Assurance Of Salvation: Christ FOR Us (part 1) - [1 John 2:1-2]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Assurance of salvation is a very important topic. I could ask you the question, do you know that you're a

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Christian? How do you know? This is the subject that I've been studying most of the summer.

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How do I know I'm really a Christian? And someone even with the stature of John Newton, who wrote

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Amazing Grace, was trying to talk himself into assurance when he wrote this poem.

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Listen to it. Often it causes anxious thought. Do I love the

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Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? If I love, why am

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I thus? Why this dull and listless frame? Hardly sure can there be worse who have never heard

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His name. I'm so lax in my fire for the Lord. People that are unbelievers, don't they have more energy than I do?

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Newton goes on, Could my heart so hard remain? Prayer a task and burden prove.

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Every trifle give me a pain if I knew a Savior's love. Why is my prayer life even difficult if I'm a

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Christian? When I turn my eyes within, all is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin.

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Can I deem myself a child? I have so much sin inside of me. Can I really be a

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Christian? Newton, if I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with all

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I do. You who love the Lord indeed, tell me, is it thus with you?

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Do you struggle? Newton asks. Yet I mourn my stubborn will, my sin of grief and thrall.

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Would I grieve for what I feel if I did not love at all? There must be something in my heart if I'm feeling bad about my sin.

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And you can hear him talk himself into insurance. Or at least try.

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Could I joy his saints to meet, choose the ways I once abhorred, find at times the promise sweet if I did not love the

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Lord? How do we know we're Christians? How do we have that surety, that confidence that when we die, we'll stand before God?

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Well, if I could introduce John Newton to a man named Martin Luther, here's what

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Luther would say to Newton. When I look to myself, I don't see how I can be saved.

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But when I look at Jesus, I don't see how I can be lost. That is the key to assurance of salvation.

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So this morning, instead of being in the book of Hebrews, we're up to Hebrews 6. I think that's where we ended four years ago, wasn't it?

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We're in Hebrews 6. We're going to have this message and maybe a couple more before we get to Hebrews 6. Things that I've been working on and thinking about that are crucial for the

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Christian life, not just for me this summer, but also for you now, to talk about security that we have in Christ Jesus, especially as I think about the

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Reformation. This is October and 501 years ago, the

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Reformation essentially started and Reformation truths are important and we think of maybe the solas, the foundation of everything, sola scriptura, everything's built on the foundation of Scripture.

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And the covering over the sola is soli Deo Gloria, right to God be the glory.

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And then you've got three pillars through Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone.

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And that's important to talk about those things around the Reformation time. But there are a few topics with the

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Reformation in mind that weren't discussed very much now, but were discussed then.

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That is the sanctity of marriage for not just procreation, but pleasure. The bondage of the will and we'll do that next

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Sunday night for a Reformation service. And today, the assurance of salvation that you can know with confidence, with hope, with joy that I know

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I'm going to die and go to heaven. When I die, I know I'm going to go to heaven. Sinclair Ferguson writes, in some senses, the

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Reformation was the great rediscovery of assurance. If the gospel was the power of God for salvation, if in Christ we are accounted righteous before the

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Father, so the Reformers understood since earthly fathers lavish on their children assurances of their love, protection, and provision, how much more does our

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Heavenly Father lavish on us His love, protection, and provision? God loves to give

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His children assurance. He doesn't love to take it away. He loves to give it. Do not your own children, when they experience the love that you give them, you're my son and there's nothing you can do to make yourself not my son?

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What about definitions? There's a difference between security in Christ and assurance. Do you know the difference? I know you do.

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Security in Christ is when God saves you, our triune God saves. By the way,

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I travel a lot, but I didn't hardly see any Unitarian churches when I was gone. From Saskatoon to Portland to California, no

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Unitarian churches and I get back here and what do you see here? All over Unitarian churches because the high view of God that we rediscovered at the

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Reformation needed to go out because we needed softer contours and planed edges so that they weren't so rough and so we went from congregationalism to Unitarianism.

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But whenever I'm at a Unitarian church, I just love to say, in the name of our triune God, the Father and the

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Son and the Spirit. He's our Savior and He, the Father, sends

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His Son to die on the cross for our sins and to be raised from the dead and then in time, the

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Spirit of God applies Christ's work and He does that by regeneration and He alone makes you alive in Christ.

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1 Peter 1, He causes you to be born again. So we have this great triune God who saves us and when the

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Father chooses you in eternity past, the Son dies for you at Calvary and then the

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Spirit of God makes you alive, you have security even though you don't feel it.

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Even if you do feel it or don't feel it, you have security because this is a work that's done.

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When God saves, He does it completely and thoroughly and no one can snatch us from the

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Father's hand. But how we feel about that accomplishment that's done for us, that's where we get into assurance.

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Am I confident that that really happened? You can have low levels of assurance and have security in Christ because He has died for you but the best thing to have in life, the most joyful thing is to have a high level of assurance and that's what

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I want you to have, Christian. If you're not a Christian, I obviously don't want you to have any assurance because it's bad to have false assurance, thinking you're going to go to heaven and then die and then not go.

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And as I've quoted many times, John Bunyan would say, there's a porthole to hell at the gates of heaven.

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Say, well, I struggle with assurance sometimes. May I say, join the club.

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We are finite people. We are frail people. We've been influenced by sin and there's nothing perfect in my life except my position in Christ, right?

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So why would my assurance be perfect if I'm far from perfect? Some struggle more than others,

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I know. But today, if you'll take your Bibles and let's turn to the book of Romans 7,

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I'd like to talk to you about assurance so that you can worship with the whole heart. How can you just worship

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God with your heart, soul, mind and strength if you're thinking, I might be going to hell? Am I a Christian or not? I want you to understand assurance so you could work hard for the kingdom because if you think you've got to earn yourself to get back into God's good graces, it's hard to do ministry.

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It's hard to do church functions. Matter of fact, when I studied Thomas Goodwin, the

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Puritan, he said, the Christian that has full assurance of faith is 10 times more active than the one who does not have assurance.

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Why? Because if you don't have assurance, you're running hither and thither. I was in Concord yesterday and they have great poets there and stuff like that.

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I don't know if I ever use the words pell -mell very often, but I use them after I say hither thither. You're running hither thither and pell -mell all around.

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It's almost like a spiritual web MD when you've got something wrong with you and you're just checking every internet site frenetically.

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If you don't know you're a Christian, I understand there's some freneticism there.

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Is that a word? You know what I do when I'm in California preaching? I just make up words and say, that's how we pronounce them in New England.

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It works out great. By the way, all my California friends, they think I'm the total New Englander. They're like, you know, he's just rough, straight at you, stabs you in the front, not the back, tells you like it is.

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I think that with New England, I think we, and I'll add myself, we might not be really nice, but we're kind, right?

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They're not really kind, but they're nice. You're all laughing because you know. The outline for today is simple.

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How to get assurance if you don't have it and how to keep it if you've got it.

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Simple. Number one, don't look to any ism for assurance.

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We're gonna get into Romans in a second. I'm just setting everything up. Don't get into any, don't look to any ism for assurance.

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How do you know you're a Christian? Well, there's lots of isms. Here's one, sacramental ism.

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I know I'm a Christian because I was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, in the

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Lutheran Church. It could even be even a Baptist church. Catholic Catechism, page 321.

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All sins are forgiven by baptism, original sin and all personal sins. If you want

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Protestants who say the same thing wrongly, Lutheran Church baptism saves pamphlet.

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Baptism establishes a new relationship with God through Christian baptism. We have our sin forgiven, become heirs of eternal life and can remain his children forever.

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Amazing grace, end quote. That's not where you should have your assurance. There's another ism, it is called legalism.

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Some people think they're Christians because of what they don't do. We don't read, in the old days this worked, but now it doesn't work because we don't have newspapers.

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I don't read comics on Sunday. You know, the funnies in a newspaper. I don't smoke tobacco.

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I don't drink alcohol. I don't go to movies. I don't play cards, whatever those things are today.

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I just don't do those things, therefore I'm a Christian. That's a bad way to base your assurance.

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Here's another one, easy believism. How do you know you're a Christian? I said the prayer,

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I raised my hand, I walked the aisle, something like that. And then lastly, experientialism.

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I had an experience. I was zapped, I was slain, I had a burning in my bosom,

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I had a warm feeling, God talked to me, the list could go on and on and on. Number two, we're gonna see now in Romans, don't look to yourself for your assurance.

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This is not a good way at all. Look at Romans chapter seven, verse 15.

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Can you see the war Paul has? Paul is talking, I believe, as a

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Christian, and he's using present tense now. He switched from past tense, verses seven to 13, to present tense.

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And he says, for I do not, verse 15 of chapter seven, for I do not understand my own actions.

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This is mature Paul, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing

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I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law. That is, it is good.

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So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

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For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

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Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

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And what is Paul doing here? He's paving the way for the great work of the spirit of God to show who we are in Christ, to look outside yourself.

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No wonder Luther, when he thought, you know what? God is righteous, he demands righteousness. I'm unrighteousness,

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I'm unrighteous, and I do unrighteous things, and God is righteous, I'm unrighteous, what do I do about it?

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I'll try to make myself righteous. But that's an impossibility because sin taints us.

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Verse 21, so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

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For I delight in the law of God and in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

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Wretched man that I am, present tense, notice, who will deliver me from this body of death?

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If you say to yourself, I'm a Christian, and I've had times of sweet communion with God, but now

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I'm wondering if I am or not, and I'm questioning, and I'm wondering, and I'm not getting that feeling like I am.

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If your primary motive and motivation is to look inward, guess what you're gonna find inside of you?

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If you read Religious Affections by Edwards and examine all the fruit that should be there, and you don't see that fruit like it should be, how are you gonna feel?

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If you read David Brainerd, and it's just this inward introspective thing, it is very, very difficult.

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Charles Hodge said, many sincere believers are too introspective. They look too exclusively within, so that their hope is graduated by the degrees of evidence of regeneration, which they find in their own experience.

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This, except in a rare case, can never lead to the assurance of hope.

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I think this is essentially evangelical legalism, where you think, how do I know

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I'm a Christian? I'll look inside primarily for changes in my affection, changes in my thought, changes in my desires, which that is fine secondarily, if you wanna say

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I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus, but when you start doing this, and you know I love the Puritans mainly, but many of the

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Puritans did not help us, they were too introspective, too looking inward. It's not going to help you, because you're gonna always see things that you do tainted with sin.

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You'll always look in and see motives that you had when you did something that Christians do, tainted with sin.

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I could probably, I should have spent more time figuring this out, but when I saw this hymn, what if I just changed it all around?

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When darkness seems to hide his face, you know when I'm wondering, am I really a Christian or not? I rest on my unchanging grace.

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In every high and stormy veil, my anchor holds within my veil. My oath, my covenant, my blood, my sweat, my tears, support me in the whelming flood.

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When all around my soul gives way, then I am all my hope and stay.

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When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in my righteousness alone, faultless to stand before thy throne.

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Doesn't that sound funny? It'd even sound funnier if I sang it. Now let's get to the good news.

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That was just, this is where we tend to go. I've had an experience. I walked the aisle. I did some kind of prayer.

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I listened to Christian radio. I don't listen to K -Love. I mean, whatever you want for experience.

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I use the K -Love thing in Canada. They don't get K -Love, so it didn't work. Or then

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I look inside of myself and say, you know, do I do what Christians do? Well, that's fine secondarily, but let's look at the main thing.

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Look outside yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ and His merit. Turn to 1 John 1, please.

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This is where you need to look because there's gonna be no mixture of sin and ill motives in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. This is Luther. Your assurance is Christ for you, not

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Christ in you. Everything in us is tainted with sin. So when we look within, buyer beware.

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But when we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, you see no spot, no blemish, no sin, no bad motives.

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And you'll see, okay, here's who the Savior is. That's where I need to primarily look.

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Our circles, we look subjective inwardly first. That should only be second. Evangelical assurance should not be inward driven.

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It should be outward driven. Now we come to the book of 1 John. And typically we like to say this is a book of all kinds of tests for saving faith.

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And you know what? There are tests here. But here's the test. Let's take a look at chapter five first to see the context of the entire book.

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The tests are in the book, but the tests are there in the context of John wants you to have assurance.

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He is not trying to take it away. What does he say in chapter five, verse 20?

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How does he end the book? Well, even before that in verse 13 of 1 John 5.

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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.

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That's his goal. His goal is not to give you a bunch of tests that you fail and you go, am I, I'm not a Christian.

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He wants believers to know. Take a look at verse 20. And we know that the

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Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true.

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In His Son, Jesus Christ, He is the true God and eternal life.

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Chapter three, verse one. He's wanting you to have assurance. He knows you're sinful.

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We're all sinful, affected by Adam. And even as redeemed, we're justified simultaneously sinners.

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Chapter three, verse one. This is the tenor of our friend, the Apostle John. See what kind of love the

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Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are.

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The same language is found in chapter four, verse 17 of 1 John. By this love, this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.

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You already are believers in Christ Jesus. I want you to believe with more surety.

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That's John. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? I want you to have more resolution to believe. I want you to have more certainty to believe.

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Fuller confidence. That's what he's after. Are there tests of saving faith?

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Yeah, let's see one. But what's in the middle of the test? Go back to chapter one, please, of 1

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John. When you struggle with assurance, if you only look to an event in time, you're going to be saddened.

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If you only look to within yourself, you're going to be saddened if you're a realist. But if you look to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, that's the key. Chapter one, 1 John, verse five. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light.

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And in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

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But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

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Here's a test, but it's driving somewhere. It's taking you somewhere. It's pointing you somewhere. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

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The truth is not in us. If we confess our sins and we agree with God that we're sinful, he, present chance, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. That's all true.

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I believe it all. But it's driving to Christ outside of you. Chapter two, verse one.

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Could be my all -time favorite verses because I'm driving to the inside looking at the

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Mike Avendroth in the inside. I don't like what I see. To whom shall I look? My little children, can't you hear

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John? I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

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I really don't want you to sin. Who as an apostle would want a Christian to sin?

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He doesn't want anybody to sin. But guess what? We still sin. And when you do sin, here's what

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I want you to know. God still loves you. God still provides for you.

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God still has given you the son. What if you were left on your own?

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Okay, Christian, the triune God has saved you. You're on your own now. And when you sin, you're gonna be big trouble.

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What would happen? I don't have to use very many lawyers in my life, but when

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I do, I want them to be bad lawyers. I want them to have lost a lot of cases.

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And I figured, you know, maybe if they work with me, they might get a little luck or something like that and it might rub off on them.

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Of course not. When you hire a lawyer, who do you hire? The best that you can afford.

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That wasn't in my notes. I want the best lawyer.

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I want a lawyer that's never lost a case. I want somebody who can step in for me.

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And you know, when I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, you know what? There might even be some truth to what the guy said in this lawsuit, but I've got my lawyer up there and he talks for me.

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He represents me. He speaks for my behalf. He speaks for my good. He's defending me.

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And you know what? This lawyer, that's the word here, lawyer, advocate. Jesus, every time we've sinned, he goes to the father and he's never lost a case one time because all he has to do is say to the father,

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I've paid for that sin. I bore your wrath for that sin at Calvary.

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And there's no case against Mike, even though he sins because I've paid for it.

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He's never lost a case. That's amazing to me. He's an advocate. And look at the passage again in 1

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John 2. We have an advocate with the father. There's all kinds of words for with in the

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Greek. Here's the word for with here. It's John 1, 1 language right in the face of God.

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Remember, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Face to face, close, intimate.

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I have an advocate right before the father. He's not one of these, you know, crazy lawyers you see on TV that, you know, are looking for ambulances to chase.

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This is a defense attorney who goes right up to the father and has access to him because he's perfect.

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He's blameless before the father. And he can go to the presence of the father face to face, accomplish work of Christ on the cross, prevails.

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Now, if Jesus was sinful, he couldn't do it. He'd need his own lawyer. But what does the text say? We have currently, presently, ongoingly, even as we sin, an advocate with the father,

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Jesus Christ, the righteous. While we're not righteous in our actions and by our state and by our nature before we're saved, we've got the righteous

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Messiah who stands before the father. And who now, by the way,

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Christian is in the father's presence as a high priest. If you ever read the

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Bible and you see language that says

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Jesus Christ righteous, or Jesus Christ, the righteous, we're dealing with articles here, definite articles.

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When I was a kid, I did not pay attention in English class. And I'm sure that comes out very often as I speak.

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But there's something heartwarming about articles in the Greek language. If I was a charismatic, this would be my charismatic moment right here.

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I just, I always feel like I want to sway that it's so good. It could be that Jesus would be called the righteous.

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Out of all the righteous people, definite article, he's the righteous one. That'd be fine.

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But here, there's no article in the original language. And when there's no article in the original language, the focus is on quality.

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The focus is on character. The focus is on the person. Not the particular one like the, but the essence and the nature.

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And so when you have an advocate before the father, he's of his essence and nature, he's righteous.

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So he's gonna plead for you rightly and do the right thing. And he's not gonna have anybody say, you know what?

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You've got this two bit lawyer, so get rid of him. Oh, no, no, no. He is the one

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Jesus. Notice the word propitiation in verse two. Who's made propitiation for our sins. God is a just God.

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So he's not gonna say, I punish Mike, the Christian, when I've already punished Jesus on the cross.

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Jesus has placated Mike's sins. He's made propitiation. And again, the language, my little children, my dear children.

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If you had a God who loved you like that, does this make you wanna sin and licentiously going, you know what?

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I'm gonna sin that grace might abound. Instead you go, I've never met anybody like that who would care for me like that, who would love me like that.

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So I don't want to sin. You see what John's doing here? Christians do confess sins.

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Christians do love God. Christians do love the word. Christians do not love the world. Christians do love other

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Christians. That's all true. But if that's your only test of how you are in Christ Jesus, I ask you the question, how are you doing?

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How's your love life for other Christians? Is it perfect? Because that's what God requires to get into heaven, perfect.

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How's your hatred of the world? John says there's a test for Christians. It's hatred of the world. How much do you really hate the world?

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And you know what? To get into heaven on your own merits, you've got to perfectly hate the world. That's why you need someone else.

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That's why you need to say, you know what? When it comes to assurance of salvation, the main assurance that I have is simply the empty tomb.

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I'm all in on the risen savior who's my propitiation. Remember what

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Luther said? When I look at myself, I don't see how I could be saved. Because what do you see when you look at yourself?

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If you're honest with yourself and if you're not like Wesley and perfectionist and you make

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God not quite as holy and sin not quite as bad and you try to bridge the gap a little bit. But what if you're like Luther who you realize

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God is this holy and I am this sinful. And if I wanna know I'm right with God, if I'm good with God, if I die,

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I'm gonna go straight to heaven. To where do I look? And if the answer's within, you're always going to fail.

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But if you look at Jesus, you don't know how you can be lost. Now, Steve has been in John, but go back a little bit in John, since I'm in 1

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John. Remember John talking in John nine, there was a man born blind. Did I say that right?

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A man born blind. If anybody could lose their salvation, that man could lose his salvation.

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His parents were after him. The Pharisees were after him. Over and over and over.

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Let's turn there a matter of fact, if anybody could lose their salvation and have no assurance of their salvation, it was this poor guy in John nine.

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Sometimes just read all of John nine and you'll say to yourself, this is amazing. This guy had everything against him.

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This man who was born blind. Matter of fact,

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I'll read just a few verses. And here, everything is focused on when you need assurance, you need to be looking to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. His life, his work, his resurrection, his intersensory prayer.

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John nine. I mean, it just reads amazingly.

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As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? That he was born blind.

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I mean, I think his disciples maybe had some newthetic counseling training and they were looking for the idols of his heart or something.

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I don't know. Did I just say that? Oops. It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

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Verse five, I'm the light of the world. Spit on the ground, made mud with saliva, anointed the man's eyes, go wash in the pool.

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He went, he washed, he came back seen. Who does that? Now they're after him.

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It is a full court press. Or if you don't like the basketball illustration, they just pulled the goalie.

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See, I'm trying to accommodate you with my contextualizations. Verse eight, neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg?

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I mean, the neighbors are after him. Some said it is he, others said no, but he's like him. He kept saying,

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I'm the man. Well, then how were your eyes opened? Man called Jesus, made mud, anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash.

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So I went and washed and received my sight. And they said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know.

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And now here comes the Pharisees. Verse 16, this man is not from God for he does not keep the

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Sabbath. Verse 18, the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and that he received his sight.

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I mean, at least if you've got the people and the some and the Jews and the

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Pharisees all after you, maybe your parents will at least stick up for you. Is this your son?

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Verse 19, you say was born blind? How does he now see? Verse 22, his parents said these things because they feared the

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Jews and the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he's put out of the synagogue.

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We're talking economics, we're talking grocery store, we're talking everything you just ostracize. And here's the great news, congregation.

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It's gonna seem like a dumb moment, but chapter 10 follows chapter 9.

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Selah. So often we read the

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Bible and we forget, hey, these chapters were put in by other people. These chapter breaks.

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So if it's Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace. That's the attitude fruit.

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Chapter 6, here's the action fruit when people are stuck in sins. Be gentle as you restore them because you're a sinner too.

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Chapter 9 follows chapter 10. Chapter 10 could be one of the all -time greatest chapters in the world about Jesus, who's this great shepherd.

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And if a sheep could be lost with the Jews, the psalm, the people, the

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Pharisees, the economy, the parents, he would be lost. But guess who won't lose a sheep?

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Nine goes before 10. That is fascinating to me. Verse 7 of chapter 10.

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"'Truly I say to you, I'm the door of the sheep.'" There's no really real door in the sheep pen.

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It's just the shepherd who just lay there. He actually is the door. And you get the metaphor now. I'm the door.

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If anyone enters through me, by the way, did that boy in chapter 9, that young man in chapter 9 enter through Jesus?

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Yes, he did. He will be saved. Go in and out and find pasture. Thieves, they steal, they kill, they destroy.

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"'I,' Jesus said," verse 10, "'came that they may have life and have it abundantly.'"

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I am the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He's the noble shepherd, the beautiful shepherd, the great shepherd.

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Verse 14, I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. The parents may disavow the kid, but, verse 15, "'Even as the

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Father knows me and I know the Father, "'I lay down my life for the sheep. "'For this reason,' verse 17, "'the

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Father loves me because I lay down my life "'so that I might take it up again.'" Christian, you say, well, sometimes

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I struggle with my assurance. You can't look for any kind of sacramentalism or any other ism, and don't primarily look to yourself.

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Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder when Paul was rehearsing all this in chapter eight of Romans, he said, what shall we say to these things?

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If God is for us, who can be against us? Well, I just don't really feel that's true.

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I met somebody this summer and they said, well, Mike, what do you feel about that? And I said, well, are you asking me the question since I'm the blunt

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New England person? What do I feel about it or what do I think about it? And she said, both. And then

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I said something like, and maybe this is only for radio, but I said, Jesus Calling book, I think it's blasphemy, but it feels like it makes me wanna throw up.

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Is that what you're asking? He's like, okay, you won't be back. I gotta go where people love me.

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That's why we can't go on our feelings primarily because as you've heard me quote many times, feelings are deceiving.

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Feelings are influenced by the fall. And so you say, well, you know what? I'm struggling with assurance.

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And so you chase assurance and you chase the inward. What I'm trying to tell you, don't chase assurance, don't chase inward.

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Find out through the only place you can learn about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the spirit -inspired, infallible, sufficient word and put your nose in that book and start reading

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John 9 and 10 and other chapters. And you'll go, that's the Jesus that I'm trusting in. That's the

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Jesus that I'm hoping in. If I'm left to myself, I'm undone. But if the words of Jesus are true,

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I'm safe. I'm secure. You say, yes, but I still sin. That's true.

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You have an advocate. And we'll talk next week about, well, when we have these sins in our lives that we simply won't repent of, those are just road bumps in our lives to make sure

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God is getting our attention. And we're saying, well, I don't feel safe because we've got to deal with those sins. That's all true and we'll get there.

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But right now the focus is on, who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Did not

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Spurgeon say, when you struggle with assurance and you chase the dove of assurance, you never catch her. But if you focus on the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the dove of assurance just comes and just sets down on your shoulder.

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You're chasing assurance. Stop. Chase the Lord Jesus Christ. True or false?

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God did not spare his own son, but he gave him up for us all. I hope you say true.

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That's Romans 8, 32. Part two, true or false? How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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Including assurance, it's true because that's the rest of the verse. I just say that's amen.

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Some talk with angels talk, others talk with that. Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation and be focused on the

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Lord Jesus. Luther's having his crisis. God is righteous. At least he understood that.

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Not in our lives, not many people understand how holy God is and how righteous. And that every sin is like spitting in God's face.

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And Luther knew he was unrighteous and he would confess his sins up to six hours a day. And he tried to make himself righteous.

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It was only that moment when God showed him the just shall live by faith. Faith trusting in who

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Jesus is, he wrote this. You struggle with assurance? Luther, God has sent his son into the world to save sinners and to crush hell, overcome death, take away sin and satisfy the law.

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What must you do? Nothing but accept this and look up to your Redeemer and firmly believe that he has done all of this for your good and freely gives you all as your own so that in the terrors of death, sin and hell, you can confidently say and boldly depend on it.

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Although I do not fulfill the law, although sin still is present in me and I fear death and hell, nevertheless, from the gospel

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I know that Christ has bestowed on me all his works. I am sure he will not lie.

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His promise he will surely fulfill. Upon this anchor is my confidence.

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I know that my Lord Jesus Christ has overcome death, sin, hell and the devil for my good.

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Though he was innocent, as Peter says, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

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Therefore, sin and death were not able to slay him. Hell could not hold him and he has become their Lord and has granted this to all who accept and believe it.

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All this is affected not by my works or my merits, but by pure grace, goodness and mercy.

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I don't know what else to say to that except amen. Notice the focus for Luther.

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It wasn't this kind of angst that he had within himself. Actually, and you've heard me say this before, thankfully,

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Johann von Stoppitz said to him, Luther quit doing all that, quit going internally and the machinations and introspection and trying to find every little sin in your heart because by the way, you're a lot more sinful than you think you are.

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So just stop it and look to Christ. Don't go in you, look outside of you.

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And remember how you remember his name? Johann von Stoppitz. Luther, stop it.

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Stop doing that. Congregation, when you struggle with assurance, stop looking on the inside, stop it.

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I'm not saying we'll look at this next week. I'm not saying you could never look at your fruit and never look at your affections and see if there's any change or never deal with sin that's in your life as a

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Christian. I am not saying that, but I am saying primarily and listen to me clearly, the primary means of assurance is

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Christ Jesus outside of you. All the struggle with sin

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I get, but right now, how about the gospel of Jesus according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John or the gospel of Jesus according to the writer of Hebrews where it's just a good long gaze on who

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Jesus is. We have a problem in evangelicalism. Here's the problem.

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You know what? That's all fine and dandy, but I need a list of things to do, thank you. You're probably feeling it in the book of Hebrews, right?

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Will he ever give me some practical application? I give it to you every week. Let me tell you about Jesus.

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If I were to tell you, you know what? After Hebrews, we're gonna go to the gospel according to Luke. And you think it's taken a long time to get through Hebrews?

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I'm gonna die in Luke. And you're like, yes, show me Jesus every day.

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Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I'm telling you, after about eight weeks, people are gonna come up to me, I just need a list.

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I just need a checklist. I just need some things to do. I got five things I need to do and check them off. And I'm thinking, yeah, but that's the problem.

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But that's how you fill big churches. Because evangelicalism is now run by law and not the gospel.

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And we've got to have both. The law drives us to who Jesus is and to be ready to go to church. And to be reminded of why we need such a great

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Savior. But if I just give you five things to do every week, that is nothing but law. And you can do them externally, but on the inside of your heart, how are you doing?

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And if you're honest with yourself, you realize, probably not too well. And let's see, God requires perfection.

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And I'm not doing this loving my neighbor thing very well. That's why I've got to get you outside of yourself to say,

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Jesus loved his neighbor perfectly. Jesus loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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I mean, think about it. We as Christians should be the ones, I mean, we look at the world, look at their bad sins.

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But aren't Christian sins actually worse? Aren't our sins actually worse?

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Because we know the Savior. But what does Paul say?

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? When you've got the advocate, if there's a charge against you, it might be brought.

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But it doesn't stick. It is God who justifies.

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You can't become righteous on your own. You can't feel your way to righteousness. And you can't even get your own assurance.

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The only way you can get assurance is to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll see some other helps next week.

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Do you have Christian assurance? Do you have assurance as a Christian? If you don't, my message for you is simple.

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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and you can know it. But if you struggle with assurance, the

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Lord Jesus is the answer. And if you have assurance, the Lord Jesus is the answer.

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Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for your word. I thank you that when you set your love on people, unlike my love and unlike others, it's not fickle, it's not changeable.

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You don't fall out of love and change your desires. Your love for us is pure and infinite and gracious and unchanging.

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As Hosea says, you've loved us freely and you've loved us with an everlasting love.

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I thank you for that. Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? The answer is no.

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We're thankful for that. And so, Father, I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church that the Christians here would really experience that assurance, that subjective confidence that they're really

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Christians. So then they can be off and doing all kinds of things in society and serving here at the church and evangelizing because they're not concerned about their standing before you.

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I pray that you'd help us to be holy people in light of this truth so that we would not take advantage of this great reality, justification by faith alone, but we would live in light of it as Paul would instruct us.

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You've declared us as holy. Now help us to live a holy life. I pray for those that are here and they really struggle with assurance.

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Would you give them a desire this week to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to study

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His word? And we're thankful for all that He's done for us in real

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Galilee, on a real cross, in real Jerusalem, all for us.