Struggles with the Assurance of Salvation

The Decadence of Indifference to Past and Future

0:03 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 term was coined, we are the now generation.

1:19 A generation that shamelessly stated the past has nothing to teach us, and the future is so uncertain and unstable, for remember the threat of atomic mutual destruction still hung over our nation. We are the now generation. The past. The past has nothing to teach us.

1:41 Most likely there is no future. We live for the now.

1:48 What is true of secular societies is also true among the professing people of God. And when the people of God forget their past and give no serious thought to their future,

2:04 it does not bode well for that church, that group of God's people marked by the name of God. It does not bode well for that church, that group of God's people marked by the name of God. It does not bode well for that church, by that indifference to the past and lack of serious concern about the future. And whenever that happens with a church, with a group of churches, with whole denominations, it is generally because those responsible for the public instruction of God's people have become indifferent to their past and unconcerned about thoughtful reflection with respect on their past.

Introducing the Series: Privileges and Dangers of the Second Generation

2:43 to the future. And by the grace of God, those of us leading this assembly have sought to avoid that pattern of insensitivity and indifference about the past, lack of concern about the future. And in keeping with a present focused expression of that sensitivity to the past, concern about the future, I began last Lord's Day morning a series of messages which I've entitled The Privileges and Blessings Along with the Liabilities and Dangers of the Second Generation.

3:26 And I began by giving a little bit of history. And in that history, I underscored as the central fact of that history concerning our own assembly is that we are witnessing in our life together in the now, something we've not known in 40 years of life together. And it is this, that the majority of those both applying for and coming into the membership at this present time are the children of those who have been members with us for a number of years. We've had a sprinkling of such throughout the decades, but what we're experiencing now is a first. When the vast majority of those applying for and entering into the membership are the second generation. That is, they are the generation who have had from their infancy the truths on which their parents have been, have fed and by which they have been molded and shaped through the life and ministry of this country. assembly. And with that peculiar fact of our history, I believe, and my fellow elders share

4:50 this conviction, that there are indeed peculiar privileges and blessings for you who constitute the second generation, but along with those peculiar privileges and blessings, there are liabilities and dangers. And you of the second generation need to be aware both of your unusual privileges and of your very real dangers. And we who constitute the first generation, while we are still around, we need by the grace of God to apprise the second generation of those blessings and of those liabilities. I then stated that I would be considering these blessings and liabilities under two broad categories. First of all, the blessings and liabilities of the second generation with reference to personal religious experience and general maturation. And secondly, the blessings and liabilities of the second generation with reference to ecclesiastical perspectives and experience. In other words, the two categories are very natural.

6:03 They overlap. They overlap. They overlap. They overlap.

6:05 They interpenetrate one another, but they are two distinct categories, and I believe it will be helpful to think of these things in those categories. What are the blessings and liabilities with respect to my own relationship to God and my own general growth and development as a man or a woman? What then are my peculiar blessings and liabilities with respect to my experience in the church and hopefully eventually as a churchman, as a churchwoman? Those are the two broad categories. We then began to focus on the category number one, and I stated that the blessings and privileges of the second generation with respect to personal spiritual experience and general maturation could be gathered under these two headings. Number one, you have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded by the God of the church.

Blessings of the Second Generation: Means of Grace and Nurture

7:05 Number two, you have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded by the God of the church. We ...

7:10 We have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded by the God ordained means of saving grace. And secondly, you have been lovingly and carefully nurtured in a biblically framed total character molding context. Those are your great blessings as part of the second generation. You have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded by the God ordained means of saving grace. And we identified them. The knowledge of the Holy Spirit ...

7:35 scriptures. Second Timothy 3, Paul could say of Timothy, from a brephos, a nursing babe, you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation. You have had secondly the example of authentic Christians, and Paul points to this in Timothy's experience in Second Timothy 1, 3 to 5. You have known clear, earnest preaching of the gospel in the light of many scriptures that indicate God has chosen the preaching of the gospel by God-equipped, God-sent, church-validated men as a unique instrument in the accomplishment of his saving grace. You of the second generation have known clear, earnest preaching of the gospel from your mother's womb. And fourthly, you have known the blessing of the fervent, persevering prayers of parents and of the people of God. You have known the blessing of the fervent, persevering prayers of parents and of the people of God. God has woven the prayers of his people into his sovereign purposes of grace, and you have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded with those four God-ordained means of saving grace. And in

8:54 that reality, you have been blessed above millions upon the face of the earth. As we saw last Lord's day, there are whole nations of God who have been blessed above millions upon the face of the earth. There are whole nations that have come into existence, lived out their days, and gone into oblivion, encompassing millions of people who never had one of those four things for one hour.

9:18 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.

9:35 God ordinarily prepares boys and girls for adult privileges and responsibilities by means of meticulous, stalactite, stalagmite, stalactite kind of character-building. When God is purposing to bring someone into his or her mature years fit for those privileges and responsibilities, it is by the nurture, the line upon line, precept upon precept, nurture. And we turn to Luke 2, 51 and 52 to show that the man Christ Jesus was prepared for his great work as the messianic servant of the Lord by being subject to Mary and Joseph, people that he had made as God, but to whom he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man.

10:35 And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man.

10:35 And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. And in the context of that humble home in the middle of the world, he submits himself as the God-man. Nazareth, under the faithful, patient, meticulous tutelage of Joseph and Mary, he continues to grow in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and with men. And we saw that that points us to the fact that Jesus was given and assimilated a truth-based, God-centered view of all reality. He was growing in wisdom. He was given and assimilated a truth-based, God-centered view of the stewardship of his body. He grew in stature. Jesus was given and assimilated a truth-based, God-centered view of a God-pleasing lifestyle. He grew in God's favor as he understood more and more the patterns

11:26 of life for a boy, for a preteen, for a teenager, for a young man, and his heart, soul entered into those patterns. He grew in the favor of God under the tutelage of Joseph and of Mary. And fourthly, Jesus was given and assimilated a truth-based, God-centered view of social grace and decorum. He was continually growing in favor with men. And that's what many of you of the second generation have had. This is what God has given you. In order to prepare you for usefulness in your adult years. But now we must begin to consider this morning the dangers and liabilities of these two categories of blessing and privilege.

Dangers and Liabilities: The Flip Side of Blessings

12:19 We looked last Lord's Day at your privileges. The privilege of being surrounded with the God-appointed means of grace. The privilege of being brought up in this kind of holistic, biblically holistic nurture. But those blessings have their flip side. And the flip side are the dangers and the liabilities of the second generation. And we're going to consider today, morning and evening, those dangers and liabilities related to that first category of your blessing. If the first category of your blessing and privilege is being surrounded with the God-appointed means of grace. Then the first category of your dangers and liabilities are related to those specific blessings. And what is true here is what is true in many areas of life and human experience.

13:19 For example, our greatest vulnerability and weaknesses are often the flip side of our greatest strengths. And the older we get, many of us recognize that. Well, these great blessings. They are tremendous blessings. The flip side of them is our danger and our liability.

13:42 And I want in the time that's remaining this morning and then again this evening to look at three such dangers and liabilities directly related to this privilege of being surrounded with the God-appointed means of grace. Some may sit there and say, well, what danger and liability could there be being surrounded all of my days with the God-appointed means of grace? Well, there are three things that I love to tell you. The first is that I am surrounded by my own God-appointed means of grace.

14:07 The second is a gift of grace. The second is that I am surrounded by my own God-appointed means of grace. I am surrounded by my own God-appointed means of grace. The third is that I am surrounded by my own God-appointed means of grace.

14:13 In my days with the knowledge of the scripture, with authentic Christians, with the fervent clear preaching of the gospel, and being the subject of earnest, fervent prayers of my parents and the people of God, how could those things have any liabilities? Well, they do. And I hope as I seek to identify them and analyze them that more and more you of the second generation will say, yes, that's true. That's answerable.

Danger #1: Agonizing Struggles with Assurance of Salvation

14:38 to my own experience and I trust you will be persuaded from your own experience and your own observation that these are not possible dangers and liabilities but real dangers and liabilities and the first the one that I want to park on this morning then we take God willing the second and the third tonight is this you of the second generation are especially susceptible to agonizing struggles with the assurance of your salvation you of the second generation are especially susceptible to agonizing struggles with the assurance of your salvation and let me take a few moments to define my words when I say assurance of salvation what am I talking about well it's not a question of Christ's ability to save the facts of the gospel and how he saves or even his willingness to save when I speak of the second generation being especially susceptible to struggles with the assurance of your salvation I'm talking precisely about this it's not a question about whether Christ does save and how

15:56 he saves and is he willing to save but it is this question have I truly embraced the savior am I truly a child of God assurance has to do with our answer to the question not does Christ save all who trust in him but do I really trust in him you see assurance of salvation has to do not with the objective realities of Christ as the savior the way that he saves the fact of his death and resurrection the sending of the Holy Spirit it has to do with this question that Savior, whom I believe is objectively true and objectively there, and has objectively died and risen from the dead, is He subjectively mine? Is what He did mine? Is the virtue of His death and resurrection and the sending of the Spirit mine? So when I talk about assurance of salvation, that's what I'm speaking about. Not the objective facts concerning the Savior and the salvation

17:06 provided for sinners, but the subjective, personal internalization of those things. And I've stated that you of the second generation are especially susceptible to these struggles. I'm not saying you must of necessity experience these struggles. There's no virtue in these struggles. They do not give us brownie points with God. Luther's years of agony, agonizing over the sense of his sin and wondering how to be accepted with God. They gave him no brownie points with God. Bunyan's struggles gave him no brownie points with God. And you of the second generation, your struggles with assurance give you no brownie points with God. They are not

17:54 necessary to your salvation. And thank God some of you surrounded under these God-ordained means of grace have come to a settled confidence of your acceptance in Christ with very little struggle. You know what I pray for you of the second generation? You know what I pray for some of the little ones that are down in the nursery? I say, Lord, so bless these means of grace that these kids will never remember a time when they did not know themselves to be sinners, they did not know Christ to be the Savior of sinners, and when they did not trust Him for their own salvation. That's my prayer. There's no need to go through great struggle. There's no virtue in those struggles. But this is reality. You of the second generation are especially susceptible to agonizing struggles with assurance of your salvation.

18:52 What do I mean by agonizing struggles? Well, I don't know how else to describe them. For those of you who've had the struggles, you say that's the right word, Pastor. No other word will do.

19:03 And that's because God has impressed you by surrounding you with these means. The knowledge of scripture, authentic Christians, earnest preaching that goes after your conscience, fervent prayers, the issues of God and your relationship to him, of heaven, of hell, of sin, and of judgment. Those are real to you. You can't live like the careless pagans around you who really do live.

19:34 It's as though those things don't exist. And so for you at a very early age, the great issues of life are not whether I'm going to be a fireman or I'm going to be a milkman or I'm going to be a baseball player or a golfer. The issue is, am I going to go to heaven or hell? The great issues when you lie in your bed at night are not dreaming about Prince Charming appearing on the hill on his white stallion and sweeping you off into the castle and living happily forever after.

20:04 The issue is, will God take my life while I'm sleeping and cast me into hell? Those issues of the great matters of the soul, the language of Jesus, what shall it profit a man if he gained a whole world and lose his own soul? Those things became very real to you at a very young age as they did with me. I can never remember any personal consciousness of being who I am without the remembrance.

20:35 Of great, deep disturbance of soul about those questions. And if you're not able to answer with certainty, yes, I know my soul is safe. I know my sins have been washed in the blood of Christ. I know that should I die tonight, I will go into the presence of my Savior. You don't have that confidence.

21:05 Then there are. Indeed, agonizing struggles with the question, how can I come to it? When is it legitimately mine? I must have the assurance of my salvation.

Reason 1: Doubting Personal Embrace of Truth

21:22 So when I say you of the second generation are especially susceptible to agonizing struggles with the assurance of your salvation, that's the meaning I've packed into the words and I want you to attach the same meaning to them as I used them. Now. Now then, why in the world should people surrounded with those God-ordained means of saving grace be pecuniarily vulnerable to these agonizing struggles with assurance? Well, let me try to answer that this morning in four ways.

22:01 Number one, because divine truth has surrounded you from your infancy. And you're not disposed to deny or to disown it, you wonder, have I personally embraced it in the love of it, or simply because I don't know any good reason to deny it? Sound familiar? I've been surrounded with this stuff all of my days, from my infancy, and I have no reason to deny it, nor to repudiate it.

22:38 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.

23:01 And I look at it and say, well, I don't see any reason to shed it. And I certainly don't want to throw it off and burn it. And so I wear it. But do I wear it in the conviction that it's the only right and beautiful garment to wear?

23:21 And am I ready to spill my blood to keep it on my back if necessary? That's the question that comes.

23:30 The raw pagan, he doesn't have this struggle. He's lived a godless life. And though he has those haunts, those haunting echoes in the depths of his soul, Romans 1, Romans 2 speaks of it, that the God who put the heavens out there, somehow he's answerable to that God, and that God is great, and he'll meet him in the day of judgment. Because he's not been instructed, and he's lived in the context of a totally hedonistic family, where all that mattered was what you put in your belly and on your back, and your boat on the lake, and your big vacations, and your big retirement accounts, and no moral standards.

24:12 He's not heard of God as creator in the school system. He's been fed the nonsense of evolution. And there is no real burning awareness of a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned.

24:27 And that man comes into the orbit of the truth that you've had from your mother's breast. Genesis 1-1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. All that is, is created reality. And God stands as sovereign over it.

24:45 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 might punish sin in the person of the substitute, and thereby show mercy to sinners, and this God who has done this gracious act, has sent his spirit to renew the heart of men and women who natively hate him and hate his law, and are indifferent to his son, and under the blessing of the spirit of God this pagan, his eyes are open, he is brought into an entirely, radically different universe of existence. He can no more doubt the reality of his salvation than he can doubt that that's his nose when he looks in the mirror, and sees it.

26:10 I mean, he has been yanked out of one universe and plunked into another. He can no more deny these things than he can deny his own existence. But here you are. You were born into that universe.

26:25 The central sun of your universe from the dawn of your consciousness is God is creator. I am creature. God is lawgiver. I am accountable to him.

26:39 You've been reared in a family where the standards of God's law have percolated through all the relationships of mom and dad, and children and siblings, and entertainment and clothing, and the whole of your life has been embedded in that universe into which the pagan has just been introduced. And so you ask yourself, Yes, I'm in this universe. I'm rather comfortable in it. 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?

27:20 Am I scratching where any of you is? And that makes questions. Is this my universe? Freely, cheerfully chosen when the influence of mom and dad sloughs off, and possibly when in the providence of God, the influence of church, and those authentic Christians?

27:44 Will it be my universe? Because my heart has chosen it, and I'll be willing to die for it. That's the question that comes. And therefore you, as the second generation, are peculiarly vulnerable to agonizing questions about the matter of your salvation.

28:10 Divine truth has surrounded you from your infancy. You're not disposed to deny or disown it, but you wonder if you've personally embraced it in the love of it. That's the question. Another issue is this.

Reason 2: Doubting Spirit-Enlightened Embrace of Christ

28:28 Second reason why assurance can be a great struggle when you've had this blessing of being surrounded by the means of grace. Because the truths concerning Christ and His salvation have surrounded you from your infancy, and you're not disposed to deny or disown them, but you wonder if you've seen and embraced Christ with spirit-enlightened eyes, or whether you've simply caved in to the Christ who surrounds you in the means of grace. When you hear and read the truths about Christ, that the angel came and spoke to Mary, and said, you're going to be a mama. And she says, how can that be? I've not had sexual relations with a man. And the angel says, the power of the Most High will come upon you.

29:28 That which is conceived in you will be of the Holy Spirit. He shall be called Son of God. You don't doubt that. The fact that God could supernaturally cause conception in a virgin's womb, that doesn't bother you. Why?

29:43 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.

29:58 And they're still discovering them. And when they start talking about billions of light years, my head swims, and I'm ready to put the book down, put the paper down. For that God, for that God to cause a virgin conception, that's no big deal. That's no big deal to you.

30:14 And when you read that the one brought forth grew as an ordinary child, but sinless, and into manhood, and that he was anointed with the Spirit, and you read the Gospel records, and you hear it read at family worship, and you hear aspects of it preached in the church and in your Sunday school class, you have no problem that Jesus could touch lepers and make them whole. You have no problem that he can touch dead people and raise them for dead. Speak to a man that's been dead for four days and have him come stumbling out of his grave, tripping over his grave floor. That's no big deal to you.

30:50 But then you ask the question, when you come across verses like this, 2 Corinthians 4, 6, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And you say, do I know that reality? Has there been a divine, gracious, creative work that has caused me to see with the eyes of my soul the very glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? 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? Yes, I accept everything I've been taught about Christ, everything the Bible says about Christ. But has Christ himself captured my heart with his glory?

32:01 Or you read a passage such as Luke 14 where Jesus said, If any man comes to me and hates not father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Whosoever does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Later on in that passage, in Luke 14, Whosoever he be that forsakes not all that he has cannot be my disciple. Three times Jesus says cannot be my disciple.

32:28 And you read passages like that and you say, Do I really have an attachment to Christ deeper and stronger than all the attachment to mom and dad and brother and sister and to my own life? Is the seed of martyrdom in me that I'm willing by God's grace to forfeit life rather than forfeit Christ? And you read 2 Corinthians 5, 17, If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is past, the new has come.

33:03 And you say, yes, but the old was so shaped by Christian truth. It's not so clear that with the pagan, it's clear the old was his godless, sensuous, lawless, profligate life. But my life was respectable and rightly so. I didn't go through any period of outward rebellion.

33:27 How can I be certain that Christ himself has made me in union with him a new creature? Or you read in Matthew 13 or you hear the preacher preach as I did a couple of years ago. Jesus said in Matthew 13, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls. Who when he found one pearl of great price sold all of it for all that he had that he might purchase it.

33:56 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who finds a treasure in the field and for joy thereof sells all that he has and purchases the field. And you say, is Christ the pearl of great price to me? Is he the treasure hidden in the field, discovered? In a sense, I've been around the treasure all my life.

34:19 I don't know if I've discovered the treasure. That's the treasure. The pearl has been set before me all my life. I don't know if I've just come upon it.

34:31 And in my heart I'm ready to forsake all that I might have it. If you haven't had those questions, kids, you're going to have them. Mark my words, you're going to have them. If you take your Bible seriously, you're going to have them.

34:46 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.

34:59 You absorb it through your skin. If you're around it, you've got it. You don't get Christ that way. If you're around him, you've got him.

35:09 No. No. No. It's not true.

35:14 If you're around him, you've got him. At some point, beneath the level, perhaps, of your own consciousness as to day and week and hour and month or even year, the spirit of Christ must work to make the Christ who's been the pearl on the table all your life, who's been the treasure spread out around you all your life, you discover the pearl in a new way. You see the pearl as the pearl and the treasure as the treasure. And I am not going to do what the Bible doesn't and say that that must be done in some dramatic way, that you must be able to point the particular timeframe.

35:56 But one thing is clear. If you're to have a biblically grounded assurance of salvation, Christ must now be to you the pearl of great price and must be to you here and now the treasure in the field. He must be to you here and now more precious than mother, father, brother, sister and your own life also. Pleasing him must be the supreme ambition of your life.

36:19 He must be to you here and now more precious than mother, father, brother, sister, husband, a wife, a home, a good job, security and even a good church. Christ must be the treasure. And that's why some of you of the second generation have had and will continue to have others of you. You will have agonizing struggles with the assurance of your salvation because not only have you been surrounded with the truth of God in a generic way and you see no reason to deny it, to reject it, but you don't know if you've received it in the love of it. Likewise, you've been surrounded with the truth concerning Christ and his salvation and you're not disposed to deny it, to reject it, but you wonder, have I truly embraced him with eyes enlightened by the Holy Spirit or have I simply caved in to my Christ suffused environment? Third reason why you will be particularly troubled with assurance of salvation is this, because you have observed authentic and mature Christians from your infancy and you know you're not one of them. You see,

Reason 3: Comparing Self to Mature Christians

37:49 the great blessing of observing authentic Christianity can be a stumbling block to your own assurance because you've observed authentic and mature Christians from your infancy and you know you're not one of them. Now notice I didn't say you've observed perfect Christians. They're only in heaven. Ain't none of them down here.

38:10 But thank God there are a lot of authentic Christians down here and many of you have mom and dad as the authentic Christians. You have what Timothy had. Grandmother Lois, Mother Eunice, unfeigned faith. They were the real thing.

38:26 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.

38:44 The new Christian is the diamond uncut, unpolished and not placed yet in an appropriate setting. And because many of you of the second generation are privileged to observe mature Christians you're seeing diamonds that have been cut and set. God has brought these parents and the people of God in this place through deep trials that have cut and polished and brought out the brilliance of Christ's work in them and his presence with them. You look at that and say man I'm light years from that.

39:24 How in the world can I be saved? So the very privilege of being around authentic Christians can become an occasion of you having trouble with your assurance because you've not in any way attained to that standard. Now notice I'm not giving the remedies yet. I just want to point out why it is that being surrounded with these God ordained means of grace can be a stumbling block and an occasion of troubles with assurance.

39:56 You read in your Bible, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me, John 10 27 doing so to a degree that is the degree commensurate with being mature Christians and you say well my puny efforts to hear his voice and follow him don't measure up in any way to that and you're absolutizing or stretching the standard if not absolutizing it taking it far beyond its Biblical boundaries. Or again you read in 1 John 3 14 by this we know we've passed and you see love being manifested in a mature heart and mind and soul again chastened and disciplined by God in the art of holy love of the brethren and you measure yourself by that and say I don't come anywhere near that. Though Paul uses the term in a totally different setting the principle is nonetheless the same in 2 Corinthians 10 12 he says they measuring themselves as in the holy spirit when they come to death they're measuring themselves in a way as if they were being worshipped and that people had seen it disturb them

Reason 4: Scriptural Warnings Against Self-Deception

41:26 and trouble them and keep them from a settled assurance matter of one's salvation. You have heard from your infancy the many scriptural warnings against self-deception in the matter of one's salvation. You've heard such words as these in family worship, in personal interaction with your parents, from the pulpit. Let no man deceive you with empty words. Ephesians 5, 6. Be not deceived. Galatians 6, 7. This man deceives his own heart. James 1, 26. We deceive ourselves. 1 John 1, 8. It's possible. Self-deception is possible. And from your infancy, you've heard that it is. And you say, Lord, I'd rather doubt than be damned.

42:20 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 truly, but uncomfortably. Then go to hell comfortably. And that's how you reason. You've read and trembled when you've come across such scriptures as these. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name? In thy name cast out demons. In thy name do many mighty works. Then will I profess unto them, depart from me. I never knew you, ye that work iniquity. You read Luke 13, 24. 25a, 24 and 25a. And the good men of the house shall rise up and shut the door. And you without

43:16 will begin to say, Lord, open to us. And he from within shall say, I do not know you. So you struggle because you've heard from your infancy the many scriptural warnings against self-deception in this matter of one's salvation. So this is one of the major liabilities of being surrounded with the means of saving grace from your infancy.

43:40 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 serves at the side of our missionary in the Philippines. And I can remember the agonizing struggles that dear, Carol had over many years with this very issue. I think of another young married woman sitting here this morning, many years. I think of others. This is not theory, folks. This is

Counsel for the Second Generation, Parents, and Ministers

45:02 born out of hands on, fingers in the wool, pastoral interaction. And I say to you, dear children, some of you already struggling with this. Some of you, by the grace of God, perhaps fought beyond the struggle. I want to say, first of all, a word to you of the second generation. And I want to say a word to the parents of the second generation. And I want to say a word to those of us who minister to those in the second generation. Then I want to say a word to the pagans among us. First of all, then a word to you of the second generation. Here's my word to you. Don't think you are weird or perverse because you have this struggle.

45:49 You are weird or perverse because you have this struggle. Our confession of faith assumes that this would be common experience. It says in these words, this assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it. They did not regard someone coming to them in pastoral intimacy and saying, I'm struggling with the issue of my assurance and say, well, you're weird. You're perverse. Here's the promise. Sit on it. Believe it.

46:35 Go your way rejoicing. I say to you of the second generation, don't think you are weird or perverse because you have this struggle. Furthermore, don't keep the struggle bottled up in your own soul. Speak to mom and dad. Speak to one of your pastors.

46:55 Sometimes a half an hour with an experienced man of God will be used of God to bring you out of the woods where you've wandered around with your own thoughts for days, for weeks, for months, or for years. And I urge you of the second generation, don't be reluctant to come to us, those of us who are your pastors, or to your parents. And perhaps mom and dad will say, look, this is an area. Honey, where I don't feel I can be as much help to you as someone more experienced in the word of God.

47:33 Would you mind if I plead with you? You need not go on struggling for months and years. You may not need to go on struggling for months and years. So don't think you're weird or perverse because you have this struggle.

47:49 Don't keep the struggle bottled up in your own soul. Don't accept your condition of uncertainty as normal. Okay. It is not desirable and it's not normal. We speak of a common cold. So a lot of people may have it, but it's not normal. It's an abnormality. It is a malady. God wants us to know that we are in Christ and to be able to declare that we know. Paul could say in 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. John, in his first epistle, writes, 1 John 5.13, these things I've written unto you that believe that you may know that you have eternal life.

48:41 The New Testament documents describe for the most part first generation Christians. The Gospel comes into the setting of those who are in the synagogues, many of whom were prepared by their knowledge of the Old Testament. The New Testament documents describe first generation Christians. The Gospel comes into the setting of those who are in the synagogues, many of whom were prepared by their knowledge of the Old Testament.

48:58 but they did not have the certain awareness of that consciousness that through Christ God is our Father, of full and complete justification of sin and all the blessings of new covenant salvation. And then, as we've been reading in Acts, the gospel penetrated into totally pagan communities so that throughout the New Testament, for the most part, when people came to faith, assurance tagged along and it's hardly even discussed.

49:31 This problem is in a very special way the problem of the second generation. As I tried to indicate in my earlier headings, because the truth has been part of our native atmosphere, and the speaking of Christ, and the knowledge of Christ, and the proclamation of Christ has been part of who and what we are, it's more difficult to work through some of these issues than when coming out of raw paganism, which is why I tried to describe the differing responses of the mind and of the heart. But don't accept your condition of uncertainty as normal or desirable. Again, our confession is so balanced.

50:15 It says, though believers may struggle and wait long for it, yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things that are freely given to him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of means, attain to it, and it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure. Why? To this end, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of assurance. In other words, if you're going to be a happy, useful Christian, you must be an assured Christian.

51:01 Who wants a salvation that makes you glum and causes you sleepless nights, because you're not certain that you are in Christ? And to be able to say, with deep gratitude and solid biblical foundation beneath us, I know whom I have believed. I know that my sins are forgiven. So that's my word.

51:26 A word to you of the second generation. Don't think you're weird or perverse because you have the struggle. Don't keep the struggle bottled up in yourself. Don't accept your condition of uncertainty as normal.

51:40 A word to you parents. Don't be shocked when it appears in your kids. Don't be shocked. Furthermore, don't usurp the place of the Holy Spirit in an attempt to end their struggle.

51:55 Ultimately, it's not your fault. Ultimately, it is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit to seal assurance to the heart of a believer. Romans 8, 16. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, the sons of God.

52:13 And few things are more agonizing for a parent than to see a son or daughter struggling with assurance and everything in us wants to step in and end the agony. It's one thing to help guide them into the Scriptures, it's another thing to play the role of an evangelical. And try to give them absolution. Don't do it.

52:34 Don't do it. Don't usurp the role of the Holy Spirit. Try to God. Parents, plead with God and plead with God for wisdom to know what facets of the Word of God to bring upon their consciences.

52:53 And then a word to those of us who minister. If ever, brethren, we need to take seriously 2 Timothy 2.15. It's in this area.

53:00 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 tumor and he longs that he might excise the entirety of the tumor but in his aggressiveness to get it all one millimeter too much and he may render the patient utterly without mental faculties for the rest of his days but if his fear causes him to draw back and he stops one millimeter short he leaves aggressive cancer in the brain that will kill i don't know how they do it i marvel at the courage of a neurosurgeon it's ready to take his scalp up and cut that's what we're doing

54:19 when we talk about these things cut too much and we run the risk of the discouragement that leads to apostasy not cut enough you and we leave people vulnerable to deception and the hardness of heart we need to cry to god those of us who minister the word that we might know how to give comfort to those who have biblical grounds to have comfort that we might know how to undercut all false comfort in those who have no grounds to have comfort then i say to the pagans among us there's some of you who may be sitting here this morning saying what in the world you is that preacher talking about i never heard anything about god and christ in my upbringing you talk about being surrounded with these four influences the knowledge of the word of god authentic christians the earnest preaching of the gospel fervent prayers i didn't have a one of those things well in a sense my friend you ought to be thankful you're hearing about them this morning and that you may never have to have these kinds of struggles and what i say to you is that you're

Counsel for Pagans and Concluding Prayer

55:34 acquainted with christ yes you ought to be Someone that believes the word of god and that reflect to you what these kids have heard from their infancy youen the Rath of god in there is but one answer to you for you in your simple stayed in its in the perste a supernatural person the God man Christ Jesus who came among us who lived and died in our place was raised from the dead is exalted to the right hand the father and has left this promises That All Who come and God shall swims in. you not God not you God by him will be received, pardoned, forgiven, accepted in Christ before the very majesty of God himself. And my dear pagan friend, I beg you to consider the claims of Christ and lay hold of Christ. And if you're a father, a mother in your pagan state, you begin to soak your mind and soul in the scriptures and give to your children that benefit and blessing that we have described as the benefit and blessing of the second generation. Well, we've not dug into many portions of the word of God in depth. That's the normal fare in this place, as those of you who come here regularly

56:50 know. But I trust this rather public engagement in pastoral counseling will be helpful to you of the second generation. That in the coming days, you will recognize both your blessings and your liabilities and be wise in the light of them. Let's pray. Our Father, we are thankful that you have given us in your word a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We thank you for the problem that we have, that you have laid hold of many in the past several decades and brought them out, brought them out of various religious backgrounds where they were ignorant of the gospel. And you have saved them by your grace and put within their hearts a passion to be godly mothers and fathers and to rear their children surrounded by these means that you have appointed for the salvation of sinners and to give them that kind of full-orbed nurture which our Lord Jesus received in that humble home at Nazareth.

58:07 And our Father, we pray that you will help us to be discerning as we contemplate both the blessings and the liabilities of these realities and that you would steer the second generation through their peculiar dangers, that they may outstrip many of us in usefulness as well as in knowledge. We plead with you, our Father, to seal these things to our hearts. Receive our thanks for your presence, with us, for the privilege of praising you, of seeking your face. Now may your blessing rest upon us through the remainder of this day. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.