2 Tim 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. 
	This is a passage of scripture that needs to be settled in each one of our lives. The absolute assurance of the truth of the trustworthiness of God is vital to our continued, spiritual growth. We have often been admonished to read the Word and to mark each promise of God that we encounter with a t and p, tested and proven, as the Lord works and makes it manifest into our lives. This passage demands that care and that attention. As such, it should hold a very dear place within our hearts, in conjunction with many other passages that add to the glory of our reflection upon God. 
In that course, let us spend a few moments with some key  passages of tremendous truth that are perfect treasure troves of the reality of God manifested in Jesus Christ. This is far from an exhaustive study of all the passages that should be embedded into our hearts and minds and nature as unshakeable and uncompromising truth. These are merely a few that declare our certain belief in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. They are our rock bed in the absolute certainty of God’s Being and Nature and Character. It is a good thing to review and to reflect on what we believe and to never take the knowledge of Christ for granted. Time spent in contemplation and reflection on the fidelity of God is tremendous and indispensable as we face the earthly, daily stresses and strains and demands on our attention and focus.
The first basis of our belief is found in Job 19:25 "And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. To know God as our living redeemer makes all the difference in our walk on this earth. First of all, He is alive. He is not a theory. He is not an idea. He is not a concept. He is a Spirit, the Creator and the Being of life. He is the perfect Person of Love and in that love, He redeemed us unto Himself through the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus lives, we live. Because He is alive, we are brought into eternal union with the Almighty God of all Creation, Heaven and earth. This is no small thing to know. It is the very basis of all our hope and all our faith. All that we are and all that we have been promised is set in place through the fact that My Redeemer, Your Redeemer, Our redeemer lives, now and evermore. 
	The next glorious passage of absolute certainty is Isa 50:6+7. I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I shall not be ashamed. God is our only source of eternal and perfect help. In Him, we find our help in every time of need and struggle and strife and affliction. By the Lord God’s help, we can walk through this earth with no fear and with no shame. As we look continually to the Lord as our every help, we will never suffer disgrace. He will never disappoint us. We will never be left blowing in the winds of distress and despair. He is our help in every time of need. We can count on Him. We may not fully understand what is taking place and why we are undergoing the trials and the tribulations, but we know that He is here, facing every situation with us. He is providing our strength and endurance and we will never, under any circumstances be ashamed that we have called upon Him and trusted in Him. Friends may fail us. Family may disown us. Associates may flee from us. But in God, we will never be humiliated. We will never suffer disgrace or disappointment. He will never desert us nor make us depart from Him. He is our eternal help every time that we call upon Him. He will help us and see us through every trial, tribulation, dilemma, concern, problem, issue, doubt, test, suffering, pain, ordeal, difficulty, distress or trouble. He is our help in every time of need. 
	The next earnest assurance is that His Word is the bedrock of our belief. John 4:41 And many more believed because of His word. His Word is trustworthy and it is the solid foundation for our lives. There is nothing that we encounter; no matter how newly shining and glittery its package, which is not dealt with in the truth and the power of the Word of God. It is in that certainty that our salvation is eternally secure. If we did not find the Holy Spirit bringing His Word to life within our hearts, we would not be enabled to believe in Jesus Christ as our salvation, let alone our very life. The Word of God is the source of all comfort and guidance as the Holy Spirit opens His heart into us. His Word is our every source of assurance and truth and direction onto His path of righteousness. Read it! Study it! Devour it! Most especially treasure and obey it! It is life in Jesus Christ!
	As well, His Word brings us face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. Others can tell us of Him, but it is the Holy Spirit, through the effective and life-giving power of His Word, Who brings us to the very person of Jesus. John 4:42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world." What a joy to know Christ, face to face; to be on familiar terms with the Lord for ourselves, within ourselves, in a close and personal relationship. We are brought to Him through His Word, by the Holy Spirit. We are shown His very face and we experience what it means to find our life in Him. We are made His brothers and learn to fellowship with Him and with each other. We celebrate the joy and the freedom that He gives each heart and soul. As well, His resurrected life awakens our dead spirits. Remember that joyous moment when we were brought unto Him and that instant when our shackles and burdens were released from our shoulders. We were thoroughly washed in His cleansing blood, and held in the warm embrace of His Loving arms. This is not cold theory or doctrine. This is the warmth, the life-giving breath of our Lord and Savior, infusing His life forevermore into our once dead bodies, souls, and spirits.
	In this personal relationship, we begin to discover the working of God within our lives. It is for the purpose of bringing us into conformity with our new spiritual life in Christ. We learn to cling, with all our hearts, and minds, and souls to the promise of Rom 8:28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. We begin to see life from His heavenly vantage point. We begin to realize that we have never truly seen the full picture until we have seen Him at work in our lives. There is a growing awareness that there is very much necessary to be done in how we live on this earth. We need to learn to count on Him, to trust Him in all things. It is a matter of complete reliance on Him to be our everything, no matter how things appear to our earthly senses and vision. We sink our beings into the fact that God is the only source of our wisdom. We learn that everything He does, He does absolutely and completely and perfectly in Jesus Christ. Through the course of the trials and the tribulations and the testings and the storms, we see His glory presenting Himself ever more clearly. We cling to the ever increasing knowledge that all things are working together for our good. It doesn’t matter how it looks from our earthly vantage point, it is all in line with and fulfilling His eternal plan and purpose. That plan and purpose is always manifested in our lives in Jesus Christ. It is always in the power of His Holy Spirit, through the guidance and the authority of His Word of Life. In that truth, we begin to get those glimpses of His Honor and His Glory and His Majesty which fills all of creation for eternity.
	One reason that we have this unerring and unflappable assurance is that our hope rests, no longer in us. It is no longer centered in the life that we live in the flesh, in this temporal realm, but in the heavenly, the spiritual realm that will never be polluted by anything of this earth. 2 Cor 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This world can crush out our physical life, but it can never destroy our true, spiritual life in Christ. We will suffer persecution and decay in this earthly realm, but our spiritual life is eternally vibrant and renewed and secure in the hands of God. Eternal life is no longer a theoretical promise. It is the living truth established in the glorious victory of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Nothing can touch it! Nothing can hinder it! Nothing can invalidate His triumphant victory! No power in heaven or on earth or under the earth can stand against Him and prevent us from our eternal resting place of glory in Jesus Christ.
	This is so because we are now, in Jesus Christ, made the very children of God. We are, in Him, the legitimate heirs of all life and truth and joy and blessing and righteousness and holiness and peace and love. He is our hope and our redemption. 1 John 3:2+3 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. We know that we shall be like Him. Our purity of life and purpose are set in Christ without any doubt or hesitation. In Jesus, we are free to come into the very presence of Our Heavenly Father. In Jesus, we call upon God, in all His Grace and Mercy, and He so lovingly responds. In Jesus, we have our spiritual communion and fellowship. In Jesus, we have life everlasting. In Jesus, we have all hope. In Jesus, we have utter and unfailing faith. In Jesus, we have all joy and rest and peace. In Jesus, we have every expression of selfless love. 
In Jesus Christ, we also show forth our love for God by bringing unto Our Heavenly Father all glory and adoration and honor and majesty. This is so because He has adopted us unto Himself through the precious blood and life of Jesus Christ.
	As well as our communion with Jesus, with our Heavenly Father, and with the Holy Spirit, we have communion and love with and for each other. 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. We are joined into a family relationship with all the believers, a true relationship that knows no bounds or end. Just as we commune with Christ, we commune with each other in Him. We learn what it means to give as well as to receive love. The very Person of Love indwells us and works within us to manifest the new nature that is now ours in Him. We learn to more fully and utterly live an increasing love for others. Nothing else measures our spiritual growth in greater accuracy than the manner in which our love for one another finds purer and ever increasing expression. To more accurately gauge our life in Christ, is to more accurately love one another, even unto death.
	As well, it is that expressed love for others that cements our hearts in the reality of 1 John 3:23+24 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Let us never forget that we are now indwelled by the very Spirit of God. His Holy Spirit is active in our lives to bring forth the greater truth of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He establishes the fact that it is no longer we that live, but Christ living His life in us. It is the Holy Spirit Who is our comfort in times of loss and sorrow. He is our wisdom in times of witness and testimony. He is our strength in those times requiring endurance and longsuffering. He is our power to face each day as the glory of God unfolds in our lives. He is our guide, our encourager, our teacher, our source, and our sustenance. By His effective work, the Word is opened in a reality that is much greater than ideas and concepts and doctrines. It is life and truth in the revealed grace of God in action. He is trustworthy in every regard and He is faithful to accomplish all that is ordained in and through our lives. That is why we rejoice as we learn the utter reliability of God’s Word as the unshakeable bed rock of truth and life. That is why we so joyously and resolutely hold onto these passages of assurance and encouragement and faith as the undeniable and unfailing promises of God. So be it!
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 2 Chron 14:11 Then Asa called to the Lord his God, and said, "Lord, there is no one besides Thee to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in Thee, and in Thy name have come against this multitude. O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee." Amen.