Blessed Assurance, Eternal Life Is Mine! | 1 John 5:13

Okay beloved, let's turn in our Bibles to 1st John chapter 5. We're back in 1st John today. We just finished our series on godly motherhood, which I thoroughly enjoyed and I trust it was a blessing to you all as well.

1 John 5:10-13 and the Theme of Assurance

But we're back in 1st John chapter 5 verse 13, but I'm going to begin by reading in verse 10. 1st John chapter 5 verse 10. God's Word says, the one who believes in the Son of God has this witness in himself.

The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the witness which God has borne witness about his son. And the witness is this, that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son.

He who has a son has a life. He who does not have the son does not have that life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

This is God's Holy Word. Amen. So this is an amazing verse that we come before today, that is before us today in verse 13. And the last time that I was preaching on 1st John, we saw that God clearly uses means to bear witness to himself and to his son and to his truth, to the truth.

Namely, the water, the blood, which is the death and the baptism of Christ, the message of eternal life in his son, the gospel, and God's witness and gift of eternal life, like we saw last time. And verse 13 is a transition.

It's a transition to the beginning of the end of the letter. It's the conclusion whereby the Apostle is summing these things up. He's summing things up for us. The beginning of the conclusion of this letter.

So in verse 13, we see once again, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. So that you may know that you have eternal life.

And that is the main subject of this sermon. Very clearly, this is pointing to the doctrine of assurance, the glorious doctrine of assurance of our salvation. Or really, it's God's manifold assurances of salvation and witnesses and so on.

And this is a assurance, biblical assurance, is a vitally important doctrine for our Christian life. It is vitally important for our Christian life. And that's, that pun was intended, by the way, because the word vital means life.

And so it is absolutely vital in our Christian life and walk, lifestyle, and so on. We must understand assurance correctly and how it interacts with and relates to other important biblical doctrines. This is part of having a whole council of God faith that is consistent within it, harmonized within the whole council of God.

Namely, or for example, there are a number of doctrines that assurance ties into directly. Law and gospel being a major one. Law and gospel distinction. Justification. The doctrine of justification, right?

Faith. Now this is a very important one. The doctrine of faith, honor, our understanding of faith, should it be that assurance is equated with faith? Is assurance the same as saving faith? Or are they distinct?

Or do they need to be kept distinct? Sanctification and so on. Now this verse is extraordinarily simple. It's, it's a very simple message that John is, the Apostle, is revealing to us through his God breathed words in the letter.

Yet at the same time, it is, it is extraordinarily and comprehensively profound and often misunderstood. But this is what we want to seek to understand today. Because there are also imbalances and extremes which we must avoid with respect to biblical assurance.

There's lots of different views and a lot of them, most of them are, they're either imbalanced or very extreme. They tug at one end and they sacrifice or they compromise the other end of, or ends of assurance.

Bookends. Some, for example, wrongly emphasize personal obedience and good works for our assurance. Almost exclusively. And that's the problem. That's the key phrase. Almost exclusively relying on personal obedience and good works for our assurance.

That is a false view, a false understanding of assurance. Others emphasize God's grace and external means of grace, but almost exclusively once again. And you'll often find this in some Reformed men, teachers and pastors that are a little too imbalanced in this area because we cannot solely look at God's grace and external means of grace and promises for our assurance.

There's more to it than just that. The answer is more or less somewhere in the middle of those two views. Now, I wanted to play a little guess who game today. See if you can guess who wrote this, who wrote these words.

It says, presumption may be defined as the condition of a soul which, because of a badly regulated reliance on God's mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it. Without doing anything to deserve salvation.

Who do you think said or wrote those words, beloved? That's from the Catholic Encyclopedia. The Catholic Encyclopedia says that it is the sin of presumption to hope for salvation without doing anything to deserve it.

Now, is there a problem with this view? Is there something wrong with this view? Well, apart from the fact that this definition actually condemns the biblical doctrines of salvation and assurance as presumption.

Yes, that is quite a serious problem because the Bible clearly teaches us that salvation is ours without earning it at all. We couldn't earn it ourselves. There's nothing we could do to earn it or deserve it.

And that sadly is what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about the hope of salvation. That includes both doctrines of salvation and of assurance because of a badly regulated reliance on God's mercy and power.

So, if you rely too much on God's mercy and power, you're wrong. You're presuming on God's mercy and power in hoping for salvation apart from you doing something to deserve it. But what does the scripture say, beloved?

There's numerous verses we could go to, but Titus 3 .5 very clearly says to us, He, God, saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness to deserve it, but according to what? His mercy. Mercy. Not our works.

His mercy. His grace. Through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Amen. This is what the Bible clearly teaches us. And it goes on and on in Romans 3, 4, 5, and so on. How grace is no longer grace if you reckon works or mix works into that picture.

Big problem there. Now, we find, so now, in light of these things, back in 1st John 5 .13, notice the phrase there, these things I have written to you. These things I have written to you. To who? To believers, beloved, to believers.

Those who believe in Christ. To you who believe in the name of the Son, right? But does this sound familiar? Does this sound like, do these things sound familiar to other things which the Apostle John has written before?

In other places, perhaps. Let's turn, beloved, to the Gospel of John. In the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 30, we will find a similar passage in that Gospel with 1st John 5, verse 13. In the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 30, we see that God's Word says, therefore, many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, in this Gospel, but these have been written.

These have been written. Why? So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name, eternal life. Amen? This is what the Apostle is getting at in the Gospel of John.

It is similarly, it is very similar. Now, but if you look carefully, there is a distinction that we have to make. We have to make a distinction between these two passages. One of the main reasons that the Gospel of John was written is evangelistic.

It was to share the life of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, and so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and therefore have eternal life, right? It's evangelistic in nature. So that those who do not yet believe may read it and believe by what the Gospel says and reveals.

Now, while the first letter of John, on the other hand, is written to you who believe already, to you who already believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know, you may be personally assured that you have eternal life already.

You may know that you have eternal life already, right? That's the key distinction here. Now, some Christians who mean well, unfortunately, tend to oversimplify the letter of 1st John by thinking that this is the only reason or the main reason that John wrote it.

It was to give us assurance that we have eternal life, to know that we have eternal life, right? And so that's where we need to carefully make good and proper sense of these things. And I forgot to mention that I revised the sermon title a little bit to make this a little more clear.

It's called, Blessed Assurance Eternal Life is Mine. It's a play on Fanny Crosby's famous hymn, Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine. Blessed Assurance Eternal Life is Mine, is ours. It is ours, beloved, and that is a very important thing to grasp as believers in this life, in this last and evil day, in this world, while we are still in our flesh and fighting against the devil as well.

So, we need to make proper sense of this. Now, the beloved apostle, John, wrote this letter to God's people for several reasons, not just for our blessed assurance of salvation and of eternal life. If you recall, beloved, we will see shortly.

Although, in verse 13, these things, in reality, what do these things refer to in verse 13? What is he talking about? He's actually referring to the entire letter. So, there is clearly overlap with what John is saying there.

But, let's turn over to the first chapter of 1st John, and we will find some of the many purposes that he wrote the letter for, to God's people for. Beginning in 1st John, chapter 1, verse 3, what does he tell us there?

What does he tell us there in verse 3 of chapter 1? What we have seen and heard, we proclaim, we proclaim also to you, so that for this purpose you may also have fellowship with us. So, there you have another reason why John wrote this letter.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. The next verse, verse 4, what does he say there? And these things we are writing. Why? So that our joy may be made complete.

There's another reason why he writes these things. Now, turn over to chapter 2, in verse 1. In chapter 2 of verse 1, he says, My little children, I am writing these things to you. Why? So that you may not sin.

So that you may not sin. That's one of the purposes of writing that John wrote his letter, beloved. Very important purpose. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, our Savior.

Amen. So you can see, all of these things, in a sense, do point to the fact that we are eternally assured as believers. But it's not the only reason. Verse, chapter 2, 1st John chapter 2, verse 8. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, beloved believers in Christ and God and His Word, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Here, Christ, the Logos, is the living embodiment of the Gospel, which is the message, the other Logos. And the truth of the Gospel is exemplified. It's lived out in those who believe in Him and have been transformed by His Gospel.

And the darkness that is passing away points to the veiled unbelief and ignorance and incomplete knowledge of what the Old Testament prophesied and pointed to, which is the shining true light of Jesus Christ.

Notice the word light in the Legacy Standard Bible is capitalized. It is the light of Jesus Christ and His glorious Gospel. And if you want to revisit this, you can listen to the sermon called, The Passing Darkness of Old and the Shining Light of the New, which was on 1st John chapter 2, verses 7 through 8.

Now, is that all or is there more? No, there's actually more that John informs us, that he informs us for why he wrote this specific letter, beloved. In chapter 2, again, he continues in verse 12 to say, to write, I am writing to you, little children, because, why?

Your sins have been forgiven you already for His name's sake. Notice that, remember? It's for your assurance to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, the Christ. I am writing to you, fathers.

So first he says, little children, then he says, fathers. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him already. Who has been from the beginning. This is a precious Gospel indicative. This is important for us to distinguish the Law and Gospel distinction, because many will wrongly say that 1st John is a checklist.

It's a behavioral checklist. If you check off these things, then you can know that you're saved. Now, there's a sense in which that's true, but that's not the only thing that's in there. We have to distinguish properly between Law and Gospel.

Look at this, what we just read so far. This is a precious Gospel indicative, not an imperative. It's a reality in the life of a believer. To you, fathers, I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

Amen. Yet another Gospel promise and indicative for those of us who are in Christ. I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father already. You know Him already. I have written to you, fathers, once again, because you have known Him already.

Who has been from the beginning. And I have written to you, young men, once again, because you are strong. You are strong. Is it because you did anything to deserve God's favor or grace? No. It's being strong in the Lord.

And then the strength of His might and power and grace. And the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one already. Amen. That's, this is what is important that we do not lose sight of, beloved, in this letter.

This entire passage is a series of Gospel promises and indicatives, realities, and precious reminders and encouragements of God's grace and power working in us. Working in us, beloved. And similarly, in 1 John chapter 2, verse 21, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it already.

And because no lie is of the truth, you know the truth, and therefore you are saved. That's what He's saying. It's another encouraging reminder. And note here, what is He emphasizing? The emphasis is on truth, on knowing the truth.

You do know it. You can know it, and you do know it. It's not like these mystics or these pietists who will say, oh well, God's truth is not man's truth. It's impossible because God is God, and we are man.

No, nonsense. If God knows everything, and we can't know what God knows, then we can't know anything, because God knows everything. So unless we are able to know some of what God knows, then we can't know anything.

But we do know the truth already, if we believe the precious Gospel of Christ. Now, 1st John, chapter 2, verse 26, these things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you, the Antichrists, who are trying to deceive you with what?

With lies, false teaching, and false Gospels, like the one I just read from the Catholic Encyclopedia. This is a warning against Antichrists and false teachers, worldly and religious Antichrist deceivers, who belong not to God, but to the father of lies, the devil himself, the world, the devil, and they are agents who are enticing the flesh, that unredeemed aspect of human nature, the flesh.

Now, and then we come before, this brings us to 1st John 5, 13. Once again, these things, beloved, all these things in this letter I have written to you, who believe in the name, in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know and be personally assured that you have eternal life already, beloved.

This is the last time that the Apostle mentions writing these things to us, and it is very fitting because it is the beginning of the conclusion of the letter. He's summing it all up for us, bringing it all together, and notice once again the repeated stress and emphasis in this verse.

What does the Apostle emphasize in this verse? To you, who what? Who believe, believe in what? In the name of the Son, so that what? You may know, you may know now, in this life, that you have eternal life already.

It's not presumption, that's not sin, that's what the Bible instructs us to do. You can have assurance of eternal life now, in this life, not based on anything you did to deserve it, because you don't deserve it.

None of us do, contrary to what many false religions teach. The stress is very clearly on believing, knowledge of the truth of the Son, just as in the rest of the letter, as we've seen many times before, and knowledge of this doctrinal truth in John's letter, as well as the rest of the whole counsel of God, is a means which God uses to personally assure us of our salvation, beloved, that we have eternal life now, even in an ongoing and enduring sense.

Note that, okay? Very important to understand the emphasis that John is placing here. It's on an ongoing, enduring sense of assurance, and knowledge, and what that knowledge brings us as believers, in his word, and is, and in the name of his Son.

There is power in the name of Jesus, beloved. Amen? Now, true wisdom consists in two things, a knowledge of God, and a knowledge of self. You may have recalled that I've quoted this before. These are from the very wise words of John Calvin, in his Institute to the Christian Religion.

True wisdom consists in two things, a knowledge of God, and a knowledge of self. You must know God, and you must know thyself, biblically, in order to have true wisdom, and in order for you to have, by extension, biblical assurance, you must have a right knowledge of God, of the name of the Son, an informed faith, in other words, in addition to a knowledge of self, a self-awareness of your own spiritual state, that you know the truth, and therefore, you can have knowledge and assurance of eternal life, just as this letter, this precious letter, teaches us, beloved.

Law, Gospel, and the Balance Required for Assurance

Now, here's an important question that we also need to ask ourselves. In this path, in this verse, 1 John 5 13, is this verse law, or is it gospel? Is it command, or is it promise? What is it teaching us?

Think carefully about this, okay? We need to think carefully about this. I want, I'll read it again. 1 John 5 13. These things, all these things, in this letter, I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, now, already.

This brings me to a very important point. This is a very critically important axiom that we need to understand from scripture. The biblical doctrine of assurance requires, it both requires and presupposes, a proper law and gospel balance and distinction, beloved.

It requires a proper balance and distinction of law and gospel, and that brings us to this amazing reality of the gospel promise, that you can know with certainty, you can be certain of your assurance of salvation, that you are truly saved and have eternal life, because that's exactly what the Apostle is communicating in this letter.

We can know that we have eternal life. There are clear gospel promises and assurances here, but notice, our assurance of salvation, biblically understood, also includes the law. It also includes law, both law and gospel, okay?

This is very important to understand. Why? Why do I say that? Remember, because what do these things that the Apostle is writing refer to? Does it only refer to the promises of God, or does it refer to the commands in this letter as well?

It includes everything, beloved. The commands, the exhortations, as well as the promises and the encouraging reminders of grace in our life, and assurances, both law and gospel throughout the letter, beloved.

For example, 1st John chapter 3 verse 24, and the one who keeps his commandments does what? Abides in him, and he in him. We know by this that he abides in us. We know that he abides in us, that we are saved by the Spirit whom he gave us.

There you see it, beloved, by the Spirit whom he gave us, and who works in us, right? Law and gospel right there. The one who keeps his commandments is evidence of the fact that he belongs to God, that God abides in him, and he in God.

Amen. 1st John chapter 4 verses 10 through 11. In this is love, true love. Remember the other love chapter, 1st John chapter 4, and the beginning of chapter 5. In this is love, not that we have loved God, not that we did anything to deserve his love, or his salvation, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Now, beloved, if God so loved us in this manner, we also ought to love one another as a consequence, not as something we must do to earn it, but as a consequence of God's love for us, and propitiatory sacrificial love for us, by which our wrath debt and sin debt is satisfied by Christ on his cross.

This is the reformed paradigm like the Heidelberg Catechism and the Orthodox Catechism, the Baptist version, teach us. It's the model of guilt, grace, gratitude. Guilt, grace, gratitude. That's law and gospel, beloved.

Our guilt is made known to us by the law. The law condemns us. The law shows us our sin guilt. It shows us guilty before a holy, perfect, and righteous God. Then that gives grace the opportunity to save us by virtue of grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, because we're already guilty.

There's nothing we can do to earn a right standing with God, and now, as a result of God's grace working in us through his spirit and means of grace, right, that now results in, as a consequence of, we live a life of gratitude, and love, and obedience to God and his word.

Now, the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession actually dedicates an entire chapter on this doctrine of assurance. What is this telling us, beloved? They are showing us, our forefathers are showing us, that this is a very important doctrine in scripture.

All of these chapters in our confession are important doctrines of scripture that we must rightly understand, beloved, because it's very easy to misunderstand and to lose sight of all of these things that we have to keep a balance of, especially long gospel.

Now, I love how the confession biblically defines and clarifies a balanced view of assurance in chapter 18, which is of the assurance of grace and salvation. What do they say? Those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, and endeavor to walk ongoing sense, right, in all good conscience before him, may be certainly assured in this life, amen, that they are in a state of grace.

They may rejoice in the hope of glory of God now, knowing that such hope will never make them ashamed. It's not a false hope, in other words. It's a hope based on what God has done for us, in us, and through us.

Section two, this certainty is not a mere conjecture. It's not a mere opinion or probability based on a fallible hope, a false hope. Rather, it is an infallible assurance of faith, based on what? What is it based on fundamentally, first and foremost?

The blood and righteousness of who, beloved? Christ, revealed in his gospel, as well as the inward evidence of grace, of the graces of the Spirit, about which promises have been made to us, and on the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, who witnesses with our spirits that we are the children of God.

Now, beloved, as the fruit of this assurance, the Spirit keeps our hearts both humble and holy, sanctified, ongoing, throughout the rest of our lives. Now, section three, this infallible assurance is not an essential part of faith.

Notice that. Remember the question that I asked earlier, is assurance the same thing as faith or not? Very important to understand this distinction. They are saying, no, it's not. Assurance of salvation is not the same thing as saving faith itself.

Why? Why? Because a true believer, a true believer, he's already saved, may wait a long time and struggle with many difficulties before obtaining this assurance. That's why. Sometimes believers struggle.

They don't look, they, they're misled. They have a wrong understanding of assurance, and they look to the wrong things for their assurance. Yet, we may obtain it without extraordinary, extraordinary revelation, meaning without God directly revealing something to you, that you are saved, but by the right use of ordinary means, the ordinary means of grace, beloved, for we are enabled by the Spirit to know which things are freely given to us by God.

Therefore, it is the duty of everyone to be as diligent as possible, to make their calling and election sure, so that their hearts may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Spirit of God, in love and thankfulness to God, in gratitude, right?

Guilt, grace, gratitude, and in strength and cheerfulness to carry out the duties of obedience. And these duties are the fruits of this assurance, for it is far from inclining people to loose living. So, they make it very clear here, beloved, summing up the biblical doctrines of assurance.

I encourage you to study this chapter in the Confession and look up the biblical references. Verse 13 and 1 John 5 is primarily describing our ongoing assurance of salvation, okay? Not our initial assurance, as John 20, 31 revealed to us, okay?

What do I mean by that? There are two different kinds of assurance in Scripture, beloved. Oftentimes, this gets lost in the morass of confusion and misunderstanding of what assurance really is. There is an initial assurance of salvation, which results the moment you believe.

When you believe, he who believes will have eternal life. Yes and amen. There is an, that's the initial assurance that the Apostle John refers to in the Gospel of John, that you may believe and have and, and believing in his name, you may have eternal life.

That's the initial assurance of salvation. Believing the Gospel, faith in Christ, in the name of Christ. But there is a different other assurance that is distinct, and this is ongoing assurance of salvation.

I encourage you to listen to the Gospel of John a few years back for more on this, but this ongoing assurance of salvation is not surprisingly a primary focus of the letter of 1 John. It's a primary focus of the letter of 1 John, specifically the ongoing walk and lifestyle of true believers.

The word often used in the Greek is the peripateo, the walk. Because you're, you're saved. You know that you're saved when you believe. Okay, but now what? You're still in this life. You're still wrestling with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and sometimes assaulted with the fiery darts of the evil one, and can be doubt, can doubt your assurance, your salvation.

So there is a struggle in this life, but God equips us with an ongoing assurance in this life by seeing the graces and evidences of grace in our life, in our walk, our ongoing walk before God and before the world and his people, God's people.

So how, that's the question. How do people who believe in the name of the Son of God live? That's what this is also pointing to, beloved, and we cannot lose sight of. This also assures us. Now the confessions, they say both, that good works and obedience increase our assurance, and they are also the fruits of our assurance.

They are both and, beloved. Biblical ongoing assurance, then, is like a well-watered tree. I had wrestled with this analogy before, how to explain this biblically. I think the best analogy that I've been able to come up with is, it is like a well-watered tree, ongoing assurance, with roots, a trunk, and fruits, and there is a distinction that we also have to, categories.

We have external objective means of assurance and also internal and subjective means of assurance, right? Now what are the roots? What are the roots of ongoing assurance? These are the internal, the subjective means of assurance.

They are like roots, because the you can't see them. They're inside the ground, right? What the main, and I've already alluded to this before, because of our initial insurance is based on our faith, and not just our faith that we initially have, because oftentimes when we come to Christ, we don't understand a lot of It is a maturing, true belief in God and His Word.

It's a maturing faith that grows in understanding, in the name of the Son of God, in His Gospel, in the Word of God. That is one of the fundamental roots of our assurance. Is there anything else besides that?

Well, yes. This letter shows us many of those things, namely a working conscience, a working conscience that is informed by the Word, that helps us to navigate right from wrong, and that convicts us of our sin when we do sin.

That is a working conscience. That is another root of our assurance, because the sinner does not have a working conscience. His conscience is what? Is seared as with a hot iron. He doesn't feel bad for his sin, and if they do feel bad, it's a worldly bad, just because of consequences, not because of offending a holy God.

So, a working conscience, which also means ongoing repentance in relation to sin, not with respect to faith. Repentance, remember, is a change of mind. It's a change of mind. When we believe, we change our minds from not believing the Gospel, not understanding the Gospel, or believing a false Gospel, to believe, understanding, and agreeing with the right Gospel.

That's the initial act of repentance, but remember what the Apostles say, and the Prophets say, bear fruit in keeping with that initial act of repentance, and that is an ongoing repentance with respect to sin, our relation to sin, because now we are sensitive to our sin, and we repent when we sin.

We have a motivation now to not sin, and to kill sin, which also means we are self-aware of our sin. That's what Calvin was also pointing to. We have a knowledge of self based on God's Word, and an honest self-examination of our lives.

Now, what is the trunk of our ongoing assurance? Now, you can tell, obviously, the trunk is external, right? The trunk is the external part of the tree, one of them, and it's outward. It's objective. People can see it.

They can see it. An obvious external means of ongoing assurance, trunk of our assurance, is good works, right? Good works are external. They are objective. You do a good work, people see it, and you show people your faith by what?

By your works of faith that stem from a life of grace in your life, because you have been saved already. Now, good works, beloved, now, many people say, well, good works, they're optional. You don't really need them for your assurance.

They supplement your assurance, but they're not really necessary, but wait a minute. Is that what the Bible teaches us, beloved? Does the Bible tell us that good works are not really necessary for our assurance?

We know that they're not necessary for faith, but are they necessary for our assurance? What is, what does the word tell us? I just quoted from James chapter 2. How do I show you my faith? How do I show other men my faith?

By my works. We cannot deny the biblical necessity of works for a full-orbed, biblical, ongoing assurance, beloved. An ongoing assurance means that God's grace and spirit will continue working in you and will evidence itself by good works.

That's what this is all about. They are necessary. We cannot deny that or ignore it, and it's similar to what I've said before in order to summarize the first letter of John with the acronym that I refer to as COFS, C-A-W-F-S, right?

C is for confession of sin, right? The sensitive conscience also. He who says he has no sin is a liar. We recognize our sin. A is for abstaining from sin, not sinning, denying our flesh. W is for walking in the light, the truth of God's word.

This is what 1st John is teaching us as a whole. F is for fellowshiping, right? I just read it from 1st John chapter 1, in verses 3 and on. Fellowshiping with God and his people. We have fellowship because we fellowship with a like-minded conviction of the truth of the gospel that saves us, and S is striving for obedience, beloved, striving for obedience.

This is what the trunk of our ongoing assurance is. They are external, and they include our good works, our fellowship with the church, and participation in the fellowship of God's people, beloved, even Christ himself.

The one who loves me is the one who what? Who keeps my commandments. If there is no evidence in your life of keeping God's commandments, you are not there. You have no claim to saying that you are saved.