Divine Assurance

How much do you sense your need of Jesus? He said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27. This Scripture illuminates the need of Jesus. Here we read the words of Jesus in which He brings to us a wonderful privilege, peace. Peace of what kind? Not as the world giveth. Not the kind of peace that we gain from the lack of happiness that the world can produce, but a peace that only God can produce. The peace that Jesus speaks of here is a peace He gives unto you.

It is a peace that is at rest when everything around us is in tumult. I don’t know if you have heard the story of the competition between three artists. The different impressions that these artists had of what is really peace. One artist painted a picture of a family sitting together, the second artist painted a beautiful scene in nature, and the third artist painted a very storm-tossed ocean. There in the ocean were rocks and crevices and the waves were beating up against these rocks with great crashing and there in the side of the rock, of that huge rock, there was a little cave and inside of that cave was a dove with her little one sitting in the nest. He of course won the competition because that was a true representation of the peace that only Jesus can bring. A peace amongst troubles and conflicts that surround us.

Do we need that peace? Do we need a peace that comes from an assurance? A Divine Assurance. Do you know whether your life is on the correct path? Remember the text that says there is a way that “seems” right unto a man. This is very frightening that Satan can give such beautiful senses of tranquility and assurance that we are on the right path. Yet, they might be on a path that leads to death. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the “ways” thereof are the ways of death. Your belief system must truly mean the assurance of eternal life at the end.

Are you confident that you are part of the fold of Jesus Christ – that you know confidentially and are assured by divine assurance that the body of Jesus is where you are?

We have studied the need of exercising logical reasoning. Reasoning from cause to effect. This Day With God, p. 188. “Happy is the man who has discovered for himself that the word of God is a light to his feet and a lamp to his path. Happy is the man who has discovered for himself the correct word that is light to his feet. A light shining in a dark place, it is heaven’s directory for men but there are many, oh, so many, who have no guide, besides the opinions of finite men, prejudice, passion, or their own changeable feelings, their minds are in a state of irritation and uncertainty, they suffer continually from mental fever.

Do you know that experience? Mental fever? Uncertainty? Heat inside of the brain? Because you know that you are uncomfortable in a certain path but the word of God keeps on saying, no, no, no, this way. You are being tossed about, then someone says, no it’s this way. Opinions of men even within church affiliation, prejudices, passions and changeable feelings are what many people look upon as their guide.

“Were you following Christ, the word of God would be to you as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But you have not made the honour of God the first object of your life work. You have the Bible. Study it for yourself. The teachings of the divine directory ?are not to be ignored or perverted. The divine mind will guide those who desire to be led. Truth is truth and it will enlighten those who seek for it with humble hearts. Error is error and no amount of worldly philosophizing can make it truth.” Ibid.

In the message for this time we have an assurance, a sure foundation, sound pillars to become acquainted with. What is the assurance we may have? To get rid of that feverish brain, that sense of insecurity that so frequently bombards us.

Revelation 14:12. “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Can you see two monumental pillars of assurance here? The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We know well the text, if you are looking for the pure message, if you are looking for the church that carries God’s pure doctrines. Isa. 8:20. “If they speak not according to the law and to the testimony [of Jesus] there is no light in them,”

We know that there is an identified company of people in Revelation. Revelation 12:17. “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Isn’t it phenomenal how the Scriptures connect so that the people who want to find an assurance that they have light, they may know they are on the right path, and that the Bible identifies them.

In Isaiah if they speak not according to the law and to the testimony there is no light in them. Here in the last days there is a remnant people identified by the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Doesn’t the Bible lay out before us a complete assurance so we must have both these pillars in place for our divine assurance, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?

Notice how the voice of inspirationidentifies it in Selected Messages. SM 3, p. 172. “The third angel’s message is the proclamation of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. The commandments of God have been proclaimed but the faith of Jesus Christ has not been proclaimed by Seventh Day Adventists as of equal importance.” Isn’t that interesting? “The law and the gospel going hand in hand. I cannot find language to express this subject in its fullness.” Ibid.

I can’t find language, she says, to get this straight, to enlarge it in its fullness. “The faith of Jesus is talked of, but not understood.” We are getting a very strong message from inspiration here that the majority of Seventh Day Adventists talk about it, but do not understand the faith of Jesus.

“What constitutes the faith of Jesus that belongs to the third angel’s message?Jesus becoming our Sin Bearer that He might become our sin pardoning Saviour. He was treated as we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and took our sins that we might take His righteousness. And have faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely is the faith of Jesus.” Ibid.

This is for us to meditate about. This is what Sis. White says she wishes she could find words to enlarge. Notice this picture of the faith of Jesus, that He partook of our sin so that we might partake of His righteousness, so that by that transaction of Jesus in all reality we might be secure and be able to be saved amply, fully, and entirely.

“The man with a cultivated intellect may have vast stores of knowledge, he may engage in theological speculations, he may be great and honoured of men and considered the repository of knowledge. Unless he has a saving knowledge of Christ, crucified for him, and by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, he is lost.” Ibid.

Does that strike deep? We might have all the knowledge of theological truth and even have the knowledge of the law just like the Pharisees. They knew the law through and through. They even knew prophecy so that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, they knew how to direct the wise men, they knew. We might have a high intellectual capability. We mightknow everything there is to know, but if we do not have a saving knowledge of Christ crucified for me, and by faith lay hold of the righteousness of Christ, I am lost.

Do you have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? I want to make sure that I have, and you have a saving knowledge of Christ crucified and lay hold of the righteousness of Christ. If I don’t have that, I’m lost. If I am a preacher of God’s words and I don’t communicate it as it really is and you don’t partake of it, you are lost too.

We need assurance, don’t we? This is our quest. When Jesus said, don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, I’ve come to bring you assurance, peace.

Heavenly Places, p. 249. “Before our Lord went to his agony on the cross, He made His will. He had no silver or gold or houses to leave His disciples. He was a poor man as far as earthly possessions were concerned. Few in Jerusalem were so poor as He. But He left His disciples a richer gift than any earthly monarch could bestow upon His subjects. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. He left them the peace that had been His during His life upon earth amid poverty, buffeting, and persecution, and which was to be with Him during His agony in Gethsemane and on the cruel cross. The Saviour’s life on this earth though lived in the midst of conflict was a life of peace. No storm of satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. He says to us, ‘my peace I give unto you.’ Those who take Christ at His word and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest.”

How can you gain this peace? Surrender your soul to His keeping and ordering, then you will find peace and quietude. It is my burden to communicate with you this perfect acquiescence. What does that word mean? Something, which you have been fighting but finally, resign yourself to. The resigning is to yield, submit, and conform, to resign oneself. The Latin word that it comes from is rest. When you are fighting something there is no rest. When you finally submit to something, there is perfect acquiescence. This word links me immediately with atonement. Perfect At-One-Ment.

It immediately links me with this beautiful mystery that the gospel speaks of. Here is this amazing picture available to us through this atonement. Col. 1:26-27. “Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to His saints. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Remember what we read before? Perfect rest in the midst of tumult? Every confusion of mind that He met. Perfect acquiescence. We note the statement in Heavenly Places, p. 319. “The mission of Christ so dimly understood, so faintly comprehended, that called Him from the throne of God to the mystery of the altar of the cross of Calvary will more and more unfold to the mind and it will be seen that in the sacrifice of Christ are found the spring and principle of every other mission of love.”

How much do you need Jesus? Jesus became one with us. This mystery of the atonement. Romans 16:25. “Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.”

Here is an atonement that is dimlyunderstood that if we do not have it, we are lost. It is something which we need to have in our mind because it is Christ in you the hope of glory.

Phillipians 2:5-8. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Can you see perfect acquiescence here? Perfect atonement. He could have resisted, He could have fought against it but He gave into it. He gave Himself over and as He did, He laid out for us the meaning of perfect acquiescence. Let this mind be in you that was in Him.

This mystery we need to understand that is revealed to us that if we know everything else but we don’t have this, we are lost. The pillar of Christ, His faith, is the thing that makes the whole thing central. You can have the Ten Commandments and still miss out. Bible Commentary, Vol. 6, p. 1082. “The incarnation of Christ is a mystery. The union of divinity with humanity is a mystery indeed. Hidden with God even the mystery, which hath been hid from ages. It was kept in eternal silence by Jehovah and was first revealed in Eden by the prophecy that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head and that he should bruise His heel. To present to the world this mystery that God kept in silence for eternal ages before the world was created, before man was created, was the part that Christ was to act in the work He entered upon when He came to this earth. This wonderful mystery, the incarnation of Christ and the atonement that He made
must be declared to every son and daughter of Adam… His sufferings perfectly fulfilled the claims of the law of God.

The incarnation of Christ? This mystery? That’s the one that is so dimly understood. That’s the one that Sis. White wrote Adventists are not proclaiming in all its fullness. Consider the reality and the balm of this saving knowledge. We are told that you and I must have a saving knowledge of Jesus. To embrace that knowledge and make it your experience. See what balm, what peace and assurance there is in it for you and me.

1 Timothy 3:16. “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

Hebrews 2:14. “For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. That through death He mightdestroy him who had the power of death that is the devil and deliver them through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Do you have fear of death? If you don’t, you are not a normal human being. We talk in the nursing profession, when someone is fighting for breath – why? When you can find something getting you by the throat, when you can find something taking away your life, you will fight for life. You will go for it, and the more you fight for it, the worse it gets. We are frightened of death. But when Jesus comes in and we understand to save us, we will yield and relax. When people really relax after they are in a life-threatening situation, all of a sudden things turn out good again. When I’ve seen people fainting, when they fainted, they were relaxed. When they come to, everything is fine again. But at the time what caused the fainting was terrible fighting for life. Here is the balm of the acquiescence. Perfect peace. He partook of the same flesh and blood that I have. For what? So that He could die. He couldn’t have died if He wouldn’t have been in the same flesh. What is the wages of sin? Death? When Jesus partook of this mysterious incarnation? What did He partake of? The same flesh.

These are a few Bible texts that we don’t need a theological degree to understand:

Romans 8:3. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin the flesh.”

Are you picking it up? This mystery? How can Jesus have the likeness of sinful flesh when we know He was so pure and perfect? Why was He so pure and perfect? Because He condemned sin in the flesh. The flesh was sinful flesh, and where was sin in sinful flesh? Let’s establish our assurance on the written word. Not upon the opinion of theologians.

1 Peter 2:24. “Who His own self bore our sins in His own body, on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by Whose stripes you are healed.”

Where were they? Upon Him, in His flesh. Here is the mystery so dimly understood that the sins that you and I feel that pulsate through your system that lead and goad you to commit wrong thoughts and actions. That was the sin that was in the body of Jesus Christ. That’s what is written.

He had a battle to fight to be obedient, He had to conquer the sin in His flesh. Hebrews 5:7-9. “Who in the days of His flesh when He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death and was heard in that He feared. Though He were a Son yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.”

What was his experience on this earth? In the days of His flesh, what did He have to go through to learn obedience? The battle between the spirit and the flesh. He had to conquer that. He had to suffer the things of the flesh to learn obedience. Can you appreciate this saving knowledge of Jesus? What a blessed comfort that is in our experience when we are struggling and so defeated many times. We keep on saying, but I’m only a human being. I keep on falling. I keep on sinning. Look to Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which dost so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself lest you be weary and faint in your minds.”

We don’t have to faint. We can conquer, because Jesus the mystery of the incarnation has brought to us an invitation of perfect acquiescence. Perfect union in Him, as He is perfectly one with us.

What does this mystery of this perfect atonement if understood, produce? What should it produce?

If people do not have this saving knowledge of Jesus, they will be lost. Romans 16:26. “But now is He made manifest and by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.”

That was a continuation of what we read in verse 25. “The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest.”

What is the mystery made manifest for? To what conclusion? Made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Col. 1: 27. “Christ in you the hope of Glory.” So we can be presented before God without fault.

Isn’t this the big argument of the theologians of today? They say we can never keep the commandments of God, we have to try hard, but we’ll never keep them. Then there are those who say yes, we can definitely keep them and they put all their effort and they claim they are keeping them. But they are lost. Why?Because their obedience does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.

They do not understand the saving message of Jesus so that their obedience comes from the motive of perfect acquiescence, from perfect atonement. Through understanding that Jesus is beside me and I am no longer troubled. I will rest my soul in Him, I will perfectly yield and stop fighting. I will let Him take complete control of my life. Ordering me, directing me, leading my path I don’t know where, but I know the end result.

When we have this saving knowledge there is an assurance that is beyond all others. Here is the patience of the saints. Theypatiently look to Jesus and they keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

It is evident that the incarnation of Christ is not understood through all Christianity. Anyone who claims to be a Christian is meant to be built and upheld by this central truth. This is the truth that the apostolic church was built on. If any variation of this truth was taught, an alarm was raised against it.
AMEN.

End of part I.
Part II in July Messenger.

John Thiel, Perth, Australia