caused not only pain but serious difficulty in breathing. And, time did not lessen his sense of loss. Able in some way just to peer into this man’s life situation. His biographer says it was under these circumstances that he discovered fresh power and beauty in the promise already vital in his experience. There was one promise of Scripture that the Lord had really borne into this man’s life and it was from John 4 and verse 14. Whoever drinks of the water I shall give him, Jesus said, will never thirst. His biographer continues, the suggestion of a continuous habit, indicated by the tense of the Greek verb, drinks, flooded the passage with new meaning and met his long continued need. And I quote, do not let us change the Savior’s words, he often said in later years, it is not whoever has drunk but whoever drinks. It is not of one isolated draft he speaks, or even many, but of the continuous habit of the soul. It seems to me Hudson Taylor says that where many of us err is in leaving our drinking in the past while our thirst continues in the present. What we need is to be drinking. Yes, thankful for each occasion which strives us to drink ever more deeply off the living water. You cultivate assurance by drawing near to Jesus Christ. Not as the occasional feature of your routine, but as the cultivated habit of your life. Not whoever has drunk. Not whoever has drawn near to Christ sometime in the last 5 or 10 years. Not whoever made a decision a long time ago. But whoever drinks off the living water. Drinks, drinks. What we need is to be drinking. Hudson Taylor says, of the water Christ shall give we’ll never thirst. And here’s the very last thing. I want to end on this note because it reaches to those who may feel most hopeless even today. The answer to doubting your faith is trusting your Savior. And I just have it on my heart that that is for someone, perhaps some folks in our congregation this weekend. Some folks face extreme difficulties in this whole matter of assurance and of faith. You struggle with many doubts. There is an instinct within your own heart that condemns you in so many ways. Satan is constantly trying to cause you to question your faith and in large measure he is often very successful. I simply want to end on this note to say to you that the answer to the weakness of your faith is the strength of your Savior. Think of it this way. Faith is a hand held up to Jesus Christ. But it is Christ’s hand that holds yours, not your hand that holds his. The strength of his hand is greater than the strength of your hand. That’s why there’s a hymn that’s sometimes sung, when I feel my faith may fail, Christ will hold me fast. Thank God that my salvation rests on the strength of his grip on me, not of the strength of my grip on him. So you who are always doubting your faith… When you’re doubting your faith, what are you looking at? When you’re doubting your faith, what are you looking at? Yourself. And you see, faith doesn’t grow by looking at faith. It doesn’t grow by looking in the mirror. Faith grows by looking away to Jesus Christ and seeing in Him all that I do not have in myself. And faith does not rest on its own serving or on its own praying or on its own obeying that is never complete, but on the Christ who has laid hold of us, by whose grace we seek to continue in all of our weakness to serve and to whom we pray and who we seek to obey. Christian faith looks to Christ and in looking to Christ you finally get away from looking at yourself. So that is why it is of huge importance when Paul comes to the summit of Christian assurance in Romans 5 and verse 11 he does not say, therefore we rejoice in our faith. None of us are going to be able to do that, it’s not that good. But what he says is therefore we rejoice in God through whom we have received the reconciliation. I found some pastoral wisdom. This is the last quote. In reading a man I have quoted a few times in this series, Professor Donald MacLeod, you’ll understand he’s from my home country of Scotland. And the reason I’ve found him most interesting and helpful to read is that he comes from a part of Scotland where, I don’t know, perhaps it is a cultural thing, but there are many, many, many Christian people who really, really struggle with the whole issue of assurance. And therefore he has a particular sensitivity towards helping Christians who have this affliction. And he makes this simple point with which I want to conclude. The worst thing that Satan can do to you is to convince you that you are a sinner, that all of your attempts at Christianity are completely useless, that you are an utter failure, and that you have no basis whatsoever for hope before God. That is the worst thing that Satan can do to you and if you should become convinced of that, do you see that you are precisely the person for whom Jesus Christ came into the world? Let me read the quote, and then we’re through. In the last analysis, this is the only answer for those who lack assurance of their own salvation. When doubt and temptation and depression have done their worst, proving that we have never been converted and never saved. Some of you have been there. You’ve come here and you say, I don’t know if I’ve ever really been a Christ. When doubt and temperation and depression have done their worst, proving that we have never been converted and never saved, what does that make us? Sinners. And what those Satan and your own conscience accuse you of pride, infidelity, covetousness, lust, anger, envy, and hypocrisy, do what they can. They can make no worse a man or woman of you than a sinner. …and consequently, such a one as Christ came to justify and to save. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smart and our message, Rejoicing in the work of Christ. It’s the final message in our series, The Anatomy of Faith, all about looking at what Biblical faith is, and how we can grow in faith. If you’ve missed any of the series, or if you’d just like to go back and listen again, don’t forget you can always do that by coming on-line to our website www.openthebible.org.uk There you’ll find all of the previously-broadcast messages which you can stream directly from the website. You can also find us as a podcast. Many people find that’s a more convenient way to keep up with Pastor Colin’s teaching. You’ll find that on your regular podcast site, wherever that may be. Just search for Open The Bible UK, and subscribe to receive regular updates. Open The Bible is only able to remain on the air and on the Internet because of the financial support of our listeners, people just like you. And if that’s something you’d like to do, then we have an offer for you this month. For the whole of this month, if you are able to set up a new donation to the work of Open The Bible in the amount of £5 per month, or more, we’d love to say thank you by sending you a copy of C. H. Spurgeon’s book Encouragement for the Depressed. Colin, can you give an example of Spurgeon’s Incouragement? Well, the first part of this book is based on Zechariah, chapter 4 and verse 10, Who has despised the Day of Small Things? When the temple was rebuilt after the exile, people who remembered the old temple, that was very grand, looked at the foundations and they said, is this it? You know, it just looks so small. And I think that speaks to us today that many who really labor in serving the Lord have the question, is this all that’s really coming from it? Is this the extent of what we shall see God doing in our lifetime? Do not despise the day of small things? Well, Spurgeon takes that verse and applies it to the discouragement that we often feel when we look at our own lives and think that things are small. You know, I only have a little knowledge. I’m not as bright as other people. My faith seems very small. And to that Spurgeon says, do not mourn that your faith is small. Thank God that you have any faith at all. I love that. That’s great. Thank God that you have this gift. It’s the most marvelous gift. He says if you believe in Jesus, though your faith be small as a mustard seed, it will save you, and over time it will grow. So, I find that Spurgeon’s writing is just nourishing to my soul. When I feel down, I often go to Spurgeon because I find that he picks me up. And I think that that’s what folks will find as they read this wonderful little book. Well, the book is called Encouragement for the Depressed. It’s by C.H. Spurgeon, and it’s our thank-you gift to you for being able to support the work of Open the Bible financially this month, in the amount of five pounds per month or more. For full details, or to give online, come to our website, OpenTheBible.org.uk. For Open the Bible, and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I hope you’ll be able to join us again next time on Open the Bible. Perhaps you can name the attributes of God, but which ones have you experienced? Find out why so many struggle with this question next time on Open the Bible.