Assurance - [1 John 5:1]

I have a question for you. This morning, what are you certain about?

What are you certain about? What is it in your life that you have absolutely no doubts?

What are those things in your life that you have complete and confident assurance about?

It could be, as we know very well, that taxes are going to be coming around once again.

It could be the love that you have for your spouse, or the love you have for your children, or children you're certain about, the love you have for your dear parents, especially your dads on a day like today.

But of all those things in our lives that it's most significant and most important that we are assured about, that we have complete and utter confidence without any doubts, is the issue of our salvation.

It's probably the most asked question for pastors who minister to their flocks.

Am I truly saved? How do I know that? How do I know that? Now, from the outset, it's important to understand there is a difference between the security of the believer and our assurance.

Security has nothing to do with you and me. It has everything to do with God. God secures those whom he saves.

Assurance has to do from the human vantage point. Are we assured? Do we have the confident assurance that God has secured his own?

In his book, What is Reformed Theology, R .C. Sproul designates very, very clearly the importance of this issue of assurance.

And he says, and I quote, "...the person who lacks assurance of salvation is vulnerable to a myriad of threats to his personal growth.

The confident Christian, certain of his salvation, is free from the paralyzing fear that can inhibit personal growth.

Such assurance is a mighty boon to the growth of faith to maturity."

No less than three times, R .C. says that assurance is essential, significant for our growth and maturity in the

Christian faith. Because without it, we are open to many paralyzing fears.

If you would turn with me this morning, I invite you to the epistle of 1 John, chapter five, verse one.

The epistle of 1 John, chapter five, verse one. I've always loved the apostle

John. He is the one, after all, who is the disciple whom

Jesus loved. Amongst the twelve, he was one of the inner core of three, right, Peter, James, and John, whom they got to see certain things that the other nine did not.

The Mount of Transfiguration, the raising of Jairus' daughter, or even in the

Garden of Gethsemane during that time that the Lord faced. He was a part of that, John was.

He's probably the closest disciple to our Lord during his incarnation. So what

John has to say to us this morning about this issue of assurance is important. Chapter five, verse one.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

Why was 1 John written? Let's allow the apostle to answer that question.

Before we land directly on this verse one of chapter five, let me give you some background to the epistle of 1

John so we understand the context. Why was 1 John written? Let me give you four watchwords, four key words that will help you understand the purpose, the authorial intent, as it were, of why the apostle wrote this epistle.

The first keyword is jubilation, jubilation. Look at chapter one, verse four with me.

The first reason why John states clearly why he wrote this epistle. Chapter one, verse four.

And we are writing these things, why? So that our joy may be complete.

One of John's purposes in writing this epistle was that our joy, as believers, would be full, complete.

Second reason he writes this epistle. I'll give you another watchword, a key word to help you remember.

It's the word transgression, transgression. Chapter two, verse one.

My little children, I am writing these things to you, why? So that you may not sin.

And I love this part. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. What a great designation of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who stands as our advocate before the Father, as our defense attorney, as it were, pleading on our behalf.

Third reason why John writes this epistle. Third keyword is caution, caution.

That's in chapter two, verse 26. Chapter two, verse 26. John writes,

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

He's cautioning the believers against heresies of false teachers. This is unfortunately replete in our day, and it was replete in the

New Testament. Peter consistently did that. Second Peter chapter two is all about that. Jude wrote an entire one -chapter epistle about that whole issue.

Jesus constantly warned us against false teachers. And John here states that one of the reasons that he's writing is to warn them, to give them a caution against those who are trying to deceive them.

In John's days, one of the big heresies was Gnosticism. And by the way, a little parenthetical note,

Elder Scott is ministering at another church this morning, but I would highly encourage you, it's on our website. Elder Scott, a couple of years ago, did a great

Sunday school series on all the ism heresies. I would ask you to go to that, it's very helpful.

But the Gnostics, there was two things that characterized the Gnostics. One of them coming from the Greek word gnosi.

One of the things that characterized them was that they felt there were certain elite group of Christians who had a superior higher knowledge.

That was only for the elite. But another thing that characterized the

Gnostics was, they had a dualistic thinking about matter and spirit.

Spirit was good, but matter was evil. So you can never combine the two, you can never mix matter with evil.

Therefore, they denied the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as we will see in this epistle a little bit later.

They denied that Jesus came in the flesh. And actually, it was known as docetism from the

Greek word dogeo, which means to appear. They would say, it only really appeared that Jesus came in the flesh, but in reality, he did not.

They denied his humanity, because they said, he is spirit, God is spirit, and he can't take on human flesh, because that would not be good, it would be evil.

So they denied the humanity of Christ, and this is why John is writing this epistle. But the fourth reason, the overall and primary reason

John is writing, turn with me to chapter 5, verse 13, and this key word is salvation.

So he's not only writing about our joy, jubilation, not only is he writing about transgression, that we may not sin, but when we do, we have an advocate.

Not only is he writing a letter of caution against false teachers, but he's writing about salvation, specifically the issue of assurance.

Verse 13 of chapter 5, I write these things, John says, to you who believe in the name of the

Son of God, why? That you may hope that you have eternal life, that you may think that you have eternal life, that you may wish that you have eternal life.

The Greek is a very strong word, in our English text, that you may know with complete and confident assurance that you have eternal life.

Notice his audience, it's very explicit here, I write these things to whom? To you who believe.

But there's an object to this faith. You who believe in whom? In the name of the

Son of God. So John is writing to believers about the issue of assurance. So you can be a genuine

Christian and not have yet complete assurance. He's writing to encourage them in this area of assurance.

That you may know that you have what? Eternal life. Eternal life is replete throughout this epistle.

Notice with me in chapter 1, verse 2, what John says about eternal life. John writing about himself and the other disciples and apostles who walked with Jesus.

He says in chapter 1, verse 2, the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the

Father, referring to Christ the Son, and was made manifest to us. Talking about the incarnation against the

Gnostics. Chapter 2, verse 25, he talks about this as well, eternal life.

Chapter 2, verse 25, John writes, and this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life.

God's promise. God always keeps His promises. He never lies. Chapter 5, verse 11, the very first verse

I memorized as a new Christian. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life.

And here's the clincher. And this life is in whom? In His Son. Why is it in His Son?

Chapter 5, verse 20, he explains. And we know that the Son of God has come, the incarnation against, writing against the

Gnostic heresy, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life.

And what is eternal life? John knows he was there in the Upper Room discourse when

Christ prayed His high priestly prayer in John 17 .3. Jesus Christ Himself defined eternal life by saying this, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true

God, in Jesus Christ whom you sent. It's not just something in the future in heaven.

It begins here, knowing the only true God in Jesus Christ whom

He sent. Now, to understand a little bit of this issue before we dive into verse 1 a little bit more,

I'll give you a little bit snippet about the history of this issue of assurance. Since Pastor Mike also the last two weeks has been talking about sola fide, what was happening with the

Reformers? For example, John Calvin. His battle was against Rome, the

Roman Catholic system, which in every way, shape and form denied any kind of assurance that a person can have, and rightly so, because they taught it was based on meritorious human effort and through their religious system.

So how could anybody ever have assurance? So Calvin, in battling that fight, said that assurance is part of the essence of faith.

From his Institutes, and I quote, he says, 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 in our hearts by the

Holy Spirit. Because he was battling against Rome, he was trying to emphasize the importance of assurance as being the essence of faith.

Well, when the Westminster Divines got together in the confession, it says the following, and I quote, the infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he'd be a partaker of it.

Why did they write that? A lot of the Puritans faced antinomian tendencies in their days.

People would say, yes, I believe in Christ, but I live my life the way

I want to. No change. They saw no practical evidences of the new life in Christ.

So the Puritans, for example, fought that battle and said that assurance was not part of the essence of faith.

So Calvin's focus was on the objective promises of scripture. The Puritans and some of the divines said, well, we have to look at the practical evidences in one life.

So today, what do we base our assurance on is the question that we're going to address in this verse. Is it on the objective promises of God in the scriptures alone?

Is it on the subjective things that we see in our life through the working of the

Holy Spirit to change us? The objective truth says this, simply, do you believe?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? The subjective truth answers this question, though. Is your faith real?

And John, throughout this entire epistle, does not focus on one or the other. He focuses on both the objective truth and the subjective truth.

And that's where we land in verse one of our text. So how can we be assured?

How can you know with complete and total confidence that you have eternal life?

Two reasons John gives us in this verse. The first is the objective truth, faith in Christ.

Number one, faith in Christ. That's the objective truth. We've heard it for the last two weeks from our pastor,

Sola Fide. Faith in Christ plus faith in nothing or no one else.

By faith alone in Christ alone. That's the objective truth. Notice in our text.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. The term believe is very significant because it's the present in the present tense.

It literally means a continuous action. A continuous action. So literally, you can read the verse.

Everyone who is believing, who is continually believing that Jesus is the

Christ. It is not the idea. You've talked to some people say, yeah, I once believed in Jesus. Now I don't believe in Jesus anymore.

The present tense doesn't leave room for that. Whoever is believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

What's the point? Here it is. Genuine Christians will never stop believing.

Now you may have doubts. But you will never ultimately and finally deny the

Lord. If it's true biblical faith. At a church, I was speaking out last week.

We were talking about apostasy and the perseverance of the saints. And many after approached me and had some questions.

What about those examples you gave of people who at one point in their life. Acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ and then later on completely.

Seemingly denied him. Many of you might have friends and family in that category. Well, John would say.

Chapter 219. He would answer the question like this.

They went out from us. But they were not of us for if they had been of us, they would have. Here it is continued with us.

But they went out that it might become plain that there are all not of us. It doesn't mean that in a genuine

Christian's life at some point, there might be doubt. But if they are truly saved by God and are believing in the

Lord Jesus Christ, they will return to the father. Genuine Christians will never stop believing.

But what is this faith that John is talking about? Pastor Mike has taught us.

Well, what is genuine biblical faith with the acronym cat KAT? I see some smiles.

You do remember. K stands for knowledge. A stands for assent.

T stands for trust. So you need all that to be genuine biblical faith. The belief that John is talking about that all the

New Testament writers are talking about. That faith has to have knowledge based on the gospel, the content of the gospel.

The historical facts that Jesus came here to earth, lived the perfect sinless life. Went to the cross as a substitutionary atonement.

Rose again the third day. But it also requires an assent that that is the truth.

But many people stop there with that mental assent and don't go on any further. That is not genuine saving faith.

The last part is T, trust. Fiducia. It's a commitment to the

Lord Jesus Christ. You're trusting by faith alone, as we said, in Christ alone.

Which means if you were trusting before that in someone or something else, you have to deny that. You have to abandon your religious system that you were trusting in.

This is not like chapter two of John, where after the miracle of Cana, John says, the same writer who penned this epistle, said that many people believed in Jesus because they saw his miraculous signs.

What was Jesus' response there? He did not entrust himself to them. Why? Because he knew what was in man.

That's not this kind of faith. That's not biblical saving faith. I love how B .B. Warfield defines it.

Quote, we cannot be said to believe that which we distrust too much to commit ourselves to it.

We cannot be said to believe that which we distrust too much to commit ourselves to it.

So when John says here, everyone who is believing, present tense, it's a continuing belief.

Genuine believers will never ultimately stop believing. They have trusting and are trusting continuously in the

Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. But what do they believe specifically? Look at our text.

Everyone who believes what? That Jesus is the Christ. You have to believe that he is the anointed one, anointed by the

Father, chosen from eternity past by God the Father, who chose in the eternal counsel of the

Trinity to send the Son. That he is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, that he fulfilled all the promises of the

Old Testament. He is the one. He is the chosen one. But you must also believe in his humanity.

Taken right from the this epistle, chapter four, beginning in verse one.

John writes this 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 what has come in the flesh.

Is from God battling the Gnostic heresy and every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God. So you must believe in his humanity. It's not true biblical saving faith.

If you deny the humanity of Jesus Christ. But that's not enough. You have to believe in his deity.

In our chapter, chapter five, verse five, John makes that very clear. Who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes what?

That Jesus is the son of God. That phrase is a direct reference to his deity.

But you must not only believe in who Jesus is, his humanity and in his deity. You must believe in his finished work.

What did he come to do? Chapter three of our epistle, verse five, John says this, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins.

And in him, there is no sin. Chapter three, verse 16, continuing on the work of Christ.

By this, we know love that he laid down his life for us. That's why he came.

Chapter four, verse 10, the work of Christ continues. And this is love, not that we have loved

God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be what? The propitiation for our sins.

Christ satisfied the demands of God's holiness in our stead. That's what it means to believe, to trust, to have complete and full confidence in the

Lord Jesus Christ, in the humanity of Christ, in the deity of Christ, and in the finished work of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And John continues on this first objective truth of assurance, faith in Christ.

Notice what he says in our verse. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, watch this, has been born of God, has been born of God.

This is a perfect tense, which means it's something that happened in the past, an action that happened once in the past, but has ongoing continuing results in the present.

Everyone who is believing currently and continuously has been past tense born of God.

What's the point? One must first be born again in order to believe.

No one will ever believe apart from being born again. In other words, regeneration precedes faith.

Regeneration precedes faith. If I ask most evangelical Christians, and I've done that on many occasion outside of our church context,

I'll ask them, do you need to believe in order to be born again? They'll say, of course, I first have to believe, then

I'll be born again. John says here, no, everyone who is currently and continuously believing, it's because they have past tense already been born again.

They have been regenerated. R .C. writes again of his mentor, John Gerstner, when he first came across this basic doctrine of our

Christian faith. And I quote, when John Gerstner was a college student, he took a course in theology from John Orr, one of the nation's most learned and distinguished scholars in the early 20th century.

During one lecture, Orr wrote on the blackboard in large letters, regeneration precedes faith.

These words stunned Gerstner. He was sure his professor had made a mistake and unintentionally reversed the order of the words.

Did not every Christian know that faith is a necessary prerequisite for regeneration, that one must believe in Christ to be born again?

Pastor Mike and I were talking about this even last summer, and he sent me a statement of faith from Dallas Theological Seminary, which many seminaries are along these lines.

And I'm thankful for my years at Dallas Seminary. I sat under many godly men, but in even many evangelical seminaries today, their statement of faith reads similar to this quote.

We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises faith in Christ, John is saying an unregenerate person cannot exercise faith in Christ.

First comes regeneration in order for that person to exercise that biblical saving faith.

But notice also in our text, everyone who believes that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of whom? Of man? Born of God.

Regeneration is completely a work of God. I have good news for you. You have no part in it.

You have absolutely no part in it. It's completely a work of God. This teaching is consistent with the rest of the

New Testament. Peter put it this way in his first epistle. Chapter one, verse three, at the very outset, he said, blessed be the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

Your faith in my faith is not the cause of our regeneration. God is the cause.

He has caused us to be born again. John, the same author, penned it in his gospel,

John chapter one. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

As if to emphasize, John said, not of the will of man, not of the will of flesh.

This is completely a work of God. And later on in John three, in Jesus's interaction with Nicodemus, when he said to Nicodemus, you must be born again.

The Greek word anothen literally means you have to be born from above. It's outside of you.

It's external to you. It has nothing to do with you. It's a work done by the spirit of God. That's his ministry.

What is regeneration? If that's what's needed in order for someone to believe, what is regeneration? Let me give you some helpful understanding from the

Bible. Regeneration is to be a new creation. Second Corinthians 517. The old is gone.

The new has come. Regeneration means God has given you a new heart, has changed your heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

That's a promise that God himself makes through the prophet Ezekiel. God says, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

It's what Paul says in Romans two, when he talks about circumcision, not of the flesh, but of the heart.

Your heart needs to be circumcised. And guess what? Neither you nor I can circumcise our own heart. It is a work of the

Holy Spirit. It means as Martin Lloyd -Jones would say, regeneration is you means you have a new disposition.

The things you once hated, you suddenly love. And those things you once loved, you now shun away from.

Why is it needed in order to be able for a person to believe in Jesus Christ for the simple reason because we are all spiritually dead.

Do we not sing that in our hymn this morning? Long, my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin because we are dead.

My mentor, Carl, recently sent me some articles from some pastor or author or writer who went off for a while.

And Carl said, I think this guy is off, but he says, I'd like to get your feedback went on and on about this term death in the

New Testament, that it simply means separation. And it doesn't mean to be dead.

Somebody who needs to be awakened. Does it mean separation? Sure. First, Peter three, teen Christ died the righteous for the unrighteous in order to bring us to God.

But according to the New Testament, it means more than that. Ephesians two, Paul tells us that we were all dead in our trespasses and sins.

And God made us alive. Regeneration is the giving of new life to a dead body.

And that is why regeneration has to precede faith because dead people cannot believe.

Major implication, even in our evangelistic efforts to encourage you when you're giving the gospel to somebody, and it's very clear to them, they acknowledge, give mental assent, but don't go to the point of trusting completely in confidence in the

Lord Jesus Christ and his work. Unless the Holy Spirit regenerates them, gives them a heart of flesh to believe.

That's why we pray along those lines. Regeneration is completely a work of God.

To help us understand even further, why it's so important before anyone can believe. Andrew Murray in his book,

Redemption Accomplished and Applied compares regeneration or contrast regeneration to justification.

And he says this quote, regeneration is an act of God in us. Justification is a judgment of God with respect to us.

The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge.

The surgeon, when he removes an inward cancer, does something in us. That is not what a judge does.

He gives a verdict regarding our judicial status. Great distinction. Recently, I was reading a book by Pastor Charles Leiter, where he gives,

I think, a beautiful illustration to help us understand regeneration. He says, quote, the first day of lectures, our teacher surprises with the following announcement.

You don't have to worry about your grade in this course. You all have an A. How great would that be?

Now we can just settle down and enjoy the material. Now, this is exactly what God does in justification.

He says God gives us an A at the beginning of the Christian life. He says somebody might throw up an objection, and rightly so.

Well, they might say, if God gives men eternal life at the beginning of the Christian life, what will keep them from continuing in sin?

If he gives men an A at the beginning of the course, no one will study the material. Someone else might say, well,

I've already got my A. Now I can throw my book in the trash, ignore the teacher, and go do my own thing.

And he says, does God give us an A at the beginning of our course just to make it possible for us to skip class and still get a top grade?

Absolutely not. At the very same time that he gives us an A at the beginning of our course, justification.

He also changes us on the inside so that we will love to study the material. In other words, when

God justifies a man, he also regenerates him. That's a work of the

Spirit of God so that we can have believing, continuous faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first basis of our assurance, faith in Christ, the objective truth.

But John doesn't end there. The second part of the verse is our second basis of assurance. This is the subjective truth, the subjective ground of assurance.

John says here in the second part of verse one, love for believers, love for believers.

Notice how he puts it. And everyone who loves the

Father loves whoever has been born of him. Notice in our verse, the term born of God and born of him is mentioned twice.

And John intentionally does that on purpose. And he says, basically, this is natural.

If you love the Father, it's natural to love the one who has been born of him. Because by the way, regeneration is a work of God.

And he does it in each one. He said earlier in chapter two, in First John, do not love the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So the evidence that I love the

Father, that I have eternal life, that I have that assurance is that I love others who have been born of God as well.

Other terms that John uses in his epistle are he distinguishes between the children of God in chapter three and the children of the devil.

But here his emphasis is on this spiritual birth, this work of the Holy Spirit regeneration.

Notice even in our book, how else he puts this. It's replete throughout this epistle.

Love for believers. Chapter two, verses nine to 11. He says the following.

Chapter two, beginning in verse nine. Whoever says, okay, profession.

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

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.

Why? Because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Chapter three does the same thing.

Emphasizing this subjective grounds of assurance that the one who loves the father naturally loves those who have been born of him as well.

Chapter three, beginning in verse 10. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not what?

Love his brother. Verse 11. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning. That we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain. He goes back to 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.

Verse 14. We know assurance 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. And lastly, in chapter four, even he puts it very plainly.

John does in verse 20 of chapter four. If anyone says profession with their lips,

I love God. And hates his brother. He is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, right?

Cannot love God. Whom he has not seen. The subjective grounds,

John says, is if you be claimed to be born of God and that is why you are believing in Jesus Christ.

And you love the father and your brother and sister in Christ love the father. John is saying it is implicitly natural for you to love somebody who also like yourself has been born of God.

Because that's been something done outside of you. It's the spirit of God doing that. I go to Martin Lloyd -Jones, who explains it really well.

Quote, I say again, a very good and very subtle test of whether we are children of God is whether we really love and like God's people and whether we like to be amongst them.

Do you feel an affinity with people who like to talk about these things and with those who are the children of God?

We love the brethren, Lloyd -Jones says, because we share the same interests. We have been brought out of darkness into light, separated from this world into this new kingdom.

We are sharing and are interested in the same thing, this glorious word in this praise of God.

We have the same enjoyments as we go through this world of time. And back and beyond it all, we are facing the same destination.

We are making for the same glory. We are travelers together through this weary pilgrimage.

He says it is natural to love members of the family. Brother clasps the hand of a brother through being the same in nature, the same in outlook, the same in desires, the same in interest, having the same blessed hope and seeing the same work in us all.

It is not a matter of argument, he says, or of deduction. It is something that is absolutely inevitable.

There are certain people, he says, we now love, I love this, whom we would not love if we were not

Christians. As natural people, we would not love them, but we now see them in a different way.

And we love that in them. We love the brethren. The subjective grounds of our assurance, amongst other things that John talks about specifically in our text today, is because he says, others, like yourself, have been born of the

Spirit of God. And if you both love the Father, it is inevitable that you will love others who have also been born of Him.

What is your assurance this morning based upon? The Bible says it's on two grounds, the objective truth of faith in Christ.

If you are trusting and believing in Christ alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, it's not because you are smarter than the person next to you, your neighbor or your classmate, it's because the

Spirit of God has regenerated, has made you, caused you to be born again so that you may believe. And the subjective grounds of your assurance is you love to be around the brethren.

Do you know this morning without a shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life?

My daughter, the other day, as I was picking her up from school, she said that the teacher punished the entire class for something that only a few kids did.

And she was pretty upset about that. So I consoled her and I said, that is so unfair.

She says, yeah, it is. I said, you know what's more unfair? That the perfect one, the

Holy One, Jesus Christ, who never sinned, obeyed the Father to the utmost, should experience the wrath of the

Father for something you and I did. Now that's not fair. Are you trusting in the

Lord Jesus Christ this morning? Let's pray. Father, we do thank

You for the truth of Your Word. Thank You for its clarity because it speaks to our hearts.

Thank You, Father, for this brief epistle. And Father, I pray that if anyone here this morning who is struggling with assurance, might be that they are genuinely saved, they are secure in You, but they're basing their assurance on other things.

And that's why John wrote, would You encourage them along those lines? And if there's somebody here this morning who is not trusting in You, I pray that the

Spirit of God, You would cause them to be born again so that they might fully trust with complete confidence in none other than the