How Can I Tell If I’m Really Saved?

how do people who have experienced the miracle of new birth deal with their own sinfulness as they try to enjoy the full assurance of their salvation and my answer is you deal with it by the way you use John's teaching John warns against hypocrisy over here claiming to be born again when you're not born again because there's no fruit no evidence no validation in your life that's hypocrisy and he warns against that probably 15 times in this letter and over here he celebrates we have an advocate we have a propitiation we have one who is righteous and removed all the wrath of God and enabled us by bearing our judgment and our sin and providing our righteousness to make a way for us sinners into everlasting hope so those are the two things he does for us warns us against hypocrisy over here and celebrates the advocate and the propitiation over here so the question is how do you use those two truths and this is really where you should deal with the Lord right now how do you use those two truths what do you do with them because what I'm gonna argue is that the born-again person spiritually discerned what to do with those two truths and makes proper biblical use of them so how do they function in the born-again heart how do those two biblical teachings function in the born-again heart first you are slipping I'm gonna paint two scenarios for you and I believe all Christians oscillate between these and hopefully we find ourselves more or less free from both of them but in this room here there would be people way off on this side and there would be people way off on this side and I hope that we can help each other so here's the first scenario you are slipping into a lukewarm careless presumptuous frame of mind in regard to your own sinfulness you're slipping you're just drifting you didn't even know it was happening you realize you haven't thought about sin and you haven't been concerned about sin for a long time you're kind of waking up and say whoa how did did that happen you're starting to coast or be indifferent to whether you are holy or worldly you're losing your vigilance against bad attitudes and behaviors just kind of slide into them now and once there was a a vigilance you watched over your soul you you had some standards you put up some barriers you fought the fight and your hands they're limp and your knees are loose and you're just blowing in the wind and going with the flow when the born-again person experiences that which they do then the truth the first John 3:9 becomes very crucial for them no one born of God makes a practice of sinning the Holy Spirit in the born-again person takes that verse and awakens him scares him about the danger of his condition so that he flies to the advocate he flies to his propitiation for mercy forgiveness he confesses his sin chapter 1 verse 9 he receives cleansing he's renewed in the sweetness of his relationship with with Christ he he recovers his hatred for sin and he's restored and the joy of the Lord again becomes his strength to fight the fight another day that's the function of chapter 3 verse 9 in the spirit indwelt regenerate heart the newborn person doesn't read verse 9 of chapter 3 and blow it off second scenario you are sinking down my guess is this is more common in this series right now than the other one you are sinking down in fear and discouragement and even despair that your righteousness and your love for people and your fight against sin could ever be good enough good enough even to demonstrate your new birth we all know theologically can never be good enough to save us but first John says you're not born again unless there's evidence in your life and you take that and you are absolutely undone by it your conscience is condemning you your own deeds see so it seems so imperfect that you could never they could never prove that I was born again that's what your conscience is telling you now when the born-again person experiences this and they do we do this is this is not presumption this is despair when the born-again person experiences this truth of this reality then he turns to chapter 2 verse 1 and he listens to God and he hears God and God says my little children now I had to pause there as I got to this point in my message just to just to feel why John began verse 1 with those words he really wants to deal with you at this point tenderly there are times when we should be dealt with severely and there are other times when we desperately need to be dealt with tenderly and when he begins verse 1 of chapter 2 he says my little children he doesn't mean the young ones in the church he means all of them he was probably an old man as he wrote this and I'm getting to the point now where I can almost look out on all of you not all and say my little children so I do feel tender towards you I have walked through this veil so often I don't want to beat you up in moments when you have examined your life and you can't tell if the fruit is enough I know the feeling in it's an impossible feeling it's an impossible situation there's no way out except that in the regenerate person and this is why I believe I'm born again God has has rescued me again and again and again by taking my eyes off of my mediocre performances and fixing them on my advocate but if anyone sins we have an advocate in other words the word that John wants the despairing to hear is the word we have an advocate what's the point of an advocate is to plead the cause of sinners my little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the father and perhaps he mentions father there so that that too will feel less daunting than judge we have a father Jesus Christ and he's the righteous one we're not he is so let me try summing up John's warning of hypocrisy calls us back from presumption and John's promise of the Advocate calls you back from the precipice of despair the new birth enables you to hear Scripture and use Scripture helpfully and redemptive lis new birth doesn't use the promise we have an advocate to justify a cavalier attitude toward sin you say this again now the way the new birth uses the Bible uses first John is not to say I have an advocate let us in that grace may abound advocate that voice is not the voice of the new creature so you know whether you're born of God as to whether you respond to this verse that way that's what I meant when I closed the service the way I did last week if you hear God hold out his advocacy to you and you say thank you I will go sin some more you're not responding as a born-again person but if you take it in trembling hand and say again again you will hold this out to me that's a good sign the new birth doesn't respond to the warning no one born of God makes a practice of sinning by using it to pour gasoline on the fires of despair if your if your heart if your despairing and your trembling that you don't know if you have the fruit or the evidence in your life that you're born again and then you read 3:9 and you use it to kill yourself that's not the holy spirit that's not the new birth that's not the new creature in Christ responding so my answer to how we deal with our sin as we try to enjoy assurance is that the new person within discerns spiritually how to use warnings of hypocrisy and assurances of advocacy it knows it it deserves how to use them knows how to move between them it doesn't become presumptuous and it doesn't become despairing so I close by simply praying Lord gret that in this room and these rooms this weekend our new birth would be confirmed by our responses to the Word of God may he grant us to embrace the warning and may he grant us to embrace the comfort so that we can indeed grow in our capacity to enjoy the full assurance of our salvation

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 208,251

Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Sermon Clip, Indwelling Sin, Killing Sin, Sin, Does God love me, The love of God, Gospel, Preaching, Expository preaching, Expositional preaching, Sanctification, Assurance of salvation, Salvation, Bible, Scriptures, 1 John

Id: 4jTApS8uUSg

Length: 13min 37sec (817 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2018