To the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding.
This is the phrase I want you to see: “the full assurance of understanding.”
I will read just two more verses before we get to our real theme. Hebrews 6:11: the writer’s desire for the people reading was that each one would show the same diligence “to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” That was his desire.
Then you all know Hebrews 10:22. It is about approaching God. The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” That was his burden.
Lord, we are so grateful that we could gather this day to remember our beloved Lord Jesus. All we have is because of You. Father, all we have is because of Your great love toward us.
We come today and commit this time to You, and pray it will be a time of encouragement. We pray it will be a time when we see the Lord Jesus in an even fuller way. We pray that we will really get and understand this full assurance You have called us to.
We know You alone have the words of eternal life. There is no one else we can turn to. There is no one else who can speak to us but You. We pray, in the name of Jesus, that You will speak as we come before You. Amen.
Well, I told you, I think, in the email that the burden was from John 14–17. In other words, John chapters 14 through 17. I hope everyone understood that. You had a bit of a reading assignment.
I do not know how many are mad at me for suggesting that you read the four chapters. I am seeing some blank faces. Maybe someone—did my email go out?
Well, then we are in trouble, okay? Yeah, I get it. I get it. Cannot blame it. I think it is operator error.
Well, you were to read John 14–17 because we cannot cover that much territory in one ministry. We are going to hit some highlights.
But if you notice these verses, they speak about full assurance. In the New Testament, the word assurance occurs more than it does in the Old Testament. Of course, it is Greek. In all but one place in the New Testament, that Greek word translated into English is always translated full assurance—always.
The writers knew the emphasis of the Greek. It was full assurance of faith, and that was the end we were to press on to.
Now, the burden that is in my heart in these chapters—which you never got my email about, and you never read—is the Lord’s ultimate assurance during difficult times. Praise the Lord, there is great assurance in His Word.
If you understand the nature of the New Testament, it is full assurance. You remember I shared not that long ago about being fully persuaded. Full assurance and fully persuaded are the same thought.
I believe that when we come to the difficult times expressed in these chapters, we begin to understand the level of assurance that we have in Christ Jesus and in God the Father.
I had two impressions as I prepared for this message. One is that we are living in difficult times. I do not need to convince you of that. I tell you, I am 68, and these are the strangest days I have ever lived in.
With COVID-19, a worldwide pandemic, and forcibly shutting down the world economy—I am a businessman; please remember that—these are incredible days.
Add to that the racial unrest that we have been seeing. I am not telling you the way I think—you may know—but you can leave that with the Lord. Add to that the riots. Add to that the rage. Add to that all the things we have been going through. These are incredible days.
Surely you have to agree that these are difficult days. But it was for such days that these four chapters in John were written.
This impression that I had is that our days pale in comparison to those days. You may not agree, but I do believe they pale. Think about it. These disciples were about to lose the Master to whom they had given their whole life, their whole livelihood.
They were going to lose the One to whom they had given themselves to serve. It was an incredibly dark hour for them.
You think of Zechariah 13:7, that famous prophecy:
Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
Those were the days they faced—terrific days. The Lord of glory, the Maker of the universe, was going to be put to death at the hands of evil men: the most cruel death you can imagine, inflicted upon the most innocent Man who ever lived.
And if you can imagine those days, on top of that, thirty-seven years away—they had no idea—Jerusalem would be destroyed and the temple would be destroyed. The Jews would be scattered. They would live under oppression from the Gentiles. It was an unbelievably hard time.
I remember what Thomas Paine said. I really think Thomas Paine, one of our forefathers—by the way, I suppose his statue is down as well—but Thomas Paine wrote in the Revolution, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Brothers and sisters, those are the days we live in. Those are the days these disciples lived in.
The second impression I had, equally deep, is that during these days the Lord offered them the ultimate assurance—that biblical phrase, the full assurance.
Those eternal words transformed this beleaguered few into a testimony of God that was alive and changed the entire world. Think about it, brothers and sisters. This band of twelve—now eleven—and those other disciples who were touched transformed the known world.
They did it because of these words of assurance that the Lord left with them.
I think John, when you look at it, is a little bit of a puzzle to me. John was the only one who recorded these words. The three Synoptic Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—did not record these words.
But that one who, at the table, had his head laid upon Jesus’ breast—he heard things. The Lord spoke, and he remembered things, and he recorded these things just for them and for us.
If there was ever assurance for us—that we can go on, that we can go through, and that we can triumph—it is in these four chapters in John’s Gospel.
This is the burden. I think, in this prayer at the Lord’s table, these words are the most intimate words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples. You have to agree with that. He shared His heart. He poured out His heart.
His thought was not on the cross. His thought was on His own people—how to offer to them full assurance. How marvelous. How marvelous that is.
Besides that, He expressed in these chapters the deepest feelings for His Father. The love between the Father and Son, which we talk about and prayed about in our time at the Lord’s table, is so evident in these chapters. It is the theme that runs through them.
These chapters contain the highest prayer ever prayed. No prayer is like John 17. These chapters are light in darkness. They are shelter in the storm. There are golden nuggets of treasure that can make us strong and immovable in the Lord Jesus.
This is what He left before He died.
I think of Fanny Crosby’s great hymn, “Blessed Assurance.” Everyone knows that hymn. Everybody probably knows a little bit about Fanny Crosby. She was blind, and surely she suffered great difficulty being blind in that age. Yet she was so used of God.
She wrote eight thousand songs and hymns—eight thousand. One of her best-known songs is “Blessed Assurance.” She ended the story with a repeated refrain:
This is my story,
This is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Brothers and sisters, this is the burden that wells up within me: Is this your story? Was this just the disciples’ story? Are these words of ultimate encouragement and ultimate assurance to you?
I believe that was the intention of the Lord. You remember He said, concerning those who would come after them and believe on His name, in John 17. These are our words. This is to be our testimony. This is to be our life.
Now, it is possibly impossible to cover four chapters. You may wonder what kind of fool I am. But at least we can pull out some nuggets. If we do not look at it that way, we will miss the grand scheme of all the thoughts He had in mind.
So we will just consider some things, and we will stop when John tells me to sit down. I know I have thirty—John left the room. I am in good shape.
First of all, in John 14, look at verse 1. You all know this verse, but notice how the Lord began:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
He knew where they were. He knew how difficult the days they were going to face would be. He imagined their pain. Can you imagine their pain? I wonder if they did not almost stumble and think, “The One we gave ourselves to is gone. How can we live?”
So He gave them the recipe for how they could live. He talked to them not only about the fact that He was going, but He told them He was going with a great purpose in mind:
I go to prepare a place for you.
Think of it. What assurance that is. He is not just going. He is not just leaving. He is certainly not leaving them alone. He is going to prepare a place for them—a permanent place, not like this world.
This world is not our home, brothers and sisters. A brother said the other day, “There are worse things than dying.” We have a permanent place because the Lamb of God went to the throne, and there He is preparing that permanent place for us.
What encouragement that is. What assurance that is. How much that should lift our spirit: He is leaving with a purpose.
And He gives three words of ultimate assurance. He said, “Were it not so, I would have told you.” You may have glossed over that verse many times and not thought it too important, but it is absolutely important.
Hebrews 6:18 speaks of a God who cannot lie. He said to them, in the assurance that He left, “If it were not so, I would have told you,” because He cannot lie.
The second word of assurance is, “I go to prepare a place for you.” How wonderful that is. Think of it, brothers and sisters. He is doing all the work, and we will inherit all of this. How marvelous our inheritance is. What a bright future we have.
To these ones who were facing imminent trial, this was a word of encouragement.
Then He said a third thing. Believe it or not, He wanted to make sure they got it. You know, it is a favorite way we talk now: “I got it.” Or, “You got it.” Or, “Did you get it?”
But He wanted to make sure. He made His point not just once, not just twice, but three times, that they might get it:
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again,
and will receive you unto Myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
Is that not beautiful? Could He have left more assuring words for this group of disciples whom He so loved? He could not have.
He said, “I am going to prepare a place. I am not lying to you. It is true because I said it. And I am coming again, and I am going to receive you to Myself. Where I am, there you shall also be.”
Now, to me, that is ultimate encouragement.
You remember what happened after that. Thomas spoke up. Thomas, you know, was the doubter. Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and we do not even know the way.”
The Lord could not let that be the last word. He had supreme encouragement, supreme assurance. He said, “Thomas, I am the way. Not only that, I am the truth. Not only that, I am the life.”
That was the assurance He brought. Thomas, you do not need to understand the events and the times and how you will get there. You just need to understand that I am the answer.
That is the ultimate assurance that He left.
If you look at John 14:12, another thing He did was to describe what His absence would be like. The latter part says:
Because I go unto the Father,
and whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask anything in My name, that will I do.
Think of that. Not only is He going to prepare a place, not only will He come and receive us again, not only can He not lie, and not only is He the way, the truth, and the life—He says, “In My absence, every petition you make to the Father in My name, I will do it.”
How tremendous. He did not say, “I will consider it.” People come into my office all day long and say, “Could you do this?” I never say, “I will do it.” I always say, “I will consider it.”
The Lord did not say that. He did not just say it once; He said it twice. “Whatsoever you ask in My name.” Then He said, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
How tremendous. What ultimate assurance is there. In His absence, we have an open line to the Father. Every request will be heard, and no request will be rejected.
I grew up in the Cold War. That is because I am old—or older. There was a hotline between Moscow and Washington, D.C. It was the red phone, and it was on the President’s desk.
At any time, either one of the leaders of that free world and that not-free world could contact one another. They had direct access.
Brothers and sisters, think of the hotline that we have. It is so much more than the Washington-Moscow hotline of 1963. It is direct access to the Father, with the assurance that whatsoever you ask, He will do it.
Anything that you ask, He will do it. These are words of ultimate assurance.
Praise the Lord that these are the words He left with them: “You do not need to worry. I am gone, but there is an open line. You will never not be heard. Your request will never fall on deaf ears. Your petitions will never be ignored.”
Then, in verse 16, look at this:
And I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth;
whom the world cannot receive.
Brothers and sisters, this is provision of unparalleled power. Can you imagine? He is saying, “I am leaving you, but I am not going to leave you alone. I am going to go to the Father.”
The first request—because, if you read the Scriptures, it is called the promise of the Father—is the sending of the Holy Spirit. He said, “I will send you another Comforter, just like Me, and He will be with you.” He goes on to say, “He will be in you.”
Can you imagine? We would think it would be enough if the Holy Spirit paid us a visit every once in a while, showed up just in a time of trouble. We would do okay in the good times.
But He will be with you, and He will never leave you. He will be in you. This is unparalleled power.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know how much you have thought about it, but do you know that God has put in you God the Holy Spirit as a permanent resident? It should make you watch your words.
It is an unbelievable thought. It is too great an assurance to imagine.
Now, people like to think about just the power. Brothers and sisters, it is far more than just an inanimate power. It is a Person. It is the Person of the Holy Spirit. It is God the Holy Spirit.
It is one of the Trinity who made everything, informed everything, and did everything. The Lord’s supreme, ultimate assurance is this: “This is the One I am going to send to be your Comforter. He will lead you into all truth. He will remind you of everything that I said. You will never be alone.”
Can you imagine? I do not think we think enough about that. We should bow and worship that the Lord requested of the Father, and the Father determined to do it—to send the Holy Spirit to personally abide in us.
This is unparalleled power.
You know, I grew up in the sixties and seventies, and we liked power. We had muscle cars. I never had a muscle car. I had a Falcon—140 cubic inches and a one-barrel carburetor—that could hardly go up a mountain.
But my friends who had more means than me had muscle cars. Powerful. I never had a muscle car. I do not know what that is like.
But I just ordered a truck. After seventeen years, you should be able to get a new vehicle after seventeen years. It says, you know, regarding the engine they put in this truck, “Legendary power.” That is slick marketing, but I do not think it is really true.
At least I get my muscle car now, at sixty-eight years old. It is a truck, but legendary power.
The Holy Spirit is legendary power.
That is the One who comes and takes up permanent residence, leads us into all truth, teaches us everything the Lord wanted to teach us, and daily is our Comforter from the God of all comfort, to make us and mold us into the image of the Lord Jesus.
This is what I call ultimate assurance.
The Lord said that He may be with you forever. He abides with you. Look at verse 20:
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father,
and ye in Me,
and I in you.
Have you thought about what that means? Not only is the Holy Spirit to take permanent residence in us, but the Lord Jesus Himself is in us, and we are in the Lord Jesus.
These are the two great themes of the New Testament: in Christ, and Christ in us. I can hardly take this assurance in my feeble mind, brothers and sisters. I do not know about you.
I can understand the drop, meaning me, being in Christ—the ocean. But I can hardly understand the ocean, meaning Christ, being in the drop, which is me.
But this was the assurance He left with them forever: not only will this unparalleled power be in you, but this indestructible life will be in you. That is how you will get through these difficult days.
Then He said another thing in John 14:27:
Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give unto you:
not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.
Brothers and sisters, He gives us divine peace. Can you imagine? He did not give us peace as a provision. He said, “My peace I give unto you.” Not as the world gives—My peace.
How wonderful is that assurance. That is the peace that passes understanding, which the Apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:7. We do not just have some peace. We have the very peace of the Lord Jesus in us.
Can you imagine? Words of supreme assurance. I think these words are almost too much to take in.
Then you go to John 15. There is one major thing in John 15. It is all about this: when the Lord says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches, and he that abideth in Me beareth much fruit.”
That is really the whole message of John 15. Brothers and sisters, this is the ultimate secret. We abide in the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is our strength.
It is not your strength to get through difficulties. Do not ever think it. You remember when the Apostle Paul wrote that great word in Ephesians 6:10–18, speaking of spiritual warfare:
Be strong in the Lord,
and in the power of His might.
Brothers and sisters, this, to me, is a tremendous secret. We have this indestructible life that is our supply. It is coming to us as long as we are connected as a branch to the vine.
That indestructible life will always be our portion for every situation. Can you take that in? That is ultimate assurance.
I have a yard that used to be nothing but trees. We have taken a lot down. But we would go out in the seasons, and our yard would be littered with dead branches. They were not connected to the tree.
If we stay connected to the Lord Jesus, brothers and sisters, we have the power of an indestructible life. He goes on to say, “You shall bear fruit, and your fruit shall remain.”
There was no equivocation in the Lord’s explanation. This is the beauty of John 15. The ultimate secret is the life that He gives.
You remember He demonstrated this life. He said, “I can do nothing but what I see the Father doing.” He said, “I can say nothing but what I see the Father saying.” He lived by the life of Another, in relationship with that One.
He lived out of that life with the Father. The secret, the great secret to Christianity, is living by the power of this indestructible life. That is what He is leaving for them.
How tremendous. Beyond comprehension. Assurance you could hardly imagine if you wrote the script. This, to me, is so tremendous.
Then in John 16, He speaks of an unspeakable joy. Not only did He give us the peace that passes understanding—“My peace, not as the world giveth”—but He gives us joy.
It says in verse 20:
Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
Is that not marvelous? Think of it, brothers and sisters. In every circumstance that we come into, our grief can be turned to joy. I think that is a tremendous encouragement.
You know what it says in Psalm 84:6:
Passing through the valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings.
Baca means weeping. This was Nehemiah’s secret. Do you remember what it says in Nehemiah 8:10, when he and Ezra spoke to the people?
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
We used to sing that song. We do not sing that song anymore. Some of the old people—Shirley, she knows it by heart. I will not sing, because the room will vacate.
But the joy of the Lord is our strength, brothers and sisters. He leaves with us unparalleled power, an indestructible life, a peace that passes understanding—His peace—and a joy that triumphs in the darkest hours.
How tremendous that is.
He said in verse 22:
Ye now therefore have sorrow:
but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you.
He did not have to say that. He did say that because He wanted to communicate to them the ultimate assurance that this joy—no one can take from you.
The last chapter is chapter 17. This is the ultimate prayer. There is no prayer like this in Scripture.
You can think of Ezra’s great prayer. There are many great prayers, by the way. Read Ezra 9. Read Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9. Read Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles and 1 Kings. You will be impressed by those prayers.
But there is no prayer like this prayer. This is the holy of holies.
The fact that He permitted John in particular—and perhaps the others—to hear this prayer, to hear what He uttered to the Father and what He would do for His own, was to convince them finally, in this great conclusion, that this is the ultimate assurance.
There are just a few things that strike me as I think about this. One is that His prayer will never fail. Now, your prayer might fail.
You remember what the Lord says: you must pray believing. You remember what the Lord said: you must pray according to His will. You remember what James said: you should not pray amiss. You remember those things.
But this One who prayed here—His prayer never failed. He prayed several things. He said in John 17:2–3:
As to all that Thou hast given Him,
He should give them eternal life.
And this is life eternal,
that they should know Thee the only true God.
Brothers and sisters, John used a particular emphasis. What He gave was not merely eternal life in the sense that we will live forever. For some of us, that would be a miserable existence, and for others it would be equally miserable to live with us forever.
But think of it. He said, “the eternal life.” That is Greek, brothers and sisters. That is the definite article.
That definite article reveals, when you read this, that eternal life is not merely a thing. It is not merely something in which you will live forever. It is a Person.
The greatest definition of eternal life is in these verses:
This is eternal life,
that they may know Thee, the only true God,
and Him whom Thou didst send.
He spoke about ultimate security. He raised a demand to His Father. He said, “Father, while I was on the earth, I kept those whom You had given Me.” Then He made this one request: “Keep them in My name.”
Now, do you think there is a chance that prayer will not be answered? Can you imagine it not being answered? This was His demand to the Father: “Keep them in My name.”
I think of the psalmist in Psalm 121:4:
Behold, He that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep.
That is ultimate security. You know, brothers and sisters, we do not keep ourselves. If God removed His hand of mercy and grace from us, we would be consumed in the whirlwind.
But because it was the Lord’s request to the Father—“Keep those in My name”—He will keep you. This is ultimate assurance.
Then there is the ultimate testimony. I know you may find this hard to believe. Remember, He prayed, “Lord, that they may be one as We are one.” You remember that?
Oh, I think we think this is impossible. You have been in the church as long as I have, and surely longer, and you think, “Is it even possible that we can be one?” Look at the divisions. Look at the strife. Look at the difficulty.
But this was central in the Lord’s great high-priestly prayer:
That they may be one, even as We are one;
that they may be one in Us;
that they may be perfected into one.
That is the secret. It is a work He is doing.
I think it is a little bit like the musical Man of La Mancha, and Don Quixote singing, “To dream the impossible dream.” I think that is the way most believers look at it.
Brothers and sisters, this is assurance. This is true already. We are one in the Spirit.
This will yet be true: we shall be perfected into one in the faith, Ephesians 4 says. In the end, we shall be one as the Father and the Son are one.
That is the ultimate testimony.
Lastly, He shared one thing that was so important. Look at John 17:23:
I in them, and Thou in Me,
that they may be perfected into one;
that the world may know that Thou didst send Me,
and lovedst them,
even as Thou lovedst Me.
Now, can you imagine that verse? We were talking about this in remembering the Lord. This is how much the Father loves us.
Think about the specific ways He loves the Son—how He rent the heavens and spoke out twice, at His baptism and on the mount of transfiguration:
This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.
In Him is all My delight. But the assurance the Lord left in closing was this:
Thou lovedst them,
even as Thou lovedst Me.
Can you take that in? Do you not think that is ultimate assurance? If He had simply said, “You love them,” that would be enough. But He would not do that.
He was leaving these ones He loved, and He wanted to leave them with the deepest impression of assurance He could. He said to them, “Thou lovedst them as Thou lovedst Me.”
In John 15:9, the Lord said:
Even as the Father hath loved Me,
I also have loved you.
Can you imagine? As the Father loved the Son, so the Son loves us. The Father loves us just as He loves the Son.
It is too much to take in. If it were not in black and white, if the Holy Spirit had not left it for our legacy, we would stumble at it and believe it were heresy.
But in fact, it is the ultimate assurance. The love of God—that old hymn talks about the love of God, how measureless and strong. Can you measure this love? You cannot.
These are the words He purposely left. This was His desire in His prayer. This was His demand to the Father. This is our unqualified, ultimate assurance.
Now I will ask you again what Fanny Crosby said: Is this your story? Is this your song?
Do you know these truths? Do these truths keep you in the darkest moments? Do they lift you out of the greatest storm? Do they hold you when nothing else would seem to do it?
If they do, this is what they were intended to do.
This is my story,
This is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story. This is the ultimate assurance.
Brothers and sisters, things may get harder, but we have every assurance in these four chapters that you can imagine. This is the full assurance spoken of in the three verses we read at the beginning.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we thank You for words we can hardly take in and can hardly imagine. Yet they are true, because You left them for those disciples in their darkest hour, and You leave them for us in our darkest times.
We are so thankful for these words. Write these words into our hearts. Cause us to meditate on them, consider them, remember them, and know that these are the words of ultimate assurance that You intended Your people to live by.
In Your precious name. Amen.