The wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.

Proverbs 12:12-13.

Blessed Assurance

Assurance of salvation and a saving interest in our Lord Jesus is NOT A FEELING cultivated by thinking good thoughts and doing good deeds. Paul calls it "full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:22). It has to do with faith, with BELIEVING GOD! Assurance is born of CONFIDENCE IN THE FATHER as our covenant God; "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." Assurance is born of CONFIDENCE IN THE SON as our just God and Saviour; "By His stripes we are healed." Assurance is born of CONFIDENCE IN HIS PROMISES; "Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to perform."

So your assurance of redemption is not enhanced by the MORE YOU WORK, but by the MORE YOU TRUST AND REST IN HIM. "Let us labor therefore to enter into THAT REST" (Heb. 4:11).

Pastor Henry T. Mahan

That We May Know Him

“And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life (1John 5:20).

Beware of the intellectual preacher who is always splitting hairs and pronouncing woe upon all who are not as smart as them. God gives His people an understanding that they may know a Person. Read the text again. Not that they might know some complicated man-deduced system of doctrine.

You do not need to be smart to know God. Thank God for that. Even the little children were encouraged by Him to come and trust Him. The thief didn’t have much time to take a stance on this theological issue or the other. His soul hung upon knowing the identity of the One Who hung on Calvary’s middle cross. The blind man in John 9 could not answer the questions posed him by the religion of the day, but he trusted the Son of God and bowed to Him, believing. Look at the messages preached by the men of the New Testament Church. Where is the striving over words that is done in many pulpits today? They simply declared the identity and authority of a Person.

Knowledge puffeth men up, but love, a relationship with the Person of God’s Son, will build His people up (1Cor 8:1). A person whose assurance is based upon how much they know, is building their house on the sand. May I simply be able to confess with the Apostle Paul, “I know WHOM I have believed.” May all of our learning be as our Lord exhorted, “take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.” I don’t need to know more about the end times. I need to know Him Who is the end and the beginning. I don’t need to know more about issues, but I want to know Him to Whom belongs the issues from death (Ps 68:20). Pastor Chris Cunningham

CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST

And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” (1 John 2:28).

What sweet comfort this precious promise of God gives to the heart of the believer. Our Lord shall return with glorious splendor to receive us to Himself forever (John 14:1-3). Now, and in that blessed day we shall have absolute and eternal confidence to stand before the holy throne of God totally justified and complete in Christ (Col. 2:9-10). True saving faith has all confidence in Christ, not in self (Heb. 12:2). We say with the Apostle, "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3).

Believers not only have all confidence in Christ, but we also shall never be ashamed of His gospel now, nor before Him at His glorious coming (1John 3:2: 4:17). Every believer can boldly say with the Apostle, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1:16). Christ Jesus is not ashamed to love us (1John 4:10), to own us (Heb. 2:13), to die for us (Heb. 2:17) and to present us faultless before His holy throne (Jude1:24). "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. 2:11).

How could we ever be ashamed of Him? "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26).