It's good to have you with us all again for our midweek studies. My name is Pastor John. And if you'll turn with me to the song of Moses in Exodus chapter 15. Now this song is sung by Moses after their deliverance from Egypt and after the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea. I just want to catch the joy of this and the absolute assurance of what Moses is saying. Just a few verses then. From verse 1 of chapter 15, then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. This is by God. I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name. And in verse 11, Lord, who is like unto you among the gods, who is like unto you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders. You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. With your faithful love, you will lead the people you have redeemed. and you will guide them into your holy dwelling with all of your strength. Amen. We have looked together a couple of sermons ago at the whole concept of assurance and how often we lack it. We saw that at times we side with the enemy and sin, which causes us to doubt our assurance or lose our assurance, the sense of it. Or we have weak assurance and we're like a smouldering flax, we need to be blown into flame. Or our old sins can rise up and we think, how can we really be a Christian as the devil uses these things? And we begin to lose our assurance. Or we find ourselves comparing ourselves with others, those who are smarter than we are, who seem so self-assured. Or we're just lazy. And we fail to see that we do actually have some assurance if we take a real deep look at ourselves. So that's what we learned previously. So what is assurance? Well, again, previously I put it like this, and it's worth repeating. It is like a deep friendship and love you have with someone. The more you get to know them, the more they see your failings, but they still love you deeply. You like to be with them, to see them. And as time goes by, you know that they love you. You feel comfortable in their love. And this is what happens with our relationship with the Lord. This is a result of what we term as walking with God, hand in hand, day by day, learning about him, learning about ourselves. So assurance of our faith comes, I believe, from walking with God. We can run away, we can hide, we sin, we cannot rid ourselves of our weaknesses, but all the time He is there. Every morning we wake, the Spirit greets us. Even in our sin He is there. He will never leave us, never forsake us, because He cannot, because of course He is bound to us by covenant love. He has marked in the palms of His hands. We are there, marked in His hands, in marks of indelible grace. We hear his voice, we know he is our shepherd. And as the days and the years go by, we begin, as we walk with him, to learn more and more. And as the awareness of our sin grows, so then does our awareness of his love for us. So we become much more assured of his keeping love and grace. Now I want to encourage you, for if you're like me, you need constant encouragement, like Joshua. The Lord encouraged Joshua, and then Joshua was encouraged by the people, and then in the end, Joshua encouraged the people. So we need that encouragement. God says to Joshua, remember, have I not commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage. Do not be afraid. Neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee wherever thou goest. So then, what does assurance look like? What are some of the basic marks of it in our lives? Now once again, I turn to my old friend Thomas Brooks, who lived a long and joyous life, dying in 1680 at 72 years old. He is one of my favourite Puritans as I find him biblical, picturesque, simple yet profound and even at times romantic. And I kind of feel safe in Brooks's hands. And I hope that as I bring this study to you, you will also. There won't be anything of any great depth in what I am saying. In fact, it might be embarrassingly kind of almost romantic in some of the things that Brooks is saying. But I have to say this because I think it's important. What then might a well-grounded assurance look like in a Christian? Well, firstly, it will come with a deep appreciation of God's love for you. You most certainly will not feel that you deserve God's love or even deserve to even be a Christian. but you will be constantly amazed of his love for you. You sin? Yes, but he is still there. The non-believer, you see, has no such feelings, for they, in the main, think that God maybe should love them and smile at their efforts, because God is a benevolent God. After all, surely he will just see them as they are, and they didn't really mean any harm, and he will be benevolent towards them. But a true believer is different. A true believer is assured of their faith by their constant amazement that they have been included in God's people. Let Brooks put it this way for us. He says this, Lord, what manner of love is this that thou shouldst give me assurance? Give me water out of the rock, manna in my wilderness, Lord, what manner of love is this, that thou should set me upon thy knee, embrace me in thy arms, lodge me in thy bosom, and kiss me with the sweet kisses of thy blessed mouth, with kisses that are sweeter than wine, yea, better than life. And he quotes from Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse two. Every day, you see, We praise him as we wake and we feel his presence. He has not left us or forsaken me. It is amazing that even if I go to the highest mountain or the deepest depths of despair, he is there waiting for me. Every day it is a case and every day we say we do not deserve such a thing for I am wicked beyond measure, my sins if counted, would be more than the sand of the beach. It is enough for you to think of me, but then to think of me through the cross and to see me as in Christ. What have I done to deserve such salvation? We sing like Moses after the deliverance from Egypt. I will sing unto the Lord, for who is like unto thee, O Lord among the gods? Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You see, one of the marks of receiving such a grace is the sense of unworthiness to receive such a gift. Paul in Ephesians 3.18 says, oh, the depth, the height, the length, the breadth of the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge. The Queen of Sheba was so amazed at the blessings that God had given Solomon that she cried out when she saw them, happy are your men. Happy are your servants which stand continually before you and hear your wisdom in 1 Kings 10 verse 8. So it is with our salvation. It is God's choice. We don't know why he has chosen us to salvation. But He has blessed us with His grace and mercy, and we stand utterly amazed. And that is one of the evidences of assurance. We do not feel proud, but feel amazed that He could love me. And only a believer will do that, so be assured. Secondly, the second difference in a true believer is that we find within ourselves a desire to know more enjoyment of God and Christ. Tell me this, when you read or hear a sermon or someone maybe speaks with you on what they say about the Lord and about scripture touches you and you say deep within your soul, wow, that's wonderful. Then you do that because you are a true believer who wants deep within to know and delight more and more in your Lord. You will find yourself thinking what the psalmist says. Early will I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. when, like the woman in Song of Solomon, was just too lazy to get out of bed, and your sin creates a separation between you and your lover, and then you wake up, you get out of bed, you search the streets as she did, you receive a beating as she did, and you are mocked, but you know, and you cry out just as she did, oh, where is my beloved? I want him more and more. And this is one of the marks of the assurance of God upon your soul. You want more and more of him. Brooks describes it like this. He says, O Lord Jesus, says the assured soul, you are my light, my life, my love, my joy, my crown, my heaven, my all. I cannot but long to see thy beautiful face that was spat upon for my sins, for my transgressions. I long to take some turns with thee in paradise, to see the glory of thy Jerusalem above, to drink those waters of pleasure that be at thy right hand. to taste the delicacies of thy kingdom, to be acquainted with those secrets and mysteries that have been hid from all ages, to be swallowed up in the full enjoyment of thy blessed self. You see how romantic Brooks is and how devotional he is. Of course I know This longing may ebb and flow, and there may be just occasions you feel this way, like Brooks describes. But you know deep within your heart, in the heart of every true believer, it will be there in some measure. I remember once when May and I visited a small fellowship in a place called Flora Home in Florida. It was a bit in the sticks in Florida. It was just a country meeting and after the meeting I was speaking with a lady after I'd given my testimony and she asked me some questions and I told her of the Lord's goodness and what he had meant and done for us in our lives. And I never forget what she said. She suddenly exclaimed, Oh my, I'm coming out in glory bumps. And this dear lady desired and rejoiced in more of the Lord and His goodness. Her glory bumps were popping out when she thought of the Lord and His goodness. So dear ones, do you get glory bumps now and again when truth touches you? Do you feel your skin popping out in glory bumps? Only a true believer will do that. So be assured if that happens to you, you are a believer. Thirdly, a well-grounded assurance is usually strongly assailed by Satan on all sides without mercy. Now, dear ones, I wish that I could tell you otherwise. I wished I could tell you in all truth that some of these teachers of false doctrines are right when they say it's happy all the way. But I wish we could stay with those glory bumps. But the truth is we cannot because we need to grow. We need to rely upon the Lord and understand about ourselves. So I'm so sorry. However, what does the enemy attack? Why does the enemy attack us if we are not causing him concern? He wants to rob us of our glory bumps. You hold on to those glory bumps. No sooner, you see, had Jesus heard the voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, that we read in the original that he was literally driven out by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to face Satan. No sooner was Paul dropped out from his heavenly vision of unutterable glory that he was immediately buffeted by a fallen angel from Satan to keep him humble in 1 Corinthians 12, 17, 7. Says Brooks again, and I quote him once again, Satan, his malice, envy and enmity is such against God's glory and honour and your comfort and faithfulness. He makes use of every trap, snare and method. whereby he shakes the pillars of your faith and weakens and overthrows your assurance. Ah, says Brooks, in his beautifully graphic way, pirates, he says, do most fiercely assault those ships and vessels that are most richly laden. So does Satan those precious souls that have attained to the riches of assurance. Isn't that true? So why does Satan assail me? Surely then if I was not a believer, he would just steer me gently into hell by not disturbing my pride and my selfishness. Why should he attack someone that's already going in his direction to keep him company in hell? Why not just leave me dead in the world? Maybe to ensure that I will end up in hell he might go to some extreme of sin and make it absolutely certain that I go with him by any other means of drunkenness or whatever. Of course, you see, the truth is he attacks me because my Lord loves me. And so he hates me. He attacks me because I am dressed for battle in the Lord's armour and the breastplate of righteousness covers my heart. And he hates the assurance that I have. So he gives me no rest. Day and night he torments my mind, my will. faith, my hope, my assurance. But you see again, all this assures me that I belong to his enemy. For if I am Satan's enemy, then I am the Lord's child. As Brooks again put it so biblically, so long as the soul is behind bolts in bondage under Satan, Satan is quiet and is not so apt to molest and vex But once the soul is made free and assured of his freedom by Christ, then, says Satan, as once Pharaoh did when Israel was let go. And here he quotes Exodus 15, 9, where it says, the words of Pharaoh, I will arise, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword and my hand shall destroy them. You see, as soon as we are set free, then the enemy will come up against us, as Pharaoh did with Israel. As long as he kept them in bondage, that was fine. As soon as they went, he pursued them. So daily, naturally, I fight with temptation, with sin within, sin without, with doubts and fears, and arrows of fire from Satan angels. and I swing round my shield of faith, sometimes too late, as the fire burns. But then I continue. As Spafford's hymn says, though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed his own blood for my soul. For only a set free believer knows this. So I am assured that as long as I am being attacked like this, that I belong to Jesus. Fourthly, paradoxically, this all assures us and we become bolder. See, after the Spirit fell upon the early believers in Acts of the Apostles, how bold and assured they became. Just look at the time in Acts when believers were said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Every time it is said that as a result of that filling, they spoke the word with boldness. Whilst their enemies were filled with rage and hatred and controlled by it, the Christians, in contrast, were filled with the Spirit as He controlled them and were filled with the Word. Sadly, in our era of me-ism, Christians see the evidence of being filled with the Spirit as personal expressions of personal feelings, of certain gifts that make them stand out. But in the New Testament, the Spirit assured Christians, and the one who wrote, the Word fills them with that Word and boldness, a willingness to die if needs be for their Lord. As David put it like this, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Assurance will make us bold. Christ was bold, quiet and at peace as he stood before the vicious lies and hatreds of his enemies. So can we. We really can. The story is told of Colinus, who was a Dutch Christian martyr. And as the judge sentenced him to death, He calmly asked the judge to come and to lay his hand on Colinus's heart, and then to lay his hand upon his own heart. And then he asked the judge, now then, whose heart is beating faster? For God had given Colinus assurance and boldness to face death. When we need it, we will be bold. I believe that with all that, I believe with my slowly beating heart. Assurance does this to us. It makes us stronger. It makes us bolder. And it's very important that we understand that. Not only are we under attack, not only do we find ourselves amazed at God's love, and then under attack we are also bolder and stronger. Again, only a believer knows this, so I am assured. Fifthly, Assurance will make you want to share it. Psalm 66 verse 16. Come and hear all of you that fear God and I will tell you what he has done for my soul. This is all an all-encompassing thing. If you are assured that feeling of security and joy will make you want to share it. You will want, as the psalmist says, to share it with all believers, as Paul did when he was converted and assured to share it with everybody he could. Like the psalmist says, come and taste and see how good the Lord is, Psalm 34, 8. For one day, as it says, Psalm 84, 10, for one day in the courts of the Lord is better than a thousand. A thousand years elsewhere, you want to say to your family, to your friends, to your children, come on, let's go to heaven together. Unassured Christian hates to be alone. as attractive it is for me at times, and it is attractive to become a hermit when I look at this world around me, yet my assurance won't let me keep such things to myself. I would have to come out of my cave and speak. So hermitage is not a good idea for me if I am assured. It's not a good idea for assured Christians, although it's very tempting at times to think that way. For the love of Christ constrains me and the Christian must make sure that their family see Christ and their joy and assurance. You want never to give offence to those near to you. You want to show that his yoke is easy, his burden is light. You want to show that you have found the pearl of great price and that you are willing to sell all you own to buy it and you want them to do exactly the same. How often do others say of you that you have a certain peace and inner strength that they might admire? that even being in your presence makes them feel good to a degree and a degree convicted. Assurance, you see, in you does that. You want to, by your life, by your words, you want to share Christ with people. Dear ones, please don't be selfish. Keep it all to yourself. You have been redeemed, your sins forgiven, you have great joy, great peace despite the enemy harassing you. You're going to a place of utter bliss and a place that I know, if you're like me, you cannot even begin to imagine. What is it going to be like to not have sinful thoughts every day? What's it going to be like to have a body that is glorified and to love God with such a love? but you have the cure of all the ills of this sinful world in your heart. Every day is a blessing. This world is fading and all of its pleasures in the light of eternity means little. You are assured. You are saved. You are saved from the penalty of sin at the cross. You are saved from the power of sin daily through the Word and Spirit and you will be saved from the presence of sin in heaven. You are fully saved. You're going to a place of utter bliss. You haven't done a thing to save yourself. You acknowledge your sin and wretchedness and need of a saviour. You have given him your sin and he has given you his heaven. You are assured of this, surely, and therefore it would be criminal not to share this cry, this, and cry, come, taste and see that the Lord is good. Again, only a true believer knows this, so I am assured. Do you want to share your faith? Do you want to share your life? Do you want to share and say to people, come on, taste and see that the Lord is good. Look at me and see the assurance I have that he has transformed me and changed me. Come on, I want you to taste. I want you to come to heaven with me. I don't want to go alone. I don't want to be the only one in my family that is going to heaven. I want you all to come with me. Children, I want you all to come. Parents, I want you to come to heaven with me. Please come and see. An assurance makes you want this. Finally, brethren, assurance. This is typical Brooks. I tell you, he is such an incredible romantic at times. Final the assurance as three beautiful handmaidens or companions, says Brooks. When God grants us assurance, And we are his. He sends three beautiful, simple helpers, says Brooks. The first of those helpers, those handmaidens, is love. Mary Magdalene was deeply loved by the Lord and this love drew out from her such love that she smashed the perfume and was around the cross to the last minute and she followed the people that were taking Jesus' body to the grave and then she was first there at the grave. The scriptures show clearly that her love was seen in actions of practical devotion. What I have noticed today is that even in my life is that we talk so little about the Lord Jesus and yet assurance of our love for him must be demonstrated in practical love. How we should love him is important. Do you know when I have ministered in public And I've often spoke of the Lord and our need of Him and our need to serve Him. I found that afterwards, sadly, sadly, hardly anyone talks of the Lord and how good He is. Or they might be quick to point out that I didn't pronounce this or that word. They know that I get tongue-tied often and I can't sort of find the words and I backtrack on words. but I didn't pronounce this correctly, or maybe they didn't like the colour of my tie, or bow tie, or whatever it is, or some insignificant thing. But sadly, very few speak of how precious he is to them. But you know, lovers find it hard to keep silent. Says Brooks, it is impossible for a soul not to love Christ that knows he is beloved of Christ. You know unrequited love breaks the heart. When you love someone and they do not show that they love you, then you can be very hurt and feel rejected. So do not let the Lord feel rejected. Let us work on our love for Him. To be blunt, if you don't love Him, then you remain unassured in your faith. The first handmaiden, says Brooks, is love that flows from assurance. The second handmaiden, he says, flows from that is humility. In scriptures, the assured saints have been humbled. Again, this is another paradox. The closer we get to the heart of God, the more we see our sin and unworthiness. which in turn drives us to my first point, that we marvel at the fact that he can love me. So we find ourselves disagreeing with Paul in Ephesians 3.8, and it's probably the only scripture I do disagree with, when he says this, that he is less than the least of all the saints. And I find myself crying out, no, no, no, no, Paul. I claim that dubious honor for myself. The more we are assured, the more we are amazed, the more we realise our sin. As a Puritan prayer says, thou hast seen and abhorred all my sins, and could have easily and justly have punished me, yet thou hast spared me. And all the saints that are under the measure of assurance have been humbled, for they know God in such a way. There is no assured Christian who is proud of it. It just doesn't happen. We are taken down a peg or two or three or a thousand, and we are brought low by the realization of the love of God. And as assurance pours into our hearts, we humble ourselves before God. Who am I and who is my family that you should treat me in such a way, says David? Who am I indeed? For I am no one. So the second handmaiden is humility. The third handmaiden, we're coming to a close very shortly, is a lady who lifts us up into heaven. You'll be glad of this one, dear ones. She comes with holy joy. She is known as joy. She is a happy lady, a happy companion. 1 Peter 1, 8 and 9, whom having not seen you love, and though now you see him not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable, full of glory. As the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, as joy floods into our souls. Of course we don't run around waving our arms in the air, making noises like a steam train, but that deep inner sense of glory fills you. That comes from assurance. Glory to God, we say. I remember telling you, probably in the past, you tend to repeat yourself when you get older, but I remember telling you of my fellow pastor, a lovely guy in Sunderland, both of them were terrific men, but he often, after I had preached, would stand at the door with a big smiling face as I walked down the aisle to greet people as they left or chat with people. He would greet me with a big smile, and then he would cup his fist, and he wasn't going to hit me or anything, and he'd thrust his hand upward towards heaven, and he'd shout, glory, glory. And we talk about the joy of being a Christian. He always did that. Glory, he says, glory. Hardly in my experiences have experienced ministers come in two sizes. Those who after you have preached totally ignore you, or might make some remark like, once a minister told me, oh, you might make a preacher yet. Very kind of him. Well, I never really understood that I wanted to make a preacher. I just wanted to declare the glories of Christ. Well, then other ministers who hug you, realizing the amount of work you have done, and shout glory. It has always been my habit to be one of the latter whenever a fellow preacher preaches. I learned that from the man who was one of my early mentors way back in Edinburgh. He always complimented, he always said something complimentary to a man when he'd preach because he knew what that preaching had cost him and that is important. Glory, assurance makes us love Christ and his people. It makes us humble and it makes us shout glory, glory to God. So assurance, dear ones, is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Don't you want your life to be accompanied with these three lovely companions? Love, humility and joy. So then as we walk with God, do we firstly appreciate that and are amazed that God could love you. He still loves me when I woke up this morning. He still loves me. His love has not got stronger or weaker. It cannot. It remains eternally, gloriously pure and the same. I appreciate and I am amazed I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus of Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Oh, how marvellous. Oh, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me. Assurance does that. And it also makes you want to know more of him. And it makes you want glory bumps. Glory bumps. And also you find yourself in battle with the enemy and sin, who wants to take away your assurance because you have it. He wouldn't come against you to take away your assurance if you didn't have any. It's because you have assurance that he wants to take it away. And you find also that you are bolder and willing to speak with boldness, filled with the Spirit of God and the power of God. And also do you find that you want to share then this wonderful assurance with everybody else you meet. And then are you keeping company with those three beautiful companions, love, humility and joy. Then you are being assured. And I hope Thomas Brooks and I have been some help to you. And may God help you and enable you and I to live such a life. and know dearly His upholding strength and His assuring love for us. Will you let me pray for you now? Father, I pray for all who are listening and I pray for myself. I pray that we might have that great measure of assurance, that we might know these three beautiful companions, love, humility and joy, and that we might be bold and strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, that we might say that I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The Lord is God and I will exalt Him. My Father is God and I will praise Him. Father, help your dear children, every one of them now that are listening, to close their eyes and hearts in prayer and say, give me that assurance, oh God, that I may be what I am meant to be through Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen. If this has been helpful for you, then please let me know. But mostly of all, I want you to be assured of God's great love for you. Amen.