ResponsiveReiding

So much wisdom in so few words.

April 4th, 2019

Sometimes the economy of words Scripture employs to communicate deep theological truth is truly staggering. Proverbs 4:24-27 is one of those places.

Let me tease out just some ideas of key importance here.

First off, note that wisdom is always far more than mere knowledge. To be truly wise, one must think of things both in their full context and with their ultimate implications. So in these few verses.

(vs. 24) Solomon begins by getting us to see how we need to listen to our own arguments for sin. Not to rationalize it by sly words, saying it isn’t really what it is or figuring out devious ways to tell yourself it is all right. Speak the truth to yourself, or you certainly won’t speak it to others. Do not justify straying from the path – in any way.

Learn to communicate always in an honest and forthright manner. The more one speaks in devious ways, the more they obscure the lines of good and evil in their own thinking. Eventually, they grow unable to distinguish between the two and compromise runs rampant. The mind must be trained to think in clear lines of careful consideration, and not allowed to blur right and wrong.

This is especially needed in prayer. Learning to be brutally honest before the Throne so that all that is wrong, all that is corrupt, all that is real in thoughts, feelings and apprehensions be brought before God so as to live in the truth at all times. He knows it all anyway. He will not be shocked or dismayed. He wants you to know what He knows so the two of you may truly walk together.

(vs. 25) Always ask: Where will this take me? What is the end of what I am contemplating? In either word or deed. If you are aiming at entering heaven, keep your eyes on that destination, and make the decisions that coincide with going there. Keep looking for the door of that Great City. Keep your eyes fixed on what you intend to do and be there – and Who you are longing to spend eternity with.

(vs. 26) Since the Wise Man is always asking: Where will this take me? What is the end result of this particular course or path? He is never aimless. He takes time to consider the consequences of his actions, decisions, attitudes and words.

Father, make me like this. Help me always to keep the destination of Heaven and your presence before me. Let me navigate life only by this star.

Note here too our responsibility not to place ourselves in the way of temptation. It is one thing to ask God to guard us from temptation – but quite another to take up our end in making the path for our own feet level.

What do we subject ourselves to that is contrary to right thoughts of God? Purity? Wisdom? Promoting godliness and thoughtfulness and right thinking?

If we are constantly immersing ourselves in unrighteous things, is it any wonder we stumble in them? And not because God does not guard us, but because we break through His cautions and expose ourselves to danger.

Lord, deliver me from this wretched tendency in myself!

So vs. 27 – Lord, keep me headed straight to the Celestial City.
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 8

March 26th, 2019
Audio for this Sermon can be found here

As you all know, our current series is rooted in the little letter of 1 John.

In it, John states 4 explicit reasons for writing the letter.

1 – “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1:4)

2 – “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1)

3 – “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” (1 John 2:26)

4 – “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)

While we’ve been focusing on John’s 4th reason, we see how all that he writes revolves around all 4 of these ideas.

John doesn’t consider his own joy complete or full unless Believers are: Helped to overcome sin in their lives; Are kept from the deceptions of false doctrines; And are uncertain about their salvation status.

Sin is a big deal.

Truth is a big deal.

And Assurance is a big deal.

As the Holy Spirit inspired John to write this, we see that our God is not content to let Believers live with some sort of a vague hope that one day He will receive us, but a steadfast and sure hope.

One of the passages we just had read for us makes this point exactly: 1 Peter 1:3 ESV / Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

“Bless God” Peter says: Merciful as He is, He doesn’t give us a salvation whereby we just “hope” things will work out well he calls it here a “living hope” a hope that is vibrant and that grows.

Wayne Grudem states it this way: “This hope is the eager, confident expectation of the life to come…It is ‘living’—by so describing it Peter indicates that it grows and increases in strength year by year. If such a growing hope is the expected result of being born again, then perhaps the degree to which believers have an intense, confident expectation of the life to come is one useful measure of progress toward spiritual maturity.”

You will remember last week we took time to see how the Bible uses the word faith versus the way it gets used today in popular thought – well we have the same issue here with the word hope.

HOPE

The one who has been born again by the Spirit of God does not just “hope” that someday things will work out well now that they have put their trust in Christ.

No, our hope, Biblical hope is far different than that.

I understand how most people use the word hope: I may not have any real reason for such and such to happen, but “I hope so”. It is merely the expression of a desired outcome – whether or not there is any real reason to expect that outcome.

But like Biblical faith, which is always rooted in the stated promises of God and His character, the Christian’s hope is:

HOPE: The joyful expectation of the good God has promised us to come at Jesus’ return.

It is not a vague, wish-for kind of hope.

It is based upon something. It is substantive. It has as its foundation the sure promises of God.

And one of the things which belongs to – which is the birthright of – all those who have put their trust in Jesus alone as their sin-bearer and their righteousness, is that we have a promised and therefor a sure future – one which includes our own resurrection from the dead.

And as expressed by Grudem in my earlier citation: It is a hope that can grow and increase in strength year by year.

In fact, of all the things we’ve looked at thus far as means of assurance – the knowledge and hope of the resurrection is one of two areas we can actively grow in over time.

And what are those things John has mentioned so far as contributing to our assurance? Examining our relationship to:

The Word of God’s as the inerrant and ultimate authority in our lives.

Having been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Adopted as His own.

Hating the remaining sin in us – which we also love.

An inexplicable affinity for God’s people – no matter how little else we have in common.

A rejection of the World’s values for Biblical ones.

A reliance upon the indwelling Spirit of Christ.

And this morning: Hope in the resurrection.

Here’s the question: Can I discern in myself anything of a genuine anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s promises culminating in the resurrection from the dead?

And we need to note 2 things here before we come back to the text of 1 John.

1. The World has a poor and destructive counterfeit to this hope.

It is what propels suicide in many and undergirds the current rise in euthanasia.

It is not the hope of the resurrection, but the desire for a mere end to pain or discomfort.

It is in fact hopelessness.

When one can see no end to their pain, no prospect of anything changing soon – they can easily, and perhaps understandably give up on life altogether and believe the lie that death will bring the relief they seek.

And I say it is a lie because it gives no thought for what comes after death.

Among other things, this view assumes there is no afterlife where judgment for sin before a holy God still awaits.

No giving of an account of how we lived our lives.

It assumes the cessation of temporary pain is the final good, and that there can’t be anything worse after.

But this is to ignore the graphic, and in some cases terrifying revelations in the Bible of an eternal Hell to be endured by those who reject Christ and His saving work.

Jesus Himself spoke frequently and powerfully on the matter as a means of warning all who heard Him not to make life decisions based only on the here and now – but contemplating what is yet to come. John 5:25–29 ESV / “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

And beloved, without the sure hope of the resurrection sustaining us in the darkest and most difficult of times – even Believers can begin to give way to this way of thinking.

We can be robbed of our strength and courage altogether.

What could sustain Job in the midst of all of his sorrows?

Having lost all his worldly wealth, the death of his 10 children on the same day, his painful health, and the arrows of his friends as they misunderstood him and accused him of secret sins that brought his torments upon himself justly – what sustained him? How could he say “Though he slay me, I will hope in him”?

Nothing but this: Job 19:25–27a ESV / For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

No matter what happens now, and how this all ends in this life – I know the resurrection awaits. And in this body, I will see my Redeemer, my God face to face.

This time will end, and give way to that eternity with Him.

2. The Church has often neglected the resurrection.

The sad truth is, much of the blame for Christians being robbed of this aspect of assurance lays squarely in the lap of the Church in how we preach the Gospel, and what we direct people to put their hope in.

Remember what Paul said are the essential elements of the Gospel in 1 Cor. 15:1-4?

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 ESV / Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

More, in Romans 10:9-10 Paul goes on to make belief in Christ’s resurrection an absolute essential for saving faith.

Romans 10:9–10 ESV / because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

And yet the wonder and the awe of Jesus’ rising from the dead can often become a sort of an add on. He died for our sins, and that the important part.

But as 1 Corinthians 15:12-17 powerfully declares: 1 Corinthians 15:12–17 ESV / Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Catch that. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

Wow! There is no true Gospel and no true Christianity apart from the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.

But when we add to this neglect the current trend in preaching in America and its focus upon having a healthy, wealthy and happy life NOW – without regard for our own resurrection – we have a perfect storm of deceit that robs Believers of living in the joyful expectation of the good has promised us to come at Jesus’ return.

So little preaching and teaching today is rooted in the old dictum: “There is a Heaven to be won and a Hell to be shunned.”

A Heaven-less and Hell-less Gospel robs us of the hope we are meant to have, and thus undermines the assurance we are meant to have in our salvation.

But for true Christians, we have an extraordinary dynamic to take advantage of.

If we are fixing our hope on a genuine and divine promise, we can grow more and more assured in it.

The principle is a simple one: The more we acquaint ourselves with and meditate on the promises of God, the more real they become and the more our anticipation of them grows.

The more an engaged Gal thinks about and prepares for her wedding day, the more real it becomes and the more her anticipation grows.

This principle functions for us as those betrothed to Christ – or at least it should.

But if we are not setting our focus upon that day, then we lose that sweet and motivating anticipation.

An anticipation which grows and excites us more and more.

This then brings us back to our text in 1 John 2:28–3:3 ESV / And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We have 3 things here John puts in front of us which the more Believers look at and contemplate, the more anticipation and assurance grows in our hearts.

The 1st is in vs. 28. 1 John 2:28 ESV / And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

It is interesting to see here how John connects 2 things:

Abiding in Christ, and not shrinking from Him in shame when Jesus returns.

What is this all about?

The 1st part is fairly obvious: The more one abides in Jesus – remains in Him, fully puts all of their trust in His atoning sacrifice for their sins in Him alone – is unmoved from the simplicity of the Gospel – the more their confidence in His satisfaction for their sins grows.

My grandfather had a saying which my Mom passed on to me: “If you believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts, you’ll never believe your doubts or doubt your beliefs.”

There is truth in that. But it is all the more true when we are fixing our minds on things God has clearly promised in His Word.

The more I rehearse the truths of God’s Word, the surer they become to me.

I see His faithfulness to His promises played out in the lives of those recorded in Scripture.

I grow more and more familiar with the actual promises and how He states them and affirms and reaffirms them. How He verifies them in His track record and seals them by proofs – like raising Jesus from the dead.

It is why Jesus told the Disciples that when the Holy Spirit would come, He would remind them of the things Jesus had said. Because in that reminding, in that going over and over what He said, those things grow more and more concrete in the soul.

So it is for you and me today – and why we need to read, and read and re-read the Word. As we do, the things in it solidify in our souls and doubts grow dimmer and dimmer.

But then John ties this to the day of resurrection.

The reason why we “abide” in Him, why we make sure we reaffirm in our own hearts that we trust in Christ and Christ alone, is that in over time our trust and rest in His finished work grows more and more and increases our confidence in the joy we’ll have at His return – rather than doubts and fears that some sort of punishment is still due.

When we really believe He WILL return, and remain faithfully trusting His saving work on our behalf, our HOPE – our joyful expectation in Him grows. Our assurance of our saved state grows.

But wherever we doubt Him, or doubt what He has promised – like the resurrection – we injure our own assurance.

So John’s 1st point here is:
1. Refusing to stand anywhere but on the finished work of Christ on our behalf alone – makes us anticipate the resurrection with joy.
John’s 2nd point in this regard comes to us in 1 John 3:2 ESV / Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

The more one explores the doctrine of the resurrection, the more one joyfully anticipates a whole new mode of existence.

As we looked at earlier, those apart from Christ, have at best some vague hope of some nondescript something after this life.

It is a hope with no basis.

At worst, it is only the hope that whatever misery they are experiencing in this life will at least end.

But for those of us in Jesus – He holds before us the promise of an eternal life in Him that so far eclipses the very best of this one, that this life is less in comparison than a single candle to the light of 1000 suns.

We are already God’s children, but what we WILL be is beyond imagination – because we will be like Christ in some unimaginable ways!

Listen to Scripture again in 1 Corinthians 15:35–49 ESV / But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Look at some of those words: Imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual – bearing the image of Christ Himself.

Just as birds are uniquely designed to fly in the skies, and fish to live in the water and our present bodies to interact with the environment of this physical world – we shall rise to be totally redesigned to exist in the environment of the unveiled presence of the living God and to maximally know, comprehend, experience and enjoy Him.

Christian – this is the hope He has stored up for you. This is His goal for you and His promise to you. And if this is just ahead of us – what isn’t bearable to us now?

No wonder David could comfort his own heart by praying: Psalm 17:15 ESV / As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

And the amazing thing is, the more the heart is filled with this anticipation, the more your assurance of your position in Christ is buttressed.
1. Refusing to stand anywhere but on the finished work of Christ on our behalf alone – makes us anticipate the resurrection with joy.
2. Exploring the wonder of the resurrection – makes us long for the resurrection.
And John has a 3rd point in this: 1 John 3:3 ESV / And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

The principle is a simple one here, and one we do not need to draw it out at length.

It is just this: As one walks more and more in harmony with God’s Word, in purity, the more confidence they gain in their relationship to God, since they are not offending Him.

As we have discussed before, a child’s disobedience cannot alter their status as a true child of their parent – but it can greatly inhibit the intimacy of their relationship, and weaken their confidence in where they stand.

Obedience does not and cannot save us. But obedience to God IS a marker of whether or not we are really His.

Don Carson puts it this way: “Biblical Christianity never, ever suggests we attract God’s mercy by being good. It never suggests somehow we win brownie points with heaven and secure an abundant entrance by trying hard. Biblical Christianity, nevertheless, does insist on obedience.

That is, we are so changed, so transformed that the effect in our lives is to orient us toward following Jesus. Otherwise, the confession “Jesus is Lord” is meaningless. It doesn’t mean a thing. John puts it in the baldest terms. Not feeling, not sensation, not happy worship, not sensing one is particularly spiritual. But obedience, John says, is a fundamental test.”
1. A. Carson, “1 John 2:3–27,” in D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016), 1 Jn 2:3–27.
Obedience is not everything, for sure, but it IS something.

Again, this is not to say we can set levels of performance. It IS to say that we must have a right relationship to Him in that our desire is to serve Him.

And when that desire is not present, there can be no reasonable assurance of salvation.

But when that motivation is there – when we have really believed the Gospel and factor into our living today that one day we will be resurrected to stand before Him – that His goal for us in resurrection is to be holy even as He is holy – our relationship to the resurrection informs our behavior, and in the process, reinforces our assurance of salvation.

Hence Jesus will say: Luke 6:46 ESV / “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

And so Paul would write: 2 Corinthians 5:6–9 ESV / So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
1. Refusing to stand anywhere but on the finished work of Christ on our behalf alone – makes us anticipate the resurrection with joy.
2. Exploring the wonder of the resurrection – makes us long for the resurrection.
3. Anticipating the resurrection – makes us live life today in the light of it.
Taking all of this together – we get precisely what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:13 ESV / Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

If we are to soberly and soundly face all of the trials and pains of this present life, and even to gain from them – we must set our hopes fully on the grace that will be brought to us in the resurrection.

And when this becomes a habit of thought – oh how our assurance of salvation grows.

Unless this is the case, today eclipses all.

The immediate defines everything.

But when this IS the case, it produces an ever increasing confidence, assurance and joyful anticipation.

One that will buoy you through the darkest and hardest of times.

The great Puritan Richard Baxter grew gravely ill when he was 35, and was certain he was going to die.

Wanting to prepare himself for Heaven, he began to meditate on Heaven and what it would bring – on the joys of the resurrection.

He eventually did recover, but had written so much on his meditations during that season he turned them into the massive volume “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest.”

In that book he suggests that Believers ought to meditate on Heaven 1/2 hour each day.

He said: “For want of this recourse to heaven, thy soul is as a lamp not lighted.”

Listen then to this quote from that book: The Saint’s Everlasting Rest / “It hath pleased our Father to open his counsel, and to let us know the very intent of his heart, and to acquaint us with the eternal extent of his love; and all this that our joy may be full, and we might live as the heirs of such a kingdom. And shall we now overlook all, as if he had revealed no such matter? Shall we live in earthly cares and sorrows, as if we knew of no such thing? And rejoice no more in these discoveries, than if the Lord had never written it? O that our hearts were as high as our hopes, and our hopes as high as these infallible promises!”
As I was reading today: A glad word from John Newton

March 26th, 2019

A secret dependence upon prayers, tears, resolutions, repentance, and endeavours, prevents us from looking solely and simply to the Saviour, so as to ground our whole hope for acceptance upon his obedience unto death, and his whole mediation.

John Newton and Richard Cecil, The Works of John Newton, vol. 6 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 469.
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 7

March 18th, 2019
Assurance and the Gospel

Audio for this sermon can be found here

We’re nearing the end of our study on the doctrine of the assurance of salvation, with just 2 more considerations out of 1 John.

You know that I prefer to be teaching systematically out of a book of the Bible at a time – but we’re taking a break from that to look at some individual topics.

As we have seen all along, John doesn’t just give us a quick and easy answer to having an assurance of salvation like, “I answered an altar call” or “once I prayed a special prayer”, or “I had this experience one time.”

John is probing much deeper.

He wants his readers to take a serious inventory of those indicators of new life in Jesus.

Anyone can ask themselves the following things reasonably:

Do I believe the Word of God is really God’s Word, and that it has ultimate authority in my life?

Do I know what the Gospel is, and have I believed it? Believed it such that I’m aware the Bible says whoever DOES believe it and trusts Christ alone for their salvation – IS reconciled to God?

Has my relationship to sin changed such that I now mourn and struggle against the very sins I still love in some way?

Have I come to see that I have an almost inexplicable affinity for God’s people – whether we share anything else in common or not?

Have a new set of values invaded my thinking so that the emptiness of what the World prizes grows stranger, and new things in Christ grow dearer?

Has the Spirit of God opened my eyes so that the reality of who and what Jesus Christ is and what He has done is simply a part of the fabric of what I KNOW, not simply think or believe? A true inward conviction.

This morning I had planned to go on and explore the question of whether or not I genuinely believe in, and am looking forward to the coming resurrection of the saints.

But before we dive into that concept allow me to look briefly at 3 vitally important things. A bit of an excursus if you will – but central to everything we’re considering.

And in light of the past few weeks, I will not keep you long this morning.
1. I am repeating a lot because I know how the one struggling with assurance needs to hear these truths over and over and over.
Please do not be insulted if you think this is too elementary for you.

We never get away from the basics.

Of all the books that have ever been and ever will be written in the English language, all of them will use the very same 26 letters.

Of all the music written in the history of mankind (with slight consideration for quarter-tones), essentially all of it falls within the 12 note scale of the perfect octave.

But when you consider the noetic effects of the Fall on the human mind, and how since the Fall we have trouble retaining sound doctrinal truth in our everyday consciousness – you see how going over and over and over the rudiments becomes absolutely necessary.

It is why we not only meet here each Sunday for worship where were rehearse these truths in song and prayer and preaching – but why we have small groups, Wednesday night Bible study – and encourage you to be reading the Word on your own continually.

Add to that an active Enemy of our souls who seeks to undermine the truth of the Gospel whenever possible, and the endless distractions of the world, and you see why this is necessary for all of us.

Musicians practice their scales over and over and over. No matter how trained, or how long they’ve played.

And Christians need to do no less if we are to live in a living and vivid reality of Biblical truth.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20 Isn’t just a good suggestion, it is God addressing us with the knowledge of how these things escape us so easily.

Deuteronomy 11:18–20 ESV/ “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

And this gets repeated over and over:

Proverbs 3:3 ESV / Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

Proverbs 6:21 ESV / Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.

Proverbs 7:3 ESV / bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
1. Remember that in each of these, John isn’t asking about levels of performance or feelings – but whether or not something of these is PRESENT within us.
A few weeks ago I mentioned how medical science looks for 4 basic things to determine life in a human being: Respiration, Pulse, Blood Pressure and Body Temperature.

Now those alone can’t tell you how healthy the individual is – but they can and DO indicate the presence of life.

And that is what we are doing in this study – what John has been giving us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In each case we are looking at the question of where I stand in relationship to these various things.

And in some there might be a more pronounced reality than others.

It isn’t how much of the Bible I know and understand, but what place of authority for truth it holds.

Is sin troubling to me? At all? Simply because it is sin and offends my God?

Am I learning the difference between the World’s values and the Bible’s and seeking to love what God values more? etc.
1. But lastly I want to revisit the nature of what it means to believe the Gospel.
I know we’ve covered this numerous times before but bear with me.

This is truly central to everything we’ve covered so far, and will cover.

It is absolutely central to your life and identity as a Christian.

Now the older theologians used to think of Biblical faith in 3 parts:

Notitia – Content

Assensus – Agreement

Fiducia – Committal

Notitia – Do I know what the Gospel actually is?

Faith relies upon certain information. We do not just “believe” – we believe or disbelieve some particular information.

Biblical faith is always – without exception – rooted in some information communicated by God.

Biblical faith is: Believing what God has said is true, and acting on it appropriately.

It is vitally important we know how the Bible uses certain words, in order to understand the Gospel as God has given it, as opposed to how people have messed it up.

Scripture has no other category for faith. It never exists in a vacuum, is plucked out of mid-air, or is the fruit of my baseless belief.

So it is with the Gospel.

It is staggering to realize how often the Gospel is held out in terms of: Jesus made up the gap between your best efforts and what is required to be accepted by God.

Or that Jesus has come to say “clean up your act, and I’ll help you get to Heaven.”

Go to the right Church.

Do enough good things.

Stop doing too many bad things.

Be religious – and I’ll save you.

NO!

The Gospel is about Jesus coming to a totally lost and condemned human race – to pay the penalty for our sins in His own body on the Cross, because we have absolutely nothing we can offer to God to make ourselves acceptable under any conditions.

The Bible tells us that we all sinned in Adam, and are enemies of God the moment we come into this world.

Ephesians describes our condition in graphic detail: Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV / And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Ephesians 2:12 ESV / remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

And so, John 3:36 ESV / Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Now having been made in the image of God as Genesis tells us – the truth is that even if we were to perfectly obey God in every thought, action and attitude, we would only be doing what was expected of us, what we were made for.

That couldn’t possibly earn us anything.

And if that were true before the Fall – how much more after?

We couldn’t earn or contribute to eternal life in any way since we are already condemned.

So even if we lived every moment for Him for the rest of our lives, we’d only be doing our duty – and still have no way to pay for our past sins!

But then comes Jesus.

And the Gospel about Him.

NOT a Gospel about giving us some sort of mythical second chance to do our best.

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 ESV / Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Jesus Christ died for OUR sins.

He did so fulfilling God’s plan – it was according to the Scriptures.

He was buried, and He was resurrected the 3rd day – also according to the Scriptures – according to God’s plan.

That is the Gospel – the GOOD NEWS.

God has dealt with our sin problem in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is all about who Jesus is and what He has done.

It is not about what we can do either in ourselves, or even because of Him.

We absolutely must have this clear in our hearts and minds.

The Gospel is about Jesus’ rescue mission, not about a religious self-help scheme.

This is why the Apostle Paul had to come to grips with how his own life as a profoundly religious and upright man was totally insufficient to save even him.

Listen to how he goes through it in Philippians: Philippians 3:3–9 ESV / For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

All of which he summarizes so wonderfully in – 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This beloved is the Gospel. So do you know it?

Do you know it is not about your being good, or making up for past sins or anything else you can contribute?

Do you know it is about who Jesus is and what He has done?

How He died for YOUR sins, and was raised up again for YOUR justification – the declaration before God that you are righteous IN HIM!

And that He has sent His Spirit to indwell and empower you to persevere to the end – when He will raise you up from the dead as well.

This is GOOD NEWS! This is the Gospel.

But there is more to saving faith than just knowing the Gospel.

Notitia – Content

Assensus – Agreement

Fiducia – Committal

Knowing the content of the Gospel, I now have to ask – do I agree that this is the truth?

Do I believe this?

Do I believe this really happened and that this is what God was doing in sending Jesus?

Has Jesus died for our sins? For MY sin? For YOUR sin?

DO I believe this – what seems to be – TOO good to be believed news?

Do I give my assent to the Gospel that it is true?

This is the 2nd part.

If I don’t know what the Gospel is, then I can’t believe it. Some sort of disconnected faith or belief the Bible knows nothing about.

But having heard and understood it – do I believe it is the truth?

Do I really believe John 3:16? NET / “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NET)

But then there is a 3rd aspect to saving faith:

Notitia – Content

Assensus – Agreement

Fiducia – Committal

Fiducia – Will I commit myself to trusting this Gospel reality as all I need to be reconciled to the Father?

Do I take Jesus as the full satisfaction for my sin before God, so that I am wholly accepted and loved by Him because of Jesus?

This is the $50,000 question as they used to say.

In truth, it is a question beyond worth in asking and answering.

James Montgomery Boice used to use this illustration of marriage to try and bring all of this home.

Let’s consider a young man and a young woman.

In the process of time, old fashioned as he is, the young man gets down on one knee and asks: “Will you marry me?”

This is Notitia: The gentleman made a genuine proposal of marriage. He has asked the question.

So the gal must ask: Is that what I understand? Is that what he said? Was the content of his proposal that he asked me to marry him?

Have I understood him correctly?

2ndly, Assensus: Have I believed that he wants to marry me and that we should be husband and wife, and HAVE I SAID YES!?

Have I assented? If I haven’t said yes – I believe you really asked me to marry you but haven’t said yes – everything comes to a grinding halt.

But if I have said yes, there is still one more thing to round out the entire scenario.

3rd. Fiducia: We aren’t married until we’ve walked the aisle and said: “I do.”

So let’s roll this back.

Here’s the question beloved:

Have I said “I do” to Jesus’ proposal to be the complete satisfaction for my sins – to be all of my righteousness, and for me to be His bride?

Have I consummated that by continually trusting Him in that way? By ceasing to look to anything else.

By forsaking all others, and cleaving only to Him.

This is what saving faith looks like.

And it is not hard to determine if this has been your experience.

And if so, then you don’t need to “feel” like your married.

You don’t need to keep repeating the wedding vows.

You don’t need to guess whether or not you’re good enough, since that was never a part of the equation to begin with – the Gospel being rooted in our salvation being totally dependent upon HIS being good enough.

Now, you need to live in the reality of it. To truly trust Him in all that He promised.

And so as Jesus says in John 17:3 ESV / And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And then Jesus goes on to pray about all who believe in Him: John 17:20–24 ESV / “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

And so I want us to close just here this morning.

I want us to take some time to wait before the Lord to search our own hearts to see if this is the case with each one of us here.

Have you heard and do you know the Gospel, as Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15 ESV / The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Do you BELIEVE the Gospel? Do believe this is true?

Romans 10:9 ESV / because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Do you put the responsibility for the whole of your salvation into His hands today?

Romans 6:23 ESV / For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The free gift of God.

Eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In this, the whole of our assurance of salvation lies.

Jesus Christ has died. And those who trust in Him, are saved forevermore.
As I was Reading Today

March 14th, 2019

What an expression of His personal grief over the ravages of sin in the human race.

I wonder if we share the same when we see such suffering?

But we need to drill down and really grasp what grieves Him so. He tells us plainly: Unbelief. That men are faithless, denying God, refusing to believe His truth and the Gospel of the Kingdom.

I fear that we are (I am) more grieved by the results of faithlessness (like what produces such aberrations as demon possession, war, rape, murder etc.) than we are by faithlessness itself.

As long as faithless people don’t bother us, we don’t seem to mind their faithlessness. We ignore the most tragic part of their condition – while He grieved it above all else.

What does He call this condition? Twisted or perverse. Because to be oriented this way is to be upside down from the heart and mind of God.

Oh Father, make me grieve the unbelief of men more than the mere acts which vex me most. Give me your heart and mind. For it will drive my energies to see the Gospel is preached more than any other approach to society’s ills. Yes, Jesus healed the boy, but what of those around? And what is healing if we are left in eternal darkness from the face of God in Jesus Christ. Keep us from putting temporal band-aids on the eternally terminal cancer of the soul. Let your glory in Jesus be known. Let your Gospel be preached. Let me be a messenger who boldly, clearly and endlessly proclaims the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name – and reconciliation to you through the Cross.
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 6

March 13th, 2019
Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 6

Reid A Ferguson

1 Corinthians 2:9–16; John 16:1–15; 1 John 2:18–27

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

As most of you know, we’ve been working through this little letter of 1st John in an effort to get a firm handle on John’s assertion that he had written it, at least in part, to give certainty to believers that they really are saved – now!

1 John 5:13

1 John 5:13 ESV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

How can I know that I know that I know, that I am in right relationship with God?

That my sins are forgiven; that I am already received as one of God’s own children; that when I die, I will immediately go to be in the presence of the God who loves me and sent His Son to die for me for all eternity?

While not everyone struggles with this question in a deep way – many do and all should.

For some, they question it because they simply have never heard or believed the Gospel: The Gospel that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

They know the world is a pretty broken place, but they don’t know why.

They’ve never heard the Biblical explanation that all pain, sickness, disease, war, heartache and misery are part of the human condition because back when God created us in His image – we rebelled against Him.

How we wanted, and STILL want the right to govern ourselves as we see fit. To name right and wrong for ourselves. And to live for ourselves, rather than for the One who made us for Himself.

They’ve never known that God loved us so even in our rebellion, that He devised a way to remain absolutely holy and not compromise His justice, and still buy us back to Himself from our ruin.

And that plan was to send His own perfect Son – Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, to live a life that completely fulfilled all that God could demand of us, and, be our substitute on the Cross, enduring the just wrath of God against our rebellion and sin. This is so that all who put their trust in Him as their sin-bearer, might be forgiven, reconciled to Him and granted eternal life.

They have not heard that is the state of affairs in this world as God has made it known. Or they’ve heard some other, some false Gospel.

Others, have fully believed that Gospel. They know the truth of all this and have come to Christ for forgiveness and salvation from the judgment of God – and yet still – for reasons unknown to themselves, cannot find complete rest in it.

They are plagued, tormented by thoughts that somehow, they will still be damned. That they are not in right relationship with Him. They fear to trust fully: Perhaps because of some failure they imagine is outside the sufficiency of Christ’s blood, or because they do not “feel” it so, or maybe because they think they’ve just not been good enough since believing.

Sadly, even some Christian traditions have (for whatever reasons) taught people that they cannot really know that they are already in a right relationship with God.

They’ve have been told that such an assurance of actually “being” saved, of being in an irreversible right relationship with God is unknowable. That you might have some reason to hope it is so – but might be lost again tomorrow.

Or that there may be this endless cycle of being saved, then lost, saved again and lost again – and that no one can ever truly rest in the finished work of Christ on their behalf.

He’s done His part, but if you fail to do yours, all of it is out the window.

John wants all of those who might read this letter to come to a place of assurance before the throne of God.

If that lack of certainty is because you need to hear and believe the Gospel – because you never have – then we invite you to listen really hard this morning.

You really can be born again – become a new creation in Jesus and be fully and finally reconciled to the living God.

Or maybe your assurance has been wounded by errant teaching, or some cause unknown to you.

Of all the things we’ve examined in this regard so far – none of them John has brought forward to date carries as much weight as this one does.

And it is captured in one very simple but eternally profound phrase: 1 John 5:10a

1 John 5:10a ESV

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God, has the testimony IN himself.

That is what by God’s help I hope to unpack for you this morning.

Now by way of the very briefest of review – so far John has been building his foundation for certainty regarding our salvation by getting us to look at our relationship to some key things:

The Word of God: Is it divinely authoritative for us?

God Himself: Is my relationship to Him based upon actually having believed the Gospel?

Sin: Do you hate your love of it.

Christ’s People (the Church): Do you have a unique affinity for them?

World’s Values: Are you rejecting them in favor of the Bible’s revelation of what has true value?

This morning – What is my relationship to The Holy Spirit: Do you know the reality of Spirit given conviction over mere facts or unbelief?

Let’s look at how John addresses this in 4 key passages.
1. 1 John 2:18-27
1 John 2:18–27 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Let’s take this in 3 sections.
1. 1 John 2:18-19
1 John 2:18–19 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

We’ve discussed the historical situation behind his words here earlier – so I won’t spend a lot of time on it.

Simply, there was a thought system invading the Church at this time, called Gnosticism. And part of the teaching of the Gnostics was that all physical or material matter is inherently evil. Therefore, they said Jesus could not have been God in the flesh, since God could not inhabit evil matter. So Jesus must have only “appeared” to be human. Or that the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism, but left before His crucifixion.

And once you got this secret knowledge of theirs about who and what Jesus REALLY was – then you could become part of the spiritual elite they imagined themselves to be.

But it was all centered around errant views of Jesus Christ.

You will recall John’s opening to this letter is all about establishing that Jesus was in fact God’s Son and that He really was in a human body – very God and very man as the early Church would come to phrase it.

So when these Gnostics left the Church because their doctrine was rejected – it caused a stir. And they tried to get others to go with them.

John says look – the truth is this – if they had really been true Christians to begin with, they would have stayed with us. But the fact they split off shows you they were never really Christians as the Bible defines it.

BUT! b. 1 John 2:20-25

1 John 2:20–25 ESV

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

You don’t need this supposed secret knowledge this group claimed. Why? Because you have “been anointed by the Holy One, and you all HAVE knowledge.”

The truth is – John says – Jesus Himself has given something to you, which in the giving makes you KNOW for certain these guys are dead wrong about Jesus.

John calls this an “anointing.”

Now anointing in the Bible was always a means, usually by smearing oil on someone, to show that they were fitted for an office in serving God. So prophets, priests, kings – and in some cases even objects were “anointed.”

This anointing was always symbolic of the Holy Spirit being the one who equipped the individual for that service. We can’t develop that fully here but 2 passages may be useful in grasping what John is after.

In Luke’s Gospel we’re told Jesus went into the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth one sabbath, and opened the scroll to Isaiah and read this: Luke 4:18

Luke 4:18 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

What is this “anointing” here? The text is clear – it is nothing other then the Holy Spirit Himself.

We see this again in Acts 10:37-38

Acts 10:37–38 ESV

you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Now why would John use that anointing language when it comes to Believers?

Quite simply because it is Jesus Himself who spent a whole lot of time in the Gospel of John getting the Disciples ready for that same Holy Spirit He and the Father would send to Believers after His ascension. That He would baptize or anoint Believers with His Holy Spirit

John 14:16-17

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

And what will The Spirit do when He comes? Tons! but let’s look at 2 just briefly.

John 16:8

John 16:8 ESV

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

Don’t miss that word CONVICT. Convict, utterly convince us inwardly of our sinfulness; that our righteousness is not sufficient to please God; and that we then stand in fear of judgment. Bring inward conviction of these things so that we must act on them.

John 15:26-27

John 15:26–27 ESV

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

We could build our case with dozens more passages but the idea here is plain: The key work of the Holy Spirit, is to bear witness about who Jesus is – directly to the soul.

To bring an inward conviction of the truth about Jesus.

Remember the verse I cited at the beginning?

1 John 5:10a

1 John 5:10a ESV

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

So John’s 3rd point comes clear:
1. 1 John 2:27-28
1 John 2:27–28 ESV

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

What is he saying? That by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit, every genuine child of God has this:

A Conviction that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

John will build on this but let me get this point cemented so we grasp it well.

Knowledge come in different forms.

I believe that on average the moon is about 238,855 miles away.

I believe it because I’ve been taught it. And because I believe there are those who, with the means and methods requisite, have worked out those calculations.

I believe it has a solid, iron rich core, a fluid outer core of primarily liquid iron around the core and a partially molten boundary layer.

I believe all that. and I can see it every night so I know it is there. But I don’t know it the way those who walked on its surface do. They have a realization of the moon I will never have.

And, if some of those things I believe about the moon were to be altered later due to more investigation – so what?

And for many, knowledge of Jesus falls into similar category.

They believe what they’ve been taught. Trusting that those who taught them knew what they were talking about. But know it? Know it like they know sunlight when they see it each day? Nope.

They are Christians in name only.

Christians because that is how they were raised or taught.

Christians because they aren’t Muslims or Jews or adherents of some other belief system.

But not Christians by the conviction induced directly in the soul by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

But this is the thing which is indispensible to the genuine Christian – the one who has been born of God by the Spirit – they KNOW who and what Jesus is as really and as truly as if they had walked the shores of Galilee with Him.

The Spirit has given them an inner reality of Him which they can no more deny than they can deny their own existence.

They do not just believe it – they know it. Supernaturally.

Now that is John’s starting point. It is the common experience of all those born again by the Spirit of Christ – that the reality of His incarnation is indisputable fact, that nothing can take away from them.

And this is surprisingly true for the genuine believer who is struggling with assurance.

If this is you today, you really need to lean into this beloved: You know full well that no matter how you feel, no matter how down, depressed, despairing, confused or distracted you are at any given time, nevertheless you cannot get away from the fact that the Son of God is real, and that He came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ.

Get this – the very source of your misery is that Jesus is real to your soul. For if He were not so real to your soul, you could just give up believing instead of wrestling as you do.

No, your very wrestling IS incontrovertible proof that you indwelt by His Spirit. So, as Paul says

Romans 8:9

Romans 8:9b ESV

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

What is the first thing the indwelling Spirit bears witness to in the soul of Believers only?

An absolute CONVICTION that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

John was telling his readers that no one could bring them some new or secret knowledge about Jesus that was in any way superior to the Witness that was already in them – which showed them that any other teaching about Jesus was antichrist.

But John isn’t done yet.

1 John 3:24b-4:6

1 John 3:24b–4:6 ESV

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

John’s 2nd point is that the indwelling Spirit of Christ brings another conviction with Him:

Conviction that the Apostolic witness is true.

Because we’ve spent much time already on the subject of the Believer’s relationship to the Word of God – I will not press this point here more than note that when one is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, all questions about whether or not God’s Word is true and authoritative end.

It doesn’t mean one might not have questions about how to interpret, understand or apply various parts of the Word.

What it DOES mean – as in the text: We know the Spirit of God and of Truth as opposed by the spirit of error, by whether or not one “listens” to what the Apostles taught and preached and wrote.

The anointing that abides in the Believer brings an undeniable conviction regarding the Word of God AS the Word of God given to us by the Apostles.

Paul says this is why he had confidence that the Thessalonians he preached to were genuinely saved:

1 Thessalonians 2:13

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

If you are one of the struggle-rs here today, let this stand to give you an assurance like nothing else can – if you have that deep seated, Spirit wrought conviction that the Word of God is just that, even if you are battling with understanding some things it teaches aright – that conviction is a work of the Spirit alone.

Some may say they believe it, but deep down never tremble at it, never search it out, never let it search them out.

But the one anointed by the Spirit knows that they know that they know that this is God’s Word. And nothing can shake them from that reality. For it is a reality, and not a mere belief.

Building upon the previous 2, John then multiplies his case:

1 John 4:13-19

1 John 4:13–19 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

Here, John reiterates his 1st point – Jesus’ Spirit within us makes US testify, bear witness that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

But more.

By that same Spirit we have come to know and believe the love God has for us.

You see the mounting argument. If we share the Spirit’s conviction of who and what Jesus is, and that He came to save – then in His saving act we come face to face with the reality of His love for us. We come face to face with it in a way that is unlike anything else.

We can complain that we do not feel His love. We might say that we even doubt His love. But what we cannot deny is that He tells us we know His love for us by the fact that He died for us on the Cross.

In other words, the Spirit grants –

A Conviction that God’s love toward us is absolutely proven in sending His Son to die for our sins.

This beloved is the very essence of true saving faith.

1 John 4:15-16

1 John 4:15–16 ESV

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

If I know the witness of the Spirit within granting a powerful conviction regarding the incarnation and His death on Calvary – then knowing that, I must also concede – incontrovertibly, the love that God has for me.

John Calvin put it this way: “We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997).

You see how these work together. The Spirit gives us a deep conviction that Christ has come, that the Word about Him is true, and that His death on the Cross is His testimony regarding His toward me, whatever I may or may not think or feel. I must concede what His Word teaches.

So my problem of assurance may be that I am unwilling to accept the proof that He says is the best proof of His love.

It may be a faith issue after all.

But there is a last work of the Spirit in the soul that John has yet to bring before us.

1 John 5:6-12

1 John 5:6–12 ESV

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

To be sure this is a somewhat complex passage, but the basic ideas most commentators agree upon:

1st. The testimony of the water, is a reference to Jesus being baptized.

And it was in His baptism that He most identified Himself with us – we in our sinful fallen state. Though He was not sinful, He joined Himself to us in that outward visible demonstration. It is a testimony to His being physically among us. Contra the Gnostics.

2nd. His blood bears witness – that He really and truly died for our sins on the Cross. He was no mere apparition, and this was no myth. He died in a Roman crucifixion, as a sinner in our place. Also contra the Gnostics.

And to this the Spirit bears witness yet again. How?

Romans 1:1-4

Romans 1:1–4 ESV

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

He was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit – who in doing so, declared Him to be the Son of God in power.

These 3 bear a unified witness about Him: The Water, the Blood and the Spirit.

The same Spirit who indwells all His own. That Spirit which brings:

A Conviction that Jesus really came, really died, really rose from the dead – and that believing in Him IS the conferral of eternal life.

1 John 5:11

1 John 5:11 ESV

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Conviction that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

Conviction that the Apostolic witness is true.

Conviction that God’s love toward us is absolutely proven in sending His Son to die for our sins.

Conviction that Jesus really came, really died, really rose from the dead – and that believing in Him IS the conferral of eternal life.

In closing let me bring us to 3 takeaways. Each for a different group.
1. The one who says they are a Christian – but for whom these absolute convictions are not your experience.
Call on Him today. Ask God to open your heart and mind – to send the Holy Spirit to birth new life in you and make these things more than mere speculations or beliefs – but transforming realities.

To reveal Christ to you in all of His saving power in His substitutionary death on the Cross. Ask Him to give you this new life in Jesus.

The promise of His Word is that those who come to Him, He will not turn away. Come to Him today. This very moment.
1. My dear brother or sister who is struggling with assurance.
Stop and consider that even in your worst moments of doubt and torment – that you cannot escape the reality of these truths. They are burned into your soul.

You need to let those convictions fill the role they are intended to have – to be tokens of the Anointing which indwells you – The presence of the Holy Spirit. And that this belongs only to those who are Christ’s.

The reason why you cannot be at peace, is because this witness continually confronts you in every frame of mind. And this is God’s own proof that you are His.
1. The Compromising Christian. The reason you are so miserable here today, is because you cannot get this monkey of the reality of who and what Christ is – and what He has called you to – off your back.
And you will never be at peace, never be able to live with Christ in assurance until you yield to what you know to be the truth. You are in a most mysterious and dangerous place. You know the truth, and yet you are trying to live apart from it. Repent. For if you do not, you will find in the end that you had no real conviction, but mere knowledge. And knowledge will not save you – only Christ can.
As I was Reading Today

March 13th, 2019
Three things to note here:
1. Clearly, the idea of abundance is meant to be demonstrated. When God meets the need, He does more than meet it barely. He is a God of abundance and there was enough left over here to feed many, many more.
2. How quickly we are satisfied – when He has provided so much more. We stop receiving from Him when our immediate pinch is met, and not according to all He has made available for us. May we become voracious consumers of all He has provided, and not just triflers at His provision.
3. Why did not those who partook, take more with them to take to others? Why was so much left over? They consumed what they had an appetite for themselves, but thought nothing of taking what Christ had blessed for them to others who might be hungry too.
Father, open my eyes to your great, abundant provision for my soul and life in Jesus. Give me a ravenous appetite for your provision – hunger for your Word and the truth of Christ that gobbles up everything thing I can. And let me take what you have broken, and not let a crumb of it be left behind, but carry it to others who need the Bread of Life that only you can, and have so graciously supplied.
The Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 5

March 4th, 2019
Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 5

Audio for this sermon can be found HERE

How can I know if I am really saved?

That is the question we’ve been trying to answer in our current study.

Giving people a handle on whether or not they can consider themselves genuinely a Christian – the way the Bible defines what a Christian is.

In Christian parlance – am I saved? Saved from the just wrath of God for my sins. The word “saved” incorporates so much. When we ask it, we are asking all of the following and more:

Do I belong to Christ?

Are all my sins truly forgiven?

Am I born again?

When this life ends, will I will go to be with Christ my Savior and the saints of God?

Am I absolutely and eternally His?

Am I in right relationship to God?

Many a person who has believed the Gospel, asked to be forgiven of their sins and are seeking to serve Jesus, nevertheless struggle with a full assurance regarding their status before God.

And the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has written to us to give us the means to arrive at such assurance. Not with a flip answer, but by building a cumulative case for each of us to consider.

A way to make this evaluation without falling into one of two traps: Neither depending wholly upon our ever changing feelings, nor depending upon our performance – that we can be good enough to prove it.

And perhaps avoiding a 3rd trap – that of looking to a spate of rites and rituals rather than resting in the finished work of Christ alone.

So he has been couching his approach in terms of examining our relationships to various key things.

So far we’ve look at 4 relationships.

Our relationship to the Word of God?

Our relationship to God Himself?

Our relationship to sin?

Our relationship to God’s People?

The questions are not couched in absolutes.

But John isn’t done yet. He has some more reinforcing things for you to consider.

All of which brings us to this morning’s consideration: What is my relationship to the World, and it’s values?

This comes to us by way of 1 John 2:15–17 ESV Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

There are 4 parts to this compact but powerful section.
1. An exhortation: 1 John 2:15a Do not love the world or the things in the world.
1 John 2:15a ESV Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

An exhortation is more than mere advice or a suggestion – it is an urgent call – pleading with a sense of importance and urgency – a call to action. An imperative. Even a command.

John is imploring us on this count.

It’s as if he is right here with us and saying: “Please listen to me – this is so vital for you – DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD OR THE THINGS IN THE WORLD. This is urgent and of life impacting importance.!”

It is meant to be arresting.

I want to let that sink down into me with some force. And I am praying it does the same for all of you today.

It is a blaring klaxon not a whisper.

Here, we have some serious unpacking to do. We need to settle on some definitions of the words John uses here if we are going to understand what he is really on about.

What does John mean by “do not love the world” when earlier he wrote: – “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die for us – how do we put those 2 things together? Is this a contradiction?

So you need to look at the different ways John uses the word “world” in his writings.

John is no different than we are in this regard.

We can talk about the world as this physical planet.

There is ESPN’s Wide World of Sports.

We can refer to the world as all the people living on the planet.

Or when the Bible says Jesus came into the world how it means He came from the heavenly realm into the sphere of all living people.

When the Scripture says “we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) – It’s recognizing a difference between those who belong to Christ and those who do not. Those outside of Christ are called “the world” here, the WHOLE world.

Again, we sometimes say a person lives in their own little world, or that someone has grown up and is going out into the world.

John uses all of these senses too. But most often he uses it one specific way: Don Carson sums it up very usefully for us I think: [T]he word world in John’s writings…most commonly means the moral order, human beings in defiant rebellion against God…

Most commentators concur.

John is saying, do not love the moral order that characterizes human beings in rebellion against God.

Don’t think the way and prize the things that those who are God’s enemies do.

In human wars, sides fight because they both value the same thing. Usually a piece of land or territory.

But for Christians, our battle is internal, over learning to love what has true value as God values things as opposed to what we naturally value along with the rest of the World.

We want to want new things, not the same things. At least we shouldn’t want them.

And this has a learning curve to it – since we come into life fallen.

This is a baby. Just angelic is she not?

But babies come into the world with a certain perspective on life that drives everything.

Thus, this is also a baby. If I’m hungry – I cry. If I’m uncomfortable – I cry. If I’m tired – I cry. And Heaven help those who do not respond to my liking.

Which is fine for babies. But as one gets older, they find this is an insufficient way to live, even though this is baked into our constitution from birth.

Parents who have never taught their children that as they grow, they are to gain control over themselves, so that they will learn to do some things they don’t want to, deny themselves some things at times, and live and work in spite of sometimes being tired and hungry and uncomfortable – ruin them.

And this is just as true, perhaps more true in the Christian life, in the spiritual life.

Thus John’s exhortation. And as we’ll see, to love the world is to continue to live by this remaining fallen nature. And what we’ll see is that continuing to live that way necessarily blocks the soul’s ability to live in and enjoy the love of God.

So he follows this exhortation with a warning.
1. Warning: WHY? 1 John 2:15b If anyone DOES love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15b ESV Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

This phrase can be understood one of 2 ways.

John could mean that if anyone loves the world at all, they cannot in any sense love the Father either. Total mutual exclusivity. If your eyes are closed, they can’t be open. Boom. Black and white, that’s it. If you love the world at all – you’re lost. Game over. If he means this a that kind of absolute then there’s no hope for any of us.

As we’ve just seen, that is how we are born into this life.

But given what we learned last time about how we still struggle with the remainder of indwelling sin, such a statement seems unlikely.

The exhortation to love not the world is a battle cry. It is a call to radical change – for Christians to challenge the way we see the World, and to come to grips with how we unconsciously still think the way those apart from Christ do.

The 2nd way this can be read seems more correct: If one loves the world, they cannot perceive the love of the Father, for their attention is misplaced.

Occupied with what the World values, the love of the Father finds no room in us; it doesn’t melt our heart and draw us near to Him as it ought.

I think this is what John is after here.

Truth be told, even the best of us at times can have our loves, misplaced, and split in an unhealthy way. We can get off track. We can be attracted by what doesn’t belong to us, and is unhealthy spiritually.

We are not what we should be 100% of the time. But we are being called to make a decision here. To recognize this in-born tendency, and to engage in battle against it.

But John doesn’t just lay it out there in a vacuum. He goes on to open up why this old way of thinking and living hinders our ability to perceive God’s love.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world because…1 John 2:16

1 John 2:16 ESV For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
1. A 3-fold explanation: For all that is in the world are these: The desires of the flesh; the desires of the eyes; and the pride of life – which are not from the Father.
Now John isn’t plucking these 3 things out of thin air. Here is where you see the cohesion of the Bible in a most wonderful way.

All that is in the world John says are these 3 things. And when all is said and done, they are all that the world can offer people as motivation in life.
1. The desires of the flesh.
Is John a closet Buddhist here – trying to get us to simply eradicate desire? Is he saying all desire is wrong? No, not at all.

Desire is not in and of itself evil. Some desires may be evil, but the faculty of desire itself is not. God has desires, and it is certainly not evil in Him. We can have all sorts of good and right desires.

The issue here is the desire of the flesh. And what does he mean by that? Not that hunger or thirst or the such like are wrong – but when given free reign, even those might be.

We need to note John is using the “flesh” here the way Paul does when he marks out the Believer from the Unbeliever in Romans 8:8-9

Romans 8:8–9 ESV Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

In this sense, being “in the flesh” simply means being someone who is without the Spirit of Christ.

John’s point working off of that principle is: The desires of the flesh he is exposing here is simply: Pursuing what I want without regard for what pleases God or accords with His will expressed in His Word.

Just like all of those who are outside of Christ. This is how the World lives.

Living life to achieve MY goals, satisfy MY longings, please MY desires, without concerning myself with whether or not those things are pleasing to God or contrary to His will.

The whole “world” runs on this principle. As I said earlier, we’re hard-wired this way from birth.

For babies, all of life is wrapped up in: Am I uncomfortable? Am I hungry? Am I tired? And nothing at all else matters. Nothing!

How much we carry this over so that we want all of life to meet us on the same terms.

I want. And life is all about getting what I want. Oh, the objects of desire may increase in number or change, but the mechanism is the same.

Look at the message that is often repeated when someone wins an award – we are told over and over that we just need to dream big and pursue that dream and we’ll have it.

But all of this without ever asking the question: “What is it God’s Word calls me to, above what I may simply dream up for myself.”

This is not to speak against ambition or the legitimate pursuit of godly goals, it is to say that when push comes to shove, is it my dream or God’s will which takes the day?

We see it everywhere.

Walt Disney: “All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”

Oprah Winfrey: “You become what you believe.”

And it even gets baptized into Christianity – which is part of John’s warning here.

Joel Osteen’s “It’s Your Time” Devotions to activate your faith, ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS, and increase in God’s favor.

God is here to get you what you want, you’re not here to enter into what God wants.

Or this from Kathy Duplantis: “Accomplish Your Dream.”

Love not the world is the call here. Why? Because the world – the mindest of lost humanity is bent on pursuing what I want without regard for what pleases God or accords with His will expressed in His Word. And that mindset does not come from the Father.

The 2nd thing the World caters to is the desires of the eye.

Pursuing what looks good, without considering anything deeper.

Once again babies are a wonderful example.

Babies don’t care what a thing is or isn’t – they only care that it is shiny, glittering, eye-catching.

Even when they get a bit older, Christmas and Birthday presents are about the colorful wrapping paper, and the experience of ripping it up more than the gift inside.

And we do not outgrow this. Until wrought upon by God’s Spirit, we are still more attracted by appearance than substance.

How easy it is for us to assign moral goodness to men who are handsome and women who are beautiful. And, to consider them more valuable somehow simply because they are attractive.

Haven’t you ever seen a news broadcast where some criminal was caught and you say to yourself either, “he looks like a murderer” or – “he’s so good looking, he doesn’t look like a monster”?

Look at all those paintings of Jesus with his handsome Aryan features.

What if Jesus, James, Peter and John looked like this? Would that be upsetting, because we are so attuned to what is attractive as being good and what isn’t so much as being inferior?

What if this was Jesus’ mug shot when he was arrested by the Sanhedrin? How would you feel about Him?

How easily we forget that “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Is 53:2.

Ah – then we are just like the world – and just as prone to place value in what has no value beyond today, in this place and in this time. Without regard for what is unseen and eternal as communicated in God’s Word.

It reminds us the account of Moses in Hebrews 11:24-26

Hebrews 11:24–26 ESV By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

And supremely of Jesus Himself: Hebrews 12:1-3

Hebrews 12:1–3 ESV Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

The World can only pursue the seen, the material, the surface things. But the Believer is freed to seek what is revealed to us by the Spirit in the Word.

And the 3rd is – the pride of life.

Boasting in what we have and/or do. Finding our self-worth in our possessions and/or accomplishments. And wanting others to see it.

And we need to recognize that this doesn’t have to function just in terms of how we want others to think of us a certain way.

The more subtle but perhaps more pernicious trap is how we choose things in this life outside of Christ in forming the basis of how we want to think about ourselves.

How do you want to think about yourself? And if that designation – whatever it may be is shattered – are you destroyed in the process?

For some it is to think of themselves at some certain, imagined level of spiritually. Or perhaps you have to think of yourself as the perfect parent, possessing certain intelligence, having won some awards, accolades or having achieved some goal which to YOU, represents being OK.

Then you fall. Have a rebellious child. Make a poor decision. Fail to accomplish what you planned for yourself. Meet someone much smarter; come in 3rd or not even place instead of winning. Now you are so downcast over it. With the result that any perception of the love of God for you is wiped out altogether.

This is what it looks like to love the World in the pride of life.

Now John didn’t pluck these out of thin air. He is drawing on what the Bible reveals back in Genesis 3 in the temptation of Adam and Eve. Assuming we know our Bibles and can make the connection, he doesn’t elaborate.

But let’s just see this played out in real life. Genesis 3:1-6

Genesis 3:1–6 ESV Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

When you see these texts side by side the connection is clear.

To operate in the way John is warning us about, results in sin and destruction. It is how the whole race fell back in the Garden, and it is no less lethal now.

The fruit would satisfy some hunger irrespective of God’s expressed will. It delighted the eyes and would make us like God.

So what is the first thing Adam and Eve lost? Any sense of God’s love. So they ran and hid from Him and tried to cover themselves.

The very same spiritual psychology is still in force today. If we love the things of this World – order our lives by pursuing our desires without regard to His will as we have it in His Word; place our value on and pursue that which appears attractive on the surface, without regard for what’s really there; and finding our self-worth in what we possess or what we’ve accomplished – we cut ourselves off from the love of God.

We lose all assurance of His love and goodwill toward us.
1. A summary conclusion: 1 John 2:17 And all of these are temporary. Only the one who serves God remains.
1 John 2:17 ESV And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

What then is the sum of all this? To live like the world without Christ, while professing to be Christ’s – finds us living only for what is earthly, material and temporary – when we are called to the holy, the substantive, the gloriously overwhelming and eternal things.

It is to forget 1 Peter 1:3–4 ESV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

Does it make any sense to swap temporary experiences, enjoyments, possessions and accolades, for what God sets before us instead?

And that, at the expense of living sweetly and confidently in the knowledge of the love of the Father – even now?

Certainly it isn’t John’s ONLY point in all of this to avoid the desires of the flesh, of the eyes and the pride of life in order to get some sense of comfort now.

Clearly that is part and parcel of his object. But if we stop here and do not go on to see this dynamic where else it is displayed in Scripture, we will lose the real wonder of Christ in it all.

Look at this dynamic in one more place – in the Wilderness, in the temptations of Jesus.

Nowhere do we get a better picture of the difference between the spirit of the World and the Spirit of Christ than we do in considering this small portion of Scripture – and matching it up both with Genesis and with Matthew.

Let’s look at all 3 side by side.

Look at our magnificent Savior!

He was hungry – 40 days fasting hungry. And there was nothing more legitimate than eating at that moment.

So the Devil’s argument is – “you’re the Son of God – you don’t have to deny yourself anything. You deserve it. It is only right.”

But if Jesus couldn’t deny Himself then, if He couldn’t trust the Father to supply in due time later, how could He deny Himself when it came time to face the cross?

Jesus was determined he would do nothing at the behest of Satan, no matter how legitimate – that he might be given up wholly to the Father’s will. He would not allow His natural rights and desires to take center stage. Doing the Father’s will was more important than any present distress, desire or deprivation.

Thank you Jesus for denying yourself for me, when you had a perfect right to meet that natural desire.

And what a call that is to us. Do we ever deny ourselves anything wrong, let alone legitimate – if we hunger enough for it? Is there any area of life we deny ourselves so that we might serve His revealed will?

Here is the cross the Believer is called to take up every day – wherever, whenever our desires cross His will as expressed in the Word – no matter how legitimate. When push comes to shove, which wins?

Then came the 2nd test, out of order from 3 in the Garden, but just the same.

Taken up on a high pinnacle to see the kingdoms, the riches, wealth and luxury of the whole world set before Him, and granted to Him now – rather than after the Cross, if He would just bow down this once and worship the Devil.

And after all – isn’t that part of prophecy? Isn’t His destiny to rule the nations? Isn’t this legitimate too? And all of it now, without having to suffer and die that humiliating and excruciating death at the hands of wicked men. Just for a quick drop of the knee to this angelic creature.

But no. All of these kingdoms and all of their wealth and glory are temporary – and nothing compared to the Kingdom in its fullness which He was to inherit later.

Oh, it was delightful to the eyes well enough. But it was a sham. A glittering jewel to lure Him away from carrying out the Father’s plan in exchange for the surface wealth of gold, gems, buildings and art – when He was after the eternal souls of men as His inheritance. And to share His promised glory with the Father and with us.

No, brick and mortar, metals and stones, no matter how beautiful and artistic and lavish could blind Him to the everlasting destruction which would come from yielding to the Enemy.

The real value is inheriting the fullness of God for us.

And then the last “if you are the Son of God.” Come on Jesus, show us who you really are. Take your high exalted place. Let go of this humble exterior, when you know full well you are deserving of praise and glory and honor and the rushed attention of the angelic hosts to your every need. Show yourself for who you are that we all might celebrate your glory!

No. My time is not yet. In due time the Father will exalt me, so I have no need for men to do it now. Let no one on earth recognize me for who and what I am, let no one speak well of me in the least, as long as I know I have my Father’s approval.

Oh how bound we are to other’s opinions of us. We want to be seen a certain way. Appreciated for what we’ve done. Accepted by certain individuals or groups. Recognized as having a certain character, accomplishments, attributes, abilities or station.

All of which may be perfectly fine – unless it binds us to them, or becomes more important to us than our acceptance with the Father – which is in Christ alone.

Heaven deliver us from these in-born realities which run unchecked in all but those born again by the Spirit of Christ.

I would point you just briefly to 3 takeaways in closing.
1. If this is the only way you live – then you are not a Christian plain and simple. This is the unvarying mindset of the World.
If you make your decisions based in your desires, and pursue them without regard to the revealed will of God;

If you accept the valuations of the World by externals, and not internals and in the light of what is eternal;

If you live for how you need to be thought of, seen and understood by those around you or by yourself – you are still lost and in your sins. You need to come to Jesus to be forgiven, and made new.

Personal wants over God’s will.

What I can see with the naked eye valued more than what He has revealed.

Seeking what I can have or be, over who Christ Jesus is and what He’s done.

This is what it means to be lost. You need to repent and believe the Gospel – today.
1. But, if you recognize this problem because your eyes have been opened. If you are seeking to overcome this base, inborn tendency – then you have very good reason, joined with the other things we’ve looked at – to assure your heart in God’s love.
The World knows nothing of struggling against these motivations.
1. Above all – Look at how it is Jesus lived this way FOR us. That what He did in overcoming the very temptations Adam and Eve faced, we receive the full benefit of.
He faced it for us. And His righteousness is imputed to us by faith, even though we are still in the throes of struggling against letting these ways of thinking and living control us.

That as hard wired toward this mode of existence as we are – because He overcame, denied Himself, died on the cross for our sins and rose again – He was able to send His own Spirit to indwell us, and to bring us victory over it.

Galatians 5:16–17 ESV But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Jesus has won this place for us – that we need not remain captive to the way the whole world thinks and to its motivations.

He has made us new creatures, and placed His Spirit in us as a foretaste, a down-payment of what is to come.

And so He does not abandon us in our struggle, but cheers us on, encourages and strengthens us to live not for today – but with our eye on the eternity. He has secured all this for us in His life, death and resurrection. Hallelujah!
A Communion meditation

March 4th, 2019

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The many facets of Christ’s saving work.

The 10 commandments used to be referred to as “the 10 words.”

Tonight, in remembrance of Jesus’ person and work, I would like to look briefly at 10 Words of the New Covenant.

1 – Substitution / That justice may be perfectly fulfilled, for He will not have us simply pardoned. He wants our consciences to be completely cleansed. There is no lingering fear for those in Christ.

Isa 53:5-6

Isaiah 53:5–6 ESV

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

2 – Redemption / recovery from slavery and/or ruin. Both our slavery to sin, and the ruin it brought us into in Adam – and ratified in our continuing complicity.

Gal 3:13

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Titus 2 14

Titus 2:14 ESV

who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

3 – Pardon / Sovereignly judicial – deliverance from penalty. It doesn’t remove guilt, but it does remove penalty. Not person, but rather legal.

Micah 7:18

Micah 7:18 ESV

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

4 – Forgiveness / Personal. Only the one offended can truly be said to forgive.

Eph. 4:32

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

5 – Reconciliation / Reunion. Not just a dismissal of the matter, but actual restoration of the relationship.

2 Cor. 5:18

2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

6 – Imputation / Cleansing / removal of defilement / expunging the record. Nailing it to HIS cross. His righteousness imputed to us, as our sin has been imputed to Him.

2 Cor. 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Philippians 3:8-9

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

7 – Adoption / Gracious reward. He makes His offenders, His family.

Galatians 4:4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

8 – Impartation / The Spirit for change & communion.

Galatians 3:13-14

Galatians 3:13–14 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

9 – Sanctification / Set apart from the World as God’s own.

Hebrews 10:10

Hebrews 10:10 ESV

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

10 – Resurrection / Hope for the future.

2 Peter 3:13

2 Peter 3:13 ESV

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

1 Cor. 15:51-57

1 Corinthians 15:51–57 ESV

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us remember Him in:

1 – Substitution

2 – Redemption

3 – Pardon

4 – Forgiveness

5 – Reconciliation

6 – Imputation

7 – Adoption

8 – Impartation

9 – Sanctification

10 – Resurrection
The Doctrine of Assurance Part 4

February 17th, 2019

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

No one builds a building all at once. You need a blueprint or at least a plan or goal in mind to start. Then you survey, dig, and begin to lay a foundation, one stone or brick at a time.

So it is with formulating sound doctrine.

When you have a question about what the Bible teaches on any given subject – you have some groundwork to do.

In this case, the question itself sets the plan – but you don’t know what the building will look like yet – you just know you want to answer the question.

So you survey – you start reading the Bible with this question in mind – and you dig and dig and dig.

Then you start assembling the things you’ve found, sorting out how they fit together. And one by one, layer by layer, it comes together to give you a whole.

It is why theologians (sound theologians that is) never build a doctrine on only one verse or passage of Scripture. You need to see what the Bible says about things in toto. You need to find out if it is something just mentioned in passing or obscure, versus something taught about in some detail and in multiple places.

Loads of aberrant doctrines come out of not following this principle, and putting too much stress on just one verse, and at that, one that may or may not be really clear or interpreted properly.

A classic case in point is

1 Corinthians 15:29 ESV

Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

The Mormons for instance have built an entire doctrine and practice around this verse based upon their interpretation of it.

Historically there have been about 42 major interpretations of it. And because it occurs only once in Scripture and in a slightly obscure passage, to make one’s interpretation binding on other people’s consciences is to abuse Scripture.

This is why we’re approaching 1 John the way we are. Since John wrote this letter in part to specifically answer the question of how one can have an assurance of their salvation – we survey his approach, dig through and put together the various foundation stones he gives us, until we build a cohesive answer.

So far, we’ve looked at 3 key foundation stones in helping the troubled Believer get a handle on truly being able to rest in their salvation.

We’ve seen them couched as questions – kind of like a doctor coming on the scene of an accident and examining someone to see if they are alive: He or she checks for 4 critical indicators: Heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration, and body temperature. Got those 4? Yep, chances are pretty good they’re alive alright. It may not tell you HOW healthy you are, but it does indicate genuine life. And this is John’s very approach.

One may be in pretty rough spiritual health, but if these vital signs are present – even ever so faintly – it’s a good indicator one is alive in Christ.

Once again, all of these are set in terms of relationship and are meant to be taken cumulatively:

What is my relationship to the Word of God? Is it my treasured final authority as coming from God?

What is my relationship to God? Am I reconciled to Him in Jesus – having believed the Gospel?

What is my relationship to sin? Am I recognizing and continuing to struggle against the remaining sinful tendencies within me? Do they grieve me, because I know they grieve my Heavenly Father and are contrary to His very nature?

And this morning we’ll go on to check another vital sign:

What is my relationship to the People of God? John will begin this with a simple statement:

1 John 2:9 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

And once again, understanding how John is responding to the Gnosticism of his day helps us get a grip on how we need to understand this aspect of Biblical Christianity and how it impacts or informs the Believer’s assurance of salvation.

The rubber meets the road in a powerful way here, challenging what may be a present day parallel to Gnostic thinking in the Church.

Something which can arise even in Evangelical circles is this problem:

As long as I do the right things personally or privately, hold the right doctrines and follow my personal walk with God, how I interact with and impact others is irrelevant.

Ethics gets divorced from spirituality.

And nowhere does this take on more importance than it does in the Body of Christ.

Paul addresses that way of thinking in head on.

1 Corinthians 13:1–7 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

What becomes powerfully apparent here is that to say we love God’s People – The Church, is not as simple as saying I have a mere affection for them or like them: It is not the love of just warm fuzzies. It is not mere sentiment.

It is an active, living, palpable love that makes its presence known in certain concrete ways.

With this then, we have to note John’s focus is particularly upon how Christians treat other Christians. We conclude that because of his use of the word “brother” in this passage.

1 John 2:9 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

A quick survey of the balance of the New Testament shows that there is no case where the word brother is used simply to refer to our “fellow man.”

It is always used either in terms of a true blood relationship, or the body of those who profess saving faith in Jesus Christ.

That, and the immediate context demonstrate clearly John is referring to other Believers.

Those who have been born again by the Spirit of God and adopted into His family are true brothers and sisters; and we have a unique relationship to one another which is palpable: One which must be recognized as including certain joys and responsibilities.

Now don’t get me wrong, this does not mean Christians can treat unbelievers any way we wish.

Galatians 6:10 reminds us:

Galatians 6:10 ESV

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

We do good to everyone we can, but ESPECIALLY to those who are in the household of faith.

And what that looks like, John unpacks in 4 vital signs – similar to those physicians use to authenticate or verify life. –

1 John 2:9 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

In an arresting fashion, John is going to uncover what he means by loving our brothers in Christ, by looking at what it means to “hate” them, in 4 places.

In other words, we cannot claim to be Christ’s and to love His family – OUR new family, and carry on in these 4 things at the same time.

So what does that look like?

1.

1 John 2:10–11 ESV

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Vital life-sign 1 – We know we love the family of God when we are careful never to lead others into sin.

Whoever loves his brother abides or lives in “the light”: We looked at that last time – i.e. walks with God in uprightness.

John goes on to expand this by saying this is carried out by not being a “cause for stumbling” in others.

The Believer has a duty to their brothers and sisters in Christ, to keep from being an agent of exposing them to and leading them into – sin.

The idea isn’t to become the “sin-police” toward others, but being personally protective of one another knowing how dangerous and harmful sin is.

The Hippocratic oath which physicians have historically taken contains this statement: “I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.” Often misquoted as simply “First, do no harm.”

And if this is a sound maxim even within the realm of the lost, how much more when it comes to we Christians?

Paul gives us a powerful example of this in

1 Thess. 4:1-8

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

What a timely exhortation given the nature of the sexual revolution in America today.

To look out for one another’s sexual purity and not to “wrong his brother” in this matter, because it is ultimately to disregard God and the Holy Spirit He has given to us.

So we warn each other and exhort each other to watch out in this area of life. It is powerfully seductive and powerfully corrosive. And we do not want our brothers and sisters to be harmed by influencing them to ignore the call to purity.

Young men, don’t be found encouraging young women to be harmed by your desires – and young women, vice versa. Look out for each other’s souls – not just for your own gratification.

And don’t put yourself in the position of encouraging others to sin in anything, by living out sinful acts in front of them – as though it is fine.

Because we became members of one another when we were joined to Christ – we lost the ability to sin in isolation.

As members of the same Body, what we individually take in of sin – effects the whole.

If you were to have a medicine injected into you by a syringe, you know full well that medicine enters the entire system. The shot doesn’t bring its healing effects only to the injection site – it spreads throughout.

So it is with sin. When I sin, I become the injection point of that poison to the whole Body.

And how is that loving to the rest?

Look at the immediate context as John continues:

1 John 2:11-14

1 John 2:11–14 ESV

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Whatever else John might be saying in this interesting and poetic passage – at least this much is clear: This issue is important no matter what stage of your Christian life you are in – from the youngest to the oldest.

There are sins peculiar to us at younger stages of life – due to foolishness, rashness, rebellion, inexperience and self-focus.

And there are sins peculiar to the more mature. Over-focus on career, creeping materialism, distractions of all kinds so that spiritual matters are neglected.

And for we older ones: Getting crotchety, over-opinionated, inflexible, fearful, forgetting our own struggles when younger, becoming intolerant and indolent.

Beloved, we want to be on our guard that we are never encouraging others to sin, either by our own example, by condoning it in others or by refusing to hold to the authority of God’s word in what He regulates as sin.

No place is the seriousness of this brought out more than it is in Jesus’ words in –

Mark 9:42

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

We simply cannot love the Body of Christ and encourage others to sin at the same time.

2.

1 John 2:18–19 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Life-sign 2 – We know we love the family of God when we are seeking it out and joining ourselves to it.

Genuine Believers want association with the larger body of Believers – even when it is uncomfortable.

To avoid being joined to God’s family is to show a hatred and disdain for it.

This, in at least 2 ways.

a. As Ed showed us in his sermon a few weeks ago, each of us has been given gifts by God for the express purpose of building up the Body of Christ. You can’t do that alone.

To say “I’ve got a gift, but I really don’t like being a part of a local church, so they can do with out it”, is diametrically opposed to loving God and His people.

b. The converse is also true: Since God gave all of these gifts for the benefit of the Body, to separate from the Body is to say “I don’t need what God has given to me through them.” I only need myself.

It is arrogant and hateful.

For years I’ve heard people say things like “I never read commentaries, I only read the Bible.” And it sounds so spiritual on the surface.

But then I read in:

Ephesians 4:11–14 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

And I realize that to reject those who have been given by Jesus as gifts to the Church – like teachers and shepherds to help equip me – is like saying to Jesus “I don’t need your stinking gifts!”

There is no place in the genuine Believer for lone wolf-ism.

We were born again INTO a family. And when we willingly separate ourselves from that family, or seek less and less contact with fewer and fewer, we show ourselves to be anything but loving.

3.

1 John 3:11–18 ESV

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Life-sign 3- We know we love the Family of God when we seek to serve them and give to them sacrificially.

There are 2 things to note here.

1 – The contrast between the World and the Church.

John references the murder of Abel by Cain to show how it is the Worldly heart responds to those it is jealous of or exposes their sin. They want them dead, out of sight and mind.

2 – But how are Christians to live? Not just tolerating others, but looking for ways to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters.

The text here specifically references the Body of Christ ministering to the material needs of other Believers.

How can we say we love our brothers and sisters in Christ if we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their most basic needs when we are aware of them and have the means to help?

We can’t.

This in fact is why having Deacons in a local Church is part of the fabric of the Church as a Biblical mandate. So that the resources of the Body can be dispensed to those in need at any time.

It is one of the things I love so about ECF in particular. Our deacons are men and women of wise, but also a generous spirit – to be quick to offer and supply help when aware of a need.

It isn’t done noisily and publicly, but it goes on quietly, behind the scenes – loving those among us in need in times of need.

But it’s evident this goes beyond mere material needs isn’t it?

What about other needs we might be able to meet?

Do I bring the Gospel to others? And if I have few opportunities personally, do I contribute to the ministry of the Church so that the Gospel is preached regularly and clearly – both to the saved and the lost?

Do we think of how we can bless, encourage, build up and continually point our brothers and sisters back to Christ as their all-in-all?

Am I about God’s business in His church? Giving. Praying. Living. Learning. Encouraging. Exhorting. Counseling.

Or once again, am I a loner, not involving myself in the lives of others for their good?

When one is genuinely born again, they seek to serve Christ and His people. And we must ask ourselves – how am I serving this Body, or anyone in it?

Or have I retreated into a private Christianity?

I cannot truly love a people I am neither a part of, nor live life with in any real way.

4.

1 John 5:16–17 ESV

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Life-sign 4 – We know we love God’s people when we are moved in prayer for them.

Prayer, Biblical prayer, may just be the single most other-worldly thing Christians do.

It is why we seem to struggle with it so at times.

It is true that virtually all religions incorporate prayer in some way – but whether or not it is prayer as the true son or daughter of Christ knows it – is a question.

For as Jesus taught us, we need no intermediary. Because of how He has reconciled us to the Father through His death on Calvary for our sins – we have direct access to the Father.

Secondly, we don’t go to prayer like mere supplicants or beggars, but as Children to a smiling, waiting, loving Father who loves to be sought by His own.

And 3rd, we don’t pray ritualistically – as though it is some special formula that moves His hand, nor that mere repetition or the numbers of those praying is magically effective.

We go to God as our Father, speaking from our hearts. Speaking naturally, freely and expectantly.

And as we know from other passages of Scripture, we bring to Him every care and concern of our hearts. Nothing is too small, and nothing is too big.

But what John notes here for us is an aspect of prayer that tends to get shuffled aside some. And yet it is a duty and a privilege which has extraordinary dividends attached to it. It is prayer like Jesus in the most extraordinary way: For it is prayer for our brothers and sisters especially as it has reference to sin.

I know – when we think of prayer for others we think of praying for financial needs, health, the resolve of difficult situations, peace, wisdom, guidance, etc. All legitimate. All right to pray for.

But here, John takes us somewhere else: Prayer for one another’s deliverance from sin.

Once again we’re met with this concern for one another over the issue of sin. And it brings us to a ministry we can do for one another whether we are young, old, infirm or unable to serve in any other way.

And it is such a necessary ministry. It is intensely personal, private and powerful.

Few promises in God’s Word are so stated with such certainty of response in prayer as this is.

1 John 5:16 ESV

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

Now John mentions 2 kinds of sin here – one we SHOULD pray for with an assurance of results. The other, we’re told not to pray for: What John calls “sin that leads to death.”

What is that? What is the sin that leads to death? We aren’t entirely sure. Guesses and theories abound. But what seems most in keeping with other Scripture is that sin which Jesus says in Matt 12:31 WILL not – not CANNOT, WILL NOT be forgiven.

Matthew 12:31 ESV

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

And what was this? In the context of that passage, it is to KNOWINGLY, attribute the miracles of Jesus to the power of the Devil in order to turn people away from Him. This, Jesus says, God refuses to forgive. And John says we ought not go beyond Him and ask for forgiveness on behalf of those who have sinned in that particular way.

BUT! For all other sin – love dictates that we ask on behalf of our brothers and sisters, and that God will hear us.

If we ask on behalf of our brothers in Christ, that they would be delivered from certain sins – “God WILL give him life!” God will deliver them so that such sin does not completely overcome them.

And how very many sins there are! Lust. Greed. Envy. Fear of man. Faithlessness. Lack of courage. Compromise. Materialism. Racism. Self-pity. Lovelessness, foolishness, bitterness, unforgiveness, gossip, backbiting, grumbling – etc.

There’s nothing more contrary to a condemning spirit regarding others who fall, than to take up their struggle with them in prayer. Especially if they have sinned against us.

But I want us to see this on an even deeper level – as it is displayed for us in a most amazing fashion in Christ. And it really unlocks this ministry of love for us. In fact, it will radically change our entire prayer life once we grasp it.

Luke 22:31–32 ESV

On the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, He tells Peter something astounding.

Satan had “demanded” had petitioned God to test Peter, to sift him like wheat. The word demanded there carries with it the idea of having both demanded, and of having received permission.

You are about to be tested like you never dreamed possible Peter – supernaturally. BUT!

I have prayed for you that your faith will not ultimately fail. And I am so certain I’ve been heard, I tell you this – after it is all over and you get your legs back under you – use this experience to strengthen your brothers.

What is the point here? Jesus didn’t pray that Peter would NOT be tested, but that he would survive to serve another day.

In other words, Jesus is more interested in Peter coming out of his trial spiritually for the better, than He is about simply enduring the trial or being spared it altogether.

And what then of us in this passage in 1 John? That our prayers go beyond the mere legitimacy of wanting to see our brothers and sisters spared trials – and press on to praying that they will come through what they face better for the wear for their own spiritual health, and that of other Believers.

Now that is prayer of an entirely different order.

Lord, I’m not as concerned that Aunt Gertrude come through her surgery well, as I am that she will grow nearer to you, and grow more in the likeness of Christ having gone through this time.

How our prayers center on the circumstances and the surface aspects of our loved one’s trials, more than they do that they will face their trials with an unfailing faith, and with wisdom to seize the occasion to grow in Christ’s likeness and spiritual maturity. That they will learn how to redeem their trial for the good of others in Christ.

This is what John is after. This is a love that many of us have never begun to really enter into.

Beloved, if you can’t do a single other thing to contribute to the spiritual growth and health of your brothers and sisters in Christ – you can do this: Pray for their success in their struggle against their sins. And that in what they face, their faith won’t fail. Their hope in Christ will remain strong and even increase. That they will grow nearer to the Lord. That they will plunder their trial for all it is worth, and treasure up their experience to minister to others later on.

Well now, what are we to do with all of this?

Let me give you just one takeaway based on all we’ve examined here: A radically new definition of love from God’s point of view.

Loving the brethren is: Always acting in the other’s best interest before God, because of Christ.

What is best for them spiritually?

How will my words and actions help them know God better, know the truth of His Word better, and grow into Christ’s likeness more?

This is summed up in John’s words in:

1 John 4:11 ESV

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

How did He love us?

He did not simply feel love toward us, but He loved us, by acting on our behalf.

He did not love us by leaving us in our sins, but by leading us OUT of them!

He did not love us from afar, but came in the likeness of sinful flesh, sought us out and joined Himself to us.

He did not love us by leaving us to ourselves, but served our best interest before the Father, even to His substitutionary death on the Cross of Calvary.

He loved us then, and He loves us still by praying, interceding for us before the Father’s throne – even this very moment.

And He calls us into this very same kind of love for the brethren:

John 13:34 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Those who have the sparks of this love burning in them, even ever so faintly, have one more evidence that they are truly Christ’s.

HOPE

HOPE: The joyful expectation of the good God has promised us to come at Jesus’ return.

1. The World has a poor and destructive counterfeit to this hope.

2. The Church has often neglected the resurrection.

A Conviction that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

An absolute CONVICTION that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate.

Conviction that the Apostolic witness is true.

A Conviction that God’s love toward us is absolutely proven in sending His Son to die for our sins.

A Conviction that Jesus really came, really died, really rose from the dead – and that believing in Him IS the conferral of eternal life.

Doctrine of Assurance Pt. 5

How can I know if I am really saved?