In the sermon 'Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation' by Mike Davenport, the concept of assurance in the Christian faith is explored, particularly in the context of the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession. Assurance is defined as a firm confidence in one's salvation and relationship with Christ, though not all believers experience it to the same degree. The sermon warns against false assurance that can arise from self-deception or temporary belief without true regeneration. It emphasizes that genuine assurance is founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, and the evidences of grace in a believer's life. True assurance leads to a deeper peace, joy, and a life of holiness and obedience. The sermon acknowledges that believers may go through periods where assurance is shaken due to negligence, sin, or severe trials, but encourages believers to diligently pursue assurance through the means of grace, maintaining a focus on Christ rather than self. Ultimately, assurance is not essential to faith itself but enriches the believer's experience and spiritual growth.

Well, tonight we come in our confession to the chapter on assurance, assurance of grace and of salvation. And as we begin, it's probably a wise thing to define what assurance is. Well, the definition from the 1828 edition of Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language defines it in several different ways, but two of which really apply to what we're dealing with tonight. And that's one of the nice things about that 1828 edition is that it really does apply it to biblical things. And it's a wonderful edition if you're not familiar with it.

So one of the definitions that Webster gave in that 1828 edition was a firm persuasion or full confidence or trust or freedom from doubt, a certain expectation, and the utmost certainty. And then taking that and giving a definition for theology, it's a full confidence of one's interest in Christ and of final salvation. Is that not something that we all long to experience. True salvation, knowing that we have an interest in Jesus Christ and that we will receive final salvation. Yet, who among us has known this assurance in its fullness or experienced this assurance in an uninterrupted manner?

It seems that some dear saints even struggle more than others in terms of finding this assurance. So we we come tonight to this important topic, the assurance of salvation. So we'll jump in right in the first paragraph. Although temporary believers and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and state of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish. 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 before jumping in to dealing with true assurance, the writers of our confession use the opening of this very first paragraph in order to address the real possibility of false assurance, both false hopes as well as carnal presumption in regards to both the favor of God and the state of one's own salvation.

The hearts of all men long for a state of peace and a sense of settledness. It may not be in the ways of religion, in the ways of Christ, but all men seek peace and some level of steadfastness and steadiness. And thus it is that people who come under the sound of the gospel and become what is here termed temporary believers because of a desire to know that peace and subtleness that all men want to know were told they may vainly deceive themselves. Christ spoke of such false Hope in his sermon on the mountain Matthew 7 verses 22 and 23 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 you see these are deceived people who presumed upon the favor of God and were yet declared by him as unregenerate.

Now, what do they mean by temporary believers? I mean, after all, the previous chapter we just dealt with was on the perseverance of the saints Have they forgotten what they wrote in the previous chapter that all the saints will persevere? To the end and will be preserved to the end? No. So how could there be temporary believers if there is such a doctrine as the perseverance of the saints?

And there is. Well, These are not true saints. These are not true saints. Nor were they ever saints. In the parable of the sower, the sower went out to sow.

And do you remember as he sowed the seed of the gospel, it fell on different types of soil? Well, two of those particular grounds, two of those types of soil received that word, responded to that word, and produced growth on some measure. But then it stopped. You see, 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 Some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and we're to we're to understand sprang up alongside the springing up from this gospel seed thorns sprang up as well and choked them so that the life died out. So these are temporary believers and unregenerate men may seek to latch on to some assurance of knowing this God whoever he may be even though they may not know of him in evangelical terms may not have come under the sound of the gospel and know what a belief is supposed to look like.

But please note what happens to such false hopes in carnal presumption. It says, which hope of theirs shall perish. It's a hope that perishes because it's not true. It's false hope. But there is good ground that receives the seed of the gospel as mentioned by Christ.

And they are described in this paragraph in the following way, such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him. You see, there is a true believing. There is a flowing from that belief, a sincere love, and then flowing from that sincere love there is an honest endeavor to walk in holiness and for such a man for such a woman there is an absence of vain deceit. There is an absence of false hopes, an absence of carnal presumptions. There is a truth.

There is a sincerity, there is an endeavoring, and that's what we see in the heart of a true believer. Does that describe you? Does that describe you? Is there a truth? Is there a sincerity?

Is there an endeavoring? In the true believer this will be seen. Some thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundred. But there will be this. So what of these saints?

What of these true believers? What might they be enabled to experience? Well, they 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." Now note the use of the word may. They may in this life be certainly assured. They did not use the word will or shall, although some of us would have preferred that.

They may. But though they use the word may we we must not lose sight of the blessing held forth because of a disappointment in our heart in the fact that it is not just poured out upon all. I mean we love just God just to pour us all out as assurance without measure but they may. So we shouldn't lose sight of this glorious hope that we may have this. So on the contrary it actually should be encouraging to us and not discouraging you may hear and now this very night in this life of uncertainty be certainly assured certainly confident of the true state of your heart that you are in a state of grace you may hear and now in this life rejoice in the hope of the glory of God well that leaves us asking two questions first of all what sets this hope apart from all other hope in this life, such that this hope, as they say in the end, shall never make them ashamed, that is, disappointed?

This hope is something different than all other hopes in life because other hopes in life often leave us ashamed they leave us disappointed so what makes it different what sets it apart secondly if we may in this life have such certainty of assurance and rejoicing, how do you? How do I go about obtaining such certainty? If it may be attained, How do we go about getting it? Well, the writers of the confession are glad you asked paragraph 2 This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the gospel and Also upon the inward evidence of those graces of the Spirit unto which graces promises are made and on the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God and as a fruit thereof of all of these workings keeping the heart both humble and holy So what sets this hope apart from all other hopes in this life this reality does This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith.

We all have expressed a level of hope in regards to specific things in this world. We all have. Things such as health, things such as comfortability if not prosperity, some of us of marriage, of fruitfulness of the womb, of children, our children to love and serve Christ and so many other things. And these are not wrong hopes if kept in the right context And if these hopes reflect a willingness to bend to the sovereign will of God, If they are such hopes, they're good. But these are all fallible hopes.

They don't always come to fruition. And if they do, not in the way that we had hoped for, We might not ever see what we hope for and there's certainly no promise or guarantee of these things But the Hope that we are looking at here is an infallible Assurance an assurance that will not leave us disappointed Well if this is this certainty if this assurance of grace and salvation is to be an infallible assurance, an infallible confidence, it must be founded on three things. And they tell us, and we talked about we sang that earlier, right? Upon the blood and righteousness of Christ Revealed in the gospel. That's the first thing it must be founded upon The blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ has declared in the gospel secondly upon the inward evidence The of the spirit in regards to his graces upon the inward evidence of the Spirit in regards to the graces that he works in us along with that faith.

And then thirdly, upon the testimony of the Spirit That we are the adopted children of the father The spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Now do you note the focus of this well-founded Infallible assurance Do you see the focus? Please don't miss this Genuine assurance will look upward more than it will look inward okay you want assurance stop looking at yourself at least alone the Puritans used to say for every look itself look ten times to Christ because genuine assurance will never come never by looking only inward it must look upward Could this be the reason that you, my dear brother and sister, struggle with true assurance? Could it be? Because of a prolonging look. We need to look, right?

We just said there are evidences of the Spirit in the works of grace in our heart. But we can't stop with a look within. We didn't stop with ourselves when it came to our faith and salvation We had to look outside of ourselves if we had to look outside of ourselves for faith and salvation Why are we going to look back in again for assurance of that faith and salvation? We didn't look there to begin with well we did we didn't find anything worthwhile which is why we fled to Christ to begin with so don't look inward Thomas Brooks the great Puritan said the following it is natural to the soul it's just natural to the soul to rest upon everything below Christ to rest upon creatures to rest upon graces to rest upon duties to rest upon divine manifestations, to rest upon celestial consolations, to rest upon gracious evidences, and to rest upon sweet assurances. How can assurance even rest upon sweet assurances?

Now the Lord, to cure his people of this weakness and to bring them to live holy and solely upon Jesus Christ, and solely upon Jesus Christ, the Lord denies comfort and denies assurance in other things and for a time leaves his Children of light to walk in darkness. We'll see that more later Christians this you are always to remember that though the enjoyment of Assurance make the most for your consolation yet the living purely upon Christ in the absence of assurance makes most for Christ's exaltation. He is happy that believes upon seeing, upon feeling, but thrice happy are the souls that believe when they do not see that love when they do not know that they are Beloved and that in the want or lack of all comfort and assurance can live upon Christ as their only all He that hath learned this holy art Cannot be miserable He that is ignorant of this art cannot be happy." So what the believer so often looks to for the grounds of his assurance. The writers of the confession actually describe as the fruit of that assurance that looks to Christ alone. You see, we always want to look to ourselves and see what it is about ourselves that that can give us assurance And they say no, that's not the grounds.

The grounds is to be found in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in you What you are looking that's not the grounds. It's the fruit and there are fruits that come out of this Well grounded assurance in Christ and the work of the Spirit in our hearts Well, what is this fruit? Well, they tell us And as a fruit thereof from these things, as a fruit thereof, keeping the heart both humble and holy. This is one of the sweet fruits of assurance. In fact, a heart set on Christ cannot be anything else but truly humble and truly holy.

Such will be the pursuit of that heart to find that humility and that holiness before such a Christ. Because we see that this assurance is based on another, it works a deep humility in our heart because of this sense of dependence upon him and because this assurance is evidenced in the graces of the Spirit as well as his testimony to our hearts we will pursue holiness so as not to grieve that Holy Spirit who wishes to whisper those sweet consolations of adoption. We don't want to grieve that one and so it puts us on a path of holiness so that we constantly hear from him, you are a son of God, you are a daughter of the most high God. So this is a wonderful fruit of keeping our hearts in a humble and holy state. And we come to paragraph 3, paragraph 3.

This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith. Okay, it does belong to the essence of faith. Notice the word so. This infallible assurance doth 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. Yet, in spite of that, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may without extraordinary revelation in the right use of means attain thereunto.

And therefore, because of this, it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure 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 fruit of this assurance So far is it from inclining men to looseness. So we are taught here that it is possible to have true faith and yet not to have assurance. Although assurance flows from faith, it grows out of the roots of faith. Faith does not have to experience true assurance in order to be considered genuine faith. Faith doesn't have to experience that true assurance before we can move it over into the category of genuine faith.

Faith can be had even where there is a lack of assurance of that faith and that interest in Christ. The writers here say that a true believer may wait a long time for assurance And they may go through many difficulties before they ever partake in that grace. Sometimes there's time, sometimes there's just difficulties that make a firm grasp of assurance difficult. Now they note in here that this one is a true believer. Okay, this isn't a false hope, this isn't a chasing of carnal presumption, it's a true believer.

This season of waiting may also come and go. It may be something the believer enjoys today. Maybe you're sitting here tonight and your heart was singing those songs earlier, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Monday morning comes in a few hours. That robust assurance may not be there tomorrow.

So we go through seasons. It's not just something that doesn't come in the beginning and you have to wait for in the beginning and then you got it you never lose it. It's something that wavers through people's lives. Through people's lives. Note the following insights of two spiritual giants.

First Thomas Brooks. Assurance is not of the essence of a Christian. Assurance is required for the comfortable and joyful being of a Christian, but this assurance is not required for the being of a Christian. A man may be a true believer and yet would give all the world were it in his power to know that he is a believer to have all grace and to be sure that we have grace is glory upon the throne it is it is heaven on this side of heaven Then William Gurnall wrote the following, if faith were assurance then a man's sins would be pardoned before he believes, for he must necessarily be pardoned before he can know he is pardoned. The candle must be lighted before I can see it is lighted.

The child must be born before I can be assured it is born. The object must be before the act. Assurance is rather the fruit of faith than faith itself. It is in faith as the flower is in the root. Faith in time after much communion with God, acquaintance with the Word, and experience of his dealings with the soul may flourish into assurance.

But as the root truly lives before the flower appears and the root continues when that flower hath shed its beautiful leaves and is gone again, so doth true justifying faith live before assurance and after it disappears. It doesn't change the state of that soul. It doesn't say anything of that faith in that one. It's simply a lack of being able to grasp to see and to feel the presence of Christ but but note the difference here between reality and expectation Okay, they give us a big distinction here between reality and expectation What should be is not what often is The little word yet introduces this difference. Yet being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may without extraordinary revelation in the right use of means attain thereunto.

The reality? The true believer may wait a long time for assurance. The expectation, because the true believer has at his disposal the indwelling Spirit and the promise of God in the Scriptures, he may know and he may experience true, genuine infallible assurance. That's the expectation. God's given what we need to have that assurance, but there's the reality.

Often that assurance, it feels like we can't grasp it. It feels like it's out of reach. And sometimes we wait a long time for it. Because this is the expectation of every true believer that he may know and should have this certainty, the writers speak of this pursuit of a fully functioning assurance as the duty, it's the duty of each and every believer. The believer is to give all diligence, all diligence to make his calling and election sure Paul sets this duty Before the Philippian believers in Philippians 2 12 therefore my beloved as you have obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

You see it's an imperative, it's a command. Work out your own salvation. The writer of Hebrews encouraged his readers to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith and to hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. This assurance is something every Christian should not only desire but we should pursue. We should pursue.

It's our duty. Listen to what John Owen has to say about the importance of assurance It is the duty of every believer to labor after an assurance of a personal interest in forgiveness and to be diligent in the cherishing and preservation of it when it is attained. It is no small evil in believers not to be pressing after perfection in believing in obedience. Some conclude that there are very few believers who have any assurance because they have not this confidence or are more free to mention the opposition they meet with than the support they enjoy and thus it has rendered a matter not greatly to be desired because it is so rarely to be obtained. Most of the saints serving God and going to heaven well enough without it, but the matter is otherwise.

The importance of it, not only as it is our life of comfort and joy but also it is the principal means of the flourishing of our life of holiness You see this pursuit of assurance Remember they stated before it creates in us a heart of humility and holiness We can't afford to say You know what? I'll make it without assurance. It's something I can get into heaven without. I don't have to have assurance. But he's saying you can't think of it that way.

Assurance is necessary for the flourishing of your holiness. So pursue it. Pursue it. Now from this duty flows specific fruit. God is so good to give us fruit for our duties.

He doesn't have to. He could just say, I'm God, do it. But he gives us fruit for doing our duty. Here is what we are given as the fruit of diligence in this duty, 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, these being the proper fruits of this assurance. So there are at least these three fruits, again fruitfulness as we saw earlier, these three fruits that they bring out here, the enlargement of the heart in regards to peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Our hearts are not left small by this assurance. Our hearts are stretched, open wide that we might experience more of this peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Our hearts are enlarged secondly that we might know this love for God and thankfulness to him. Our hearts are made large for this and also the enlargement of the heart in regards to strength and cheerfulness and the duties of obedience. You see without this grace of assurance our heart remains small Incapable of receiving all this peace and joy intended incapable of expressing all of the love and the thankfulness that we desire to express and incapable of performing obedience with the strength and cheerfulness needed We're left without Our hearts are too small to hold these things But with the right use of the means of grace provided to us We can know and experience this blessed fruit How foolish then is it to not pursue, to not long for, and not strive for a robust assurance of the work of Christ in us.

It's foolish. This is what we bypass. This is what we put to the side. We don't want joy. We don't want peace.

We don't want more love and thankfulness to God. We don't want We don't want cheerfulness in our duty, really. How foolish is it to think so little, to pursue Not very well at all, this assurance. But the writers are adamant about one thing as they end this paragraph. There is nothing here that would cause men to lean towards a lifestyle of looseness in regards to the things that God regards as our duty to pursue with all diligence.

There's no wiggle room for looseness here. None. None. But to think of these precious promises as we end this paragraph, I want to read the words of a hymn written by George W. Robinson.

He was a pastor he didn't write much, at least we're aware of, but this one song was worth all his attempts. Loved with everlasting love, led by grace that love to know gracious spirit from above thou has taught me it is so oh this full and perfect peace oh this transport all divine in a love which cannot cease. I am His and He is mine. Heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green.

Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs overflow, flowers with deeper beauties shine. Since I know, as now I know, I am his and he is mine. Things that once were wild alarms cannot now disturb my rest. Closed in everlasting arms, pillowed on the loving breast.

Oh, to lie forever here. Doubt and care and self-resign while he whispers in my ear, I am his and he is mine, his forever, only his. Who the Lord and me shall part. With what a rest of bliss, Christ can fill the loving heart. Heaven and earth May fade and flee firstborn light in gloom decline But while god and I shall be I am his And he is mine That's what assurance should do for us Fourthly and finally Paragraph four true believers may have the assurance of their salvation diverse ways shaken diminished and intermittent as by negligence and preserving of it by falling into some special sin which wounded the conscience and grieve at the spirit by some sudden or vehement temptation by God's Withdrawing the light of his countenance and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light Yet love that word yet.

We run across it often in his confession bless God for the yet yet Are they never destitute of the seed of God in life of faith, that love of Christ in the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which by the operation of the Spirit This assurance may in due time be revived and by the witch in the meantime until it is revived They are preserved from utter despair Well in one sense not one of us here probably need a paragraph to inform us of the reality that our assurance can in many ways be shaken, diminished, or hindered. Each of us who have been in Christ for any length of time can probably attest to our own experience of such seasons in our lives. Sometimes short seasons, Sometimes seasons of a longer duration. So why did these men take the time to inform us of something we're already well aware of by experience? Well, several different reasons flow to us from the statements included in this paragraph.

First, this shaking, diminishing, or hindering of assurance can happen to – you ready for this again? True believers. It can happen to true believers. Such lack of assurance should not be considered as a definitive sign that we're not saved. But secondly, they provide for us here ways in which we can possibly trace the causes of such lack of assurance And then knowing the effects of something along with that awareness of what things actually cause it should lead in us, lead us to a greater sense of diligence, care, and watchfulness so we know what's at the end of the tunnel and we know and can know what got us in the state that we're in.

So the first is a negligence in persevering this assurance, a negligence in persevering the assurance. A negligence in what? In the means of grace that God has provided. You see this negligence, it says it leads to sin. It leads to sin.

Sin they describe as special sin. And it's due, this description of special sin is due to the wound we receive from it in our own consciences and it's due to its effect of grieving the Holy Spirit. You know Peter's loss of assurance, you remember after Christ died and he rose from the dead and then he was gone. What did Peter say? Guys, I'm gone fishing.

Bye. I'm headed back to the shore, Going back to life as it was He had lost all assurance in Christ Why Well Peter's loss of assurance in Christ love for him came as a result of what? Multiple denials of Jesus Christ. And this grievous sin of this denial of Jesus Christ, which so wounded Peter's conscience and so grieved the Holy Spirit, it was the result of his failure to watch and to pray so as to preserve that love for Christ, to assure him of Christ's love for him. What if he had watched and prayed?

Maybe he looked that servant girl in the face and said, I'm absolutely one of his disciples. You got that right. That's my Lord. If he had watched him pray. But that negligence to persevere in that love for Christ and to keep the heart humble and holy Led to special sin which wounded his conscience such that Christ had to ask him three times Peter do you love me?

Do you love me? And so as to give Peter assurance, he said, I've got something for you to do because I love you. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. So the first is negligence and perservering in this assurance.

The second is coming under a sudden or severe temptation and being left to ourselves without a sense of the light and presence of God. Such seemed to be the case of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, a man's man, camel hair, preaching repentance, calling out the spiritual leaders of the day, you brood of vipers. And Yet this faithfulness to Christ did what it landed him in prison it eventually cost him his life And it was from the cold walls of that dark prison that John sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, are you that one? That was promised. I proclaimed you as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, are you that one?

Are you? I'm sitting here in this prison because of my faithfulness to declare you as that lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Your sin sir, your sin ma'am, your sin Herod. Look where I am. Are you that one to take away the sin of the world?

Are you? And so we see this sudden or severe temptation that overtook him. He was cast into prison and he came under this dark cloud of a lack of assurance. Jesus didn't leave him there. He said go back and tell him this Remind him of what the prophets said of me that this would happen.

This would happen. This would happen And you're seeing it right now go back and tell them go back and tell them But we are not simply left with reasons as to why we often end up in seasons of doubt. We're also given a glimpse of hope to which we can hold on to in such seasons, a hope that sets Christ before our eyes again. Yet are they never, even in spite of this, they're never destitute of the seed of God and life of faith, never destitute of that love of Christ and the brethren, never destitute of that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which by the operation of the Spirit this assurance may in due time be revived and by the which in the meantime they are preserved from utter despair. Though you may be enduring a season of the lack of assurance of grace and salvation, God will preserve you from utter despair.

You may be in giant despair's castle, but You don't have to be there. God's given you a key. Free yourself. Though not assured of it, the true believer is not without the seed of God and the life of faith though that faith be like a bruised wreath or smoking flax though not assured of it the true believer still remains in the love of Christ and the church though not of us though not assured of it the true believer still has within his breast a sincere heart and an operating conscience and by these unchanging graces and by the spirit of these graces the true believer may in due time have that sense of assurance revived again. So let us not grow despondent.

Let's not grow despondent in such seasons where we lack this assurance. Let us use this sense of this lack of assurance to drive us to Christ, to drive us to Christ. Looking upward, not so much inward. William Gurnall reminds us great comforts do indeed bear witness to the truth of thy grace But these great comforts do not bear witness to the degree of that grace. The weak child is more often in the lap than the stronger one.

If that's you, my dear brother, sister, run. Sit in that heavenly lap of your father. Pour out your heart to him. Know afresh those strong loving arms wrapping around you. The Spirit bearing witness, if you're that weaker child, be found more often in the lap of your Heavenly Father.

So we should not grow despondent, but on the other hand let us not grow accustomed to and comfortable in this state of a lack of assurance. Let us be reminded that Christ died in order that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. Great assurance magnifies the grace of Christ and bears great fruit in the life of those in whom it is found. And I close with the words of the Puritan Edward Reynolds. Assurance will assist us in all duties.

It will arm us against all temptations It will answer all objections. It will sustain us in all conditions May we have such sweet assurance from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's look to him in prayer. Oh Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for the work of salvation. We thank you that as part of this work of salvation, this work of the Spirit, this obedience of Christ, that we can have this full assurance that you are ours and we are yours.

Lord help us not to make an idol out of assurance. To seek for assurance more than we seek for Christ who gives that assurance. But oh, whether we have assurance or a lack of it, may we daily find in Christ all that we need and all that we will ever need. In His great name we pray, amen. Thanks for watching!