Personal experience of Assur..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, my dear brother, my dear sister, once again, it is a great privilege that the Lord has given us that we can come together and have the Scriptures in our hands, that we can have access to the decree of the Lord through the written Scriptures preserved through the ages for the peoples of the world to have it and to read it and to meditate upon it. And today I want to speak to you, as I said, about the personal experience of the assurance of salvation that happens through the instrument of obedience.

As I said in verse 3, the apostle says, By this we know that we know Him. By this we know that we know Him. What is that? If we keep His commandments. The keeping of the commandments is the instrument by which the Christians, according to the Apostle, know that they know Him.

Hence, I want to speak to you about a personal experience of assurance of salvation that happens through obedience. And I said that that is assurance, that is the certainty that you are in Christ. Here, within the sound of my voice, there are souls, there are people, and these people, some of them profess to be in the person of Jesus Christ. An assurance of salvation is the certainty that each one of you, including myself, have or do not have that we are in the person of Jesus Christ. A person can be fully assured and know with certainty that they know the Lord Jesus Christ, or a Christian may lack assurance of salvation and not know or not experience that assurance that the Lord has given when the Lord saved that person and be from one place to another like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind with burdens of guilt and walking through darkness and at times with much affliction in the soul because there is lack of assurance of salvation.

But I said very clearly, or I hope clearly, that it's a personal experience. Because assurance of salvation is not something collective. Even though the apostle uses in verse 3, the third person plural, when he says, we know, then he confirms in verse 4, 5 and 6, that this is speaking of the individual experience. Because it is only the Christian, individually, who can experience or not, Assurance of salvation. That is the personal experience.

And now brethren, this word experience is very important. Because it is the personal experience of something that is a reality that has taken place in heaven. The fact that we experience or not assurance of salvation does not change what the Lord has done for a genuine believer. A genuine believer could be saved by grace through faith, genuinely, and that is unchanging in heaven. But that genuine believer can at times, because of sin and other matters, experience or not assurance of salvation.

Hence, I use the word experience because it indeed is an experience. Being assured of your salvation is not something that you come to an agreement with your brothers and sisters in the church. It's not something that you read in a systematic theology and just because you belong to a reformed Calvinistic church that says that once you have been saved, the Lord is going to preserve you and keep you until the end, that now you are assured from that. No. Biblically, being assured of your salvation is an experience.

We know, the Apostle says. So having that in our minds, and also I would appreciate if you have in your minds, perhaps not, but a month ago I spoke from this passage of the Scripture, verse 3 to 6, about the presence of the truth in the Christian, if you remember, perhaps. The presence of the truth in the Christian. So, what I'm going to say is to be taken in context, not only of the Scriptures, but also what I have said before about the genuine presence of the truth in the heart of a Christian. That when the truth is genuinely present in the heart of that person, that moves that person to genuine fellowship with God.

and genuine fellowship with God produces genuine obedience. And obedience bears the fruit of the perfection of the love of God in the heart of that person. That is what I said a month ago. But today we're going to be speaking once again, my dear brother, my dear sister, my dear soul, about your personal experience of assurance of salvation through obedience. Now, generally, Not personally, as the preacher is speaking, not giving a testimony from himself, but we are considering the Scriptures to speak about your personal experience of assurance of salvation that happens through obedience.

And then your conscience will testify and your heart will testify to you. In order to do so, we're going to read the Scriptures, my dear brother and dear sister, and we're going to read chapter 1 from verse 5, perhaps. And let's go into verse 11 of chapter 2. As I usually do, I'm going to be taking you through different scriptures to see the canon and the theology, as the Puritans will say, of the passage, to then apply the passage to our souls. So we are going to be reading from 1 John 1, from verse 5.

We're going to be going reading together through verse 11 in chapter 2. So, my dear soul, with much reverence and paying attention carefully to each one of the words. This is the word of the Lord. Let us read together the word of the living God. This is 1 John 1, verse 5.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar. And the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this way we know, or we may know, that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked, beloved, or brethren, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard from the beginning.

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because... Darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Amen. This is the Word of God and He has blessed us with it so that we can know Him and become more like our Lord Jesus Christ. My dear brother, my dear sister, as I said, we are going to be addressing verses 3 to 6. And the topic that I want to speak to you about once again is the personal experience of assurance of salvation through obedience. And my dear brother, my dear sister, assurance of salvation is of vital importance for the life of the Christian.

A Christian, him or her, will not be able to lead his Christian spiritual life to the fullness of his or her calling if that person lacks assurance of salvation. Lacking assurance of salvation is going to bring a burden of being enslaved. And lacking assurance of salvation is going to bring a burden of being powerless. The person who is not certain about his or her belonging to the person of Jesus Christ will be a person that has on his or her shoulders the guilt of the sins that he or she is not able to deal on her own. And hence, that person will walk through valleys of darkness on her or his own.

And that is very, very sad. Lacking assurance of salvation is going to move the person in the flesh to try to solve the problems on their own and trying to tick religious boxes just to see and experience a little bit of peace of something that cannot be produced in the flesh or with the ability of men. Lacking assurance of salvation is a full detriment for the life of the Christian. And a person is not going to be able to live to the fullness of that calling. Imagine, brethren, imagine a person who knows the gospel, a person who knows of God, a person who knows of the existence of hell.

A person who has read in the Scriptures about the heavy hand of judgment of the Lord upon those who are not genuinely in Christ and the wrath of God upon those who are false Christians and false believers. A person who knows all those things and spiritually speaking lacks assurance that they belong to the Lord. That moves a person, my dear brother and dear sister, to be enslaved, to self-righteousness and an experience of condemnation. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but the one who lacks assurance of salvation will experience condemnation, feelings and thoughts of condemnation that will make that person walk in darkness, and be completely unfruitful, as the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1, being barren, unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, having forgotten that they have been cleansed from their former sins. enslaved to their own consciences, dirty consciences and powerless, not only to bear fruits of righteousness in and of themselves, but powerless and fruitless in the establishment of the kingdom of the Lord, not only in their hearts, but in their church and in their families and the people that are around them.

Hence, my dear brother and sister, Assurance of salvation is of vital importance for the freedom of the Christian and for the power of the Christian. Having full assurance of our belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ is going to liberate us from fleshly performance. Because if a person is fully assured of their belonging to the Lord, then they will know that it's the Spirit of God that produces in them all the fruits of righteousness that are for the glory of the Lord. Hence, a person who genuinely experiences assurance of salvation, Not an assurance of salvation that is the result of many years of church attendance and a repetition of traditions and just simply that I was born in a Christian family and this is what I have done for my whole life. But rather, a genuine assurance of salvation will give that person freedom to walk in the Spirit.

And of course, it's going to make that person powerful. Powerful, of course, not even of themselves, but by virtue of the Spirit of God that is bringing this certainty that they are sons or daughters of God. Powerful in bearing much fruits of righteousness in Christ. Not only of sanctification in the same person or in the person, in the Christian, but also, brethren, power and fruitfulness in the context of the local church and in the context of the family and for the kingdom. So then you see here, brother and sister, that is a very important topic that we are to consider here in 1 John 2 from verse 3 to 6, in which we speak about the assurance of salvation.

And let me just give you a warning here. This is a warning for those false Christians who have derived fleshly assurance from works Because brethren, you will see here from the text that obedience plays a role in assurance of salvation, right? It says, and by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments and elaborates later on. So first warning for the false Christian that derives certainty of their Christianity from the things that they do. There is a category for those people, and that is given in Matthew 7, verse 13 and onwards.

Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these things in your name? Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we do mighty works in your name? Lord, Lord, we acknowledge you as Lord.

And we did all of these matters. And we thought that you were our Lord because of the many things that we have done. Warning there, brethren. for the one who derives satisfaction from works and deeds and obedience when the heart is empty. I warn you to carefully examine yourself to see from where you're deriving peace and satisfaction.

Because while obedience does play a role in bringing the saint to have assurance of salvation, one is to understand the place of obedience and the place of works in assurance of salvation. Otherwise, false believers will be very quickly given to derive satisfaction from church attendance, one or two prayers, Bible reading, perhaps even fasting or sharing the gospel or doing all of these things and deriving satisfaction and deriving assurance of salvation of ticking boxes, religious boxes. At the same time, my dear brother and sister, I want to give a warning to the genuine believer. That says that because I have been saved, now I diminish the value of obedience and the value of keeping the commandments of the Lord. And they will say, one saved, always saved, and I'm in the Lord and having faith in a past empty profession of faith.

At times, people having faith in the prayer that they prayed 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 100 years ago, or having faith in their supposedly fruits, or having faith in the profession of faith in the church and the things that they have done, my dear brother and sister. One is to understand what the Scriptures call obedience, because genuine obedience, according to the Scripture, does play a role in assurance of salvation. warning to those who derive satisfaction only from doing, and then they call themselves Christian, and they say, but I'm doing, but I'm going, but I'm praying, but I'm doing, but I'm doing, that means that I'm a Christian, and deriving satisfaction from that, and also warning to those who say, I prayed a prayer, I'm a Christian already, and that means that I'm already a Christian, that is false fleshly assurance, and not keeping the commandments. And at the same time, my dear brother, and more importantly, perhaps, I want to speak to the soul of those brothers and sisters who, because of different circumstances, struggle with genuine lack of assurance of salvation, at times because of a spiritual immaturity that has taken them to dark ways at times, and sometimes because of lack of understanding of the Scriptures. Hence, I want us to speak about that very important topic, and perhaps, I don't know if the microphone is cut in.

It's all good. So good. The most perhaps the first thing that we ought to do, my dear brothers and sisters, from this text, and perhaps this will guide us into understanding this is asking ourselves the question, what is the apostle saying in these three or four verses? Let us see them in verse three to verse six. It says, and by this we Christians know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Then he brings it to the singular. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly, the love of God is perfected. By this we know, or we may know, that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in Him, ought to walk in the same way in which He, being the Lord Jesus Christ, walked."

The first thing that I want you to see here, just from the text, which is not so clear, but is implicit, my dear brother and my dear sister, is that Christians can have assurance of salvation. That is that the Christian can experience assurance of their belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is very important because not only the Catholics, but many also professing Christians deny the possibility of a believer to obtain assurance of their belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the apostle says, by this we know that we know Him. That is that the Christian can know and the Christian can experience the fellowship that they have with the Lord.

This is a possibility that is not to be neglected. But the thing is, what is that experience? And if we think very carefully how our minds work, my dear brother and my dear sisters, sometimes our assurance of salvation is limited to the present relationship that we have with God and the present manifestation of our Christianity with the Lord. But if you carefully think about what it is to claim to know that you know God, and if you carefully think about just simply that statement, you will see the depths of what actually a person is claiming. Think about that.

You're simply saying that you have assurance. Brethren, let us not consider words in a careless way. You're simply saying that you know that you have a genuine relationship with God. It would be insulting to God to reduce it down only to the fact that we come to church, that we tick our box, that we read the Scriptures or that we pray a prayer. Because when the Scriptures define knowing or being in God, There is a whole amount of truths that the person who says, I know God, is asserting to different levels of understanding that they know and that they believe in.

Think about this, my dear brother and sister, your knowing of God did not start when you first prayed a prayer or when you first received the gospel and you profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your knowing of God goes beyond your present experience, goes beyond the time that you remember that 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, that you received the power of the gospel that was preached to you and that you receive and your eyes were open. And that from that moment you started a genuine relationship with the Lord. And that in this moment you find yourself saying that you're a Christian. But my dear brother and my dear sister, to say that we know, that we have a relationship with Him, goes beyond the scope of time of our own existence.

And when you think about that, you see the seriousness, not only of saying, I know Him, but the condescending grace of the Lord allowing you to know Him. Because, my dear brother and my dear sister, for a person who genuinely says, I know the Lord Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures, that person only by the reading of the Scriptures, by the reading of Ephesians chapter 1, for instance, that person will come to the conclusion that I am not only a Christian now, But blessed be the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Even as He chose me before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love, He predestined me to be sons through the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, for a person to, by grace and in faith, to claim that we know the Lord Jesus Christ. That person is saying, He chose me.

He loved me in Christ. I was united to Him in eternity past. Before all of this of my life, whatever my life is, a mess or not a mess, or good or bad, whatever my life is, at the present time, this God, Creator of heaven and earth and everything that is in them, my dear brother and sister, one will have to come to the conclusion that this professing of knowing Him starts in eternity past. that all the workings of history, that all through the trials and difficulties and everything that happened through history was pointing to your personal moment in which you were going to be united to Him by grace through faith. And when you say, I know Him, all of those matters, my dear brother and sister, become truth for you.

See the depth and the importance, not only of professing to be a Christian, but to have biblical assurance of salvation. Because biblical assurance of salvation, first of all, is possible And when that biblical assurance of salvation takes place, then God communicates to the soul of that person all of the things that I have said. Some person will have different understanding of the things that took place in the past and in eternity past, and some of the people will have different understanding of particular matters. But the person will have to come to the spiritual realization of I am chosen, I am loved, I am blessed, I was united in the person of Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, I was predestined in love to be son of my God. And if that is about eternity past, brethren, what about the future?

Because the same thing happens for the person that has genuine biblical assurance of salvation. And in fact, my dear brother and dear sister, when you study assurance of salvation through the New Testament, you will see that that is pointing more to the things that are coming in the future than the things that happened in the past. That is, my dear brother and sister, that the person who genuinely experiences Biblical assurance of salvation is not a person of saying, I'm a Christian or I'm not a Christian or I'm a religious person or I'm not. But rather with all of these blessings and all of these promises of God from eternity past and that which is coming into the future. And that person by the Spirit has the ability to apply them to him or herself.

You see, my dear brother, my dear sister, being assured of being a Christian is not just so easily accomplished by coming to church once or twice. It's not so easily accomplished just simply just by doing things in the flesh. It's just not simply by saying the words that Christians say and just living the life that Christians live. Because my dear brother and sister, all of these matters can only be received by faith. Who is going to believe that I was chosen before the foundation of the world in the Son of God?

Who is going to believe that I'm united in the heavenly places to Him and receive all His blessings? Who is going to believe and understand with the mind that you, that your soul, by grace through faith, you have been united to Him, that you are going to make it until the end, independently of how many bombs explode around you? My dear brother and sister, that is genuine biblical assurance of salvation. And that, according to the Apostle John in these verses here, happens through the means of, you tell me, obedience. It says, "...

by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Now, there is a relationship between obedience and that present experience of certainty that you were chosen before the foundation of the world, that you are genuinely united to Christ and that all the future promises of the saints are yours. You see, Christians at times are very good at acknowledging from an abstract and theological sense, the truths of Christianity, what the Lord Jesus did in the past and what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do in the future. But it's very difficult for the fleshly cardinal mind To make a reality actually impossible for the fleshly carnal mind to apply with certainty and fullness of assurance all of those truths that are so nice outside of my heart, to my heart. To apply them to my own existence and to my own reality.

But yet, the Apostle says in these verses here, that that experience happens or at least is observed through something, in this case, is obedience or the keeping of the commandments. Now, think about that. That the choosing, that the election of God of your soul in eternity past, and that even the promises of future coming of the Lord Jesus Christ are seen and evidenced in the present time in the way that you live your life. That the keeping of the commandments is that which gives you certainty that you have a genuine relationship to Him, with Him. By this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.

Obedience or the external manifestation of the spiritual reality of a Christian is a testifier of a genuine election. It's a testifier in the present of a genuine union with the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity past. He's a testifier of my present relationship with the One that is seated in heaven, governing this world and King of kings and Lord of lords. He's a testifier that independently of what happens to me tomorrow, my soul is going to be taken up to glory and I'm going to end up the rest of eternity with my Savior. That is that my keeping of commandments, my obedience, my dear brother, It's an instrument by which I can have certainty and assurance that I know Him and knowing Him in that way.

My dear brother, my dear sister, imagine the power and the difficulty, of course, of the words. Because we're very careful as Christians when we're preaching the gospel to separate works from the manifestations of grace. We are very careful to separate obedience, personal obedience, from any manifestation of the condescending grace that is given in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are very careful to separate that and to say always that it's by grace that we receive all the spiritual blessings and it's true, But it's also true that by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. So now the question is, maybe your brother or at least in my mind, the question that follows is, how can I know?

How can I experience this certainty? How can I experience this assurance? Not only of, yes, I'm a Christian. What is your religion? Yes, I'm a Christian.

But rather, how can I experience the certainty and to profess with my mouth, with full assurance in my heart that He chose me? that He died for me upon the cross 2,000 years ago. How can the Christian with full assurance and knowledge and understanding of what he or she is saying, say, He's going to come and He's going to take me home. He is going to give me a new body. He's going to resurrect me in glory.

I'm going to be united to Him. How can the Christian say with full assurance all of those things? So you will say, by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. And you will say, well, if you keep the commandments, then by that you know that you know Him. And that is true, my dear brother and dear sister.

However, there is a very important thing that we need to understand first before we see the place of obedience in where the apostle is trying to explain, not only here in these verses, but throughout the whole letter. Let me submit to you that in order for us not only to obtain and to understand what the apostle is trying to say here, we need to ask ourselves a more foundational question. Not so much how can we experience this assurance of salvation or how can we know for sure that we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, But the first and more foundational question that the Apostle assumes here, and he will assume through the letter, is how do Christians know things at all? How do we know things at all? How do we Christians know heavenly matters at all?

Because the Apostle says by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. So, if the text implies that I'm going to be able to fully know that I have a relationship with Him through my obedience, the most foundational question is, how do we know at all anything that comes from heaven? How can a person discern the things that come from heaven? Because the answer to that question will define the way that through obedience I know that I'm a genuine believer. And let me submit to you, brethren, I don't know if I'm making sense, but I hope that I am.

Let me submit to you, my dear brother and dear sister, if we do not answer or ask and answer that question first, we may end up making the mistake of placing obedience in a place that is the source of our assurance of salvation. If you take this verse completely out of the context of 1st John and the New Testament, you will come to the conclusion that those who do are the ones who are able to know that they have a genuine relationship with the Lord. That is that external ticking of boxes and keeping of the commandments is the ultimate means by which a person knows that they have a genuine relationship with the Lord. And not only making that mistake in our heads, my dear brother and sister, Our flesh is naturally going to take us to derive satisfaction from performance. And that is going to make us believe that just because we do, we are, or because we don't do, we are not, and misplace obedience without or outside of the context of what the New Testament and 1 John will tell us.

So, a most foundational question is, how do Christians know at all? How can we know spiritual matters? And the spiritual matter in this case is that I have a general relationship with the Lord. How can I know most foundationally? How can I know anything at all from the Lord?

The Apostle John will give that answer here in 1 John, and I hope that we will see it later on. But let me bring you to Ephesians chapter one, because in Ephesians chapter one, the Apostle Paul is going to speak to us about how we know things at all. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. This is a passage that we have read many times in the past.

Now, my dear brother, my dear sister, the point that I'm trying to make is very simple and it's very easy. And there are souls in our church that didn't meet that we will see this with spiritual eyes. So, mighty Lord, help us to understand what I'm trying to say here. First, Ephesians chapter one. I just want us to answer this question of how do we know things at all?

Because the apostle says, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. By this we know that we know him. So how do Christians know things at all? Verse 15 of chapter 1, it says, this is the prayer of the Apostle Paul. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you.

Remembering you in my prayers, and these are the prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. How? Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. that you may know what is the hope future to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places."

My dear brother, my dear sister, the way that we know things at all, humans and even Christians, is by the condescension of God that reveals to us the Word of God, who illuminates to us the ways of the Lord. And apart from that, we cannot know anything at all. We cannot even know that we know Him. Now, obedience does play an important role as we are going to see it. But apart from the revelatory, perhaps let us not use this word, the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, In letting us know and understand or communicating unto us the eyes of our hearts, we cannot know anything at all.

And that is a very important place to have in an understanding of all the Scriptures. Because that means, my dear brother and sister, that assurance of salvation, in other words, knowing that I know Him, is not initiated in me. but assurance of salvation is primarily initiated in God Himself, in God Himself, who illuminates unto me that I know Him. And of course, as we are going to see it, obedience plays a very important role. Now, this is very important, my dear brother and my dear sister, because when we come to the understanding that assurance of salvation is not initiated in me, then I'm not going to be confused, to be tricked in my mind and in my flesh, to see my fruits, to see my obedience, or to see my thoughts, or the lack of thoughts, or to see my deeds, or the lack of deeds, and come to the ultimate conclusion that I belong or not to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, my obedience, my thoughts, my deeds, they do play a role in the communication of my real belonging to the Lord. But it's important for the Christian to understand, my dear brethren, that assurance of salvation is initiated by who? By God Himself. So it is a revelation, it's an illumination of the calling that we have. This should, brother and sister, already, before we say anything else, bring us to our knees.

Because if assurance of salvation is so important for my life, If assurance of salvation is so important for my fruitfulness, and if assurance of salvation is necessary for the building up of my brothers and sisters around me, they will not be built up by my ministry if I lack assurance of salvation. And when I say ministry, I'm not speaking about preaching, but the ministry of each Christian, which is to build each other up. If a Christian lacks that assurance of salvation, that Christian will be not only powerless to produce sanctification, personal sanctification, but also to minister to others the Lord Jesus Christ. So brethren, if one understands the importance of biblical assurance of salvation, and one understands that assurance of salvation is initiated by God, that already should move us to humility, submission, and to come before the Lord and say, I don't know what I have to do, but I just know that you are. And I know that you have revealed yourself in your Son, and I know that you have given these words, do in me as you please, give me Give me as you think that I deserve and surrendering to the Lord.

So my dear brother, my dear sister, and I want to emphasize this assurance of salvation or knowing that we know him is initiated in God himself. The same apostle Paul in Romans chapter five will make that point very clear when we go to Romans chapter eight. I think I said five Romans chapter eight. This is, my dear brother, sister, children, the young men who read the Bible and are Christians, this is the passage that you should have in your mind when it comes to biblical assurance of salvation. Now, my dear brother, my dear sister, in the times of darkness, in the times of need, in the times of burden upon your shoulders.

This is the passage that should speak to you about how we know that we are children of God. It says in Romans chapter 8, in verse 12, it says, Romans chapter 8, verse 12. So then, brethren, Romans chapter 8, verse 12. Now, you remember how Romans 8 starts without reading verse 1? Romans 8, verse 1.

Do you remember how it starts without reading it? It says, "...for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." So, He establishes the case, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ has paid it all, speaking of the law in chapter 7.

Now, He has paid it absolutely all, but then the Apostle is going to speak of the experience of the life of the Christian in Romans chapter 8. You remember, walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit, right? This is the experience of the Christian. Now in verse 12 it says, So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Now, very important statement there in verse 14. Read it once again. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Now, brethren, a simple question. Those who are not the sons of God can be led by the Spirit? And those who are led by the Spirit, they are necessarily the sons of God, right? So it says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And then he says in verse 15, Very important verse for assurance of salvation.

It says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into. Fear. That is not the spirit that we have received to fall back into fear. Right? But it says, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

Now here comes the verse. It says, verse 16. Brethren, the spirit himself, bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God. Brethren, how do Christians know that they are the children of God? How do they know that?

By the bearing of witness of whom? Of the Holy Spirit. Assurance of salvation, my dear brother, my dear sister, is initiated by God. Can you produce assurance of salvation in and of your own? No.

Assurance of salvation is initiated by God and that happens through the bearing of witness of whom? The Holy Spirit. The one that is already dwelling in us is the one that confirms that we are the children of God. Now, you remember how Paul speaks in Romans chapter 2, speaking about the work of the law that is written in the hearts of men, speaking of the conscience that accuses the lost or excuse them. The same working of accusing and excusing, if that is the word that is used in English in Romans chapter 2, is what the Spirit of God does, but in the Christian.

For the lost, the conscience is always there. It's a God-given conscience that either accuse them or excuse them. Excuse them is the word, right? Accuse them or excuse them of the things that they are doing. The Christian that now has the Spirit of God that is dwelling in them, is the one that is meant to lead them in their walk.

And it's also the one that testifies, is the one that confirms that they are Christians, brothers and sisters. No, something greater than just being a Christian. Did you read the text? That we are children of God. It says, "...

the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, brethren." Assurance of salvation is not a question of, am I forgiven or I'm not forgiven? It's not a question of guilt that has been dealt with or guilt that has not been dealt with. Assurance of salvation, the enjoyment of assurance of salvation, the power of assurance of salvation is that does not only confirm to the soul that they are indeed forgiven, but beyond that, my dear brother and sister, genuine biblical assurance of salvation, will have the presence of the Holy Spirit testifying to your soul that you are a son or a daughter of God. And hence, when the apostle says, we cry, Abba Father, indeed, That is the experience that the soul of the Christian will be moved to, to cry, Abba, Father, because now I'm not relating to God as the judge who has forgiven me only in the person of Jesus Christ, but also through the same Christ, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5.

He has also adopted me as Son. And who is going to question, as a brother said, who is going to question the favor of your Father, the favor of your Heavenly Father, when you understand that the prize for you to become a son or daughter of this Father was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. My dear brother, my dear sister, here the warning is not so much for us to be confirmed that we are Christians or not. Here the warning is to indeed experience genuine biblical assurance of salvation. Because when a person genuinely experience biblical assurance of salvation, then the only solution or the only path that that person can take is just go onto his or her knees.

and say, what is this that you have done for me? You know everything in my heart. You knew everything, if the past tense can be used with God, but you knew everything that I am, everything that I have in my mind, everything that I will do, everything that I will be before the foundation of the world yet. Even you have known the things that are secret to me, the real substantial intentions of my heart, the ones that I know I'm not able to discern, the real thoughts that abide in my mind, the real darkness that it is in me, you have known it fully. Yet you gave your son to die upon the cross, not only to forgive me, but to adopt me as a son.

Brethren, the apostle says this not only in Romans chapter 8, but also in Galatians chapter 4, I think it is, that he says, and we cry, Abba, Father. This is genuine biblical assurance of salvation, my dear brother and dear sister. And it's not initiated. by your efforts. It's not initiated in your mind.

It's not initiated in your thoughts. It is initiated by God. But obedience does play a role. Then I will be going against the Scriptures if I say that obedience does not play a role. Because the apostle says, by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Obedience does play a role. It's an instrumental role that obedience plays in the assurance that a person has that they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we return to our text, Even now, let us not return. Let me just take you there to Romans Chapter 8. I cannot move ahead without making this point.

If you come to Romans Chapter 8, verse 36. Just brethren, this is something that we have read many times. I could have just read it later on, but now that we're in Romans Chapter 8, let us just simply read it now. Just in light of the things that I have said, brethren, in Romans Chapter 8, verse 31. So if one, as the apostle, understood that your certainties, brethren, that your certainty of your belonging, the certainty of your adoption was not in you, but was in God, then the words of the apostle make complete sense in Romans chapter 8, verse 31.

And it should be our words. It says, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?"

Now, brethren, pay attention to this. How many times your own conscience has brought a charge against yourself? How many times you have allowed your life and the things that we do and the things that we see to bring charges against us. And now we don't have condemnation. Those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't have condemnation, but the experience of it, the experience of the condemnation.

Now, once a person has received from the Holy Spirit the full conviction and certainty that we are sons of God, we can join the apostle and say, who can bring a charge against me? I am one of the elect of God, so who can bring a charge against me?" We continue with the apostle in his words, It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.

More than that, who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, all of these tribulations, we are more than conquerors. And not conquerors externally, but victorious in the mind. Who can bring a charge against me? Who can separate me from God?

Conquerors, conquerors in the heart, through Him who loved us. And then the apostle says, that is what assurance of salvation is. For I am almost sure, brethren, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Brethren, brethren, when these statements of the Apostle Paul become a reality in our hearts, you think that we are going to live powerless lives? Do you think that we're going to be easily given to sin?

Do you think that we're going to be easily given to doubt? Do you think that we're going to be easily given to not sharing the gospel and not speaking about this Lord? If this fullness of experience, of assurance, as Paul experienced it, really and truly abides in us, don't you think that the soul of the Christian will be moved to profess and to cry out the same things, uniting with the apostle? Not in a collective sense. Oh, you have died for us.

Yes, he died for us, but he died also for you and for me individually. When this is made a genuine experience of the heart, then we can say with the apostle, for I am sure. that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, and all of these things can separate us from the love of God that is in union with Christ Jesus our Lord. I don't know about you, brethren, but this is powerful for the life of the Christian. But as I said, if we return to 1 John 2, there is a role that obedience will take place.

There is a role, we cannot deny it. And as you will read, if you read through the New Testament, it is only John, the one who makes obedience so clearly, directly related to assurance of salvation. Paul speaks about it, it seems in a, what is the word? Implicit way. But John seems to be the only one who clearly connects being assured of your salvation with obedience, with commandments.

So let me just ask a very important question that is going to help us to understand not only the place of obedience, But also, my dear brethren, the relationship between obedience and the revelation of God to our assurance. So God is the one that reveals to us that we're children. But at the same time, the Bible says that it's through our obedience that we know that we're Christians, how we reconcile those two things, how we put together these commandments, keeping of commandments and the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I think that the question that will help us to not only answer what the apostle is trying to do here, but also to put the place of obedience is this. What does the apostle, using proper grammar, what does the apostle mean with commandments?

What does the apostle John mean by keeping the commandments? Let us just examine the structure of the text just a little bit, and then we will try to answer that question. Pay attention how, in verse 3, he says, "...and by this we know that we have to know him." And then it's obedience.

But obedience is, according to the apostle, if we keep his commandments, right? That is obedience. Now the Apostle will continue to speak about obedience from different angles. In verse 4 he says, "...whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word..." Keeping commandments and keeping his word is what the Apostle refers to as obedience here. In him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know, or we know, that we are in him." And then he says, "...

whoever abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." Obedience. In these four verses here that we have for the Apostle John, obedience is the keeping of the commandments, or the keeping of the words, His Word, or walking as the Lord Jesus Christ walked. So if we were just going to simply ask ourselves a question, what is obedience for the Apostle John from this passage here? We can answer in truth that for the Apostle John, obedience is keeping the commandments of the Lord, or keeping His Word, or walking as the Lord Jesus Christ walked.

But still, there is a strong and foundational question. What are the commandments? that we are to obey according to the Apostle John? Or what are the words that we have to obey according to John? Or what is the way in which Christ walked that we are to walk?

Now I could do a lot of exercises here from the Scriptures from this book to show you, but let me just simply give you the answer and then show you from the Scriptures that that is the answer. For the Apostle John, brethren, as you study 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and then from I think chapter 12 or 13 from the Gospel of John, you will see that obedience or keeping the commandments is related to, you tell me please? Love. that love is the keeping of the commandments according to the Apostle John. You remember a famous verse in the Gospel of John that speaks about that, relating commandments and the love?

Brethren, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Come with me first to John chapter 14. Let us see that. Just please bear with me. Please bear with me.

He's now very long. Please bear with me. I will try just to do this in 10 or 15 minutes. Please bear with me in this part, brethren. Obedience according to John.

John chapter 14 verse 15. This is just the simple verse that Brother G is quoted there. It says, verse 15, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. That is a conditional statement. What is the relationship?

We will ask. Well, he says in verse 12 of chapter 15, please go there to chapter 15, verse 12. He says, This is my commandment, right? This is my commandment. that you love one another.

Now, brethren, you have to be with me as we build the relationship between obedience, the obedience that gives you assurance of salvation. If we don't have this obedience, we cannot have assurance of salvation. It says, verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend." At least we can say that in the Gospel of John, for the Apostle, commandment or the commandment of the Lord is related to love and loving one another.

Be with me, my dear brother and sister. What I'm going to try to show you from the Scriptures in 1 John is that The keeping of the commandments that grants us this powerful assurance of salvation, that unites our hearts with the heart of the Apostle Paul, in which we genuinely say, Abba Father, in which we genuinely say, there's nothing that can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. This powerful manifestation of the Spirit that moves me to this certainty, not in religious ways, not only just by doing things, is rooted in loving our brethren and having faith. Come with me now, return to 1 John. The keeping of the commandments, or the keeping of his words, or the walking as Christ walked, is speaking of love according to the mind of John.

And of course, this is of the Spirit of God. How am I going to show you this? It's just very simple, actually. If we continue reading, and bear with me in these things that I'm doing here from this pulpit, please bear with me. After the passage, my dear brethren, which there's no titles in the Bible, right?

There's no titles. It continues in verse 7 of 1 John chapter 2. It says, Beloved, here the apostle is going to speak about that commandment that he has spoken before. The commandment, the words of God are working as the Lord works. He says, Brethren, in verse 7, O Beloved, in your ESV, I am writing you not a new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard in your Bible, perhaps from the beginning. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Now, brethren, has the apostle mentioned love so far to verse 8? No, only commandment. This idea of the old and new commandment in the mind of the Apostle John is always related to love.

Quickly, please come to 2 John and let us just find that and then I will make my point and I promise that I will finish. 2 John, please brethren. Old commandment, new commandment in the mind of John is related to love. Second John in verse four, it says, I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, right?

Same words, right, brethren? Right. I'm not crazy, right? Same words. I write into you no new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, and that is that we love one another, right?

Same verses from 1 John 2. And this is love, he gives the definition, that we walk according to his commandments. A little bit of an acircle, John. Yes, because it is like that, because obedience is love. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.

And this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. Hence, when you return to 1 John chapter 2, immediately what comes into the mind of the apostle in verse 9 is, whoever says that he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Verse 10, whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for a stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." Peter says, having been blinded because of lack of fruit, having forgotten that they had been cleansed from their former sins.

My dear brethren, my dear brother, my dear sister, The type of keeping of commandments that empower us to have the assurance of salvation, that makes 1 John a reality in the heart of the Christian, is the type of assurance that is initiated by the presence of the Spirit in the heart of that person, that moves that person to obey and the manifestation of that obedience is in faith and is in love to the brethren. If someone says that they love the brethren and they do not genuinely love the brethren, that person is walking in darkness and there's many causes of stumbling, spiritually speaking. And then that person is not going to enjoy assurance of salvation because perhaps, in the best case scenario, he's a genuine believer that is very backslidden and that is walking in darkness or probable, that is a false Christian who is not able to love in the heart the brethren. Come with me to 1 John 3, verse 23, and let me please here put together obedience and assurance of salvation according to 1 John 3, verse 23. It says, "...

and this is the commandment..." Brethren, you're there? "...and this is His commandment, that we believe faith, that we believe the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. Now it says in verse 24, assurance of salvation.

Whoever keeps His commandments, what are His commandments? Faith and love in one another, abides in God, and God in Him. And by this we know that He abides in us. How? By the Spirit whom He has given us, brethren.

By the Spirit that He has given us. How am I going to obtain assurance of salvation? I can't. Assurance of salvation is initiated by the power of the Holy Spirit that comes and communicates to me the ability to love the brethren. And how do Christians love?

Why do we love? Because He first loved us. And I'm really sorry that I'm quoting so many scriptures, but please come to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And how can I know the love of God?

How can I know the love of God that is the manifestation of His Son and the propitiation of our sins? How can I know that love of God? Well, 1 John says in chapter 3, that is through the gospel. But also here the Apostle Paul says something very powerful in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Let us just read that verse, because otherwise it's just too long.

It says in verse 5, brethren, just that verse, it's a prayer. Verse 5 in chapter 3 of 2 Thessalonians, brethren, pay attention to this. It says, May the Lord, asking, the Apostle Paul is asking the Lord, may the Lord direct your heart to what? To the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Hopeless, apart from Christ, brethren.

Completely hopeless, apart from the Savior. Because even our hearts have to be directed to the love of God. Even our hearts have to be directed to the steadfastness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even our steps have to be directed to the Savior for us to love as He loved us. He has to come and direct our hearts to His love that He has manifested in Christ, so that we can love one another.

And by loving one another, we keep the commandments. And when we keep the commandments according to the Spirit that has directed us to His love, By this we know that we know Him, keeping His commandments, brethren. And what is that thing that we need to do? Nothing. But at the same time, we need to do.

And the only thing that I can say to you is, come to the Lord Jesus Christ through the Scriptures. Because if you come to Psalm 119, the connections between the Scriptures and the love of God is incredible. The only thing that we can do is surrender, just to give up of self and the strength that we have and give ourselves unto the book. and to treasure up the Scriptures in our hearts, to keep our eyes centered in the person of Jesus Christ, because it's only through the Scriptures, brethren, that we can know this God, and that He reveals Himself to us, and that He speaks to us about Christ, and that we can have Christ in our hearts. How are you going to allow your soul, brethren, to be without the Word of God?

How are you going to love the brethren? How are you going to keep the commandments if your negligence is lawful or lazy? When it comes to the scriptures, oh, let me tell you, you will be like the one that is walking in darkness, stumbling from one place to another, immature. You could be 50, 80, 100 years old. You could have experienced the first and the second world war.

You're still a child, spiritually speaking. Because, my dear brother and sister, maturity is not obtained with fleshly experience and things that we see in this world. Maturity is experienced by the abundance of this book in our hearts that moves us to die to self and to have the one that is fully mature, Jesus Christ, enthroned in our hearts. And when He is, then we can cry, who can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, Abba, Father. Amen.