Assurance and Its Fruit #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. I am very encouraged, very motivated, very animated even as I stand before you this morning because of the passage that we're going to look at today out of 1 John chapter 5. I'd invite you to turn there, 1 John chapter 5. And one of the things that always saddens me a bit and invokes my pastoral compassion is when I'm dealing with people who have doubts about their salvation, the concern about whether someone is truly a Christian or not, and seeing the debilitating effect that that has on their spiritual life, on their confidence, some seemingly continually going back, well is my salvation real? Do I really belong to Christ or not?

And to have the difficulty of trying to put that to rest so that they can get on with the spiritual growth in their lives. Well you can't really start to grow spiritually until you know where you stand. If you're continually worried about whether you are or are not a Christian, you are or are not on your way to heaven or to hell, it's very difficult to get anywhere other than to continue to spin your wheels in the mud as you try to sort out your spiritual life. This passage today gives us great clarity, great conviction, a great sense of direction that I'm happy to give to you. It's 1 John chapter 5 verses 13 through 15, and if you're there, read along with me. The Apostle John said, "'These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.'" This is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

This is a classic text on the doctrine of assurance. John is drawing near to the end of his letter and as he completes what he has said, he wants to give true assurance to these true believers in Christ. And notice the atmosphere of confidence that permeates this passage. Verse 13, "'I've written so that you would know that you have eternal life.'" Verse 14, this is our confidence before God. If we ask, He hears us. Verse 15, if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him. Knowledge, confidence, certainty, that's the atmosphere of this passage. And it tells us something about the character of God that He wants us to know. God doesn't want to keep us in darkness.

He wants us to walk in the light. He wants us to have a sense of assurance, a confidence, a settled certainty that we truly belong to Jesus Christ, that a settled certainty that our sins are forgiven, a settled certainty that yields to a clarity of confidence in our walk with God. And it would be difficult to overestimate the importance of that assurance. You'll remember at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, at the end of Matthew 7, Jesus said that there will be many people who will be shocked on the Day of Judgment that they are being turned away from heaven. Their problem was one of overconfidence. They had a false assurance of salvation. John here is addressing those who are weak in their assurance, not those who are overconfident. There are some, such as Roman Catholics, who deny the assurance of salvation as possible or even desirable, view it as a matter of presumption, a matter of pride to say that you're sure of your salvation as if that were a bad thing. Well, let's just state plainly and clearly that based on the Word of God, we do not agree with them who say that. We do not agree with those who say someone could be saved and then lose it. That was even possible, assurance of ultimate salvation would be an impossibility.

We deny all of that. God intends His children to know that they belong to the family of God. One writer said this in this context. He said, it is common today to decry any claim to assurance of salvation, to dismiss it as presumptuous, and to affirm that no certainty is possible on this side of death. But if God's revealed purpose is not only that we should hear, believe, and live, but also that we should know, presumption lies in doubting His Word, not trusting it. When a true believer based on the testimony of Scripture stands up and says, I am certain that I have eternal life, he is not showing presumption or pride, he is simply showing trust in what God has revealed in His Word. We set forth the reality, the desirability, the goal of assurance of salvation as being one of the marks of a true Christian. And we do that without apology, not because of pride in our accomplishments, but because of our confidence and trust in the Word of God as He's revealed it here in 1 John chapter 5. So the question comes down to this.

Are you a true Christian? And how would you ever know if that were the case? This passage is going to lay that out for us. There's two main points for the message today. The first main point is going to be the grounds of our assurance. And then secondly, we'll talk about the goal of our assurance, the grounds of our assurance and the goal of our assurance.

And we're going to see those things in verses 13 through 15 here. So starting with the first point, if you're taking notes, the grounds of our assurance. Now let me just define assurance just to kind of give us all a common basis from which we start the message here today. We could define assurance in this manner, that assurance...assurance of salvation is a believer's confidence that he possesses salvation now through faith in Christ and that he is most certainly bound for heaven. Assurance means that I know, I'm confident, I have a clarity of mind, a clarity of conscience that I possess salvation now.

It is my present possession and because I possess salvation now through faith in Christ, I am most certainly bound for heaven. I have no fear of death. I have no fear of God's judgment coming upon me as though I might ultimately be lost and cast into hell. I have no fear of that whatsoever because I have confidence that I have eternal life which God has given to me through faith in Jesus Christ. Assurance is a matter of confidence, a matter of certainty that goes beyond probability to a matter that this is an established and settled fact that is real in my life. And brothers and sisters in Christ, if you have that kind of settled confidence, you are rich beyond all measure because all of eternity is settled for you. All of eternity can only bring the ultimate blessing of God upon your life, no matter the circumstances now.

Assurance gives you the confidence and the joy that you are rich indeed. Look at verse 13 with me again as we dive into the text now. He says, "'What are these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life?'"

What are these things that yield over into this knowledge that we have eternal life? Well John is referring to all that he has said in the letter up to this point. Going from chapter 1 verse 1 all the way through chapter 5 verse 12, John is bringing it all to a climax. He's bringing it to a summary statement to say this is the overarching purpose in everything that I've said. It's so that you believers, you who have been troubled in this first century context, you who have been troubled by false teachers who undermined your confidence, I have written so that you would know that you have eternal life. And he's gathering it all up in a collective impact to strengthen their assurance and by extension our assurance here today. He's looking back in the totality of what he has written, summarizing it and say, if you want to know if you have gotten my point, my point is that you would know that you have eternal life. That's what these things are referring to.

It's a collective reference to all that has gone before. So that's the content of what he's saying. The question is, who has he said this to?

Who has he written to? Well he makes it plain here, look at verse 13 again. He says, "'These things I have written to you, to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.'" To believe in the name of the Son of God means that you have committed your life to Christ, that your reliance of the forgiveness of your sins is in Christ alone. You have staked your eternity and your reconciliation with God entirely and exclusively based on the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf. You trust Him.

You have irrevocably committed your life to Him in a way that is irreversible and that you have no plan B. You have totally committed your life to Christ. You believe what the Scriptures say about Him. You believe what the Scriptures say about His work on the cross.

You have trusted Him. You have received Him and you rest in Him. Your soul is at peace in Christ. People who are like that, people whose hearts are anchored in Christ, those are the target of John's letter here. It contrasts with what he said at the end of his gospel. Here in 1 John, he's writing to those who already believe so that they would know that they believe and that they would have confidence. At the end of his gospel, the gospel of John, his purpose was different. He said in chapter 20 verses 30 through 31 that the signs that Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, there are many others which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. There's an evangelistic purpose to the gospel of John. When you come to 1 John, there is a sanctifying purpose.

There is a purpose of strengthening those who have already believed so that they might be settled in their Christian confession. So coming to this summary statement here in verse 13, the question that is on John's mind and therefore the question that is on the mind of God as we come to this passage, and the question that is on our minds today, because this is the passage that God has brought us to, is how can you know if you have eternal life and that you belong to Jesus Christ? How can you enjoy this certainty that your salvation is real? And notice that we're talking about certainty.

We're not talking about probability that leaves it open to doubt. John has written this to bring us to a certain knowledge that we have a certain salvation that will certainly prove its fruit throughout all of eternity. It's a glorious passage, it's a glorious concept that removes all doubt from our eternal future and assures us in the depth of our being that it will be well for us in the end. You couldn't pay a price big enough to have that guaranteed to you.

There aren't the riches on earth to purchase this as the man who tried to purchase the power of the Spirit from the Apostles in the book of Acts. No, this is an assurance that is given to us through the testimony of Scripture. We're going to divide up these grounds for assurance into two separate but important groups. So the main point is the grounds of assurance. We're going to talk about two different aspects of those grounds, the objective grounds of assurance and the subjective grounds of assurance. That's about as technical as it's going to get, but we're just going to divide these things up because Scripture divides them up in this way. So let's look at the objective grounds of assurance that John has laid out for us in this gospel. In some ways this will be review of our extended teaching on 1 John over the past few years. But here are the objective grounds of assurance. What does that mean?

Follow along with me because this is helpful. This is all designed for the upbuilding of your soul. The objective grounds of assurance ask this question. The objective grounds of assurance ask whether you believe the transcendent doctrines of Christianity. Do you believe the transcendent truths that mark true Christianity, true biblical Christianity? And I'm going to summarize these objective grounds with three very simple questions and just point you to a couple of brief passages so that all of this is fresh in your mind.

First question on the objective grounds of assurance, first question is simply this. Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe and trust the Bible, the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, do you believe them?

Do you believe that they are the trustworthy Word of God? That is one of the tests that John lays forth as being the mark of a true Christian. The Apostles, of whom John was the last living representative when he wrote this letter, the Apostles saw the resurrected Christ and they wrote about Him in Scripture. They wrote about Him to explain the significance of His person and His work in order that we might have eternal life, in order that our sins might be forgiven through faith in Christ. And the only place where true salvation is revealed is revealed in the 66 books of the Bible.

And so it starts there. Do you believe this source of authority that the Apostles have bequeathed to us and that God has preserved over the intervening two thousand years? Do you believe the Bible?

Do you believe the testimony of the Apostles? Look at the very start of the book, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 here. John is recounting his apostolic witness and setting forth his apostolic testimony which flows from what he witnessed. And in these first three verses, he says, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life and the life was manifested. And we have seen and testify and proclaim to you...what is it?...the eternal life. We proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. The Apostle John is writing as an Apostle. He says, these are the things that we have heard and seen and touched with our hands.

We're talking about Christ. These are the things of eternal life and I am proclaiming them to you so that you may share in the fellowship of true salvation with us, with us as the apostolic circle of witnesses. I want to bring you into that fellowship. The purpose of my writing is so that you would share in this eternal life with me. It's the only source of eternal life is what...is that which flows from that is born out of the apostolic witness. It's recorded for us in the New Testament.

John says, I'm writing so that you would know that. And later on in the book, he comes back to his apostolic authority. In chapter 4 verse 6, look at it with me, chapter 4 verse 6, writing as an Apostle, speaking about the apostolic witness, he says in chapter 4 verse 6, we are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error. Notice the emphasis on knowledge. Notice the emphasis on the certainty of knowing God and knowing discernment, knowing the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error. He says the dividing line between truth and error is whether you heed the apostolic witness or not.

Do you listen to it? Do you believe it? Do you submit to its authority? Is it the framing reference to your world view and your understanding of God and Jesus Christ? The mark of a true believer is, is that his unqualified answer to that is yes. I believe the Bible. I believe what the Apostles have said. I believe the Scriptures are the very Word of God and their Word is my Law.

That's an objective ground of assurance. If you believe that, you have one of the pillars of true assurance that your salvation is real. Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe the Bible?

That's the question that's being asked here. John says this is the mark of a true believer. And if you say, yes, I believe the Bible and I not only believe it, but I heed it. I obey it. I submit to it. I trust the Bible. That's what we're saying here.

It's not that I just believe it as a historical document, I believe it to be the living Word of God that sets authority over all of mankind and I gladly submit to it and trust it. That's the mark of a redeemed heart. That's an objective ground of assurance. John says, if you know God, you listen to us.

That's the first objective ground. We've covered all of these things we're going to talk about in the first half of this message. We've covered all of them, so I'm just doing it in summary form just like John does. He said, I've written these things, it's a summary statement, so we're just doing a summary to make it clear and particular we trust in the work of the Spirit of God. Now secondly, we've asked the question, do you believe the Bible? Secondly, do you confess your sin? Do you confess your sin? The Bible says that all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that all men are guilty because they have broken God's law, they are unable to save themselves and left to their own devices, they are irretrievably destined to suffer eternal judgment in hell as the just punishment for their rebellion against their Creator.

The question is, do you believe that to be true about yourself? Do you believe that you are a sinner in need of redemption? Look at chapter 1 verses 8 through 10 here.

Chapter 1 verses 8 through 10. John says, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, if we are confessing our sins, you could translate that, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. Anyone who mitigates a confession of his sinfulness is not entitled to assurance of salvation. If you try to qualify it, if you try to blame other people for your sin, if you go to the extreme that John does here and say, I have no sin, I've never sinned, I had someone tell me that one time.

I said, dude, please, I know you, we've grown up together. At the heart of being a Christian is a recognition that you have sinned, that you are responsible for your sin, that you cannot blame anyone else for it. There is a grieving sense of spiritual bankruptcy that marks you that says, I have nothing of any merit whatsoever to give to God that would cause Him to reward me with eternal life. The mark of a true Christian is someone who says, I am bankrupt before God. I have no merit of my own whatsoever.

Are you kidding? The only thing that I have on my own account, on my own merits is the sin and guilt that merits eternal judgment on my head forever. And if God did that to me, it would be good and righteous and just of Him to do so. That's what we mean by the question, do you confess your sin?

We're not asking whether you've committed mistakes. We're saying, are you a guilty sinner under the law and judgment of God? True Christians confess that without qualification. True Christians say, yes, of course, I don't hide it, I'm guilty before God and I'll confess that to anyone who asks.

It's a free, unhindered, unqualified confession of guilt. Do you say that about yourself? Not only do you say it verbally in the presence of men, but perhaps even more crucially, in your heart of hearts, is that your self-assessment? Is that what you say to be true about yourself? Is it more than simply mimicking the words so that you fit into a church environment like this? Or is it the desperate plea of your heart that I'm a guilty sinner before God and your appeal is to Christ and Christ alone?

That's the question. The true Christian is one who confesses his sin. The true Christian is the one who says without qualification, I am guilty and I deserve judgment and I have nothing in myself, there is nothing about me to mitigate the righteous fury of God's wrath against my soul. That's what a true Christian says. That's what a true Christian confesses.

He believes the Bible and he confesses his sin. My friend, I want to let you know of a special ministry that we have at TheTruthPulpit.com that's very near to my heart. We have a ministry to those who are in prison.

And in the nature of life, sometimes we have loved ones that go astray and find themselves behind bars and spending significant time in incarceration. Well, we have a ministry to them. We send them transcripts of messages that I've preached from the pulpit of Truth Community Church. We do it on a weekly basis.

They get mail every week. If you have a loved one in prison that you would like to have us reach out to in that way, do me a favor. Go to our website, TheTruthPulpit.com. That's TheTruthPulpit.com. Click on the link that says about, and you'll see a dropdown menu that will take you to our prison ministry. You can fill out the form and we'll be happy to respond and then join in with you in ministering to that one who is outside the normal course of society. So that's TheTruthPulpit.com, the about link for our prison ministry.

That will do it for today. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's word.