The Christian life..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We're going to continue with our Bible study on the topics of the Christian life, and I'm inviting you to open up your Bibles to the second letter of Peter. We're going to be reading in chapter one, the first 11 verses.

Tonight, we're going to be addressing the topic that we left last week, which is the topic of biblical assurance. We have started with a series on the Christian life. As we said last week, our goal and our desire is that we will address topics of the Christian life that pertain to the individual life. and then also to the family life, the Christian family life, and then to the life of the Christian and the family in the context of the church. And tonight, as I said, we're going to be addressing the topic of biblical assurance, my brothers and sisters.

So I'm going to invite you, as I said, to read the first 11 verses of the second letter of the first chapter of the second letter of Peter. And the important verse that will speak to the topic of assurance of salvation is verse nine. So let's just read that verse first and then we get the context, because there's a couple of things that I want to mention there in this topic of biblical assurance. If we read that verse, It says, verse nine, for whoever lacks these qualities, speaking of the qualities that he has named from verse five, for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he has that he was cleansed from his former sins. So this being nearsighted or being blind and this blindness being manifested in having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins is what we call lack of assurance of salvation.

A person who has forgotten that he was cleansed, that she was cleansed from his or her former sins. Now, there's a couple of important things. For that reason, we're going to read the first 11 verses. So, beloved of Christ, I'm going to invite you with faith in the Spirit and with faith in the Lord and by the Spirit of Christ. Let's read together these first 11 verses.

Simeon, or Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue, with knowledge and knowledge, with self-control and self-control, with steadfastness and steadfastness, with godliness and godliness, with brotherly affection and brotherly affection, with love. For if these qualities, the ones from verse five, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers or brethren, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord, beloved of Christ. May the Lord give us the grace that is needed to speak. and also to hear the words that are preached from this text, specifically from verse 9. I said to you, beloved of Christ, that we wanted to address very important topics of the Christian life. The Christian cannot live his or her life if he or she is not established upon the truth.

We can live in religion and we can live in external professions of things that are empty. But the spiritual life of Jesus Christ, as is called and is outlined here, given to us in the scripture, is impossible to live if we do not understand what God intends for us that is given to us in the scripture. And if that is not only understood in the mind, but is practically lived by the spirit in the heart, that is the impossibility of the Christian life. that there is no power in the flesh, there is no power in the intellect, that there is no strife of humanity that can produce the life of the spirit. People are very good at imitating the things of the spirit externally, but the glorious liberty and the glorious freedom and the glorious power that only Jesus Christ gives is accomplished and is obtained only by the life of Christ being manifested in the soul of a person.

That means that we are utterly unable to produce the fruits of righteousness or the fruits of the Spirit in and of ourselves. It is needed, the presence of the Spirit of Christ. So our goal with this series is that we will understand how the Spirit of God is manifested in the life of the individual, how the Spirit of God is manifested in the life of the Christian family, and how the Spirit of God is manifested in the life of Christ in the life of a church. We're not speaking about the religious life of the individual. We're not speaking about the religious life of the family.

We're not speaking about the religious life of a church. We're not speaking about the good life or the moralistic life of a person. We're not speaking about the good life or the moralistic life of a family. We're not speaking about the good life or the moralistic life of a church. We're speaking about the Christian life, which is the life of the spirit of Jesus Christ in the individual, in the family and in the church.

impossible to be accomplished once again. Mountain that cannot be climbed, ocean that cannot be swam through, a place that cannot be obtained, or a prize that cannot be obtained, only by the Spirit of God. And He, even in the passage that we have here, He has said that He has given us everything that is needed for life and godliness. So that is why it's important that we do understand things in our minds and that we come to unity as a church. But more importantly, that those truth will be a reality in each one of us as members, not of Cornerstone, but as members of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the life of Christ will be manifested in your heart and not the life of religion.

That's why we started with the first Bible study addressing the topic of genuine salvation. There's absolutely no point in addressing practical matters of the individual family and church life if a person is dead in his trespasses. There's absolutely no point in addressing those deep matters of the practical life. If a person is dead in his or her trespasses, that person is in need of hearing the good news of the gospel and coming humbly before the Lord to be saved. Because any other ordinance or any other commandment of religion is only making that person treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath.

Any other commandment, or any other moralistic endeavor, or any other ordinance that is given to a person who is dead in his or her trespasses, it is only means for that person to treasure up wrath for the day of wrath, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 2. That's why it's very important that the church of the Lord is indeed the church of the Lord that has been that the church of the Lord is those people who have been rescued from every corner, from every tribe, from every place by the power of the gospel of the Lord, the power of God unto salvation. That was the first necessity of our community, that we will address what biblical salvation is. And we are now deciding to give to you some outline so that your mind will be prepared when we come to this. Bible studies and that we will make the most of the time that we have here together, if there's any question or if there is any concern or any comment or anything that needs to be addressed.

But now we address a very important topic. That was our goal last week, but we couldn't do it because of time. We are addressing now the topic of biblical assurance. So now we are addressing the life, not of the lost or speaking of genuine salvation. But now we're speaking to the life of the one who is saved.

And we're addressing the topic of biblical assurance. And when we say biblical assurance, what we're talking about here is about the certainty that a person will have. that they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you see here in verse nine, we implicitly see that if a person lacks the qualities that have been explained there from verse five, you know, the supplement of the faith with virtue and knowledge and self control and endurance or steadfastness and godliness and probably affection and love. If a person has not supplemented his or her faith with those qualities, they implicitly, we see in verse nine, that that person will be so nearsighted, so blind that he or she has forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sins.

So implicitly, we see that there may be Christians who lack in their certainty of their salvation. In other words, that they are blind because of what we have here, that they have forgotten at different levels and in different degrees that they have been cleansed from their former sins. And once a person has forgotten that they have been cleansed from their former sins or from what the Lord did upon the cross, once a person has forgotten that in different levels, beloved of Christ, then that person will experience. Thank you so much. then that person will experience different manifestations of lack of assurance of salvation.

Lack of assurance of salvation. What a terrible thing to lack assurance of salvation. The first two years of my salvation, I struggled with assurance of my salvation and the nights that I spent before the Lord lacking certainty that I was in Christ. I don't desire that for anyone. Because once a person has forgotten that they were genuinely cleansed from their former sins, then that which meant to be hope and faith becomes uncertainty and hopelessness.

and doubt and pain, no pain in the flesh, but pain in the heart and pain in the soul. And what we said last week is that it's very important that a Christian will have certainty and assurance of their salvation, because without it, then a person is not going to walk in the power of the spirit. And then that person is not going to produce the fruits that are only produced by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. then that person is going to spend the rest of his or her life, or at least the season in which they are lacking this assurance, sometimes, sinfully trying to achieve assurance, when this is actually not the goal. When you lack assurance, you're to seek the person of Jesus Christ.

But once a person is lacking assurance, what they actually want is to obtain assurance. And I suppose that that is understandably in the flesh. But then that person, now their eyes is just taken from the person of Jesus Christ many times just to their uncertainty of their spiritual state. And therefore, they are not living in the power and in the joy of the Lord. And they are not producing the fruits that will be only produced when you're walking by faith and in union and abiding in the person of Jesus Christ.

So it's very important for us to understand the anatomy or perhaps just biblically the structure on the meaning of biblical assurance and how biblical assurance work according to the scriptures. Now, we're going to address the experience, if you want, of the reality. I don't know how we call it there, or what biblical assurance is. Perhaps this is more the experience or the reality of biblical assurance. And we're going to address it from the perception of God and also from the perception of the person.

But before we get into that, let me just point your eyes and your minds to a couple of things from this chapter or from this that we have read that is very important for us to understand. See these connections, beloved, and I think there's like four or six sermons perhaps in this section here that you can go to the website and you can listen to them. But let me just point your eyes to the context in which the apostle speaks of assurance or lack of assurance, in this case in verse nine. See that verse 9 is preceded with this word for the same in verse 8, for you have a therefore in verse 10, and then you have another for inverse 11. You see those words there, right?

So that is connecting all of these paragraphs, all of all of these to the argument or to the thought that the apostles started in verse 5. Go to verse 5 and you have either a bat or you have a four that is starting or that is the argument or the thought that he's using for the section that follows. But that four or that bat that you have in verse five connects everything that comes after that with what he has said before. So that means that we are to understand that verse 9, that says, whoever lacks these qualities is only recited that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins, in the context of everything that we have just read. Because everything is connected with those conjunctions there, in verse 5, and in verse 8, and in verse 9, 10, and 11.

I don't want to bore you with that, but it's very important that we understand this lacking of assurance of verse 9 in the context of all of these that we have read. Now, let me just show you the order of things so that from the very beginning we will know what we are talking about, because I'm going to call you to active righteousness. I'm going to call you to abide in Christ and to be holy. But it's very important that we understand where the place of holiness for the Christian is. And we have it here very clearly stated.

It says in verse two, grace and peace or in the ESV says, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and our Jesus, our Lord. And then it goes in verse three. The ESV does not translate that word, but there is a conjunction there. It says, as he the as his divine power. Perhaps you have a different translation.

You will say as his divine power. has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And this is through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them the promises you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. And then he says, for these very reason, this the order of things is very simple, beloved of Christ. All of these things, all of these qualities upon which our assurance depends, our assurance depends on these qualities.

You see in verse 9, for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that his mind having forgotten that he was cleansed. The assurance of salvation of a Christian depends on the existence of these qualities which supplement the faith. Now, the apostle is not talking about faith, he's talking about these qualities which supplement the faith. You see that, right? In verse 9 it says, for whoever lacks these qualities, these qualities being virtue and knowledge and self-control and steadfastness and all of these six qualities are the ones that supplement your faith.

Because when you lack assurance, your faith is not gone. You have a weak faith, but the faith that has been given to you upon which you were united to Jesus Christ is there. Your faith is there. It is just weakened, and it is perhaps very, very weak that you cannot even perceive, and you may even have doubts. But there's no point in which a genuine believer will be absent of faith, because faith is a legal instrument by which the righteousness of Christ is given to you.

Now, the experience of faith will be the one that is affected as you live your Christian life. And your faith may be weakened or lesser or something like this. But your faith is meant to be supplemented with these qualities. Now, please pay attention to what I'm saying. Your assurance of salvation depends on the existence of these qualities in your life.

I think that is very clear in verse 9, right? It says, for if you lack these qualities, then you're so nearsighted and blind that you have forgotten or that person has forgotten that he was or she was cleansed from his former sins. So that means that if the person does not lack these qualities, right? Implicitly, we can say that. if the person does not lack these qualities, but rather the reality of verse eight is theirs.

That is, that they have them and they are increasing in them, that they are abounding in them, then they are fruitful and they are not barren. But if you lack them, then you are nearsighted. So then that means that when you have them, you're not only fruitful in your life and you're not barren, but you are going to confirm your calling. You're going to be assured that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, you are fruitful and you're not barren in your life and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the existence of these qualities is fundamental for the assurance of a person. is necessary. You cannot have biblical assurance that is sustained over time, and that is increasing, and that is powerful, and more powerful, and more powerful, and that even when difficulties come your way, that your faith is not affected in that way, in which you lack assurance, but you continue an assurance that weakens you when you confess your sins. Because a faith that is weakened will not receive the forgiveness of Christ so easily because it's that, it's weakened, a faith that is weakened. It does not receive the promise of God of, I forgive you.

But when you're increasing in these qualities, then your faith is going to be so strong that even when you have difficulties in your life, then your faith is strengthened and the arrows, I think is the word in English, of Satan, right, that are thrown at you, then you are just protecting yourself with the shield of faith. You are protecting yourself with the shield of faith. But for you to have that shield of faith, for you to have that type of faith, please see just the words of Peter, that you are to supplement your faith with all of those virtues. James will say that faith without works is dead, right? He's just saying that your work, organically and naturally, if it's given by the Spirit, will produce these virtues, what we call, I think, the golden change of the Christian life, or something like this, I said when we were just preaching sermons here.

And now, that is not the important thing that I want to show you. It says in verse 5, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. It says we are called to make every effort or to give all diligence, to give all diligence, to supplement our faith or to add to our faith all of these qualities. But the reason why we are to add or to supplement our faith is everything that has been said before. That's why it says bad or for this very reason.

What is the very reason? That which has been said before. Because this is the important order of things. What is the order of things? The order of things is that those who have received faith of equal standing Pay attention to verse one.

It says, Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of the in the knowledge of God and Jesus, our Lord. Those people who are partakers of our faith, the apostolic faith, those people are the ones that receive power. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That is, that is impossible for a Christian to produce these qualities upon which our assurance and salvation depends. These qualities are produced because the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us his righteousness, has given us from his power all things, not some things, but all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his glory and by his virtue.

And by his glory and by his virtue, he gave us exceedingly great promises, precious promises that by the fulfillment of those promises, we will be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of this world through lust. Beloved of Christ, the order of things is that once genuine salvation happens, then God from His power, the Lord from His divine power, grant us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So because He has, that's one of the promises, because He has given us and He continues to provide everything that we need for life and godliness, just because His divine power is the source of that, just because of that, we are called to make every effort to supplement our faith with all of these virtues of virtue knowledge self-control and steadfastness and godliness and brotherly affection and love these six qualities we are called to give all diligence and to make every effort to add them to our faith just because of his divine power and once we have them once we have those virtues or those characteristics supplemented or added to our faith, then it's when we are fruitful or we are not unfruitful or barren. And then it's when we are not nearsighted or rather the cross is so openly and clear before us. that we know that we belong to the person of Jesus Christ.

And not only that, the apostle continues in this. He says that the existence of those qualities is that you will not fall away and that you will enter into the kingdom. You see, so they enter into the kingdom. They're not falling away. They have uncertainty of salvation.

They're bearing fruit. All of these things depend on a life that produces all of these virtues, but a life that is ultimately rooted in the divine power of Jesus Christ given to every genuine believer. That's why it's so important that a person is genuinely saved, because apart from genuine salvation, none of these things are granted. Faith allows that his divine power will give us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Hence, we are called to make every effort to supplement our faith with all of these qualities, to bear fruit, to walk in his power, to not fall away, and to enter into the kingdom.

That is the most important thing, beloved of Christ. You understand that, right? You understand that everything is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. It is his divine power, the one that grant us all of these things. That means that the life of the Christian, as we have said so many times, depends on the life of the person of Jesus Christ, not only from the beginning, but through the life and then until the end.

so that when he comes, we will not be ashamed because we're not abiding in him, but rather that we have confidence and then we rejoice in hope of the glory of God that he comes. And then that event, when he comes, that it is of fearfulness for those who are not in Christ, even going and hiding themselves from the glory of God. It is for the rescuing of the believers that fearfully and reverentially await for the coming of the Lord. But also they know when he comes and when we see him with our eyes, that the Great Shepherd, the High Shepherd has come to take us home, and that it produces peace in our hearts, not because we are so strong that we can just witness this majestic event if that happens in our lifetime, but rather because we know the one who is coming there in the clouds, right? This is, beloved of Christ, something that can only be accomplished supernaturally.

Now, Having said that having said that now, let me just please address the experience of assurance of salvation the experience of assurance of salvation and as you have it there in your outline the first thing that we're going to do is just briefly and even just perhaps going to spend like 30 or 45 seconds on it is just say what is not perhaps more than 45 seconds but what biblical assurance is not so then we move on to what biblical assurance is And then when we are addressing what biblical assurance is, I want us to think, as we did with salvation from the perspective of God and then from the perspective of the Christian. But you must have what I said in the introduction or this beginning in your mind. Otherwise, when I'm calling you to active or, you know, righteousness or holiness, If you receive that in the flesh, it's going to be a burden to your soul. You are to receive that by faith in the spirit. Now, if you are going to be exhorted and confronted, you have to be.

But you are to receive that understanding how salvation works. So the first thing is what biblical assurance and salvation is not. And what is not is not fleshly confidence, beloved of Christ. Assurance of salvation or the certainty that you are Christ is not fleshly certainty. Namely, that you have confidence that you are something, but that is rooted in your flesh.

That is the distinction that the Apostle Paul makes in Galatians, you know, that we can produce things in the flesh and that we can produce things in the spirit. That is the distinction. The Christian can do things in the flesh still, because we still have the presence of the flesh. So biblical assurance is not certainty that you're a Christian that is established upon the flesh. How is certainty that you're a Christian established in the flesh?

For instance, when a person has faith in their faith, that is a faith in their faith. Namely, I prayed a prayer. You know, I prayed a prayer 20 years ago. I prayed a prayer 25 years ago. And because I prayed a prayer, I'm a Christian.

So you see the thought process of the person. I prayed a prayer 20 years, 25 years ago, and because I prayed a prayer 20, 25 years ago, now I am a Christian. I have been a Christian for 25 years and I am a Christian today. Now, salvation happens by an inner secret or sometimes, you know, like a verbal prayer, of course, in which we confess our sins and we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that which gives us salvation is not the prayer that we pray, but the faith that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, as we tried to explain last week.

So but he's very the difference is very difficult for the flesh, because some people sometimes will just have faith in a profession of faith that they professed 20 or 25 years ago. I prayed the prayer. How can you destroy that? Just simply believe. Just you simply ask yourself.

What do you trust? When you call yourself a Christian, what do you trust in your heart? Your mind and the spirit will simply bring that to your heart. Is the prayer that you prayed 20, 25, or 10, or one, or two years ago? Or is the glorious person of Christ upon that cross paying for your sins?

or it is just the begotten of the Father, as it is given to us in Scripture, dying upon the cross, not only dying upon the cross, but those nails upon, like through his hands, for your soul. Is that? And then the Spirit, the Spirit, even as just remembering my Savior, you know, my soul, it just thinks about that, beloved. Just think about that when a person is just saved. Or when a person says, you know, I've been a Christian for 25 years.

I've been attending church. I'm going to change the 25 years because I don't know if anyone of you has been for 25 years, 30 or 40, or perhaps let's just say 10. 10 years, you know, like I've been attending church for 10 years. I've been doing these Christian things and I managed, you know, to do these Christian things for 10 years, even as I was just remembering today my salvation. I remember that when I was first saved, I was like, is this going to last long?

You know, like something dramatic has happened in my life. Is this going to last long? Never in my life something has happened like this. Is this going to last long? And then the first years, three, four years, I continue to ask my question.

Is this going to last? It lasted for two, three, four, five years. Is this going to continue like this, like this? Praise God, you know, that He is the one that perseveres and keeps His saints until the end, because apart from Him, it will not last long. But there's certain religion, beloved of Christ, that in the flesh, people can actually make last longer and long, even until the end of their lives.

Lord, Lord, right? Lord, Lord, didn't we do Christian things in your name until the day of your coming? Because the flesh has that power. Just go and see Mormons, JWs, and many Christians who have been living their lives as Christians for many, many years. Now, is the certainty of your Christianity established upon that?

Is the certainty of your Christianity, of your faith, established upon a prayer that you prayed? Or about a type of life or church attendance or religious activities that you have done for 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, or 40, or 50, or 60 years? That is the question that your soul will be naked when it's asked. Ask that biblical question, because when the Word of God comes, it pierces like a two-edged sword, and then you're going to be left there with the truth. Are you relying on this prayer that you prayed?

Are you relying on this religious life that you had? Whatever the manifestation of religion is for you, conservative, not so conservative, or liberal, or whatever manifestation of Christianity you have been experiencing for the last years. That is fleshly confidence. Fleshly confidence that is not established upon the person of Jesus Christ. A simple definition of fleshly confidence is any confidence that is not Christ.

Anything that is not Christ. Because Satan will always take you to anything that is not Christ. Because when he takes you to anything that is not Christ, he has accomplished his work. He could take you even to the church, that you love the church so much, that you love religion so much, you know, that you love good morals, that you love good behaviors. Well, it is not that you were born in a Christian family, that you were born in a Christian family.

And because you were born in a Christian family, you received the gospel. You have been attending church since that you remember. And because of that, you know, you are a Christian. Anything that is not the person of Jesus Christ, anything that is not the person of Jesus Christ is established in the flesh because the spirit that works in us will always point us to truth. And the truth is Jesus Christ.

The spirit will always point us to the cross, to him, to the person of Jesus Christ. And he's the biblical Christ. It is not the Christ that we make up with our heads. It is not the Christ that this group or that group professes. It's not the Christ that, you know, this religion preaches or the Christ that I just simply just received from these years of Christianity.

It's the Christ of Scripture. He's a Christ of the simple gospel, as he just clearly stated. The one who came to this world, was born to the Virgin, and lived a perfect life, and went upon that cross to take our sins. And those who, by grace or faith in Him, are united to Him. That Jesus Christ, the one that forgives sins, not the one that makes life better, not the one that gives promises of this is going to happen, not the one that makes people good, but the one that gives people life so that they will be like him.

So it is the biblical Jesus Christ, because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. It is not just simply the Christ of religion or the Christ of Christianity. It's just the Christ of what is given here. Anything that is not him, then is going to be fleshly confidence. That is just the best that I can do for your soul when it comes to that aspect, because now we move on to what assurance of salvation is.

what assurance of salvation is. That is what is not biblical assurance of salvation of the experience of it is not fleshly assurance. It is not confidence. You see how many people think about the many people who have given they have given their lives, thinking that the end of the world is going to be on the 23rd of July. Or have you seen that amount of people that give their lives and they do crazy things because the end of the world is going to be on a particular date?

That is the level of certainty that the flesh can achieve. So give their lives. Muslims, they give their lives, believe in something. So the flesh can take you to certainty. But when that certainty is not in Christ, then it's fleshly.

It's not that you are so sure. It is that it's about Christ. It is about the person of Jesus Christ. Now, when we move on to the experience of assurance of something of assurance of biblical assurance, I said to you that I wanted to present it from two angles once again from the divine. I'm from the personal experience.

I need to go again to the divine. Because it's not only how everything started, but it's how everything continues to be. It is not about us, brothers and sisters. You know, it's not about us at any point of our Christian life. It's not about us.

Now, through our Christian life, there will be commands that seem to be more requiring of us, right? Like from our life than in our initial salvation. But actually, you know, Everyone is commanded to repent and to believe in the same way that we are commanded to live lives that are godly for the Lord. The thing is that we understand through the truths of scripture that we are dead and then he gives us life. And once we are alive, now we can respond to the command in a different sense.

But it's very important that we understand the assurance of the experience of salvation from the divine and then from the life of the person. And the passage that I'm going to call you is just there in Peter. Go just please to 1 Peter. 1 Peter, chapter 1. Okay, so What is assurance of salvation from the divine perspective?

How are we to understand assurance of salvation from the divine perspective? From the divine perspective, simply put it just there, from the divine perspective, the way that we understand assurance of salvation is that we are assured, as simply as that. Is that there's no experience of God of, am I their father or am I not their father? Are there my children or are they not my children? From the divine perspective, we are to understand that our assurance or the certainty of who we are in Christ, objectively, it is absolutely confirmed and immovable.

It does not change. because it is rooted in a status. Remember the statuses that we spoke about last week? We spoke about this legal status in justification and this relational status as the sons of God in Jesus Christ. So from the divine perspective, we are to understand what Peter says here.

He says, and starts in verse three, Blessed be the God. And I want you to see the progress here. Beloved of Christ, he hears the progress in time, from the begottenness of the Christian, that is when the Christian is saved, to the second coming of the Lord, or when we are taken up to glory. The apostle puts all of that together just in three, four, five, three verses. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has cost us to be born again. So that is that he has saved us. We have been born again. And the object or the purpose is to a living hope. And this living or this begottenness again is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

He died. We died. He was resurrected. We were resurrected with him. And then he says to an inheritance that is imperishable and defiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

That is the reality of salvation. born again to an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you. And then he says, and then he connects those two realities in verse five, the realities of being born again through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ caused by the abundant mercy of the father with these inheritance and defiled and corruptible that does not fade away, that is kept in heaven. He connects that with verse five. He says, for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith or are being kept.

So this is that we are continually kept, preserved by God's power. through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times. I don't think that even I have to explain it is very clear that he says that he's got beloved of Christ, that he's got the one who keeps the one who guards and not with anything else that his power. that his power, it says in second Peter, that is from his divine power, that he has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness. It says, Paul, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, that Jesus Christ is the power of God, is the power of God, the one that keeps us, the power of Let there be light.

And there was light, the power of destroying enemies, the power of building things and creating everything. The power of God is the one that keeps us and sustains us and guards us, not only when we obey. But here he says, for I salvation that is ready to be revealed. Speaking of the last times. He continues in verse six, speaking of the revelation of Jesus Christ, that your faith may be for praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That is that God protects us and keeps us. But he is he connects that with the human reality. There in verse five, he doesn't say only that he keeps us, that he protects us until the end for a salvation that is ready to be revealed. He gives the means by which he does so. And that is.

faith. You see that there, right? Who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith, through faith. So the keeping and the persevering of the saints, it is rooted in the power of God, and it's operated through the faith of the saints for a salvation that is ready to be revealed. But we conclude from this scripture and from many scriptures, beloved of Christ, that those who have been generally inserted in the person of Jesus Christ, that is, those who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, those who by grace through faith were vitally united when they had faith and those who will be united, they will be kept through the whole process until the end, because this is the preservation of the saints that comes from the divine court.

There is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in the person of Christ Jesus until the end for a salvation that is ready to be revealed. And that is that is what I can say about that, that when it comes to our assurance of salvation, we can know that from the divine perspective, it does no matter what our personal experience is. If we have been genuinely united to the person of Jesus Christ by his grace and faith, then there is nothing that can separate us from his love. That is a divine perspective. Because now I do have to point your eyes now to do what happens.

in the experience of the believer. That is the experience of the believer. But brothers and sisters, even in the experience of the believer, I cannot disconnect the divine workings, even in what we are called to do. We cannot disconnect the work of God, because this faith of ours is divine in nature and is meant to be manifested spiritually. That's why it is so important that we live lives in the Spirit of Christ, because if we live them in the flesh, we will never produce the things that only can be produced by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because even when I'm going to call you to be righteous and to be holy, I hope that I will be able to explain this. I have to point your mind to this glorious reality of Philippians chapter two. Go there to Philippians chapter two in verse 12. After the apostle has given all of these glorious truth of the humility of the Christ being humbled. For it is God, you know this verse, right?

Philippians chapter 2 in verse 12, it says, Therefore, my beloved, this is after after I have called you to have the mind of Christ, who did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but humble himself, the one who died that day upon the cross, the one whose name has been exalted, the one that every knee shall bow to. After that, he says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Why? For it is God who works in you both to will and to do or to work according for his good pleasure. Even when I'm going to call you and even when the apostle called the Philippians to work out their own salvation, to leave, to be diligent, to give every effort to give themselves unto these Christian life, to make everything, to collect all your energy, to your power, your mind, your intellect, and to give it to Christ. Even in that calling of the saint, we cannot disconnect the reality that is God, the one who works in us, goes to will and to do. according to his pleasure.

Because we have been saved by grace through faith, and this is not of us that we will not boast. But this is according to the desire of God, who even before the foundation of the world prepared good works. He created good works in Christ, prepared for us beforehand. The good works were before the foundation of the world. Just as our choosing was before the foundation of the world, the good works of the saints are also prepared before the foundation of the world, because everything that is not a good work in the Spirit is called a dead work, a dead work of the flesh.

Even there, beloved of Christ, I need to point that distinction between those two categories. Because there's going to be workings of God in you, that will be not only that which moves, but that which accompanies the workings of what is required of you, if that is even understood in that particular sense. I want to point to you to the two manifestations of the two workings of God in your life as he produces assurance of salvation. So how does God produce or gives assurance of salvation to a person? How is the divine manifestation of it?

What is the experience of the divine workings in us that grant us or takes us to assurance of salvation so that we will distinguish it from a work of the flesh? And then you have it there in your outline. The first thing is this testifying of the Spirit. And I'm going to take you to Romans chapter 8. Please go there to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8, verse 12. It says, So them, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, in verse 12, chapter 8. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you, 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.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself births witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Now pay attention to this place. Because assurance of salvation, as now emphatically I have tried to make clear here among us, because assurance of salvation is not a work of the flesh, is a work of the Spirit.

Easy to understand, because it's not a work of the flesh. It's a work of the Spirit. But being a work of the Spirit is a work that can be discerned by the Spirit that has been made alive within us because of the life of Christ. That is that the spirit of God is the one that testifies within us or to our spirit that we are the children of God or that we are the sons of God. And this is something that it is not that abides in my mind that, OK, the spirit of God is just testifying to my mind that I'm the children of God testifies to your spirit to the point that you cry, Abba, Father, that then that you are moved not only to acknowledge intellectually in your mind that you are a Christian and that you just simply leave Christian things, but the testifying of the spirit when he brings this reality of you being a son of God moves your soul.

to simply cry out, Abba, Father, words that in the midst of uncertainty can be only uttered with pure falsehood in the flesh. But when they are with truth coming from a heart speaks of the certainty that this person has been given, that they are the son of God. Hence, they say, Abba, Father. Their spirit, their soul, their heart is moved. to this intimate moment in which that's no matter who is around me, but the soul is just simply crying out, Abba, Father, certainty that I'm a son of God, and not only that, but cohere with Christ, children of God, because this assurance is an assurance of the Spirit to your spirit.

If there is any place for doubt, once a person is saying, Abba, Father, absolutely no place for doubt, because it's the working of the Spirit. When the working is the working of the flesh, then you do something and immediately you have doubt, because it's the working of the flesh. But when it's the Spirit of God, the one that comes and says to you, you are my son, Then the only response is, why? Because of Christ. What did he do?

He died upon the cross. Why? Because of you. And because of that, you're a son of God or you're children of God, united to him in the Son. Abba, Father, this is my father.

Father, I'm falling. Take me. Father, I have sinned against you. Forgive me. You're forgiven.

Thank you, Father. because it's the workings of the spirit in the life of a person. It is not the workings of the mind. It's not the workings of religion. It is not the workings of the flesh.

It is the spirit of God confirming that person. Would a person, when they're genuinely saved, once the spirit comes and opens the eyes of that person and they say, now I'm forgiven. And the next minute, no, I'm not forgiven. No, because he's the working of the Spirit. That person has been saved.

That person has experienced forgiveness. There's no one on earth that can come to a person who has been genuinely and newly saved to say, you're not saved or you're not forgiven or you're not in Christ. No one can come the highest of the reputable theologians of the world, to doubt, to put in doubt the salvation of that person. Absolutely no power can remove the certainty that that child of God has at that very point. The same thing happens in the confirmation and then the testifying of the Spirit, because it's divine.

And because it's divine, then it will produce fruit. It will produce boldness. It will produce no fear of men. It will produce not being ashamed of who you are in Christ, because it's the Spirit of God that is given. How about Father moving in your spirit to come before the presence of the Father?

It is a divine working. This divine working is also manifested as a fruit of the Spirit. If you go to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5, verse 16, What is biblical assurance of salvation? Beloved of Christ is from the divine perspective, the testifying of the spirit, the testifying of the spirit, the testifying of the spirit to your soul, that you are children of God. But now I don't know if you remember that.

And now we move from Romans eight. But it says those who walk according to the spirit and do not give space or room for the works of the flesh. Remember that he says in the first verses, It is because we have a relationship to the spirit. We are living a relation, an ongoing relationship to the spirit. Again, if you're not supplementing your faith with all of these practical virtues, then you're grieving the spirit.

And when the spirit is grieved, there is not testifying or you're not aware of it. And then there is doubt because there is no qualities, there is no these virtues. Then it comes to I want you to show you the second aspect of it is not only the testifying of the spirit, but it's also a fruit of the spirit. In verse 16, it says, But I say, walk by faith and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh again. You see, they.

Controversy there between the flesh and the spirit, verse 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit that against the flesh for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. the saved person desires to do the things of the Spirit. 18, but if you are led by the Spirit, he is the first time or I think is the only time that Paul puts the being led by the Spirit with conditional. But if you are led by the Spirit, in Romans 8 said that all sons of God are led by the Spirit as a statement and an affirmation. Here he puts a conditional.

He says, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, centrality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, feats of anger, revelries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like this. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. He's not speaking to the outsider.

He's speaking to the church. And then he says in verse 22, But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things. There is no law. And then we should change faithfulness for faith, because faith is a fruit of the spirit that brings peace. Faith, ongoing faith, faithfulness, if you want, in your life, is a fruit of the Spirit.

And lack of assurance or being nearsighted and blind and having forgotten that we were cleansed from our former sins is a lack of faith. Because faith is meant to be established upon the cross, that we have been forgiven, that we have been cleansed. That is faith, the faith that moves us continually to live, that we have been forgiven and that we are in the person of Jesus Christ. But when we forget those things and when we're weakening in remembering those things, then our faith is also weakened, beloved of Christ. assurance of salvation.

It is the testifying of the Spirit that works in you faith, continues to work faith, a faith that is the growth of that faith is going to be manifested in the attributes or in the virtues that are given to us there in 2 Peter that is producing all of these matters. And then finally, now I want to move and call your attention to the other aspects which is the workings of the person. So I said to you, I wanted to present to you the experience of assurance and salvation from the divine part, which is the testifying of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit. That is not your fruit, is the fruit of the spirit. But now we move on to the work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But even I want you to see the place in the message that we have shared with you of this exhortation. That is, after we acknowledge the workings of God in our life, the genuineness of those workings and the testifying of the Spirit and the fruit of the spirit in us, that we are called now. We are called now to active righteousness. we are called to have these qualities abounding according to Peter, right?

Have these abounding and increasing that we may not be unfruitful, that we may not be barren, that we may not lack of certainty or will have a lack of assurance of who we are or having forgotten the cleansing of our sins. Beloved of Christ, you will not Have certainty, powerful certainty of who you are in Christ and assurance of your salvation if you live lives in the flesh. Paul in Galatians, Paul in Romans, and then Peter in 2 Peter. If we live lives in sin, public sin or secret sin in our hearts and in our minds, if there's sin in our lives that is not repentant, not dealt with, if there's sin in our lives, that sin is going to affect not only our walking with the Lord and our relationship to the spirit and that we're grieving the spirit, but it's also going to make us sin more and more and more because sin begets sin. And we have been called to have victory over sin.

We have been called to, by the resurrected life of Christ in us, to defeat sin and never to be contempt with manifestations of sin in us. Beloved of Christ, I don't know how to emphasize more. Once the conscience of a person has been pierced by the Spirit of God that there is sin in you, that very moment is a moment of grace. that apart from the illumination of the spirit to your soul, you would have been blind to that scene. And in the moment that scene has been manifested to you and you decide to continue in that scene, The Spirit of God will continue to convict you of that sin to a certain point.

But then you will go grow hardened and zeered. And then the sin will produce another sin and the sin will produce another sin and the sin will produce another sin. And when there is lots of sin, you think that there is going to be faith? Real faith produces fruit. Real faith is not an abstract concept that abides only in your mind.

When there is abundance of unrepentant sin, there is not going to be testifying of the Spirit. There is not going to be the fruits of the Spirit, of course, because there's the fruits of the flesh. And hence the person is going to be in a state of ups, as they call them, ups and downs, ups and downs, ups and downs. Think about it. Has Christ called us when he comes to our faith and to the joy that is found forevermore here, forevermore at his presence, to have ups and downs, ups and downs that are rooted in sin and in lack of faith of what he has done?

I don't think so, beloved of Christ. I think that what he has done is so majestic and so glorious. And I know that you believe so. And the scripture is so clear and his presence and what he does for his church is so loving and so kind and so gracious that only in that there's continual and ongoing fountains of amazement for the soul of the saint. that the person might not want to leave or depart from there so that the eyes will be naturally taken from the things of the world to the presence of Christ and abide in the presence of him so that we will live lives of faith that produce that particular righteousness.

But beloved of Christ, sin will never give you assurance of your salvation. And lacking of assurance of salvation will not give you fruitfulness nor power in your life. You have to, we have to understand that, that sin in our life that is not dealt with, sin in our life that people have brought to our attention and we continue with it. It is just a terrifying reality that a person is aware of a particular sin. And they abide on that sin for months and years and years, because a person abiding in a sin that they know that they are for years and years and years.

Beloved, one has to come to the conclusion that that person is utterly backslidden. That person is not in Christ. Where is the testifying, convicting work of the Spirit in the life of a son of God? Where is the light of the Scripture? What is conformity to Christ?

What is growing in the likeness of the Savior? What is the seed of God that is meant to be in the heart of a person that has been born of God? Or is it the seal of the devil, the seed of the devil? One has to be coherent with what Scripture says. Because once a person is not coherent, not clear, or straightforward with what Scripture says, then you cover things up just to live the type of life that a person wants to live, or just allow anyone else just to live the type of life that they want to live.

You cannot have certainty of your salvation if there is the presence of unrepentant sin. We have been called to mortify sin and to grow in Christlikeness, which is the definition of sanctification. That is sanctification. Sanctification is to be conformed to the image of the person of Jesus Christ. And as you are conformed to the image of the person of Jesus Christ, self has to die.

Glory will come in which self will be utterly killed and destroyed, and then the new person will be resurrected, new life, and then we will be united to him in full conformity to him. We're in glory. But as that moment arrives, sanctification is conformity to the person of Jesus Christ. and mortifying the flesh. You are not actively mortifying the flesh in your power.

You do it by desiring the person of Jesus Christ and abiding in him and in his word. That's why I put, I think, a verse there in 1 Timothy. Go to 1 Timothy and let me just show you this reality there in 1 Timothy chapter 6. This is a reality for, like, this is an exhortation for the man of God. But I believe that this applies for all Christians.

Like, you know, he's speaking about righteousness there. Let me just make this point here, beloved of Christ, from first Timothy, chapter six, verse 11. This is for the man of God. This is for Timothy as a man of God, as an elder, as a pastor. But of course, this applies to the sanctification of all believers, it says.

After he has spoken of the wicked and unrighteous practices of false teachers and the wickedness and the unrighteousness that is within the false men of God, he says something. But as for you, O men of God, flee these things. pursue righteousness. Now you can continue and say godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and all of these things. But I want you to see here the commandment given and the two directions given to Timothy from Paul in what he's to pursue and what he's to flee from.

He's to flee the things of the flesh, and he's to pursue actively. Now, he's not going to turn to fight the things of the flesh. He's to flee the things of the flesh, because his direction is in pursuing righteousness. And this is what sanctification is, is the active pursuing of sanctification or righteousness. But of course, in the person of Jesus Christ, because he's not only the righteousness that has been imputed to us once for all so that we are innocent and we are justified in him, but it is also the imparted righteousness of Christ or the practical righteousness of Christ.

That is that the life of Christ is given to us after we have been justified and we are conformed to his image, conformed to his image. Conformation to the image of Jesus Christ necessitates and requires that we flee from the things that are unrighteous, from the things that are wicked and from the things that are of the flesh. Once we turn sometimes because of the wickedness and the weakness of our flesh, when we turn and we do the things of the world, then the spirit of God will take the commandments and will convict us of our sin to point us to the person of Jesus Christ. Sanctification never happens only through conviction or by following a command. Sanctification always happens by the active pursuing of the person of Jesus Christ.

That's why I said to you that genuine salvation is not only about believing in Christ, it's about believing in the biblical Christ. Because when I said or when we say to you, abide in Christ, listen to his words, learn from him or learn of him. And what does it mean in your head? I don't know. What is the meaning for that in your head?

When we say like the pleasures forevermore that the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if you understand that. The only way that you understand those things is when you go through the scriptures and the biblical Christ is presented not to your eyes, not to your mind, but to your soul. When you desire Christ, now beloved of Christ, you are always to desire him in your sanctification. Let me just give you all of this warning.

You should always pursue Christ for your sanctification. It is very easy in the flesh to want to be holy just to be like someone else. It's very easy to desire to be holy or righteous just to have ministry or just to have a role in the church. It's very easy in the flesh and it's moved by the flesh to desire to be holy just so that you will not have this bothered conscience of you that is just bothering you, that is just telling you all of these things. You should always pursue the person of Jesus Christ, because anything that is not Christ is in the flesh.

Many men and women sadly in the world pursuing a certain type of life and holiness only to be able to preach, only to be able to have a ministry. People around the world wanting to be like their favorite preacher, They see the favorite preacher that they don't even know their personal life, their secret life, and they just want to be like him, what they see or hear in worst cases scenario. Or a person sees another brother or another sister in which we are to follow our brothers and sisters as they are conformed to Christ and imitate them as insofar as they are Christ. But our eyes are to be always in the person of Jesus Christ and decide to be like the brother or like the sister just for the sake of just being like the brother or the sister. This person does this.

I do the same. This person believes the same, I believe the same. Just to produce religion. Jesus Christ is always the object of your faith from the very beginning until the end. We imitate brothers and sisters as long and insofar as we see their faces, we see Christ.

When we hear their words, we're inspired to follow Christ. When we hear their counsel or whatever, we are pointed to the person of Christ. But if I'm being pointed just to that person, then It might not be the fault of that person, it might be the fault of your flesh, but you're to always pursue the person of Jesus Christ. If you take your eyes from Christ, you will never experience the heavenly gifts and the heavenly blessings of his presence and conformity to him. Because as I said in the beginning, Flesh cannot produce the things of the Spirit.

So, beloved of Christ, we are called intently, many times in the Scriptures, to abide in the person of Jesus Christ. Every time that we sin, we have an advocate at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We can confess our sins. He forgives our sins. He cleanses from our sins.

He cleanses from our righteousness. He's the only one that can do these things for our soul. He's the only one that can give us peace. He's the only one that can give us love. He's the only one that can give us truth.

He's the only one that can give rest to your soul. He's the only one that can give you power. Please, brother and sister, and if you're not in Christ, hear these words. He's only the person of Jesus Christ. Remove your eyes from the things of this world, from people, please.

and set your mind on things above. And this is the person of Jesus Christ. Because once a people are committed to give themselves unto the person of Christ, once a people are committed to die to self for the sake of pursuing the exaltation and the glory of Christ, once a people, a group of people are settled in their minds to be single eyed, to have hearts that are complete and entire for Christ, Then the manifestations of his presence among that people, beloved of Christ, are beyond religion and beyond Christianity as we know it, are beyond the things that we just perceive as moralistic and good. But rather, heaven comes down in the presence of that people. to love one another, as the Scripture says, to exhort one another, as the Scripture says, to be united, as the Scripture says, to pray, as the Scripture says, to seek the Lord in the Scriptures, as the Scripture says, to love our wives and our husbands, as the Scripture says, to love our children and point them to Christ, as the Scripture says, to preach, as the Scripture says, to hear the word preached, as the Scripture says, to live and abide in Christ, keeping his word in our hearts, so that the love of God will be perfected.

And then the kingdom of God will be so among us that we will not decide the things of this world, but just rather the presence of Christ, Him and Him in the eyes and in the countenance, the shining countenance of earthen vessels that do not deserve to have the treasures, divine treasures of the presence of God in them. How? By them walking towards Zion with full assurance that what they have in their hands is the two-edged sword that destroyed the hidden and the peoples, not questioning and doubting their belonging to Zion, but rather with their eyes set on the heavenly city, moving towards it. doing righteousness not because he deserves but because Christ has moved them to do so and giving the glory to the lamb who rescued them so that when he comes the kings of the earth will be humiliated because of the righteousness of Christ and the glorious redeeming work in a people that did not deserve but apart from his working has been through his working has been rescuing that state kingdom of priest unto God the father through the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ. And all of these saints are the ones saying, worthy, worthy, worthy.

Heaven is not a place for us to have these desires in our heart to call him worthy. The secret place, your heart, your mind. From the moment of salvation, he deserves a new song, worthy and worthy and worthy. Amen.