Life In Truth

All right, all right, I don't I don't like to

compare services. Right, They're like kids.

You know you can't.

You can't have your favorite, no favorites. But you are

more awake. Sorry, ushers. Ushers are coming down the aisles Bibles,

bulletin pens. It'll be super super helpful for you. As

you turn to first John, turn to first John. Whoa

First John?

Cool? Okay, okay, uh yeah.

If you need a Bible, bulletin or pen, they have that.

They're happy to help you. Just range your hand, catch

their eyes. They will love to just serve you in

that way this morning. I also I want to say,

if you haven't filled out a connection cart, oh.

Have I introduced myself? My name is Richard.

I thank you. I work here at Crossway. I'm one

of the pastors here and.

It is a joy to be here with you this morning.

If you haven't filled out a connection card, please go

ahead take just a minute to do that. We do

want to know that you're here. We want to know

that you're here by name. We want to know how

we can be praying for you. There are the team

of men and women who actually go through and pray

for the connection cards. That are filled out. If you

do leave a pray request, so please do that. If

you're new, you can leave some contact information for you

or even better than that, go to the Step one

table after the service. It'll be a great time. It's

like a small party every week at the Step one table.

We have a great time, all right. So usually usually

our practice is to kind of make our way passage

by passage through a book of the Bible. This next

book we're going to be in is First John. So

we're going to do a three weeks on this. It'll

be so much fun. And that's not the weird part.

There is a weird part, and that is.

Well, let's just let's call it unique.

If you've read John, you understand that John he doesn't

use words and sentences and structure the way that like

Paul does. For example, Paul makes a lot of sense.

John very hard to read. If you haven't heard it before,

you'll see some of that. Essentially, what he likes to

do is he will go he'll have a thought, he'll

talk about that thought, and he'll be like, oh, and

the next thought and they're not related. And then after

he was talking about this thought, he's like, you know what,

let's go back to this one. I got some more

stuff to say about this, So we're not gonna be linear.

I'm not just gonna be in one passage this week

or the next two weeks after that. He loves commas,

long sentences, just drawing out his stuff. That's why I

think he and I get along so well. I would

call it circular, but I like how the ESV Study

Bible puts it. They said it has also been termed symphonic,

and that he eight themes, moves away from them and

then revisits them with variations.

I love that. I'm gonna start using that.

When Liz and I are having a conversation and she

doesn't understand what I'm saying, I'm gonna be like, oh,

that's just because you don't understand my symphonic argument.

You don't know anything about symphonies.

So we will not go passages by passage, but we'll

kind of pick up three big themes over the next

three weeks. As Josh said last week, there will be

plenty of grapes left on the vine of First John.

I will not hit everything, but do look with me.

Everything is going to center around First John five thirteen.

First John five thirteen says, I write these things to

you who believe in the name of the Son of God,

that you may know that you have eternal life. Wrote

these words to a church that was going through an

unbelievable challenge. Some key people, right, some teachers, some leaders,

some good friends had all left the church and kind

of started started their own church. So think of it

this as like a really bad church split. And to

the people who remained, these people who left, they weren't

just names on a list.

They were church family.

They had done life together, and they were grieved by

the leaving of these people.

And they were also confused.

Because this other, this new church is now teaching what

seems like a different gospel. They're they're teaching something different

about Jesus is and and so they might be asking themselves,

do I have the gospel wrong? Maybe like maybe I

don't actually understand who Jesus is.

Maybe they have it right.

Well, John wanted them to know that they already knew

the truth, that they had it in God's word, and

that they that that they did not need to know

anything beyond that that that that they could have confidence

in their relationship with God. And their salvation, and this

still applies to us today.

Uh.

We we want to know, how can I be sure

I'm saved?

And and maybe that's you today.

Maybe you're here thinking how how can I know? And

if it's not you, maybe it's been you in the past,

or maybe that that will be you in the future. Well,

over the next three weeks, we're gonna look at what

John has to say about how we can have confidence

in knowing that we are saved. This week we will

see that we can be assured we that we have

eternal life when we have a right relationship with the truth.

That we can be assured we have eternal life when

we have a right relationship with the truth. John will

in the next two weeks include a whole lot of

looking at the fruit of our own lives. But I

don't want to start there. And I think it's really

important because when we're when we're talking about assurance of salvation,

there's actually quite a bit about knowing that we have

eternal life that has nothing to do with what we

do right. It has to do with what God has done.

It has everything to do with the life that we

can find in the truth of the Gospel. And that's

why I've named the sermon true Life in Truth. Now,

since John connects our assurance of salvation to the truth symphonically,

we are going to be in a couple different passages today,

but I think a good representative passage is First John

two twenty one to twenty seven. First John two twenty

one to twenty seven. If you would turn with me there,

that would be delightful. John says this in verse twenty one.

I write to you not because you do not know

the truth, but because you know it, And because no

lie is of the truth. Who is the liar? But

he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is

the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the son has the Father. Whoever

confesses the son has the Father. Also, let what you

heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you

have heard from the beginning abides in you, then you

two will abide in the Son and in the Father.

And this is the promise that he made to us

eternal life.

I write these scenes to you about those who are

trying to deceive you, But the anointing that you receive

from Him, that is the Holy Spirit abides in you,

and you have no need that anyone else should teach you.

But as his anointing, the Holy Spirit teaches you about

everything and is true and is no lie, just as

it has taught you.

Abide in him.

Would you pray with me, God, would you help us

to know and love the truth of your word. Would

you help us to receive assurance? Would your children receive

assurance from your word today that we are in you.

God, You are.

The one who changes hearts. You are the one who

works in our hearts. And so we ask for you

to do that this morning, in each and every one

of us.

Amen.

All right, this morning, we're going to look at We're

going to explore three ways that the truth can give

us assurance of our salvation. Three ways if we number one,

if we know the truth, number two if we test

the truth, and number three if we abide in the truth.

Let's start with the first point, knowing the truth right.

Knowing the truth helps give us assurance of our salvation.

First John two twenty one says I write to you

not because you do not know the truth, but because

you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

It is so important for us to start here. One

of the central claims of the Bible is that God

has actually revealed himself who he is in this text

of scripture. Though he is infinite, though he is eternal,

it doesn't mean that he's unknowable. He actually has made

himself known through his word. There is ultimate truth that

we can be assured of. There is truth that we

can know and put our trust in. John is convinced

that the church already has the truth, that they already

know it, and at this point they just need to

stand firm in that. I think that's what John has

for us today too. I want to be clear, there

is a whole lot of truth that John kind of

dips in and out of. So I'm going to try

to synthesize this into kind of three big points, three

big truths about Jesus that he wanted to emphasize. The

first one, Jesus is God. Right, this is very important. Well,

you need to be clear on this. Jesus is God.

The deity of Jesus is one of those truths that

John wanted to make sure he defended, make sure that

the people stood firm in Jesus has eternally existed as

the second member of the Trinity, along with the Father

and the Holy Spirit.

Eighteen times in this letter.

In first John, John refers to Jesus as the son

or the son of God or the son Jesus Christ.

And while Jesus was still one hundred percent God even

after he was born in the flesh, this is important

to say that that he was still God right. Jesus

even showed some of his his character traits that that

only God is right.

He was. He was omnipotent. There's lots of omnies out there.

He was he was.

He was omnipotent. He showed this when he calmed the

storm with a word, I can't do that.

He did this when.

He healed the sick, when he raised the dead. He

was showing, yeah, I have the power to do these things.

I'm I'm man, but I am God. He showed his

his omniscience when he he knew the thoughts of those

around him. I don't even know my own thoughts sometimes

much less someone else's. And then at the end of

the letter, John gives us this clear affirmation of Jesus

being gone. One John five point twenty. It says, and

we know that the Son of God has come and

is get us understanding so that we may know him

who is true, and we are in him who is true,

in his son, Jesus Christ, he is the true God

and eternal life. That's a first big truth that John

wants us to know. And then he also wants us

to know that Jesus is man. Jesus is man, the

humanity of God.

Right.

At different points these things are under attack from different

false teachings, but the false teacher specifically that John was

talking about, we're actually denying that Jesus was a person,

that Jesus had flesh, had skin and bones, that Jesus,

although he had always been God, had always existed forever.

I don't know how long that is, but that's a while.

He was actually born in the flesh about two thousand

years ago and became both fully God, which he always was,

and added to that fully man. This wondrous mystery is

known as the incarnation. Just like you and me, he

was hungry, he was thirsty, he was tired. The God

of the universe needed a nap.

That is crazy.

But unlike you and me, he lived a perfect sinless life.

There was no thought, no deed, no word that came

out of his mouth that was rude, that was out

of place, that was out of line. He was perfect

in all of his words, in all of his actions,

in all of his deeds. One John four to two

gives us this clear affirmation of his humanity as well.

By this, you know the spirit of God. Every spirit

that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

is from God. Again, very important God and man. And

then the third big thing John wanted to make sure

they knew jesus Us is savior. Jesus is savior, that

he is the way to eternal life and salvation. One

John four fourteen says, we have seen and testified that

the Father has sent the son to be the savior

of the world. And Jesus died as are as a

substitute in the place of those who would put their

trust in him. He took our sins upon himself and

was punished for it so that he could give us

his perfection and we could have eternal life, a real

relationship with God. A couple of times in First John

he uses this big word propitiation, which I don't know

about you, but I've never heard outside of a church, right,

I'm not just in the hub parking lot.

Oh yeah, I was thinking about propitiation the other day

and what it's a big word. But we don't need

to be scared of big words of people. Okay, we

can do this. It's a very important word.

It means that Jesus not only bore our wrath, he

bore our sins. He satisfied God's wrath and actually moved

us from being in a place of a place where

we were under God's wrath to being under his favor.

All of that is encompassed in.

The word propitiation, and that's why it's so important. We're

no longer under his wrath. Jesus is satisfied that and

now we can be his children. All of this was

made complete when Jesus rose from the dead on the

third Day and is now with the Father, where one

day he will return and set everything right. He will

bring perfect, perfect justice. He will punish those who have

sinned against him and then not trusted him for their salvation.

And he will fulfill the promise that he made in

One John two twenty five, bringing eternal life to those

who have trusted in him. These big truths are just

a quick summary of what John wanted to make sure

that his people knew. And we want to make sure

that you know this too, right. Jesus, life, death, and

resurrection is the central part of the gospel. So if

you're here today and you don't know these truths about Jesus,

or if you have questions about them, please go to

the Step one table after the service or men and

women there who will want to talk to you about

these things want to make sure that you understand them.

They'll give you a Bible. We've got some books there

as well to this one. What is the gospel?

Right?

We want to be crystal clear. What is the gospel

is knowable? And then who is Jesus again another big thing.

If you don't have clarity on who Jesus was, this

will really help you in that really good conversation.

Partners.

We want to help everyone here have a relationship with

God based on the truth of who he is.

Now.

There is way more to trusting Christ than just knowing

the truth. But we can't trust Christ without knowing the

truth about who he is, and that includes those three

big truths we.

Just talked about.

And putting these truths about the incarnation This is essential

to having faith in him as he has revealed himself,

and we can be assured that we have eternal life

when we have a right relationship with the truth. I

love my wife Liz. I will not apologize for this.

I love so many things about her. She is godly,

she is amazing, and if you don't know her, you should,

really you should get to know her. I love that

she just always wants to be the life of the party.

She just she's so excited to just show up to everything.

And I think her short blonde hair is stunning. And

sometimes I just like stare at her in her deep

blue eyes and just get lost like an ocean. And

I love that she's so short. I tell her I

joke with her. I'm like, You're like, like, you might

keep growing at some point, but for right now, like

you were just pocket sized. Now, what's a problem with

what I just said. There's so many problems with what

I just said.

For some of you who.

Don't know her, you're like, Okay, well, that's a guy

who just gave a really weird description about his wife.

That's cool.

But if you know Liz, then you know that the

woman I just described is definitely not my wife. Now again,

I don't. She is amazing, she is godly, So those

things were true.

But long brown.

Hair, like very long, very brown, very hair, her eyes

hazel not blue, okay, And she's like six foot tall

and so be a big pocket. And if you don't

know her, you could have been fooled by that, right,

it just sounds it sounds good. But if you know her,

if you spend time with her, then you saw right

through that. And there were several there was so much

laughter that I'm like, Okay, I think they're catching on.

In the same way.

I'd love to know how well do we know that

the Jesus that we serve, the Jesus that we love.

How much time do we spend getting to know his character,

getting to know about him?

Do we know his heart?

Do we actually long to be in relationship with the

God of the universe who has come to us so

that we might know him. God has has given us

his words so that so that we don't have to guess,

so that we don't have to.

Make stuff up.

He tells us who he is, and so we can

go to his word and see if if what we

have lines up with with with.

What is true about him?

Now, if someone came up to you and started describing Jesus,

but this Jesus kind of sounded a little off, right,

didn't didn't sound like the Jesus that.

We know here?

Would would your spidy senses start going off? And this

actually leads to our second point this morning, testing the

truth right, Testing the truth helps give us assurance of

our salvation.

Now, remember what these people were going through.

Well known teachers and leaders and friends leave the church

and start preaching another gospel, start talking about another Jesus.

And John is trying to bolster them up, trying to

strengthen them and say, hey, you don't.

Need to question whether you know the real Jesus. You do.

John gives them a simple test here, he gives them

a warning, and he gives them hope for the simple test.

We see it a couple times, but let's reread it

in first John two twenty two and twenty three, where

he says who is a liar? But he who denies

that Jesus is the Christ. This is the anti Christ.

He who denies the father and the son. No one

who denies the son has the father. Whoever confesses the

son has the Father. Also, here is a huge test

that we can actually still use today. What does someone

say say about Jesus?

Right?

What does someone say about who Jesus is?

Was he just a rabbi? Right?

Was he just a guru? Was he just a good

teacher who lived two thousand years ago? Was he merely

a prophet and not God himself? Was he God the

Father's greatest creation but not equal to the Father. Or

was he someone that actually became God at his baptism

or became God after he lived a good life. These

are all pictures of what people believe about Jesus. But

there is more to true theology than just Jesus. But

man that has to be our starting point. See in

John's day, there were a couple of false teachings that

were kind of in the early stages of development. One

group probably haven't heard of them called the Dosetists. I

don't know what a doseetist is me neither until I

studied dostists. These were people who said, well, Jesus only

appeared to be in the flesh, like he just he

seemed like he had a body, but he didn't really

have a body. And this is why John goes through

the pains of emphasizing not just that Jesus was God,

but that Jesus came in the flesh, was skin and

bones as well. Listen to Chapter four, verses one to three.

Belove it.

Do not believe every spirit, but test his spirits to

see whether.

They are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit

that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

is from God, and every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God. Now there were another group

of false teachers. You might have heard of them, called

the Gnostics. They had a lot of theological problems, but

two of them were addressed here by John. They said,

number one, that God would never have a physical body.

Right, that's too crude.

The gnostics were all about escaping, escaping from the physical world.

He wouldn't have entered into it. And then number two,

God would never die to give salvation. That doesn't make sense,

So they didn't think Jesus was the Christ who sacrificed

himself for salvation. Salvation had to come through a secret

knowledge that only they had, and since they didn't pass

it on to me. I can't tell you what that

secret knowledge was, but it was a secret, guys, was

a secret And John couldn't have been clearer. They didn't

need secret knowledge, they didn't need special knowledge. They already

had the truth. All they needed was to stand firm

in it. And so the test that John goes back

to time and time again, how do people see Jesus

when someone knocks at our door. We're not gonna get

gnostics or doctists who are.

Probably knocking at our door.

But when someone presents you with a wrong picture of Jesus,

can you identify it or can you smell it out? Now?

What about the warnings? What about the warnings that John gives?

Well three times in this book, John cols the's false

teachers anti christs. Now you hear antichrist, and you're thinking,

like capital a antichrist.

No, no, no, this is not that.

Instead John is saying, actually, there have been many Antichrists.

There have been many who have set themselves up against Jesus.

That's all. It means.

Some of the people had left the church because they

were deceived, that is true. But there were some, as

we read in two twenty six that John was warning, Hey,

there are false teachers. Are there are false prophets out

here who were actively trying to lead God's people away

from the truth. Sometimes you'll get a knock on your

door and you know it's bad theology. Awne's easy. But

just like Josh brought up last week, often when this

gets brought up, God's not addressing errors out there and

what they believe, but he's actually talking to Christians about

what we believe. On its face, it might just look

like a minor doctrinal disagreement. It might just look like, oh,

this is just a variation of what you already know

in love. This is not a different religion, this is

not a different belief system. In fact, that's one of

the tricky parts is sometimes they'll use the same words,

oh yeah, hey, I believe in Jesus too, and then

you talk to them and you're like the Jesus that

you're talking about, it's nothing like the Jesus presented in

the Bible. They'll use words like salvation and grace and

they'll say, hey, I love those words too, But again,

I'm gonna define it differently, and I'm actually gonna change

what it means entirely. This is suddenly a different religion altogether.

And this is why, in the wise words of mister

Alistair Moody, we.

Need constant vigilance.

And if we are taking the warning from John seriously,

it could even be someone within this own church, like

within our own church. Body, Now, don't start looking around

this room. Don't eyeball the guy in small group next

week and be.

Like, are you a false teacher?

No, But just like God's word said through Jude last week,

the Bible is the rule for which we contest truth.

So when we do hear something that seems a little

bit off, we can compare it and see how it

lines up with scripture. If something is sounds a little off,

take it there and don't be afraid to go to

your pastors, to your elders.

This is what we're here for.

We want to help you walk through navigate these questions

because we do understand there are some complicated ones out there,

so please come to us. One of the things that

we love is helping teaching and understanding right doctrine. I

will let you into my brain for just a second.

It's a scary place to be, but I'll let you in.

It's really uncomfortable for me to talk about false teachers.

Maybe it's just me.

Maybe it's because I want to give people the benefit

of the doubt. You know, be like, oh, I'm sorry,

I'm probably misunderstanding what you're saying, but we need to

see that actually, this warning is still for us here today.

Did you know that there are over two point six

four billion people on this planet who self identify as

a Christian. One out of every three people on Earth says, yeah,

I'm a Christian. They don't have to prove anything to

say that, they just say those words. In America, two

out of every three people claim to be Christian. I

don't mean for you to challenge the salvation of everyone

who says they're a Christian and who you come in

contact with. That would be the wrong application of this.

But what we do need to recognize is that there

are false teachers, That there are people who, like Jesus said,

are out there to help, who want to hurt Christians

who are, and who are actually out there to deceive us.

Do you know how easy it is today to take

your phone record a crazy idea about God. They're like, oh,

I just had this thought, let me record it. Post

it to the internet. Now it's on YouTube, and now

you can gain of following. It is so easy to

do that. It's not me saying YouTube is awful and

from the devil dude again that don't hear that There

are lots of good resources on the internet for Christians right.

There are Christians who want to be there out there

helping you praise God. All I'm asking is for us

to recognize that not everyone who claims to be a

Christian online on YouTube is actually out there for your sanctification.

There are some out there who are trying to deceive you.

In Matthew seven fifteen, Jesus talks about false teachers who

are wolves in sheep's clothing. Right, they look like they're

one of us, but they are not.

They are wolves.

When Paul leaves the Ephesian Elders in Acts twenty, he

warns them.

He says there will.

Be men from actually within the church who will show

themselves to be wolves, show themselves to be false teachers.

Peter and Paul multiple times in their letters.

Warn about false teachers seeking to deceive God's people. And

then we have this in One John to eighteen and

nineteen children, which again think of John. Everything he says

in this letter to his church is very it's loving.

He's saying this as a term of someone who loves him,

but someone who loves them. Says, children, it is the

last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming,

so now many anti Christs have come. Therefore we know

that it is the last hour. They went out from us,

but they were not of us. For if they had

been of us, they would have continued with us. But

they went out that it might become plain that they

are not of us. Now, praise God that no one

is beyond his grace that false teachers can repent, can

turn from their bad theology and be forgiven. Jesus could

died for their sins as well. But we also need

to recognize that when someone abandons the truth of scripture,

the truth of Jesus and his gospel, it it's a

sign that they were never actually true to God's word.

To begin with, John makes it clear in those verses

they went out from us. Right, they were among us.

They went out from us, but they were never of us.

And actually it shows that they hadn't been true to

God the whole time. Pastor John Stott said this in

his commentary on First John. He said their departure was

there unmasking what is Counterfeit cannot remain forever hidden. And

then he quotes Luke twelve two when he says, there

is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden

that will not be made known. But John, the writer

of the Gospel, also gives the church hope after this warning,

and John Stott continues on. He says, he who stands

firm to.

The end will be saved.

Not because salvation is the reward of endurance, but because

endurance is the hallmark of the saved. After talking about

testing the spirit, John gives him this hope. In First

John four four he says, little children, you are from

God and have overcome them, for He who is in

you is greater than he who is in the world.

There will be false teachers. They will teach damning heresy.

Their own actions will prove that they were never children

of God. But if we first if we know the truth,

and second, if we test the truth, we can have

confidence in our salvation. We can have confidence that God

is more powerful than these false teachers. And isn't that

what First John is about? Think back to first John

five thirteen. I write these things to you who believe

in the name of the Son of God, that you

may know that you have eternal life.

Praise God.

There's one last element that John brings up here, zero

point three abiding in the truth.

Abiding in the truth.

Abiding in the truth helps give us assurance of our salvation.

I don't know if I can prove what I'm about

to say, but I'm gonna say I wonder if abide

is one of John's faithavorite words.

That's a big claim. It's a big claim.

Probably not something I maybe could start a YouTube channel

about that, but.

I shouldn't. I'm just kidding. I will not do that.

But think about it this way, John, about half of

the of all the times that the word abide is

used in the New Testament, it's used by John. And

then on top of that, again, this is just a

normal word, right, It means to remain or to stay right.

She remained there three days, he stayed with Zechias.

Right.

That word that just that's the word abide, which that's

how everyone uses it. But he also has another sense

in which he uses it, like how he uses it

here when he's talking about our relationship with God. Turned

to First John four thirteen for this final section. Let's

see what John wants us to see about what it

means for us to abide in the truth. In verse thirteen,

John says, by this we know right this, we can

can see that. Or actually, in another translation, here is

the proof that we abide in Him and he in us,

because He has given of us his spirit. Now, before

we move on, I want us to actually recognize that

John talks about the Holy Spirit within us is actually

part of what part of the proof that John gives

it we are actually abiding in God. Too often Christians

think about the Holy Spirit in dwelling us and you're.

Like, oh, that's cool, that's cool.

That's how it's always been since I've been saved. So

this is normal, right, there's nothing spectacular about it. We

take it for granted. But if we actually look at

the Old Testament, we'll see that this was not always

the case.

Right.

They didn't have the endwelling of the Holy Spirit. We

see this in Deuteronomy twenty Moses is recounting to them

everything a very brief list of what.

God had done for the.

People of Israel for forty years, and then in verse four,

he says this, but to this day, the Lord has

not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see,

or ears to hear. They literally didn't have the heart

to understand and obey what God had for them. But

then as we as we move through the Old Testament,

as we move forward, we see a glimpse of what

God would give in the future to believers in Ezekiel

thirty six twenty six. In twenty seven, Ezekiel prophesies about

what Israel could have only dreamt of. In twenty six,

it says.

And I this is God. I will give you a

new heart.

And in a new spirit I will put within you.

I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh

and give you a heart of flesh. And I will

put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk

in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Now,

for Ezekiel, this was the future. But for us this

is the past. Like this is history. Now, Jesus had come,

and Jesus had promised, Hey, when I leave, I will

give you my helper. I will give you a helper

who will be with you. And then in Acts two

we get to see the coming of the Holy Spirit

upon the apostles, and now all believers.

Everyone who has put.

Their faith in Christ has God living inside them. What

an amazing blessing. We take it for granted, but we

see it as commonplace. But like this is extraordinary. And

part of our abiding in the truth is not even

about us, right, It's about do you have the Holy

Spirit within you? It's about the power of what God

has done, putting his Spirit in us so that we

are capable of even being obedient. Through His Spirit living

in us. Our abiding in the truth is God enabled

and God powered. By this, we know that we abide

in Him and he in us because He has given

us of his spirit. Let's move on to verses fourteen

and fifteen. And we have seen and testify that the

Father has sent his son to be the savior of

the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,

God abides in him and he in God. Here we

see again that knowing the truth, that the right confession

of who Jesus actually is, will lead to abiding in

the truth. I want to again draw your attention to

what John Stott said earlier. He who stands firm to

the end will be saved, not because salvation is the

reward of endurance, but because endurance is the hallmark of

the saved.

That is what abiding looks like.

In a few minutes, we're gonna close the service by singing,

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery. And I want us to

truly behold that song as we sing it together.

Think about how beautiful those verses are.

In each of the four verses they sing, We're gonna

sing about a different aspect of Jesus. Jesus's life. We're

gonna sing about his birth, then about his perfect life,

then about his crucifixion, and then in the final verse,

we will sing about his resurrection. This is glorious truth

that is meant to shape our lives verse sixteen. 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.

John wrote first John because he wanted to give the

church assurance of their salvation that there was truth, and

having a right relationship with the truth would give them

the assurance that they needed truth that they could know,

and he pointed them to Jesus God in the flesh

who came to save us.

Truth that they could test.

And he pointed them not to special knowledge, but instead

to God's word, truth they could abide in. And he

pointed them to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us,

truth that they could find life in. He didn't point

them to themselves. He pointed them here in four sixteen.

He pointed them to the perfect and eternal love of

the Father.

John.

We'll have more to say about our assurance of salvation

here in the next two weeks as we look at

kind of the fruit of our lives. But we couldn't

start there with our actions, because fundamentally, our salvation is

not because of our actions. It was God's love for

us while we were still sinners. It was him pursuing

us when we had rebelled against him. It was him

making us alive when we were dead in our sins.

For all these reasons, why would we look to our

own actions as the primary reason for our assurance of

our salvation. I've already talked about these two books that

will have the table, but we're gonna have a couple

more at the Step one table after the service. This one.

How can I be sure I'm saved, very small, very helpful,

helpful in us thinking, and then a few copies of this.

This is assured by Greg Gilbert early on in the book.

He says this, There's no such thing as a good

or acceptable faith, only a good or acceptable object of faith.

The value of your faith isn't in the faith itself,

it's in what that faith is trusting. Would God give

us assurance that though our faith in the truth may

be imperfect, what is perfect is the object of our faith,

Jesus Christ, and that is that's all that matters.

Would you stand and pray with me.