Assurance of Salvation

Hebrews chapter 6, verse 9. A vibrant Christian life begins with the assurance of salvation, not the prospect of it. That's where we left off last time. We're in the middle of verse 9. If you'll recall, we were looking at John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and spending a little time on Dead Man's Lane, where we ran into three characters of specific interest.

There was turnaway. Remember, turnaway was apostasy. He was the man being led by seven devils back to his former way of life, turnaway. Then there was little faith. Little faith, if you remember, he got beat up by doubt, by guilt, and he was beaten down bad. But his faith was genuine, but it was little.

And he spent the rest of his journey to the celestial city begging and borrowing. But then there was another individual, valent for the truth. You remember when the thugs came against him, he drew his sword and was able to. Push them back and to go on to the celestial city in strength and in victory.

And the writer of Hebrews has these three people types in mind. Which one are you? Are you a turnaway? Turnaway is described verses four through eight. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame.

So those turnaways brought near to salvation, enlightened, but they didn't take, didn't grab hold, tasted, but did not consume, did not take to heart, partook of the Holy Spirit on the peripheral outside, but did not allow him to indwell them. Let us turn away. And you will be tempted to turn back, turn away.

And some of you are being tempted that way even now. Then there are. The question is: Are you one like little faith? Well, little faith among the Hebrews, they were the ones who were, well, dismayed at what was coming upon the church. And this is time during Nero's persecution.

Many people are turning back in the greater society, but then also there are a lot of persecution happening by the Jews, being put out of the synagogue. So there are those who are thinking they need to go back, or thinking they're beaten down and to a point to where they're questioning, maybe even deflated.

Should we continue with all diligence? What is all this for? And so they're beaten down. But then there are those valent for the truth. And that is what the writer of Hebrews is trying to do. He's wanting to warn the faithless, warn those who were tempted to turn back to the life they had before they were brought near to Christ.

And he's trying to encourage those with a little faith to grow in their faith and to become valent for the truth. So he's calling, he's wanting to, he's speaking to both. He's warning one and he's encouraging the other. Which brings us to our text this morning in verse 9.

But, beloved, we are convinced of better. Things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and still ministering to the saints.

Now he turns from warning to encouragement. We spent a lot of time last week just looking at the details of verse 9. Left one little detail left, and I want to pick up on that. But assurance of salvation is a thing, it's a reality. Because a vibrant Christian life begins with the assurance of salvation, not the prospect of it.

My marriage and married life to Nancy began with the assurance that we were both in this together, not the prospect of it. We moved from dating to married life. And there's a very different kind of Christian life, or there's a different kind of life that comes out when you're assured of your salvation, that that's settled, and then you go on in the power and strength of the Lord, versus, well, I am hoping at the end that it will come out okay.

And so, salvation and assurance of salvation. Is a reality. And that's what I want you to see this morning in the text. It is a thing, and it is a necessary thing. It is no secondary matter. It is at the very core of the spiritual war that you're in.

You see, the opposite of assurance is doubt. You can be assured that Satan's attack against the Christian life will begin at this point of assurance. Am I in? Am I in a good standing with God or not? I don't know. James calls such a person who doubts like that as an unstable person in 1:8.

Unstable people are easily manipulated. And so at the heart of the spiritual battle that you're in, the spiritual war, Satan's campaign is one about eroding your assurance of salvation. Satan erodes the believer's assurance by lying to us about the character of God or about the hopelessness of our situation.

And both are addressed in our text this morning. So be assured that assurance of salvation is no small matter. God is assured. Of our salvation, and he wants us to live assured of it as well. And this Hebrews 6, the second half of Hebrews 6, is one of the most glorious passages about reinforcing the assurance to believers.

It is written to believers. He's warned the faithless, those who haven't, who are turning away. He's warned them, but now he wants to encourage those. And we understand this: a congregation like this, there are those who are faithless, there are those who are like little faith, and there are those who are valent for the truth.

And so, in a mixed congregation like this, it's likely that we have all parts. Now, it's my desire, and I know the writer of Hebrews' desire is that we'd all be valent for the truth. And to get us there, he's going to warn the faithless to become faithful and warn those with little faith to have more faith.

And he gives us a solid basis to do that. So, this morning, this outline is very simple. We're going to look at the reality of assurance. We're going to go back and pick up in verse 9, some place where we left off, and then we'll look at the reason for assurance in verse 10.

The reality and the reason. Assurance is. Is a thing. Assurance of salvation. Look back at verse 9. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. We covered much of this last time, except for one word.

I want to go in deeper today. But just by way of review, but, look at the first word, but, very important word that you have circled in your Bible, because this is what clears up a lot of the misunderstanding about Hebrews chapter 6. In light of everything that's been said in verses 4 to 8, in contrast to all that, he's saying, but, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things which accompany salvation.

Beloved, dear ones, you who are of the faith. This term speaks of the believing ones, the saints, those of the household of faith concerning you. And he's talking to a lot of them, concerning y'all, the whole bit of them. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things, better things, good things, not the bad things just being just mentioned in verses 4 to 8, but better things, good things, surpassing things.

And notice, look at this verb. We are convinced. It's a perfect verb. It's a passive verb. That's what's important about that is he's fully convinced. This isn't an iffy thing. We're kind of persuaded nowhere. Absolutely convinced of your salvation and the things that are going to accompany your salvation.

That's what we're convinced of. But as passives, it's not like he's saying something has convinced us. Something has made us come to believe we are convinced of better things. And what are those better things? The things that are higher in rank, the things that are superior, a comparison and contrast is being made, things more prominent, good things compared to the things we just talked about.

Things that accompany salvation, things that are inseparable from salvation, things latched on to things partnering with salvation. This is what we're expecting from y'all, beloved. And he's convinced of it. How did he get so convinced? That's what verse 10 is going to answer. Salvation. What is salvation? God's saving work in Christ and all that that goes and touches upon.

So now we're going to pick up on where we left off. And it's really one word in verse 9. It translates into two: better things. I want to talk to you a little bit about the better things and make sure we get in our mind what is in his mind.

I could sit up here and take the Bible and pontificate on all kinds of different things that are better things that are true of salvation. But what's important is that we get into the mind of the author and understand what are the better things in his mind. Things better.

There's things, and then there's better things. That's what he's doing. He's making a contrast. There are the bad things and the better things, and both of them have been previously mentioned. So assurance is a reality. And as we consider looking at this word, things better, I want to, before we leave this verse, make sure we get an idea of what's in store for those of you who are saved.

Because this message is really to encourage believers. He's not talking to the unbeliever now. He's wanting to talk to that nucleus of saints who are ministering diligently and who, because of the great defections and the great persecution, they're having their zeal beaten down. He wants to encourage them to continue ministering.

He wants to encourage the little faiths to have great faith. And so I want you to understand, just want to take a little time to get our minds around what he's convinced of. Because these are the things, beloved, that God has in store for you who are saved.

Salvation is very simply from bad things to good things. If you're in Christ, you have been saved from bad things. From the bad things, and we're not going to go beyond the near context, the bad things just mentioned. You're not going to be those who are, number one, dull-minded.

And I'm just going to give you the references here. He's already been talking about those who are dull-minded in verse 11 of chapter 5. Concerning him, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. What's he doing? He's wanting to expound upon this person of Melchizedek.

He's so excited about the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, and that's why the book of Hebrews is written is so that we can get an appreciation for what Christ is doing now and how that secures us and how that blesses us and how that empowers us to live a godly life no matter what comes upon us.

And so he wants to talk about Melchizedek, and he will when he gets to verse 7, chapter 1, chapter 7, verse 1. In the middle is this parenthetical. He's like, I want to talk to you about Melchizedek. But you have become dull of hearing. And so I need to exhort you, I need to warn you so that you will listen up and pay attention to the very bedrock and foundation of our hope, and that is found in Christ's high priestly ministry.

So you're not going to be among those who are dull-minded, who were once enlightened, who once tasted the heavenly gift, who were made partakers of, who tasted the good word in the age to come. You're not going to be among those who are hard-hearted, who, after all that had been decided like those taken to Kadish Barnea, and then turned away and wanted to go back to Egypt.

They wouldn't enter the land. You're not, these things aren't for God's people. The better things for God's people are not, we're not dull-minded, and we're not hard-hearted. You're not going to be lumped in with these categories. Then he goes on, members chapter 6, verses 6 to 8, he talks about the cursed and the near-cursed.

The cursed are those who are recrucifying Christ, those who've turned back resolutely to a Judaism that crucified Christ. And the near-cursed, those who are. Turning away. He says, These things aren't for you. Those are what I'm warning against. And there are some of you who are being tempted to turn away.

I'm encouraging you not to. But then he shifts gears. He speaks about the better things in context. What are the better things? Again, I'll just go through them real quickly. What are the better things? Well, graduating from elementary school. That's a good thing. Remember Hebrews 5:12. Some of you, by this time, you ought to be teachers, but you need, again, someone to teach you the elementary principles.

You need to move beyond just repentance and repentance from dead works and faith toward God. You need to learn how to live for God and come to know Him. So better things, graduating from elementary school. Better things, being accustomed to righteousness, verse 5.13. Not being an infant, but somebody who is skilled.

Not somebody who's inexperienced in what is right, but somebody who learns to know what is right and a lifestyle of righteousness. Better things. Able to discern good and evil. Verse 5.14. Those who have their senses trained to discern good and evil. This is what he is convinced is going to happen.

They're going to graduate from elementary school. They're going to be accustomed to righteousness. They're going to be able to discern good and evil. They're going to press on to maturity. Verse 3 of chapter 6. They're going to be fruitful for God in chapter 6, verse 7. They're not going to be like the ground that drinks in the rain and doesn't produce fruitlessness, but fruitfulness.

They're not going to be those who are, well, they're going to be useful to God. They're not going to be bearing thorns and thistles. And finally, they're going to be those who publicly glorify Christ. Not the bad things. There are those who were, by their defection, were publicly shaming the name of God by going back to their former way of life, just like the Exodus generation who wanted to go back to Egypt, just like Judas.

And you go on and on and on of those who slander God, open him up to public shame. But in stark contrast to those who recrucify Jesus, are those who are destined to publicly honor him. And they are enabled to go. Glorify Christ and have a life of glorifying Christ because of the things that accompany salvation.

I appreciate John MacArthur's statement about the things that accompany salvation. Listen to what he says. The things accompanying salvation is not infancy, but maturity. Not milk, but solid food. Not inexperience in righteousness, but perfect righteousness. Not repentance in dead works, but repentance toward God unto life. The accompaniments of salvation are primarily positive, not negative.

They do not reflect external ceremonial religion, but internal regeneration, transformation, and new life. Their significance comes not from repeated sacrifices, but from the one perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They do not focus on the elementary truths of resurrection and judgment, but on the believer's blessed hope, not just on being enlightened, but being made new, not just on tasting salvation, but feasting on it, not just partaking of the Holy Spirit, but having him indwell, not just getting a taste of God's good word, but drinking and eating it, not just seeing God's miracles, but being one.

You see, those who are born again are living miracles. Something from above has taken place in their hearts. And they're destined to honor Christ, not shame him. And he wants to assure believers, we're on a whole different trajectory if you're a genuine believer. The author is convinced of these things.

These things most certainly are going to be true of the genuine believers among the Hebrews. They're not going to be overtaken by apostasy. Isn't that kind of nice? You read verses 4 through 8, and you're kind of like, oh, where am I in all that? I could easily see myself getting tripped up.

I could see, I don't have any. And then you hear the words, but we're expecting and convinced of something better in you. And that raises my hope. Ah. Now the question becomes: why? Why is he so sure? And I hope you're asking that question. Talking about the assurance of salvation.

We've looked at the reality of salvation. Now the question is the reason for it. How can he be so sure? And notice that he's sure not just about his own salvation. He's. Sure, about somebody else's salvation. And we need to get into the mind: why? Why is he so sure?

What has him so absolutely convinced of better things for them? That's a very good question. And that's the question I hope you're asking, because it's very relevant to our own souls. And that's where we come to verse 10. The reason for assurance. The reason for it. He's not just convinced of it, he has good reason.

Look back at verse 10. For God is not unjust, so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. Notice the first two words, for God, the reason for assurance, is found in God, not man.

That's good news. Notice, for God is not unjust. The reason for assurance is found in the justice of God, found in the character of God Himself. The assurance of our salvation, if you're a believer, is found in the character of God, not in our own ability. God is not unjust, meaning he is not untrustworthy.

Means unrighteous. He is not unrighteous, which means there is nothing in God that is less than perfectly good in all of his dealings and in all of his relationships. That's what just means. He's perfectly good in every situation. And that's why there's a thing called assurance. For God is not unjust so as to forget.

There it is. It would be to forget, we forget all the time. We're absent-minded. God's not absent-minded. But also sometimes we willfully forget, not to bring something to mind. But to forget is to pay no attention to something, to ignore something. So for God to forget something, he'd have to purposely put it out of his mind.

And listen, you know, there are situations when failing to remember something would be wrong. Think about it. Think about my dad growing up. He loved his family. He demonstrated it by the way he labored long and hard and sacrificed much for his family. He labored laboriously. A labor of love, a work.

He worked hard and he sacrificed much for the well-being of his family. For me to disregard that would be wrong. Do you see that? It is not simply that, well, I should, I'm absent-minded. No, it would be morally wrong not to remember the sacrifices and work that others have poured into us, whether that be on a national level to protect us and our freedoms, whether it be on a personal level, whatever it is, it would be unfair to forget the labors of love of somebody else and not call them to mind.

It would be morally wrong. It's morally wrong in some circumstances to forget things. And so there's two things here that lay down the assurance for us. Number one, God is not unjust. Be assured of that. Number two, God is not forgetful. So these things you can be assured of, and they directly impact our salvation.

Certainly, God does not forget his promises to us. He doesn't forget those who take refuge or take him up on his promises. He's not going to forget that. But there's more in our text here. There's something here. Here, that really undergirds what he's saying here about assurance. Two specific things mentioned in verse 10 that God will never forget.

And that's why the beloved among the Hebrews can be assured of their salvation. Number one, their work for him and their love to him. Do you see that? For God is not unjust as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and still ministering to the saints.

Your work, that's singular, not your works, as some kind of merit. Yeah, he's remembered all the things you did to earn salvation. No. No, the salvation is given, and there are things that accompany that salvation. He's talking about he will not forget your work. That is your occupation, your toil in life.

What is the overarching toil of your life? What is the theme of your life? I remember being encouraged by the rodeo clown that one day said, Well, my business is Christ. I just happened to rode to pay the bills. And for me, that was a very good insight into who I was.

My business for a long time was being an engineer. I mean, my business was Christ, but I engineered to pay the bills. So, what is the theme of your life? What is the one thing you wish to accomplish? Well, look back at the Hebrews. For God is not unjust to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name.

That was the work of the beloved among the Hebrews. They loved God's name, they loved the name of Christ. And so they loved to naturally promote his name and celebrate his name. That's why we gather here. We're still a group of people that celebrate one name, the name above all names.

Notice: for God is not unjust to forget your work and love which you have shown. Love shows itself by what it does. We are saved from a life of not loving God to a life of loving God. And so loving God is inevitably shows up in our life's work.

I don't care who you are or what you're doing or what you may be involved in. Is it ultimately leading towards one thing that God's name be glorified in earth, in your life, whether it's raising children, whether it's working in schooling, whatever you're at right now, what is the purpose of it all?

What is the main thing? Theme. Well, that's what's important. It's to give more diligence to that main theme. The name of Christ. God does not forget our labors of love for Him. It would be unjust for Him to do so. So you think about this. Assurance of your salvation goes way beyond the human level.

It has to do with who God is. Now, there are those who can be, try to make themselves assured of salvation on the human level, but that leads to presumption and pride. It's kind of like the rich young ruler. Yeah, what do you want me to do? Oh, keep the commandments.

You know, I've done that perfectly all my life, and I'm going to continue to do that perfectly all my life. That's presumption, and that is pride. But assurance that relies on God is faith and humility. I have faith. I have confidence that I'm not going to do anything because I'm so limited.

But God, I can have assurance. Because of who God is. And so I have faith in God, and I am humbled because I am dependent upon him to bring it about. So the question becomes: how is love to God's name manifested in this world today? Well, the answer is given at the end of verse 10.

Look at that. In having ministered and still ministering to the saints. God is not unjust to forget your work and the work and the love which you have shown towards his name in having ministered and still ministering to the saints. The object. And this is something they did in the past, something they were accustomed to doing.

They had ministered to the saints in the past, but they were continuing to minister. The word for minister is the same word we get deacon from. It means to wait upon, to serve, to take care of, to look after, to strengthen, to support. That's what ministering means, involves.

You see, the true disposition of your life is seen in what you spend your days doing and nurturing. What are you nurturing in life? Are you nurturing the community of believers? Believers, first in your own heart, those around you, in the community, are you about promoting that society, that name, the society that exalts his name, that is brought together because of his name?

Notice the object of at the end of verse 10, to the saints, to the saints. The ministering that is ongoing, the ministry that had gone on in the past among the Hebrews, and the ministry that was ongoing was directed to the saints, to those who belonged to Christ.

The saints, set apart ones. And everyone who was a believer is part of this category. Set apart because of his word. They were set apart because they were followers of Jesus. They were set apart because they bear his name. If you're a follower of Jesus, you bear his name.

And all of a sudden, this relationship that you're in with God goes way beyond yourself. It involves his name, his character, his family name. This is another one of the things that accompanies salvation. When your heart is open to God, you... It's open to a love for his people.

When you love Christ, you will love his people. And there is a supernatural love that is given at the point of salvation for the people of God. And it comes from above. Because the people can be very different. I mean, we can look around the room and we can tell we are a very different people.

We come from very different backgrounds of all sorts. And yet there's something that unites us together. You can go across the world and you can run into a community that you've never met before, people you've never, and there's a love there. Why? Because there's a supernatural love for the people of God that comes along with salvation.

In Hebrews chapter 10, this supernatural love showed up in the life of the Hebrews. Let me read to you a portion of this. The author was pointing it out to them in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32. He says, But remember the former days when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have. Yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Notice their solidarity with the saints. Yes, they were made a public spectacle for naming the name of Christ, but then much of their tribulation and the seizure of their property came along with identifying with those who were being made a public spectacle.

Sympathy to the prisoners. Solidarity with the saints cost them dearly. But such sacrifices accompany those who are saved. Listen, ministering to the saints takes work and it takes sacrifice. Because not all saints are equally lovable. Hang around the church. You'll figure that out. Not all of us are as lovable as others.

And that's to be expected. Why? Because some are just coming out of the world, some bear the world, and the marks of the world are not lovely. There are those who are more Christ-like, and Christ is beautiful, and so those who manifest Christ in their disposition, in the words they say, in the things that they do, are naturally more lovable to the believer.

So ministering takes work and sacrifice. But this distinction is very important. Salvation or assurance of your salvation is directly tied to the way you relate to other people in the body of Christ. That's what he's saying. And he's absolutely convinced of it. You know, there are those you kind of think, okay, they name the name of Christ, but then there are those servants.

And you're like, I know they're saved. There's no question of doubt. Some of you lack assurance because, number one, you don't even want to identify with the church. Some of you don't want to join the church. It's too much work or too much something to join the church.

Why not be part of us? What's wrong with that picture? And then some of you mistreat the body of Christ. You wear people out. You make life and church life about yourself. Yeah, don't think you're going to have assurance of salvation. And let alone, if you don't want to really identify with Christ, you don't really want to, or you don't want to identify with his people.

Oh, yeah, I like the name Jesus, but I don't like his people. Don't deceive yourself. If you don't want to identify with God's people, you don't want to join them. And maybe you even won't mistreat them, you'll never get to the point to sacrifice for them. And that's what these Hebrews were doing for another, to continue the public testimony and confession of who Christ is.

There are going to need to be people who sacrifice, whose life ambition is to see Christ's name exalted. And they'll give themselves to it. But again, it needs to look at that last sentence, last phrase, to the saints. That's very important. To the saints. That's the object. Assurance of salvation is tied to the ministry to the saints.

Because I guarantee you, love for the saints doesn't come from anywhere else except from above. There's a lot of philanthropy in our society today, isn't there? Just because you're a philanthropist doesn't give you an assurance of salvation. I mean, fighting cancer is a good thing. Supporting the first responders are good things.

And what about the little animal shelters? I mean, that's great. We've got these furry animals. We don't just want to kill them. It's good to have a place for the furry little animals to find homes or defending the defenseless or taking care of the poor in society by providing food, clothes.

Or housing or education or whatever it is. And there's a lot of other causes that are good and needful. But none of these will produce an assurance of salvation. Why is that? Because these things do not distinguish the people of God from the masses. See, both those who love Christ and those who do not love Christ can fight cancer together, take care of the little animals together.

But only those who love Christ's name will minister and keep ministering to the saints. And it takes work to sacrifice. And it takes tenacity to keep on ministering. So get connected to the church. There's more at stake than you realize. Get connected to the church. Keep trying. And I realize sometimes it's hard to get connected to a church.

Keep going, keep finding the place, keep going to the public times and gathering places and meet and find places. Keep ministering, minister and keep ministering. And find that place, whether it's here or someplace else. It's very important that you get involved in a Bible-believing community, that you name the name of Christ, that you identify with the people of Christ, and that you join the efforts.

To publicly magnify the name of Christ. Only those who love Christ's name will minister to the saints and keep ministering to the saints. And we do so because of the name they bear, not because they're easy to love sometimes. Now, some are very easy to love. Be among those.

Grow in your Christ's likeness. God loves his people, and so do those who are born of him. Well, we know how the judgment's going to end, don't we? In Matthew chapter 25, we have the Son of Man coming in all of his glory, takes the nations, and he puts the sheep on his right, and he puts the goats on his left.

And then he says these things to the sheep on his right. I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, I was naked, I was sick, I was in prison, and you ministered to my needs. And they'll say, when? When did that happen? And Jesus says this: Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to the one Of these brethren of mine, these sheep of mine, these brethren, even to the least of them, you did it to me.

And then he turns to those on the left, the goats, and he asks them the same question, or he tells them the same thing. He says, Depart from me, you're accursed ones. I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, I was naked, I was sick, and you did nothing to minister to my needs.

And they win. When did we see that happen? And he says, Truly, I say to you, the extent that you did not do it to the one of the least of these, my brethren, here they are, the children, his people. You did not do it to me. And then those words, these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Whose name are you advancing in the world? Are you advancing your name? Or are you advancing God's name? Whose name do you love above all names? Well, salvation is demonstrated by loving the name of God. And that is demonstrated by serving those who bear his name. So, if you have no tolerance for the people of God, it's because you have no tolerance for the name of God, and that is because you have no tolerance for the God of the Bible.

But if you love people, you can be assured that you have experienced a miracle. If you love the people of God, something from above has taken place. As we get ready to close this time together, I want to talk to you, mention a few things, the reasons why some of you are not assured this morning.

Some of you are struggling with this matter of salvation, and you're not assured. Let me give you some reasons why you may not be assured this morning. Some of you are not assured of salvation because you may not be saved. What should you do? Say, well, I think I'm not sure.

I can. Well, just be honest. Be honest before God and then ask Him to save you. Repentance. Faith. You can say something like this: God, I'm not really even sure where I am with you, but I know you know. And you know what? It's not even important that I do know, but I'm formally asking you right now to save me.

Give me that repentance. Repentance of heart to turn away from that which is evil and turn to you. Formally ask Him. You can settle it right there this morning. Say, I don't have to make a determination about anything in the past, but I want to settle this today.

God, save me. Have mercy upon me. Some of you are not assured because you are beaten down. You're like little faith. Anxiety, doubts of God, or guilt over sin has beaten you down and you lack assurance. Well, I'd encourage you to trust God's word more. He forgives, he does have your back.

He does know what's going on and he can be trusted. Some of you are not assured this morning because you have a low view of church and a low view of ministry. Listen, God is never going to forget those who minister in his name and love ministering to his people.

Remember what's the elements all about? God wanted us to remember his son's sacrifice, his labor and love for us. Don't think he's going to forget our labors of love for him. But then to you, you all who are ministering and keep ministering, this message has been directed at you to encourage you to greater heights of service.

And diligence and sureness. I mean, when's the last time one of you took a meal to somebody who was sick? I know there's a lot of you here who do that. I know right now there are some people in the nursery who are ministering to families so that other people can hear the Word of God.

They're watching children. You do that because you love the name of Christ. Do you see how it's important to be active in the body? God is not unjust, He's not going to forget what you've done to serve His name. Even the very littlest thing to the very least, it's done to Him.

And He remembers. So you can continue to give yourself more completely and more diligently to the work of ministry and serving your brothers and sisters. Keep ministering as long as you have breath. This message is for you. There are better things for you, great things, glorious things for you, incredible things, things that we, even the Apostle Paul, couldn't even begin to speak of.

Be assured. All the things that accompany salvation belong to you, who are ministering and who are keeping ministering to the saints. Heavenly Father, we bow our hearts this morning and we again thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you that you do speak assurance and that that assurance of salvation is found in the very nature of your unchanging and holy forever character that we sang earlier.

You are holy forever. That means you are just forever. You are righteous forever. You remember the sacrifices of your people, Father, and all of that we do out of love for you because you first loved us to a much more significant and profound degree. So we celebrate who you are.

Father, thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.