We have been in deep consideration of the Biblical doctrine concerning Hell. We are using Dr. Donnelly’s studies as the framework around which we have been building a scriptural understanding of what is at the heart of our realization of God’s intent and purpose in hell. At the very core is the reality that by the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, we have salvation from the unfathomable horror that we have considered.
	This morning, I feel it is imperative that we examine our individual hearts before God as to the state of our assurance of salvation in Christ. In the light of our passage, we see Jesus Christ as the high priest … holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens… This comes to the forefront in the light of Matt 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' It is apparent that there will be those who have a false assurance of their salvation. They believe that they are saved, but when the Day of Judgment arrives, they will find that they are very seriously mistaken in that belief. Lest anyone in this room is so horribly self-deluded, it is crucial that we consider what this false assurance entails and have absolute dealings with God in our hearts unto a full and true assurance that we believe in the only salvation from hell, the Lord Jesus Christ.
	 First of all, we need to consider the seriousness of this terrible false assurance. There is such a thing. It is not a myth or theoretical possibility. It is a tragic reality. As we read in this Matthew text, there will be many who are convinced, fully expecting that they are saved from hell, and yet they will be cast into hell. The thought that they would not go to heaven will have never crossed their minds. They will be utterly shocked and startled and bewildered in the judgment that they receive. As we read, they will even be questioning Christ and arguing with Him. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me… They will be condemned and cast into hell for eternity. This is a very serious delusion that they will face with the direst consequence of eternal damnation.
	Second, this is a Common reality. It is not something that will happen occasionally or in only a few, isolated experiences. Our Lord says that “Many”, a very large number of people will find themselves in this disastrous fate of false assurance. Many will be told, 'I never knew you; depart from Me… They will be wrong about the most important thing in life. They will face utter terror and anguish. Expecting to go to heaven, they will go to hell. They will anticipate eternal joy, and instead find themselves in unending suffering. They will have faced Christ, filled with hope, and find that hope replaced by absolute despair and hopelessness. They will have been very, very sure of their salvation, but, in fact, will find that they were entirely wrong in their beliefs. It is absolutely serious, beyond any comprehension to have false assurance regarding our salvation. It is a dreadful, common reality, and eternally disastrous. That is why we must face it in our hearts.
	In line with the absolute seriousness of this false assurance, let us consider its sources. What feeds it? Where does it originate? Very basically, it comes from false beliefs, opinions, and ideas that need to be dealt with in our minds and hearts. There are a number of areas from which this false sense of salvation springs.
	It can come from a false view of God. There are many, many people who have a false vision of God. They see Him as a soft, compromising, non-judgmental bundle of mushy love Who could never cause harm or suffering to a single person. In their eyes, He could never judge or condemn. How often is the phrase uttered that I could never believe in a God Who could possibly send someone to hell? That is not my concept of God. Even Voltaire said, “God will forgive me, that’s what He is there for.” Listen very carefully! God is not shaped by our vision or idea of what He should or should not do! Ps 50:21 "These things you have done, and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you, and state the case in order before your eyes. 
	This false concept does not see God in His Holiness, in His Righteousness, and in His Justice. This deluded vision does not see the God who will by no means clear the guilty. Num 14:18 'The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty... Ps 5:4-6, For Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with Thee. The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity. Thou dost destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. Ps 37:27+28 Depart from evil, and do good, So you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice, And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever; But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. Listen to the strength and the might of the Holiness and the Justice and the Righteousness of God. Ps 89:13+14, Thou hast a strong arm; Thy hand is mighty, Thy right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before Thee. God cannot look on iniquity and for us to think that He will not judge and condemn is a humanistic distortion of His very Divine Nature and Being.
	Another source of false assurance is a false view of sin. Sin is seen as external. It is considered in terms of very extreme outward actions such as murder, drug peddling, child abuse, and other vile activities. There is no true recognition that sin is primarily inward. It is the lustful look, the angry thought, jealously, envy, selfishness, and the like. As we read in Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. At its very core, sin is not to love the Lord Our God. Deut 6:5 "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. This is emphasized over and over again. Josh 23:11 So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God. Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed it as the most important of all the commandments. Mark 12:30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. 
Notice, we are to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and all our strength. Anything less is sin, and as we read in 1 Cor 16:22, this is very, very vital. If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed…. 
In today’s society, there is no understanding that one solitary sin against God is enough to condemn us for eternity. James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. This false assurance has no sense of the depth of sin and the hideousness of sin. There is no awareness of the awfulness of the offense of sin before God.
	The next source of this horrid false assurance springs from a false view of Christ. There is consideration of Him as a fine man, a fine teacher, and a good example. He is classified with many good and noble teachers and prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, Socrates, Buddha, etc. Some will even call Christ the greatest teacher in history. But they don’t understand that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29; that Jesus is the only mediator between God and men, 1 Tim 2:5+6. There is no recognition that no man can come to the Father but by Him, John 14:6. There is no recognition that Jesus is God Himself, Lord of lords and King of kings, Rev 17:14. False assurance stems from a false understanding of the person of Jesus Christ.
	As well, this false assurance can most definitely come from an outward connection with the church. There are many who are born into Christian homes. Their parents, their brothers, their sisters, their grandparents are Christians. Because of this, they conclude they, themselves, must be Christians. They are good people brought up in a good home. They may be baptized and consider themselves to be members of the church. They may even have made a confession of faith. They participate and involve themselves in the activities of the church. They may be respected in the church, but they have never been born again. They have never been converted. They have never trusted in Christ for themselves. These are the ones who will be locked outside on the Day of Judgment. Luke 13:24-27 "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.' "Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets'; and He will say,' I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.' These will be the chameleon Christians who fit in and conform to the church, but have never come to Christ for themselves. 
This false assurance can arise from good lives lived inside or outside the church. They will argue with the words 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' Notice, the Lord does not contradict them. They did do good things. They did perform all these fine deeds, but they did them apart from Christ. God is not interested in what we can do. He is set on what Christ has done, period! No matter how well we live our lives on this earth, if we have not trusted into Jesus Christ to be our everything, if we have not called upon Him to save us, we have turned our back on Him and trampled His death and resurrection underfoot and we will be eternally condemned. 
Finally, false assurance can arise from a false view of significant experiences or personal change. It is absolutely true that people can change apart from the gospel of Christ. We need to be careful if we are basing our assurance of salvation on the idea that the Gospel is true because it changed our lives. That is not why the Gospel is true. It is true because it is in the Word of God. It is true because God has done it and He has told us of His Gospel in the Bible. Adherents of other religions have been changed, significantly and profoundly changed for the remainder of their lives. There are very many people changed through the teachings and philosophies of Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. They will tell you how the teaching they have embraced has indeed and truly changed them. Alcoholics Anonymous, positive thinking, diets, psychiatric counseling, and other worldly teachings do make lives that are emotionally and psychologically changed. But these are not Spirit induced change. These are not God honoring change, but they are change none the less. Some, who call themselves Christinas, get caught up in a profession of faith and feel that they have been changed and thus they base their assurance on this change, on this experience. But it is not the absolute and essential life change that is centered in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, alone. 
	None of these things provide the basis for true assurance of salvation. Just because you are connected to the church, just because you are here this morning, just because you read your Bible, just because you pray, just because you are nice and kind and friendly and practice generosity, does not mean that you are saved. These are all sources of false assurance, and any assurance based on these things is a false assurance that will merit only the King’s statement, 'I never knew you; depart from Me…. 
	Hopefully, there is a process that is going through every mind at this point, mine included. Questions such as Might I be self-deceived? Is it possible that I could be sent away? How can we know? How can we tell? There are symptoms, scripturally based symptoms that can be used for the examination of our spiritual assurance of salvation. If we see these symptoms, we must examine ourselves before God for the disease of false assurance. I hope that you will bear with me as we briefly look at them. I know this is a longer than normal message, but it is, as we have seen, utterly vital that we bear our hearts before God and ask Him to validate the assurance that we have. We want no one to go to hell and this is that important. This is that crucial. These symptoms, except for the last one, are in no particular order.
	The first symptom of false assurance is anger. As we read in James 1:19+20, This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. I would be worried if there was a flare up of anger at the questioning of my salvation. A typical response would be, How dare you judge me! How dare you question my salvation! Anger is a defense mechanism, used to protect insecurity. The true believer is ready to listen, is ready to examine him or herself. The true believer would not flare up or dismiss as impossible the idea that they might not be saved. Rather they would seek the Lord’s reassurance in humbleness and sincerity.  
	Another symptom of false assurance is that of legalism. This is the person whose Christian life is nothing but rules and activity and trusting in what I have done. I go to church. I give my tithes. I read my Bible. I pray everyday. I do this, and I do this, and I do this. This should be a great cause for concern. True assurance of salvation is based on what Christ has done. Our trust is never on what we have done, but only and singly on what He has done. Luke 1:49-53 "For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. "And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. "He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. "He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. "He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed. 
	At the other extreme, is the symptom of Moral carelessness. This is an almost certain indicator that something is wrong in our lives. These are those people who happily tell us they are Christians, but there is no serious attempt at pursuing holiness. They don’t know tears of repentance. They have never partaken in brokenhearted confession of their sin to God. They don’t care about obedience to God’s Word. They are apathetic, clinging to a profession made many years ago and that is what they trust in. As we read in 1 Peter 1:14-16, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." There should be a struggle for holiness and a desire to be holy. A true believer desires this with all his or her heart and finds sin and its stain fundamentally abhorrent.
	Another symptom of false assurance is the absence of struggle. These people know little of the power of temptation. They know little of the assaults of sin. They do not know the awful effort of wrestling with sin. It is like two men swimming in a fast moving river. One is swimming with ease, smoothly cutting through the water. He shows great speed and elegant strokes, moving swiftly in the current. The other man is twisting violently about, and gasping for every breath. He is battering the water, utterly exhausted, and hardly making any progress at all. It is apparent that one is swimming with the current and the other is struggling against the current. It is very hard and very draining to swim against the current. As true believers, we swim constantly against the current of this world. We must struggle and suffer the tears and the wounds and the failure and the exhaustion. We need to come to Christ again and again and again for His mercy and His strength and for His power to get us through each day.  Matt 26:41 "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 1 Cor 10:13+14 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. If there is no struggle, if there is no battle raging, if there is no utter and absolute reliance on God to see us through each dilemma and circumstance, we must ask ourselves why not? 
The last, and the most telling symptom of false assurance, is an utter lack of concern. It is those who have never, for one moment, doubted their salvation. If you are sitting here, this morning, grieved over your sins, asking is it I? That is a good sign. It is a sign of health and of life. It shows a longing to be more holy and wishes you were more holy. That indicates that you want to be sure of your state before God. This is a very good sign. If you are ready to be corrected, ready to say I was wrong, ready to ask forgiveness, that indicates a good activity within. It follows the Biblical pattern of seeking after God as our assurance of all things. Matt 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Matt 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. And Heb 11:6, And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 
	But, if you are sitting there, proud, arrogant, hard-hearted, self-satisfied, and self-complacent; if you are a person untouched and unchallenged by this morning’s consideration, I would wonder upon what your assurance of salvation is based. The heart of the true believer is tender and easily touched. It doubts him or herself. It comes back again and again to Christ and asks is it true that Christ can love me, even such a sinner as me. A true believer never takes salvation as a matter of course. He or she sees it as a wondrous and amazing and miraculous truth that fills us over and over again with gladness. It causes us to rejoice and to worship and to seek to please God in everything that we do.
	Let us examine ourselves. Let us reassess the basis of our assurance. Is it based on us and our works and our efforts, or is it based singly and solely on and in Jesus Christ? 2 Peter 1:5-11 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. 
	Please don’t take our salvation for granted. Let us give diligence to make certain that our salvation is set in Him, Alone, for His Glory and for His Honor. So be it! Amen.

This morning’s benediction is the Christmas story as recorded in Matt 1:18–2:15. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him." And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born. And they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, 'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a Ruler, Who will shepherd My people Israel.'" Then Herod secretly called the magi, and ascertained from them the time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and make careful search for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, that I too may come and worship Him." And having heard the king, they went their way; and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshiped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him." And he arose and took the Child and His mother by night, and departed for Egypt; and was there until the death of Herod, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Out of Egypt did I call My Son."  Amen.