Assurance of Salvation with R. C. Sproul, “The Source of Full Assurance”, 5

We come now to our final message in this series on the assurance of salvation, and in our last lesson we saw how critical it is to have a sound theology of salvation, a sound theology of election upon which to base our assurance.

And at the end of that message I mentioned that most critical to this whole question is the understanding of the Spirit's work within us that we call regeneration or rebirth. In the polls that are conducted frequently by Gallup and by George Barna and so on, it seems that over 60 million American people claim to be, quote, born-again Christians.

Well, if you're one of those 60 million people, let me ask you the question, what do you think it means to be born again? If we ask that question to professing Christians, many will say, well, a born-again Christian is somebody who made a decision in an evangelistic way, or the born-again person is a person who said the sinner's prayer.

No, it's possible to make a profession of faith without being born again. This is what we learned early on in this study that Jesus said many people will claim to be His, to claim to know Him. They will honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him.

To be born again means to have been changed by the supernatural operation or work of God the Holy Spirit. We saw in Ephesians 2 this strong contrast between life before quickening by the Spirit and life after having been quickened by the Spirit.

Prior to regeneration, we walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, fulfilling by nature the desires of the flesh. That's the life of the fallen person who is not reborn.

And so, now we have to ask the question, what is it that takes place? What's the change that is affected by the operation of the Spirit in our souls or in our hearts? And again, part of the dispute about regeneration focuses on differences in our understanding of original sin.

All professing Christians believe that there was some kind of a fall, and that there's something wrong with our constituent nature, that we are indeed fallen and corrupt creatures, but there is massive differences, there are massive differences out there with respect to the degree of that fall, to the degree of that moral corruption that takes place as a result of the fall.

There are Christians who believe that, yes, man is fallen, but there still remains in the soul, as corrupt as the soul may be, what I call a little island of righteousness that is unaffected by the fall, where out of this island of righteousness, somebody still has the power to cooperate with God's offer of grace or not.

And even before they are regenerated, even before this quickening takes place, there still remains this island of power within them, which I can't find anywhere in Scripture. When I read the Scripture talking about our state of nature, the Bible uses words like we're dead in sin, we're in bondage to sin, we are by nature the children of wrath.

We do not want God in our thinking. And the way we've understood that historically is this, that the unregenerate person has a moral bent, a bias against God. By nature, the Scriptures tell us, we are at enmity.

And enmity is a description of an attitude that is hostile. In the flesh, which can produce nothing but sin, we are at enmity with God. Now, that describes not only our actions, but it describes the deepest attitudes of our hearts, what we call in theology the soul's inclination or disposition, so that before we're regenerated, before we're reborn, we are disinclined towards the things of God.

We are indisposed towards the things of God. We have no genuine affection for Christ. There's no love for God in our hearts. You know, at a practical level, people come to me all the time struggling with their assurance of salvation, and in other programs I've mentioned this, in other series I've mentioned this, I'll mention it again.

People say to me, how can I know if I'm saved? And I'll say, I'll ask them three questions. I'll say, first of all, do you love Jesus perfectly? And every person I've ever asked that question is candid, and they say, no, I don't.

That's why they're not sure of the state of their soul. They know that there are deficiencies in their affection for Christ, because they know if they loved Christ perfectly, they would obey Him perfectly.

If you love me, Jesus says, keep my commandments. So as soon as I disobey one of His commandments, that's a signal to me that I am not loving Him perfectly. So I'm not surprised when a true Christian says to me, no, I don't love Him perfectly.

I'll say, well, do you love Him as much as you ought to? And they kind of look funny at me. They say, well, no, of course no. If the answer to the first question is no, the answer to the second question has to be no, because we're supposed to love Him perfectly, but we don't.

And therein is the tension that we experience about our salvation. Now, we get to the third question. I said, now listen to me. Do you love Him at all? Do you love Him at all? Now before you answer that question, I'm asking you, do you love the biblical Christ?

The Christ whom you encounter in the pages of Holy Scripture? I say that for this reason. Many, many years ago, I taught at the Young Life Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And I did a lot of work in those days with and for Young Life, and had enormous respect for the outreach ministry of that organization.

When I was there training staff in Colorado, I said, let me warn you about one grave danger of this ministry. Let me say first of all, I don't know personally of any ministry to young people in the world that's more effective in getting next to kids, getting involved in their issues, getting involved to their problems, ministering to kids where they are, and knowing how to get them to respond.

I said, that's the greatest strength of this organization, and it's also your greatest weakness. I said, because Young Life as a ministry makes Christianity so attractive to kids that it's easy for kids to be converted to Young Life without ever being converted to Christ.

And that's why I say, when I ask you, do you love Christ at all? I'm not asking, do you love Christ who is a hero for kids, or do you love the Christ who is the symbol for liberation theology, or the moral teacher that the liberals have?

I'm asking you, do you love the Christ who appears in Scripture? And if I asked you if you love your kids, you would know whether you do or you don't. This is a, I'm asking you something about your affections, I'm asking you about your inclinations, I'm asking you about your disposition, I'm asking you about the bent of your heart.

And it's the same thing if I say to you, do you have any affection for Christ? Now, if you say yes to that question, here's where the theology comes in. I'm saying, is it possible for an unregenerate person to have any true affection for Christ?

And my answer is, no. That affection for Christ is a result of the Spirit's work, because this is what the Spirit does in quickening, this is what regeneration is about, is that God the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of your soul, changes the disposition and inclination of your heart.

Where before you were cold to the things of God, hostile or indifferent, which is the worst kind of hostility, but you had no real honest affection for the things of God, because you were in the flesh, and the flesh does not love the things of God.

The love of God is kindled by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad in your heart the love of God. So, if I can answer yes to the question of having an affection for Christ, even though I realize I don't love Him as much as I ought to, I don't love Him perfectly, if I love Him at all, that assures me that the Spirit has done this transforming work in my soul, because I do not have the power in my flesh to conjure up any true affection for Jesus Christ.

Now, there are views of regeneration out there that won't give you that kind of assurance. One of the most popular views of regeneration in the whole evangelical world today is that view that says what happens at regeneration is simply that the Holy Spirit comes into your life, He indwells you.

But even after that, after regeneration, you have to respond to the Spirit, you have to cooperate with the Spirit, you have to ask Him to fill you and put Him in charge of your life, because it's possible for you to be regenerate, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

You're a Christian, but you may be what's called a carnal Christian who never brings forth any fruits of obedience, which from our theological perspective, we would say if that's the description of a carnal Christian, when the New Testament talks about being carnal, that means we start purely carnal, we're in the flesh.

When God the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of our heart, He doesn't annihilate the flesh. The carnal dimension still battles with us, the flesh battles with the Spirit our whole life, and there are times that we are more or less carnal.

There's no dispute about that. But if you mean by carnal Christian somebody who remains unchanged by the presence of the Holy Ghost, you're not talking about a Christian, you're talking about an unregenerate person.

So this view of regeneration, I reject out of hand as involving no regeneration, because though the Spirit enters into the person's life, it doesn't work its supernatural work of grace that changes the inclination and disposition of the soul.

That is, the person remains the same in his soul as he was before this took place. That's why it's critical to understand that regeneration is something that the Holy Spirit does that really and truly changes you.

It changes the disposition of your heart, changes the disposition of your soul, and if a person is truly regenerate and manifests faith, it is impossible for that person not to bring forth some fruit, not to bring forth some measure of obedience.

We've seen that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit by which the inclination of the soul is changed. But not only does the Holy Spirit change us in terms of this work of regeneration, but He does other things that are important to our assurance, and let me look at some of them.

Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 5. Well, let me even go back early and begin at the beginning of the chapter. We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, that we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed having been clothed we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Now listen to this, now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Now in other translations of the Bible, the authors speak of not just the guarantee of the Spirit, but what is called the earnest of the Spirit.

And the language here comes from the commercial world of the ancient Greeks. Today, about the only time you hear this used in this manner is in the business of real estate. If you are interested in buying a home, and you want to sign the initial contract for the people to take the home off the market, they'll ask you to give what some people call pin money, or other people call earnest money.

That is, they don't want to be dealing with people who are just playing around about buying a house, but they want people who are earnest about it, people who are serious about it. And the idea here in the Scriptures is that the Spirit, when He regenerates us, not only changes the disposition of our hearts and the inclination of our souls, but He gives to us the earnest, or the guarantee, of full and final payment.

When I buy something on time, I have to make a down payment. Now we know that there are people every day who enter into contracts who put forth the first payment, and then after a few payments are made, they renege on their payments.

Maybe they have their house foreclosed, or their car reclaimed and taken away because they failed to keep the terms of the contract. With the down payment, they promise to pay the whole amount. But we don't always do that.

But when God makes a down payment on something, that down payment is His Word. It is His promise that He will, in fact, pay the whole amount. And this is the language that Paul is using in the New Testament when he says, when we're born of the Spirit, not only does the Spirit change our hearts and change our souls and will and everything, but He then gives to us the pledge, the guarantee, that the fullness of our salvation will be realized.

You see, this is a business of people saying, well, I can be saved today, but tomorrow I can lose it, is ignoring. That ignores these promises that when God starts, He finishes. He puts a down payment, you can be rest assured because it's guaranteed that the rest will be paid.

There is the basis of our assurance. Again, this is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Let's take another example of this, where we find in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning at verse 15, and in this confidence I intended to come to you before that you might have a second benefit to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to Judea.

Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly, or the things I planned, do I plan according to the flesh that with me there should be yes, yes, and no, no? But as God is faithful, our word to you was not yes and no, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not yes and no, you know, not maybe this, maybe not, but in Him was yes.

For all of the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him amen to the glory through us. All of God's promises to us are yea and amen. God doesn't vacillate in His promises. God doesn't say yes and no, or maybe all of His promises, the Apostle is saying here, are firmly established by the divine affirmation, by the divine yes.

You can take that to the bank. Then he goes on and says this, now He who establishes with you, us with you in Christ, and has anointed us is God, and now listen, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

There it is again. Not only do we have the guarantee or the earnest of the Spirit, but we also, Paul tells us, and he repeats this idea later in Ephesians, that we are sealed by the Holy Ghost. The Greek word there is sphrogos, and the sealing of the Holy Ghost.

You've seen the movies of the Middle Ages and of monarchies and royalty when a decree comes out from the king, and it's going to go out and be posted in the village that at the bottom of the proclamation there is this waxed seal affixed to the proclamation in which there is the sign of the king, where the sign of the king that is based by the signet ring, the monarch has a ring that has built within it, etched inside of it, a certain shape or form that is the sign of his signature.

And so if a document or a proclamation or an edict bears the seal in wax from the king's signet ring, that means that this is the irrefutable testimony of its authenticity. And here the king of the universe places his indelible mark on the soul of every one of his people.

He gives us not only the guarantee, not only the change and disposition of our hearts, but he seals us for the day of redemption. Finally, in Romans 8, we read the encouraging words in verse 9 where Paul writes, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, he says, we are debtors not to the flesh to live that way, but to live according for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Now, here is what he says, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. You did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.

And the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Here, what we seek to learn through studying our own lives, our own hearts, the fruit of the Spirit, measuring the change in our life, those things where we try to be as honest in our evaluation of what's going on inside of us and through us.

In the final analysis, the rock bed of our assurance comes from the internal testimony of God the Holy Spirit. Where this added gift of grace by the Spirit is that the Spirit bears witness to our spirit.

This is inside that we are the children of God. Now, last thing, how do we know that that testimony of the Spirit to our spirit is from the Spirit and not from an evil spirit? How does the Holy Spirit confirm in our hearts that we are the children of God?

The Spirit bears witness to our spirit through the Word. The further you get away from the Word, the less assurance you will know in your life. The more you are in the Word, as you read the Word of God, the Spirit who inspired the Word, the Spirit who illumines the Word for you now, uses that Word to confirm in your souls that you are His, that you are indeed the children of God.