Blessed Assurance
Scriptures: Hebrews 10:22; Judges 6-7; Romans 8:31
Introduction:
I received this story (a Cherokee legend) in an email and I thought I would share it with you. Some of you may have already read this before. “Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian’s youth’s rite of passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a man. He cannot tell the other boys of his experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kind of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook the stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man. Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.”
Consider the fact that we too are never alone. Even when we don’t know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. Just because we cannot see God does not mean He is not there. “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
This morning I want to share with you a few thoughts on the subject of “Blessed Assurance”. The assurance we have that God is with us, protecting and guiding us through every situation. As a reference point for this message, I want to use the song “Blessed Assurance” by Fanny Crosby. When we have this type of assurance that no matter what we face God will handle it, we do not look for what many call “luck.” Luck is something that happens by chance and I personally do not believe that my life is a chance. I believe God is watching over me and He is in the driver’s seat and I am the passenger. I would struggle giving God praise for luck. So as I live my life on this earth, regardless of the situation I may find myself in, even when I am stressed or worrying which I try not to do, I have the blessed assurance that God will see me through it.
I watched the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” In that movie, one of the leading characters (Kathy Bates I think) was a woman going through an “emotional / self identity crisis”. When she finally began to realize the strength within her, she began to act on that strength. Where before she was very timid and let people run over her, she became a woman who stood up for herself. In one scene of the movie she was waiting on someone to pull out of a parking space so she could pull in. As she got ready to pull in, another young lady in a smaller car pulled into the spot ahead of her. When she told the younger woman she was waiting for that spot, the younger woman remarked something to the point that she was too old and slow – that youth won out. Well Kathy Bates began to ram her car into the young lady’s car, just crashing in the back of it. When the young lady saw what was happening and freaked out, Kathy Bates just smiled at her and said she was older and had more insurance. The insurance provided her with the “assurance” that should she get into an accident that the damage done to her car and the other car would be taken care of. We all have some type of insurance which is basically a guarantee of compensation should we experience a loss of that which was insured. In the movie, Kathy Bates’ insurance gave her the freedom, although definitely wrong, to make a point to the rude young lady who took her parking space.
This is what we experience as Christians when we understand the assurance that we have in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 10:22 says “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” This is the verse that Fanny Crosby based her hymn “Blessed Assurance” on when she wrote it in the latter half of the 19th century. Paul stated that we should have the full assurance of faith – meaning that our faith should be so strong that it guarantees our actions and God’s response. I want to use a few words from the song “Blessed Assurance” to paint this picture.
I. Blessed Assurance Jesus Is Mine
The first verse of the song says “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.” In the first verse we find the proclamation that there is something wonderful about being assured that Jesus is ours – making it personal, Jesus is mine! The fact that we have a very intimate relationship with Him gives us a glimpse of what lies ahead of us. Our lives today should offer us a “foretaste” of God’s glory. How does that happen? Every time that God does something for you, whether that is through answering a prayer or providing you with protection that you did not know you needed, you are experiencing His glory. When you stand in the gap for someone else, through your prayers and through your charity, you are allowing God’s glory to flow through you to touch the life of someone else. When you come into His presence and spend time with Him and the hairs on your arm or the back of you neck stands up as you commune with Him, you are experiencing a “foretaste” of His glory. Whenever someone comes to you for help and you quietly pray and asks God what should your counsel be and He immediately tells you and you recognize His voice, you are experiencing a “foretaste” of His glory which is divine. The last line says that we are heirs of salvation and have been purchased by God, born of His Spirit and washed in His blood. Each of these acts transforms us from what we were to what we are (His servants, His children) and to what we shall become ultimately when se see Him face to face. Salvation has been granted to us because God purchased us with the blood of His Son, His own blood. Through Christ’s blood we have also been born of His Spirit. Remember, we have the Holy Spirit working through us because we have accepted Christ. We judge people by their past and we say that past actions are a good indicator of future actions. Well that does not apply to our relationship with God because our past was wiped clean. When we were saved, our past selves were cleansed and God began to see us as whom we would become, not who we were. Let me demonstrate this with a story from the Old Testament.
II. Gideon
There was a time during Israel’s history when they were being oppressed by the people of Midian. This was a direct result of their rebellion against God so God gave them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years (Judges 6:1). The Midianites and their friends sorely abused Israel. The Bible says that they would come in like locust and would destroy everything in their path. When Israel finally came to their senses and had learned from their mistakes, they cried out to God and He answered by sending an angel to Gideon. Gideon was not someone of stature in the land. When the angel came to him he was thrashing wheat in the wine press in an attempt to hide it from the Midianites. Here is what I want you to see. The angel, speaking on behalf of God, called Gideon a valiant warrior. Look at verse twelve in chapter six of the book of Judges. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” God saw Gideon as who he would become (future tense) as if he was already that. He did not see Gideon as Gideon saw himself. When Gideon first heard the angel, he asked if God was with them why were they in the situation they were in. In his mind this was a valid question. Now watch the transition. In verse fourteen the angel is no longer speaking, but the Lord Himself. He said to Gideon “Go in your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” He told Gideon to go and that he would defeat the Midianites and deliver the Children of Israel out of their hands. God spoke as if it was already done because He knew that Gideon would get it done even though Gideon had no clue as to how it would happen. When God said “have I not sent you?” it was like He was asking Gideon, “Why are you still here – you have work to do?” Again, God referred to Gideon’s strength, something that was not the focus of Gideon at that moment.
Now look at verse fifteen at Gideon’s response. “He said to Him, ‘O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” What Gideon saw within himself is not what God saw. Remember, we often judge ourselves and others by what we see physically. Although we often miss what someone will become God never does. When someone becomes great and achieves much some are surprised because no one from their family ever achieved such greatness but God is never surprised as He is working through us. God will do great things through us if we would just allow Him to. Now let’s jump down to verse thirty-six. Here is where Gideon needed some assurance. “Then Gideon said to God, ‘If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken.” As you read the rest of the story, you will find that the next night Gideon asked God once more to prove Himself by doing the opposite of what He had just done.
Gideon had not, up to this point, had a very personal relationship with God. Everything that he knew came through the experiences of others; through the stories they told him. This was why he needed more assurance that God would truly do just what He said He would. Once he was assured, he was ready for battle. We know that when he went to battle he started out with 32,000 men. God told Gideon that was too many and now because he was assured, Gideon did not question God. God got him down to 300 men that he would need to defeat his enemies. You realize that God was going to use less than 1% of the men who started out with him to bring about the victory. It was not about the numbers, but about God. It was not about how bad the enemy was, but about God. The Bible says in Romans 8:31 “…..If God is for us, who is against us?” This is the blessed assurance that we have and this is what Gideon received when He asked God to prove himself. This worked for Gideon, but we have Someone living within us that Gideon did not have. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us and it is He who is assuring us of things to come. He is the One making sure that those things that we need spiritually to endure the battles we face are ever present.
II. Blessed Assurance Comes With A Price
The last verse of the song “Blessed Assurance” says the following: “Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest; watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.”
Ms. Crosby caught our relationship with Christ perfectly in this one verse. The price that must be paid for us to have this blessed assurance is submission. We must submit to Christ. Our submission releases our strong will over to Him. When we submit we are saying that “although I know what I want to do and how to do it, I will yield to You Jesus for You to do it Your way.” James 4:7 says “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Consider this verse in light of what the author wrote in the song. By submitting to Christ, we begin to rest within Him. We turn over our worries, trials and tribulations to Him and He takes care of them. It is only when we can do this will we get to the point of what she said when she wrote “I in my Savior am happy and blest; watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.”
When we submit to Christ, there is protection, comfort, peace and joy awaiting us. Thinking of this, re-examine the words in the last verse of the song and combine that with what James says will happen when we submit to God and resist the devil. When we resist the devil he will flee from us. That does not mean he will not return, but he will flee because we have submitted and we are under the care of God. In the last verse it says “I in my Savior am happy and blest.” For many years I always thought it said “I and my Savior” which totally misses the point of the verse. What she was telling us was that in Christ she was happy. Do you see the difference? Finally she says, “…..watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.” Imagine resting in the arms of Jesus and having you total focused on things above. You are so focused on heaven that you lose track of time and space. You are not conscious of what is happening around you as you are totally wrapped up in the arms and love of Jesus. All you can feel if the goodness that comes from being in His presence. When this happens, you are not aware of the attacks that Satan is planning because your focus is elsewhere. Now get this, because your focus is elsewhere (upwards towards heaven) as you are residing in Jesus, when Satan does attack – Jesus drives Him off. The battle is not yours, it’s the Lord. “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”
III. This Is My Story
Now let me finish this with the chorus. The chorus of the song says this: “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, all the day long.” Our relationship with Jesus Christ is very personal. Each one of us have a personal story that only we can tell. Each of us has witnessed things in our lives that Jesus has done specifically for us. Yes I know sometimes we think we did it and should get the glory, but the day will come when every knee shall bow to the name of Jesus.
My story is not your story and your story is not mine. Each story is different, but they can still be the same in that the common thread that holds all of us together is Jesus Christ. Your story is your story and as you tell it to whomever, it should include what Christ has done for you. To have a story consisting of the praises I am singing to Christ is a wonderful thing. This is my story and my song. When I stand up during praise service singing the praise songs that is part of my story. I can sing the praises because I am also reflecting on where God has brought me from and where He is taking me to. This is part of my story. When I stand before you and share God’s word, this is part of my story. When I go to work on my job and God opens the door for me to say something to encourage someone else, that is part of my story. What is your story?
Conclusion
The song Blessed Assurance has always been one of my favorite hymns but it was just recent that I really focused on what the words were saying. We have all gone through times when we have doubted and lost focused, but the more we understand what Christ is doing in our lives the more we are able to take rest in the assurance that things will be okay. We have a reason to give praise this year and a reason to give God thanks every day of the year. The next time you sing the song Blessed Assurance think about what the words are truly saying. May God bless and keep you.
