WEBVTT 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:33.950 Let's get started. 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:35.789 Sorry, we're a few minutes behind. 00:00:36.189 --> 00:00:36.909 Let me pray. 00:00:40.269 --> 00:00:44.590 Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning and thank you for this church. 00:00:44.750 --> 00:00:48.909 Thank you for this comfortable building we get to meet in. 00:00:49.070 --> 00:00:56.590 Thank you for the opportunity to uh update it and make it better suited to the needs of our church. 00:00:56.750 --> 00:00:59.070 Thank you for the resources to be able to do that. 00:00:59.310 --> 00:01:04.590 I pray that you help us as we adjust to some of the inconvenience that causes. 00:01:04.909 --> 00:01:15.629 We thank you, Lord, that we get together, we can get together here now to think intentionally about your word and the great benefits that are ours in Christ. 00:01:15.949 --> 00:01:25.870 Lord, our justification, our adoption, our sanctification, our assurance of your love, our peace of conscience, our joy in the Holy Spirit, our perseverance to the end. 00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:27.870 These are great gifts you give to us. 00:01:27.949 --> 00:01:32.750 So I pray this morning that you help us to better understand them so that we can better enjoy them. 00:01:32.990 --> 00:01:39.389 And that in sharing your word and sharing the gospel, we might hold them out to others. 00:01:39.710 --> 00:01:44.270 Lord, send your Spirit now to help us during this time we pray. 00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:45.550 In Jesus' name. 00:01:45.789 --> 00:01:46.430 Amen. 00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:56.590 Alright, so over the past several weeks, we have been talking about the benefits of redemption that we have in Christ. 00:01:56.750 --> 00:02:07.789 We've talked about justification of the act of God's free grace where He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. 00:02:08.030 --> 00:02:15.310 We've talked about adoption as our being received into the full number and having a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. 00:02:15.550 --> 00:02:27.870 We talked last week about sanctification, which is the work of God's free grace, where we are renewed in the whole man or woman and are enabled more and more to die into sin and live unto righteousness. 00:02:28.189 --> 00:02:36.669 This week we talk about the several benefits that accompany or flow from our justification, adoption, and sanctification. 00:02:37.069 --> 00:02:39.229 The question is question 36. 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:40.269 It asks that question. 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:46.030 What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? 00:02:46.269 --> 00:02:52.269 The answer is the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification. 00:02:53.629 --> 00:02:59.469 Our assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and perseverance therein to the end. 00:02:59.709 --> 00:03:02.349 And you would never make a good auctioneer. 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:03.229 Yeah. 00:03:03.789 --> 00:03:05.389 You just don't have the breath for it. 00:03:05.789 --> 00:03:07.150 I've got the breath for it. 00:03:07.870 --> 00:03:09.229 I don't got the tongue for it. 00:03:09.389 --> 00:03:11.150 I tend to trip over myself. 00:03:13.469 --> 00:03:17.150 So we're going to take those kind of blow by blow, benefit by benefit. 00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:20.349 And first we'll talk about assurance of God's love. 00:03:22.109 --> 00:03:23.310 What is that? 00:03:23.629 --> 00:03:25.949 How would you articulate that? 00:03:26.509 --> 00:03:28.509 There's no way I can mess it up. 00:03:28.750 --> 00:03:30.509 There's no way I can mess it up? 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:31.069 Okay. 00:03:31.549 --> 00:03:33.870 As I am God so love. 00:03:34.269 --> 00:03:34.909 Yeah. 00:03:36.509 --> 00:03:42.269 So it's uh it's not it's not just an articulation of that truth, right? 00:03:42.429 --> 00:03:44.349 It's the actual embrace of it, right? 00:03:44.590 --> 00:03:46.989 Something subjective, you get that for you. 00:03:47.549 --> 00:03:51.229 You don't just say that theoretically, but you know it in your heart. 00:03:51.870 --> 00:03:55.709 Anything we want to add to that or take away from it? 00:03:56.750 --> 00:04:02.030 My assurance lies in the character of God and all that means. 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:04.429 Who that is. 00:04:05.469 --> 00:04:09.150 He is the He is love, He is truth. 00:04:10.909 --> 00:04:16.750 I cannot even begin to appreciate what truth is until I begin to know God. 00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:20.750 The fear of the Lord is beginning to wisdom. 00:04:24.430 --> 00:04:33.230 Until you know and see everything within the light of who God is until I've been reading about the movie. 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:46.030 Um you just really can't know anything because who God is provides the context for knowing anything else. 00:04:50.189 --> 00:05:06.350 Yeah, assurance, I mean, given all that you know about God and all that the Bible teaches about God, uh, you can either regard him as a terror or as a father. 00:05:07.150 --> 00:05:12.270 An assurance of God's love for you plays a major role in which. 00:05:14.030 --> 00:05:30.030 Because if you're not assured of God's love, if you're constantly worried that God is angry with you, or that his love isn't for you, that really he hates you, then what reason do you have to come to God as Father or to expect any good from him? 00:05:31.629 --> 00:05:38.189 Assurance of God's love, is that something that you think Christians ought to have? 00:05:38.990 --> 00:05:41.710 This kind of seems like an obvious question, right? 00:05:41.950 --> 00:05:43.470 You think we should have it, right? 00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:44.270 Absolutely. 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:48.510 I think we should have it at some point in our Christian development. 00:05:48.590 --> 00:06:00.189 I'm not sure that assurance of God's love is healthy right at the beginning when people were still clinging to their sinful ways. 00:06:00.430 --> 00:06:10.670 And think, and then because they're so tempted to think God loves me no matter what I do, and I'm just gonna continue sitting away because he'll love me regardless. 00:06:10.910 --> 00:06:11.150 Yeah. 00:06:11.310 --> 00:06:15.069 So I think there's a misunderstanding of God's love. 00:06:15.150 --> 00:06:15.310 Yeah. 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:17.230 But I don't know if those people are regenerated. 00:06:17.550 --> 00:06:19.390 I think that's the key distinction, right? 00:06:19.550 --> 00:06:22.350 For a true for an unbeliever, I'd say yes. 00:06:22.670 --> 00:06:28.590 I'd say once someone puts their faith in Christ, the definitive turn has been made. 00:06:28.830 --> 00:06:34.030 Um and we'll unpack that more as we as we wrestle with assurance. 00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:45.069 But the reason I asked the obvious questions, like like Christians, true believers, can we have assurance, should we have assurance, is because growing up Roman Catholic, the answer to that question was no. 00:06:45.470 --> 00:06:47.069 Growing up Mennonite, the answer to that. 00:06:47.310 --> 00:06:47.550 Yeah, yeah. 00:06:48.030 --> 00:06:52.030 Growing up any kind of uh works sort of works righteousness based. 00:06:52.189 --> 00:06:52.990 Yeah, exactly. 00:06:53.150 --> 00:07:02.510 It's you know, I remember asking those kinds of questions in catechisms, like, you know, what had a really godly grandmother, and uh, you know, she died. 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:03.710 Is she in heaven right now? 00:07:03.870 --> 00:07:04.990 Oh well, we don't know. 00:07:05.150 --> 00:07:06.990 You can't you can't really know. 00:07:08.670 --> 00:07:12.670 Here's what the larger catechism says in question and answer 80. 00:07:12.990 --> 00:07:21.710 Can true believers be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of grace and that they shall persevere therein unto salvation? 00:07:22.110 --> 00:07:52.670 The answer is such as truly believe in Christ and endeavor to walk in all good conscience before him, may, without extraordinary revelation, by faith grounded upon the truth of God's promises, and by the Spirit enabling them to discern in themselves those graces to which the promises of life are made, and bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God, they may be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of grace and shall persevere therein to salvation. 00:07:52.830 --> 00:07:53.470 Amen. 00:07:54.189 --> 00:08:07.870 So given what we believe about the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to regenerate us and unite us to Christ, the freeness of grace, the definitive nature of God's grace to us in justification. 00:08:08.030 --> 00:08:11.870 Remember, we talked about it's an act of God's grace, not a work of God's grace. 00:08:12.030 --> 00:08:15.870 It's something that's objective, it's something that's true, it's something that's past tense. 00:08:16.030 --> 00:08:18.750 If you are in Christ, you are justified. 00:08:18.910 --> 00:08:20.990 And then what does Paul say in Romans 8? 00:08:21.390 --> 00:08:23.950 Justified, he also glorified, right? 00:08:24.189 --> 00:08:29.230 Those whom he predestined to be conformed to the influence of Christ, he justified, glorified. 00:08:29.390 --> 00:08:29.870 Right? 00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:36.830 So the promise is that if you are in him, you will remain in him. 00:08:37.149 --> 00:08:41.629 And if you are in him, you can be assured of God's love for you in him. 00:08:42.350 --> 00:08:44.029 So we can have that. 00:08:44.269 --> 00:08:45.789 Believers can have that. 00:08:45.870 --> 00:08:52.830 It's not a presumptive thing, it's actually one of the good graces, gifts, benefits that God gives to us in redemption. 00:08:53.069 --> 00:08:55.549 He doesn't want us second-guessing it all the time. 00:08:55.789 --> 00:09:02.590 He wants us to rest in the finished work of Christ and to know that we are his and then press on, right? 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:04.669 And to live in response to that. 00:09:05.789 --> 00:09:06.029 Yeah. 00:09:06.349 --> 00:09:32.110 Where that happened for me was when I suddenly realized that Paul's words were extended abound, great, didn't much more abound, and that the powerful, the powerful salvation that Jesus earned for us is so much more vast and powerful than my little. 00:09:33.549 --> 00:09:35.949 Oh, and I won't want to minimize my sin now. 00:09:36.349 --> 00:09:44.589 I'm a word person, but it is so much more powerful than my little sin. 00:09:44.909 --> 00:09:49.949 And I needed to take my eyes off my pilly little self and keep them on him. 00:09:50.110 --> 00:09:50.589 Yeah. 00:09:50.829 --> 00:09:51.469 Yeah. 00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:54.110 So, yeah, absolutely. 00:09:54.269 --> 00:09:59.789 Um, something we ought to have. 00:10:01.149 --> 00:10:05.549 Follow-up question Is it something that true believers always have? 00:10:05.709 --> 00:10:05.870 No. 00:10:06.269 --> 00:10:06.589 No. 00:10:07.149 --> 00:10:10.990 Even Paul, fighting without fears within. 00:10:11.230 --> 00:10:11.789 Right. 00:10:12.110 --> 00:10:19.230 So, yeah, there are plenty of examples in scripture of true believers who lack assurance of God's love, at least for a time. 00:10:19.469 --> 00:10:23.230 Psalm 22, verse 1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:10:23.389 --> 00:10:27.149 Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? 00:10:27.309 --> 00:10:29.629 That's David, the man after God's own heart. 00:10:29.870 --> 00:10:34.909 Psalm 51, 2, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sins. 00:10:35.149 --> 00:10:40.829 Habakkuk, chapter 1, verse 2, O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? 00:10:41.069 --> 00:10:44.269 Or cry to you violence, and you will not save. 00:10:44.509 --> 00:10:47.469 There are lots of places in the Bible where true believers. 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:49.629 Believers we have no reason to doubt. 00:10:49.709 --> 00:10:56.669 They're not perfect, but we have no reason to doubt that they truly believe in the Lord or one of his people, or they lack assurance of God's love. 00:10:56.829 --> 00:11:01.709 They find themselves experiencing the dark night of the soul, as we say. 00:11:02.829 --> 00:11:06.589 Here's the next question and answer in the larger catechisms, 81. 00:11:06.829 --> 00:11:13.629 Are all true believers at all times assured of their present being in the estate of grace, and that they shall be saved? 00:11:14.349 --> 00:11:33.309 Assurance of grace and salvation, not being of the essence of faith, true believers may wait long before they obtain it, and after the enjoyment thereof, may have it weakened and intermitted through manifold distempers, sins, temptations, and desertions. 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:42.029 Yet are they never left without such a presence and support of the Spirit of God as keeps them from sinking into utter despair. 00:11:42.750 --> 00:11:44.509 I've mentioned it before in this class. 00:11:44.589 --> 00:11:54.029 I've known lots of good, godly Christians who, you know, you look at them and they radiate Jesus, and there's no doubt for anyone around them that they're true believers. 00:11:54.189 --> 00:12:00.029 And yet, because of the tenderness of their conscience, they're constantly questioning their own salvation. 00:12:00.189 --> 00:12:04.990 They don't have an abiding assurance of God's love, at least one that sticks with them all the time. 00:12:05.149 --> 00:12:07.549 So this is a real struggle for some people. 00:12:07.629 --> 00:12:10.990 And it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not Christians. 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:19.549 You know, when that assurance is weakened, it can be a blessing because it drives you back in scripture, right? 00:12:19.949 --> 00:12:26.110 If you had assurance 100% of the time, um then complacency, right? 00:12:26.509 --> 00:12:27.549 Complacency. 00:12:27.789 --> 00:12:31.149 And uh complacency is just a growth killer. 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:36.669 Um but yeah, when there are times that assurance weakens with me, drive to the promises. 00:12:36.990 --> 00:12:39.469 Drive to the promises in scripture, yeah, right? 00:12:39.629 --> 00:12:42.509 So that's uh it can be a blessing. 00:12:42.750 --> 00:12:43.389 Yeah. 00:12:43.709 --> 00:12:46.909 So what are um what are some of the reasons? 00:12:47.069 --> 00:12:52.509 Uh you can draw on what I just read from the catechism or your own sense of things. 00:12:52.669 --> 00:12:56.829 What are some of the reasons that you think true believers might lack assurance? 00:12:59.149 --> 00:12:59.549 Ron? 00:13:00.829 --> 00:13:07.709 I think some people grow up in unhealthy families, so they have fathers and mothers. 00:13:08.429 --> 00:13:15.870 When they become Christians, that's all they have to go on to understand what God thought. 00:13:16.189 --> 00:13:16.429 Yeah. 00:13:16.829 --> 00:13:28.509 And so it takes a while of, I think one of the things is when we're constantly confessing our sin, we experience the forgiveness. 00:13:28.829 --> 00:13:39.309 There's experiential stuff that they go through in accordance with the word to help them overcome what they grew up in. 00:13:39.629 --> 00:13:40.829 I think that's just one. 00:13:41.469 --> 00:13:41.870 Yeah. 00:13:42.110 --> 00:13:42.509 Yeah. 00:13:42.750 --> 00:13:44.750 There's a process involved there, Brandon. 00:13:45.629 --> 00:13:50.029 Uh, from the Armenian church that we came from in the past. 00:13:50.429 --> 00:14:04.509 Every time we had an invitation at the end of the service, of course, it was mainly for people to come forward for salvation, but they generally always included come forward to reconvict your life, you know, is another thing that you might do. 00:14:05.069 --> 00:14:13.230 And I gather some of that was kind of geared towards people that felt like they, well, I'm just not quite measuring that. 00:14:13.549 --> 00:14:16.269 You know, uh, I could be a lot better. 00:14:16.429 --> 00:14:16.750 Yeah. 00:14:17.069 --> 00:14:26.110 And therefore, come not coming forward, you know, and making that profession of uh recommitment was something to do. 00:14:26.589 --> 00:14:28.669 I think pride was a big part of it. 00:14:28.829 --> 00:14:32.189 You think your wickedness is stronger than his grace. 00:14:33.629 --> 00:14:34.829 Like you're special. 00:14:35.069 --> 00:14:36.029 Yeah, you're special. 00:14:36.509 --> 00:14:38.750 You're the one person who can outsend God's love. 00:14:40.750 --> 00:14:49.949 So being raised Baptist, it was Jesus opens the door, I choose to step through. 00:14:50.110 --> 00:14:50.750 Right. 00:14:53.149 --> 00:15:03.069 But predestination, I don't have that self-assurance that I've chosen God, therefore He loves me. 00:15:05.309 --> 00:15:08.669 And being human, we believe incorrect things all the time. 00:15:09.389 --> 00:15:15.789 So if predestination is true, then how do I know God's chosen me? 00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:18.349 I might believe that he has, and I could be wrong. 00:15:20.589 --> 00:15:21.949 So how do you know? 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:25.789 Well, it's like I've said before, look to Jesus. 00:15:26.110 --> 00:15:34.909 And that seems like a you know a Pat Sunday school answer, because but that is what John Calvin said about that question, that Jesus is the mirror of election. 00:15:35.309 --> 00:15:39.870 So, you know, keep choosing Jesus, right? 00:15:40.029 --> 00:15:46.829 You don't just go to Jesus once for salvation, but every time the question arises, you run to Jesus. 00:15:46.990 --> 00:15:51.870 And insofar as you're running to Jesus, well, that's you know, that's a Christian thing to do. 00:15:52.110 --> 00:16:03.870 I might have told you, I might have told the class, I was meeting with a younger guy for a while that you know he'd struggled with, he didn't know whether he was a Christian in some ways, like he hadn't really definitively put his faith in Christ. 00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:11.949 And uh, and yet he's like telling me about all the time he spends reading the Bible and how much time he spends talking to other people about Jesus. 00:16:12.110 --> 00:16:18.110 And he talks about like conviction over a sin and repentance and all this sort of stuff. 00:16:18.189 --> 00:16:20.750 I'm like, dude, that's Christian stuff. 00:16:20.909 --> 00:16:23.149 You're doing Christian stuff, right? 00:16:23.469 --> 00:16:25.389 So what does scripture tell us? 00:16:25.469 --> 00:16:29.309 Like, if you're in the flesh, you don't want anything to do with any of that. 00:16:29.549 --> 00:16:32.029 You only want to do with that if you're in the spirit. 00:16:32.110 --> 00:16:36.189 It's the spirit that draws you to Christ, it's the spirit that brings conviction over sin. 00:16:36.349 --> 00:16:39.789 It's the spirit that raises the question at all, like, am I elect? 00:16:39.949 --> 00:16:41.870 And actually causes us to worry about it. 00:16:42.029 --> 00:16:48.349 And so it's, you know, reformed preachers say this all the time, but if you're worried about it, then you don't need to worry about it. 00:16:50.349 --> 00:16:53.309 I was just gonna say, you asked that question. 00:16:53.389 --> 00:16:54.349 Yeah, dude. 00:16:54.669 --> 00:16:55.789 Cash and chicken baby. 00:16:56.189 --> 00:16:58.589 But yeah, yeah, we're you know, we're hearing there. 00:16:59.629 --> 00:17:01.789 Yeah, I was just I don't want to have the rest of it. 00:17:01.870 --> 00:17:02.429 No, go ahead. 00:17:02.990 --> 00:17:06.829 And my brother back there who said the family you're raised in. 00:17:07.870 --> 00:17:13.150 My husband Bob was raised in a family where he was the only boy. 00:17:13.390 --> 00:17:21.789 The dad deserted them for a man, deserted his wife and children for a man when Bob was like five or six. 00:17:22.750 --> 00:17:38.589 Can you imagine the struggle he has had to trust anybody, to trust any man, to to even appreciate what the concept of father is, yeah, his whole life. 00:17:38.750 --> 00:17:52.589 And I've been married 52 years for him, with with I've been married 52 years to him, and I've watched him labor and sweat and agonize and God working in him, and say this. 00:17:52.750 --> 00:17:54.509 I do not mind that he's not here. 00:17:54.589 --> 00:18:03.710 He's at another church which is much more structured and much more uh what's the word I want. 00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:07.470 Anyhow, he it fits him better, and I'm fine with that. 00:18:07.629 --> 00:18:10.750 I'd say, Bob, go be go be a blessing. 00:18:11.869 --> 00:18:14.109 Because he's had a hard life. 00:18:14.269 --> 00:18:14.589 Yeah. 00:18:14.829 --> 00:18:23.069 I mean that that haunting shadow of his childhood has just hung over him. 00:18:23.389 --> 00:18:37.230 Yeah, so there are there are sins that have been committed against us that make us difficult, to make it difficult for us to draw near to God the way he calls us to draw near to him, and to enjoy him as the father that he says he is to us. 00:18:37.789 --> 00:18:41.470 Uh, there are theological reasons, right, that might make that difficult too. 00:18:41.629 --> 00:18:50.990 Again, going back to if you're in a very works righteousness kind of setting, then you know, how can you be assured of God's love if you're constantly trying to earn it by what you do? 00:18:51.710 --> 00:18:55.149 If you're honest, you're gonna realize that you keep failing to measure up. 00:18:55.309 --> 00:19:02.029 The door is open before you, but you're you just can't really seem to take a genuine definitive step through it. 00:19:02.349 --> 00:19:06.109 Um we talk about sins committed against us. 00:19:06.990 --> 00:19:12.349 Is there anything we can do to harm our own sense of assurance of God's love? 00:19:13.230 --> 00:19:21.149 I mean, just from personality standpoint of being like your own worst critic kind of personality. 00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:21.710 Yeah. 00:19:22.029 --> 00:19:27.869 You're constant constantly beating yourself up over stuff you have no control over. 00:19:28.190 --> 00:19:28.430 Yeah. 00:19:30.109 --> 00:19:32.349 So we we can beat ourselves up, right? 00:19:32.509 --> 00:19:34.509 Maybe when we don't deserve to be beat up? 00:19:35.869 --> 00:19:37.789 Well said, well said, yeah. 00:19:38.509 --> 00:19:39.789 But also sin, right? 00:19:40.269 --> 00:19:45.710 Look at every frustration as, oh, I must be a sinner because God's trying to tell me something. 00:19:46.029 --> 00:19:51.389 And because things aren't working out the way I want them to, which is totally focused. 00:19:52.190 --> 00:19:54.829 Well what what if you are walking in sin? 00:19:55.069 --> 00:19:59.950 If you're walking in unrepentant sin for a season, you might call it backsliding. 00:20:00.190 --> 00:20:03.470 Might your assurance of God's love struggle during that season? 00:20:03.710 --> 00:20:04.190 It should. 00:20:04.750 --> 00:20:05.389 Yeah. 00:20:05.789 --> 00:20:06.349 Yeah. 00:20:06.589 --> 00:20:11.549 You can be a true believer in that season still, but you're in a dark spot. 00:20:12.029 --> 00:20:13.309 You're in a valley. 00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:15.869 Um temptation. 00:20:16.990 --> 00:20:19.789 Temptation can lead you in that direction. 00:20:20.029 --> 00:20:24.509 Desertion is the other word that the larger catechism uses. 00:20:24.670 --> 00:20:28.109 Uh neglecting the ordinary means of grace. 00:20:28.589 --> 00:20:40.109 You haven't read your Bible in a couple months, you've been to church a handful of times this year, uh, you're not really engaging with fellow Christians, you're not really praying at all. 00:20:40.430 --> 00:20:46.430 Do you feel like you're gonna, do you think in that sort of frame you're gonna feel super assured of God's love? 00:20:46.670 --> 00:20:49.470 You're gonna feel close to him, you're gonna feel connected to him? 00:20:50.589 --> 00:20:51.869 Probably not. 00:20:52.990 --> 00:20:53.470 Right? 00:20:53.789 --> 00:20:57.629 So that kind of tees up the question: what do we do? 00:20:57.789 --> 00:21:01.149 What do we do if we're struggling with that lack of assurance? 00:21:01.950 --> 00:21:08.990 Well, you know, what do you what do you do if you sense coldness in a relationship with someone in your life? 00:21:10.109 --> 00:21:11.309 Draw near. 00:21:11.710 --> 00:21:12.190 Right? 00:21:12.430 --> 00:21:16.990 And I realize it's easier to say than it is to do in some circumstances. 00:21:17.549 --> 00:21:18.829 Draw near, right? 00:21:19.149 --> 00:21:20.990 The ordinary means of grace. 00:21:21.309 --> 00:21:28.990 God's word, uh, prayer, the sacraments, gathering with God's people to worship. 00:21:29.629 --> 00:21:44.589 We don't hold any of those things forward as magic bullets or magic talismans where if you spend 45 minutes every day in the word like it's a prescription or something, then you're gonna be automatically more assured of God's love at the end of the week. 00:21:44.829 --> 00:21:45.549 But guess what? 00:21:45.629 --> 00:21:54.589 You're far more likely to be assured of God's love after consistent time with him in his word and prayer than you are to be apart from it. 00:21:55.230 --> 00:22:02.269 So it's something we can take to encourage ourselves if we're struggling with assurance, and something we can take to encourage other people too. 00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:02.750 Right? 00:22:02.909 --> 00:22:04.750 We don't have to be legalists about it. 00:22:04.829 --> 00:22:10.589 You know, you know, you don't have to be the do it in a jerky kind of way where someone says, Hey, I'm struggling. 00:22:10.750 --> 00:22:12.430 Oh, you've been in the word, right? 00:22:12.589 --> 00:22:15.230 You know, did you have your quiet time this morning? 00:22:16.269 --> 00:22:20.190 The question should come in a kind way, right? 00:22:20.349 --> 00:22:23.230 In a patient way and in an appropriate way. 00:22:23.789 --> 00:22:25.950 But that's yeah, that's fair. 00:22:26.190 --> 00:22:27.789 It's a fair question to ask, right? 00:22:27.869 --> 00:22:28.990 But I you know, have voice. 00:22:31.869 --> 00:22:33.869 I'm calling this woman right here. 00:22:34.029 --> 00:22:37.389 When you say you don't have to come at the end of the word, she went, bam. 00:22:38.670 --> 00:22:39.950 Because that's what I say. 00:22:40.269 --> 00:22:41.549 Ask me some of that. 00:22:42.349 --> 00:22:42.509 Yeah. 00:22:43.069 --> 00:22:45.389 I guess I could like, I don't know, rub your shoulders with my ass. 00:22:45.629 --> 00:22:46.190 Yeah, do that. 00:22:48.750 --> 00:22:51.470 Yeah, but you're also the guy that I expect to hear that from, right? 00:22:51.629 --> 00:22:55.149 And there's something to be said about relationships and personalities, right? 00:22:55.309 --> 00:22:58.589 So be who you are, according to God's grace and gifting. 00:22:58.829 --> 00:22:59.950 And you know, get there. 00:23:00.109 --> 00:23:01.230 Have that conversation. 00:23:01.549 --> 00:23:04.670 You say the same thing directly, but you get there, it's take five years. 00:23:05.149 --> 00:23:05.869 You get there. 00:23:07.950 --> 00:23:10.029 Alright, that's assurance of God's love. 00:23:10.190 --> 00:23:12.589 Let's talk about peace of conscience. 00:23:12.909 --> 00:23:22.829 In Romans 5, verse 1, Paul says, Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:23:23.069 --> 00:23:25.389 Now, what is peace with God? 00:23:26.509 --> 00:23:30.670 We'll talk about the conscience bit in a couple minutes, but just thinking about peace. 00:23:30.829 --> 00:23:32.589 What is peace with God? 00:23:32.909 --> 00:23:37.549 Well, earlier Paul talks about we are children of wrath. 00:23:39.629 --> 00:23:44.269 So the converse of that is we are now at peace with him. 00:23:46.829 --> 00:23:58.349 To steal the words of a pastor in Atlanta, he no longer has beef with us because of Jesus Christ through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:23:58.589 --> 00:24:01.069 So we're cool now. 00:24:01.549 --> 00:24:02.190 We're cool. 00:24:02.990 --> 00:24:04.430 No more beef, no more bad blood. 00:24:04.589 --> 00:24:05.470 Score's been settled. 00:24:06.349 --> 00:24:07.230 Score's been settled. 00:24:07.309 --> 00:24:07.869 Yeah, like that. 00:24:08.109 --> 00:24:16.190 I would take it more, I I mean, I'm not disagreeing or anything, but the word peace, every time I see that scripture, I think shalom. 00:24:16.670 --> 00:24:18.509 I think total well-being. 00:24:18.670 --> 00:24:24.509 And then peace with God just means a whole lot more than he's not mad at me anymore. 00:24:24.750 --> 00:24:33.950 It means that my relationship with God at least can take the first baby steps in that total well-being of a relationship with him. 00:24:35.470 --> 00:24:39.629 Yeah, there's there's kind of two poles to it that we need to keep track of. 00:24:39.869 --> 00:24:44.829 We have peace with God in an objective sense and in a subjective sense. 00:24:45.629 --> 00:25:11.149 Ephesians 2, 14 through 16, speaking of Christ, he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 00:25:11.470 --> 00:25:27.710 So this is Paul talking about Christ in himself tearing down the wall that divides Jew and Gentile and making peace between insiders and outsiders by way of peace between us and God through Christ in the Spirit. 00:25:28.029 --> 00:25:31.230 So that's that's like an indicative reality. 00:25:31.309 --> 00:25:37.230 That's an objective reality that's saying Jesus did this, Jesus accomplished this on the cross. 00:25:37.470 --> 00:25:39.389 Past tense, he accomplished it. 00:25:39.629 --> 00:25:42.829 So if you are in Christ, you have peace with God. 00:25:43.069 --> 00:25:44.909 He no longer has a beef with you. 00:25:45.069 --> 00:25:47.549 You are reconciled to God in Christ. 00:25:55.549 --> 00:25:57.549 And that's objectively true. 00:25:57.789 --> 00:26:08.589 But of course, the subjective aspect of it, growing in your sense of peace with God, that isn't as neat and clean always. 00:26:08.909 --> 00:26:16.509 You're gonna struggle, some people are gonna struggle more than other people struggle, the same way we struggle with assurance of God's love. 00:26:17.069 --> 00:26:19.149 Is he really not mad at me? 00:26:19.470 --> 00:26:21.470 Because I just did that thing again. 00:26:21.710 --> 00:26:24.589 And I kind of feel like God is mad at me about it. 00:26:24.829 --> 00:26:34.109 And instead of going to talk to him about it in prayer, I'm gonna go play a video game or watch a movie or whatever. 00:26:35.230 --> 00:26:38.109 Here's Philippians 4, 4 through 7. 00:26:38.430 --> 00:26:40.430 Rejoice in the Lord always. 00:26:40.670 --> 00:26:42.670 Again I will say, rejoice. 00:26:42.909 --> 00:26:45.549 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. 00:26:45.789 --> 00:26:46.909 The Lord is at hand. 00:26:47.069 --> 00:26:55.069 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 00:26:55.309 --> 00:27:02.109 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 00:27:03.069 --> 00:27:14.589 So there's Paul basically encouraging us to grow into the peace that we have objectively with God. 00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:17.549 Avail yourself of it, right? 00:27:20.190 --> 00:27:30.670 When you're worried, when you feel no peace in your soul, when you feel like God is mad at you again, reread the terms of the peace treaty. 00:27:30.990 --> 00:27:33.470 Reacquaint yourself with the promises. 00:27:33.950 --> 00:27:35.950 Prayer and thanksgiving. 00:27:36.190 --> 00:27:38.190 Let him know what's going on. 00:27:38.349 --> 00:27:40.269 Let him know what you need. 00:27:40.430 --> 00:27:44.269 And in offering Thanksgiving, thank him for everything you have. 00:27:44.430 --> 00:27:48.509 I mean, Thanksgiving and Paul, it's not just a matter of like minding your P's and Q's. 00:27:48.829 --> 00:27:56.190 It's actually the practice by which we thank God and remind ourselves that every good thing we have is a gift from him. 00:27:57.710 --> 00:28:05.069 So reflect upon the gifts and graces of God, and that will be a practical reminder that you have peace with him, and he has peace with you. 00:28:05.389 --> 00:28:09.470 Thanksgiving is an act of a creature he says before God. 00:28:09.710 --> 00:28:09.869 Yeah. 00:28:10.269 --> 00:28:12.190 We are creatures, he's the creator. 00:28:12.349 --> 00:28:19.389 Everything we have, my beating heart, my breathing lungs, everything is from him. 00:28:20.269 --> 00:28:22.190 And I give him thanks for that. 00:28:25.069 --> 00:28:35.950 Paul in Romans talks about lack of thankfulness being one of the earliest symptoms of wickedness and failure to give thanks. 00:28:39.069 --> 00:28:52.430 So this so this talks about not merely peace with God, but it says this speaks specifically of one of the benefits of redemption being peace of conscience. 00:28:52.750 --> 00:28:55.789 So not just peace, but peace of conscience. 00:28:57.950 --> 00:28:59.069 What is that? 00:28:59.309 --> 00:29:01.230 Right, we're getting a little more specific here. 00:29:01.389 --> 00:29:03.710 What what is peace of conscience? 00:29:09.149 --> 00:29:13.230 I'll give you an example from 2 Corinthians 1.12. 00:29:13.950 --> 00:29:27.710 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 00:29:32.430 --> 00:29:39.230 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 00:29:40.029 --> 00:29:50.109 2 Timothy 1.3, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 00:29:50.670 --> 00:29:53.869 What is that peace of conscience, that clarity of conscience? 00:29:55.149 --> 00:30:03.869 Doing things for the right reason for God or knowing that the intention is in the right place. 00:30:06.109 --> 00:30:10.589 Yeah, that's knowing we're doing the right things for the right reasons. 00:30:11.309 --> 00:30:12.190 Knowing, right? 00:30:13.069 --> 00:30:22.750 Conscience in a human being is that that ability in every human being to have a sense of right and wrong. 00:30:22.990 --> 00:30:26.349 And it is universal, there is no human being without it. 00:30:26.670 --> 00:30:32.109 People can harden, they can deaden, they can callous their conscience. 00:30:32.589 --> 00:30:45.549 And I think only regeneration, only being made anew in Christ gives us a conscience that actually does what a conscience is supposed to do. 00:30:47.629 --> 00:31:00.269 A regenerated conscience is recalibrated to the character of God because otherwise we cannot trust our conscience. 00:31:00.509 --> 00:31:09.710 It can make us feel guilty about stuff we don't need to feel guilty about and not feel guilty about stuff we should feel guilty about. 00:31:10.829 --> 00:31:12.909 It's not trustworthy at all. 00:31:13.789 --> 00:31:18.750 The conscience is definitely, you know, the Puritans were really good at talking about this. 00:31:19.549 --> 00:31:22.269 It is a sin to go against your conscience. 00:31:22.509 --> 00:31:24.750 Paul talks about that in Romans. 00:31:25.149 --> 00:31:33.389 And the sticky part about that is that even if your conscience is wrong, it's a sin to go against your conscience. 00:31:33.549 --> 00:31:35.149 And so what do we need to do? 00:31:35.309 --> 00:31:37.710 We actually need to train our consciences. 00:31:37.950 --> 00:31:40.269 We need to train them according to Scripture. 00:31:40.509 --> 00:31:44.109 There's such thing as a strong conscience versus a weak conscience. 00:31:44.269 --> 00:31:56.909 When Paul talks about the weaker brother in Romans 14, or talking about food sacrificed to idol in 1 Corinthians 8 through 9, and talking about not destroying the weaker brother, that's what he's talking about. 00:31:56.990 --> 00:31:59.069 He's talking about weakness of conscience. 00:31:59.389 --> 00:32:08.829 There were Christians, mostly Jewish Christians, who had conscience issues with eating certain meats that had been declared clean. 00:32:09.149 --> 00:32:25.230 And so if you're a Christian, if you're a strong Gentile Christian who doesn't have a beef with eating pork, and like you are free to do that in Christ, but let's say you're sitting at the table with a Jewish Christian brother who actually has a problem with that. 00:32:25.389 --> 00:32:26.750 What should you do? 00:32:27.149 --> 00:32:33.149 Should you make use of your freedom in Christ in order to do whatever you want, even if it scandalizes the guy across the table? 00:32:34.589 --> 00:32:36.990 Yeah, then that's that's essentially what Paul says. 00:32:37.309 --> 00:32:38.990 He's wrong, right? 00:32:39.149 --> 00:32:44.909 He's objectively wrong, and yet he's doing the right thing by obeying his conscience. 00:32:45.069 --> 00:32:51.230 And don't you go trampling in there and destroy your brother or sister for whom Christ died. 00:32:51.710 --> 00:32:56.109 So, you know, conscience, like I said, is a tricky thing. 00:32:56.269 --> 00:33:04.029 What the gospel gives us is that sense of freedom, where we no longer have to be bound by anything but the word of God. 00:33:04.349 --> 00:33:09.149 And so our consciences can be clear insofar as we walk according to the word. 00:33:09.869 --> 00:33:22.750 And if we are in Christ, we don't have to live with that sense of dread, that sense of conviction, that sense of everything I do is wrong, I am wrong, God hates me, God's judging me. 00:33:23.789 --> 00:33:26.750 I don't have it in front of me, but it's in either 1st or 2 Corinthians. 00:33:26.829 --> 00:33:32.909 Paul says to the people, it's like, you know, whether you judge me or not, whatever, right? 00:33:33.149 --> 00:33:39.069 I have no sense reason to think that, you know, I'm worthy of judgment, but God is my judge. 00:33:39.309 --> 00:33:42.029 And why can Paul say that as a kind of freeing thing? 00:33:42.349 --> 00:33:45.549 Like, I don't care if you judge me, I only care if God judges me. 00:33:45.789 --> 00:33:49.069 He can say that because his conscience is clear before the Lord. 00:33:49.389 --> 00:33:53.950 Only God can judge me, and he has already judged Christ on my behalf. 00:33:54.190 --> 00:33:58.029 So when I stand before the bar of God's judgment, I am not guilty. 00:33:58.109 --> 00:33:59.789 I'm innocent in Christ. 00:34:01.470 --> 00:34:01.950 What's that? 00:34:02.109 --> 00:34:03.629 Where does an ocean commission? 00:34:05.309 --> 00:34:06.349 Yeah, um. 00:34:11.550 --> 00:34:13.070 It definitely does come into play. 00:34:13.230 --> 00:34:14.990 I'm just gathering my thoughts about it. 00:34:15.230 --> 00:34:20.430 It's our, you know, peace of conscience is a is a benefit, right? 00:34:20.590 --> 00:34:22.510 It's a benefit that comes from God. 00:34:22.670 --> 00:34:24.430 It's it's part of our redemption. 00:34:24.590 --> 00:34:31.470 But just like there are things we can do to hinder our assurance of God's love, I think there are things we can do to hinder our peace. 00:34:31.710 --> 00:34:42.509