Assurance Of Salvation: It's Blessings And Possibility - [1 John 5:13]

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I think the last time I preached I was in Israel, just in Jerusalem, and just in the wonderful providence of God I was doing some scripture reading for our group in a place where they think
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Caiaphas lived, and the high priest, and I was doing some scripture reading and I looked up, there was only probably 22 folks in our group, and then the entire congregation, all the empty seats were filled by another group, some
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French Catholics wanted to come in and they just sat there looking at me, and so I thought that means it's time to preach, so we talked about sin, redemption, salvation in Jesus Christ alone, works can't save you, and it's almost like they clapped when
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I was done, so I thought alright. So it was just a wonderful trip, thanks for praying, it's good to be back.
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Before we left, the night before we left, our flight from Boston to Newark got cancelled, and so we were trying to figure out what to do, similarly last night
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I saw from Newark to Boston a list of standby passengers, people on standby thinking will
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I make the flight or will I not, you know that was a wonderful concept for me to think through that's kind of like assurance of salvation, isn't it?
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When you know for sure that God has paid for your sins, when you know you're forgiven and you have the confidence, you have the assurance, you have the security knowing that Jesus Christ is going to be faithful to his word and I'm going to heaven, assurance of salvation.
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How much more can you get done in ministry, if you don't know you're going to go to heaven, you can imagine time, effort, focus trying to deal with that issue, because you're flying standby you don't know if you'll make it, but when you've got the ticket, last night was especially wonderful because we were jammed in a flight from Tel Aviv to Newark, 12 hours and jammed in, and so my
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Newark flight to Boston, while the rest of our group sitting in the back with the other folks in the back,
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I was sitting up front and I had a TV and extra leg room, they gave me premier seating, and I thought the
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Christian thing would be to give it to Loy, but I know he wanted to sit with his wife, so I didn't do that, but I'm telling you, it's packed that flight, we're all wanting to get home, everybody's anxious to get on the flight, there's a list of standby folks, and I have my ticket in my hand,
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I got a seat, seat assignment secure. Why don't you take your Bibles and go to 1
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John chapter 5, and I want to talk about assurance of salvation, because it's good for you to know, God wants you to know, if you're a
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Christian, that you're going to go to heaven, the assurance of salvation, it's a wonderful gift, a mercy of God for you to be able to say,
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I know for certain I'm going to heaven, and so while you're turning to 1 John, almost in the very back of your
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Bibles, I ask you the question, are you going to heaven? It's the most important question that you can answer.
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Are you going to heaven? Are you certain that if you were to die tonight and stand before God, that you'd go to heaven?
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I want to say ten times in the last two weeks, security folks have gotten onto our bus with fully automatic machine guns, checking us, well, checking
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Lucille is what they were doing, they weren't checking me, they're profiling of course, and I thought it would take about 14 seconds for all 22 of us to just be killed.
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Going to Jordan, things are dangerous there, and so we had a Jordanian policeman escort us on the bus, escort us to Petra, and I just thought, do you know what?
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From airplane crashes to anything else, we are close to eternity. George Whitefield often preached, consider your soul, and so one day, it might not be in the
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Holy Land, it might not be in Jordan, it might not be here, but one day you're going to die and then stand before God, and then what?
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And for the Christian, he or she has totally trusted in the finished work of Jesus.
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When Jesus said, it is finished at Calvary, paid in full, he paid the sin debt of all who would ever believe,
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Old Testament, New Testament, people today, people overseas, all paid in full, redemption accomplished.
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And now, God wants you to know, if you're a Christian, that you have eternal life.
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So number one, are you a Christian? Are you trusting wholly in the work of Christ? And number two, do you know that for sure?
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So all this morning, we're going to talk about assurance of salvation, the gift of God that you can know for certain that you're going to heaven.
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Fannie Crosby was at her friend's house. Fannie Crosby was the blind hymn writer. She wrote all kinds of poems and wonderful hymns that we sing.
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And her friend, Phoebe Knapp, was having an organ installed, and the organ wasn't quite ready, and so Phoebe sat down and played a little song that she had been working on, on the piano, a new melody.
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And Knapp asked Crosby, her friend, what do you think the tune says? What does it sound like to you?
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And Crosby said, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
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I wonder if you could say that this morning. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
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What's the song go on to say? Heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood.
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Can you sing with the songwriter? This is my story. This is my song, praising the
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Savior all day long. Do you have assurance of salvation?
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Do you have the hope of heaven? Do you have the confidence, of course, given by the power of the
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Spirit of God to know the things that are given to you by sovereign grace and mercy?
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And it is rare, by the way, to meet people who have not struggled with this. Have you struggled with your assurance?
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It's rare for me to meet someone who says, I've never struggled at all. The wonderful writer, the
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Puritan Thomas Brooks said, Our knowledge of God, of Christ, and of ourselves, and of scripture is imperfect in this life.
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How then can our assurance be perfect? And so everyone struggles with assurance, some more than others.
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Would it be a comfort to you to know that Charles Spurgeon occasionally struggled with the assurance of his salvation?
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And here's the problem. There's lots of people selling false assurances.
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They're selling false assurance. People might remember the other old song.
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It's an old spiritual. Everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. Or maybe to use the words of Solomon in Proverbs, There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
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No wonder Paul said, Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith.
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Are you in the faith? Do you know that for certain? I think if you know for certain, you're going to be a much more productive
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Christian. If you're not a Christian, I don't want you to have any assurance. But if you are a Christian, I want you to have assurance so you're not focused on trying to get assurance.
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The Golden Gate Bridge, 20 some people lost their lives. There were no nets, and they would fall and catapult to their deaths.
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And then they put a net underneath it. Ten more men fell into the net, but their lives were saved.
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And do you think production of the bridge went up or down after that? It went up 25 % increase because they were certain.
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They had that ticket, Boston Logan seat assignment. Problem is if you have folks going around teaching wrong assurance, there's trouble.
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And so before we get into the text today, let me give you a few wrong ways to have assurance that I want you to avoid.
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And certainly here's what's going to happen. This will be applicable to you directly because maybe you struggle with assurance and it will be applicable to you indirectly because many people will talk about assurance.
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Many people will come to you. I'd like to have assurance. Could you help me? Now when
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I grew up, I grew up as a Lutheran. I grew up as a sacramentalist and the Lutheran booklet, Baptism Saves, says this.
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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 remain his children forever.
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Amazing grace. I mean, if I were to ask you the question, how do you know you're going to go to heaven?
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What would you say when it comes to assurance? Would you say like many, like very many, I've been baptized.
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I don't care if it's immersion. I don't care if it's sprinkling, but I've been baptized. Therefore, I know I'm going to go to heaven.
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Matter of fact, we were just by the Jordan River, weren't we? Where we were, it was kind of muddy and there were people getting baptized there.
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Can you imagine? How are you going to go to heaven? Well, I know I'm going to go because I was baptized in the Jordan River. Some people were dunking themselves three times, by the way.
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And I thought that was kind of interesting and I would try to secretly kind of take pictures. And they're down there dunking themselves three times,
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I guess in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. I saw some people along with our group up in the
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Galilee and they were going over the supposed spot where Jesus made the disciples breakfast and they would go over and bend down and get the water and they would drink the water.
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Not because they were thirsty, but because they wanted to get a blessing. Can you imagine when you die and stand before God, why are you going to go to heaven?
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Because you've been baptized? Because you drank the Galilee water? Catholic Catechism page 321 says, by baptism all sins are forgiven, personal sins as well as punishment for sins.
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So I don't want you to have this false assurance. I think of other people with false assurance maybe in our circles with easy -believism.
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How do you know you're a Christian? How do you know for sure? How do you have confidence? Well, I walked an aisle.
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The pastor said, raise your hand with every head bowed, every eye closed. I've done that. He told me saved, eternally secure, ready for heaven.
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Other people in our circles, I'll call them experientialists. Maybe I could call them charismatics as well.
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How do you know you're going to go to heaven? Well, because I have a private prayer language. I've spoken in tongues as the evidence of the
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Holy Spirit. What would you say? How do you know you're going to heaven?
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We want to be very careful because the stakes are high. Jesus said, not everyone that says to me,
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Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
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Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? In your name cast out devils, in your name done wonderful works, and I will profess to them.
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By the way, these next words, I don't want Jesus to profess about you, not one of you.
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I want every one of you to go to heaven. Can you imagine if Jesus would profess these words to you?
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I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.
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So what we're going to do this morning is we're going to look at 1 John 5, some of 1 John, then
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John 10, and then Romans 8 because I want you, A, to know what the gospel is so you know you're going to heaven, and B, have assurance of it.
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All right? And here's what happens, and I'm just going to help you along before we start and get into some exposition of the text.
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Spurgeon said this, I've thought of it many, many times even in my own struggles and issues and helping others as well.
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If you try to capture assurance because you're lacking it, you'll never get it.
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It's like a dove that just flies away. You try to catch it and it just flies and scurries off.
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But if you focus your attention on the person and work of Christ Jesus the
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Lord through His Word and you are confident of what
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He says and what He's done and how He's accomplished salvation, then the dove of assurance will float right down and sit on your shoulder.
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And so today we're going to look at the objective ways to deal with assurance.
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1 John 1, excuse me, 1 John 5, verse 13. Could this be one of the most spectacular truths and verities and concepts in all the
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Bible? To know with absolute certainty that if you die this second, you get to stand before God, cleansed, forgiven, redeemed, reconciled.
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1 John 5, verse 13. Why did John write? Well, many reasons, but here's one.
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I write these things. What things, John? 1 John 1, 1 John 2, 1
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John 3, 1 John 4, 1 John 5. I write these things.
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Contrary to all these false teachers who are saying the opposite, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the
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Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
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Friends, if you're a Christian, God wants you to know that you're going to heaven. It's a special mercy of God.
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He wants you to know so that you may know. Can you imagine? The gospel of John is written so that you believe, right?
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John 20, verse 31. And 1 John is written, yes, in chapter 1, that you might have joy, but here in chapter 5, so that you might know.
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I want you to know that you're going to heaven. Look at chapter 5, verse 20. While we're there, can you imagine an entire book written for you as a
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Christian so that you can have assurance and keep assurance? 1
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John 5, 20, and we know. How many times in John does he talk about we know?
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Thirty -six times, I believe, I've counted in English. And we know. We have confidence in.
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We have hope of. We're persuaded of that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding in order that we might know
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Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son.
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This is the true God and eternal life. John is writing and he wants you to know.
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So I ask you, do you know for certain? Do you have assurance of salvation? Let's have a little survey.
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Look at 1 John 2, verse 5. Here's the beloved
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John and he's writing when he's older and I don't want to somehow wrongly call him a grandpa, but like a grandfather would love to have his grandchildren just happy and healthy and just at his feet.
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And you can just see how much John loves his children, that is the children in the faith, and he wants them to know.
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And whoever, 1 John 2, 5, keeps His Word in him, the love of God, has been truly perfected by this we know that we are in Him.
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You can know. 1 John 2, verse 25. How wonderful!
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How amazing! And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life.
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John is writing chapter 3, it talks about the same thing. Chapter 3, verse 19 of 1 John. We shall know by this that we are of the truth and we shall assure our heart before Him.
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Verse 24. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in Him. And we know by this that He abides in us by the
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Spirit whom He has given us. A couple more verses in 1
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John, chapter 4, verse 13, please. And this we know, 1
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John 4, 13. And this we know, that we abide in Him and He is in us because He has given us of His Spirit.
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Chapter 5, verse 1. Whoever believes, whoever is believing right now, are you believing right now?
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This is the language of John 3, 16. Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
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That's the language here. Whoever believes, who's believing right now, that Jesus is the
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Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father, loves the children born of Him.
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Here's the thing, friends. Assurance could be subjective. Romans 8, the
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Spirit bears witness to my spirit that I'm a Christian, especially in times of suffering and pain and trouble.
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It could be that I look at the Bible and what do Christians do? Christians love the
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Word. Christians love to evangelize. Christians love these things. And I don't do it perfectly, but I can see some of that love in my heart for the lost and for other people.
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That's subjective. What we're going to talk about today is objective assurance. That is what
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Jesus said and did. And when you focus on what Jesus said and did rightly, your assurance should go up.
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If it's a man -centered kind of accomplishment that Jesus did 99 % and we did 1 or we allowed
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Jesus to do this, that, or the other, the more man -centered your view is of salvation, the higher increase of what's the opposite word of assurance?
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I wanted to say lack of assurance. Your lack of assurance will go up if your view of Christ's death goes down.
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Now here's the thing. Lucille and I were talking about this. By the way, that's $3 I owe you now.
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When you go to Israel, your heart breaks for the Jews. Don't you want the
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Jewish people to be saved? Don't you want people to be saved? I mean, all the phylacteries and all the body praying and all the things and zeal though without knowledge.
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I want them to go to heaven. If you went to Jerusalem, wouldn't you think, I should know what these Jews believe because I want to give them the good news.
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If you lived in Utah, wouldn't you think to yourself, what do Mormons think about Jesus?
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Because I want to tell them some good news. You can be certain you can have eternal life.
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Both of which, by the way, Jews and Mormons, low on the assurance level. And friends,
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I have to tell you, in this part of the world, almost every one of your neighbors does not believe in assurance.
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Because the Roman Catholic Church teaches to have assurance is a mortal sin.
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It's a sin. Listen to their encyclopedia. Here's the sin of presumption.
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It may be defined as the condition of a soul that because of a badly regulated reliance on God's mercy and power, listen, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it.
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Or for pardon of the sins without repenting of them.
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If you dare think that if you die today that you will go directly to heaven based on the work of Christ, that is a mortal sin.
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It's called the sin of presumption. And if you as a Christian value assurance, and you love assurance, and to know that you know, that you have hope and confidence, like Richard Baxter on his deathbed, ask, how are you doing,
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Mr. Baxter? And he said, I'm almost well. To die knowing for certain you're going to go to heaven, don't you want your friends to have that as well?
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And it is a perfect opportunity for you to preach the gospel to your Roman Catholic friends. Gregory the
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Great, seventh century pope, said that assurance was dangerous.
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Quote, the greater our sins, the more we must do to make up for them. I mean, just imagine, whether we have done enough to atone for them or not, we cannot know until after death.
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We can never be sure of success. Assurance of salvation and the feeling of safety engendered by it is dangerous for anybody and would not be desirable even if possible.
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It's dangerous, it's not desirable to know for certain. And then Trent comes along and surpasses
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Gregory by saying it's a mortal sin. Listen, Council of Trent, don't believe the new
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P .C. Pope stuff. What does their doctrine teach? Council of Trent, quote, if anyone saith that he will for certain of an absolute and infallible certainty have that great gift of perseverance unto the end, unless he has learned this by special revelation, let him be anathema.
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Maybe if God told you directly like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, you might know it.
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Maybe if you're the Virgin Mary, you might know it. But for you, you can't know it. Let's turn to John chapter 10 now and I want to work through a passage,
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John 10, that's very important for not only the security of believers but also for assurance.
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Remember God is the one that accomplished your salvation and so if God can lose you, then you can be lost.
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But since God can't lose one, you can't be lost. It's not the right question, can
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I lose my salvation? Can Jesus lose one that he's purchased is a better question and many people go to John 10 not to teach what
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Jesus taught, security of salvation. They teach that it's the opposite and this is where they go and I can prove that they go there because CatholicBasicTraining .com
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says, verses such as John 10 can seem on first reading to support the notion of eternal assurance.
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But this is not the case. The Catholic apologist does not need to seek out many verses which deny eternal assurance in order to seek his or her point.
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While it is certainly true that no one can snatch them out of my hand, it is entirely possible for someone to what?
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When people go to the passage in John 10, which I'll read in just a second, you can't be snatched out of God's hand but you can what?
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You can walk away or you can jump. Is that really what he's teaching? Let's find out. Could there be a better chapter in all the
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Bible for Jesus and his sheep? By the way, we saw a lot of sheep in Israel and so it makes me think what a wonderful shepherd we have in our
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Lord. John 10 .24, so the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense?
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If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them,
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I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me.
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But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
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Verse 28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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Friends, may I read that verse again? I give them eternal life. He's the one that gives it.
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It's his gift to give. What kind of life does he give? He gives eternal life. When does eternal life start?
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Upon reception and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
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My Father, verse 29, who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the
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Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
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Now for people to go to that passage of all passages and say, yes, but by the way, it doesn't really mean what it says.
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You can actually jump out of his hand. That's exactly opposite of what Jesus is trying to teach.
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What kind of assurance is that? You know, all the sheep there on the hills of Bethlehem that the
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Bedouins are watching over are safe because the Bedouins are strong. He's wise.
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He knows what he's doing. He has experience and all of them will get safely home unless one runs into the ditch.
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That's not the point. Arthur Pink said no stronger passage in all the
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Word of God can be found guaranteeing the absolute security of every child of God.
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I mean, just sit and you go and let it set in. I'm one of God's sheep.
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I follow Christ. That's what the text says. I get eternal life.
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All right, let's put it this way. If eternal life ends, is that a contradiction or not? I know we have quite a few
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WPI kind of folks around here and some binary thinkers, I guess. Eternal life, if it ends, it is no longer eternal.
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Listen to what Pink said. It is impossible for a sheep to perish even if it desired to as though one ever did.
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The hand of Christ is beneath us. The hand of the Father is above us. Thus we are secured between the clasped hands of omnipotence.
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I and the Father are one. It has been well said that if one soul who trusted in Christ should be missing in heaven, then there would be a vacant seat there, one crown unused, one harp unstrung, and this would grieve all heaven and proclaim a disappointed
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God. Please turn to Romans chapter 8.
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We've looked at 1 John. Now we're going to look at John. We looked at John 10 as well, and now we're going to look at Romans 8, trying to put together an objective view of what
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Christ has done so your assurance will increase. For those of you that want to get back to Malachi, we will be back soon enough, but this is such an important issue.
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Romans chapter 8. Now remember, some people will say, you know, I know Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
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I know that He said it is finished at Calvary. I know that the Father accepted the sacrifice of the
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Son because the Father raised the Son from the dead on the third day, confirming that Jesus wasn't a sinner, that accomplishment of atonement was accepted by the
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Father, the sacrifice was good and proper and holy and blameless.
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But you know, I can just jump out of the Father's hand any time I want. That's how we lose salvation. So Romans 8,
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I think, addresses it, and if you ever struggle with your assurance, read
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John 10 or read 1 John or read Romans 8. These are three of my favorite ones when I ever struggle.
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Romans chapter 8, verse 35, you know the chapter starts off with, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
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You know Romans 7 ends with, wretched man that I am. And here it says in Romans 8 .25,
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contrary to the sin of presumption, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
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You could make it very personal if you would like. Who shall separate Mike Ebendroth from the love of Christ?
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By the way, that's not Mike's love for Christ. That's the love of Christ, His love for me.
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My love flickers. My love fails. My love wanes. My love ebbs.
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My love flows. My love isn't that good, but God's love for me, that's a lot different. That's why if you're always basing your assurance upon, well, did
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I measure up to what Christians do? And am I measuring up? And do I love Him like I should?
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Those are all fair questions and biblical questions, but you've got to get back to step one with assurance, with Christ's love for us.
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And who shall divorce us, literally, from the love of Christ? You know, maybe my life is hard.
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Maybe there's all kinds of issues. Maybe it's money, health, circumstances, relationships. You know, it's very, very difficult.
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Maybe God doesn't care for me. Do circumstances show that He doesn't really love me? How can God love me and let all these things happen in me?
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And Paul then lists these seven non -separators.
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These things can't divorce you from the love of Christ. Shall tribulation, by the way, tribulation is external difficulties.
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You're squeezed in. You can feel the pressure. He goes to the internal distress.
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You can almost feel you can't breathe like you used to because there's just so much pressure. It's an internal distress.
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Persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or even death.
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Can any of those stop God's love? Can any of those change? You know, you've got a little barometer in your house.
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You've got a barometer outside your house. Maybe you've got them inside your house, too. And you know the temperature goes up and the temperature goes down.
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Maybe you know things are going great in my life. God's showing a lot of love towards me. Now I've got some problems. His love has waned.
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No, God's love doesn't change. And by the way, it's always God's plan to have His people undergo trials.
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Verse 36, he quotes, just as it is written, for thy name's sake or thy sake we're being put to death all day long.
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We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things, on the contrary, we overwhelmingly conquer.
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Only here in the New Testament, it's language of super conqueror. It's super Nike is what it is, super invincibility, preeminently conquers.
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How? Through our own bootstraps, through our own works, through Him who loved us.
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And now verse 38, for I'm convinced, and for Paul, I stand convinced.
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Nobody's going to convince me any differently. I stand convinced. This is a Luther, here
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I stand kind of language. That neither death, nor life, nor good angels, nor bad angels principalities, nor things present, nor things to come.
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There's nothing that's going on in my life now that would separate me from the love of God. There's no future contingency somehow down the line.
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Something weird could come up. Nor things to come, nothing in the future. Nor height, nor depth.
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And now think through what we've been talking about in John chapter 10. You're safe and secure from all alarm unless you decide to jump out in a weak moment.
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Romans 8 addresses that. Nor any other created thing.
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Any other created thing. Well, maybe Paul could give a list of 500 things that will not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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But instead of listing all 500, he just says, I'll put an umbrella statement out there. Any other created thing.
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There's nothing else. Got a question for you. Hard to speak non -Nebraskan.
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I have a question for you. Are you a created thing? You're a created thing.
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So how can you even separate yourself from the love of God in Christ Jesus? According to the
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Bible, you can't. So this, going to John 10 for security of salvation with Jesus' intention, and then switching it all around to say, yeah, but what if I jump out?
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If you try to jump out and you're one of Jesus' sheep, he won't let you jump out. We were on the
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Sea of Galilee. And last time we were on the Sea of Galilee, I did a little Bible teaching from Mark chapter 4, and I wanted to jump out.
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I wanted to just jump out in the Sea of Galilee. I don't know. You ever done a cannonball in the Sea of Galilee? I thought it'd be kind of nice.
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It's holy. Holy cannonballs. I didn't jump out this time because it was freezing cold.
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But I can remember standing by the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado.
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You ever been at the Royal Gorge Bridge? Anybody? I think it's the highest suspension bridge in all the country, world, outside India.
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It's a very high suspension bridge. And you can imagine if my father is holding my hand, he is not going to let me go.
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You're going to be safe with me, son, unless you jump out on your own. It just doesn't make any sense at all.
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Friends, eternal life is eternal life. He's promised you that. You can know. You can go to your friends.
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You can go to your Lutheran friends, your easy -believe -ism friends, your Catholic friends, your legalistic friends, and say, you know, you can know for sure you can have eternal life.
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You can know. What a great gift by the Lord. If I were to say this to you, this is a sin to say, no matter what the future holds,
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I'm saved. What would you say? But that's exactly what
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Rome teaches. But for the Christian, can you imagine, no matter what the future holds, based on the word of Christ, I'm taking
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God at His word, I give you eternal life, I know I'm secure.
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No matter what the future holds, I'm secure. Salvation is guaranteed.
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Now, friends, think about it. Isn't that good news? That's good news you can tell your friends.
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It's a perfect opportunity to tell your friends, as I told my Roman Catholic grandmother, Grandma, do you think you're going to go to heaven?
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I don't know. Do you want to go to heaven? Yeah. Do you know you can know for sure?
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Do you know the Bible says? Do you know your Bible says, Grandma, in your Bible right here, it says in 1 John chapter 5, that you can know.
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You don't have to purify yourself, Grandma. You don't have to make up for those sins. You don't have to have special revelation,
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Grandma. You can know for certain you can go to heaven, because the Jesus of the
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Bible doesn't need to be slain on an altar every day or every week. The Jesus of the
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Bible makes expiation, that is, forgiveness, by making propitiation, that is,
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God's not angry anymore. God's not your enemy anymore. God looked upon Jesus as Jesus was the advocate, and Jesus intercepted all the wrath,
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Grandma, you deserved, and he pays all the wrath for sinners like you. You can know for certain,
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Grandma, that you can go to heaven. What a great opportunity for us here in New England to talk about believing on the
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Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and for assurance of salvation.
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Ludwig Ott wrote Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, and he said, you know, you can get close to knowing, but it's not with certainty.
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If you persist in the eight Beatitudes, frequent confession, active communion, active charity, love for Christ, love for the church, and devotion to the
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Blessed Virgin. But friends, why was
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Jesus fully man? The most amazing thing in the Sea of Galilee and around Nazareth and around Jerusalem was not to go to the exact spot where Jesus was baptized, to bend down and kiss the little ornaments there, the plaques, the most amazing thing walking around Israel was this,
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God had to become a man, and he had to come to this earth and walk around, because the way to heaven is always the same.
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It's by being perfect. The way to heaven is always the same. The doers of the law shall be justified.
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The way to heaven is always the same. Do this and live. The way to heaven is always the same,
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Deuteronomy 28. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things according to the law. And the people said,
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Amen. The problem is, I could never keep the eight
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Beatitudes, I could never have enough communion, enough charity, enough love for Christ, enough love for anybody else, because I am sinful and I fall short.
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I need another. Where is the man who doesn't fall the temptation? Adam in the garden, tempted and failed.
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Even the garden, tempted and failed. Israel in the wilderness, tempted and failed. I, often tempted and failed.
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You, often tempted and failed. Isn't there anybody who won't fail? And when
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Jesus was not tempted in a nice garden, he was tempted out in the wilderness after not eating for days, and Satan gives him everything he's got, and Jesus never falls to temptation.
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And that is why Jesus is called the representative. That's why Jesus not only lives in our place, but he dies for our sins when we did fall to temptation, and he's raised from the dead.
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I often think this, maybe you don't think this is sanctified, so maybe this is a no -compromise radio moment.
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I don't know. I say, Lord, I'm struggling with the salvation, struggling with assurance, and I've devoted my whole life to your
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Scriptures, and I am so convinced that this is true, that if Jesus' death isn't enough for me,
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Jesus' life isn't enough as a representative for me, that the claims of the
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Bible aren't true, then I'm willing to go to hell. I'm all in.
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It's this or nothing. In other words, put positively, Lord, where else can
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I turn? I know I'm sinful. I know you're holy. I know heaven's holy. I have no way to get to heaven unless you grant it to me, unless you give it to me, and you have no way of getting sinful people into heaven by just saying,
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I pardon you like some grandfather. No, the wages of sin is death. Someone has to die.
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I'm focused on who Jesus is, his life, his death, his representative work, his substitutionary work.
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I'm trusting in you, and what does faith really mean? Faith means, God, I take you at your word, and your word is,
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Jesus is my son, and he's the only way of salvation, and if you turn from your sins and believe with your heart, you shall be saved.
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Now, this kind of assurance is much different than, do I measure up the Scripture? Do I read my Bible enough?
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Do I love other people enough? Do I not love the world? You know, on all these things, those are fine things to work through, but assurance at the get -go has to work with the person and work of Christ.
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You may ask yourself the question, why do they always talk about Jesus at this church? Every time,
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Jesus's life, Jesus's death. A, I told the elders to fire me if I stopped talking about him.
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B, you'd probably all leave if I stopped talking about him. C, what else am I going to talk about?
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Me? That'd get old pretty fast. Ask my kids. Because we are born worshippers.
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D, yes, but I need to know about the other one because I fail, I falter,
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I ebb, I flow, so please show me one that loves with an everlasting love. This is the promise which he himself made to us, eternal life.
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God wants you to know you can have eternal life. God wants you to know that you have eternal life. I love the song, simply trusting every day, trusting through a stormy way, even when my faith is small, trusting
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Jesus, that is all. Trusting him while life shall last, trusting him till earth is past, till his gracious advent call, trusting
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Jesus, that is all. Finally, let's turn to Isaiah 53.
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I'm just going to read several verses and we're going to close. I want you to have all your focus on the death of Christ, the risen
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Savior who did die on a hill in Calvary. I don't know which hill it was.
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I don't know what Golgotha it was, but it was there outside the city, according to Jewish law,
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Mosaic law. And he died. And I want you to look at Isaiah 53, and I'm going to read verses 4 to 6, and here's the question.
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If you're a Christian, do you take God at his word? And God's word is he pays for all the sins of all the believers who would ever believe, including yours, including the sins of doubt, including the sins of not trusting the
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Lord. He died for all those sins. If you're a Christian, you can know. You should know.
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And if you're not a Christian, I hope you don't have any assurance until you bow the knee to the
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Lord. Isaiah 53, verse 4, talking about the Messiah, written hundreds of years before Jesus was even born, surely verse 4 of Isaiah 53, he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
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You know, just taking a look at Jesus, you'd say to yourself, he had it coming. Look it, you don't get crucified for being a good guy now, do you?
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From our perspective, smitten by God. Look at him. He's getting what he deserved.
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But Revelation tells us, the word tells us, something differently.
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But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
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Can you imagine every sin that you'd ever commit, past, present, and future? Sins of omission, sins of commission, mortal sins, venial sins, they're all mortal by the way.
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Every sin put on Jesus. He was crushed for our iniquities.
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Upon him, the chastisement that brought us peace was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
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All we like sheep have gone astray, and we have turned everyone to his own way, and left to ourselves, that'd be the end of it.
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But God sovereignly, distinguishingly is gracious, and he loves his son, he loves those the son has died for, he loves people, and the
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Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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So Christian friend, what will keep you from heaven? Why don't you have assurance if every one of your sins, one sin will keep you out of heaven, but Jesus won't let those sins keep you out of heaven if you're a believer, because you're trusting in him, and he's paid for every one of them.
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He laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so I say for one last time as a reminder, if you struggle with assurance, you really need to go back to the basics of substitutionary atonement, and the representative work of Jesus.
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That is why my favorite book in all the Bible for assurance is the book of Galatians, because Galatians says it's
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Jesus plus nothing for salvation, and my feelings, my thoughts, my concerns, my failings, all don't matter because Jesus paid it all, and he was the one cursed in my place.
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He's the one that paid all my sins, and I have to trust in him. He doesn't die for all your sins, but one.
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Do you have blessed assurance? Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
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Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for our time and your word. I thank you that you've given us scripture so that we might not only know you and your son and have eternal life, but we could actually have the subjective feelings of that, the confidence of that.
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As Pastor Steve prayed earlier, I would pray for those who are here today that aren't
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Christians but somehow think they are, or maybe they don't even think they are, but I pray that you would arrest them.
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I pray that you would convict them. I pray that you would put all kinds of blockades in their way as they try to live their life, not loving you and not honoring you, and I pray, like you did for me and like you did for many here, that you would make them born again, that you would grant them repentance and faith, and that you would see fit to save them.
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Father, there are Christians here today that struggle regularly with a lack of assurance, and Father, I know you want them to have assurance as true
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Christians, and so would you be generous to them and kind and come alongside, have the body of Christ come alongside as well to help them.
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I pray that you would root out any legalism that might be in their mind or any kind of extra -biblical thinking.
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It's the penalty of sin that was paid for in full by Jesus. I pray that you'd help them to focus on Him, and Father, for Christians today who have assurance, who are happy and joyful, and they know for certain that if they die today, they're going straight to heaven, not because they're good, but because of the good one, the
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Son, Jesus Christ, the good teacher, the one who died as a sacrifice to satisfy all your justice for sin.
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I pray that you would help them, like Thomas Watson says, to be sure to keep that assurance by having a clean conscience, by keeping close accounts with you, by walking by your
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Spirit. Father, we're thankful that when it comes to the flight, as it were, to heaven, no standby passengers, no flights canceled, safe and secure because your
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Word says so, and may we rest in that in Jesus' name. Amen.