The sermon titled 'Assurance of Salvation' by Scott Brown explores the topic of assurance of salvation within the context of the unity of the body of Christ. Brown addresses the false hopes that can deceive individuals and emphasizes the importance of belief, sincere love, and a clear conscience as signs of true assurance. The sermon highlights the fact that assurance is possible and should be the normal experience of believers, although struggles with assurance can occur. Brown also references the Baptist Confession of 1689 and its relevance to the topic of assurance. Overall, the sermon aims to provide comfort and encouragement to believers while also challenging those who may falsely believe they are in the faith.

Please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew and find Chapter 13. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Matthew 13 will begin in verse one. Matthew 13, one. On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea and great multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore and he spoke many things in parables saying behold a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured them some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth.

And they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them but others fell on good ground and yielded a crop some a hundredfold some sixty some thirty He who has an ear let him hear let's pray father. We thank you for speaking truth to us wonderful words of life steadying things enlightening things helpful Saving things for us Lord.

I pray that you would use these things for your own purposes today by your Holy Spirit please Oh Lord pour out your spirit upon this congregation equip the Saints for the work of the ministry amen please be seated so we're studying the doctrine of assurance of salvation we're continuing this series on the church as the body of Christ and all of this really comes under the heading of Ephesians 4, 4 where the church is united with Jesus Christ in Ephesians 4, 4 there is one body there is one Spirit There is one hope of one calling one Lord one faith one Baptism one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all six times the Word of God uses this word one and he's speaking about the unity of the body of Christ. It's not a demographic unity, it's not a it's not a unity of opinion about politics or economics necessarily, It's not social, it's not economic unity, it's not unity based on friendship and liking all the same things. It's not that kind of unity. It's the kind of unity that Jesus Christ alone establishes. And of course this unity is not unity with all mankind it's not inclusive it's it's exclusive there are only two kinds of people that are alive in the world and there are those who are in the body of Christ and those who are not in the body of Christ and of course that makes it very clear all paths do not lead to God and so we're in this study of the the Church of Jesus Christ and I want to continue to speak of this matter of regenerate church membership, and really to encourage all of us to do what Peter said in 2nd Peter 1 10, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

So we're here to ask everyone to do their due diligence there. You know a few weeks back I began to speak of assurance of salvation under this heading addressing this matter of what it means to be part of the body. And I was addressing a certain kind of person, particularly in the church, in our church, really coming from many conversations I've had, particularly with young people, they know the facts of the Bible, they can give you the gospel, they say they want to follow the Lord, they say that they believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, They say that his kingdom is the best kingdom, his ways are the best ways, but they're not sure if they are believers. And so they struggle with assurance. And so I, you know, was addressing this kind of person that I know exists and that has really surfaced in my own pastoral care.

And so I asked several questions who are thinking this way. And the first question was, are you waiting for a dramatic moment? Have you believed in salvation by electrification? Or are you waiting for some massive change in your life? Or are you waiting to be holy enough to have your assurance of salvation?

Or are you waiting for a deep enough faith to prove your salvation? And how deep does your faith need to be for that? Or are you waiting to be passionate enough to be saved or are you waiting to have some level of righteousness before you can be saved or are you Thinking too highly of your sin that somehow your sin is beyond the precious sacrifice of Jesus Christ or are you trying to pinpoint him an exact moment of your salvation and Are you using the right tests of faith because there are? Emotional tests of faith and there are objective tests of faith and are you taking too lightly the promises of God that he who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved or Are Is your desire for God an indication of your regeneration? Even that you're asking the question, does it indicate that God has already changed your heart?

Do you just fear being a fake? Do you, is there something that you're keeping that's keeping you from Christ? And then the last question I asked was, do you think it's pleasing to God to delay? And so I asked these questions that way, that particular way, because I wanted to make it plain. Salvation is not on the basis of your feelings.

It's not on the basis of your passion. It's not on the basis of your righteousness. It's not on the basis of the depth of your repentance. It's not on the basis of your depth of faith. No one has a deep enough faith, no one has righteousness that can save, no one repents deeply as deeply as their sin goes.

And so That's why I ask those questions. It, you know, trusting in your works for your salvation can sneak in and deceive you. So I was concerned about that. Now, I was also, you know, you know we had an elder deacon retreat couple weeks ago and I was encouraged at that retreat to spend some more time on the matter of assurance in this church and so I've determined to spend a few weeks on this subject and to do a deeper dive I was encouraged to do a little bit deeper dive into it and to further explain some of the various sides of the doctrine of assurance. And of course the question is, you know, how can I be sure if I'm saved?

And it occurred to me that there's a chapter in our church's confession, the Baptist Confession of 1689. It's chapter 18, and it addresses this question with some level of detail. And I have it printed on your outline on the back is are all the four Paragraphs in that chapter just so you can see where I'm going because I'm going to walk through these paragraphs over the coming coming times that I'll be preaching and there are there are four main explanations in this chapter. And so the first is, in the first paragraph, how people deceive themselves and how they are rightly assured. That's why we're going to focus today.

And then in the second paragraph, what is infallible assurance? And we'll walk through that in the next time that we come back. And then how assurance can be shaken, or actually third, how can assurance be secured, and then how can assurance be shaken finally. And It's occurring to me going through this this this doctrine Really speaks to one of the big movements That's affecting the church today People are calling the deconstruction movement where where people were once known to be Christians. They renounced their faith and they proudly proclaimed their freedom, their greatest happiness they've ever known, turning away from Jesus, a new freedom from God.

And so this section, I believe, really addresses this whole matter. And frankly, the whole subject brings us to one of the most important things that, well, at least pastors must do in the church and also believers ought to do with one another in the church. And the first is to comfort those who are in Zion. I hope that these sessions will be a great comfort to you, to your soul, that you who are in the faith, you'll sigh a great sigh of relief of the grace of God that's fallen upon your soul. But at the same time, you know, I also have a responsibility to disturb those who either think they are in the faith, who really aren't, or to speak to those who are just unregenerate and they're hardened in their lack of regeneration.

It's a very important subject. John MacArthur calls the assurance of salvation the birthright and privilege of every believer in Christ. And so this section in the 1689 is very helpful. There's also another reality that I think we're all aware of because we've talked about it before. Assurance is not only possible, but it should be the normal experience of the believer.

However, and I want to say that with a capital however, we know for certain that believers, real believers, people who desire to walk with the Lord, who are walking with the Lord, they may suffer short periods or even long periods, maybe even years of struggling with their assurance of salvation. I just want to acknowledge that, that it's not uncommon for a true believer to struggle with their assurance. And you know, the Lord is gracious. He sends his Holy Spirit to help. And I pray these sessions will help here.

And so in this first paragraph, The focus is how people deceive themselves and also at the same time, how are they rightly assured. And so this first paragraph profiles two different kinds of people and the characteristics of those who have false assurance and those which truly believe. That's embedded in this very first paragraph. And those who have false assurance are described in these words. You have them before you there on your outlines.

Although temporary believers, that's an interesting statement, isn't it? A temporary believer, what in the world is that? Temporary believers and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of Being in favor of God and state of salvation Which hope of theirs shall perish that's terrifying, but then There's a turnaround Those who have assurance are described this way in the same paragraph, yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed. So we're just gonna zero in on this first paragraph. The second clause in the paragraph leads us to the next, which we'll handle in more detail.

But this first section speaks about those people who have a false sense of assurance. And it's a very serious matter. You see these two terms, temporary believers and unregenerate men, other unregenerate men. And this is a category of people that find themselves among the people of God who claim to believe in Christ but they have false assurance. And the unregenerate and the temporary believer are described in different places in the Bible.

Let me take you to Matthew 13. We started with that. I hope you're close to Matthew 13. Go to Matthew 13. This is the parable of the soils, or the parable of the sower.

And you have in this parable, you have four different kinds of listeners. And Of course the subject of this is the kingdom of God. What does the kingdom of heaven look like and Who are the who are the subjects in the kingdom and what is the character of the king? What is the status of? The characters in the kingdom and here you have these these temporary believers you've probably heard of this latest coolest movement among former Christians the deconstruction movement the This is the temporary believer right here.

Today, deconstructing your faith has become all the rage and popular people are saying, I'm no longer in the faith. And by the way, this kind of deconstruction is not new. The Baptist Confession of 1689 was actually written in 1689. And so this is not a new problem. Deconstruction is an old thing, not a new thing.

It's as old as the hills. People have entered the vestiges of the church and they've abandoned it. And that, you should expect that to happen. It's been happening from the very, very beginning. It shouldn't shake your faith.

But in verse, in verse 18, you have the interpretation of the, of the parable, verse 18. He first speaks about the unregenerate. Therefore hear the parable of Sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside.

Now this is a person who They just can't relate with the Word of God. It just hits them cold. It's always cold. It's nothing to them. This is the unregenerate person.

This is the person who knows that he's hard-hearted. This is the person who does not care about God's authority. He's not interested in God. He's not interested in Satan. He thinks that the Word of God is just maybe possibly interesting, but he has no sense of wonder, no sense of joy in the Word of God.

He's actually self-satisfied. He's self-sufficient, and he just can't relate to it. He just doesn't understand it. So that's the unregenerate person that's, I believe, spoken of in this, this paragraph. And then, And then you have the temporary believer in verse 20.

I'm just going to call this the deconstructor. He who received the seed on the stony places, This is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while for when temptation and persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. So this is the person who has immediate reception, they have manifestations of the faith, they have they have joy, It's a sense of well-being. This word that Jesus uses is the word, karah. It's a sense of well-being, of that feeling that you get when you've come across something so good.

And these people feel that thing. But it's not the same kind of joy that you find in another parable where a person finds treasure in the field and for joy he sells everything for it. That's not this kind of joy. This is a fleeting joy for some period of time. And why?

Verse 21. He has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. There's no rootedness in it. There was a temporary infatuation. Could last for some time, could last for years, but it was temporary and it was more on the basis of some kind of infatuation.

Not a real drawing on God through the roots, but because the roots are temporary. And there are two disturbances that enter this person's life that cause them to deconstruct and really to expose their bankruptcy. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. It suddenly just becomes not all that cool. It's not all that helpful anymore.

And tribulation or persecution, many people in the world think very poorly of the Word of God, people who speak the Word of God, and it's very unpopular. So you become unpopular with the people you want to become popular with. So you become popular with the people you've always wanted to be popular with, and you leave the faith. There's another kind of deconstructor, the temporary Christian, in the thorny soil, verse 22. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word and he becomes unfruitful.

So this is the person who attaches himself to Christianity, but he's still very attached to sensuality and materialism, the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world, worldly pleasures, very attached there, wanting to continue those attachments. And his garden is overgrown with weeds. And you know, the truth is, you know, gardens have weeds that need to be uprooted. But this person doesn't have any interest in uprooting the weeds. He likes the weeds and so they keep growing.

And you find this, there's the cares of the world and they choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. And you know, all this is nothing new. People identifying themselves with Christianity and then bailing on it is not new. I was I was reading of a pastor in the latter half of the 19th century, DeWitt Talmage, and he talks about, in his day, this was called, these people were called infidels. Today we call them deconstructionists.

They were called infidels then. He says this in a sermon, I know infidelity makes a good deal of talk in our day. One infidel can make a great excitement, but I will tell you on what principle it is. It's on the principle that if a man jumps overboard from an ocean liner, he makes more excitement than all the 500 who stay on the deck. But the fact that he jumps overboard doesn't stop the ship.

Does that wreck The 500 passengers? Of course, no. It makes great excitement when a man jumps from the lecturing platform or from the pulpit into infidelity. But does that keep the Bible or the church from carrying millions of passengers to the shores of safety? No.

No, it does not. It never has and it never will because no one can snatch God's people from his hand. He goes on and he characterizes their new religion. He says, You know, they reject the Apostles' Creed, but they have a new Creed. Into nothing and arose from nothing and ascended to nothing and now siteth at the right hand of nothing from which it will come to judge nothing I believe in the holy agnostic church in the communion of nothingness and in the forgiveness of nothing and the resurrection of nothing and in the life that shall never be amen so deconstruction is not new you know it's as old as the hills now one of the clearest explanations of this is in Matthew 13 of this matter in the confession.

It says here that they may vainly deceive themselves. These are the unregenerate or perhaps the temporary believers. They believe they are believers, but they're only deceiving themselves. Many of them preach. Many of them take the Lord's Supper week after week, many of them read their Bibles and even pray, but they have no root in themselves.

They may quote scripture, But they're deceiving themselves, the Lord says. They might not even be completely aware of it, but they are deceiving themselves. That's the most terrifying part of this. Maybe they place their hope in their works. They're good people, many of them.

This kind of person is explained in Matthew 7, 21. Open your Bibles to Matthew 7. Matthew 7, 21, The Lord Jesus speaking to his disciples, speaking the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 721, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." Now these are people who were very respectful. They say, Lord, Lord. They are orthodox. They're acknowledging the Lordship of Christ.

They are rooting out evil, they're casting out demons, they're doing amazing things. These people are doing amazing, very gifted people. They're very passionate, they're doing many wonders. People see what they do and they say, that's amazing. And, but the truth is not, not everyone's name is found written in the book of life.

And that's what Jesus is speaking of here. Luke 17 gives another example of those who may vainly deceive themselves. Luke 17, 10 through 14. This is that remarkable story of the two men that went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and one was a tax collector.

And the Pharisee was very proud, The tax collector was very humble. And the difference was one was a member of the kingdom of God and the other was not. And the confession uses this language. They have carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and the state of salvation. And there are dozens of pictures of this in the Bible.

Another example of those who have false hopes are the Pharisees who wanted a baptism without repentance. John the Baptist in Matthew 3, when he saw that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming to his baptism, he said to them, Brutal vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath that come? Therefore, bring Bear fruits worthy of repentance, and don't say we have Abraham as our father. There are people who embrace Christianity, but it's a Christianity without love. It's a salvation without love, 1 John 3, 14.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. In Jeremiah 17, we're told that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? In 1 John 2, 3, he speaks of mingling Christianity with lawlessness, not caring anything about the law of God, and acting as if you can mingle Christianity with lawlessness. He says, now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.

So those with false assurance are described this way, temporary believers and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and the state of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish." So then, in the second stanza of this first paragraph is a picture of those who do love the Lord. And I'd like us to look at this language. Yet as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life certainly be assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed. So here you have a counterpoint. And there are three signs that God gives which help a person be assured.

And the first is belief. Yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus. They believe. To believe is to rest your weight on. To believe is to embrace.

You know, Jesus said in John, as many as received him, he gave them the power to become the children of God. To believe is like receiving. You receive his ways. You want His ways. That's what belief is.

Anybody who has received His ways, who wants His ways, who loves His ways, always falls short of His ways. And so falling short of his ways doesn't make you an unbeliever It has to do with believing this is something that you can say of the clear conscience Lord, I do believe you know that man. He said Lord. I believe help my unbelief Hebrews 6 19 uses this kind of language. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which enters the presence behind the veil.

This is, this belief is an anchor of the soul and it's sure and steadfast. But let me make a distinction. I heard somebody recently talk about the falsity of salvation by syllogism and he described salvation by syllogism as this Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. If you believe, you are saved. If you believe, you are saved.

And he said that cannot stand alone because there are other tests of salvation that have to be considered. But one should not just say because I have an intellectual belief I'm saved. Intellectual embracing is not the kind of belief that the Bible talks about. It's not just an intellectual process. It's something that your whole heart, you really believe it, you rest your weight upon it.

It's that kind of belief. And I think that's why, I believe it was John MacArthur who was talking about salvation by syllogism. It's not the whole picture. Romans 5 2 says, Through whom we also have access by faith, and that word is belief, into his this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And of course, that is what we see in the good soil in verse 23 in Matthew 13.

Let's go back to that. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. There are different manifestations of fruit bearing. Some bear tremendous fruit, some bear less fruit. That's why I wanted to ask that question, how much faith do you have to have?

The Bible says that God gives measures of faith to different people. That's a normal condition in the church. Some have greater faith, some have lesser faith. It is God who has done that. But we don't say that those who have lesser faith are not part of the body of Christ.

They're not part of the body of Christ. They've been given lesser faith. Now no one should be just satisfied with, I'm just gonna stay with my lesser faith. That's not a Christian attitude. The true Christian wants more faith.

The true Christians are like the disciples who said, Lord, increase our faith. That's what true disciples say. They don't say, hey, I just got a little faith, it's no big deal. That's not Christianity. So this is the good soil that bears fruit.

And then The confession says, and love him in sincerity. And love him in sincerity. That's the second manifestation, it's sincere love. If you can say, yes, I do love the Lord, but I wanna love him more. If you say, I love him because he first loved me, that's what the Bible says, we love him because he first loved us.

How do you know what you love? You know what you love by what you enjoy. You know what you love by what you hunger for. You know what you love by what you enjoy. You know what you love by what you hunger for.

You know what you love by what you want to do with your time, with your life. That's how you know what you really love. Somebody said, you know, if you want to know if you love God, you got to pull out your checkbook and you can find out what you really love. But who love him in sincerity? And then the third is they have a clear conscience endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him.

And then the effects of these are itemized and there are three effects here assurance hope and rejoicing so the confession says that in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed. The word of God does make it clear that you can have assurance. You know, There are often so many things that get in the way of our assurance though, and it's helpful to understand what they might be. There may be temporary believers, there may be the unregenerate, but who are you? The Lord calls his people to himself.

And the question is, are you attracted to the Lord and his ways? Are you moving toward him? Do you love him? Do you want him? That should assure your heart.

I haven't had great struggles with assurance in my life, but I have had a couple of times when I really was asking, Lord, am I really, do I really love you? And I always come back to the same thing. I really do believe that God created all that there is. I really do believe that there is good and there is evil. And I really do believe that Jesus Christ is the perfect man.

And I really do believe with all my heart that His ways are pleasant ways and all his paths are peace. I really do believe that and I really do believe that Jesus Christ has satisfied my righteousness with his. I really believe that. That's really my only hope. Because I could never be saved by my righteousness.

I could never be saved by my passion. I could never be saved by my goodness. I could never be saved by anything that is good except that is in Jesus Christ. So that's why I think I'm a believer, because I believe all those things. In Acts 16, 31, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved John 3 16 whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him should be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned. Romans 3 28 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. John 1 12 as many as received him to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 1 John 5 12, And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, and He who has the Son has life.

He who does not have the Son does not have life. I pray that all of us could say with a clear conscience like Job did, I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin and worms destroy this body, yet my flesh and I shall see God." Is that what you think? I pray that it is. Paul had confidence and he wasn't ashamed to tell Timothy about his confidence.

I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him. So here's my great desire and prayer. It comes right out of Romans 15-13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for your word that directs us to understand our own hearts and all of the hearts in the world as they stand before you. I pray oh Lord that you would move us all who believe that we believe to satisfaction and joy, and I also pray that you would move the unregenerate and the temporary believer to really believe that you would unify this body in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone that you would you would unify us as One under one Lord one faith one baptism one God and father of all Lord unify this church in Jesus Christ. Amen.