Do you have confidence in your faith?
Assurance. It's a powerful word, and it's the topic from Dr. Don Wilton on today's edition of the broadcast. Welcome to The Encouraging Word. In just a few moments, we'll be opening that book, The Bible Itself, God's Encouraging Word, with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, and teacher. And as we study the word together, we want you to know that we're here to encourage you, whether it be on the phone at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673, or online at tewonline.org. Well, right now you'll see a remarkable book and a message series from Dr. Wilton talking about the confident assurance of salvation.
Again, that's online at tewonline.org, or call for more information at 866-899-9673. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. I'm going to be speaking to you this morning on a subject that God puts on my heart very frequently, but a subject that we do not speak about often enough from God's Word. I'm going to say to you, beloved friends, that this subject this morning is vital, it is critical. You need a pen, you need a pencil, a piece of paper, you need to write some of these things down, as so many of you do each Sunday. Nothing gives me greater joy than hearing God's Word being opened on Sunday morning and seeing heads go down and notes being taken. I want to speak to you today from God's Word on the subject of assurance. Perhaps the greatest struggle that people have today in their Christian faith is their assurance of salvation. There are many, many times that we will wake up and we will struggle every day with the issue of our salvation. The Bible says we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
What God has provided for us in Jesus Christ is one of the most precious commodities that we have. One of the great generals in the Second World War was invited by Eisenhower and the Allied command to take up position for a strategic battle. And Eisenhower and Montgomery said to him, General, we're going to offer you one thousand troops in order to accomplish this task, to which the general replied, Sirs, I would rather that you give me a hundred men who know who they are than a thousand men who don't know who they are. And I believe that in America today that God is raising up young people and older folks and middle aged people who are coming to a deep theological understanding of who they are in Christ Jesus. I'm going to confess to you today there have been some times when I have been preaching on the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ or on the rapture of the church and I've begun to ask myself what happens if I'm not going to be raptured. What am I going to say to my people? What would I say if Jesus Christ were to come again this week and I was to be left behind?
That'll be a nice how do you do, don't you think? You see folks, all of us, it doesn't matter if you're the pastor of the church or whether you're a great student of the word of God or whether you've been living for the Lord for many years, all of us are subject to the struggles concerning our salvation. This is a subject that I could quite literally preach on for the next five or six Sundays but I want us to take a cursory glance at what God says to us and I'm praying for you today, everyone, that you would be strengthened in your faith, that as a result God would deepen your walk in Him, that your anchor would hold and that because of a deeper understanding of who we are in Christ Jesus, that God would enable us by His Spirit because of what Christ has done in us to enable us to go out and to be better servants for Him. Now I'm going to read two verses of Scripture. The first is in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12.
Turn there with me. Everyone needs a Bible in your hand this morning. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. Verse 12 kind of picks up in the middle of a discourse that the Apostle Paul is sharing with us.
He says, that is why I am suffering as I am. Now what is Paul talking about? Paul here in 2 Timothy is talking about the fact that God has called him quite literally to be a prisoner of Christ Jesus. And in fact, if you go back to verse 11 of this chapter, you're going to see, and of this Gospel, I was appointed to be a herald and an apostle and a teacher and because Paul the Apostle had been called to be a herald and apostle and a teacher, God said to him, I designate you, I commission you to be a soldier of the cross. What Paul is talking about is the cost of discipleship.
Now folks, listen very carefully. We must understand this morning that there is a cost involved in following Jesus Christ. And if you and I follow Jesus Christ, we are going to be subject to all that which comes against the followers of Jesus Christ. Paul knew what that was.
Paul was shipwrecked. He said in Philippians, I know how to be full and to suffer need. I know how to have this and have not that. He said, I know how to be in all different circumstances. But here Paul says that no matter where I find myself, no matter how I feel about it, no matter what circumstances I may be subject to, I want you to know that I'm not ashamed because I know whom I have believed. And I am convinced. I love that word convinced. You know what convinced means? It means I am positively persuaded. That word they convinced means that there is no doubt whatsoever.
It means that I believe what I believe. Paul says, listen, he says, I know in whom I have believed, I am convinced that God is able to guard me, to hold me together, that which I have entrusted unto him for that day. Now I want you to turn over to 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5, right before the book of Revelation. Remember there are three Johns, four Johns in the Bible.
There's one big John and three little Johns. We're at 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. Now the Apostle John here is saying something remarkable, my friends.
We need to take note of this. He says, I write these things unto you who believe. Now who is the subject that he's writing to?
Who is he writing to? He's writing to people like you and me today who know Jesus Christ, to those of us who believe in him, to those of us who have trusted Jesus, to those of us who have repented of our sin and by faith received him into our hearts and lives. Paul, John says this, he says, I write these things to you, those of you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. Now we've noticed a number of words here. We've noticed know, convinced, I am persuaded. Paul and John are trying to tell us something under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
Now folks, I want to answer three questions this morning. Number one, what is assurance? If I'm meant to have assurance, if I'm meant to know, what is that? What is assurance?
What does it mean? What's the significance of assurance? Second of all, I want to answer the question, what troubles my assurance? What gets in the way?
What causes me to feel the way that I do? And the third question that I want to ask is what does assurance mean to me? If I understand what God is saying to me, what does it mean to me?
So let's look at that together. First of all, what is assurance? I want to give to you a number of facts based upon God's Word. First of all, assurance is the spiritual birthright of every believer.
Now folks, write that in your heart. It is your spiritual birthright. I love talking about birthright.
Folks, I want to tell you something. Assurance is the birthright of every believer. Why? Because God's Word teaches us, beloved friends, that our spiritual birthright is not only a privilege to experience, but it is our spiritual duty to enjoy. How is it possible that Paul, who went through so much, was constantly able to speak of joy?
You know why? Because he understood his spiritual birthright. He understood who he was in Christ Jesus. My assurance is my spiritual birthright because I am a believer. But number two, assurance is a pledge or a guarantee. That's what assurance is.
You can go and look up in Webster's dictionary. It's going to tell you that assurance means a pledge or a guarantee. God speaking in the Gospel of John tells us that the Spirit of God is a deposit guaranteeing who I am. I am guaranteed.
I am sealed, signed and delivered because Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God and because of what he's done for me. It's a pledge or a guarantee. It is a state of being certain. It is security. It is confidence.
But you know the Gospel takes it even further than that. What is assurance? It's the spiritual birthright of every believer. It is a pledge or a guarantee. But I'm going to say to you in the third place, it is full conviction. It is conviction. Paul talks about this repeatedly.
Listen to what Dr. C.I. Scofield had to say about this. And I quote, assurance is the believer's full conviction that through the work of Christ alone, received by faith, the believer is in possession of a salvation in which he will be eternally kept. And this assurance rests only upon the Scriptures promises to him as a believer.
We're talking about conviction. Here's what Isaiah said. The prophet Isaiah put it like this. He said, the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness shall be quietness and confidence forever.
I love that, don't you? The work of righteousness. We're going to discover just in a little while that assurance is the righteousness of God imparted to us. It is God's imputed righteousness. And Isaiah put it so well. He said, listen, the work of righteousness is peace, but the effect, the outworking of God's righteousness in us is quietness and confidence forever and forever and forever. Do I hear an amen this morning?
Boy, I love this. It's what it's all about. It's what it's all about, folks. Do you know what it's all about? This here talks about when we take the tumbles of life. Every one of us are prone to taking a tumble. Every one of us find ourselves right on the edge of the precipice and we fall and we fall and we fall and we drop so far down and we land, crash, kaboom, boof, down at the bottom, boof, right on our faces and we look up and we say, there's no hope.
I have nowhere to turn. And God's word says, wait a minute, the work of God and his righteousness is peace and the effect of his work in your life is quietness and confidence. God says even down in the bottom of a barrel, you can know that you know that you belong to him.
Listen, is there someone here today who's in the bottom of a barrel? You've given your heart to Jesus, you belong to him. He's your Lord and Savior. He loves you.
He's never left you and he will never forsake you. But there's a fourth understanding of assurance. Assurance is the acceptance of the direct testimony of the word of God. Now folks, listen to me carefully. This is very important.
Here it is. Assurance is the spiritual birthright of every believer. Assurance is a pledge or a guarantee. Assurance is full conviction. Assurance is the acceptance of the direct testimony of the word of God.
Do you know what that means? It means that I'm willing to take God at his word. That's what John is saying in 1 John 5, 13.
He's saying these things are written in order what? That you might know, that you have eternal life. So the question is this, am I willing to accept the direct testimony of the word of God? Now folks, listen, the acceptance of the direct testimony of the word of God is not contingent about what I happen to feel about it. What the word of God says is not based upon me, but upon God. That's why we are a Bible believing church.
You want to join First Baptist Church of Spartanburg? We make no apology as a body of believers that we accept without question the direct testimony of the word of God. If an issue comes up in this congregation and we say, listen, should we do this or should we do that? We go to the word of God because it's the direct testimony of the word of God. It's not what we think or what society thinks or what a denomination thinks.
It's what God says. Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with more of Dr. Don Wilton's Bible-based teaching in just a moment.
We have a wonderful jumpstart to that quiet time. We call it today the Encouraging Word email. It's available from Dr. Wilton right now online at www.tewonline.org. I pray you consider signing up today, www.tewonline.org.
Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. You see, folks, if you want to know that you're saved, I'm going to ask you a question today. Are you willing to accept the direct testimony of the word of God or not? Are you going to water down the word of God? If you're going to play games with the word of God, if you're going to socialize the word of God, if you're going to liberalize the word of God, you are not going to have assurance because the world out there is squeezing and the world is saying this and the world is saying that and all our feelings and emotions begin to play havoc with us and what do we have to stand on if we don't have the word of God to stand on? I love that, don't you?
Well, we've got to take it much further than that. See, in the fifth place, assurance is the acceptance of the divine promises of God. Why? Because the word says all who receive Jesus Christ will never perish in John chapter 10, that's why. Because the word of God says that Jesus Christ is able to keep us in 2 Timothy chapter 1, that's why. Because the word of God says that our sins are completely forgiven in Colossians 2 and verse 13, that's why.
Because the word of God says that what God begins He will complete according to Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. You see, beloved friends, if we're going to talk about assurance, we must talk about the spiritual birthright of every believer. We must talk about a pledge and a guarantee. We must talk about full and complete spiritual conviction. We must talk about the acceptance of the direct testimony of the word of God, and we must talk about the acceptance of the divine promises of God Himself. That's where our feet must land. But the word takes it further. Assurance, my friends, is the completeness of Christ's atoning work.
Let's not misunderstand that for one minute. What happened upon the cross? The Bible tells us, my friend, in John chapter 19 and right throughout the Scriptures, that when Jesus hung upon the cross, what did He say? He said, it is finished. There is nothing more that needs to be done.
Nothing more that can be done. It doesn't matter how far you and I go. It doesn't matter what we do or how we do it or what work we do it. We are saved once and for all by grace through faith and having being saved. We are continually being saved unto the day of our salvation.
Amen? Folks, all of us are not only saved in past time because of Jesus Christ. We are saved when we trust Him and receive Him, but we are continually being saved. It is the process of our salvation until the day we come into the presence of Almighty God.
Isn't that incredible? That's what the Word says. That's what the Word says. You see, that's what the purging of our sins is all about, folks.
Go into the letter to the Hebrews. You need to have a fresh understanding of that word to be purged. It means to be cleansed completely once and for all. It is the final act of the atoning work of God in Christ Jesus upon the cross. It is finished. There is nothing else that needs to be done. Christ's atoning work is my full guaranteed deposit of my salvation.
Dr. R.A. Torrey said this. He said it is the blood of Christ that makes us safe and it is the Word of God that makes us free and makes us sure. The blood of God in Christ Jesus that makes us safe and it is the Word of God that sets us free and makes us sure.
God's Word. What is assurance? It is the intercessory work of Christ.
That's what assurance is, folks. God's own nature is imparted to the believer through Christ who has become our life. What does that mean, the intercessory work of Christ? It means simply this, beloved friends, according to 2 Peter, that you and I as believers become partakers of the divine nature of God. Now if that doesn't boggle our minds, nothing will. It is unbelievable that God could have reached down from the portals of heaven and done for this wretched sinner what only God can do.
You know what this does? It takes me by the scruff of my neck and it runs me out the way from the presence of God. It says take yourself away from the presence of the holy God. It makes me get on my knees and grovel in His presence and thank Him. Why do we come into church and sing praises? Listen, my friend, if you have a problem singing praises to God in Christ Jesus, you've got a problem with your salvation because, folks, we need to be praising Him. We need to be thanking Him.
We need to be adoring His matchless name because of what He has done for us. What is assurance? It is the Lord's righteousness. That is what assurance is, beloved friends.
What does that mean? It means quite simply this, that our righteousness is as filthy rags in God's sight. It is only divine righteousness that can avail on our behalf. That's what it means. Assurance is the righteousness of God in us.
I love that. Do you know what it means? It means that we are clothed in God's righteousness. It means that we are dressed in the character of God. It means that we are overwhelmed by the presence and the power and the personality and the holiness of God. It means that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. How can I know? How can I know that I'm going to heaven one day? It's all God and none of me.
That's where the water hits the wheel. So what troubles my assurance, folks? What's the problem with us? My feelings get in the way. My emotions, my circumstances, sin blinds me. It robs me. It distorts me. It steals my joy.
It moors my vision. Lack of prayer, lack of study, psychoanalysis, unfair comparisons with others. We're constantly looking at other people and saying, I could never be as good as they are. I could never match that, therefore I don't know Jesus Christ. We're not in a competition.
You and I are here to serve Jesus Christ with all of our hearts and with all of our soul and with all of our mind. What troubles my assurance, my personal inferiority complex? My trials trouble my assurance.
My sickness, my cancer, my heart surgery, my disobedient son or daughter, they trouble my assurance. They get in the way. They wiggle their way there into my relationship with God and they disturb me. They rattle my bones. They upset the status quo. They distort my equilibrium. They prevent me from having a true understanding of who God is and Satan gets his ugly head in there and he does everything he can to destroy me and to tear me apart and to cause me to doubt my salvation. But God never changes. What is it?
I wish I could preach on modernism and how modernism today in America is distorting and destroying the work of God in Christ Jesus. You see, friends, when we talk about assurance, we must not only understand what it is and what troubles me about it, but we must understand what it does for me. Here's what assurance will do for you, friend. Assurance will guarantee your salvation.
Assurance will give you a new understanding of your adoption as a joint heir with the Father. Assurance, beloved friends, will help you to understand the vital nature of your union in Christ Jesus. Assurance will give you a brand new love for other people. Assurance will draw you into the heart and to the holiness of Almighty God. Assurance will give you the most fantastic basis for contentment. Assurance will write upon your heart peace even in the midst of a storm. Assurance will give you a compassion to go after lost people and give to them what God has given to you. What a powerful message from Dr. Wilton today and as you and I have been thinking about this and understanding that sense of compassion assurance gives us, not only to reach others but maybe to anchor our own lives in a greater way, I pray that you would take a moment because there is an initial step, a first step that we must take before we can begin to try to help someone else.
It's kind of like being on that plane and putting on your mask first. Have you said yes to Jesus Christ? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. If you just prayed with Dr. Wilton to rededicate your life or give your life to Christ for the first time, he has some wonderful resources we want to put in your hands absolutely free. You need to call us though at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.
Not just now to the broadcast, but any time. 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, there's a wonderful resource Liz is going to tell you all about right there at tewonline.org. Many people around the world are looking for some kind of assurance to quiet their fears. They want to be totally secure. Total assurance only comes from God.
I have a serious question to ask you. If you were to die today, would you go to heaven? This month, with your gift of $25 in support to the encouraging word, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful message, The Confident Assurance of Salvation, along with his book, Totally Secure.
Both of these ministry resources will help answer five important questions people churched and unchurched struggle with, such as, What is salvation? Am I saved? Can I lose my salvation? Will I go to heaven?
What happens when I sin? Call us at 866-899-WORD to request The Confident Assurance of Salvation along with his book, Totally Secure. You can find peace, protection, and assurance in the arms of God. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for today, but let's stay connected online at www.tewonline.org Thank you for watching.
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