Sovereign Grace Church

…the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

(ISAIAH 32:17)

The only exchange of words that has ever brought peace to my heart are those words exchanged in the covenant of grace. The words exchanged between the Father and the Son on behalf of His blessed People. Our heavenly Father commands us to behold His Son and hear Him.

The Father declares of His Son and all His blessed people in Him. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (MATTHEW 3:17)  The Son declares to the Father “Behold I and the children which God hath given me.” — “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” (HEBREWS 2:13, JOHN 17:12)

From before the foundation of the world, we hear each blessed clause, each blessed sentence of the covenant, exchanged between the Father and the Son, and delivered to the believing heart by the Holy Spirit to His people.

How prone we are to try and find assurance in the words of others. Or worse yet, to try and give it to others with our own! Beloved, we’ll only find peace, quietness, and assurance forever believing the words exchanged by and within our covenant God, who changeth not. Words exchanged between the Father, His Son, and blessed to the hearts of His people by the Holy Spirit. Beloved, He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not — he declares to you elect of God — “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (PSALM 15:4, JEREMIAH 31:3, MALACHI 3:6)

LORD deliver us from looking to ourselves. Cause us “to put our trust in HIM.” Grant us to hear the well pleasing voice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, declaring to us once again through the gospel of our salvation, that everything this poor undeserving sinner needs to be saved before a Holy God, has been freely and graciously supplied in and by CHRIST. Our Lord declares “I GIVE unto them ETERNAL LIFE; and THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Beloved, no man shall pluck us out of the hands of our Father and His beloved Son. Believer, you can’t even pluck yourself out of the hands of our God; you are sealed by His Holy Spirit and are His Son’s purchased possession.

Everything I must be to be saved, he has graciously made me in the flesh of a man. Not in my flesh, but in the flesh and Spirit of His Son, which I now walk after by His grace. Beloved, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (ROMANS 8:1)

God grant, both the writer and the reader, grace to behold that the only work that effects assurance to the hearts of His people, is not any work done in our flesh, but rather the righteous finished work of Christ — fulfilling GOD’s LAW on our behalf. On the cross where our blessed Saviour died, He hath purchased [us] with his own blood. The punishing, bloody propitious death of our Lord that paid the penalty of all our unholy sins. And with that righteous life He lived as a man, and now He is risen, and ever lives at the righthand of the Father, fulfilling every demand God requires of me for holiness. God grant, both the writer and reader help! Lord I believe, help my unbelief. Beloved, HE has accomplished and finished the work of our salvation! Amen. (ISAIAH 40:1-2, HEBREWS 4:3)

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (REVELATION 7:13-14)