LBCF Chap 18 Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation

As you can see, we're up to chapter 18 of the London Baptist Confession of Faith, and this is entitled, or titled, Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation. Now this is another one of those chapters that is very distinctively Reformed, all right?

Assurance of Grace and Salvation as a Distinctively Reformed Doctrine

Assurance of Grace and Salvation. The chapter has four parts and four paragraphs, so that makes it easy, it's divided in exactly that way. A couple of points that we need to cover as we begin. Firstly, this chapter is not addressing saving faith, all right, some people confuse assurance with faith, but they are two different things in the biblical context, and we'll go through that, hopefully you'll see the difference.

So, saving faith was chapter 14, and there was a number of chapters in between, very logically leading up to chapter 18, which is assurance, okay? This chapter, what it does address is infallible assurance of faith.

There's a difference between assurance of faith and faith itself, okay? Assurance of Grace and Salvation is not assurance that God's promises are true, that's faith, all right? You see the difference?

Assurance of Grace and Salvation is not the assurance that God's promises are true. If you believe that God's promises are true, that's faith. It is assurance that they are ours. See, so assurance is more subjective.

When I say that, you know, I believe that Jesus Christ came, he is the Messiah, and he died for sinners, all right? That's one thing, it's another thing to say, and I'm one of those that he died for, I have that assurance.

Subtle distinction, but an important one, all right? And that's what this chapter deals with. Now this chapter, as many of the other chapters that we've looked at, was developed in the midst of a controversy, all right?

In fact, if we go through all of the great creeds and confessions, what do we find? Most of them came out of some heretical position. A heretical position came into the church, church councils met, and to solve the dilemma, or the issue, came up with a creed or a confession.

This chapter is no different, all right? This chapter refutes two of the main errors concerning assurance. First one, the Roman Catholic denial of assurance, okay? The Roman Catholic Church categorically denies that a Christian can have assurance of faith.

Here's what they say. Roman Catholic Church taught that only select saints could have assurance, and that by special revelation. Okay, you see the difference? In other words, there are certain people who would be elevated to sainthood, and they could be assured that they were going to heaven.

Why? Because they had so many good works, they didn't need all of those good works to get into heaven, so they had assurance of it. Remember we talked about the treasury of merit? Okay, so that's what the Roman Catholic Church taught.

They further taught that it was dangerous for a Christian to believe that they had assurance of salvation. So if you told your priest that, oh yeah, I'm assured, I know I'm going to heaven, he'd say, oh, wait a minute, not so fast.

Okay, it's a dangerous position. You may be deceiving yourself, okay? So as we go through our confession, you'll see how that is refuted. Second, it refutes the antinomian Protestant view of assurance.

Everybody knows what antinomian means, right? Against the law. Against the law, all right? So there are Protestants who are antinomian, in other words, the law is not for us. We've all encountered people like that talk about, oh no, there's a difference between law and gospel.

We're in the new covenant age of grace, the law is not for us. We don't have to keep the law, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera All right, and that affects their view of assurance. They taught that assurance was possible without a corresponding holiness of life.

Now what was our previous chapter? Anybody remember what chapter 17 was? No, it's perseverance, right? Perseverance of the saints, all right? And remember in last week's study, we saw how perseverance of the saint, one of the ways in which you persevere, all right, and have knowledge of it is what?

By the fruits of repentance that are manifested in your life. We're gonna pick up on that again in this chapter because they taught that assurance was possible with no corresponding holiness. We see this today in many, many churches.

What do they do? Once saved, always saved, right? So what do they do? Anybody who wants to be saved, raise your hand. All right, all right. Pray this prayer. Lord, save me, I'm a sinner. All right, or worse to that effect.

And what do they say? You're in. Don't have to do another thing. Now you should be a good boy or a good little girl, all right, but even if you're not, don't worry about it, you're in, all right? You'll see that our confession deals with that as well.

The confession addresses the danger of false assurance. One of the things that you're gonna see is that the confession calls the assurance that we should be having infallible assurance, all right? But it also warns against false assurance, all right, which is a fallible assurance, okay?

So with those thoughts in mind, any questions on these? This is the background. This is the context in which we have to look at our confession. And I wanna keep addressing this too and emphasizing this, that you have to look at the confession in the context in which it was written.

If we don't, we're going to misinterpret some of the thoughts that the framers of this confession were thinking, and it goes, and it can take you in a wrong direction. That's why you always have to look at a document in the context in which it was written.

In fact, that's what we, isn't that what we do with the scripture? We constantly, you know, encourage people, take the scripture in the context. Taking scripture out of context can lead to false interpretation.

Same thing with the confession. All right, so let's look at part one of the confession of this chapter 18 of the confession. Basically says assurance is possible. That's what it, that's the first thing.

Paragraph 1A, that's the first part of the first paragraph, says, and it's interesting how they start off, talks about the danger of this possibility. You say, wait a minute. But as we unfold the confession, you'll see how it's really a very clever way of starting, the men who framed our confession were very godly, very spiritual men, and very wise men, all right?

And so they begin the assurance with 1A, the danger of this possibility. And look at what they say. Although temporary believers, as this is why I say you have to make sure you look at it in context, because if you just look at that phrase, what do you think?

Well, that means that there must be some people who can lose their salvation, all right? But we know that the confession teaches exactly the opposite. I mean, we've seen that. We've already gone through the doctrine of election, all right?

Well, this section itself refutes that, because look, although temporary believers and other unregenerate men, you see? So what they're talking about is the danger here is that there are people who may come and sit in church and under false teaching or easy believism make a profession of faith that is not a genuine profession of faith, and that's what they're talking about, temporary believers or other unregenerate men, all right?

But notice, what's the key there? These people are not true Christians, all right? Now, we know that there are some people who will be deceived right to the very end. How do we know that? Jesus said it, in Matthew chapter seven.

Yeah, in Matthew chapter seven. Some, there will be some on that day who say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these wonderful things in your name? And what's his response? Depart from me, I never knew you.

You workers of iniquity. That's actually right, all right? So although temporary believers and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves, and again, this is one of the biggest dangers that we find consistently in scripture is that of being deceived by someone else and even being deceived by yourself, all right?

In fact, Greg Bonson's thesis for his, I believe it was, I don't know if it was his master's or his doctorate, I think it was his doctoral, was a thesis on self-deception. So it's a fascinating read if you ever wanna sit down and have your mind blown for a little bit.

All right, so may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions, all right? Just almost two ways of saying the same thing, but this is where somebody sits down and says, oh, look, all you gotta do is just say the sinner's prayer, so pray the prayer, and then you don't ever have to worry about anything else again.

Do it right now, what's preventing you from doing it right now? That's kind of how it happens at some of these rallies. All right, I mean, the sales, I've actually been in meetings where they were schooling people on how to do this, and they say, like, you know, it's just like the salesman, you gotta close the deal, you know?

Let me just say this, it's not for us to close the deal, it's for the Holy Spirit to close the deal, all right? False hopes, carnal presumptions of what? Of being in the favor of God in a state of salvation.

So again, notice they're coming right up, and I love the way they did this. At first, when I read this, I said, this is a strange way to start, you know? But the more I look at it, it's a perfect way to start.

Warning you, don't be deceived, all right? All right, of being in favor with God in a state of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish. That's the danger, of being presumptuous, and of not understanding what salvation is, and how one is saved, okay?

So, paragraph 1B, that's the second half of this paragraph, is still the fact of this possibility, all right? But now it's stated positively, all right? Yet as such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, all right?

Notice it's different. What do we have up here? Temporary believers, unregenerate men. Down here, we have true believers, okay? True believers, those who truly believe and love him in sincerity, all right?

Endeavoring to walk an open conscience before him. Notice it's not just, oh, just raise your hand, you know? Who is a true believer? Those that love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk an open conscience before him, all right?

And what is the result? May in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace. And notice how strong this is worded. May in this life be certainly assured. Again, we're talking about an assurance, not just even a hope, all right?

But I can have that type of assurance, all right? And they may rejoice in the hope of glory, which hope shall never make them ashamed. So you see, what's the whole purpose of paragraph one? Negative, be careful, don't be self-deceived.

Self-deceived, however, if you are a true believer, you do love God in all sincerity, and you are endeavoring to walk in a manner worthy of your calling, guess what? You can have assurance in this life that you are truly saved.

And just think of, before you even go to the second paragraph, just think of this. There are Protestant denominations that teach you can never have assurance because you can lose your salvation, okay?

The Roman Catholic Church teaches you can't be assured. Not that, well, maybe you can be one of them, no, you can't be. And in fact, don't even try to be assured because that's dangerous for you. Now think of what type of effect does that have on your motivation and your thinking and your willing to suffer hardship for the kingdom?

I don't even know if I'm in, and I'm not sure what I have to do, okay? And that's why you come up with a nice system of lighting candles, indulgences, having making penance, and see if I can continue to do all of these things, then I'm working for it, all right?

But what does that do? You wind up your whole life, we're doing these things, and not accomplishing anything for the kingdom of God, okay? Yes, sir? Yes. If I go to Mass and receive communion, nine first Fridays in a row, I'm guaranteed a priest on my deathbed.

There you go. There you go. There you go, and that's where all, you know what, we have a tendency to look down our nose at that type of thinking, but think about it. If you're in a system where there is no assurance and all, those things can be meaningful to you, you know?

And that's how people are caught up in all of the rituals, because that's all, this is the only thing that I can think of that's gonna give me assurance, you know, so that I can have extreme unction, yes.

Yes, but also, I had heard once that maybe at the Billy Graham rallies that he used to have with stadiums full of people, somebody somehow did a survey, and maybe 3 of the people that answered the altar call stayed with, he saved, or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's a very small minority. That being said, God has used Billy Graham, because I know many people who were truly saved there, but you have to get the follow-up, you know? There's some people who make a profession of faith that may not actually be saved at that point, but if they get the right follow-up, you know, and hear the gospel, okay?

Infallible Assurance of Faith Grounded in Christ and the Spirit

All right, so let's go to chapter two now, and this is truly an amazing thing. Look at how Sam Walden describes part two. Assurance is infallible. Everybody knows what infallible means, not capable of error, okay?

Paragraph 2A, again, states the fact of this infallibility, and first, again, they state it negatively. So look at what it says. This certainty is not a bare, conjectural, and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope.

All right, notice it's stating it negative. It's telling you what it's not. It's not just, well, I think I'm saved, or I'm probably saved, all right, because I was told this when I raised my hand at an evangelical rally.

All right, that would certainly be a fallible hope if just because somebody told me, oh, no, you say this prayer, you're saved. I'm just to take their word for it, all right? Notice what it says. It's not a bare, conjectural, or probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope, all right?

Then it states it positively. What is it, then, if it's not that, but an infallible assurance of faith, okay? So there's the assertion now. This really is kind of at the heart of this whole chapter. You can have an infallible assurance of faith, how?

Founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ, see? Again, it's not what you've done. It's what Christ has done, all right? And how do we know? What are the roots? How can we be assured infallibly, all right?

Well, as we saw, it's the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the gospel. And you see how, again, we keep emphasizing, because there's a whole section of even Reformed Christians today who make the statement that you can be saved apart from the word of God by a vision, a dream, or something like that.

This mitigates against that. How can you have assurance of your faith? It's founded on the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. How do you know that it's revealed in the gospel? The only thing you can know for sure is that it's revealed in the gospel.

See, I'm convinced that I've been mistaken for Brad Pitt so many times. I mean, it's just uncanny. I can't wait to meet him. Look at him, Brad, look at him, Brad. Look at him. See, that is certainly a fallible assurance.

All right. How do we know? How can we know something for absolutely sure that there's no possibility that it's wrong? It's revealed in the gospel, because the gospel is absolute truth. So as soon as you start giving anybody assurance that's apart from the gospel, you're going way off track.

Also, the marks of grace, the inward evidence of those graces of the spirit unto which promises are made. Notice, the work of Christ, all right, revealed in the gospel. Inward evidence of those graces, how?

Through the spirit. How many times do we read, you know, that this Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit? All right. There is definitely spiritual promises here that go beyond our physical senses, because we do have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

What we're not saying is that the Holy Spirit is going to be whispering in my ear, and that's, you know, no. The Holy Spirit is giving us evidence, what? As we read the scriptures, he bears witness that those things that we're reading bears witness with our spirit that those things are true.

If you find yourself reading the scriptures, you say, well, I don't believe that. Guess what? You got a problem. Well, what does a true Christian say? Wow, that's amazing. You know, God would do that for me, you know, but you understand, and you understand, you can apprehend the truth of the gospel because the Holy Spirit is ministering to your spirit.

All right, so it's the marks of grace, and the testimony of the spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we were children of God. I jumped ahead of myself a little bit, all right, but the two are related to each one another.

You can see that. So it's the graces of the spirit with which the promises are made, and the testimony of the spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we are children of God. Okay? So these are the roots of infallibility.

That's how we can know. Notice, none of it is based upon our own subjective experience. If you're basing your assurance on subjective experience, you're on dangerous ground, okay? And then the last part of paragraph two, the fruits of this infallibility, and there it is, as a fruit thereof, keeping the heart both humble and holy.

Here's a, this is a big one, all right? How do you know that you have assurance of, infallible assurance of salvation? Well, if you start boasting, and you're proud about this fact, and telling everybody how you've got much more than the average Christian does, and even if you're boasting about gifts of the spirit, guess what?

You've got a problem. You've got a serious problem, because if you understand the assurance you have of infallibility, that's gonna keep you humble and holy. All right, now we're gonna actually address the rest of that in a little, in another minute.

Assurance Attained Through the Means of Grace and the Spirit

Now we come to part three, and this is an important one, again. Assurance is attainable. In other words, this is not a pie-in-the-sky hope, all right? This is absolutely attainable. But again, this whole, notice this whole chapter, every paragraph is starting with kind of a negative, all right?

And there's a reason for that, because they're warning against becoming proud, and overconfident in your faith, all right? All right, so chapter 18, part three, paragraph 3A, this says infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith.

This is what I had started off with, remember, showing that it's not, assurance of salvation is not automatic when you have faith, because when you come to faith in Christ, you have small faith. Your faith has to grow.

So it's not uncommon for a new believer to have doubts. I can't tell you how many times I've had a new believer come in, you know, they're all excited, they're growing, and then come in all dismayed, you know, I'm doubting my salvation.

Why, well, because I did something that I know I shouldn't have done. Oh, but it's great. And they say, what do you mean that's great? I said, the mere fact that you're in here, worried about your salvation shows, to me, you're probably saved because the spirit is convicting you of what you've done and it's wrong.

But it's not uncommon for a new believer to waver in their faith, all right? And so the infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith. Just because you don't have assurance doesn't mean you don't have the faith, okay?

The faith has to grow into an assured faith. But that a true believer may wait long. Sometimes a new believer doesn't have that assurance for some period of time, okay? And conflict with many difficulties before he may be a partaker of it.

In other words, you may be going back and forth for some period of time and wavering over, I'm saved, I'm not saved, you know? Like the deity, you know, I'm saved, I'm not saved, I'm saved, I'm not saved, all right?

So again, if you're a new believer and you've gone through that, that's nothing to worry about. It's normal, it's natural that something like that could happen, all right? The paragraph also tells us how we are to attain this insurance.

Assurance, not insurance. It would be easy if it was insurance, right? Signed a contract and, all right. Yet being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God. This is important, notice.

Whose work is the assurance of faith in you? Once again, who is it? The Holy Spirit. Have you noticed how since we started with the covenant in chapter seven, all right, right up to chapter 18 now, and we've only got, I think, two or three more chapters in this, in part two, it all comes back to the Holy Spirit.

Now, I just have to say this. One of the criticisms that is often leveled against conservative reformed Christians like ourselves by some of the more lighthearted and fanciful Christian denominations is that, oh, you don't have the Spirit.

You don't have all those gifts, the manifestations of the Spirit, so it's like you have, you're saved, but you're like a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God because you don't have all the accoutrements that you should have.

Have you seen every single chapter in bringing us back to the Holy Spirit? I would say there is a more biblical and greater emphasis in reformed Baptist churches on the work of the Holy Spirit than there is in any charismatic church.

I just had to say that, I'm sorry. Deeper and more detailed. Yes, and true, all right. Yet being enabled by the Spirit to know things which are freely given of him, he may without extraordinary revelation.

See, this is what we see in so many churches today. Oh no, you need this special second blessing, this extra grace, you know, and it's manifested in some supernatural experience, whether it be speaking in tongues or being slain in the Spirit or something.

No, our Confession says no, absolutely not. How do you come to this assurance? The right use of means, the means of grace. That's something that you will hear constantly from the pulpit, from the teaching podium, is that make diligent use of the means of grace.

That's the only way you're ever gonna mature in Christ, your faith is gonna grow, and you're gonna develop this infallible assurance where you know that you are saved, okay? All right, so that's 3B. 3C, this is the rest of it, the duty of attaining.

Now notice this, this is not icing on the cake. This is part and parcel of the cake. This is one of the ingredients of the cake, okay? The duty, and therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure.

If you have any doubts about your calling, about your election, you are duty-bound by the Scriptures to make your calling and election sure, all right? We're told that, remember, the purpose of this class is not to prove these things, but just to tell you what the Confession says.

But if you're struggling with this, I would suggest you get this, go to your Confession of Faith and look at the Scripture proofs, and it'll bring you to all of those sections of Scripture where it talks about making your calling and election sure, attaining to a full assurance of faith in Hebrew, excuse me, okay?

That thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Sometimes people, Christians in particular, struggle and don't reach the peace and the joy that they could have because they're struggling still with assurance.

And that's understandable. If you know the truth and yet you're not assured that it's applied to you, that's cause for concern. How can your heart be joyful? How can you have that peace that passes all understanding?

That's why you're duty-bound. And notice, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness of the duties of obedience. Here's where we come in again just as we looked about in perseverance.

One of the fruits that we see is that the Christian, the true Christian, has a desire to be obedient. All right? Hortons used to say, no holiness, no heaven. You have to be pursuing holiness in your life.

If you're not pursuing holiness, if you think you can just, you know, as my friend Steve Martin used it, not the comedian, the funny pastor. He says, yeah, as I was gonna write a book, he says, coasting for Christ.

There's no such thing, all right? And by the way, he meant that tongue-in-cheek, all right? The proper fruits of this assurance, now look at what it says. The proper fruits of this assurance, so far is it from inclining men to looseness.

One of the criticisms that, again, that is always levied against Reformed Christians is that, oh, you believe that the perseverance of the saints that you can't lose your salvation, you can have this full assurance.

Well, that's just gonna lead you to living a wanton and a loose life. Confession makes it very clear, no, it's just the opposite. Because if you are truly saved and you have this full assurance, your heart is gonna be filled so full of love and joy and peace and a desire to please God, to walk obedience, that you're going to be, and far from being loose living, it's gonna cause you to be righteous living.

Anybody who can say, well, look, hey, God's a forgiving God, and I can pretty much do what I want, except commit the unpardonable sin, of course, and I can do anything I want, and God's gonna forgive me, because I'm in, I'm one of his children, he loves me.

Dangerous. I'm not gonna say that that person's not a Christian, but they're certainly not talking like one. All right, so that's paragraph three. Now we come to the last part, four, and this is where, again, the rubber meets the road.

Assurance is variable. It would be nice if we just took off like that, but it doesn't, we come up, we come down again, we come up again, down again, all right? And it says, and it's 4A, starts with the fact.

True believers may have the assurance of their salvation, diver in ways, shaken, diminished, and intermittent. You know what the cause of this? Life. Life is hard. Don't let anybody tell you differently, life is hard.

And as a Christian, it may be harder, all right? So things can be shaking, all right? How and why? Reasons, negligence of persevering, all right? To start to ease up, start coasting for Christ, you know?

Yeah, all right? Or falling into special sin that wounds the conscious and grieves the spirit. And let me say this, too. There's not a person in this room, pastor included, that under the right set of circumstances couldn't fall into some grievous sin.

And don't think that you can't happen. If we go back over the last 30 years, I could probably name a dozen big name pastors that have fallen into immorality. And every time it happens, I just examine my own heart and say, Lord, please, you know, keep me.

You know, I don't, I've never looked down my nose and said, oh, how could he do that? No, we need to understand every one of us has feet of clay and just knowing the truth is not a guarantee that you're not going to fall.

Case in point, when David fell with Bathsheba, think he forgot that the 10 commandments said thou shalt not commit adultery? Think he somehow forgot that? He said, I'm not doing anything wrong. No, he deceived himself, okay?

So, or by some sudden or vehement temptation, and it's out there, it's out there. Or by God's withdrawing the light of his counselments and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light.

God may put the Christian through a tough period of time. Think of how many martyrs in the Middle Ages, pastors saw their wives and children murdered in front of their eyes and told all you have to do is recant.

That's tough, that's a tough thing. I don't, I mean, I pray I'm never put in that circumstance. Four C is the limits, here's the good news. Started off with the bad, then et cetera, here's the good news.

Yet they are never destitute of the seed of God and life of faith. God's countenance is never fully withdrawn from you. That the love of Christ and the brethren, the sincerity of heart, conscience of duty, out of which by the operation of the spirit.

Now notice, this is all things that you have as a believer. Okay, this assurance may in due time be revived and by which in the meantime, they are preserved from other despair. In other words, God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, all right, but with the temptation will always make the way of escape because he is faithful and with the way of escape will make a way that you can then endure it.

Okay, you see why this is such an important chapter? Because this is, if you do not have this assurance of faith, you're not gonna be spending all the time working for the kingdom of God. You need this to be, make sure your priorities are in order and that you're working for the kingdom of God.

Questions?