Assurance and Berkhof

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.

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Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I just clicked on the Facebook Live, and I thought I�d record a show here the day before Thanksgiving, and you can always write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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The Objective and Subjective Bases of Assurance

So, let�s see. What do I have here today on the show? I picked up a book a while ago because R. Scott Clarke said I should read this book. I�ll just show you the picture of it here. I think it�s backwards.

The Assurance of Faith, the Firm Foundation of Christian Hope by Louis Burkhoff. And it�s kind of fun to see Burkhoff�s face, and I�ll try to put that up as close as I can. There�s Burkhoff�s face, and if you don�t have a systematic theology, I think you can get that for free online.

There are PDFs, and this on monergism .com I believe you can get for free. I want to say I ordered the book, and I�m glad to have the book. It probably cost me $15, but I was glad to get it. Solid Ground Christian Books, Birmingham, Alabama, 2004, and so that�s what�s going on there.

I don�t know. I�m looking at this video here, and nothing�s happening, so it just says live, and we�ll just keep going. Assurance is very important for lots of reasons. As a matter of fact, I have this other book here, and we�ll look at that right now.

Do you have assurance? Can you have assurance? And what does the Bible teach about it? And I think I�ve said over the last year, my old view of assurance was strictly subjectively based. It was duty-driven.

You do things, then you get assurance. I don�t think there�s anything wrong with duty and earnestness. Hebrews 6, it says in verse 9, �Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong to salvation.

What he�s been talking about in verses 1 through 8, whatever they are, fundamental building blocks, ABCs of who Christ is, they�re not salvific. No matter what their experiences are, just like with Israel in the wilderness, from tasting manna to being illumined by the pillar of light, pillar of fire, they were not salvific.

It was like Judas, close but not close enough. And the writer, I almost said Paul, the writer says, �Now, beloved he doesn�t call them beloved until here, �we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

And then it�s interesting how he ties in this assurance, �For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

There�s nothing wrong with wanting people to have that kind of assurance through earnestness as you serve other people. That subjective reality is very true. But what I didn�t have in my mind for a long time is the priority of objective assurance, understanding who Jesus is and what He�s done, i .e. gospel, and that drives assurance.

And we�ve talked here on the show about the objective realities of Christ driving assurance, the promises of God, �You come to me and in no wise I will cast you out, in no way I�ll cast you out. The Lord says, �The love of God, the love of the Father, and the love of the Son.

Ignoring that idea, that false idea that the Father doesn�t love until the Son does something. Both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, they determined because they loved sinners to go send the Son.

And when you think of even John 3, 16, �For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. The first reference to God is the Father, and then He�s sending the Son. He loves, therefore He sends the Son.

And the Son loves the Father and loves sinners, so therefore He goes. Well, this book, Assurance of Faith, will help you in that regard for both objective assurance, that is to say, the work of Christ Jesus, the life of Christ Jesus, the ongoing intercessory work of Christ Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father, the promises of God, the love of God, what the Scriptures teach, and then subjectively as well as you recognize the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life, you can ask yourself the question, �Who gave me that fruit?

I don�t desire God like I should, but I do desire Him some. Was it not R .C. Sproul that would say things like, when people struggle with assurance, �Do you perfectly love God �Do you want to perfectly love God

Yes. And then he works from there, �And who gave you that desire to do that Et cetera. So Assurance of Faith is a book by Louis Burkhoff that starts off like this, �There are some subjects that have a perennial appeal for all serious-minded Christians, and among these the subject of assurance of faith or of salvation occupies an outstanding place.

That is amazing to me. And then he talks a little bit about even kind of a social gospel. Of course, this was written, my guess is the 20s, but I do not know, let�s see when was this written, 1939. Listen to what Burkhoff says,.

�Moreover, the advocates of the social gospel take great delight in posing as the representatives of a superior ethical code. Boy, that implies today, doesn�t it? �They claim to have learned the important lesson of subordinating their personal interests to those of society.

In their work of social reform, they are forgetful of self. Egotism has made place for altruism, and from their highest point of view, they regard the question of personal assurance as purely selfish and therefore unworthy of one living in this social age.

Men ought to be less concerned about themselves and more about others. If they only do their duty by their fellow men, the future will take care of itself. Now, as I�m talking about assurance, I found that fascinating that Burkhoff would bring that in.

I�m wondering when that�s going to appear, if in fact it will ever appear in the modern social justice debate, where we have many, what I used to think were solid evangelicals now dabbling with all this, are furled headlong into all this.

When will they begin to say, �You know what, we�re not going to talk about assurance, because that�s too selfish, that�s focused on self too much. We, contra Hebrews chapter 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12, you know what, we have to focus on other people, and so let�s not talk about assurance, because that�s back to self, and we want to help others and love others and do all those things.

I wonder when that�s going to happen, if it will happen. I mean, history often, not always, but often repeats itself. Here�s what Burkhoff says, �What shall we say to these things Well, that�s actually Paul, but Burkhoff grabs it.

�It is perfectly true that conditions have greatly changed since the days of the Reformation. There is today a battle that centers about the Word of God and the great verities of faith as never before, and it would be a great mistake for Christians to concern themselves only about their personal assurance and to lose sight of the more fundamental battle.

What value has personal assurance if the Bible is not dependable? It presupposes the truth of Scripture. Therefore, the very desire for assurance of salvation should prompt those who seek it to fight the forces of unbelief, but on the other hand, their battle for the Bible should not cause them to lose sight of the question of assurance.

They ought not to think for a moment that they can safely ignore this in view of greater issues that are now at stake. The Reformers certainly did not take that attitude. They too had to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, but never ceased to stress the necessity of personal assurance.

And therefore, when I read Hebrews 6, we have the desire for each one of you, remember this is a sermonic epistle or an epistolatory sermon, to show the same earnestness to have full assurance of hope until the end.

I want my children to have assurance that I'm their dad and Kim's their mother. What if I always told the kids that, you know, they might really not be my children and I've just adopted a few as a pastor and always kept them in suspense?

Is dad my real dad? What was that old book, Are You My Mother? Are You My Mother? Of course, I don't want to do that. I want them to know. I want them to know deep down that they are part of my family and that I'm their dad.

And this is what I want. Do you want, to use the terminology, the nomenclature of Birkhoff, do you want your children to be chronic doubters? I think that's what we're after. Do we want chronic doubters or, as Heidelberg says, do we want people to have a hearty trust in the Lord Jesus?

Do we want to have a trust that knows that they're part of the family? Well, this book by Louis Birkhoff then moves on to the doctrine of assurance in history. And I find it fascinating because he's going to get, I mean, he goes through Augustine, but he's going to get to the Roman Catholic Church pretty quickly because he realizes that this was the battle.

And I've said before on No Compromise Radio that, of course, the Reformation highlighted the solas. Of course, the Reformation highlighted the doctrines of grace. That's absolutely true. But there were three, at least in my mind, that I can think of at the moment.

Three areas that the Reformation also helped us think through clearly and biblically as we recovered scriptural, biblical views of things. One was the sanctity of marriage, i .e., even for things beyond procreation, i .e., pleasure.

How many times can you say, i .e.? Secondly, the doctrine of bondage of the will, the bondage of the will doctrine. And then thirdly, the doctrine we're talking about today, assurance of salvation. I mean, if you've got to deal with penance and absolution, and every time you commit a mortal sin, you've got to go talk to the priest, and you've got a system where they want to keep you working and keep you dependent on the priest, sacerdotalism, then you're having no assurance.

They don't even want you to have assurance. And I think you should ask yourself the question, and you might even be at some type of Arminian semi-Pelagian church, what kind of church do you want to go to?

One that will not want you to have assurance, always doubting, always chronically doubting? Or what about this pastor, this writer of Hebrews? He wants them to have assurance. I think God wants you to have assurance.

Now, there are going to be times, and we're going to get into this in this show and maybe other shows, where if you're lazy, and you're disobedient, and you're sinful, well, that's me today, right? But if there's this pattern in your life, and you're going to struggle with assurance, I understand all that.

But, I mean, Berkhoff says, but the Roman Catholic Church even goes a step further. It regards personal assurance as undesirable. The real reason for this is, in all probability, that the church greatly profits by keeping the souls of the faithful in constant suspense.

It reaps a rich harvest through the sacrament of penance. Anyway, my name's Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. I don't know who's seen this. It says that it's doing it live, but who knows, and it doesn't really matter because we're recording radio.

It is pretty snowy out for Thanksgiving, I'll tell you that, the day before Thanksgiving. I'm glad I'm not traveling through an airport today. We're talking about assurance of salvation. Now, most people know Al Mohler, and he's the Protestant Southern Baptist president of Southern Seminary, the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Southern Seminary.

There's another Mohler, back in the day, and he was a Roman Catholic scholar. Here's what the Roman Catholic Mohler said. I think that in the neighborhood of any man who would declare himself under all circumstances assured of his salvation, I should feel very uncomfortable and should probably have difficulty to put away the thought that something like diabolical influence was here at play.

Calvin, Heidelberg, and the Reformed Definition of Faith

Now, does it sound like a different religion? Here's Calvin. We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ and revealed to our minds and sealed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

That certain knowledge that Heidelberg talks about that you have in the Word of God and that hearty trust that the Holy Spirit has worked in you by the gospel and that you have forgiveness of sins. And wouldn't you like to know you're forgiven?

Don't you need to be reminded that you're forgiven? Of course you need that. A larger catechism, faith is a firm assent to every Word of God and firm confidence by which everyone holds that forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and eternal life are given Him by God freely on account of the merits of Christ and through confidence is an illumination in the hearts of the elect by the Holy Spirit, making us living members of Christ and producing in us true love of God and prayer.

So different, then, well, this is going to make you complacent. This is going to make you want to coast. So you've got the Roman Catholics on one side. Hey, if we tell people you can be fully forgiven without having special revelation like Paul or being immaculate and sinless like Mary, then people are going to go crazy.

They're going to, everybody's going to cut loose. Ow, my knee is killing me. I can't do these sled squats anymore. I'm almost 60. It just does not work out. This is a 60-week injury. Here we go again.

I went to the chiropractor the other day and then, you know, he's always like, well, what hurts kind of thing? Well, you can imagine what I would say. What doesn't hurt? My shoulder, the rotator cuff is killing me.

I can't really move like that very well. My knee's killing me from the squats. My neck's hurt. I'm old. But that's okay. Inwardly we're being renewed day by day. And you know, the good news is it's such a slow process, right?

What if you just were living your life 25 years old and then all of a sudden, you know, you're 35, 45, 55, but then 55 plus a day, then you feel like you do now. That'd be bad. At least it's incremental.

It's a slow process. That's probably helpful. Don't you think? We just kind of get used to it. My dog, Jetty, an Elko mascot, she's 13 and I don't know. She's lived five lives, but she's slowing down a lot.

One of these days I'm just going to wake her up. Now she's deaf, almost deaf, it seems. I try to talk to her and then she never moves. I'm like, is she breathing? We're talking today about assurance of salvation and how Rome doesn't want you to have it.

But if you're focused on who Jesus is, you can have it. You should have it. And your pastor should regularly talk to you since he's not a Catholic, right? He doesn't have to try to do anything to make you do things because here, even like I just said, re-repeating, re-repeating, repeating the larger catechism, making us living members of Christ and producing in us true love of God and prayer.

That's what this God does. And we'll talk another time about monergistic sanctification, how God sanctifies and we respond with good works, of course, and please don't quote me Philippians 2 because I believe that too.

That has nothing to do with synergistic or monergistic sanctification. But here, because of Christ's merits and because of the grace of God, he wants you to know. He wants you to know that you don't have to be buying into this Roman Catholic view of assurance.

Rationalism, Self-Examination, and False Marks of Faith

We move on to the Doctrine of Assurance in History, page 29 by Berkhoff. This is fascinating. In the 18th century, the religious life of Europe suffered from the blight of rationalism. Religion became a matter of the intellect only and religious truth was made to depend on rational arguments.

Religious certainty was identified with a rational insight into the truth and divorced from the experience of a supernatural change and the resulting testimony of the Holy Spirit. Under this chilling influence, real spiritual life fast declined and alongside of it, there appeared a luxurious growth of a purely historical or a merely temporal faith.

It was but natural that reactions should follow. When a spurious faith became alarmingly prevalent, the question forced itself upon seriously minded Christians with an ever increasing insistency. How can we distinguish the true from the false?

The proper method was found in a close and sustained self-examination. The life of the soul was submitted to very careful scrutiny and to an analysis surprising in its minuteness. A constantly growing number of marks were discovered by which true faith might be recognized, many of them based on an unwarranted generalization and therefore of a very questionable character.

The spiritual experiences of those who were regarded as established Christians became the standard by which others were judged. But though this method was undoubtedly applied with the best intention, it did not promote the glad assurance of salvation in the Church of God.

In many cases, it even led to hopeless confusion. Perplexing doubts and uncertainties became so common that even these were finally looked upon as a mark of true piety. These doubts and uncertainties.

Scripture warrant for this was found in a word of Solomon, happy is the man that feareth always. It says always now, always. Proverbs 28, 14, a distinction was made between the being and well-being of faith, between a faith merely fleeting for refuge to Christ and an assured faith.

So to hear what Berkhoff is saying, you have rationalism, and rationalism is promoting, to use my words, a mere intellectualism and maybe some assent without that third component that the Reformation would strive to impress upon our minds, and that is trust, a hearty trust.

So now all of a sudden you've got some people say they believe, and other people say that they believe, but some, they just intellectually believe and others have a hearty trust. Well, how do we know which one we are?

Which one are we? Where was you at? Then you begin to look at your soul and you begin to look at your spiritual experiences and you begin to look at the standards that other teachers give you, but remember the standards are quite high.

The standards are perfection, and that's why you've got to go to the work of Christ and His merits for you, for your legal standing before God, because how much do you have to do? If you're going to use desiring God as an illustration, how much do you have to desire God to have right standing?

It better be perfect. How much must you treasure God in order to have right standing? Well, it better be complete trusting, complete treasuring, and therefore we're going to run into problems. I have no problem with looking at my life and saying to myself, do you have desire to pray?

Yes. Who gave you that desire? That's part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. No problem with doing that, and there is a subjective element, but it must not be eclipsed by, it must not eclipse the objective work of Christ.

You just cannot do it because you are tainted. Even your best deeds are like, what? They're tainted. They're like filthy rags. So be very, very careful that you're not going to be one of these people that only is going to the inside.

Luther said, we're curved in ourselves and we're sinful. Ourselves are sinful, and you have to be careful. If you are experiencing assurance, I don't think you should take your eyes off of who Jesus is.

If you are really working out your salvation with fear and trembling, there's lots of prayer and Bible reading and ministry and loving God and loving your neighbor, great, but don't take your mind off who Jesus is.

He's the one. Remember what Hebrews chapter 3 says? Consider him, right, this great high priest, and that word consider really means to almost kind of like to bend down and look at, not to look down upon with disgust, but to get down and look at.

You know, it's going to take some effort. Now when I have to bend down and pick something up, my friend Jay and I are working on my ceiling in the kitchen, and we're putting some kind of shiplap up and cutting and doing all these things, and we'll drop a drill bit or something, and I have to get down on the ground.

Man, try getting up. Very, very difficult. Well, my name's Mike Abenroth, this is No Compromise Radio. If you do not have that book by Louis Burkhoff, you ought to get it, Assurance of Faith. I think you can go to Monergism and it can be found in EPUB or PDF.

If you can't find it, I think it's public domain, so you can always email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com, and I'll send you a copy, if you prefer. And what else is going on? There are a few book ideas in my mind, but frankly I've just been tired enough that I'm just kind of back after sabbatical, preaching through Hebrews 6 and talking about the great high priest.

I'm trying to read a little bit, I just read that new Antinomian book, we'll talk quite about that, quite a bit about that too as well. Anyway, let's see what else. I'm hoping to have Chris Gordon on sometime soon, Escondido, United Reformed Pastor, that would be good.

That's Scott Clark's pastor, and we'll have Scott back on to talk about Reformation 101 as well. On Twitter we are at NoCoRadio, and Facebook, No Compromise Radio. We'll see you then. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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