Recovering a Supernatural Assurance

When we think about the doctrine of assurance, we don't necessarily always think about it being spiritual warfare, but it is at its core. You believing that you are good with God is the most important part of your life. And Satan wants to keep you on your heels, constantly questioning, am I dangling over the pits of hell? Is God about to let me go? Or maybe not so much your salvation, but God's...

disposition towards you. And what we do is we often focus in on our sincerity or our obedience. And this episode, it's to really show you and have a discussion about how this is spiritual warfare, and this is a spiritual issue, and you cannot use fleshly means in order to fight it.

It's an important conversation about re-enchanting our Bibles and re-enchanting our faith when it comes to our standing before God. Before we jump into it, as we do every week, let's take a moment and let's look to Christ and encourage our hearts. to trust him more. Assurance is not just comfort, it is contested ground. There are real enemies who want your faith weak and your conscience unstable. Evil spirits do not need you to abandon Christianity.

They only need you to doubt whether Christ truly holds you. If they can keep you questioning your standing before God, they can keep you exhausted, inward, and afraid. Satan is called the accuser for a reason. His work is not creative. It's repetitive. He drags forgiven sins back into your mind. He whispers that this failure proves.

you were never really saved. He tells you that God is patient with others, but weary of you. And the moment you try to fight that voice with your own obedience, you have already lost. You cannot fight spiritual warfare with flesh. You cannot defeat accusations by promising to do better. You cannot silence the enemy by inspecting your performance. That only feeds the lie that your safety rests in you. Faith is the weapon, and scripture is how that battle is fought.

not as inspirational language, but as truth that captures the mind. And when the mind is captured, the soul follows. This is why Paul says to take every thought captive. Unchecked thoughts become chains. Gospel truth breaks them. You have been set free. Not by your consistency, not by your spiritual intensity, and not by your obedience. You were set free by the blood of Christ and the verdict of God. To doubt that verdict is not humility. It is surrendering ground the cross already won.

When you stand in your assurance, the accuser loses leverage. And when you know you are justified, his voice has nowhere to land. He can shout. But there is no hook, there is no grip, no fear to exploit. This is why assurance terrifies the enemy. A believer who knows they are secure does not panic under conviction.

They repent and rise. They do not run from God, they run to Him. And they do not crumble under suffering. They endure it knowing they are loved. You do not stand in the strength of your obedience. You stand in the strength of the Lord. When you stand there, the powers of darkness cannot move you.

Welcome to Theocast. We talk about all of Christ for all of life. And I'm your host, John Moffitt, and the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at Theocast, you can go to theocast.org. we have a free ebook there we've got all kinds of articles that are about reform theology and christian life and spiritual warfare you go and listen to it there this episode

is one that has been sitting on my heart and mind for a while. And when I talk about all of Christ for all of life, this is what I mean. What I am convinced of in the Christian life is that we have just lost. the spiritual nature of our faith. Let me say it this way. We need to re-enchant our Bibles. We need to re-enchant our world. We have tried to live the Christian life and understand God.

from a physical perspective only, from what we can see, from what we can hear, from what we can experience. And that's how we measure what we will live for and trust. And man, I've been really just thinking about this a lot. So not a very scripted conversation today. I just really wanted to talk to those of you who are feeling the weight of the world. And at times I would say questioning your purpose.

And for those of you specifically who are questioning your assurance, maybe not always, am I saved? But is God okay with me? Is God angry with me? I mean, there's a broad perspective when it comes down to the idea of assurance. Am I saved? Is God good with me? And am I even... of use like what's the purpose of my life and i think people can fit in anywhere in that category we can

And often we look at the physical aspects of our life to answer those questions. How am I obeying? What habits have I formed? What sins have I not? overcome? What's my financial status? What's my marital status? What's my influence? Those are all the effectiveness that we think is happening. We're so physically bound.

And this is why I use that phrase in the opening line of we have to re-enchant our world. It might make some of us feel uncomfortable, but we're going to look at some passages today that really need to cause us to step back. and reevaluate our faith, how we think about this interaction that we have with God. I mean, I think a verse that we know all so well and is quoted often.

But man, I've been really meditating on it lately. Ephesians 6, when he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Like the war of the life that we live. He says, there's this wrestling that happens. And the biggest struggle that we're having is... It's not in the thing that you can see. It's not even flesh. It's not someone else. Then he names a terrifying list.

of really an entire kingdom. It's a structure of a kingdom, principalities, powers, rulers, the whole structure. And he says, that's what you're wrestling. So we think we're fighting politics. our neighbors, our bad habits. And Paul's like, that's not what you're fighting. Not if you're in Christ. I mean, we're talking about chapter six of the letter that's coming from Paul.

when he's introducing people to the christian life in the church of ephesus begins with christ then he goes to unity then he gets to the ending part of like okay you know this is what you need to know now that you know all of this to be true about christ This is what's going to want to keep you out of it. Here's what is going to knock you down. And because his solution is stand in the strength of the Lord and in the power of his might, right? Not in your strength.

And that's terrifying. And he uses strong language with the Galatians, right? In Galatians chapter three, he says, who bewitched you? That you think you're going to live the Christian life in the flesh. You begun by the Spirit, you're now going to be perfected by the flesh. Paul words it differently in Ephesians. He's like, you're not wrestling against flesh and blood. So these are, you know, this is just... These are words that we have on a page, but how do we bring it to life in our faith?

and i know some of you are probably thinking like oh john's lost it you know it's charismatic now and i'm i'll tell my charismatic friends out there who are listening to this they're probably like fast finally somebody's talking about this Listen, to talk about the power of the Spirit and the spiritual warfare doesn't mean you have to fall into one particular camp or another. This is the part of the Christian faith that we have got to stop creating divisions and dividing lines.

Everything that I'm talking about fits within every Christian realm. I don't care what brand of Christianity you call yourself. You have to deal with Ephesians 6. And you got to do with Galatians chapter 3. You have to answer these passages in 1 and 2 Peter where it talks about be sober-minded, be vigilant. Why? Because there's an actual entity that wants to come and hurt you. It's not a...

It's not an idea. It's not a metaphor. Now, specifically, the area that I want to point out that I've been thinking about a lot lately is how assurance is not a physical battle. Assurance is actually a spiritual warfare issue. At its core, think about it. You're not saved physically. This is what we're talking about. what's being rescued is the entirety of the person, which means your body and soul have been rescued by Christ. And both your body and soul are now being used.

by Christ because you've come to life. You're a new kind of creature. The Spirit is alive within you. And so you don't fight in the kingdom with a physical body only.

There's a dual aspect of it. That's why I think Paul says what he says here in Ephesians 6. I think for that for so long, I mean, Theocast has been talking about this for 10 years, about pietism and legalism, and specifically pietism, which really emphasizes the external effort of the believer, where we're always focused in on what we're doing, and that's where we find ourselves.

sense of assurance. Now, listen, I think it's very clear in Scripture and in our confessions that we can look at our works. that God is doing in us and through us, these fruits that are being produced, and they should bring a sense of encouragement to us. I'm all for that. Our confessions is very clear on that. Our good works can and should encourage us, but there's a difference between encouraging and the source and the foundation or the cause of our assurance, right?

There's a very, very different way of looking at it. And this is why this is an important conversation today, because the moment you realize that assurance is like the core of the battleground. for the Christian believer and I think the church at large, then you're going to stop looking for physical solutions, and you're going to be turning towards solutions that the Bible gives you, and they are...

spiritual. They're outside nature. They're supernatural. They come to us by the Spirit, and it makes sense. that Satan knows how powerful the gospel is. He's very aware of it. I mean, Jesus talks about when we're casting the seed of the gospel, he comes by and he picks it up and he prevents the unbeliever from being able to... to believe it, right? He's blinding the eyes of the unbelievers. That's what it says, right? 2 Corinthians. The God of this world is blinding the minds of the unbeliever.

He understands how powerful the gospel is. So the church of Corinth, Paul's like, I cannot wait and come to preach to you the power of the gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. So the words... that are gathered from God's Word, are projected by our voice into the ears of another, and the Spirit comes and does something that is outside the physical realm, and it's in the spiritual realm only.

That is otherworldly, and that's the point. I am definitely at the point in my faith, in my walk with Christ, that I cannot in any way, shape, or form Trust my flesh. My flesh may fail. My body is weak. What does the psalmist says? But where are we looking, right? We are always looking to Christ as our source. And to do that requires... faith and faith is a gift a spiritual gift a supernatural gift that comes to us and that is the source of our assurance

So when we're talking about assurance, assurance comes down to the question is, let's just start with the basics. Am I saved? Like that's the basic, right? Am I actually a new believer? Does the Spirit live within me? Have I been forgiven? Am I okay with God as it comes down to judgment day? And that's a very important question. Well...

The world has tried to answer that question in many different ways, in many different religions, right? We want to look to different aspects of our faith as things like our obedience or our baptism, things like that. as to finding the assurance of our faith. And I can remember growing up as a kid, I'd get down on my hands and knees because...

I was terrified that God would come back and come back and I'd be left, right? So, Lord, if I didn't really mean it last night, I really mean it tonight that I'm praying. You know, I really, really, really believe this time. And I was like waiting for it like to land on me. Like, okay, yeah, I'm saved. Because I was, you know, 12, 11-year-old kid struggling with all kinds of stuff.

My body's going through all kinds of changes. And I kept wanting like this sense of relief and assurance that I just never felt like I could get. And it was my sincerity. is what kept tricking me. Am I sincere enough? And it was never worded to me this way, but it was implied. And I think this is what's so hard about Christianity and modern Christianity. It's not necessarily what is said. It's what it's not said, right? It's the implications and what is implied.

And what was implied to me was that my salvation, my assurance was based upon transformation. How did my life change and my sincerity? That's... That's the two aspects that were handed to me. And I would hear sermons. I'm sure some of you have heard sermons like this as well. You know, rededicating your life to the Lord or, you know, I knew about God or I believed in the gospel. It wasn't until I really gave my life to Jesus. That's when I knew.

I don't care what you give your life to. Giving your life to Jesus doesn't save you. Sincerity never saved anybody. I know those are wild things to say, but when we look at Scripture... You're being rescued out of something. So I don't care how sincere you are. Your sincerity never did anything for you and your salvation. Let me explain.

The way in which the Bible describes this is that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were a part of the kingdom of darkness. We were held captive by Satan, and we were under the condemnation of God. I mean, it's not that just you're a sinner. You're a slave. And you needed to be set free. I mean, there's so many aspects to living as a human being in this world, right? There's a lot going on. And so...

Just because you sincerely give your life to Jesus doesn't mean that all of a sudden you and God are good. That's not how that works. There is a lot of people who tried to come to God in sincerity. The rich young ruler came to Jesus in sincerity. Like, Master, I've sincerely served you. I have kept the commandments. I mean, listen, if there is...

there's not a sincere guy more than the rich young ruler. I don't know who's more sincere than that. So he said, where have I failed? Where have I missed? Jesus says, well, keep all the commandments. And obviously he's exposing them because the man doesn't understand the nature of the law. It's perfection. And it's not some of the commandments. It's all of the commandments.

The man walked away sorrowful because he realized he couldn't do it. But he never came to Jesus and said, he didn't say, how can I be a part of the kingdom? Like, it's not, it's not. What am I lacking? Give me how I can fix it. It's like, Jesus, I'm lacking everything. So sincerity and sincerely obeying is not the solution to your salvation, and it's definitely not the solution to your...

To your assurance. Let me tell you why. How do you know you're sincere enough? If there's a scale between dying, you'll die for your faith, and then maybe you'll show up on a Christmas morning. or Easter Sunday. Those are the scales of sincerity. And as long as you're in between that scale, then you're okay. You can have assurance, right? If you stop coming to church on Easter, then you're done. But just be on the scale at some point.

You're not going to find that. You're not going to find sincerity in Scripture. Now, that's definitely a tactic of the evil one, because you have to think about it. Satan is the father of all lies. He wants us to believe things that are... slightly off. If you listen to the lies that he offers Jesus in the wilderness, he's quoting scripture. He's just quoting it out of context.

And this happens so often. I've heard people say, examine yourself to see if you're of the faith. John, what is wrong with you? This is heretical. I know that in the YouTube comments that someone's going to comment it down there. Examine yourself to see if you're of the faith. Well, you should read that in context. Do me a favor before you quote that verse. Just go read the whole section. Read the whole chapter.

you're going to realize who Paul's talking to and why he says that. And we've done a whole episode on it. You can go to Theocast, type in Theocast, examine yourself, and you can watch that episode. But assurance does not come by self-examination. Because then you are being justified by you. Think about it this way. This is Romans 8, 33. I love this.

Because we're talking about accusations. So like, if you're going to examine yourself, I'm telling you, you are going to be accused. You will find something to bring in your own accusations against yourself. If not, ask your spouse. or your friend or your neighbor, they'll find something for you to bring an accusation against you. They will. This is why Paul says it this way, Romans 8, 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. So they can bring the charge, but it doesn't matter. You're not justifying yourself by your obedience, not before or after. This is so important. Not before you were. justified, and not after you are justified. You're not justifying yourself based upon your obedience. It's a spiritual matter. It is a spiritual act. This is why I want this language of re-enchanting our Bibles, that when we read these type of verses, we realize that there is a whole spiritual realm.

And that realm includes what God is doing through us. We may not see it, but we can definitely experience the power of the Spirit in us by faith, that real peace and real joy and real comfort. Real assurance can come to us, but it comes to us in a spiritual form, not in a physical form. Listen to this. This is Philippians 4.7. The peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds. How? In your obedience, in your assurance, in your sincerity, in your longevity, in your faithfulness.

He says that it's in Christ Jesus. The peace of God, Philippians 4, 7, the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So what you love... And what you think. You're going to have peace. Man, that would be amazing, right? To have peace. Because this is where we labor and we wrestle and we struggle. And Paul is like, peace comes in Christ. And it has to be all of who he is.

and what he has done in all of your life. See, that's why that phrase matters. We don't want some of them. We want his death, life, resurrection, glorification. We want him to be our great high priest who is ever interceding for us right now by name. He is praying for us. He represents us. It is why we can pray at any moment asking for mercy and grace and wisdom from the Father. That peace is not, I've done well, therefore I can go request something from the Father.

It is, child, you have face planted, and now you can run into the presence of the Father and tell him about it with peace. Why? Because your presence and standing before God is not based upon your sincerity.

or your performance. Assurance is a supernatural work of God in your life. If you're new to Theocast, you may not have heard of this word. It's called pietism. Have you ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden versus rest and joy that you wake up worrying about how well you're going to perform instead of thinking about what christ has done for you it's dread versus joy really

That's pietism. Pietism causes Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope not in what Christ has done but what they're doing. And we have a little book for you. It's free. We want you to download it. And we're going to explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism. Reformed theology, really, how it is that we walk by faith, seeing the joy of Christ.

And when Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest, what does that look like? You can download it on our website. Just go to theocost.org. The more of the gospel. that we hear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. The more of Jesus for you that you feed on and that you meditate on. The Spirit brings peace to your soul. And from that comes good works. And from that comes fruit. And from that comes...

peace, but we reverse it all of the time. My labor, my work, my sincerity brings assurance, and you either have false pride, you either... um look at it and you have pride and arrogance and man do i see this in the reform world in christianity people who feel like they perform really really well and then they're just

They're hard to be around because there's no humility. There's no grace. There's no unity of the spirit because it's look how well I'm doing. And then people have to act and believe the way we do about everything. Or we won't agree with them or we won't associate with them. It's ridiculous. Or we won't allow people to have assurance because...

they're not living life the way in which we want to. Now, listen, I'm not an antinomian. If the Bible is very clear, you should not murder babies, and you should not marry the same gender, and you should not sleep. Listen. Where the Bible is clear on the law, let's uphold the law. It's for our good. You know, sometimes I look at laws and I'm like, that's ridiculous. Like, I don't know who created that law.

that that is of no benefit but the law giver is perfect and right and holy and gracious and kind and so he gives us laws that are good for us they're not bad for us it's just don't try and use the law for your assurance Don't try and use the law for your sincerity because you're going to be condemned. And what does Romans 8.1 say at the beginning of that chapter? We looked at Romans 8.33, but what is Romans 8?

One say, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that verse is just lost on most people. You cannot be condemned. I don't know how else you want to interpret that. What does that mean? There's no condemnation for those who are sincere, for those who are obedient.

He says, for those who are in Christ Jesus, and you can't be in Christ unless a supernatural work of God in you. And how do you know that the supernatural work of God is in you and you have this work in you? How do you know that? Faith. And faith comes through hearing Christ. It's circular, right? It feels like it, right? If you believe that Christ is enough to forgive you and to make you righteous before him.

And that he's coming back and he will make all things new. He will crack the curse in half and he will bring forth the new heavens and the new earth and he will give you a new body. You believe that to be true? Let me just put it simple. Make it very simple. Jesus is enough to save me from myself and my sin. If you believe that, and only Jesus, and he is the only way, you believe that.

And you are saved. And if you struggle with the rest and you don't understand it, then it's time to be discipled, right? And the more you know of Christ and the more you know of the Bible, the stronger your assurance will be.

What happens is we fill our hearts and our minds with worldliness, and it isn't necessarily... the kind of worldliness we're thinking like, oh, it's like evil things. But we fill our minds with the world. We occupy our time with the world. And then we wonder why we struggle with assurance. Well, because we think like the world.

especially our world right now, which is very disenchanted. I mean, if we can't see it and prove it, examine it, and put a microscope on it, we're not going to believe in it. This is why evolution has been so powerful. The theory of evolution has been so powerful in our culture for so long, because we want to be able to have an explanation for everything. You know, even in Paul's day, they said the gospel is foolish. Like, that's ridiculous.

Did you have a God who died for you so that you could be saved? And people mock the idea of there being gods now. I mean, getting yourself in trouble, all kinds of trouble with that. First commandment, you shall have no other gods. Why? Because... The evil one wants to pull our heart and mind in any way he can off of our God and King. I think this is why Ephesians 6 matters so much, because...

If you think you're wrestling with what you can see, he's like, you're not. Here's why. This is why this has mattered so much to me. If it's physical, we feel like we have a shot at it in some way because we can see it. And if it's not us, someone else can manage it. So if the problem is a physical problem, then we can go towards physical solutions. But the problem is that what we're facing every single day is not physical problems.

The problems that we're facing are spiritual problems. I think this is the thing that has me more worked up about anything. Because the moment you understand your only hope is Jesus to get through life, to make it work, the only solution is Jesus, then you're going to want to know. about the supernatural nature of the gospel and how it works for you. How else do you stand in the strength of the Lord? What does that look like? We even come with

physical solutions to some of that. Well, it's journaling, it's Bible reading, it's, you know, listen, those things are helpful, but that's not what he means. When he says stand in the strength of the Lord, it doesn't mean 30 minutes of Bible reading. Now stay tuned. In the coming episodes, we're going to talk more and more about this particular subject. Like what does it mean to have the strength of God to stand in it?

To be effective in our world, to actually do something in our world, and you could be blind, you could be deaf, you could be wheelchair-bound, you could be dying of cancer, and yet you are standing. in the strength of the Lord. Well, that's a powerful thought to think about. You could be three seconds from death and you can have peace and joy and you could be fighting for the king and his kingdom.

Because you're doing it in God's strength. That gets me excited. It doesn't matter what your age is, your gender, your situation, what country you live in. God loves you. He saved you. And he says, you stand in my strength. You can take on the entire kingdom of darkness. Because you're using my power. You're not using your power. What an absolute fascinating thought to think about, right? So.

Let's close this down. This has been a little longer than I thought it was going to be, but I got thinking about this and I wanted to record it before I forgot. Hebrews 10, 14. He says this, for by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Whose work? Every single aspect of the gospel, the good news, all of Christ, his sacrifice is not only cleansing you, it's sanctifying you.

This is Hebrews 10, 14. For by a single sacrifice, he has perfected for all time. How do I know I'm okay with God? Because Jesus paid for my sins. Jesus provided for my righteousness, and Jesus is paving the way for my glorification. He does it all. The mistake... And I think the horrible tactic of Satan that has worked in Christianity is that we think the Christian life is either about getting saved, keeping ourselves saved, or proving that we're saved.

We're not doing any work for the kingdom when we're doing that. We're trying to secure our spot. It's so selfish. It's so small-minded. Think about it. Every day we wake up, we're trying to secure our spot in the kingdom. And we read all the passages. You can find plenty, and you can take them out of context. I'm writing a whole book right now called...

the Bible according to Jesus, whatever we're going to call it. But the point of it is how to read the Bible the way that Jesus taught you to read it so you don't do this. You don't pull verses out of context. And you see that all of Christ is sufficient to save your soul. Imagine Christians who wake up to this. They wake up and they realize, I'm not listening to the lies of Satan anymore. He...

won't point to my sincerity. My sincerity is not enough. He's not going to point to my obedience. My obedience is not enough. It might even be there. I know it might even have some sincerity, but it will never be enough. to assure me that God loves me and to assure me that I'm doing what's right and to assure me that I am effective for the kingdom or effective for my salvation. This is why I love 2 Peter 1.

Everything for life and godliness has been granted to you by His divine power. Chapter 1, verse 3. By His divine power. Did you notice? Divine power. that which you will not see physically, but you will experience spiritually. We have to start thinking this way. We walk by faith. What does he say? Walk by the Spirit. which is a supernatural experience, and you will not fulfill the rest of the flesh, right? So we have to begin to focus our hearts and our minds and intentions not on ourselves.

And as we find that assurance, and we understand this is a spiritual war, that he wants to keep us focused, that we're not okay, that we're not safe. which means we'll pray less, we'll trust less, we'll serve others less, we'll go to church less. I know what it's like. I felt it in my own soul where we get beat down by our sins and it's like, it's just easier to stay home, drink a cup of coffee and maybe watch some Netflix or the game. I'll live stream today. I mean, I know how all of that is.

He doesn't want us gathering for the spiritual nourishment of our souls. He doesn't want us to be around others who are secretly despondent, who are secretly, they're not. they're not ready to open up and say i don't know why i exist i don't know if i'm saved i don't know if anybody loves me I don't know if anybody cares for me. The amount of people who sneak in and out of church, it's not because they're lazy. Often it's because they're hurt and they're confused and they don't know.

about the wonder of Christ for them. And if that's you, well, I hope the Ocast can be an encouragement to you. That's why I do this podcast. I want to encourage people in my city. I want to encourage people in my church. This is an extra source that I can give to them and encourage them, especially those who are new. And I want to encourage those around the world.

And if you don't live in my town and you can't come to my church, well, there's a community that you can come join. And in that community, I'm trying to provide more and more resources to start teaching you about the supernatural nature of the law gospel distinction. When Paul talks about this war, what does that mean and how are we involved in that? How can we find comfort in seeing the covenants of Scripture fulfilled in Christ?

that the Bible really is all about Jesus. And that book is what gets us, when we think about the cursed world that we live in, which is real, Genesis 3, the curse is not lifted yet. death is here and destruction is upon us, then the Bible becomes the most precious gift to us and the church that Christ died for.

the most precious gift to us. Maybe rambling today, maybe I spoke to some of you. If I did, come in and chat with me in the community. I'd love to see you in there. I'd love to answer your questions. We're doing live Q&As in there and some classes. I want to see people set free. I want to see people helped. And hopefully this was encouraging you today. And if it was, share it with somebody. Leave us a comment. And Lord willing, we'll see you next week. God bless.

Hey guys, real quick. Some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So where do you go? How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources?

we have started something called the Theocast community. And we're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like-minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, education materials, articles, all of it's there, and you can share it and ask questions. You can go check it out. The link is in the description below.