Children of God in the World part 2

Well, it's good to see you all. We're excited to continue on and into the epistle of first John by the Chris is always going to sneak up to me and make a joke about my iPad. This time he said that there was an angelic glow about me. Apparently my the brightness on my iPad is up a little too bright. And what I'm going to do this week is I'm going to go ahead and give you guys the message title so that I get this going. So I don't forget. And if I advance in the message beyond the point, just raise up your your hand and just be sure to let me know. But the message title is a continuation from last week. This is children of God in the world.

Part two, we will be in first John chapter three. We actually have the the monumental task of preaching the entire book, the entire chapter three. So we will be in chapter three today, verses one through seven. I will read those and then I will address verses eight through twenty four as we discuss those points. OK, so if you want to go ahead and just make notes, we're in first John chapter three, one through seven and also verses eight through twenty four of chapter three. Let me read this. What kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God? And so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because he shall we shall see him as he is and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous and he is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. Let me continue on through verse 10. God's seed abides in him. He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Who does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother.

So let's pray over the reading of God's word. Father God we humbly come before you to sit beneath your word. Lord we come tonight not just to sing songs of God, not to hear a sermon of God, but to meet with God. And Lord we come humbly knowing that we need you. Lord I come as a as a feeble servant of your word. I have nothing to share of my own apart that what you would would give to us. So in humility I just ask that you would change lives as we read your word and submit to your word. We love you in your name we pray. Amen. Last week we discussed children of God in the world.

What it means to be a child of God, born of God, living in the world. We said that God's children love God's family. God's children remain in him and God's children remain in the father. And we also outlined what is the world. And I gave you that the world and everything in the world is the lust of the eyes. That's the stuff the world wants. The lust of the flesh. That's the stuff the pleasure of the world and the pride of life, which is the stuff the world the praise of man that the world longs for. And John consistently returns to his mission of helping his little children correctly discern between true and false believers.

And we have been talking about these signs of life. A vital sign is something that a nurse would take in order to show strength of life, your heart rate, your respiration, your blood pressure. And John is giving what I've called a juxtaposition between those who are alive and those who are dead. The heretics are those who have gone out from among us. They fail the test. The children of God are those who pass the test. And I trust that you've been praying through these. And we believe that the Lord will do a great thing in creating a blessed assurance.

If you are here and you've been born again, you will see that these vital signs are present in your life. And we as a church want to be filled with believers who have a strong conversion testimony and a life that is consistent with that testimony. Some of the vital signs that we've talked about over this summer, the vital sign of sound doctrine. John Stott says that there are three tests that John gives. John gives the moral test. Christians have a moral change. He says that they have a social test, which is the love they love differently. And there is a doctrinal test.

And the doctrinal test means they believe right things about who God is and who Jesus is. And this summer, we have been taking you through these tests and I've been calling them vital signs. You have the vital sign of sound doctrine. And if this is one of your first times, if you missed the first or the second message, John just outlines first that Jesus was the eternal word of life. The vital sign of sound doctrine about Jesus will tell us that he is fully God. He is fully man. The Gnostics challenged this. Later on, John says he is our propitiation. He is our mediator, our divine defense attorney.

But we also see the sound doctrine is a vital sign that we believe the right thing about God because God is light. John tells us. And this speaks to God's holiness. Light dispels darkness and a person who claims to love Jesus, but they're living in darkness. They actually make God out to be a liar. Any professing Christian who shows himself to fully acknowledge these things that they believe the right thing about God in terms of his holiness. And they believe the right thing about Jesus is grounded in this first vital sign. The second vital sign is new life or what stock calls the moral test.

If you're a Christian, you're going to your life is going to be marked by obedience. Does this mean that you are perfect? No. And any Christian will tell you that they are not perfect. But a Christian will tell you about the time when their life was not marked by obedience. Amen. You can go back prior to your conversion. A friend of mine calls this BC right before conversion. And you can remember when your life was not marked by obedience. And we went into this last week. You're also marked by growth. Over time, you ought to be maturing spiritually.

The things that you struggle with today ought to be different and more nuanced than the things you struggled with many years ago. I was thinking this week of a time when my wife and I overheard a coworker making a very coarse joke about sexual immorality. And I remember how my wife and I were repulsed at this time in 2003. My wife and I worked together in the same place for a short amount of time. I had only been saved for a few months. And I remember how how just appalling that joke would be that this person would speak so profoundly in a crass manner in front of me and my wife.

And then it dawned on me this week that this moral test takes care of a lot of coarse joking. You know, just getting saved will do a whole lot to clean up your mouth. Just getting saved will do a whole lot to take care of these secondhand cuss words. You know, Paul cautions against coarse joking. And as a believer, if you ever find yourself in the world and you hear people talking the way people talk at work and you ever find yourself just. I think I'm just going to ease over here and just going to distance my a believer over time has seen growth, not perfection, but growth. The vital sign of sound doctrine and new life and a new love.

This is what's not called the social test. We love his word. We love his ways. We love his light and we love his people. We want to be at church. It's kind of hard for brother Chris and I to sign someone up for membership if we don't know where they are. It's kind of hard for me and brother Chris to really say, yes, we believe this person is genuinely converted if we don't really know what street they live on.

And do you realize that about 12 million people in the Southern Baptist convention and we're just thinking a lot about matters of Southern Baptist, even though we're not affiliated with Southern Baptist at this point, there are about 4 million, about one third actually show up on any given Sunday morning. So that's two thirds in that denomination that don't show up. And in other denominations, mainline denominations, you see the same thing. You're seeing people who are professing Christ. It's what we would say is that our membership roles are filled with people who are professors, but not possessors.

And that leads us to a fourth vital sign, which is just remaining, remaining, remaining in Christ, remaining in the church. First John 2 19 says they went out from us for they were not of us. And for John's readers, those who remain showed themselves to be genuinely alive by remaining true to the gospel message. In our first message in the series, John basically said in the beginning, and he wasn't talking about the beginning of the world. He was talking about the beginning of the gospel message. He was hearkening back to his gospel. And he said, remember that message that you first heard from me?

It hasn't changed and real Christians don't change in terms of the message. We remain in Christ in church and we remain in his spirit. Paul prayed, Lord, take not thine Holy Spirit from me. Paul longed to have a fellowship with the Holy Spirit. If you're a believer, do you know what I'm asking this rhetorically, because if you're born again, you know this. But do you know that experience when you grieve the Holy Spirit? I mean, you think that that that a that an argument with your wife is bad. Grieving a Holy Spirit unsettles you grieving your Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within you is an unsettling that you've got to get straight.

And I believe that a genuine believer longs to remain in the spirit and to say with David, Lord, let there be no controversy between you and I. Oh, preacher used to say. Well, tonight I want us to look into quite a bit of text, but I think we can do this. I want us to see the marks of adoption. You know, we have been talking about adoption. We were at the crisis pregnancy center, the centers for pregnancy choices in Lawrence County with the youth yesterday. And I shared with our youth sort of our adoption story and also how we have ministered to people in the community through the center for pregnancy choices.

And and, you know, I was talking a lot about adoption, and I just saw that this just fits perfectly with the text today. In terms of the marks of adoption, we as adopted sons and daughters should see certain things in our lives. So number one, I want us to see the mark that adopted sons and daughters are marked by hope that purifies. Marked by hope that purifies. I'll read verses one through three. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now.

And what we will be has not yet appeared. But what we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him like he is. And everyone who does hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. So last week we saw the world defined. The stuff the world wants the pleasure the world seeks the praise that man kills for. But tonight we see that we are marked by adoption and we are adopted for a change. Let's look at the text verse two. Beloved, we are God's children now. I'm not sure what translation you're reading from. I'm reading from the ESV and I put a underline in my copy and I made it bold. Beloved, we are God's children now.

I remember when that now came to my life. I remember when that change happens and happened in my life. Do you remember the point of time when the Lord changed your life? Romans eight fourteen says this. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry. Abba, father, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That's one of my all time favorite messages. There was actually a time in my faith journey where I really lost assurance.

I wasn't sure whether I was lost or saved at this point time I got saved in 2003. I was still converted, but I just I was doubting where I was with the Lord and the Lord used this verse to really solidify it because I looked at this verse and I saw certain things in my life. Look at Romans eight fourteen. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. I saw leading in my life through the testimony of things that only God did. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. I saw the work of the Holy Spirit growing me.

I saw the spirit within my life over a course of a long period of time produced this cry, Abba, father, and though Christians may stumble, they will not fall. And what we're talking about is not emotionalism. The assurance that we gain, a blessed assurance, is rooted in God's doctrine. It is rooted in our renewed love and change. And it is over time easy to go back and to see everything that God has done in your life. We are adopted for a change. You know, we are unknown by the world. Verses one through three tells us tell us this. Verse two, it says, beloved, we are God's children now.

In verse one, it says, see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. The reason why the world does not know us. See, there was a time when the world knew us and we knew the world, but we were adopted for a change and we were given a new nature. We have become little Christ's and over time we become increasingly more Christ like. We are not just adopted for change, but we're adopted for hope. Let's look at first John chapter three, verse two in the second half. We have a, we are adopted for hope.

What we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. You know, believers have a resurrection hope. Do you have a resurrection hope? And we celebrate the Lord's supper as we did a few weeks ago. Does that remind you of our renewed and resurrected body? What about when we come on church Sunday morning? You know, the old Testament saints worshiped on Saturday, but we moved worship to Sunday, we meaning in the church age, because it reminds us that Jesus rose from the grave.

But this is a hope that purifies we're adopted for a hope of a resurrection that the grave is not the end for us. We have an expectation of seeing our Lord. So we are adopted for change and for hope, but also for purity. Let's read first John three, three and everyone who purifies who and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure, born again, saint, you are an adopted child of our father. We are marked by the indwelling Holy spirit who bears witness with our spirit that we are born again. I have three children. They are adopted.

I can take you to their birth certificate that birth certificate does not have their given name, their given name, which was usually something their parents gave them just for a few days. In one case, maybe a few, a few weeks. But at the moment that we gained them and the judge sometime later put his stamp on their name was changed and they were sealed with a mark that is Stovall. And if there's any doubt that they're my child, they can simply walk up to me and sit on my lap and ask me. And that is the same experience that we have as believers. You have a point in time in your life where the Lord stamped.

In fact, scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is a seal guaranteeing our salvation. And you remember when that happened. You may not remember the date and that's okay, but you remember a change that happened in your life. And if there is any doubt that that should happen, you simply go run in the lap of your father and you have this blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. So, you know, saints that we are marked by hope that purifies. Secondly, we are marked by a righteous purpose and we will read verses four through eight. I had to look back and make sure that I'm keeping honest here. Let's read verses four through eight.

I will primarily be preaching about verses five and eight, but I will reference verse four. So let's read this. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and then him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the work of the devil. Well, let's see that Jesus appeared to take away sins. That's right out of verse five. What is the entire purpose that Jesus came to take away sin? And when you're born again, his number one purpose is to take away your sin. And so you have a new purpose. What is your purpose? To be done with sin. It should be the driving purpose of your life to be holy. Just as he is holy. This is not John saying, if you make a mistake, you should doubt your salvation. And if you make a mistake, you are therefore not saved. That's not what he's saying.

He is talking about a consistent pattern. He's talking about a new purpose. So let's hear him clarify this for us. We see sin defined. Verse four, every John is going to define what sin is. If you're taking notes, you can write sin defined. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Quite simple. If your kids were ever to ask you what sin is, you could simply give him this verse. Sin is lawlessness. Aren't we seeing lawlessness in our country? We're seeing lawlessness in rampant gun violence and gang activity. We're seeing lawlessness on the streets.

We're seeing lawlessness as society begins to break down the parameters that God put in place, many of which brother Chris is preaching about Sunday mornings. But in a nutshell, the word anomia is a word that means lawlessness. And this is the word that John uses. It's very similar to another phrase that you might have heard me mention. Antinomianism. Antinomian means anti law. And it was a group of heresies, a group of heretics who said, you don't have to obey God's law in the old testament because we're in a new dispensation. We're in a new era. So we don't have to obey God's law.

There are still Christians, professing Christians today who say the same thing. I'm a red letter Christian. I like the words of Jesus. I don't care so much about the harsh stuff. Right. But we can't. Understand or undermine the purpose of Jesus is coming. He came to take away sin. Sin is defined as lawlessness. Sin was defined, but sin was declined in verse five. The Christian is incompatible with sin. Christianity is incompatible with sin. What that means is what he is saying is that you cannot live in sin and be OK with it. That is the essence of what John is saying. This is not that complicated. We make it really complicated.

John is simply saying you can't be a real Christian and be OK with sin. And if you cut it down to the brass tacks, I just have to ask you, dear friend, has there come a point time in your life when you knew the Lord saved you? And since that time, you have not been able to live in sin. I got into a very significant dispute with a pastor over this issue. It was couched under the term of the lordship debate. If you take the labels out of it, essentially what he was saying was anti-nomianism, that it was OK to profess Jesus as Savior and to not have him as Lord for upwards of 20 years. This is not Christian. It's not Christian thought.

You cannot be a born-again Christian and be OK with your sin. Can you be wrestling with sin? Yes, but you can't be OK with it. Sin is defined. We see sin declined in verse five. Do you know that sin is active rebellion? Sin is also undermined in verse eight. Let's see sin undermined and let's just read verse eight here. Jesus appeared. Why? To destroy the work of the devil. The number one reason why Jesus came was to destroy the work of Satan, which was sin. And Christian, this is the purpose of Christ in your life. He wants to destroy sin in your life.

He wants to destroy known sin, the sins you know about, but he also wants to destroy the sins that you don't know about. There are sins of our attitude, sins of our personality. You know, we really take things like personality sin and we kind of excuse it and say, well, it's you know, that's kind of how she's wired or this is just kind of his personality or you know, that's how his family raised him. No, it's lawlessness. And the real Christian, although they may be immature for a season, they have the spirit within them to remind them of this. I believe that the born again Christian longs to be free from sin.

They seek to kill sin in their life. And Jesus died on the cross to grant us this spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, father. So we're marked by hope that purifies and we're marked by righteous purpose, but we're also marked by righteous practice. First John three verse six nine through 10. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning and no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Remember, this is the person in habitual pattern sin as the main practice of their life. Let's look at verse nine through 10. No one born of God makes a practice of sin or sinning for God's seed. The Holy spirit abides in him.

He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God by this. It is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. So we see that a true Christian does not and cannot engage in habitual and persistent sin. Have you known someone who has engaged in consistent habitual pattern sin while professing to be a Christian? I believe we all do. Aren't we thankful that the Lord has given us a new spirit? Let's listen to what some of the scriptural writers say. I made reference to David.

David in Psalms 51 who begged of the Lord to forgive him. What about Romans eight six scripture says that this one's mind is set on the spirit and also Psalms 16 eight that this man has his mind set on things above. What about Psalms 57 seven that this man has a heart that is steadfast. And in first John three nine as we just have read that God's seed remains in him. Jesus talks about this as remaining attached to the true vine. Jesus told 11 disciples just after Judas had already left. He said abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me.

What he is saying is the word mino in the original language, which means to stay or to remain. You know, John uses this word to remain about 15 times in the book of John. This is a word that John uses a bunch. This is a concept he keeps going back to Christians remain. We are marked by hope that purifies our righteous practice, a righteous purpose, but we are also marked by love. For this, I will move ahead into first John chapter three. Let me read verses three through 14. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers. The world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death to life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Well, let's stop there and just unpack this if we can. What are the marks of adopted children, but love? We have a love for true worship in verse 12.

We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. What is this story of Cain and Abel? What was it about? It was about one brother loved God and the other one didn't. It was about one loving true worship. Now you might look at the text and say the word worship is not in there, but that's why Cain killed his brother. Abel offered a righteous sacrifice. Our brother Jared has taught our youth on a series called acceptable worship, and it is phenomenal. You need to ask him if he has it recorded.

My bet is that he does, but in acceptable worship, brother Jared goes on to say that Cain was rejecting the gospel because he had heard growing up the first gospel message in the entire Bible, and that's of his parents. His parents saw God take an animal and cover them, and that is a picture of what Christ would do for them, and that's what Cain rejected. But Abel, on the other hand, loved real worship. He brought an animal sacrifice, and it was not just that it was a blood sacrifice, but it hearkened back to that first sacrifice that Jesus made. This is one mark of a real Christian. You love church. You love church.

You don't just love church. You love worship. John MacArthur has these stark contrasts between the children of God and the children of the devil, and listen to what he says. Satan's children murder God's children. Think about that. If we love true worship, Satan's children love to murder God's children. But there's also a love for true worshipers in verse 14. If you're a Christian, you're going to love the people at church. Verse 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers." I can't tell you how on a Friday or Saturday night, how much I loved driving up and having prayer times with brothers.

Not a lot of people. I would say that Brother Chris and I have been prayer partners since 2004, and that's no exaggeration. Sometimes more often than the others. I remember one specific season where he and I really hadn't had a lot of people to pray with. We were just praying in a car and sometimes praying over the city. We had prayed over this city for decades, honestly. I can remember on one occasion where we just so happened to have some other people join us. I won't quote the verse in the Psalms, but it's a psalm about how much joy the Psalmist got from the saints of God.

That psalm was just reverberating in my heart and I just wept because I loved being with God's people in a simple prayer meeting. You may not have that experience specifically, but if you're born again, you've had that experience. It could be singing a song and hearing the way the saints sing that truth. It's not just, "We've got a great building." This building sounds great when people sing it. As a worship leader, I tell my buddies that you've got to come and you've got to lead here and you've just got to hear it. But what I love more than the acoustics is the heart that it comes from.

And real Christians love worship and we love the worshipers. You know Satan's children, they hate God's children. I know I've said that they murder God's children, but they hate God's children. That comes right out of the text. Let's look at another mark of the adopted son that we love. Sacrificial body life, verse 16. Let's read this. "By this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." There is nowhere else that real Christianity can be seen as when real Christians love real Christians sacrificially. And this is a mark of believers. You love giving. You love giving sacrificially.

We see a mark of Satan's children. Satan's children are indifferent towards God's children. Those who were not born again they're not going to get bent out of shape if they miss a tithe check. They're not going to get bent out of shape if they miss an offering. In fact, they're probably not going to get bent out of shape if they just miss church. And like I've said before earlier this evening, if you have two thirds of your role and you don't even know where they live or you haven't seen them, that is, could be pretty much an indication that they're indifferent to the work of God and the children of God.

So we see a love for true worship, for true worshipers of sacrificial body life and real Christians love when truth is lived out. Real Christians love when truth is lived out. Let's read verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death and whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Verse 16. By this we know love that he lay down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And I know that I've already said that we have a sacrificial giving in body life, but let me say it again.

We lay down our lives for each other. Let me clarify. We lay down our rights. We lay down our expectations. We lay down sometimes church the way I think it needs to be. And in the body of Christ, we must be marked by this. We're marked by hope and by righteous purpose and practice and by love, but we're also marked by comfort. Let me read just verses 19 and 20. By this we shall know that we are of the truth. And reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. What is the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow? Does anybody know? I'm asking you to respond.

So godly sorrow produces repentance. What then does worldly sorrow produce? Remorse, regret, guilt. If I can be transparent here, I remember where I was in 2003 after I was saved and I had wrestled with some areas of worldly sorrow when I first heard this verse. And I will say for the better part of two decades, I have loved this passage and at times I have needed this passage. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. The comfort that marks the believer is a heavenly reassurance. Let me explain what I mean about worldly sorrow.

You know worldly sorrow is guilt, it's remorse, it's sadness, and it has a way of attaching itself to people like I was. People who are victims of hyper moralism. Now what is hyper moralism? Hyper moralism says you're not doing enough in your sanctification. You're not reading the bible enough, you're not praying enough, you're not fasting enough, you're not witnessing enough. And if there was anybody who really bought that hook, line, and sinker, it was me. Because growing up it was probably one part my personality, one part maybe my church life, and you know one part just life.

Maybe the southern Baptist environment, culture, zeitgeist where I live. But the bottom line was I really came to believe that my sanctification was my responsibility totally. And it led to a lot of worldly sorrow. Because I was constantly fearing that I could never get where I needed to be with my walk in the Lord. And you know after our conversion over some time and maturity I realized something. You have sin, but then you also have immaturity, and you have weakness, and you have struggling. So weakness and immaturity and struggling are sometimes allowed in your life by the providence of God.

And I would say I got up to a point in my life where I got frustrated that I could not overcome some weakness and some immaturity. You know 20 years ago I really really really wanted to overcome these things until the point in my life where I realized the God of my salvation is also the God of my sanctification. And what do I mean by this is that he is the author and the finisher. He is the author and the perfecter. And one of the evidences of this is if you find yourself beating yourself up and disappointed that you're a terrible believer and a terrible Christian and you just you should be so much further down the road.

First John 3 19 tells us we can go to the lap of our father and when our hearts condemn us he is greater than our hearts. You know I love this verse because God is a God of comfort. This means that God doesn't just want you to grow. He wants to comfort you as you grow. And this melts my heart because I can tell you I can show you spots on floors that were soaked in tears because I wanted so desperately to overcome some weakness over to overcome some immaturity or some struggle. And at those times time and time and time again I have a box full of journals. I won't let you read them but I will show you the box.

But in those journals that were all oftentimes filled with wrestling and struggling I oftentimes remember where I was when the Lord comforted me. And so if you were a believer and you can identify with this self-condemning heart I want to encourage you with the word go back to your Abba father go to that prayer closet and the Lord himself will give assurance as he comforts you with truth. We see heavenly comfort. We see heavenly response in verse 3 21. You know there's a tremendous blessed assurance that comes in answered prayer. And we also see a heavenly deposit in first John 3 24. We will conclude where we began.

Whoever keeps this command abides in God and God and him and by this we know he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. I began with Romans 8 14 and Romans 8 16 and John is thoroughly Trinitarian in his work. What that means is he talks about Jesus. He talks about the father and he talks about the spirit. And we need the father and the son and the spirit to grow maturity and to grow in assurance. I want to encourage you tonight to spend some time simply relying on him to provide assurance. This Bible study is thorough. It's you know that if you just take first John you just read it and spend time. We've sent hundreds.

I was going to say hundreds possibly but we've sent definitely dozens of people to first John over the last 20 years who are wrestling at different stages of of assurance. But I would say this if you have first John the Holy Spirit can provide a blessed assurance far better than anything we could preach. But I believe he will use this means in this sermon to encourage you saying if you are hearing this and you have never known the saving grace of the Lord Jesus I would plead with you to repent and to obey the Lord to repent in faith and trust him for your salvation. And he will begin to work these things out in your life.