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What is assurance? What is the difference between security and assurance? Is there false assurance? How do you increase assurance?
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and what�s going on here? Well, I�m going to film some American Gospel TV episodes soon, five parts on Gospel Assurance. Sounds like that�d be a good book title, don�t you think?
Gospel Assurance, A 31-Day Guide to Assurance, compiled by Mike Abendroth, moi. I can recommend it because it�s mainly other people�s writings, and I just compiled it and put it together in a book and wrote the introduction, arranged it, 31-day guide.
The first few are easy. You get up to about chapter 9, and you�re like, �Oh, this is going to take me�. Instead of one page, it�s ten pages, so it might take you more than 31 days, but that�s okay. I just want you to think about who Jesus is and to think rightly about the doctrine of assurance.
What else is happening? I�m a grandpa. Amos John Horrock was born October 12th. My wife is out there now. My other siblings�my other siblings I�ve sent pictures to. My other children are there too. They�ve all seen the baby, except for my daughter, Grace, who�s in Israel for the semester.
So, Grace and I, we just have to have FaceTime. But that�s pretty cool. I mean, pretty cool FaceTime. You can see a lot of stuff and, you know, first baths and, you know, under the warmer and everything else.
Amos, he�s a little guy, but he�s going to get bigger. In one sense, it�s almost still not true because I�m 3 ,000 miles away, or 2 ,600 to be exact. But you go, �Oh. But anyway, soon enough, we made it.
I was laying in the hospital last year thinking, �I�m not going to make it to be a grandpa. But thankfully, I did. And the Lord works it all out, of course. But I, you know, just remember laying there in the hospital saying, �I�m not taking Remdesivir.
Thankful that didn�t happen. And I�m also thankful that I didn�t go on a respirator because I said, �I can�t go on a respirator. And it seems now that both Remdesivir and respirators, according to some, haven�t been the best for people like me.
Although, I�ve got this kind of blood problem anyway, so my whites are always fighting. My lymph nodes are always big. Day is�the clock�s ticking for all of us. You can go to Death Clock. I think it�s deathclock .com or something like that.
Type in information about yourself and it�ll tell you the day you die. And I think mine�s 2029. I don�t know why I�m laughing. 2029. Okay, seven years. What am I going to do? Okay, the life insurance only lasts for another year, so that�s out.
What are we going to do? I hope the stock market rebounds. But in all seriousness, you know, it�s better to go to a house of mourning than the house of feasting, Ecclesiastes 7. Said the wisest man who ever lived.
I think Solomon probably wrote it. If he didn�t, fine. It�s still in the canon. You go, okay, what do you do? If you had seven years to live, what would you do? Anything differently? Luther said, �If I knew Jesus was going to come back tomorrow, I�d plant a tree today.
Kind of like live in the present, right? You can�t say like Ecclesiastes would warn against�well, you can say the warning, of course. Well, the older days are better. You know, this warped memory that nostalgia can bring, forgetting about the difficult times, only remembering the good times.
Don�t say that. Live in the present. God is here now. But anyway, I don�t know what I would do. If I knew exact day, seven years, I mean, it might be a day. A friend here at church, he fell over last week, had a heart attack, dead, 65 years old.
So one never knows. We are weak and frail, and our days are numbered. Psalm 139 talks about God weaving us together in the womb and numbering our days. In light of that, we want to live by faith and not by sight.
We�re talking today about assurance, and we�ve gone through some questions. Last time, if you want to start at the beginning, it�d probably be better, last assurance show. I ask and answer these questions.
What is gospel assurance? Is there a difference between security and assurance? I mean, let me just give you brief answers. Gospel assurance is you know with confidence that you�re going to go to heaven when you die.
Is there a difference between security and assurance? Security is what God has done, and it�s revocable, it�s fixed. When he foreordains, elects, and calls, of course, he�s going to glorify, whether you think it�s true or not, whether he told you or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you have confidence in it or not, that security.
Assurance is, oh, a realization of that security. Can believers have gospel assurance? Yes. John chapter 20, 1 John chapter 5 verse 13. Is it rare to meet someone who�s never struggled with assurance?
No, it�s not rare. It happens all the time. And now number five, because what in our life is perfect? Our knowledge of Scripture, is it perfect? Our walking in obedience to God, perfect? Our knowledge of who God is, perfect?
No, no, because we�re simultaneously just and still sinful. Question number five for introductory questions for gospel assurance. Number five, can people have false assurance? I think the answer, of course, is yes.
But what happens in this conversation is there�s so much talk about a faith that doesn�t save, so much talk about a demon faith, so much talk about there are goats in the congregation, that we forget there�s assurance to be offered to the believer through the promises of God, through the love of God, through the person of Christ Jesus, and the witness and the testimony of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
With that said, it is awful. Could there be a worse mistake in your life to have false assurance? I mean, if there�s going to be any way, you know, out of anything, you don�t want to get duped by thinking, �Oh, I know for sure, and then you get the, you know, you die and then you�re not going to heaven.
I mean, that would be the worst thing ever. The biggest deception, the biggest lie. That reminds me of John Bunyan in Christians, in Pilgrim�s Progress, where he talks about there�s a way to hell even from the gates of heaven.
It�s like you�re going to go to the gates of heaven and it�s a trap door and there�s a porthole to hell. I mean, how awful that would be. We have to remember that Satan is alive and he�s a liar and he�s an angel of light and he�s a deceiver.
If you look at Gallup polls and other polls, most people think they�re going to heaven when they die. Eight out of ten people say they�re Christians, and you know what? They think they�re going to go to heaven.
Thomas Brooks said, �Satan promises the best but pays with the worst. He promises honor and pays with disgrace. He promises pleasure and pays with pain. He promises profit and pays with loss. He promises life and pays with death.
You talk about strategies. When I was a kid, we played the game Stratego. Remember that? I don�t mean the computer version, the board version. You�ve got bombs, remember, and the person, the little guy that could defuse the bombs and you try to capture the flag.
Satan�s got strategies. And of course, unbelievers are dead in trespasses and sins. Their minds are blind, right, as unregenerate persons. They can easily be deceived. And the old spiritual song is true.
Everybody talking about heaven ain�t going there. Because to use the Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 25, �There�s a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of, what, death. There is a faith that doesn�t save.
There�s a false assurance. I want to make sure I make that point. But the focus here is gospel assurance, not the fake stuff, not the faulty stuff, not the forgery stuff, not the counterfeit stuff. But I want to acknowledge that it�s true and it�s awful and it�s dangerous and we ought to talk about it.
And we ought to say things like Jesus says in Matthew 7, 21 and following, �Not everyone who says to me, �Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, �Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name And then will I declare to them, �I never knew you.
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. That�s an awful thing. James chapter 2, �What good is it, my brothers it�s no good, there�s nothing good there, �if someone says he has faith but has not works?
Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to him, �Go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Someone will say, �You have faith and I have works. Show me� right, we�re not God, so we have to see evidences, �show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.
Because see, we can�t see the root, we can only see the fruit. You believe God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder. So there�s a faith that doesn�t save, it�s a demonic faith, it�s a faith that is an emotional faith, an intellectual faith, demons shuddering, some unbelievers don�t even have, they don�t have either of those, emotional nor intellectual faith.
Real faith is knowledge, scent, and trust, and of course demons don�t have that. And by the way, with all this Federal Vision talk and other things, don�t be bamboozled in James chapter 2. Remember, think categories, you�re going to stand before God and you need to be standing before a thrice holy God, perfectly righteous.
How are you going to do that? Only by Jesus� perfect righteousness and Jesus� death, where He exhausts the wrath of God for our unrighteousness, right? The great exchange confirmed by the resurrection.
Therefore, we say to ourselves, we stand before God based on the ground of Christ Himself and His work. There are fruits and evidences that go along with it, but that�s not the ground. And so, you can have a few fruits, a few evidences, sin-tainted fruits, sin-tainted evidences, and that�s what we have on earth.
But since God accepts us in Christ, He accepts our works that are less than perfect and less than motivated by love for God and love for neighbor. I mean, do we do anything with perfect motivations? Therefore, when we say this, you�re saved by faith alone.
The ground is faith, no. The ground is Christ�s work, and you�re trusting that that�s true. The non-meritorious instrument is faith, and we�re not talking about the quality of faith, we�re talking about the quality of the Savior that faith looks to.
Faith is a gift, and it�s not meritorious, it�s just an instrument to receive, that�s it. Nothing qualitative about the faith. It is, in substance, knowledge, assent, and trust, or that�s how we would define it, but it�s nothing meritorious, nothing ground, standing before God, because that faith to stand before God would have to be perfect.
So, if you want to stand before God with faith, because of faith, it better be perfect faith. Not one little smidgen of sin or bad motives or doubt or anything else. When we say faith alone, we�re talking about faith in the risen Savior alone, non-meritorious instrument.
And then we say, and that faith won�t be alone, like the Reformers and Luther, saved by faith alone, but that faith won�t be alone. Now we�re moving to another category. Now we�re moving away from ground and standing and justification language and courtroom language, and now we�re moving it to sanctification language, holy living language, fruit and evidence language.
And it will serve you well, dear no-compromise radio listener, if you can figure out the difference between ground and evidence, root and fruit, what�s meritorious, Jesus, what�s non-meritorious, faith, what happens when God justifies.
Of course, there�s a sanctification process that God begins, and we respond with faith and good works and obedience, etc. But don�t do this whole, you know, it�s a living faith, no, no, no. If you want to say living faith, okay, I don�t mind.
Put that in the category of sanctification, though. Because living faith, loyal faith, loving faith, desiring faith, not trusting, that�s in the other category, yielding faith, submissive faith, surrendering faith, that�s all in the category of evidence in the sanctification category, in the response to God sanctifying work category.
You want to be saved by living faith? Just how living must that faith be? Just how loyal must that faith be? Well, to stand before God as ground, it better be perfect. So in summary, don�t forget this.
You�re saved by faith alone, because faith is something that receives, it knows about God, it agrees and trusts, and it says, okay, my only standing before God is Jesus. Jesus� perfect righteousness that He earned and merited by keeping the law, not for Himself but for us, and then Jesus� pain on the cross for all my sins and transgressions against the law that I unrighteously did.
That�s how I stand before God, confirmed by the resurrection. And now that I want to live out of gratitude for Him, not because this is going to earn me anything, but just the fruit of all this, the evidence to all this, that people could see, show me, James 2 .18, the �show me� state, Missouri, that�s evidence, that�s it, that�s fruit, that�s it.
You cannot stand before God because of faith, because that faith would have to be perfect. So you stand before God by faith or through faith, because that tells me it�s a non-meritorious instrument and it�s looking to the One who is perfectly righteous and dies for the unrighteous and is raised from the dead.
His name is Jesus, Christ of Nazareth. Bigger point here, everybody talking about heaven ain�t going there. People can have false assurance. And if you say to yourself, �You know what? I say I�m a Christian, but I am an adulterer, an idolater, and a fornicator, and a homosexual in the list of 1 Corinthians 6 -9 and following, and I still am that, that�s what I do, that�s a name that names me, that�s a characteristic of my life, and I can�t say, like Paul said to the Corinthians, �Such were some of you, washed, sanctified, justified.
I can�t say that. Well, then, you�re deceived. Do not be deceived. Why would Paul say don�t be deceived? Because it�s easy to be deceived, especially in a world that�s deceiving everybody else about everything else.
Introductory question number six. Why is assurance important? Not insurance, Geico. Why is assurance important? Did you know that at least 25 members of the Westminster Assembly, think about the Westminster divines, right, with the Westminster Confession, Westminster Shorter Catechism, Westminster Longer Catechism, 25 of those men wrote books on the doctrines of faith and assurance.
Speaking of which, I recommend, not just Gospel Assurance, because I wrote it, but I recommend Joel Beeky�s book on assurance. I also recommend, here�s a free one, online, Louis Berkoff, Assurance of the Faith.
I think that�s what it�s called, for free. It�s a wonderful little book. Why is assurance important? Well, isn�t it something that you want? I mean, how would you like to live without assurance? I mean, some of you maybe have a bad relationship with your spouse.
Does she love me or does she not? And what goes along with that? Joseph Carl, in 1653, said, �The greatest thing that we can desire, next to the glory of God, is our own salvation. And the sweetest thing we can desire is the assurance of our salvation.
�In this life we cannot get higher than to be assured of that which is in the next life to be enjoyed. All saints shall enjoy a heaven when they leave this earth. Some saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth.
Wow, that�s good. That should be in a book. That should be in a 31-day guide. Did you know, and I�ll talk about this in later shows, assurance is so important that it will help you with worship, trials, ministry, good works, temptations, and evangelism?
You say how? Good question. Stay tuned. Introductory question number seven. Are there different kinds of assurance? Okay, I�ll say that�s a good question. Who came up with that? Yes, objective, we�ll call it, and subjective.
So objective is going to be looking to Jesus, His person, His love, His promises. And of course, when I say Jesus, you can certainly add in the Father and the Spirit, right? Because what we do is when I say Jesus, then you have to say to yourself, well, Jesus is the sent one and the Father, the unbegotten Father, is the sender.
And then the Father and the Son, then from them proceed the Spirit. And so when you say one, you have to talk about all three. You say all three, you have to talk about the one, right? One God, three persons.
The Westminster Confession of Faith that I referenced earlier talked about assurance, certainly assured that you�re in the state of grace. They said it�s founded on these three things. One, the divine truth of the promises of salvation.
So I�m going to call that objective. The person and work of Jesus promises His love. They could all be put together under promises, I guess. Two, the inward evidence of those graces under which these promises are made.
That is like the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. And you look at your life and you say, I see love, joy, and peace. I don�t see as much as I want, but I see some. God must be working in me because the Spirit, He lives in me.
And then thirdly, this is also subjective. So we got one objective, two subjective. Westminster Confession, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we are children of God.
So that�s Romans chapter 8, and we�ll look at that in shows to come. Basically, when you�re really hurting and you�re suffering and you�re down and there�s no way out, you say, because of the Holy Spirit working in your heart, you say, Dad, that�s on earth.
I don�t want to call the Father, Dad, Daddy, Abba, you could say. But you say, when you�re really hurting, on earth, Dad, help. And when it comes to those Christians who are really hurting, what�s one of the evidences, what�s the internal witness of the Spirit, what�s He have you do?
He has you cry out to the Father, Abba, Father, shrieking, crying out like you�re in labor pains. And therefore, we have objective assurance that looks outside of us, the objective work of Jesus, His person, His love, His promises, and the inward, our subjective assurance when we look to ourselves and see the Holy Spirit working in our lives to help us to cry out, Abba, Father, and to produce in us love and joy and peace.
Those are the two, objective and subjective. Most of Christianity talks about subjective, and they say things like this, well, the Bible teaches that Christians think this way and act this way. I see in my own life a little bit of thinking that way and acting that way.
Thirdly, then, I must be a Christian because I see those evidences there. That�s mostly where people go. And I don�t mind that at all, but I just think it should be secondary. Objective first, subjective second.
When I look to the Lord Jesus, I don�t know how I could be lost, that�s objective. When I look to myself, I don�t know how I could be saved, right? I don�t see as much fruit as I want, and I see fruit tainted a little bit, and a little corrupt and kind of rotten.
I mean, it�s there, but so objective and subjective, and you�re going to see in these episodes on American Gospel and these podcast episodes how one is primary, although both are important. And then lastly for today, number eight, what is the history regarding the struggle for assurance?
The doctrine of assurance, is there a struggle? Of course, there are some religious systems that mandate, dictate, and teach that it�s wrong to have assurance. Why do you think they would do that? Why would you think it�d be wrong to have assurance?
Well, if you have no assurance, you better keep working. And so this is a way to get people to work. It�s a way for people to give more, to work more, to sacrifice more. Now, there�s nothing wrong with sacrifice, love, giving, etc., as long as it�s out of a motivation of gratitude, not to gain standing.
I think lots of people, especially in systems like Roman Catholicism, they don�t let anybody have assurance, so they have to have their people work harder. Can you imagine it�s called a heresy? Cardinal Bellarmine said, �The principal heresy of Protestants is�, okay, so out of all the heresies, you know, sola fide, sola gratia, bondage of the will, the principal heresy is that saints may obtain a certain assurance of their gracious and pardoned state before God.
He said that in his Disputations, and that�s pretty extreme, don�t you think? That�s amazing. The greatest of all heresies? That�s what Pope Clement VIII called it. No, I think if I�m looking at my notes, that�s what Cardinal Bellarmine, under, who was a personal theologian to Pope Clement VIII, I want to make sure I�m right with things, Catholic Encyclopedia defines the sin of presumption, �It may be defined as a condition of a soul that, because of a badly regulated reliance on God�s mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them.
Catholic Encyclopedia, sin of presumption. My point is, some people don�t like this doctrine, and we know we need it. Anyway, my name�s Mike Gabendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. We are working on a few things, I need to get some newer equipment, so I�m going to work on that, and who knows, what else am I doing?
I want to get some new intro music, but I think I�ve got, whittled that down, Christ for pardon, Christ for power, I don�t know how I can turn that into a slogan, a catchphrase, but that�s what we�re about.
Law, gospel, three covenants, Christ for pardon, Christ for power, gospel assurance, talk to you soon.
No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.