Our Ultimate Source of Assurance: The Holy Spirit

Over the years, I've had people to ask me all kinds of questions.

Some people have come to me and raised serious questions about their marriage,

continuing or ending it.

I've had people to come and talk about dealing with difficult people in their lives,

maybe somebody they worked with or even in their own home,

just all kinds of things.

And in those situations, most of the time, if I'm asked a question,

and I have a good idea of what the answer ought to be in terms of what the Bible says,

I'll just say it.

Some of you, we've had some conversations over the years,

maybe about some difficult issues going on in your life,

and I've maybe said some things that you didn't want me to,

you expected me to.

But I needed to because the Scripture was real clear about it.

Well, one of the most important, vital questions that I could ever be asked

or that you could ever be asked is by someone who is struggling

with assurance about their relationship with the Lord.

Someone who is just, they're having difficulty knowing,

am I really right with God?

Am I really a Christian?

If they ask you, if they ask me just point blank,

do you think I am a Christian?

I'm not going to give them a yes or no answer.

And I don't think you should either.

And here's why.

I don't know what's in a person's heart, and neither do you.

We don't know what's going on inside a person.

So I think we need to be very careful about giving a definite answer.

But there is a definite answer.

It's an answer that only God can give, though.

But when somebody comes to you, and I think if you're a serious Christian,

people know that you love the Lord, you seek to live a faithful Christian life,

between family, extended family, friends, people you work with,

sooner or later people have got to ask you a spiritual related type question.

And sometimes it may be in the realm of, do you think I'm a Christian?

Or what does it mean to be a Christian?

We don't need to put them off.

We don't need to be afraid.

What we do need to do is point them to the Scriptures

and tell them, you know, I can't look inside you and I can't tell,

but God knows and God has actually given us some information in His Word

designed to help us to know if we really are Christians.

And point them to the book of 1 John 1.

It was really written, one of the main reasons, not the only reason,

one of the main reasons was to give Christians assurance of their salvation.

We've looked at that over the last three or four weeks now

as we've been going through this series.

Look at it one more time.

1 John chapter 5 and verse 13.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

John writes,

We can, you and I, we can help people who are struggling with assurance

by pointing out what John says in this letter

about what true Christians believe and how they live.

When it comes to helping someone with assurance,

you may, if you know them real well,

known them for a long time,

you may say to them,

well, from what I can see in you,

from what I know about you over many years,

you appear to be a Christian.

But always be careful

because you don't really know.

You don't know a person's motive.

You don't know what they're thinking.

The 11 disciples of Jesus

followed Jesus for three years

with one, the 12th, named Judas,

that from all we read in the Gospels,

he appeared to be the real deal.

He appeared to be a genuine follower of Jesus.

But at the end, the end of Jesus' ministry,

we know that he wasn't because he betrayed Jesus.

Judas, in time, gave evidence

that he wasn't really a true follower of Jesus.

But the other 11 didn't know that

until he betrayed Jesus.

See, at the Last Supper,

Jesus said something to the disciples

about one of you is going to betray me.

And a lot of you, you remember what they said?

They looked at Jesus.

They looked at one another.

They looked at Jesus and said,

Lord, is it I?

They didn't know it was Judas

until he revealed

that he was a betrayer.

That's why we cannot give anyone assurance

of their salvation

because we don't really know.

But God can.

And God desires for everybody

who is truly a Christian

to know it,

to have comfort in that,

to be assured that their relationship with him

is good, is healthy, is right.

And the way God does that,

the way he provides comfort and assurance

is through his spirit

that he puts in every one of us

when he saves us.

I've said it for years,

over and over again,

and we've looked at it

in various messages,

various perspectives.

But I want you to look very plainly.

The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian

as Paul just says it

in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19.

1 Corinthians 6:19

Look at it.

Do you not know,

writing to Christians now,

writing to the church at Corinth,

do you not know that your bodies

are temples of the Holy Spirit

who is in you,

whom you have received from God?

Very clear, isn't it?

The Holy Spirit is in you.

You have received him from God.

The Holy Spirit indwells you

if you're a Christian.

Next thing I want us to say

is the Holy Spirit is the one

who actually gives us assurance.

The Holy Spirit living within us

if we're Christians.

He's the one that will give us

that assurance that we want,

that we desire.

Look at two passages.

1 John chapter 4, verse 13.

1 John 4:13

And God has given us his spirit

as proof that we live in him

and he in us.

That's in the New Living Translation.

And then look at what Paul said

in Romans chapter 6,

Romans 6 · chapter mention

or chapter 8 rather,

in verse 16.

The Spirit himself bears witness

with our spirit

that we are children of God.

The Spirit lives within us.

He will give us assurance.

But now I want us to think,

how does he do that?

How should we look?

How should we expect the Holy Spirit

to give us assurance

that we are children of God

if we're struggling?

How can we help someone

that we know and care about

if they're struggling?

Let's look at how he provides

such assurance.

Number one,

the Holy Spirit gives us assurance

by affirming

that the Bible's description

of a Christian

is true about us.

The Holy Spirit gives us assurance

by affirming,

confirming within us

that the things the Bible says

will be true about a Christian,

it's true about us.

I want you to look at how he does that

by looking back

to some of the things

we looked at last week

in 1 John

about what a true Christian is,

what a true Christian believes.

Look, number one,

a true Christian has a personal relationship

with God and Jesus Christ.

We looked at that last week

and sort of expounded on that

and what 1 John says.

But I want you to understand,

nobody comes into the world

automatically in a right relationship

with God.

When we're born into this world,

we are separated from God.

We don't know God.

We cannot know Him on our own.

The Scripture tells us,

look what Paul says

in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

As it is written,

there is no one righteous,

not even one.

There is no one who understands.

There is no one who seeks God.

Now, there is a lot of people

who seek an idea about God.

There is a lot of people in this world

whose lives are in turmoil

and they certainly want peace.

There is a lot of people

who live in guilt

and they want to be freed from that guilt.

There is a lot of people

who are looking for something

to fill the void in their life.

They understand about religion.

They understand about various gods.

And so a lot of people are searching for a God

that they think might can help them,

make them feel better about themselves

or something like that.

What Paul is saying here is,

no one comes into this world

truly seeking the God who is

as He is.

And the reason is because

we're born with a sinful nature.

Every person in here who has had children,

who has grandchildren,

who's been around children,

you know that.

You never have to teach these little kids

to fight one another,

to not share,

to say no,

disobey their parents.

It's just who they are.

They get it from us.

It's an inherited sinful nature.

Now,

the Bible describes this another way.

Being spiritually dead.

Look at what Paul said to the Ephesians.

In Ephesians chapter 2,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

he's going to sort of lay it out

to these people,

these Christians,

who they were before they came to know Christ

and how God worked in them so graciously

to save them through faith in Jesus.

And he begins chapter 2 by saying,

as for you,

you were dead in transgressions and sins.

You were spiritually dead.

That's why you didn't care about God.

That's why you would not seek God.

That's how we all come into the world.

And it's the Spirit of God,

if a person is going to become a Christian,

if a person is going to be saved,

made a child of God,

it'll be because the Spirit of God

does this supernatural work of regeneration,

the new birth,

that Jesus described in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

In John chapter 3,

John 3 · chapter mention

Jesus has a conversation

with a very religious,

upstanding man,

Nicodemus,

a Pharisee,

who basically

thinks he's right with God

because of his good works.

But Jesus is letting him know,

no, that's not the case.

There's got to be a change

that takes place in a person.

Jesus referred to it

as a birth from above

or a second birth,

a new birth.

I want you to look at

something Jesus said to Nicodemus

in the middle of this conversation.

It's in John chapter 3,

John 3:6–8

verses 6 through 8.

He says,

humans can reproduce

only human life.

That's what we do, isn't it?

But the Holy Spirit

gives birth

to spiritual life.

So don't be surprised

when I say

you must be born again.

The wind blows

wherever it wants,

just as you can hear the wind

but can't tell

where it comes from

or where it's going,

so you can't explain

how people are born

of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does a

mysterious,

supernatural work

when he saves a person,

when he changes a person,

when he regenerates a person.

Jesus says,

unless you're born again,

you cannot see the kingdom

of heaven.

It's the Spirit of God

who brings this about.

And when the Spirit of God

does this,

here's how we can understand it,

how we can think about it.

When the Holy Spirit

does this work of regeneration,

he opens our spiritual eyes,

he opens our eyes of faith

to really believe,

understand,

grasp hold of the fact

that Jesus is the Son of God,

that when he died on the cross,

he paid the penalty

for my sins.

It's the Holy Spirit

who causes us

to be able to believe that,

accept that.

Everybody does it.

The Spirit does not do this

in every one.

But when he does work

this work of regeneration,

he will enable us

to understand and truly believe.

As Paul says

in 1 Corinthians 12, 3,

Paul makes it very clear,

no one can say

Jesus is Lord

except

in the Holy Spirit

or by the Holy Spirit.

Anybody can mouth words,

but no one can truly say

Jesus is the God

of my life

and mean it.

No one will ever say,

I'm not my own boss.

I'm living under

the authority of Jesus.

No one will ever say that

unless the Spirit of God

works in them

to regenerate them,

to save them,

to change them.

Now let's make this personal.

I want you to think.

If you have been convicted

that you are a sinner

before God,

if you're convicted

that you're not right with God,

there's something in you

that's wrong,

you've offended God,

you've disobeyed Him,

you know you're separated

from Him

and it bothers you.

I mean,

it really disturbs you

to know that you are

separated from God,

a sinner before God,

hopeless without Him,

if it bothers you

to the point that

you've admitted that to God

and you've really changed

your mind

about the way you're living.

Something has happened

and you no longer

want to just live for you,

you want to live

and do things God's way.

Well,

that's the Spirit of God

working in you,

making you aware

of your sin

and enabling you

to repent,

to change your mind,

to turn from your sin.

So if you have

those kind of thoughts

and desires

and that,

what I've just said

is a description of you,

that is a great sign

that you're a Christian

because that's the Spirit

of God working in you.

Now,

let's go a step further.

if you really believe

that Jesus Christ,

as He is presented

in the Bible,

in the New Testament,

in the Gospels in particular,

if you really believe

He is the Son of God

and He came into this world

for the purpose

of saving you

by dying on the cross

and on the cross

paying the penalty,

taking the punishment

that you deserve

because you're the one

who sinned,

if you really believe

that Jesus died on the cross

to pay the penalty

for your sins,

that God supernaturally

raised Him

from the grave

after He was crucified,

buried,

if you truly believe

that this risen King

died for your sins,

you trust Him.

He is the living Lord

and you have committed

your life to Him.

You love Him.

You want to follow Him.

That's your desire.

We're not talking about

milder than words now.

If that's how you think,

if that's how you feel,

if that's real to you,

that's the Spirit of God.

You don't think like that.

You don't feel like that.

You don't live like that

on your own.

That's the Spirit of God,

the supernatural,

regenerating work

of the Holy Spirit

who enables us,

causes us to want

to turn from our sins

and put our trust in Jesus.

So you need to think.

What's the Holy Spirit

saying to me

about this attitude

or desire

or thing about

repentance and faith?

The second thing

we looked at last week

is this.

A true Christian desires

to please God

by the way he or she lives.

We looked at three things

last week.

Number one,

a true Christian

will desire to obey

God's Word.

Look at it.

And by this we know

that we have come

to know Him

if we keep His commandments.

Doesn't get any clearer

than that, does it?

Number two,

a true Christian

will desire to stop

living a sinful life.

Look again,

1 John 3.

No one born of God

makes a practice

of sinning.

How clear can this be?

No one who is born of God

makes a practice

of sinning

for God's seed

abides in him.

He's talking about

the Spirit of God

as we referred to

last week.

And he cannot

keep on sinning

because he's been

born of God.

It's like this.

If the Spirit of God

lives within you,

He gives you a desire

to live a life

that pleases God

and not sin.

If the Spirit of God

lives within you,

He is going to give you

a desire to be

sexually pure.

Doesn't mean you won't

be tempted,

not be.

If the Spirit of God

lives within you,

He is going to

work in you

and cause you

to not want

to lash out

in anger

every time you

don't get your way.

The Spirit of God

will work in us.

And when we do sin,

we won't be able

to rest easy

until we confess it

and seek God's forgiveness.

If you can just lust,

be engaged in sexual

immorality,

cuss people out,

be meaner than a snake

and look them in the eye

and say what you think,

cheat,

use,

say whatever comes

through your mind.

If you can live that way

and sleep good at night,

you are not a Christian.

The Spirit of God

does not live in you.

If you think so,

you have been deceived

by the devil himself.

You have a false sense

of what salvation is.

I want you to understand

that very clearly.

A Christian

can and will

sin terribly.

But when I do

my sinful things

in rebellion,

not doing what I know

God wants me to do,

God whips me.

I don't want to look

you in the eye.

I don't sleep well

until I confess my sin

and agree with God

about it

and turn from it.

I don't want to live

that way.

The Spirit of God

within me

won't let me live that way

because He's there.

He's changed me.

What the Scripture says,

no one born of God

makes a practice of sinning

for God's seed abides in him

and He cannot keep on sinning

because He's been born of God.

It's just an impossibility.

Clear as it can be.

Number three,

a genuine Christian

will have a desire

to live a pure life

and everyone

who thus hopes in Him,

that's talking about Jesus,

purifies himself

as He is pure.

So let's make this personal now.

Do you have these kind of desires

to obey God's Word?

To not engage in sinful behavior?

Not dwell on sinful attitudes?

Do you have a desire

to live a morally pure life?

If you have those kind of desires,

that's a good sign

the Spirit of God

is living within you.

He's the one

who does those kind of things,

causes us to desire

those kind of things.

But if that's not characteristic

of who you are,

the Spirit must be absent.

And if the Spirit's absent,

you are not a child of God.

We also saw last week

that a true Christian

genuinely loves

his or her brothers

and sisters in Christ.

Look at what John said.

We know that we've passed

out of death into life

because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love

abides in death.

It's very clear

the love for our brothers

and sisters in Christ

is a sign

that we have spiritual life.

We've been born again.

The Holy Spirit just gives us

that love for one another.

We went into a lot of detail

about that.

We may not like everybody,

but there will be this

love for our brothers

and sisters in Christ

that's Spirit-given.

Now,

one of the major

indications

of the Holy Spirit's

work in our lives

will be that

we are people who love.

And that leads us

to the next thing

I want us to see.

The Holy Spirit gives,

excuse me,

the Holy Spirit gives us

assurance

by producing

spiritual fruit

in us.

I want you to think

about this.

This is found

in Galatians chapter 5

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 16.

What I want you to see

first,

we're not going to read

the whole,

most of that chapter,

but I want you to see

the Holy Spirit

will lead us

to say no

to the desires

of our sinful nature.

I want you to look

at Galatians 5

beginning in verse 19 here.

Now the works

of the flesh,

the word flesh here

is another word

for the sinful nature.

In fact,

some of you are looking

at a translation

and it says,

now the works

of the sinful nature.

Let's read it.

Now the works

of the flesh

are evident.

That which is not

of God,

that which is

of our sinful nature

is evident.

Look at it,

just a list here.

Sexual immorality,

impurity,

sensuality,

idolatry,

sorcery,

enmity,

strife,

jealousy,

fits of anger,

rivalries,

dissensions,

divisions,

envy,

drunkenness,

orgies,

and things like these.

I warn you

as I warned you

before,

those who do

such things

will not inherit

the kingdom of God.

That's what I was

talking about

a while ago.

If you ever get mad

at me for saying

something like that,

I don't care.

I won't lose

a wink of sleep

because I'm just

telling you

what the scripture

says,

what the scripture

says is what God

says,

and I don't apologize

for repeating

the word of God.

And you should not

ever shy away

from speaking

the truth in love

that comes from

God's word.

if you really

and truly love

your children,

your grandchildren,

your nieces

and nephews,

your parents,

your grandparents,

and they're just

what appears to be

based on what

we're looking at

this morning,

if you know people

that what they call

their Christian life

is just a sham,

there's no real

evidence,

you need to call

them out

in love,

in a way

that lets them

know you hate

to say it,

but you need

to let them

know what you

call being a

Christian is

nowhere in

scripture.

The Bible is

clear how a

Christian will

live,

what we will

desire.

We'll see in a

moment,

none of us does

it perfectly.

We still have this

sinful nature and

we still fail

miserably,

but there's a

difference in when

a Christian fails

and when an

unbeliever fails.

A Christian cares,

is broken,

feels guilt,

guilt.

Now,

look at those

things.

We have such

desires as

Christians.

We battle such

temptations,

sometimes we fail

and give in to

them.

But if we are

indwelled by the

Spirit of God,

as we saw just a

moment ago,

we'll be broken,

we'll be guilty,

and we'll not be

able to rest easy

until we confess

and repent and

seek God's

forgiveness.

forgiveness.

Now, our true

desires as

children of God,

because we're

indwelled by the

Spirit, will be to

cooperate with the

Spirit and develop

the fruit of the

Spirit that Paul

talks about in

verses 22 and 23.

Look at it.

But the fruit of the

Spirit is love,

joy, peace,

patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control.

Against such things,

there is no law.

If we're truly

Christians and

dwell by the

Spirit of God,

those character

qualities are things

that we desire,

that we admire,

that we want to

develop,

and we want our

lives to demonstrate

them,

because the Spirit of

God causes us to

desire this.

Now,

we'll never

demonstrate these

qualities perfectly,

but we should be

making some progress

in them.

It's a lifelong

process.

As the Chuck

Swindoll book title

goes, a true

Christian will desire

to live this kind

of life, will

desire to cooperate

with the Holy Spirit,

but will never do it

perfectly.

But over time, we

should see that we're

making three steps

forward, even though

there are times that

we take two steps

back.

But over time,

over years, three

steps forward and

two steps back, we're

still making a little

bit of progress, and

we should be able to

see progress in our

lives.

If you've been a

Christian for ten

years, there ought to

be more love, joy,

peace, patience,

kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness,

and self-control in

your life now than there

was ten years ago, or

five years ago.

That means you've

arrived, that none of

it is full-blown

perfect or anything like

that.

There should be

evidence of the

Spirit of God

working, developing

this character of

Christ in you if

you're a Christian.

So look at yourself.

Quickly, one more

thing the Holy Spirit

does in the life of a

Christian.

He creates within us a

loving relationship with

God as our Father.

Now I want you to look

at what Paul says in

Romans 8, 14 through

16.

Paul writes, for all

who are led by the

Spirit of God are

sons of God.

For you have received

the Spirit of adoption

as sons or daughters,

by whom we cry, Abba,

Father.

The Spirit himself bears

witness with our spirit

that we are children of

God.

Paul is describing here

how the Holy Spirit

gives us an inner sense

of closeness with God.

The Holy Spirit works in

our lives as Christians

to enable us to

understand we are

children of God and to

feel this sense of

closeness that we can

call him Father.

That word Abba is an

Aramaic word that means

Father and was used in

the home, in a home by

children.

Maybe even like our word

dad.

Or maybe even if you have

a close relationship with

a grandfather.

Pop.

You know, those really are

special words, aren't they?

The fathers in here.

If you're, you've got a

child that has, does,

call you dad.

That signals something

special, doesn't it?

There was only one man in

my life that I called dad.

I had two grandfathers on

both sides.

I call them both Pop.

I never was around them

together.

So one of them away from

each other, they were

Papa Stone, Papa Williams,

but in person they were

pop.

They were special.

We should have a special

relationship with God.

It's nothing forced, it's

just natural.

It comes from within.

Sometimes as you read the

Bible, as a Christian, the

spirit of God in you should

just help you to understand

God is speaking to me.

This is God's word to me.

Sometimes as you pray as a

Christian, you just sense, I'm

just really in the presence of

the Lord.

I'm just really talking to him.

Sometimes as a Christian, you may

just be out in the woods one day,

riding down the road one day,

and you're, for whatever reason,

you just sort of, your mind's, you

know, you're not occupied about

something else, and you're just

thinking about your relationship

with God, and you just sense

this closeness with him that the

spirit of God is enabling you to

experience.

You ought to know what I'm talking

about if you're a Christian.

You know, it may be that you are

lacking this kind of assurance right

now because you're not close to God,

and you know why.

Let's just wind it up right now.

Do you have assurance of your

salvation?

Are you sure, confident that you are

a child of God?

If you are, you need to thank him

because that's his spirit working in

you.

That's a real blessing.

God has affirmed you, maybe as we've

gone through this message, as you think

about what a real Christian is according

to scripture, is you just know the

spirit of God has confirmed to your

spirit that you're one with him.

Thank him for that.

Enjoy that.

It's not because of who you are, what

you've done.

It's all because of who Jesus is, what

he's done.

And when you trust Jesus, God accepts

you, and you know that, so just thank

God.

But it could be that you don't have

assurance of your salvation right now.

But your thought process is this.

I know what you've been talking about

this morning.

Most of my life, I have had assurance

because most of my life, well I've never

been perfect, I've never whole, I've

never just, you know, been totally

faithful, but all my life I have sent,

sought to please God, to turn from sin,

to study his word and do it.

But for whatever reason right now, you

just feel distant from God.

And it could be that you know why.

It could be that there's something going

on in your life, maybe no one else knows

about it.

But you've allowed something sin, selfish,

something that you know is just totally

wrong, you've embraced it, you're

participating in it.

You know you shouldn't.

God can, God's been whipping you about

it.

But you're just stubborn and you're

holding out and you, you're not ready

to give it up yet.

And as a result of that, you don't have

good assurance.

I'm glad you don't have good assurance.

You should be glad you don't have good

assurance.

Because that's the spirit of God not

letting you have assurance.

But he will if you'll confess it as the

sin that it is.

If you'll turn from it.

It could be that there's no one thing.

It could be that you've just allowed the

busyness of life to cause you to drift

away from the Lord and closeness with him.

And the Lord is convicting you of that right

now.

Come back to him in real confession,

repentance, renewing your commitment,

your love to him.

Ask him to return to you the joy of your

salvation.

But if you know, you say, there's no matter

about assurance.

I know I'm not a Christian.

Maybe you're a member of this church or some

church.

Maybe you've even been involved in the life of

the church.

But as you compare the way you are, the way you

think, feel, and live, the way the Bible says the

Christian will, it's obvious you're not.

And if that bothers you, if that really disturbs you,

and you don't want it to be that way, give it up.

Admit to God, I am not a Christian, even though people

think I am.

Repent of your sin.

Change your mind.

Turn.

Do an about face right now.

Put your faith and trust in Jesus truly.

Trust that he died for you when he died on the cross.

Call upon him to save you.

Surrender your life to him now.

The Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved.

And when we truly are, become children of God, the

spirit will give us real assurance.

Call upon him now.

Let's pray together.

Dear God, show us how we should respond now.

Each one of us, in light of what you've said through your

word, through your spirit, and in an attitude of prayer,

listen to the Lord and do what he's saying.

If I could pray with you during this time, I'd be happy to

do that.

I'll be here at the front.

But you do what it is that you know God's calling you to do.

Maybe just give him thanks.

Praise him for calling you to be his child, for giving you good

assurance.

Maybe you need to come back to him.

You know you're a Christian, but you're not close to him now.

You're not enjoying real fellowship with him.

Deal with whatever it is that's causing that.

Come back to God.

If you know you're not a Christian, the only thing, the only way

you're ever going to find relief and hope is to come to Christ

in faith and commitment.

Pray, obey the Lord during these next few minutes.

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Do we think about tune and preaching?

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You're not.

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