Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.16 – April 1999

 

Assurance – True & False

 

Sermon by Rev M.P. Geluk on Lord's Day 1a (Heid.Cat. Q&A 1)

Scripture Reading: 2Corinthians 4

Suggested Hymns: BoW 9; 207 & 211; 23; 138

 

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we speak of belonging to Christ as the only comfort there is, like Lord's Day 1 does, then it means that this kind of comfort provides us with true assurance.  But it also implies that there are other assurances which are false.  In fact, it's not so much a question of having assurance, it is a matter of this assurance being true or false.

For example, I can assure you that you will be perfectly safe crawling under my house because I have done it and have never been bitten by a funnel-web spider.  But will that be of much comfort to you?  What if someone else says that under a house is just the place where funnel-webs like to be?  You having assurance that you will be safe or not will entirely depend on whom you believe.  Let's say that you believe me and you get under the house.  You're feeling quite comfortable until you get bitten.  All along your assurance was a false one.

There are many people who feel quite comfortable in believing there is no God and that when they die they will just cease to exist.  Or they believe there is a God who will let them into His heaven because they were basically good people.  But we would say that they have a false assurance because what they believe is not what the Bible says.

You can see, then, that to feel comfortable or having assurance about something, on the basis of you thinking it is true, can turn out to be a false comfort and a false assurance.  What really counts is who says it and what authority that person has for saying what he says.  It is a question of who can be trusted the most.

Now why did the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism, back in 1563, begin with the Christian's only comfort in life and death?  Well, on the one hand, they were deeply disturbed about Roman Catholicism giving people a false assurance.  People were told that their good works, their "hail Mary's", their buying of indulgences, would earn them credit points with God.

Martin Luther came across a member of his church in Wittenberg who was always so drunk and irresponsible that he could not provide for his wife and children.  So Luther told him off.  The man told him to mind his own business.  "Here is my indulgence," he said, "with the Pope's own seal.  I can commit any sin I want." (Martin Luther – Saint and Sinner, p 40].  This man had a totally false assurance that he was right with God.

How, then, did the Reformation church go about assuring people?  Well, they were convinced that Scripture demanded of them that they preach Christ and that only on the basis of Christ standing in for the sinner, could sinners become right with God.  When sinners believed that to be the truth, only then could they be assured that they had received God's grace and mercy.

But the Reformers not only had to battle with the false teachings of the Roman Church, they were, on the other hand, also faced with the excesses of people who in those days were called the Anabaptists.  These had also left the Roman Church but had gone to the other extreme by basing their assurance on their inner spiritual experiences.  Whilst the Bible as the written Word of God was very important to them, they believed that God continued to give revelations in addition to the Bible.  And one's assurance of God being truly with you was at its strongest when you had received personal words from God in the form of prophecies and visions.

The Reformers were also disturbed by this development, believing that the Scriptures were God's only revelation.  They also had a struggle with these people, who, claiming direct communications from God, came up with some bizarre things.

Now the fact is that the Word of God itself says the Scriptures are sufficient to provide us with assurance that in our living and dying we belong to the Lord.  Our spiritual comfort can only be true when it rests, not on what the world says, nor on what some theologians or the church may claim, not on what human experiences give, but only on the clear teaching of Scripture.  That's the only place where we are sure God speaks.

1.  The Heart of the Matter

Question & Answer 1 leads us right into it:

What is your only comfort in life and death?

• That I am the property of Jesus Christ!
• What part of me? All of me - body and soul!
• For how long? For all times – in life and in death!
• How did that happen? By the purchase and deliverance of Christ – He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
• How does it last? By His protection – not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father!
• How do I know it? Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life!
• How do I show it? By my readiness to live for him!

So, that's the heart of the matter.  It really says only one thing.  That Jesus Christ is my faithful Saviour, in life and in death, and because He is, all things must work together for my salvation.  Listen to the familiar words from Romans 8: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord".  (vss.38-39).

That's what we may believe and trust to be true.  It is a faith that is based, not on what someone else tells me is true, or on what I may or may not experience, but on what God inspired the apostle Paul to say.  And because of that divine inspiration it's now God's Word about God not allowing anything or anyone separating the believer from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  I now have full assurance that God who is true and almighty, can be fully trusted to look after and keep His people whatever the circumstances.

This makes the Christian's faith-relationship with God unsurpassable.  The most precious human relationship is not quite the same as the deep bond Christian believers have with the Lord.  Even our dearest blood relatives, or our best friends, will at times disappoint us and we them.  But God cannot and will not ever be different to His true character.

Now what is also so assuring, so comforting about God's love and mercy to us sinners, is that they have their roots in God's decree of election.  So often people say that we can't fully understand God's election.  And that is true, but let us not, by saying that, imply some criticism of God as though there may be an unfair element about it.  The decision of God to save some sinners from eternal destruction is of tremendous comfort when you believe that you are one of them.

There are some Christian believers who sometimes doubt if they are elected.  For them Lord's Day 1 is ideal to reassure them that God loves them with an everlasting love.  But I have never come across an unbeliever who was deeply troubled by the possibility of not being elected.  An unbeliever is totally indifferent to God's decree of election.  Why should he be worried if he does not believe in the God of the Bible?  But the reason why God's election is so comforting for the believer is that the bottom line says – I belong to Christ only because the eternal God wanted it to be so.

The Christian has this assurance when he begins to believe that the almighty and all-powerful God has actually saved him in Christ.  That comfort comes into his heart when he begins to realise that God has always known about him and that his faith in God is there only because God gave it to him, and that he loves God only because God loved Him first.  How can he ever be lost again, how can he ever be separated from God, when it is the almighty and eternal God who is saving him!

When some say that, yes, a Christian can lose his salvation, then it would mean that God can't be all-powerful, if it is possible that a believer can slip out of His grasp.  If the reply to that is that God allows the believer to fall away if such a believer decides for some reason to no longer believe, then it would mean that the death of Christ for that believer was wasted – of no effect – and that implies that God and His salvation are not so great and wonderful after all.

Now this assurance that you belong to God does not come all at once and neither does it necessarily come at the beginning of your Christian life.  The assurance of being one of God's elect grows on you through the various stages of your walk with God.  It deepens as your knowledge of Christ and the Scriptures deepen.  Your confidence of belonging to Christ grows by noticing from the Bible how Christ lives in the hearts and lives of God's people mentioned in the Bible.

The Bible tells me that David was sure that the Lord was like a shepherd to him.  The same Word tells me that Peter was sure that the Lord loved him still after he had denied Him.  In 2Corinthians 4, where Paul speaks about the many troubles he and other Christians experienced, he very much comes across as one who knows he belongs to God.

Believers like that from the Bible tell me that Christ watched over them in such a way that He did not allow a hair to fall from their head without the will of the heavenly Father.  It tells me that all things worked together for their salvation.  What these believers in the Bible are testifying.to is the very thing God teaches throughout His Word, namely, that He keeps His children in His hand and that He won't allow anything or anyone to pluck them out.

So the assurance that you are a child of God comes from you searching and seeking for God through His Word.  How will you ever experience this wonderful comfort of belonging to God if you don't bother to find out about Him?  It is when we become increasingly familiar with the Word of God, when we regularly use it as the source of our spiritual food, that we begin to discover the blessing of belonging to Christ no matter what.

Christians then experience deep spiritual joy because they belong to Christ.  You realise that Christ is working in you when you see yourself believing in Christ, when you have a childlike fear of God, when you have a godly sorrow for your sin and when you find yourself hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness.  You should not dwell on these experiences as such, they are just the evidence that God is at work in you.  But you experiencing the very things which the Bible describes as the normal work of Christ in the elect of God, will give you a deep sense of comfort and assurance.  You know that God is busy with you.  The Bible confirms it.

The belief that you are a true child of God is further strengthened when Christ produces in you a humility before God, when you are made to marvel at God's great mercy, when you desire to be cleansed from the stain of sin, when you realise that your love to God is a response to Him loving you, and that His love is wanting you to become more obedient to God.  All these aspects of the normal Christian life are pointed to in the Scriptures and to see them happening in yourself and others is confirming to all of us that God is at work among His people.

But when we lack humility and proudly speak of our spiritual experiences, when we marvel less about God's mercy and more about our own super-spirituality, when there is no real desire to be free from sin but a love for the things of the world, when there is more self-love than love for God, then we know with sadness that we are not full of Christ but full of ourselves.  We know this too because when we read in the Bible about God's work in the believer then we also read alongside that about when and why God does not work in people.

2.  True Assurance is Based on God's Work in Christ

We have to repeat this scriptural truth many times to each other in our Christian lives.  Yes, you may be able to testify to some wonderful things of God that have happened in your life, and I can do the same.  But if we are honest, then we also have to admit to things in our lives which were not so wonderful.  Now when we hear from others only the wonderful things, then we can easily begin to doubt our belonging to God because Satan will remind us of these less wonderful times in our lives.

You see, the majority of testimonies skip the rotten things, because if these were mentioned then their Christian experience is not so wonderful any more.  Or, the less wonderful things of the past are especially mentioned, and sometimes in great, lurid, detail, in order to make the testimony more exciting and dramatic.  The best testimonies are found in the Bible because these are inspired and God has included them in His Word to show us how God calls and saves those whom He elected to eternal life in Christ.

The autobiographies of Christians who are able to bear a true and balanced witness to Scriptural truth as they tell their life-story are also good testimonies.  They help us when they succeed to open up to us the truths of Scripture and the riches of Christ.  When testimonies don't do that then they are not worth much.

So the lesson we need to learn many times over is God's work of grace through Christ in the sinner.  Then you can confidently say that the grace God showed you and the faith He worked in you are not going to fail.  You will also know that the less wonderful times in your Christian lives will not continue indefinitely.  You will again experience God's mercy, and the rays of His love will be felt by you once more.

How can we be sure of this?  Well, God's plan cannot and will not change.  His promises will not fail.  And His purposes will not be revoked.  For God so watches over His people that not a hair can fall from your head without Him knowing about it, yes, having provided for it in His salvation plan in which you are included.

And why is God like this?  Because He has sent Christ into the world to be the Saviour of all those whom God has chosen to belong to His church.  His cross and the resurrection provide you with a new life.  They are always there as the foundation pillars of your salvation.  Even more, Christ's prays on your behalf with the Father in heaven.  His intercession for you will be heard by the Father.  Yes, how can Christ's salvation of all those for whom He died ever come unstuck?  If that were possible then the Lord would not be a perfect Saviour and we could not speak of true assurance.

Nor can the tyranny of the devil, however fierce and unrelenting, undo or destroy what Christ has secured.  The Bible warns us to be on the look-out for our enemy, the devil.  He is there continually to devour you but you are to stand firm in the faith.  Not standing firm in your own strength, but in the faith! The faith meant here is not the faith with which you believe but the biblical content of the Christian faith.  The true faith, in other words.  And that says that no one will pluck any of God's children out of His hand because once saved, always saved.

So here you are on your life's journey and the devil cannot get at you.  Oh, yes, he can ridicule you, sow seeds of doubt in your minds, laugh at you, tempt you, and do many fearful things to you.  But for all that, he is still like a dog on a leash.  Your way takes you past the dog where he is tied up.  He jumps at you, barks at you, snarls and growls, the froth of sheer anger is white on his mouth and his teeth are bared.  But he cannot get at you.  He is on a leash.  So also Satan.  He is bound by Christ and you are safe with God.

Now do not say that election is nothing more than God deciding to save those who first decide to believe in Him.  If you say that then your comfort is gone.  You are making your salvation dependent on your decision to turn to God.  The Bible says that just as the Ethiopian can't change his skin and the leopard his spots, so also is a sinner unable to do good because he is accustomed to doing evil (Jer.13:23).  No, before the foundation of the world God has chosen you that you should become holy (Eph.1:4).  Long before you came to be, the Father gave your name to the Son, and Christ came to you through the Word to call you to faith.  And all who have been appointed to eternal life will come to faith (Acts 13:48).

So God is not waiting for you to believe in Him.  He comes to you and changes your will and your mind and gives you faith.  Those whom God predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified (Rom.8:30).  God decided to sovereignly rule over you in this manner because if it were left up to you to come and stay with Christ, then surely you would not have been able to do so.

Has an elect child of God ever made it to the gates of heaven because he was so faithful, so determined, so strong in faith, so persevering, so obedient?  Of course not!  The only reason for anyone getting there at all is because the heavenly Father takes His children by the hand and brings them there.  When we thus learn these rich truths from God's Word, and base our assurance of salvation on what God says, then ours will be the comfort Lord's Day 1 speaks about.  We are sure because God's work in Christ cannot fail!

3.  True Assurance of Our Salvation Also Rest on the work of the Holy Spirit

It is quite incorrect when some people say that the Reformers did not give much attention to the Holy Spirit.  The truth is that the Reformed Confessions are as balanced in their teaching on the Holy Spirit as they are on the Father and the Son.  Right up front in Lord's Day 1 is the statement that “because I belong to him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him."

When Christ secured your salvation by His death and resurrection, then it was still necessary to apply to you the benefits and blessings of that salvation.  This work is done by the Holy Spirit.  He assures you of eternal life and He makes you willing and able to live for Christ.

Yet, the Scriptures show that God's children do not always have the comfort of which Lord's Day 1 speaks.  Earlier on, we referred to the less wonderful times in our Christian journey.  The fact that God found it necessary to include in His Word references to our doubts, uncertainties and temptations is an indication that these are experienced by Christians.  The salesmen type Christian who is always on top of things, always smiling, always confident, is not found in Scripture.  We live in an imperfect world and we are imperfect ourselves, and, therefore, we have to contend with the struggles in our faith.  And if nothing else will trouble us, then Satan will.  He is a master strategist in the art of tempting us.

But Scripture says that God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation He will also provide a way out (1Cor.10:13).  Through the Holy Spirit God will give you back the assurance that you lost and thus regain that spiritual comfort that you belong to God.

How does God do this?  How does He return His children back to Him again and again?  Well, always through His Word and Spirit.  So God will see to it that His Spirit will have you hear the gospel again.  He is doing it right now through this preaching.  He will revive you through the Word.  He will enable you to understand and discern the things of God.  He will open the closed heart, soften the hard heart, circumcise the uncircumcised heart.  Through His Word and Spirit, God will infuse new qualities into the will of His children.  He will make the dead live, the evil good, the unwilling willing, the stubborn compliant.  Yes, God will activate and strengthen the will in His people to produce the good fruit of salvation.

This means, then, that the Spirit will go on to produce in you a willingness and a readiness to walk in the ways of the Lord.  The comfort of belonging to God in all of life's circumstances and in whatever situation God places you, is never a mere intellectual thing.  No, the comfort that you belong to God will come as the Spirit puts you to work.

When you live for Christ then you will find that your assurance of salvation is the strongest.  It is in your obedience to God, in your loving God and the neighbour, in the living out of your faith, that you grow in your assurance about the Lord working in you and never leaving or forsaking you.

Amen.