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Bible School. To God be the glory. If you are now a Christian, I want you to think back to the moment when you realized that you were lost. How did you take it? Did you feel sick inside? Did you toss and turn in your bed, while
the acid churned in your stomach? Friends, the thought that "I might die in a
lost condition" is a miserable burden to bear. Now, I want you to recall how you felt
when you were taught the gospel. You learned that in order to have your sins
forgiven and to be a Christian that You had to hear the gospel, you had to believe it, repent of your sins, confess your faith in Christ, and be baptized for the remission of your sins and the Lord would add you to that one body of the saved. Now remember how happy you were when you came out of the watery grave of baptism. Knowing that your sins had been forgiven.
You know, some people have said, "I wish I could die at that moment." You were so happy that that burden was gone. But then you began to hear sermons
on the possibility of apostasy... that a child of God could still lose his soul. And you began to worry. And you had Bible study. You came across 2 Peter 2:20, "For if, after they have
escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse with them
than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way
of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to
them." And you begin to worry. And you're told that you have to be perfect, or at least that's the way you're hearing it in your mind and you begin to worry. And, as a matter of fact,
that horrible feeling that you had before you became a Christian starts
coming back. And there are some people who though they will come to the worship services of the Church and they will sing "Blessed Assurance," in their hearts, they don't really have it. They don't have any confidence about their salvation. And there are some members of the church who have been members for 20 or 25 years but they have never been able to bring themselves
to say, "I know that I am saved." They will use substitute terms instead like, "I hope I'm saved, I think I'm saved, perhaps I'm saved, maybe I'm saved." And some will even go so far as
to say that "I cannot really know that I am saved until I die, or Jesus comes again."
And so as a result, they are not able to say, "I know if I die tonight that heaven will be my home." And there are some who live in constant anxiety and frustration with regard to their
relationship to God. They wake up in the morning worrying about this, they pillow their heads at night with the same anxiety. And there are some members of the church who have never been able to forgiven themselves for sins that they've committed in the past. They're
constantly digging around in the graveyard of past sins and digging up these things and reliving
them. And it's not unusual to hear some folks talk about a sin that maybe this person committed 25 or 30 years ago or even half a century ago, and the way he will talk about it, you'd
think he committed it yesterday. Its just as fresh in his mind. He's never been able
to forgive himself. And consequently, many members of the church live in a constant state
of frustration and anxiety over their relationship with God. Brethren, may I suggest to you that
there is a book of the Bible that was written to address this problem. It's primary purpose
is to give Christians confidence in their salvation. Every chapter of the book addresses this topic.
Now, the book I'm talking about is 1 John and we're going to study it together today. Now, the book of 1 John and the first chapter. Chapter 1 and verse 4 John begins his
book with these words, "And these things we write unto you, that
your joy may be full." Now that's important. He begins with those words, "that your joy may be full." Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is not God's desire for His children to walk
around in fear and frustration, and constant anxiety over their souls. The
Christian life is one where you should be able to confidently say, "I know that I'm going
to go to heaven." You should be able to sing, "Blessed Assurance" and "It Is Well
With My Soul," and really mean it. And so what we want to do in this particular
study is to go through the book of 1 John, and to pick out one point from each of the 5 chapters. One point from each of the 5 chapters. One point that should give you Confidence in your Salvation....that should give you "Blessed Assurance." And if you are a person who struggles
with this... who struggles with doubt, I would suggest that once every week
you read the book of 1 John, because it's a book of assurances,
it is a book of confidence. But I also want you to notice as we go through these points that none of these points are unconditional. That is very important. Alright. Let's begin with 1 John chapter 1. The first point that we're going to make is Continual cleansing. You should get confidence from this point. Continual cleansing. Now, we're going to begin in chapter 1 and verse 7.
The Bible says, But if we walk in light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses us from all sin." Now friends, the tenses in this verse
are very important. The word "walk" is present active subjunctive,
thus literally, "If we keep on walking in the light." Now, "cleanses" is present tense,
thus revealing that it is a constant process, "as long as we keep walking in the light." Now, that reveals something very interesting, and that is this, "I can commit a sin, while walking in the light." If while I am continually walking in the light, I am getting continual cleansing, what
that means is a Christian can commit a sin, and have it washed away, and never
cease to be saved. And so what's the point? The point is that walking in the light does
not mean that I have to be sinlessly perfect. In fact, the next verse says, "If we
say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves..." You're not going to be perfect, but that doesn't
mean that you can't be faithful. You know, some people have the idea that a Christian
wakes up in the morning, and he is saved, and he commits a sin and he is lost, and he
prays about it, and he is saved again...... And then it goes on this way through the day so in one day, you may be saved, lost,
saved, lost, saved lost. And your salvation really becomes dependent upon almost a luck of the draw, if you want to use that phrase, and whether you happen to die in one of
those saved moments. I want you to imagine this scenario. Here's a Christian
man who has been serving the Lord faithfully for 25 years. He's never misses worship
services. He gives as he's prospered. He's evangelistic, he's honest, he's a humble servant
of God, and he has been for years. Imagine now that he's driving down the road, and he has a sinful
thought and immediately a car hits him and he dies. What would be the situation of that man eternally? You know, the "lost, saved, lost, saved" mindset would have this man lost and condemned
in eternity to Hell. But I'm telling you that 1 John 1 and verse 7 says that's incorrect. As this man has been doing his best to walk in the light, he is enjoying continual cleansing by the
blood of Jesus. You know, there is an amazing passage in Romans 4:8. The Bible says, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin." Now, who is that man? Well, he's the faithful Christian of 1 John 1:7, the man who is trying to live right, the man who is trying to do right. Does he stumble?
Of course he does! Does he mess up? Of course he does! But he never gives up. When he goofs, he repents, and he keeps on fighting. Brothers and sisters in Christ, listen to this. It
is very very important! The Bible says, "God will not impute sin against that man." Now, the word "impute" means "to mark up against." It means God will not mark up a single sin against a man like that....not one single one. No wonder it says, "Blessed is that man against
whom God will not mark up sin." Now, can I commit sin? Yes! Will it be charged against me? No! Suppose a man obeys the gospel when he's 20, and he walks in the light until death
claims his body at age 80. For 60 years, he keeps on trying. He gets knocked down,
he gets back up. He keeps on confessing his sins sins because that's part of walking in the light.
He never ever walks away. He just keeps pressing on. Friends, I'm telling you that man was saved when he was 30, and when he was 40 and when he was 50 and all the years in between. Now, why?
Because he had a continual cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because though he has sinned, it was not imputed to him. Romans 8:1 is a very powerful and comforting passage along these lines. It says this, "There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Now let me translate this, "To those who are in Christ and who are walking in the light, there is no condemnation." And so the first point is this, "continual cleansing," but I want you to take note. It's not unconditional. Continual cleansing is for those who are walking in the light. Those who keep on keeping on. Now somebody says, "It sounds to me like you're teaching the denominational doctrine of once saved, always saved." No, no. "Once saved, always saved" says that there's nothing that you can do to be lost. But the Bible doesn't teach that. The
Bible teaches that any time I could cease to walk in the light. I could say, "I've had
enough of this Christianity stuff. I'm going back to the world." And at that point, I would no
longer be in fellowship with God. I would no longer have that continual cleansing
from the blood of Jesus Christ, and I would be lost. Alright, our first point from John Chapter 1 is continual cleansing. Now friends, is that "Blessed Assurance?" You better believe it is. You want
some more? Here's chapter 2. From chapter 2 of 1 John we have this phrase, "perfect propitiation." Now in chapter 1 we have a continual cleansing and in chapter 2 we have perfect propitiation. Now, I want you to look at chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. John says, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And
he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world." Now, notice two words: advocate and propitiation. An advocate is
one who pleads our case. A propitiation is an appeasement. And so what he tells us in chapter 2 and verse 1 is, don't sin. Don't live that way, but when you do sin, you have Christ who pleads your
case and appeases your situation, so that you remain blameless in the sight of God. Sometime back, I got a ticket in the state of Georgia for turning right on red. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do that, but the fact that I didn't know didn't stop the police officer from giving me a ticket.
Well, anyway, the policeman stopped me. He wrote me a ticket. I found out that in the state of Georgia you can hire a traffic lawyer, and he will go to court for you and he will plead
your case. And he'll say something like this, he'll say, your honor, my client has never gotten a ticket in the state of Georgia before. Would you be willing to throw out the charge of running this light, and just let pay a fine to the court and have it not show up
on his record?" And I thought that was a good idea and so I hired a lawyer and he did that. And he went to the judge, and judge
threw out the ticket, and it never showed up on my record. Brethren,
that's what's happens with Christ. He is our advocate, and when we commit a transgression, he fixes it, and it never goes on our record. It is never imputed to me. Now, again I want to ask, "Is this unconditional?" No, its not unconditional. Look at verses 3-4, "It is conditional upon keeping his commandments." Now, chapter 1 calls it, "walking in the light." Chapter 1- Blessed Assurance, that is continual cleansing. Chapter 2- Blessed Assurance- perfect propitiation. Alright 1 John chapter 3. Here's our phrase. "Destroying doubt" Now, I want you to look with me at
chapter 3 and verse 19. "And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Now, what's He talking about in verse 20 when he mentions our heart condemning us? Friends, this is writen for the person who has doubts and that's our point. Destroying doubt. You see, despite the assurances that we have as Christians, I know my own spiritual blemishes... I know my own spiritual frailty.... and in light of that, I might still have doubts in my own heart. and God knew would happen. The Holy Spirit knew that would happen. And you're not the first person to whom this has happened, and so the Lord addresses this point. He says, if your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart! Now, I'll give you the my paraphrase of this, "He says you're doing your best to walk in the light, but you're still having doubts, stop worrying."
God knows these things, and He wants you to know know that you have a continual cleansing.
What's He doing? He's destroying the doubt! Next verse - Verse 21, "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. If you can get beyond that doubt, then
what you have left is confidence. Once you can grasp this concept in I John and once you can rid yourself of this dibilitating doubt, What you have is confidence in your life. Now again, there are conditions. Verse 19 says, "And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts. Now, to be of the truth, is equivelant to say we are walking in the light. We are walking in accordance with the truth of the New Testament pattern, and that's how we give our heart confidence. Blessed Assurance chapter 1 continual cleansing, chapter 2 perfect propitiation, chapter 3 destroying the doubt. Alright, 1 John chapter 4. Here's the phrase, "fixing the fear." Did God know that his children would experience
fear about the judgment day? Of course He did. He knew that some would worry....he knew that
some would have anxiety....he knew that some people would be quite disturbed to think about the judgment day arriving, and they might not be ready and they would be upset about this. Chapter 4 and verse 17. Here we go. "So we have come to know and to believe
the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is the love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence." Listen to this, "so that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is so also are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." Friends, what's he doing here? He's fixing the fear problem. When you understand the extreme love that God has for us.... if you are willing to abide in God, he says, then you have nothing to fear. You can have confidence in the day of judgement. Now, the New King James says, "boldness." Not worry, but boldness toward the day of judgement. Now, is this unconditional? No, listen to chapter 5 and verse 3, "Now this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And His
commandments are not burdensome." You see, someone might begin to worry...they think, "I have to keep the commandments. Well, you know, that's going to be a heavy burden." He's saying they're not burdensome. It is not a burden too heavy for you to bear. You keep walking in the light. You can do it. God loves you. Jesus Christ is cleansing you in His blood. Don't be afraid of the day of judgement. He's fixing the fear. You know there's a very interesting passage in Luke chapter 1 and verse 6. Its talking about Zechariah and Elizabeth,
the parents of John the Baptist. Here's what it says. "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Now, did Zechariah and
Elizabeth ever sin? Of course they did, but notice, they were counted as righteous, they were counted as blameless, and its even said about them that they were keeping all of the ordinances.
Now, that was under the old law, but, you know, the same is true for us. As we do our best to live right, confess and
repent when we mess up, we are counted as righteous and blameless in the eyes of God. Alright. Chapter 5 of 1 John. The phrase for chapter 5 is "complete confidence." We have, continual cleansing, perfect propitiation,
destroying the doubt, fixing the fear, and in chapter 5, complete confidence. John opens this book by saying, "I'm writing these things to you that your joy will be complete." Now listen how He closes the book, near the very end. Chapter 5 and verse 13, "These things I have written unto you who believe
in the name of the Son of God," now listen, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." I want you to notice the word "know." He doesn't say "hope that you have eternal life," He doesn't say, "wait and see if you have eternal life." Its not a matter of, "I hope I die at one of these fortunate, lucky moments." Brothers and sisters in Christ, you may know with absolute confidence that you are going to heaven. When I sing, "It Is Well With My Soul," I can mean it. It's also interesting to notice how we may know. John says, "these things I have written..." Friends, it is only by the written word of God that we may know that we are saved. You know, sometimes you meet people in the
religious world who will say, "I know I'm saved because I feel it in my heart."
Well, that's not Biblical. John doesn't say that we may know that we
are saved by a feeling in our hearts. He says, we may know by the Holy Spirit inspired, written word of God. I can know that I am saved. Isn't that wonderful? You know, occasionally
I will meet a member of the Lord's church who will argue that when someone sins he becomes
lost until he confesses and prays for forgiveness of that sin. And certainly confession of sin
and praying for forgiveness are things that should be a regular part of a Christian's life.
That is part of what it means to "walk in the light." I John 1 and verse 9 says, "If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
But I'm telling you that this idea that we enter into a lost state every time we sin is not true. If it were true then we couldn't really know that we have eternal life. Somebody says, "Why not?" And the answer is because of sins of ignorance. At any time I might commit a sin of ignorance and thus enter into a lost state, and if that is the case, then I can't really know that I'm saved. You know, a sin of ignorance by definition means that I don't know it. I've sinned so as to be lost, and I'm not even aware of it. That would negate the idea of being able to know that I am saved. Can you imagine trying to do evangelism if you had that type of mindset? Can you
imagine saying to someone, "Come and be a part of the Church of Christ where we don't really know whether we're saved or not." Friends, that's ridiculous. We're not going to win anyone to Christ
with a doctrine like that. The Bible says, we can know that we have eternally life.
On the side of my class ring from the school of preaching I had engraved my favorite passage
of scripture from my favorite book of the Bible. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. It is one of the most comforting passages in all the Bible to me. "These things I have written unto," why? "That you that you may know you have eternal life. Now, as we keep reading in chapter 5, I want you to notice verse 18. Almost the very end of the book. He says, " We know that whoever is born of God," Now who is that? That's a Christian. "Whoever is born of God does not sin." Now, that doesn't
mean a Christian never sins that just means that's not his normal way of life. "Whoever is born of God does not sin but he who has been born of God keeps himself,"
Now listen to this, "and the wicked one does not touch him." And the wicked one does not touch him. That means the Devil can't get me. Now, 1 Peter 5:8 says, "the Devil is walking around seeking whom he may devour. But if I am doing my best to resist sin and to be faithful, the devil cannot touch me. Continual cleansing, perfect propitiation, destroying the doubt, fixing the fear, and giving complete confidence. Friends, that's the book of 1 John. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Perhaps you're watching this video and you are not a part of the Church of Christ.
You need to know that presently, you don't have this assurance. You can't rest
your head on your pillow at night, knowing that if you die before the sun rises, that
heaven will be your home....because this confidence is only for those in Christ. Ephesians 1:3
says that "all spiritual blessings are in Christ. But the good news is that anyone
can be in Christ. Anyone can become a part of the New Testament Church by obeying the gospel.
If you're interested in learning more about how to be saved and having the confidence only a Christian can have, we encourage you to visit the link that's shown on the screen below.
