Mark 4:40; Matthew 10:29-31; Mark 11:22
Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. The very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Have faith in God.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The providence of God extends to the minutest things; every thing is continually under the government and care of God, and nothing occurs without His will or permission; if then He regards sparrows, how much more man, and how much more still the soul that trusts in him!
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): This is the polar star of a child of God—faith in his Father’s providence, promises, and grace…It is the trust of the heart, of all the heart. It is a child-like, unwavering confidence in our Father’s well-proved wisdom, faithfulness, and love. Any limit to this confidence is a heinous provocation (Psalm 78:18-22). He is truth itself. Therefore He would have us take Him at His Word, and prove His Word to the utmost extent of His power.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Assurance is the fruit that grows out of the root of faith.
J. W. ALEXANDER (1804-1859): Precisely for this reason is faith so often dwelt upon as the instrument; because faith, as faith, lays hold of God’s veracity; and trust is nothing else but faith in a promise.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The strongest and most lively assurance that we can conceive attainable in the present life, is wrought and maintained by the very same principles which have so faint an influence in the infancy of faith.
Let us hear the great champion, Paul, in the close of an exemplary, laborious life, giving an account to a dear and intimate friend of the hope that was in him. He had been honoured and distinguished for grace, gifts, and usefulness, in a peculiar manner; he had laboured more abundantly than all the Apostles; he had fully preached the Gospel, and gathered churches throughout a very large part of the Roman empire: his first call was extraordinary, by the Lord’s appearing to him in glory; and some of his succeeding experiences had been no less singular, for he had been caught up into the third heavens: finally, his suffering for the Gospel had been as great and remarkable as his services. But when he expresses his assurance of salvation, he says not a syllable of these things, but rests the whole upon such points as are common to him with all believers: “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day,” 2 Timothy 1:12.
We see there Paul’s assurance was founded on, first, A knowledge of Jesus Christ, the object of his faith; secondly, A consciousness of transactions which had passed between him and his Saviour; he had committed something to Him—that was, his soul, with all its interests; thirdly, A persuasion of His ability, willingness, and faithfulness, to secure and preserve what he had taken charge of. And these are the very same principles which are necessary to the first act of faith.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The other thing I find here is the absolute certainty of it all, and the assurance of it all. If my confidence of my final salvation, and of my ultimate perfection, rested in myself―my own energy, my own zeal, my own purposes and desires―I know that I’d never get there. My assurance is based on this: that God, the infinite eternal God, is vindicating His own eternal character, through me. And if He started saving me, and then left it undone or unfinished, and I ever arrived in hell, the devil would have the greatest joke of eternity. He’d say “there’s a being that God began to save, and failed to complete.” It’s impossible, it can’t happen. There is no more monstrous idea than the idea that you can fall away from grace―that you can ever be born again, and then be damned! The character of God is involved, it’s impossible! It’s not merely to save me, it’s to vindicate His own being and nature, and I’m being used to that end; I’m getting all the benefits. But the thing’s absolutely certain, because God’s character is involved in it…There is nothing that gives me greater hope and assurance this morning than my knowledge of the character of God.
HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): There is a living God. He has spoken in His Word. He means just what He says and will do all that He has promised.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Hebrews 13:5―there is the promise; and the inference, which He teacheth us to draw by faith from this, follows―verse 6―“So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper.” We may boldly assert it in the face of men and devils, because He that is almighty hath said it…Assurance is, as it were, the cream of faith.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: God is concerned about me as My Father, and nothing happens to me apart from God. Even the very hairs on my head are numbered. I must never forget that.
ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them.
RICHARD CECIL (1748-1810): I shall never forget standing by the bed-side of my dying mother. “Are you afraid to die?” I asked. “No!” she replied.
“But why does the uncertainty of another state give you no concern?”
“Because God has said, Fear not; when thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee,” Isaiah 43:2.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): God is with His children, and ever will be.
DUTCH PSALTER 226 (Psalm 84:12): O Lord of hosts, most blest is he,
who puts his steadfast trust in Thee.
