Struggles with the Assurance of Salvation

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin begins by lamenting societal and ecclesiastical decadence marked by willful ignorance of the past and indifference to the future, contrasting it with a healthy…

The term 'now generation' is used as an example of a society that is decadent, hedonistic, and idolatrously self-centered, living only for the present and ignoring the past and future, ripening for judgment.

The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 17, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. One of the ominous signs that a society has become decadent, hedonistic, and idolatrously self-centered is when the people of that society are willfully ignorant of the lessons of the past and utterly indifferent to the concerns of the future. When any society lives with this as its practical rule of life, all that exists is now, and all that matters is now. That society is decadent and ripening for judgment. It is not without reason. That about 20 years ago, the ter...

0:03 - 1:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the two great blessings of the second generation: being surrounded by God-ordained means of saving grace (Scripture, authentic Christians, gospel preaching, fervent…

The meticulous, slow growth of stalactites and stalagmites is used as an analogy for God's ordinary method of character-building, line upon line, precept upon precept, to prepare individuals for adult responsibilities.

And you've been surrounded with them the entirety of your life. And then secondly, you have been lovingly and carefully nurtured in a biblically framed, total character-molding context. We looked at the principle that God ordinarily is God. And we looked at the principle that God ordinarily is God.

9:18 - 9:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first reason for assurance struggles is that divine truth has surrounded them from infancy, leading them to wonder if they have personally embraced it in love or merely…

Divine truth is metaphorically described as a garment worn from birth, prompting the question of whether it is worn out of conviction or merely because there's no reason to shed it.

But the question is, in the language of 2 Thessalonians 2.10b, have I received the truth in the love of it? Or is it that I have no good reason to shed it? The truth of Christ and the gospel of creation, of the law, it's like a garment that was on me when I came out of my mother's womb.

22:38 - 23:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But if I had the choice, would this be the universe I would freely choose had it not been imposed upon me in God's sovereignty?

A hypothetical story of a pagan convert is used to contrast their radical, undeniable experience of being 'yanked out of one universe and plunked into another' with the more subtle experience of the second generation.

In Genesis 3, the man that God made in his image, and the woman he made in his image, defected from God, torn from him, they sin, and they run from God, and God comes in grace and in judgment to deal with them, and promises a redeemer. And he begins to realize, there's a whole universe that I've been cut off from, a universe which has as its central sun the reality of God, this God who is creator, this God who is lawgiver, this God who is redeemer, this God who prepared through centuries to send his son into the world, who sent him that he might offer up a sacrifice for sin, that this holy God...

24:45 - 26:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No man ever saw the glory of God and was not simultaneously both shattered and captivated with its beauty. Have I seen the glory of God in the face of Christ?

The creation of galaxies by God's word is used as an example of God's immense power, making a virgin conception 'no big deal' for those who embrace Genesis 1:1.

Because you've embraced Genesis 1-1. You see, once you've embraced Genesis 1-1, there's nothing else in the Bible that's a stumbling block. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He speaks galaxies into being by word.

29:43 - 29:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You don't get into a saving relationship to Christ by osmosis. You know what osmosis is? I'll give you a non-technical definition. If you're around it, you've got it.

Osmosis, defined as 'if you're around it, you've got it,' is used as an analogy to explain what salvation is NOT, emphasizing that a saving relationship with Christ is not acquired passively.

You don't get into a saving relationship to Christ by osmosis. You know what osmosis is? I'll give you a non-technical definition. If you're around it, you've got it.

34:46 - 34:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third reason for assurance struggles is observing authentic and mature Christians from infancy, leading the second generation to measure themselves against an unattainable…

Christians are compared to diamonds, with mature Christians being cut, polished, and set, while new Christians are uncut and unpolished. This illustrates how observing mature believers can make the second generation feel inadequate.

They weren't fool's gold. They were the real thing and you've observed them. Look with me. Every Christian is like a diamond and the mature Christian is the diamond cut, polished and set in a beautifully crafted ring.

38:26 - 38:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Lord, I'd rather doubt than be damned. Doubt is no fun. It's no comfort to be in a doubting state. But if the price I pay to get out of doubt is to presume and to be guilty of self-deception, I'd rather go to heaven trul…

The personal anecdote of a godly woman named Carol, who struggled with assurance for many years, is used to validate that these struggles are real and not merely theoretical.

And you, this will make you especially susceptible to agonizing struggles with the assurance of your salvation. The very means that should make your entrance into the kingdom more certain and easier and earlier because of the perversity of the human heart, because of a wily devil. These very means can undermine the confidence that we ought to have in the mercy, and tender grace of God in Jesus Christ. So what counsel can I give you in the light of this fact, which many sitting here would validate is true. As I was preparing this, I thought back several decades ago of a godly woman who now serv...

43:40 - 45:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Do our utmost to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, cutting a straight course in the word of truth.

The task of ministering on assurance is compared to spiritual neurosurgery, highlighting the extreme precision and courage required to avoid either discouraging believers or leaving them in self-deception.

It says, Let us do our utmost to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, cutting a straight course in the word of truth. As I said to the men when we met to pray, when I get into this area I feel like I'm engaging in a kind of spiritual neurosurgery. When the neurosurgeon discovers from all of the scans that his patient has an aggressive tumor on the brain, but it is operable, can you imagine what he feels when a physician, a physician, has an aggressive tumor on the brain? flap of the skull is opened up and there he sees that living brain and there he sees the tumo...

53:00 - 54:19 Read in full sermon