Well, it's 9.30. Shall we begin? I guess not. Let's have prayer and we'll begin. I'm going to try to speak up if I possibly can, but it's getting weaker. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this Lord's Day that you've given to us. Thank you for the night's rest. Pray that you would help our minds to be sharp today for hearing and learning, both in this hour and in the worship hour to follow. Pray that you would be glorified in the midst of your people. We thank you for this opportunity to gather together and to study your word or the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the study of your word. And I pray that we would all benefit from it. I just ask you to bless those who are not here, wherever they may be. I know there's sickness going around and some folks are traveling. Pray that you would keep them all safe and well according to your will. We ask for your blessing now in Jesus' name, amen. As you can see, we're continuing in the Westminster Confession of Faith today. However, this is the last of that series of lessons. This is not the end of the Westminster Confession of Faith. There are more chapters, but this is the end of the winter quarter, and we're going to be starting something new next week. And so it's my honor, I guess, to close out this unit. We're looking at Chapter 18 and Paragraph 4. In the previous weeks, Cliff taught one paragraph, and Rod, did you teach two paragraphs last week? Yeah, so this is the last paragraph, that's Paragraph 4. And it's on assurance and grace of salvation, the assurance of grace and salvation. And so here's this paragraph. This is not only a paragraph, it's a sentence. The Apostle Paul would love this sentence. It's about as long as coupling his letter to the Ephesians. Here is what paragraph four says. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation various ways shaken, diminished, And paused, that's not the word they used there. I added that word because that's what it means. It says intermitted. That's not a word we use a lot. So I used the word paused as one, by negligence and persevering of it. Two, by falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit. Three, by some sudden or vehement temptation. Four, by God's withdrawing the light of his countenance and suffering, suffering meaning allowing, even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light. Yet, still not the end of the sentence, yet, They are never utterly destitute of A, that seed of God, and B, that life of faith, C, that love of Christ and the brethren, D, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which by the operation of the spirit, yeah, out of which by the operation of the spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived and by which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair." Now, that's a long sentence. And so we're going to try to work through that. Incidentally, you may remember that one of the previous times when I taught, I showed a segment by John Gerstner, or I tried to. We finally had to flip the computer around and show it on a small screen. So I was curious about what John Gerstner had to say about this paragraph. It took him four minutes. That's all he spent on this, four minutes. I've got 25 more or so anyway, so we're going to get into this a little more than four minutes. So let's look at this. The three preceding paragraphs, we're looking at paragraph four, the three that preceded teach of the state of truly saved persons as being secure in their salvation, not because of anything in or of themselves, but because of what God has done for them and in them, done for them and in them, purely of His sovereign divine grace. And here's what that includes. He has redeemed them, or us. He's redeemed us by the blood of Christ. He has forgiven our sins. He has adopted us as His sons and daughters, or children. He has seated us in the heavenlies in Christ. That's right out of Ephesians. He indwells us by His Spirit, the same Spirit by which He raised Jesus from the dead and will raise our bodies from the grave at Christ's second coming. By the same Spirit, He has transformed us into newness of life and is transforming our minds as long as we live in this present age. That's right out of Romans 12. I have not seen, nor ear heard, nor the mind conceived of what Christians will experience when we stand in His presence. However, it has been the sad experience of some, in spite of all that we just read that God has done for us, to us, in us. It has been the sad experience of some to somehow lose the present joy and or assurance of their salvation. And that's what paragraph four attempts to explain. Now the greatest illustration of this that I could think of was King David. We all know what happened to King David. Here's a man that God himself said, he's a man after my own heart. And God raised him up and made him king of Israel. And, you know, he was unique. He wrote songs and psalms and the sweet singer of Israel, he's called. And yet he fell into sin. And in the midst of that, in Psalm 51, that's his psalm of repentance. In verse 12, he asked the Lord, restore unto me not my salvation, I'm not sure he thought he lost his salvation. He said, Rejoice unto me the joy of my salvation. And so many times that's an experience that most of us might have at some point in time. That's not unique to David. Do you have 2 Peter 3 through 11? I do. Please. Peter writes here to believers. This is God's word. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's a long passage and I'm sure you're all familiar with it. If not, you need to read that on your own sometime. Read it frequently. Do you think Peter knew what he was talking about? Of course, he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, but he certainly had a lapse of faith. His was worse than losing the joy, although he did lose that. But he outright denied the Lord, not once but three times in the same night. But he was restored. And so he says in verse 10, Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, Jim just read for us all the various things that he said to do. Add this and add this and add this to this. He said if you practice these qualities, you will never fall or fail. Now he's not talking about falling from salvation. I don't understand it that way. That's not what happened to him. He certainly fell out of fellowship with the Lord and he lost the joy of his salvation. Jesus never stopped loving him. In fact, he had told him beforehand that it was going to happen. And he said, and when you are restored, encourage your brothers, strengthen your brothers. And so that's what he's doing. He's strengthening us and anybody else that reads his epistle, trying to show us and remind us how he overcame and how we must overcome the same way by practicing these qualities, studying these qualities and putting them into practice. My purpose is not to study those qualities right now, but just to say that in addressing what this paragraph is about in the Confession, Peter addresses it with these qualities. He says in verse 5 that we're to make every effort And so an honest question to ask is how much effort do we make to supplement our faith with this list of virtues? I'm guilty of falling short in that. I think we all are. If you don't have a mind to do it every day and remind yourself frequently And Peter says, if you practice these virtues, you will never fall. Again, you won't fall, and I don't think he means salvation, but from the assurance of salvation. You won't fall from your relation to the Lord in a close and loving relation. So we should not make the mistake of thinking that we can add to our salvation or secure our salvation in any way whatsoever. That has been done for us by Christ. But we can ensure, demonstrate our faith by living a virtuous, godly life as Peter is talking about. The Westminster Larger Catechism says in question 167 that we should be improving our baptism. I didn't mean question, they don't have questions and answers. I was thinking of the other document. But he says, it speaks of improving the baptism, and that's what that means. It means that we should be adding to these virtues that God has given us, encouraged us to do. Now I have a book somewhere. I've referred to this man before, Carl Walker McMurray. And on page 178, he writes this. The fact that we can attain true assurance is indicated in the fact that such attainment is set forth as a Christian duty. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure, 2 Peter 1.10. Show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end, Hebrews 6.11. The fact that assurance can be attained is indicated in scriptural examples of attainment. Paul said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. That is the day of the Lord's coming. That's 2 Timothy 1.12. Paul also said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day. And not me only, but all them who love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4, 7, and 8. Peter also wrote, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, or who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us into a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1, 3. And then one more, John wrote, Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and these things I have written unto you, that you may know that you have eternal life. We're talking about assurance. We're saying that some people either don't have it or they feel like they have lost assurance of salvation. Our assurance does not depend on us. That's the whole point that I think we're trying to make here. However, there's a flip side to this, and that's something that's called easy-believe-ism. Is that a new term to anybody? Okay, so most of you have heard that. Easy-believism is the idea that you just say this prayer after me and everything's fine. You don't have anything else to do. You don't need to read the Bible, don't need to go to church, you don't need to exert any effort in obeying the scriptures, and that's just a wrong attitude toward it. So there is effort to be made in living the Christian life, and in doing that, you're not thinking that you're assuring your salvation, but you are maintaining the assurance that what God has done for you is real in your life. Ultimately, we're dealing with confidence. That's the way I see it. Now, I don't want to embarrass my wife. Where is she? She's right there. Assurance is confidence in what God says and does and that God will do as promised. Here's an illustration. How do I know I'm married? Well, I have a wife. And my wife tells me she loves me, my wife demonstrates her love to me, and I'm confident of all the above. I missed the part up there, number one, where it says, I went through the ceremony, we exchanged the vows, I have a signed and witnessed document. You can apply all of that. I have a savior. I have a signed document. I have His Word on it. He tells me He loves me. He demonstrates His love to me and has done it ultimately at the cross. And I'm confident in all of that. I'm not confident so much in me. If I stumble and fall along the way, He still has a hold of me. And we'll get to more of those verses in just a moment. So ultimately, saving faith is taking God at His Word. You either believe God or you don't. And if you do, He gave you the belief. God cannot lie. His word is truth. And so these same four points as I just said, I used that as the illustration. John 1, 12, to all who receive Him, that is Jesus, who believe on His name and what that name means and what it stands for. To all those, He gives the right or authority, the Greek word exousion can be translated various ways, to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name. This is a verse that you ought to have memorized. It's a verse to claim. It's what God has done for you. And even He gives you the faith to believe. Acts 16.31. This is when Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail, and the earthquake came, and the jail doors all swung open, and the main guard, the prison oversight man, thought that all the prisoners had escaped. That means in Roman terminology, he was gonna lose his life, not just lose his position, but he could be put to death for escaped prisoners. So he went running to sea. He called for a light and went running to sea, and they were all there. They were still all sitting there. And Paul told him, don't do any harm to yourself. Evidently, the man had his sword out and was probably going to commit suicide rather than have the Romans do it. And Paul said, don't do that. We're all here. God used that to move that man. And it says he fell before them and said, what must I do to be saved? That's the greatest question in all the Bible. It's the greatest question in humanity. What must I do to be saved? And Paul gave the greatest answer. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And so if you've done that, What more assurance do you need? This is the spokesman for God, the called apostle Paul, whose writings are now inspired and in the text, the Bible, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Not just believing in him like you believe in Santa Claus, but believing that he really was incarnate, he really died on the cross, he really rose again, He was really witnessed by 500 or more people and then ascended to heaven with eyewitnesses. And then he inspired his apostles to obey his word and take the gospel to the then known four corners of the world. If you say, well, he didn't go, they didn't go to Japan and no, went to the world of their day. That's what he was telling them to do. And they succeeded in doing so. and then had his word inscripturated. What more could he do for me? What more could he do for any of us? And so we have his word. And so we're talking about confidence. It's just being confident of what God has done and what he says. The confession admits that one's faith can be shaken. It can be. Mine has been. Not that I ever doubted that I was a Christian, but I doubted what kind of relationship I had. diminished. You know, you come out of a revival sometimes. I don't know, maybe none of you have ever been to a revival. I was raised a Baptist. We had revivals about every six months. In fact, I attended. I was a member of a church in Decatur, and in the front of the church, there was a big sign, and it said, Revival, and it had the R-E crossed out, and it had Sir, so it's Survival every Sunday. So it was like they were having a revival every Sunday. The confession admits that one's faith can be shaken, diminished, and intermitted or suspended or interrupted by, and then it numbers these things, neglecting the means of grace. I'm not going to have anybody read this because Well, could have. We've got plenty of time. Hebrews 10, 19 to 25 talks about the means of grace. I'm going to turn to that and read that. I didn't have somebody else do it, but I can do that. Did I give that to you? Would you please grace us? It doesn't matter. Would you stand up so all four corners of the world can hear it? Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So we are assembled here for that very reason. We're assembled, of course, on the Sabbath, on the Lord's Day, to worship God. Why? He tells us to. We're supposed to do that. If we neglect it, we're going to suffer from it. Even sitting here in a class where we voluntarily come to study God's Word or study these accents to God's Word, if we neglect that, we're going to suffer from it. And so it's telling us that if we neglect prayer, if we neglect scripture reading, if we neglect Christian fellowship, if we neglect worship, we're going to suffer from it. Also, Hebrews 12, 1, and I didn't give this to anybody, says that we're to resist the easily besetting sin. I have my easily besetting sin, maybe you have your easily besetting sin, whatever it is that takes your attention away from God and takes your attention away from these means of grace. You know, if something else comes up, and I'm not talking about the occasional absence from church, I'm just saying that if you fall into not going, and I fear that One of the results of the so-called COVID lockdown, when everybody started broadcasting on the internet or on your phone or whatever, a lot of people thought, well, wow, we can just do this. We don't even have to go back. That's sad. And I hope that we overcome that. And when I say we, I don't mean just this church, but yes. During COVID, I heard somebody, it's a wise person, say that the more you miss church, the less you miss church. Kind of like prayer and Bible reading, too. Yeah, you get out of the habit and you just get busy doing other things. That's similar to what I understand, easily besetting sin. It's just something to start neglecting. And so we can fall into that. We have to be careful of it. Number three, divine testing by God's withdrawal of blessing. And this is the stronger part. And the one that came to my mind probably came to yours, too. That's Job. You know, Job went through a terrible time of testing. We have the advantage, reading the book of Job, we know what was going on. God and Satan had a discussion at the beginning of the book, and Satan challenged God, because God said, have you seen my faithful servant Job? There's none like him in all the earth. And Satan said, oh, that's because you're good to him. He said, you treble his nest and watch what happens. He'll deny you. Long story short, he never denied him after, what, 35 chapters. He never denied him. He was baffled. He was dumbfounded. But he never lost his faith. And so this is an example of divine testing by God's withdrawal of blessing and light. I had a good pastor friend. I won't mention his name, but he You know, knowing what I know now, it might have been what they call post-traumatic stress syndrome. He was a chaplain in Vietnam. And when he got out of that, he went back to seminary again. And when he finished that, he went into the ministry. But he had this dark night of the soul, as some of the old writers talk about, where you battle with I don't know, memories or whatever, and it was hard for him. He never quit believing in God or Christ. He was not pastoring during that time, as I understand it, but he recovered. He recovered and had fruitful ministries in several churches. In fact, I followed him to the church in South Carolina. He had, several years before, there were some inter-meaning pastors, but He recovered from it and had a fruitful ministry. And I preached his funeral. And we took him to, was it Charleston? Where he's buried, yeah, okay. All right, yet this chapter that we're in, Confession of Faith, 8, 4, says, yet they are never truly destitute of that seed of God. Can somebody turn to 1 John 3, 9 and read that? It's just that one verse, 1 John 3, 9. No one who is born of God practices sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Yes. Now that's an interesting statement. I don't claim to know exactly what it means, but if anybody wants to give a concept, I'll invite you to do that. I simply think it means this, that once the Holy Spirit has been placed into a believer, it doesn't leave you. I don't think the Holy Spirit indwells and doesn't indwell. Again, I think you can offend the Holy Spirit, you can grieve the Holy Spirit, And typically, you know when that's happened because your heart's not right. And I think you can recover from that and should recover from that. And so I think that might be the seed. But the scripture is also called the seed. If you have any memory of scripture at all, God will bring it back, I think, in a time when you're going through this so-called dark night of the soul. And that's what I think of the seed. Anybody else want to make a comment on that, how you understand that? want to comment on the word practice. Practice of sin, it reminds me of the practice of medicine or the practice of, in my case, dentistry, right? What does that really mean? It means something that you do over and over again, repeated, until you can kind of do it without much thought. And that's the practice of sin that we're talking about here, that repeated sin, as you do it becomes easier and easier to do. Yes, that's very true. It does. I think once you offend your own conscience to certain things, and I hate to even tell you about this because I don't know whether at this point I was even saved or not, but I was in high school. I can point to when I was 18 years old. I know I had an experience at college when I went to college. I know that. And that everything changed. But when I was nine years old, I responded emotionally to an invitation and I was baptized along with a whole bunch of other people. My life didn't change. And when I got to high school, I started hanging around with the wrong people and they used strong swearing, cursing and swearing. I started doing that too. Now, don't think bad of me because the preacher said it first. He was here two weeks ago and he said that he had a foul mouth before he became a Christian. It's common. And I just remember, I can distinctly remember the first time I said a certain thing, I'm not going to say it here, I had a twinge in me, something in me just said, you know, that's not right. But then the second time was a little easier, and the third time was easier. And then after that, I just used it all the time. But that's gone, and those days are gone, and I thank God for it. So that's not falling out of. That's, I don't think I had ever really experienced regeneration at that point. That came later. I didn't have a full understanding. And then again, the life of faith. When you think of the life of faith, it's the practice of faith. It's faith at work in you. It's you applying the principles of scripture to your life deliberately. Nothing, you know, when I say nothing is easy, it's... We're commanded to follow the Lord. We're commanded to obey the Lord. Jesus said, if you love me, obey my commandments. Then are you my disciples indeed, if you do whatsoever I command you. And sometimes it's not easy. And so we just have to keep after it, even though we have times that we fail, confess it, keep going. And that love of Christ in the middle of this sentence, that love of Christ and the brethren, I don't think we ever stop loving brothers and sisters in the Lord. that sincerity of heart, conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived." I hope it is revived, if you ever get to that point where it's diminished, and just keep at it, seek counsel, seek prayer, and don't neglect these avenues of grace that God has given us, Yeah, the means of grace. I'm trying to come to the end of the sentence, and by which, in the meantime, they are kept, it says preserved, I think, kept from utter despair. Utter despair has no place in a Christian's life. If you get to that point, you probably waited too late. You need to seek help before you get to that. Now, how do we know all this? Well, Matthew 28, 20, Jesus says, I am with you always to the end of the age. And the end of the age means the end of this present world as we know it or my life in it. He's with me. He will never leave me. He will never forsake me or you or any other believer. And I'm confident of that. He certainly had plenty of opportunity, but he didn't. How do we know that believers, myself or yourself, are supported throughout life from utter despair? This is how. These are verses. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them everlasting life, and they will never perish. and no one will snatch them out of my hand." That's a wonderful thing. You're in the hand of the Lord and no one will snatch you. But it gets better. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of His hand, out of the Father's hand. So now you're doubly secure. The hand of Christ, the hand of the Father. I and the Father are one. John 10, 27 to 30. I remember when I was in college, we had a group that went from Greenville up to Spartanburg, had a little bus that took us up there on Friday nights to hand out gospel tracts. And I got into a discussion on the street there one day, one night, and I forget exactly how this was set up, but I said that Jesus was God. He was God incarnate, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He was part of the Godhead. He was God. And this guy said, show me that in the Bible. I couldn't show him. I couldn't show him. I felt defeated. I felt embarrassed. I felt bad. So I went back to the dorm that night, and I determined the next day, if it was in the Bible, I was gonna find it. And I did. John 10, 30. I've never forgotten it since then. I and the Father are one. And so, I don't know where that guy is. I hope he found it too, but I know it's in there. So we learn. You learn by experience. If I hadn't had that experience, I may not have ever learned that verse. And then Psalm 23. the whole psalm, but especially this. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me. We won't get into the rod and the staff, but we know that the shepherd used those instruments to keep sheep on the path and to correct them when they needed it. And so that's similar to what our great shepherd does for us. The valley of the shadow of death is about as close to utter despair as one can come. I don't know what your image of that is. If you look it up in a commentary or an encyclopedia, Bible encyclopedia, it will give you this long discussion about the Hebrew wordage and so forth. But technically, it can be translated the dark valley, the shadow, the shadowy place. It's a dark place. David was a shepherd. Sheep do not do well in dark valleys, but they listen to their trusted shepherd's voice and follow him even through a dark place. They would never go through there on their own. So beloved, keep listening to his voice and keep following him. That's the solution. Now here's the summary. Here's the summary. In the last month or so, we have looked at what the Westminster Confession of Faith says about perseverance, preservation, and assurance. In doing so, we have looked at a number of Bible texts several times because these texts deal with these issues that we're talking about. These terms are related. The starting point and the ending point are the same. The absolute sovereignty of God. Salvation is of the Lord from start to finish. That is not to say that we don't have a part in our salvation. Not that we have any part of the saving, but of the receiving and believing. But even that is a gift. Scripture clearly says, as many as receive Him, to them He gives the power. There's that exousian word again. It can mean authority, ability to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name. John 1.12 says, these things and This is John's purpose for writing. These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. That's not 112, that's John 20, 31, excuse me. The first verse I read was 112. And then the third verse, by grace you are saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. These verses summarize Christian existence, what God has done for us, what God is doing in us, what God is going to do. The best is yet to come. But if we believe this, if we're committed to this because we know that God is committed to us, how could He not be committed to us? He sent his son into the world. This Jesus who was incarnate had no sin whatsoever. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. And yet Jesus died on a cross. Why? Because he took your sin upon him. That's called vicarious atonement. Vicarious means in the place of. He took your place at the judgment bar of God and the wrath of God was directed at Christ. And as our substitute, he died an atoning death. Then he rose victorious to prove that he had the power over death. Then he ascended to heaven, where he is enthroned at the right hand of God. And what's he doing there? He's interceding for us. He's our high priest. He's our mediator. And he's interceding for us. Just keep thinking about these things. Keep reading these things. And I don't think that we will fall from close fellowship with the Lord. I don't think we'll fall into this dark day of the soul or whatever. So any questions or comments? The next unit that we're going to study is going to be on Christian hymns. And we're going to be looking at theology again because that's what they're full of. You know the difference between a hymn and a Christian song? A hymn is about him. Christian songs are about us. You look through a hymnal and see, you know, I'm so happy and here's the reason why Jesus took my sins all away. That's a song, that's not a hymn. And there's lots of them. Any questions? If not, let's have prayer. Father, we're so thankful that we can be confident in what you've done for us. You've pledged yourself to us, and you've given us the faith to believe it. You've called us unto yourself. And we thank you for the Lord Jesus, that He is active in our lives and in our redemption. He's accomplished redemption and now He is our mediator in heaven itself. And the scriptures tells us in the New Testament that we are seated in the heavenly places in Him. Our place is already there. It's reserved for us. And we can have confidence in that. Jesus said I will never leave you. I will never forsake you Lord. Thank you for that Thank you for the assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ Pray that you would help us to grow stronger in our faith the longer we live and that we would be faithful To serve you as you have called us to do in whatever capacity Pray that as we just met dismiss now and go into the worship service that you would be glorified and we would be blessed I pray this in Jesus name. Amen Thank you one and all