Assurance Of Salvation: Christ FOR Us (part 2) - [1st John 2:1-2]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Daniel Webster Whittle and the Song of Assurance

He was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, 1840, and his name was Daniel Webster Whittle. And he had a father who loved the politician Daniel Webster, hence the name Daniel Webster Whittle. He grew up and was a cashier at Wells Fargo Bank in his 20s, and often he would go down into the vault and get down on his knees and pray that God would save him from his sins.

He met the Sunday School superintendent, who later became his wife. Her name was Abby Hansen. Well, it was 1861, and he had to go off to the Civil War, and the night before his departure, he and Abby were married.

He told of his departure this way, �My dear mother was a devout Christian and parted me with many a tear and followed me with many a prayer. She had placed a New Testament in a pocket of the haversack that she�d arranged for me.

He went off to war, was wounded, amputated his arm, and was in a prisoner of war camp. He was so bored he didn�t have anything else to do, so he began to read his New Testament. Over and over and over he would read the New Testament, still not saved, but reading the New Testament.

A nurse rushed over to Major Whittle and said that there was a man who was going to die, and that man was begging for someone to come preach the gospel and pray for him. Major Whittle said, �I have too many of my own sins.

I�m not a Christian myself. I can�t pray for him. She begged him to come, �Please don�t let this boy die alone. Major Whittle reluctantly agreed, and here�s how he recounts that night. �I dropped on my knees and held the boy�s hand in mine.

In a few broken words I confessed my sins and asked Christ to forgive me. I believed right there that He did forgive me, and then I prayed earnestly for the boy. He became quiet and pressed my hand as I prayed and pleaded God�s promises.

When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his troubled face, and I cannot but believe that God, who used him to bring me to the Savior, used me to lead him to trust Christ�s precious blood and find pardon.

I hope to meet him in heaven. Later, Major Whittle wrote a song that you all know, and it comes from this verse in 2 Timothy 1, verse 12,. �But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day which has been entrusted to me.

1883, he writes that song, �I know who I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I know not why God�s wondrous grace to me He hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for His own.

I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart, nor how believing in His word wrought peace within my heart. I�m wondering, can you sing that song? �I know in whom I have believed, I know for certain, I could say with certainty, with confidence that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.

That�s what Paul said in Galatians 2 20, �The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. I wonder if you could say that, �I know God died for me, the Son died for me. I guess I could look at another songwriter and talk about blessed assurance and Fanny Crosby, but that�s the question of the hour.

Can you say for certain that you have assurance of your salvation, blessed assurance? My sister, Marcy, is four years younger than I am, and when I was younger, we would torment her. And here�s how we tormented her.

She had a blanket. She loved that little blanket. You know how kids are with little blankets. And she had bore a hole through the corner of that blanket so she could get her thumb in and then suck her thumb and keep that blanket right by her, and she called it her ha-ha, mine ha-ha, mine ha-ha.

Well, we�d love to hide mine ha-ha. That was always fun. We still don�t have the best relationship, but no, by God�s grace, we do. The doctrine of assurance, blessed assurance, knowing that you know, the confidence that when you die, you�ll stand before God.

It�s like a security blanket for the Christian. It�s like the pillow that makes work easy, trials easier, where you think, you know, when I die, I know I�m good with God. While I live, I know God�s good with me because of the work of another.

I�d like you to take your Bibles, please, and turn to Hebrews chapter 6 as we look at the doctrine of assurance, the confident realization that Jesus is mine and I am his. I have a conviction that I belong to Christ Jesus simply through faith, not based on what I�ve done or what I�ve said or what I should have done, but no, this precious thing, almost as precious as salvation itself, to know that I�m a Christian, and every Christian can have assurance, and frankly, every Christian struggles with assurance.

Do I really sense that I belong to the family of God? If you do belong to the family of God, it�s a done deal, it�s objectively done by God, but do I sense it? Do I know that I belong to God? Can I feel it as it were?

Now we�re in the book of Hebrews. We�ll start chapter 6 verse 1 soon enough, but we�re leading up to this section, and that�s why we�re focusing on assurance, so once we get here, it will fall into place.

Let me read Hebrews 6 verse 9 and following, and you can see the writer�s focus on the doctrine of assurance. Hebrews 6, 9, �Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the 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.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, �Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

Verse 16,. �For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Christian friend, the writer wants you to know that you cannot find assurance of this hope in an ism that is Judaism. He wants you to know that you can't find this confidence that you know you're right with God based on anything in you.

He knows that the only way you can have confidence is if you look outside of you, Christ Jesus, and his perfect life, his perfect death confirmed by the resurrection. And he knows that if you must look inside, you must not look at yourself, but you must look at the Holy Spirit's work inside of you.

And that's what we're looking at today is the doctrine of assurance. I see two problems in evangelical circles where we live. The first one is there are some people who feel that they're assured of salvation, but they're not really Christians.

Of course, that false assurance is very tragic. It's the worst mistake anyone could ever make. Can you imagine if you think you're going to die, and then you're going to be in the presence of God in heaven, and then you're in hell?

Sadly, Satan is alive and he deceives. A Gallup poll said, quote, �We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously. The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkably similar in both groups.

Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, yet only half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer could recall five of the Ten Commandments, and only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.

Satan is alive. He blinds. He deceives. He causes people to trust in false religions and false hopes. There is an old spiritual song, and it goes like this, �Everybody talking about heaven ain't going there.

After all, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of what? Death. But there's another problem where we live in evangelicalism, and that is what I'd call hard-believism. Of course, Jesus said it's impossible to believe, and ultimately we know it's an act of God.

But here's what I mean by hard-believism. We get our assurance of our salvation. We get confidence that we're right with God. We have the sense that we're adopted into the family of God by something more than faith in the work of Christ Jesus.

It's something we have to believe, and then we have to do things to make sure we have this confidence. And I'll call that judicial legalism. I could call that hard-believism. After all, 1 John 5 says He wants you to know that you have eternal life.

How do you know? So we're going to look at this again today. How to deal with the issue of getting assurance, or if you have it, how to keep it. Number one, we saw last week, don't look to any ism for assurance.

Don't look to any ism for assurance. If you want assurance of salvation and you're somewhere between Job, I know that my Redeemer lives, and the man who said, I believe, help my unbelief. If you're there or here or anywhere in between, you can't look to any kind of ism.

So in the book of Hebrews, it would be Judaism, but for us, there are other isms. Remember, we talked about those last week. For instance, sacramentalism. If you think you're right with God because of sacraments you've taken, you are greatly mistaken.

Pope Clement VIII had a man work for him named Cardinal Bellarmine, and he said assurance of salvation, quote, was the greatest of all heresies, end quote. How could that be a heresy? Well, if you've got a system that's doubly damned, i .e., you've got to go to the priest for salvation and you've got to do works for salvation, then assurance would be awful because if you have assurance in God through the work of Christ Jesus applied by the Holy Spirit, you don't need a priest and you don't need works because the works have been done by the high priest.

You have to be careful that you're not trusting in some kind of system. I've met so many people and they'll say, I was born a Lutheran, I'll die a Lutheran. I'm born a Catholic, I'll die a Catholic. Friend, you were born a sinner and you're going to die as a sinner unless you're forgiven.

And so if you say, you know what, on my deathbed, I'm going to trust that the church is going to take care of all that for me, you're mistaken. Kim's aunt, Barb, died a few weeks ago and I saw her the Sunday before she died and I had preached that Sunday and so I said, Barb, I'd like to preach in my sermon that I preached last week about Jesus, the high priest, and I won't preach for the 50 minutes like I normally do but I'll just give you the five-minute sermon, do you mind?

She said, oh, I'd love that. We've had a good relationship throughout the years but she's never called me pastor, I'm just Mike. And I preached her that sermon and then I said, Barb, you're going to die soon, are you afraid?

And she said, I'm not afraid. I said, why aren't you afraid? You're going to meet the thrice holy God? And she said, I'm trusting that Jesus Christ paid for all my sins. And then we prayed and then she said, I'll never forget it.

I think the last word she ever said to me, thank you, Pastor Mike. That was very sweet. One day you're going to die and then what? You can't be trusting in me or the church or some kind of sacrament that you had.

There are other isms that people trust in. Here's another one we looked at quickly last week, legalism. I get assurance of salvation based on what I don't do. I don't do what the world does. I don't smoke tobacco.

I don't drink. I don't let my kids dress up like bunnies and trick or treat and ask for people's candy next door. By the way, if you don't want to trick or treat, fine, but if you think you're going to get to heaven based on your kids not trick or treating or anything else that you do, that's very dangerous.

Assurance is not based on anything I do or don't do, it's based on the work of another. That's been the whole point. People are also going to hell because of easy-believism. If hard-believism is God's work plus all the spiritual disciplines I have to do, easy-believism, easy for me to say, I speak for a living, easy-believism is simply, do you know what?

I'll sign the card. I'll make the minimum amount of effort. I'd like some hell insurance, but I'm not going to do anything about it. I receive the word with joy, Luke 8, but then I fall away. And lastly, we saw from a week ago experientialism.

Some people say, well, I've had an experience. I've seen people in that baptismal pool tell me they've pulled over on the side of the road and felt a peace come over them and they knew they were right with God and they've abandoned the faith.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. With Hebrews, they were looking for the system and the writers saying, don't trust the ism of Judaism. We also saw last week, number two, if you want assurance, don't look to yourself.

Take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter one, please. And for the backdrop of not looking to yourself, I want you to see something about the gospel in Romans one. Romans one is all about the gospel.

And here's what I tend to think we do in our circles. We think the gospel is a thing. When we forget that the gospel is about a person, we're talking about the Lord Jesus. We're talking about not just some thing called the gospel, even though it's a noun that we use shorthandedly or with a not shorthandedly for an economy of terms, the gospel.

But when you say gospel, I want you to think of a person. Because if this person is for you, you're fine. If this person has dealt with your sins, you're good in God's eyes. And so the gospel of God found in Romans reminds every one of us that this is about a person.

When you hear the word gospel, you think Jesus, Jesus, my Lord. And so when you study the book of Romans, as we've done several times, it starts off a lot with gospel talk. Eleven times in this book, the word gospel is used and eight out of eleven are used either in the first paragraph or the last bookmark with the gospel.

Think about the gospel as a person. That's how Paul does it. Chapter one, verse one of Romans, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, who, by the way, was a servant of God, the father called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God.

Remember how God, the son interrupted Paul as Paul was going to go kill more Christians or at least throw them in jail? And God, the son met Paul on that road to Damascus, and he was never the same. And now God has set apart Paul for what?

Do you notice? The gospel of God. Whose gospel is this? This is God's gospel. Who came up with this? This is the triune God. He came up with it. Who could devise such a plan where he could be just and the justifier of people like us?

Who could keep God's holiness being upheld, yet be gracious and merciful at the cross? Only God could. And by the way, this is the gospel of God. This is not the gospel of make your marriage better. This is not the gospel of have your felt needs met.

This is not the gospel of I need a better life now. This is the gospel of God who has solved this problem, your biggest problem. I'm sinning and have sinned and will sin against a holy God, and I need to be forgiven.

And so God has come up with that solution through his son. And that's why it's called gospel. What's gospel mean? Good news. I have good news, and that good news is about a person. People talk about gospel-centered preaching, gospel-centered ministries.

I wish more often they would say the gospel of God-centered ministries, the gospel of Jesus Christ-centered ministries. It's all about Jesus, and it's not new. Look at verse 2, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures.

This is an Old Testament gospel. Of course, it's a New Testament gospel. But when did it start? Well, I'm glad you asked. It started in the mind of God before Genesis 1 -1. But in time, remember Genesis chapter 3?

And then there's that little mini picture of the gospel, and even God killing an animal for Adam's sin. And you move forward as we've talked about in Passover, and you've got that gospel of good news that God forgives sinners instead of the family slain at Passover.

It's the lamb. And you've got that gospel of Jesus Christ, that good news that says, you know what? On the Day of Atonement, the whole country doesn't have to perish, but that lamb will, and then there'll be a scapegoat that will run away.

This has all been prophesied beforehand, promised beforehand. And who is this gospel about? What is this gospel about? Verse 3, concerning his son. Oh, that we would think about the gospel as talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he's both man and God, who was descended from David according to the flesh. This eternal God who existed in eternity past adds human nature. He is truly man. How does the Nicene Creed go? Verily man, a verily man.

Revealed in the flesh, born of a woman. And not only that, verse 4, this gospel is about Jesus the God-man, so he can be our representative, but the God himself who could be our substitute. And he was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness.

How? By his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's the central fact of the gospel, that Jesus has been raised from the dead. And by the way, that word declared there is such a great word.

It's where we get our word horizon. You see the sky and the land, and there's a distinguishing boundary there, a marker, something that makes a difference. That's the word horizon. Jesus has been marked out by the Father as the true son by his resurrection.

So what does Paul end up saying? Verse 15 of the same chapter. So I'm what? Eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Isn't that interesting? I can't wait to go preach Rome. They've got, let's just make it very practical for today.

They've got racism problems. They've got abortion problems. They have infanticide problems. They have poor problems. They have slavery problems. They have murder problems. They have incest problems. And what does Paul say?

I can't wait to get to preach the gospel to you. I have good news about a person. And by the way, if you're like me, the first thing you do when you think of preach is. Preaching has got a bad name back then.

And now you don't preach to me, but this has to be proclaimed. This is good news. Assurance is not found in any ism. It's found in a person to know him in whom I have believed. And when you think gospel, I hope you remember it's about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because if you go inside of yourself to find good news, what do you think you're going to find? You go to an ism. You can't find assurance there. Then you go inside of yourself. When you really look at yourself carefully, what do you think you find?

I've talked to people before and they've said I've never sinned before in my life. You know what I say to them? Can I talk to your wife? It's very simple. Very simple. Even as regenerated Christians, we have a sin hangover.

We looked at last week in Romans 7. I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Paul’s Self-Assessment and the Limits of Looking Within

Turn to first Timothy chapter 1 verse 15. And I want to show you that even Paul the apostle thought of himself as sinful. Yes, a saint from that perspective. Yes, the work of God was done, applied to him, but still sinful.

First Timothy chapter 1 verse 15. By the way, if you're going to send a resume out to be a pastor and you say, number one, I'd like to tell you about my strengths and weaknesses, but I'll start off with my weaknesses.

Out of everybody in the entire world, I'm the worst person. I always hated that question. Could you tell me some of your strengths and weaknesses? You really want to know them from the bottom of my heart?

Paul says what in verse 15 of first Timothy 1? The sane is true, are trustworthy, and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the what?

Foremost. Friends, if you want to find the assurance of your salvation based on what you do, what you do is tainted by sin because I'm tainted by sin too. Remember that old formula by Martin Luther? Simul justus et peccator.

If I was R .C. Sproul, I'd write it up on the board with chalk. By the way, I know I got the special anointing because one day I was at St. Andrew's watching R .C. Sproul film a show and he walked over to the chalkboard and wrote with chalk.

And I thought I have received the triple blessing. I could hear the chalk. I could smell the chalk. Simul justus et peccator. Simul, simultaneously at the same time. Justus, J-U-S-T, just, are righteous.

Simultaneously righteous. Et, what's the et for? R .C. Sproul says et is not the past tense of eight. It is and. Et tu, Brute? Simultaneously just and peccator, sinful. That as a Christian, I'm simultaneously just and still a sinner.

How could that be? In and of myself, I'm still sinful on the inside. But from God's perspective regarding imputation of Christ's righteousness, credited in my account, I stand before God as righteous because I'm in Christ.

If you look to the inside and not to what Christ has done, you're going to be frankly let down because Proverbs 28 says, whoever trusts in his own mind is a what? Fool. I know what you're saying. And we're going to get there, if not later today, next week.

What about some of the things I do? What about my prayer life? And I read the Bible and all those things. We're going to get there, but I don't think that's you. I think that's the work of the Holy Spirit in you.

When you have a desire to pray, who gave you that desire? When you have a desire to read God's word, who gave you that desire? When you have a conviction on your sin, who gave you that? It's still not you.

It's the spirit of God. But for right now, when you look within yourself, I hope the only thing you see is filthy rags. When it comes to making sure I have assurance, because the only kind of works that God requires are perfect works.

So if you want perfect assurance, confidence that you're going to be a Christian and that you are a Christian and you look inside, you're not going to find it by introspection, navel gazing, and examination.

Let me ask you this question. Is there something good in you that makes you acceptable to God? Is there anything inside of you that makes you acceptable to God? If the answer is no and no, then why are you looking to yourself when you feel like you're not saved?

There's nothing you can do to make yourself acceptable. Nothing. That's just evangelical legalism. That's just hangover we got that's all pietistic where I'm all for piety, but pietistic driving to the inside and have I done enough spiritual disciplines and did I fast enough, pray enough, read enough, memorize enough, etc.

We're sinful. Those things are tainted by sin. I'm trying to get you to find your source of assurance based on the work of another because you are simultaneously sinful and just, just as I am. To think that God, the holy God, the perfect God, can accept works by us less than holy and perfect for our standing.

No wonder we don't have assurance. Now, when I first got here 21 years ago, we started a tape ministry that carried on from Bob Bowman. Bob, you actually have some tapes still upstairs, I think, behind some of the cabinets.

Actually, I listened to some of those and I thought, wow. Not that Bob was before me. He was too before me. I thought this church has been taught verse by verse systematically through the scriptures. Where does that have to do with anything?

Oh, I know. We started putting sermons up online. And then a few times, I'll blame Wesley Blackstone. He didn't push record or something. And I'm thinking, I cannot believe sermons that I've spent 30 hours on 40 hours on aren't up on the internet.

I've invested 40 hours and this thing is not online. I mean, the world could cave in. Me, this is my sermons. Sad to say, I actually thought some of that. But I'll tell you what, some of those sermons that were lost, praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

Those deserve to be destroyed. And some of those that need to be destroyed were this. When you want assurance, look to yourself. Spiritual disciplines. Get the Whitney book. Get the R. Kent Hughes book.

Look, look, look, look, look. And if you want to look as fruit of what the Holy Spirit's doing, that's great. And that's next week. But if you want full assurance, you're going to have to look at someone else who's perfect.

There's no assurance based on what you have done because you're fallible, you're frail. But when you look at what Christ did and you say, when Jesus said it is finished, did he really pay for my sins on the cross?

Or was there something more? When the text says he really lived a perfect life, he honored his mother and father. He loved his neighbor as himself. He loved God with his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Did he do it or did he not? Oftentimes, I think I am trusting the work of Christ Jesus for my salvation. And if he is wrong, I'm willing to go to hell for it. Because I have no other option except to trust in the Savior who died for me and loved me.

I can't find anybody else who loved me more. I can't find anybody else who's as righteous. I can't find anybody else who's as wise. If you think my obligation to do good things is a precursor for assurance, that tape needs to be burned.

Assurance comes based on the perfect work of Christ Jesus and obligation flows from that. Let's approach it this way. Do you have enough Christian faith? Do you bear enough fruit of the Spirit? How firm is your faith?

How faithful are you? Are you willing to be persecuted for your faith? Do you love God enough? Have you read your Bible enough? Do you love the lost enough? Have you confessed enough? Have you repented sufficiently enough?

Do you truly love Jesus enough? What do you hear in all those enoughs? I'll tell you what you hear is law. That's all law. That's not the gospel. The law is not the gospel. Do I love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength?

That's called a commandment. That's not the gospel. If you're really giving a true confession, a real honest confession, and you say, what God has demanded from me even as a Christian, I do. Your problem isn't assurance.

Your problem is self-righteousness. The law is what God demands from us. The gospel is what Jesus did for us freely. The law says, do. The gospel says, done. The law says, you're a wretched sinner, and you deserve to be damned, Romans 7 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

And the gospel says, you can't be a bigger sinner than Jesus is the Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Yes, but I've broken the law. Christ has redeemed you from the curse of the law by perfectly obeying the law.

Luther said, distinguishing between law and gospel is the highest art in Christendom. And every person who values the name Christian ought to recognize, know, and possess it. So I asked the question, do you know the difference between law and gospel?

Because if you don't, your assurance is going to be all whacked out. You'll never have it. And I want you to have it. I want you to have assurance. Law says, I'm supposed to do these things as a Christian.

Great, I know that. We'll get to it. I'm not an antinomian. But if you're going to get your assurance based on law, you have to perfectly keep the law. But if you get your assurance based on one who perfectly kept the law, and who died on the cross for lawbreakers, and has made a promise that he's interceding for you on behalf of the Father, that's called the gospel.

That's why the book of Hebrews, they must not look at Judaism. They must not look to themselves. They must look outside of themselves. Christ for you. I'm thinking about the Reformation a lot because it's October.

Luther would always go around saying, you need to start practicing to say this, Christ for me, Christ for me, Christ for me. Now, I can't stand those churches where they tell you, look at the person to your left and say, Christ for me.

So I'm not going to do that. Most of you would just leave. Look at the person to your right and say, don't you like this TED Talk? But you need to start saying to yourself, Christ for me. He's outside of you.

He's not tainted by sin. Later, we'll say because of that, it's Christ in us for sanctification. I think I could put it this way. I'll use J .C. Ryle's words. Why do people lack assurance? Ryle, quote, one most common cause, I suspect, is a defective view of the doctrine of justification.

Isn't that interesting? I don't understand that God, the Son, perfectly kept the law. And even though I didn't, in the courtroom of God, God credits Christ's obedience to my account. And he sees me like I perfectly kept the law.

And my sins get credited to Jesus. And he pays for them. And God, the Father, sees Jesus as the sin bearer, even though Jesus is and always will be sinless. Ryle said, many appear to forget that we are saved and justified as sinners and only sinners and that we can never attain anything higher.

Even if we live to the age of Methuselah, redeemed sinners, justified sinners and renewed sinners, doubtless we must be. But sinners, sinners, sinners, always to the very last. They do not seem to comprehend that there is a wide difference between our justification and our sanctification.

Justification is a perfect work and admits of no degrees. Our sanctification is imperfect and incomplete and will be to the last hour of our life. They appear to expect that a believer may at some period of his life be in a measure free from corruption and attain to a kind of inward perfection.

Listen to Ryle here. And not finding this angelic state of things in their own hearts, they at once conclude there must be something very wrong in their state. And they go on mourning all their days, oppressed with fears and they have no part or lot in Christ and refusing to be comforted.

For you, Christian, when you struggle, I'm trying to get you to say Christ for me and separate justification, declared righteous. I can't lose my salvation based on the work of another and my own sanctification because this one will drive this one.

Do you really think you can find sanctification if you're not wholly trusting in the perfect work of Jesus? Could you ever find that accomplished by Jesus? If you're a struggling Christian with assurance and doubts, don't look inside, look outside, look up.

Now, let's think about it another way. There's a difference, friends, between faith and faithfulness, is there not? Faith says, I'm trusting in what Jesus did. I'm trusting in his promises and his love for me.

Faithfulness is, I'd like to act in a way that's worthy of my calling, Ephesians 4 .1. That's true. But I'm not going to be trusting in this because I fail. I've got to be trusting in this one. See, I love to do self-examination.

I love to dive inside myself and see what I find there. Friends, I don't want you to be despondent. I don't want you to be depressed. Turn to Romans 5 .1 while we're in the New Testament. I want you to see how great justification is.

And this should be your focus. This was Paul's focus. Think about all the things that Paul could have talked to himself about in terms of his life and even his sinful life as a Christian man, even as an apostle.

But justification is not just acquittal. There's all kinds of other benefits that go along with it. And when you think of justification, don't think of a theological term. When you think of gospel, don't think of gospel.

Think of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the one who died for me and lives for me and sent his spirit to dwell inside of me. And when you think of justification, I don't want you to think of abstract Christian theological thought.