Assurance of Salvation — William MacDonald

The Biblical Basis for Assurance

The first John, chapter 5, and I'd like to read verse 13. First John, chapter 5, verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

The subject of our message this morning is assurance, assurance of salvation. How can a person know that he's saved? I don't mean how can he know 20 years later, I mean how can he know at the very moment that it takes place?

That he is saved. I'll tell you a little secret. Every preacher has some favorite subject. Dr. Ironside's favorite was, charge that to my account. He really loved that story of Philemon and Onesimus. And when he gave it, I mean the whole thing came to life.

You could see Philemon out there sitting on his front porch with his wife and gabbing away and looking down the dusty road and seeing a familiar gate coming up and it was Onesimus. And I mean he just, with a little sanctified imagination, he just painted the whole picture in front of you so that you never forgot it.

That was his favorite. My favorite is assurance of salvation. You know why? Because that was such a crisis in my own life. Maybe I could just engage in a little biography at first. I was brought up in a good Christian home.

And I knew the gospel from my earliest days. I can remember my brother and I witnessing the kids in our neighborhood and we weren't even saved ourselves. Crazy, isn't it? But we did, we were telling others the way of salvation and we weren't saved ourselves.

I had very wise parents. They wore out their knees praying for us but they never buttonholed us. Some of the preachers did and I did not appreciate it one bit, you know. When the preachers would come and buttonhole me and say, well, are you saved yet, Bill?

I won't tell you the thoughts that went through my mind. You know what it was? It was pride. That's what it was. Rotten, stinking pride. And during my early years, I was really fighting against the Lord.

Literally fighting against the Lord. I can identify with that poem that says, against the God who built the sky, I fought with hands uplifted high, despised the mention of his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place.

You know, I believe it's pride that keeps most men and women from the Lord. Fear of going back and letting your friends know that you're saved. That's what bothered me. I didn't want to go back to high school, tell them that I was saved.

They'd think, what kind of a weirdo is he? I didn't want them to think that of me. But when I was a senior in high school, the Spirit of God started to convict me of my sins. Now, this might strike you as being strange, because I had really never committed any of the gross sins.

I had never, I had never been to a dance, even. I had never been inside a theater. I was brought up by a Scottish Presbyterian mother, and she was determined that we would never go into a theater. And she won.

I've never been in one yet. I had never committed adultery. I had never committed murder. I had never committed any of those gross sins. But, during that last year in high school, the Lord showed me that what I am inside was a lot worse than anything I had ever done.

That's a good revelation for any of us, huh? Did you know that? What you are inside is a lot worse than anything you've ever done. The potential for evil there. And the Lord really barbecued me, and I say that reverently.

I could take you back to a church in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I could take you up to the balcony of that church where I sat one night when the gospel was being preached. I had to get out.

I had to get out. I did. I left. Left my family there just to get out in the fresh air. I was so brought up. And what was it? It was the Spirit of God. Convicting me of my sin. Telling me, Bill, somebody like you could never get to heaven.

You've got to be born again to get to heaven. And I knew it was true, too. Sometime during that period, I yielded to the Lord. Honestly, it was such a time of emotional turmoil that I don't know the first time I trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I don't. If my getting to heaven depended on knowing a day and an hour, I'd never make it. But I often say, I don't know when I first trusted Christ, but I know I'm trusting Him now. But that's really what counts, isn't it?

Well, what really happened is that I trusted the Lord during that time. I bowed the knee. I repented. I took sides with God against myself. I really did. I acknowledged that what the Spirit of God was saying to me was true.

What I was inside was rotten. If I looked inside myself, I saw nothing but a cesspool of iniquity. And sometime during that time, I did. I bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus. Now, I had been brought up under the sound of the gospel.

In fact, I used to go down with my father to the gospel mission on Skid Row. And I would hear some of these dramatic testimonies of people who were saved from lives of depravity. And their salvation was a great emotional experience.

It was dramatic. It was spectacular. And I expected that to happen to me. But when I trusted Christ as Savior, nothing happened. It was just the quiet acceptance of a quiet offer. And so I guessed I was not saved.

All down those years, I had convinced myself that when you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you know it by your feelings. Because I had heard so much about feelings. I trust the Lord as my Savior, and no feelings came.

And I can remember many times, you know, for years, I didn't want to be saved. I wanted to be left alone. Now, I really wanted to know I was saved. I couldn't know it. And I'd go to meetings, and I'd bow my head.

And I'd say, Lord, if I've never trusted you before, I trust you now. And wait for the feelings. The feelings didn't come. You see, I expected the bells to ring. I expected the lights to go on. I expected to feel electrical impulses in my nervous system to tell me I was saved.

I didn't get any of that. And I went on for months, and they were months of darkness. I believe if I had died during that time, I would have gone to heaven, because I had trusted Christ as my Savior. But I certainly wasn't enjoying my salvation, because I didn't have assurance of salvation.

Assurance Comes Through the Word, Not Feelings

And you know why I didn't have assurance of salvation. I was looking for it in the wrong place. Then I got a hold of the writings of a man. I don't know. The Lord did this, really. I got a hold of the writings of a man called George Cutting.

He wrote a little tract called Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment. And he also wrote a book called Light for Anxious Souls. I think he wrote it for me, because I read that book. And I'll never forget the peace that just swept over.

It's as if all the clouds went floating away. You know what he said? He said, it's the blood that makes us safe. It's the Word that makes us sure. That was the key to my problem. It's the blood of Christ that makes us safe.

He died on the cross as a substitute for us. We receive Him as Lord and Savior, and we're saved. But how do you know it? Through the Word of God, and not through your feelings. That was marvelous. That's why when I think of my conversion, all I think of is that time, when I got assurance of salvation.

And it was really wonderful. So, we should ask ourselves the question today, have I ever been convicted of the fact that I'm a sinner? Have I ever known that barbecuing process of the Spirit of God? I tell you, when you're convicted by the Spirit of God, you really know it.

You really know it. You say, well, I've never had that. What can I do about it? Go home and get down on your knees and ask the Lord to convict you. I can't do it. But if you're here today, and you're not a decided Christian, and you've never been convicted of the fact that you're a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner, you ask the Lord to convict you, and He'll do it.

I thank God for John 7, 17. It says, if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. If you really are interested, God's more interested than you are. You just show Him you're interested, and He'll show you.

Salvation Cannot Be Earned

Number two, have I given up all hope of saving myself? You got to do that. You got to give up all hope of saving yourself. And then, by a definite act of faith, you have to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope for heaven.

And I want to tell you something today. If you've been convicted or are being convicted by the Spirit of God, and you renounce all help from man or from yourself, and you bow the knee and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're as saved as God can make you.

Then you can know on the authority of the Word of God that you're saved. I'm so glad for that today. I'm so glad that God doesn't rest assurance of salvation on our feelings. Because, you know, today I might feel quite well.

Tomorrow I might have a sick headache. What does that do to my salvation? God loves us too much to base assurance of salvation on something as fickle as our feelings. He wants to base our assurance of salvation on the surest thing in the universe.

And I'm holding it in my hand. The Word of God. And that's what I see when I read 1 John 5, 13. These things. Now, actually, there are two ways of interpreting this verse, I know. John may be saying here, I've written this letter giving you the tests of life so that you can know whether you really are saved or not.

But I'd prefer to use it in another way. For the person who has just trusted Christ as Savior, these things have I written unto you. Think of God as saying this. God's saying to you today, these things have I written unto you.

Who? Everybody? No. You that believe on the name of the Son of God. Have I really believed on the name of the Son of God? Yes. As best I know how, I have believed on His name. And incidentally, to believe on His name means to believe in Him.

The name stands for the person. That means you've committed yourself to Him completely to save you from your sin. These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know.

Oh, thank God for that word, know. That you may know that you have eternal life. God is saying to me, Bill, I wrote that Bible to you so that you could put yourself in and knowing you've trusted in the Lord Jesus can know that you have eternal life.

The Thief on the Cross and Christ's Promise

I often think of the thief on the cross. First, he was blaspheming the Lord Jesus and then all of a sudden he had a change of heart and he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

You don't have to wait till I come into my kingdom. You'll be with me in heaven today. Okay, you and I are standing in front of the cross and I'm looking up at that thief just a minute later and I say to him, Are you saved?

What would he say? He'd say, yes, I'm saved. I say to him, How do you know you're saved? Do you feel saved? He'd say, all I feel is pain. What would he say? He was crucified. All I feel is pain. How do you know you're saved?

What would he say? Because Jesus said so. That's what he would say. Because Jesus said so. I heard Jesus say so. Now, Jesus doesn't tell you in an audible voice today. He tells you through the Word of God.

Doesn't he? When you come, bow the knee to Jesus Christ. He tells you through the Word of God. How does he tell you? John 5, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life.

Have you heard his word? And incidentally, hearing there doesn't just mean hearing with the ear. It means hearing and receiving. It means hearing and believing. Have you done that? He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me.

Who sent him? God sent him. Why did he send him? He sent him to be your Savior. Do you believe that? Believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting. Do you have everlasting life? Well, Jesus said you have.

If you've done that, acceptively, and believe that God sent him to be your Savior, in the best way you know how, you've received him as Lord and Savior. God says, hath everlasting life. Shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.

How do you know when you've accepted a gift? By your feelings? Well, you say, don't be silly. I know when I've accepted a gift, because I took it. How do you know when you're married? By your feelings?

No, you know you're married, because you heard him say, I pronounce you husband and wife. Listen, Jesus pronounces you saved, when you trust him as your Savior. That's what I'd like to emphasize this morning.

Martin Luther and the Reliability of God's Word

It's not by feelings. I believe there's so many people today going on in torture, looking for feelings. And God loves you too much to send the feelings. So first you believe his word. Somebody said to Martin Luther, Mr. Luther, do you feel that your sins have been forgiven?

He said, no. But I'm as sure of it, as that there's a God in heaven. For feelings come, and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing. Boy, I'll never forget the first time I read.

I got that right at the time I needed it. I thought, boy, if Martin Luther didn't feel his sins had been forgiven, there was hope for me, huh? He said, feelings come, and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving.

My warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing. And then I remember reading, dear old H .A .I. again, Ironside, and he said, I don't know I'm saved because I feel happy, but I feel happy because I know I'm saved.

That statement made me realize I was putting the cart before the horse. Let me say it again. He said, I don't know I'm saved because I feel happy, but I feel happy because I know I'm saved. Let me say it again.

He said, I don't know I'm saved because I feel happy, but I feel happy because I know I'm saved. And how do you know you're saved, Dr. Ironside? Because the Bible tells me so. Yeah, we sang that this morning.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for my feelings tell me so. That isn't the way you sang it, John. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. That's how you know he loves you, and that's how you know you're saved when you've trusted him as Savior.

Justification and the Righteousness of God

But I think the thing that, outside the Bible that helped me most was a statement that Dr. Scofield made, C .I. Scofield, who edited the notes of the Scofield Bible. He said, think about this. He said, justification takes place in the mind of God and not in the nervous system of the believer.

What does that mean? Well, it means that when a sinner down here on earth bows the knee, repents of his sins, and receives Jesus Christ as only Lord and Savior, God in heaven reckons him to be righteous.

It takes place in the mind of God and not in the nervous system of the believer. See, I was looking for electrical impulses flowing through my nervous system, but they never came. And I thought, there's hope for me.

Noah, the Ark, and Safety in Christ

I'd like to ask you a question. What made Noah safe? His feelings or the ark? Well, there's only one answer to that question. It's the ark that made Noah safe. It didn't make any difference what his feelings were.

If he was inside the ark, he was safe from the flood of judgment. The ark is a picture of Christ, isn't it? Just be in Christ and you're safe, and you can know it by the Word of God. It's not by signs that we know we're saved.

It's not even by dreams. A dream might only mean that you ate cheese before you went to bed at night. So don't depend on things like that. People say, if I could only hear Jesus saying to me in an audible voice that I was saved, then I'd be happy.

Listen, there are too many audible voices in the world today. You couldn't be sure it was Jesus. It might be the voice of a demonic spirit. Jesus speaks to us through the Word of God, and that's what we want to be careful to listen to.

The Spirit's Witness Through Scripture

But somebody says to me, just a minute, Brother MacDonald, the Bible says, if we are saved, we have the witness of the Spirit. And you know, the devil can really use passages of Scripture to upset people.

I remember years ago, I was preaching in Chicago, and there was a young girl there in the meeting, a very sincere, dear young girl. And she wanted to be saved, and she wanted to know that she was saved.

And she'd go home, and she'd say, Mother, I've trusted the Lord. And the mother said, well, dear, surely, if you've trusted the Lord, you'd have the witness of the Spirit. And the poor girl thought, the witness of the Spirit, there must be some mysterious feeling or something.

And she would look inside herself, and I guess she didn't feel that she had the witness of the Spirit. And she was plunged into deep despair, looking for the witness of the Spirit. Hmm. What is the witness of the Spirit?

But I'd like to suggest something to you. It might be a help to somebody here today. The Spirit of God witnesses through the Word of God. It's not some mysterious feeling that comes to you. I don't involve, listen, I don't deny that the emotions are involved in salvation.

Praise God, of course, they're involved. The happy feelings come after you know you're saved. The emotions are involved. But don't make the witness of the Spirit in Romans chapter 8 to mean something it doesn't mean.

It's not something mysterious. It's not some efflatus that comes upon you from heaven, and you glow with a holy radiance or something like that. The Spirit of God witnesses through the Word of God. And when I read Romans 10 and 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, the Spirit of God witnesses to me, have you done those things?

But yes, I have. Well, you're saved. He witnesses through the Word of God. That's the most practical thing in the world, isn't it? Truth is what God says about a thing. That's what truth is. That's what God says about a thing.

And no word of God can ever fall to the ground. And I'm so glad for that day when I just accepted the testimony of the Word of God, that because I had, by a definite act of faith, received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I was saved.

I want to tell you something. I've never doubted my salvation ever since. And that's no credit to me. Jesus did all the saving. I did all the sinning. So when I say that, it's no boast. It's just I've trusted the Word of God.

Evidences of New Life in Christ

I believe the Word of God. I have assurance of salvation. Now, as you go on in the Christian life, there are other ways in which you can get assurance of salvation. I was talking about assurance the minute after you've trusted Christ.

You can have it. But as you go on in the Christian life, there are other ways in which you know you're saved. You know one of them? You have a love for the brethren. And that's real. I tell you, before I was saved, I liked to avoid the Christians.

I thought they were creeps. And I didn't want to be with them. It all changed when I was saved. I thought, man, these people are the excellence of the earth. And I still think that, you know? With all our faults and failures, I really believe the Christian people, God's elect, the excellence of the earth, in whom is all my delight.

That was real in my life. A new love for God's people. They didn't annoy me anymore. They didn't bother me. In fact, when they asked me now if I was saved, I was only too glad to tell them. It was wonderful.

Then, a new love for the Bible. That's a good sign. When a person's saved, when a person's saved, there's an instinctive love for God's word. Look, if you love the Lord, you're going to love his word, too.

It doesn't mean you're going to understand everything in it. But you'll love it just the same. And you can go to it and get food for yourself. A desire to pray. Listen, when you're saved, there's a divine, the Spirit of God comes into your heart.

And you know the first word you'll probably say? Father. Father. Father. It says that in Galatians. It says the Spirit of God is coming and crying, Abba, Father. I think back to my time in the Navy in Honolulu and stayed after the Bible class one.

It was a fellow that wanted to get saved. At that time, we had a blackout in Honolulu. All the windows at night were blackened. There was not a crack of light to get out in case some Japanese bombers came over or a submarine for that matter.

And this fellow trusted the Lord. We got down on our knees and he trusted the Lord as his Savior. And I said, okay, now you pray and I'll pray. You know what he prayed? I thought it was beautiful. He said, Father, I've been on a blackout up until now, but now I see the light.

But the first word out of his mouth was Father. I don't know whether that fellow had ever prayed before in his life. That wasn't a bad prayer, was it? Father, I've been in a blackout up until now, but now I see the light.

A desire to pray. There'll be a cleaning of your speech. Maybe beforehand you were profane. You used the name of the Lord in vain. Gene Gibson and I visited a dear young lady dying of cancer in Oakland one day.

And we said, well, how is it? And she said, well, she said, I've never spoken in tongues. And she said, it says that those that are saved will speak with new tongues. I said, really? I thought you had spoken with a new tongue.

And she said, what do you mean? I said, when you were saved, was your speech clean? She said, oh, it was far. When you were unsaved, she said, it was far from clean. I said, what happened when you got saved?

She said, it got clean. I said, your tongue. You were speaking with a new tongue. And she said, that's right. And she died in peace. That's true. That's true. Cleans up our speech. Increased purity of life.

I noticed this in my life that when I was saved, I had a new hatred of sin and a new love for holiness. I haven't arrived. Believe me, I haven't. You don't want to stand here today and let you think that I'm a paragon of virtue.

You know, it's like Lazarus. When he came out of the grave, he came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And Jesus said, loose him and let him go. Well, when we're saved, we're bound hand and foot oftentimes with grave clothes.

And the process of getting rid of them is kind of a lifetime process, isn't it? But that's all right. It's a process. And it's going on. And then the breaking of old habits. And this is a gradual thing.

Some people break immediately. But most of us, it takes a while to break some of those old habits. And then you do have the inner witness of the Spirit through the Word of God. That you have passed from death to life.

And a desire to share the good news with others. That's a good sign of new life, isn't it? When you really have a deep concern for the souls of those about you. And you want to share the good news with them.

Answering Satan's Accusations With Scripture

Well, say I have assurance of salvation. Well, look at the devil's going to come. And he's going to raise all kinds of... Do you ever have this experience where you think a thought? Or maybe even say something and the devil says, Look, if you were really saved, you wouldn't have thought that thought.

You wouldn't have said what you just said. You wouldn't have acted the way you've just acted. The devil comes. He tries to upset us. What do you do? I'll tell you what I do. I quote the Word of God to him.

That's what Jesus did in the temptation in the wilderness. He quoted the scriptures. So that's what I do with the devil. I say, look, John 5, 24. Hath everlasting life shall not come into condemnation.

Is passed from death unto life. Whom shall I believe, Jesus or you? And he takes a powder. He really does. He leaves me alone. Quote the Word of God. When doubts come to your mind about this whole... And I don't doubt that they might.

Quote the Word of God and he'll leave you alone. Assurance of salvation comes through... First and foremost, through the Word of God. And not through feelings. Don't look to your feelings to tell you you're saved.

Invitation to Trust Christ

Look to something of which the Lord Jesus could say, heaven and earth shall pass away. But my word will never pass away. Shall we bow our heads in prayer? While our heads are bowed, I'm very conscious of the fact that there might be somebody here in the audience this morning who does not have assurance of salvation.

And maybe you'd like to. Maybe this has whetted your appetite. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. I'm not going to ask you to come forward. But right there in your seat, the Lord knows all about it.

Bow your head. Say, Lord Jesus, if I've never been saved before, I want to receive you right now as my Lord and Savior. I believe you died for my sins on the cross of Calvary. But I believe that you will save me through your merits and not my own.

And then trust the Word of God, that because you have committed yourself to him, you have everlasting life. And then go out from this conference and see the changes in your life. They'll thrill you. You'll be a new person.

You'll be even surprised at yourself. And if there is anyone here, and God has spoken to you today, and you'd just like to talk to us, feel free to come down afterwards. We'd be thrilled to sit here on the front row.

I know Carl would be delighted, and John, and Earlene, and John, too. And just feel free to come down. And wouldn't it be wonderful to leave and know that you'll never come into condemnation, but you have passed from death unto life.

Do feel free to box a tide going out and just come down and get the whole matter settled. Father, we just thank you for your wonderful, wonderful Word. I thank you personally today for saving my soul.

I know there are people in Spokane with better characters than mine, better personalities than mine, and yet you've wonderfully, graciously saved my soul. And Lord, you might be speaking to somebody in our meeting today, somebody who's just on the borderline, wants to cross over, fearful, fears without, and doubting.

Pray, Lord, that you'll give grace to any such a one to say, yes, Christ for me. I don't care what my friends think. They'll all be gone a hundred years from today, but Christ will still be there. Pray that they might step over the line, receive the Lord Jesus, and receive assurance of salvation.

Lord, there may be somebody here who really has trusted you and is not enjoying his or her salvation because they've been looking to their feelings instead of to the Word of God. Pray, Lord, that today this person or persons might really enter into full assurance of faith.

Dismiss us with your blessing. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.