BLESSED ASSURANCE

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BLESSED ASSURANCE

• This is an age of fear, doubt and insecurity.
• It is sad that many people fear they are not
  saved, doubt they are saved, or are simply
  insecure about their relationship to God.
• It is sadder still that many who are satisfied
  that they are pleasing to God have nothing more
  than a false hope, because their assurance has
  an improper basis.

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BLESSED ASSURANCE

• On what basis can one be assured that he has been
  saved from sin, and for heaven?
• On what basis can one be assured that he is yet
  pleasing to God?

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BASIS FOR ASSURANCE

• NOT FEELINGS
• NOT PHILOSOPHY
• NOT THEOLOGY
• NOT PREACHERS/MINISTERS

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NOT FEELINGS

• The coming of the lawless one is according to the
  working of Satan, with all power, signs, and
  lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception
  among those who perish, because they did not
  receive the love of the truth, that they might be
  saved.

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NOT FEELINGS

• And for this reason God will send them strong
  delusion, that they should believe the lie, that
  they all may be condemned who did not believe the
  truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2
  Thess. 29-12)
• Self-deception is possible

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NOT FEELINGS

• And Delilah said, "The Philistines are upon
  you, Samson!" So he awoke from his sleep, and
  said, "I will go out as before, at other times,
  and shake myself free!" But he did not know that
  the LORD had departed from him. (Judges 1620)
• There was apparently no change in Samsons
  feelings.

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NOT FEELINGS

• So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the
  goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then
  they sent the tunic of many colors, and they
  brought it to their father and said, We have
  found this. Do you know whether it is your son's
  tunic or not?

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NOT FEELINGS

• And he recognized it and said, It is my son's
  tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without
  doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.
• Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his
  waist, and mourned for his son many days.

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NOT FEELINGS

• And all his sons and all his daughters arose to
  comfort him but he refused to be... comforted,
  and he said, For I shall go down into the grave
  to my son in mourning. Thus his father wept for
  him. (Gen. 3731-35)
• Jacob believed Joseph dead, and felt sad.

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NOT FEELINGS

• Approximately Twenty-two Years Later
• Then they went up out of Egypt, and came to the
  land of Canaan to Jacob their father. And they
  told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he
  is governor over all the land of Egypt. And
  Jacob's heart stood still, because he did not
  believe them. (Gen 4525-27)

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NOT FEELINGS

• Feelings are based on what one believes, so we
  should never base what we believe on what we
  feel.
• If you feel saved because you believe you are
  saved, you might not be saved because what you
  believe might not be true!

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NOT PHILOSOPHY

• But as it is written "Eye has not seen, nor ear
  heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man.
  The things which God has prepared for those who
  love Him." But God has revealed them to us
  through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all
  things, yes, the deep things of God.

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NOT PHILOSOPHY

• For what man knows the things of a man except the
  spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one
  knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
  Now we have received, not the spirit of the
  world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we
  might know the things that have been freely given
  to us by God.

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NOT PHILOSOPHY
These things we also speak, not in words which
man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit
teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. (1 Cor. 29-14) Man cannot know the
things of God apart from revelation.
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NOT PHILOSOPHY
These things we also speak, not in words which
man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit
teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. (1 Cor. 29-14) Worldly philosophy
seeks to answer the three most important
questions apart from Gods word.
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NOT PHILOSOPHY

• These things we also speak, not in words which
  man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit
  teaches, comparing spiritual things with
  spiritual. (1 Cor. 29-14)
• What is mans origin?
• What is mans purpose?
• What is mans destiny?

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NOT PHILOSOPHY

• For since, in the wisdom of God, the world
  through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God
  through the foolishness of the message preached
  to save those who believe.

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NOT PHILOSOPHY

• For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after
  wisdom but we preach Christ crucified, to the
  Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks
  foolishness, but to those who are called, both
  Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
  wisdom of God.

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NOT PHILOSOPHY

• Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men,
  and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1
  Cor. 120-25)
• The world through its wisdom does not know God!

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