Absolute Assurance: Survey of 1 John

okay guys we're back in action all right thank you so much for being here i am so uh excited for this study and to spend this time with you together this is going to launch us into a whole new area of the word of god and and truth and as you know we have finished the book of romans and we took took have taken a little time off and so we're back and and jumping into the deep end of the pool and and ready to to to swim through an incredible book in the bible which is the book of first john and and this book has had enormous impact in my life and ministry in the past and that's not really the reason i'm doing this i just think that this is the book we need to study the truths that are contained in this book really has to be at the head of our list so and it's so different from romans different author different focus and so this is not going to be an overlap with romans this is going to be um in tandem with the book of romans so welcome for those of you who have never been in our bible study before we're thrilled that you're here please continue to come back we're going to be here i think for the next next three thursdays in a row so we're going to just be laying down some truth uh today we're going to be doing a survey an introduction to the book of first john and next week lord willing will be starting the verse by verse journey through this book but i need to begin in a word of prayer and i do want to welcome those who are watching us on live stream i literally have friends on both atlantic and pacific coast who are joining us as well as in the heartland the gulf of mexico just everywhere and we know people are joining us around the world for this study so welcome pray for us we'll pray for you as we go through this study so let's just begin in a word of prayer father in heaven we are excited to look into your word today we are so grateful to have the record of divine inspiration that has been recorded by the apostle john for the instruction of our christian lives and none of us have arrived we all need greater measures of truth not just in our head but in our heart and and in our lives so we ask god that you would use this study to our prophet we pray this in christ's name amen okay take your bible be turning to the book of first john and there's one verse that's going to be a launching point for us and that's first john 5 and verse 13. every book in the bible has a signature text that the whole book wraps around and first john 5 verse 13 is that verse for us in the book of first john and i want to begin by just reading this and you'll understand why i've entitled this first study at absolute assurance absolute assurance because that's what this book is all about the apostle john as he comes to the last chapter of this book looks back upon what he has written to this point and he says these things i have written to you and that encompasses everything to this point as well as the final verses these things i have written to you who believe in the name of the son of god here's the purpose so that you may know that you have eternal life this is a book all about knowing that you know the lord we could put it this way the gospel of john was written so that you would know how to be saved john 20 verses 30 and 31 tell us the purpose of the gospel of john first john is written to tell us how we may know that we have truly believed in jesus christ this is critically important and by way of beginning this book is all about how do you know that you know the lord how do you know that you know the lord and so the whole argument of this book of first john is how to have a true assurance of your salvation now this is critically important for several reasons and i'm going to give you three reasons why this is very important that you have a no so salvation that that you know that you know the lord and the first is is that every true believer needs to have the true assurance of his salvation in order to live an effective and dynamic christian life i mean you can't move forward in your christian life if you've got the emergency break on and you're just having doubts am i in am i out there's no way you can serve the lord with any effectiveness if you don't know whose side you're on if you don't know if you're a missionary or if you're the mission field i mean you need to know whether you're in christ or if you're not in christ yeah you can't worship the lord really with heartfelt devotion unless you know that you know the lord so in order to live an effective christian life a dynamic christian life you must have the assurance of your salvation second only god can give you assurance of salvation it's really an inside job no pastor can give you assurance of salvation it doesn't matter if he writes his name in the back of your bible and puts the date when you prayed with him no evangelist can give you assurance of salvation he's only a man no no parent can give you assurance of salvation no confirmation class when you're 12 years old can give you assurance of salvation no church no team of elders can give you assurance of salvation only god can give you assurance of salvation and i want to walk you through this train of thought the holy spirit who convicted you of sin the holy spirit who called you out of darkness and into the light the holy spirit who regenerated your spiritually dead soul the holy spirit who gave you the gifts of repentance and faith the holy spirit who sealed you in christ the holy spirit who baptized you and placed you into the body of christ the holy spirit who sanctified you at the moment of your regeneration the holy spirit who moment by moment is sanctifying you the holy spirit who indwells you is the holy spirit who gives you assurance of salvation he hasn't brought you this far to just leave you on your own the holy spirit gives assurance of salvation to true believers and if you do not have assurance of salvation that should be cause for great concern because wherever the holy spirit indwells a life he is bearing testimony to that heart and life that you belong to jesus christ now that does not mean that there cannot be a momentary let's say season of doubt or self-examination and questioning and the bible tells us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith second corinthians 13 5. however big picture not micro but macro big picture the main thrust of your life the holy spirit indwells every true believer and he bears witness with those believers that you belong to jesus christ first john 3 and verse 24. we'll get to that verse eventually says we know by this that he abides in us we know that the holy spirit and jesus christ abides in us how by the spirit whom he has given and so it is the holy spirit's office work it is the holy spirit's ministry to persuade and convince your heart with strong testimony and witness that you belong to jesus christ if you are a true believer and romans 8 and verse 16 is another extraordinary verse that we need to hear listen to romans 8 verse 16 the spirit himself and the word himself indicates that it's not the spirit and a pastor a spirit and an evangelist a spirit and a a parent no the spirit himself solo solo spirit the spirit himself testifies with our spirit meaning our human spirit on the inside that we are children of god and so god alone can give you assurance of salvation and it always accompanies the new birth and the book of first john has more to say about the new birth explicitly than any other book in the bible let me repeat that the book of first john has more to say about the new birth explicitly than any other book in the bible let me just give you some verses first john 2 29 you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him first john 3 9 no one who is born of god practices sin first john 4 7 everyone who loves is born of god first john 5 1 whoever believes that jesus is the christ is born of god first john 5 4 whatever is born of god overcomes the world first john 5 18 we know that no one who is born of god practices sin so this book is really about the new birth and the evidence of that new birth that accompanies the miracle of salvation we could put it this way if the new birth is the root a changed life will be the fruit and there is an inseparable connection between the root and the fruit a good root will produce good fruit and the good root is regeneration it is the new birth and it will always produce a bumper crop of fruit in the life of the one who has been born again that'll be the whole argument of this book now there's a third reason why this is so important number one you have to know that you're saved in order to be effective in your christian life second we said that only god can give you this assurance and here's the third reason why this is so important many people have a false assurance of a salvation they do not possess and that's the hardest person in the world to reach with the gospel it would be easier to reach the harlot than to reach the unconverted church member and so jesus talked about that in matthew 7 21 not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven and there are countless people who have a dead testimony they have the words but they do not have the reality they are tears among the wheat they are judases among the twelve they are bad fish caught in the same net with the good fish they are foolish virgins who did not trim their lamps among the wise virgins who did trim their lamps and i would say big picture wherever there is a church whatever that church is when you pull it all together there are more unconverted people in church than are genuinely converted so this is a very important subject that we're addressing it's like who's in and who's out it's like who really is saved and who is bringing an empty testimony and an empty profession of faith in christ and according to first john you can know and you should know that you have eternal life so the key word in the book of first john and this is going to be the point of the day right here is the word no k-n-o-w it is found there's two different greek words that are used in first john for for no k-n-o-w it is found there's no other book in the entire bible that has the repetition of one word so many times it is found not 10 times not 20 times not 30 times it's found 40 times in five chapters and right now i want to quickly take us through the book of first john and i with my pen i've actually drawn a circle around all 40 of these appearances of the word no just so that my eye can clearly lock in and see it and i want you to follow with me i just want to impress upon you this word no which means to be deeply convinced of a reality to rightly perceive of something so in first john 2 it starts in verse 3. in fact in this verse the word no is used twice by this we know that we have come to know him how can you know if you have come to know him this is one of the nine tests in the book of first john if we keep his commandments verse 4 the one who says i've come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar meaning it's a false testimony you may not be aware of it but you're just lying through your teeth to say you're a christian and that you know the lord and the truth is not in him the gospel has not yet been received look at verse 5 but whoever keeps his word in him the love of god has truly been perfected by this we know that we are in him look at verse 11 the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going that's how lost he is he doesn't know that he does not know that's as lost as you can be look at verse 13. it's twice in verse 13 different levels of spiritual maturity i'm writing to you fathers that's referring to those who are the most mature in their faith because you know him who has been from the beginning you have this eternal perspective of god but at the end of the verse i have written to you children because you know the father baby christians know god as daddy father they they just have a very immature relationship with god but it is the elder statesman in the body of christ it's the most mature who know god not just his father but him who has been from the beginning you have grown to have a bigger grander view of who god is now look at verse 14 i have written you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning now look at verse 18 children and by the way everyone was a child to john he's in his 90s probably as he as he writes this so everyone is is uh is a young child to him children it is the last hour and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming even now many antichrists have appeared from this we know that it is the last hour verse 20 but but you have an anointing from the holy one and you all know you you know the essential truths because you have the the teacher indwelling you the holy spirit look at verse 21 it's mentioned twice i have not written to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know it everyone who is born again has the indwelling holy spirit who is the author of scripture and who is the primary teacher of scripture and he is enlightening you and illuminating the truth inside your mind you don't need these other false teachers to give you any insight and i'm going to talk about these false teachers in a little bit no you have the true teacher the holy spirit inside of you and you know the truth look at verse 29 at the end of the chapter now this is an important verse if you know that he referring to jesus who's coming into the previous verse if you know that he is righteous you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him it's obvious they're on a different path than those who have just a dead testimony who are just like dead fish floating downstream but the true believer is practicing righteousness from the heart and he's headed in a totally different direction it's not the perfection of his life he'll never attain that in this world it's not the perfection it's the direction of his life he's headed in a totally different direction look at look at the next verse john 3 1 see how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of god and such we are for this reason the world does not know us because it did not know him the world cannot figure us out because the world could not figure out the lord jesus christ if the world can figure you out that is a danger sign you should be an enigma to unbelievers that they cannot quite understand how you operate what your priorities are why your values are so different you should be one big question mark to the world now look at verse five first john three and i just want you to see the word no i hope you're circling it in your bible and by the way it's okay to write in your bible it's not the original autograph verse 5. you know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin verse 6 no one who abides in him sins no one who sins has seen him or knows him and that word sends that verb there is in a verb tense that would indicate a lifestyle habitual practice uh look at verse 14. we know that we have passed out of death into life that means you have passed out of the darkness into the light you have passed out of the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of god you have passed from being lost to being saved that's what that means we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren he who does not love abides in death look at verse 15 everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him look at verse 16. it's just almost every verse we know love by this that he laid down his life for us verse 19 we will know by this that we are of the truth to be of the truth is to be converted is to be regenerated is to be saved and we'll assure our heart before him that's the inward work of the holy spirit giving assurance of salvation it is the holy spirit who assures your heart before god i cannot assure your heart man looks on the outward appearance god looks on the heart i don't know what's going on inside your heart the pharisees were geniuses at masking their heart they looked phenomenal on the outside they were phenomenal duds on the inside so look at verse 20 in whatever our heart condemns us for god is greater than our heart and knows all things so it's not only that we know god but god knows us and not only that we know where our heart is with the lord but god knows where our heart is with the lord look at verse 24 the one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he and him we know by this that he abides in us how do you know that god is in your life by the spirit whom he has given the continual focus is back on the indwelling holy spirit who gives you true assurance now continue to look chapter 4 verse 2 by this you know the spirit of god in other words you can know where the spirit of god is at work and by the way this is the text that jonathan edwards preached at yale in the midst of the great awakening in when when the great awakening was exploding and there were old school stuffy harvard graduate professor uh pastors who looked down upon jonathan edwards and down upon george whitefield and called them enthusiasts because their preaching had some energy to it and they called for the new birth and so there was much confusion the board of trustees that at yale had just met the day before and they couldn't quite sort this all out where is god at work what is a true revival and what is a false revival and by the providence of god the next day jonathan edwards addressed not only the student body but the board of trustees and he brought clarity to the whole issue on what is a genuine work of god in a person and his text was right here first john 4 1-6 i wish i had time to go through it it eventually became a book with the title the distinguishing marks of a work of god and there are six distinguishing marks of a work of god that separates a true church from a false church a true believer from a false believer just because church is on the sign doesn't mean it's a true church and just because someone professes christ or is a member of a church doesn't mean you've been born again so verse 2 is is one of these by this you know the spirit of god this is how you know where he's at work every spirit and that tells us there is a spirit behind every preacher and behind every teacher a small s that's driving him it's either the d a demon or it is the holy spirit it's one of the two every spirit that confesses that jesus christ has come in the flesh is from god and i'm going to explain that later what what that actually means but this is another way you know that you're a true believer you have believed in the true christ you have not believed in a false christ your faith is no greater than the object of your faith a drowning man can put faith in a piece of straw and it's not going to help him it's only if your faith is in the right object will you be rescued and so you must believe that jesus has come in the flesh and that he has sent from god now let's keep let's keep looking um in verse six is twice we know from excuse me we are from god he who knows god listens to us you know i'm not an infallible interpreter of scripture and i'm not an infallible teacher but on the essentials i'm spot on and if you disagree with me on the gospel you're lost and if you agree with me you're saved and it's pretty easy on gospel issues and we're not just dogmatic about this we're bulldogmatic about this and so john says we referring to the apostles we are from god and he who knows god listens to us you drink in the truth the one who is not from god does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error so the holy spirit is discriminating and he discriminates between believers and false believers the spirit of truth and the spirit of air and he's always sifting through the wheat and the tares even before the final judgment now verse seven beloved let us love one another for love is from god and everyone who loves is born of god and knows god if you don't love the brethren you're lost you have a different family you belong to a different family the family of the devil because everyone who is part of the family of god you love your brothers and you love your sisters some of them may be a challenge to love at times admittedly to live up above with those that we love that will be glory but to live down below with those that we know that's another story but nevertheless god gives a supernatural love to the brethren to true believers to love other believers let me just tell you this the greater the persecution the greater the love will be now look at verse 8 the one who does not love does not know god that means you're lost unconverted unregenerate because where god lives in a life he gives the fruit of the spirit which is love now verse 13 by this we know that we abide in him that's another way of saying by this we know that we're in christ and he in us because he has given us of his spirit verse 16. we have come to know and have believed the love which god has for us if you're truly persuaded excuse me if you're truly saved you know that god loves you he's more than documented his love for you by sending his son to die upon the cross and you believe that he died for me upon that cross that he bore my sins in his body upon the cross and he took my sins far away that he washed my guilty soul with his blood and i am now faultless as i stand before the lord you doubt the love of god for you then i doubt you've ever been saved because if you've been saved you have seen with the eyes of faith the love of god supremely manifested to you in that god gave his only son to die upon the cross for you i i think some people think it's kind of pseudo spiritual to say well i have these doubts no that hadn't come from the holy spirit that's come from either your flesh or that's come from another source let's keep looking at this uh come to chapter five and this doesn't stop by the way and i just want you to see this as we put our little toe into the book of first john this is what this book is all about i just want you to see this from 36 000 feet before we walk the land chapter 5 verse verse 2 by this we know that we love the children of god when we love god and observe his commandments verse 13 these things i've written to you who believe in the name of the son of god that you may know that you have eternal life verse 15. it's in here twice and if we know that he hears us and whatever we ask we know that we have the requests which we have asked from him this is one of the assurances of salvation it's answered prayer god doesn't answer the prayer of the devil's children there's no relationship god's not their father the devil is their father they can pray all day long and their prayers will go no higher than the light bulbs but for a true christian you have a connection with the throne of grace you have a mediator at the right hand of god the father and when you pray your prayers are getting through when you pray you see evidences of answered prayer in your life that is a confirmation that you are rightly connected to the one who is seated on the throne of grace it becomes one of the great evidences of for assurance of salvation that you have your prayers answered because unbelievers do not have their prayers answered continue to look at this look at verse verse 18. we know that no one who is born of god sins that should be best translated practices sin talking about a habitual lifestyle just lives on the broad road but he who was born of god that that actually is referring to the virgin birth of christ keeps him and the evil one does not touch him it's another way you can know that you're truly saved is you don't walk away from the lord because christ who was born of god the virgin birth keeps you and holds you you have eternal security in christ you may think you've tried to let go but christ will never let go of you that's what that says he capital h he who was verse 18 who was born of god keeps him the hymn refers to the one who's born of god as um meaning you and me and the evil one does not touch him you are untouchable verse uh verse 19. we know that we are of god and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one verse 20 it's twice and we know that the son of god has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true we just looked at all 40 uses of the word no in the book of first john the greek word ido is used 15 times the greek word gnosco is used 25 times it's a total of 40 times it's the golden thread that runs through the book of first john again the gospel of john is written that you may know how to be saved first john tandems with it perfectly it's how you may know that you have been saved so in the brief time that i have that remains that all that was the introduction okay so in the brief time that i have i have two headings to put in front of you and i may only have time for one i don't know the first is the polemic element the polemic element there is a polemic element to this book of first john there's a polemic element to every epistle in the new testament all 21. the word polemic means a strong attack against someone or something and it produces a controversial debate and dispute that's what the word polemic means and i think of titus 1 verse 9 an elder must be able to teach sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict you have to have a two-edged sword john calvin said every preacher and every teacher must have two voices one to address the sheep and the other to rebuke the wolves and what john will do in this book really as he addresses the sheep but he will rebuke the wolves and there is a heresy that is spreading through the early church and we need to talk about it because you will not understand the book of first john unless you understand the historical background the false teaching that was spreading through the early church was known as gnosticism i'm going to spell it for you g-n-o-s-t-i-c-i-s-m and it comes from a greek word gnosis g-n-o-s-i-s which means knowledge and that's one of the words that's been used in this entire book for no the gnostics were a heresy that was spreading through the church at the end of the first century and wherever god is at work the devil's going to be setting up camp next door and the gnostics claimed that they had special knowledge that's why they're called gnostics knowledge they claim they were receiving private messages from god god told me that they claimed that they had insider information that the rest of the body of christ did not have they claimed that they were receiving mystical insights they were feeling it they claimed that they were having spiritual intuition sounds like the health wealth and prosperity gospel to me and so they claimed they had this knowledge and they utes used it to elevate themselves above everyone else in the church oh you mean god's not talking to you he's talking to me all you have is the bible oh what a pity you need me for this extra knowledge and this extra knowledge will actually help you understand the bible even better and it will fill in some of the gaps that are missing in the bible it's very prevalent today in charismatic circles pentecostal circles health wealth gospels there's no gospel circles this intuitive private little messages i'm getting that no one else is getting now let me tell you four things about gnosticism and this may be all the time that we have number one they held to what's called dualism and you've got to understand this or you're not going to understand the book of first john okay you're just going to be glossing over the surface of first john they held to dualism you say what's dualism it's like a greek philosophy and it essentially said this everything that is a physical matter is either evil or non-consequential everything that is unseen spirit small s is is good so they make this distinction between the physical and the spiritual that that's really the key that's going to unlock our understanding of gnosticism now the second thing is and it's the logical conclusion you got to think with me on this number two they rejected the humanity of christ okay they rejected the humanity of christ because jesus had a physical body they said it only seemed like he had a body but he didn't have a body so they denied the virgin birth that's impossible for someone who who who believes in dualism so they denied the virgin birth they denied the sinless life that jesus lived without sin under the law and kept the law perfect in his human body now keep going down this track with me they denied the cross the death of christ you have to have a body to die right so they denied the crucifixion of jesus christ and some of them said that the holy spirit descended on jesus at his baptism and left him right before the cross which is another little corrupted twist among some of them but the point is there's no way jesus died upon a cross further keep tracking with me he was not raised from the dead he had no resurrection body so it was a frontal assault on the essentials of the christian faith the person and work of christ and they had some con off-brand config contorted view of the deity of christ they would have to as well so they denied that jesus came in the flesh they deny that he was born of a virgin so that's the second thing that it leads to then third and and this is the next logical step they were indifferent to moral values they said well what you do in your body doesn't matter does it all that matters is your spirit all that matters is your heart it doesn't matter your physical body in fact your body is only a prison that holds captive your human spirit and so personal sin committed in your body has no effect upon your human spirit there there is this firewall between the physical and the spiritual and so what you do in the physical realm has no backdoor effect into your inner life your inner soul so therefore you can claim to be a believer in jesus and you can live however you want to live all that matters is that you profess to believe in jesus but it doesn't matter how you live and so sin is really unimportant you don't need to confess your sin why would you want to confess your sin you don't need to repent of sin why would you repent of sin you don't have to believe in a cross that actually takes away sin just just live however you want to live that's what the gnostics we're teaching and it still comes into christianity and in churches today that little johnny walked an isle when he was eight years old and he prayed a prayer in front of the church with the pastor and if you ever doubt his salvation why that's not of the lord and little johnny can just go off to high school and live like the devil and he can go off to college and live like the devil and he can be a single until he's 30 years old and just live like the devil and lust for the world that when he was eight years old he prayed this little prayer you can just live however you want to the book of first john slams that door shut in the face of anyone who would be so duped and so deceived as to believe you could profess to know christ and your life has never changed you could claim to be born again and have a new mind and a new heart and a new will and a new disposition and new desires and new attitudes and your life never change come on i've got the brooklyn bridge i'd love to sell you you've been watching too much christian television that's gnosticism and it's with us today and the fourth and final thing i'd tell you about gnosticism is their message was well received by the world they are popular they will help you be successful and healthy and wealthy and you can pamper your flesh and we'll help stroke your ego and you can have the lord and you can have the world and you can have you can have it all you can play both both ends of the both sides of the aisle you don't have to leave the world you don't have to burn bridges behind you and so these gnostic preachers were so popular everyone wanted to hear this message i mean you don't even have to be a good preacher to sell this product this is great and so that's why it says in first john 4 verse 5 they speak as from the world and the world listens to them when it says they speak from the world that means they are pontificating what the world wants to hear me myself and i and it comes through the music it comes through the preaching it comes through the testimonies it comes it it comes through everything and the world eats it up they are from the world the meaning they never left the world they're still part of the system therefore they speak as from the world and the world listens to them and john says by contrast in verse 6 we are from god and he who knows god listens to us not them because you have the holy spirit inside of you and there is a smoke alarm that goes off inside of you when you hear those damnable lies and there is a flashing green light inside of you when you hear a a true preacher preach the truth of the word of god the holy spirit inside of you is testifying that is the truth and we're referring to essential gospel issues like if you don't believe this you're not a christian you have to believe this if you're going to be a christian so that's just putting our little toe into the water and next time i'll tell you what i i can wrap this up let me just give you the last one real quick pastoral element three minutes oh and we're free three minutes fast on that okay that's good because i'm three minutes slow so second main heading i just want you to see this the pastoral element so that's the polemic that's what john is is shooting at that's what he's knocking the legs out from under that's the rug he's pulling out from underneath the legs of a lot of people the gnostics now the pastoral element is he wants to help the true believers have a true assurance of salvation so how do you know that you're really saved is it because you walked in aisle is it because you raised a hand is it because you signed a card is it because you joined a church is it because you were baptized do you know none of those things are mentioned in first john zero a lot of those didn't even start until the 19th century john will now give us nine evidences of the new birth and all nine will be present in the life of a true believer this is not a multiple choice and you get to pick your favorite three out of the nine all nine will be produced in your life some more than others and some in your life more than in other believers lives but nevertheless categorically all nine and as you look at your life and you see these being produced in your life you may know god lives inside of me and god is at work inside of me and the holy spirit is sanctifying me and maturing me and growing me into the image of christ and so here is the argument i want you to catch this most of you guys will get this regeneration and sanctification are inseparably bound together everyone who has regenerated is being sanctified there's no firewall between those two and sanctification began the moment you were regenerated it's not something that happens 10 years down the road my wife walked in last night as i was late last night in my study she said i've been meaning to ask you this for a long time i can't believe that that i haven't asked you this she said for years you said you were converted and she gave my young age and she said i heard you say from the pulpit in north carolina that you were converted when you were 17. and for years i had said i was converted as a young boy she said when did you change your testimony i said well it's page one of my new book new life in christ i said you obviously haven't read my book yet that's old news it's not new news the more i study the bible the more i realize my testimony needs to square up with the bible so when did my life change well it was when i was 17. and when i heard a message on you must be born again and the immediate impact that had on my life you cannot meet the risen christ and just go on your merry way you cannot meet the risen christ and your life be the same you cannot meet the risen christ and you not be dramatically transformed if not you have not met the risen christ he's too powerful he has too much grace the holy spirit is too intimate and indwelling from the inside for your life not to change it just cannot happen there's not a theological category to place you in so even in what we're looking at here you need to know so what are the distinguishing marks of actually believing in jesus christ with a true saving faith so that you're not one of those that just says lord lord and jesus says i never knew you depart from me you who work iniquity all right i'm just going to run through this very quickly and and we'll because we're going to start our journey next next thursday number one you have to believe in the true christ that's chapter one verses one through four i'm not going to give you every single one of the references number two you confess your sins first john 5 through 2 verse 2. you know sometimes i have people come to me and they say i must not be a christian because i'm still sinning and i say well the acid test is not do you sin the acid test the bottom line is do you confess your sin or or are you just happy about your sin do you just enjoy your sin or are you actually grieved by your sin and do you actually confess it to god because the true christian is not someone who never sins the true christian is someone who confesses their sin and they're bothered by their sin number three obeying god's word a true christian obeys god's word chapter two three through six number four loving the brethren chapter two seven through eleven number five rejecting the world chapter two 15-17 you're no longer in the world you burn those bridges behind you you're in the world but you're not of the world you're no longer a part of the system number six discerning the truth you now have and that's chapter 2 18-27 you now have the ultimate teacher capital t inside of you who is at work in you when a human teacher is presenting the truth the holy spirit is taking it deeper into your soul number seven practicing righteousness it's chapter 2 28 to chapter 3 verse 10. every true christian practices righteousness from the heart number eight confidence before god chapter 3 19-24 you don't dread god you love god and you have confidence that when you are before the throne of grace you're home that's my father and then number nine answers to prayer that's chapter 5 14 to 17 and chapter 3 verse 22. we're going to walk through every single one of these and we're going to take our time because if you can believe that you laughed you know i just believe deeper is better than shallower and i want to get down into this with you and and i want to walk around in this book and i want to know what this book says about real salvation not not superficial salvation real salvation and i want you to know that you're saved i want you to know why you know you're saved and i want you to know that you're not saved if you're not saved because no one can be saved until until they know they're lost and so if you're not saved i really want you to know that you're lost not to be unkind but just so we can bring you to the point where you can be saved so that you would no longer be self deceived well man this is where we're headed in this this is one incredible book and this is so different than romans in the way that it goes about presenting the argument in the vocabulary in the way that is said and this book is probably the ultimate black and white book there's just like no gray area in in this book and so i i want you to walk through this book with me i would just say this if you are aware that you're not a christian then you may be a christian you will confess your sin and turn to the lord and believe in him and there should be nothing holding you back other than your own pride or ego from committing your life to christ i'll tell you this i have never once i've been preaching for 52 years i have never once ever heard anyone say i am so sorry i gave my life to christ i'd like a refund everyone says i don't know why i waited so long i wish i had come to christ earlier and so if you're not a christian yet don't wait any longer do it now you can do it right now just in the quietness of your heart commit your life to christ say lord jesus save me i'm a sinner you're a savior save me all right let me close in a word of prayer i know i've gone kind of long and anyone who wants to stay for any kind of q a or question you're welcome to stay you can stay where you are gather around the table others of you need to head out for your golf match so uh let me pray father where would we be without the bible where would we be without knowing the truth thank you for loving us so much that you have given us the record of truth and it has endured through the ages through the centuries and it speaks to us today just as relevant just as powerful as when it was first written at the end of the first century so lord bless these men make this study the study of a lifetime in jesus name amen all right men thank you so much for being here and kent says all coffee is on the house for the next five seconds okay [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 61min 18sec (3678 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021