Over the years, I've had people to ask me all kinds of questions.
Some people have come to me and raised serious questions about their marriage,
continuing or ending it.
I've had people to come and talk about dealing with difficult people in their lives,
maybe somebody they worked with or even in their own home,
just all kinds of things.
And in those situations, most of the time, if I'm asked a question,
and I have a good idea of what the answer ought to be in terms of what the Bible says,
I'll just say it.
Some of you, we've had some conversations over the years,
maybe about some difficult issues going on in your life,
and I've maybe said some things that you didn't want me to,
you expected me to.
But I needed to because the Scripture was real clear about it.
Well, one of the most important, vital questions that I could ever be asked
or that you could ever be asked is by someone who is struggling
with assurance about their relationship with the Lord.
Someone who is just, they're having difficulty knowing,
am I really right with God?
Am I really a Christian?
If they ask you, if they ask me just point blank,
do you think I am a Christian?
I'm not going to give them a yes or no answer.
And I don't think you should either.
And here's why.
I don't know what's in a person's heart, and neither do you.
We don't know what's going on inside a person.
So I think we need to be very careful about giving a definite answer.
But there is a definite answer.
It's an answer that only God can give, though.
But when somebody comes to you, and I think if you're a serious Christian,
people know that you love the Lord, you seek to live a faithful Christian life,
between family, extended family, friends, people you work with,
sooner or later people have got to ask you a spiritual related type question.
And sometimes it may be in the realm of, do you think I'm a Christian?
Or what does it mean to be a Christian?
We don't need to put them off.
We don't need to be afraid.
What we do need to do is point them to the Scriptures
and tell them, you know, I can't look inside you and I can't tell,
but God knows and God has actually given us some information in His Word
designed to help us to know if we really are Christians.
And point them to the book of 1 John 1.
It was really written, one of the main reasons, not the only reason,
one of the main reasons was to give Christians assurance of their salvation.
We've looked at that over the last three or four weeks now
as we've been going through this series.
Look at it one more time.
1 John chapter 5 and verse 13.
John writes,
We can, you and I, we can help people who are struggling with assurance
by pointing out what John says in this letter
about what true Christians believe and how they live.
When it comes to helping someone with assurance,
you may, if you know them real well,
known them for a long time,
you may say to them,
well, from what I can see in you,
from what I know about you over many years,
you appear to be a Christian.
But always be careful
because you don't really know.
You don't know a person's motive.
You don't know what they're thinking.
The 11 disciples of Jesus
followed Jesus for three years
with one, the 12th, named Judas,
that from all we read in the Gospels,
he appeared to be the real deal.
He appeared to be a genuine follower of Jesus.
But at the end, the end of Jesus' ministry,
we know that he wasn't because he betrayed Jesus.
Judas, in time, gave evidence
that he wasn't really a true follower of Jesus.
But the other 11 didn't know that
until he betrayed Jesus.
See, at the Last Supper,
Jesus said something to the disciples
about one of you is going to betray me.
And a lot of you, you remember what they said?
They looked at Jesus.
They looked at one another.
They looked at Jesus and said,
Lord, is it I?
They didn't know it was Judas
until he revealed
that he was a betrayer.
That's why we cannot give anyone assurance
of their salvation
because we don't really know.
But God can.
And God desires for everybody
who is truly a Christian
to know it,
to have comfort in that,
to be assured that their relationship with him
is good, is healthy, is right.
And the way God does that,
the way he provides comfort and assurance
is through his spirit
that he puts in every one of us
when he saves us.
I've said it for years,
over and over again,
and we've looked at it
in various messages,
various perspectives.
But I want you to look very plainly.
The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian
as Paul just says it
in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19.
Look at it.
Do you not know,
writing to Christians now,
writing to the church at Corinth,
do you not know that your bodies
are temples of the Holy Spirit
who is in you,
whom you have received from God?
Very clear, isn't it?
The Holy Spirit is in you.
You have received him from God.
The Holy Spirit indwells you
if you're a Christian.
Next thing I want us to say
is the Holy Spirit is the one
who actually gives us assurance.
The Holy Spirit living within us
if we're Christians.
He's the one that will give us
that assurance that we want,
that we desire.
Look at two passages.
1 John chapter 4, verse 13.
And God has given us his spirit
as proof that we live in him
and he in us.
That's in the New Living Translation.
And then look at what Paul said
in Romans chapter 6,
or chapter 8 rather,
in verse 16.
The Spirit himself bears witness
with our spirit
that we are children of God.
The Spirit lives within us.
He will give us assurance.
But now I want us to think,
how does he do that?
How should we look?
How should we expect the Holy Spirit
to give us assurance
that we are children of God
if we're struggling?
How can we help someone
that we know and care about
if they're struggling?
Let's look at how he provides
such assurance.
Number one,
the Holy Spirit gives us assurance
by affirming
that the Bible's description
of a Christian
is true about us.
The Holy Spirit gives us assurance
by affirming,
confirming within us
that the things the Bible says
will be true about a Christian,
it's true about us.
I want you to look at how he does that
by looking back
to some of the things
we looked at last week
in 1 John
about what a true Christian is,
what a true Christian believes.
Look, number one,
a true Christian has a personal relationship
with God and Jesus Christ.
We looked at that last week
and sort of expounded on that
and what 1 John says.
But I want you to understand,
nobody comes into the world
automatically in a right relationship
with God.
When we're born into this world,
we are separated from God.
We don't know God.
We cannot know Him on our own.
The Scripture tells us,
look what Paul says
in Romans chapter 3.
As it is written,
there is no one righteous,
not even one.
There is no one who understands.
There is no one who seeks God.
Now, there is a lot of people
who seek an idea about God.
There is a lot of people in this world
whose lives are in turmoil
and they certainly want peace.
There is a lot of people
who live in guilt
and they want to be freed from that guilt.
There is a lot of people
who are looking for something
to fill the void in their life.
They understand about religion.
They understand about various gods.
And so a lot of people are searching for a God
that they think might can help them,
make them feel better about themselves
or something like that.
What Paul is saying here is,
no one comes into this world
truly seeking the God who is
as He is.
And the reason is because
we're born with a sinful nature.
Every person in here who has had children,
who has grandchildren,
who's been around children,
you know that.
You never have to teach these little kids
to fight one another,
to not share,
to say no,
disobey their parents.
It's just who they are.
They get it from us.
It's an inherited sinful nature.
Now,
the Bible describes this another way.
Being spiritually dead.
Look at what Paul said to the Ephesians.
In Ephesians chapter 2,
he's going to sort of lay it out
to these people,
these Christians,
who they were before they came to know Christ
and how God worked in them so graciously
to save them through faith in Jesus.
And he begins chapter 2 by saying,
as for you,
you were dead in transgressions and sins.
You were spiritually dead.
That's why you didn't care about God.
That's why you would not seek God.
That's how we all come into the world.
And it's the Spirit of God,
if a person is going to become a Christian,
if a person is going to be saved,
made a child of God,
it'll be because the Spirit of God
does this supernatural work of regeneration,
the new birth,
that Jesus described in John chapter 3.
In John chapter 3,
Jesus has a conversation
with a very religious,
upstanding man,
Nicodemus,
a Pharisee,
who basically
thinks he's right with God
because of his good works.
But Jesus is letting him know,
no, that's not the case.
There's got to be a change
that takes place in a person.
Jesus referred to it
as a birth from above
or a second birth,
a new birth.
I want you to look at
something Jesus said to Nicodemus
in the middle of this conversation.
It's in John chapter 3,
verses 6 through 8.
He says,
humans can reproduce
only human life.
That's what we do, isn't it?
But the Holy Spirit
gives birth
to spiritual life.
So don't be surprised
when I say
you must be born again.
The wind blows
wherever it wants,
just as you can hear the wind
but can't tell
where it comes from
or where it's going,
so you can't explain
how people are born
of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does a
mysterious,
supernatural work
when he saves a person,
when he changes a person,
when he regenerates a person.
Jesus says,
unless you're born again,
you cannot see the kingdom
of heaven.
It's the Spirit of God
who brings this about.
And when the Spirit of God
does this,
here's how we can understand it,
how we can think about it.
When the Holy Spirit
does this work of regeneration,
he opens our spiritual eyes,
he opens our eyes of faith
to really believe,
understand,
grasp hold of the fact
that Jesus is the Son of God,
that when he died on the cross,
he paid the penalty
for my sins.
It's the Holy Spirit
who causes us
to be able to believe that,
accept that.
Everybody does it.
The Spirit does not do this
in every one.
But when he does work
this work of regeneration,
he will enable us
to understand and truly believe.
As Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 12, 3,
Paul makes it very clear,
no one can say
Jesus is Lord
except
in the Holy Spirit
or by the Holy Spirit.
Anybody can mouth words,
but no one can truly say
Jesus is the God
of my life
and mean it.
No one will ever say,
I'm not my own boss.
I'm living under
the authority of Jesus.
No one will ever say that
unless the Spirit of God
works in them
to regenerate them,
to save them,
to change them.
Now let's make this personal.
I want you to think.
If you have been convicted
that you are a sinner
before God,
if you're convicted
that you're not right with God,
there's something in you
that's wrong,
you've offended God,
you've disobeyed Him,
you know you're separated
from Him
and it bothers you.
I mean,
it really disturbs you
to know that you are
separated from God,
a sinner before God,
hopeless without Him,
if it bothers you
to the point that
you've admitted that to God
and you've really changed
your mind
about the way you're living.
Something has happened
and you no longer
want to just live for you,
you want to live
and do things God's way.
Well,
that's the Spirit of God
working in you,
making you aware
of your sin
and enabling you
to repent,
to change your mind,
to turn from your sin.
So if you have
those kind of thoughts
and desires
and that,
what I've just said
is a description of you,
that is a great sign
that you're a Christian
because that's the Spirit
of God working in you.
Now,
let's go a step further.
if you really believe
that Jesus Christ,
as He is presented
in the Bible,
in the New Testament,
in the Gospels in particular,
if you really believe
He is the Son of God
and He came into this world
for the purpose
of saving you
by dying on the cross
and on the cross
paying the penalty,
taking the punishment
that you deserve
because you're the one
who sinned,
if you really believe
that Jesus died on the cross
to pay the penalty
for your sins,
that God supernaturally
raised Him
from the grave
after He was crucified,
buried,
if you truly believe
that this risen King
died for your sins,
you trust Him.
He is the living Lord
and you have committed
your life to Him.
You love Him.
You want to follow Him.
That's your desire.
We're not talking about
milder than words now.
If that's how you think,
if that's how you feel,
if that's real to you,
that's the Spirit of God.
You don't think like that.
You don't feel like that.
You don't live like that
on your own.
That's the Spirit of God,
the supernatural,
regenerating work
of the Holy Spirit
who enables us,
causes us to want
to turn from our sins
and put our trust in Jesus.
So you need to think.
What's the Holy Spirit
saying to me
about this attitude
or desire
or thing about
repentance and faith?
The second thing
we looked at last week
is this.
A true Christian desires
to please God
by the way he or she lives.
We looked at three things
last week.
Number one,
a true Christian
will desire to obey
God's Word.
Look at it.
And by this we know
that we have come
to know Him
if we keep His commandments.
Doesn't get any clearer
than that, does it?
Number two,
a true Christian
will desire to stop
living a sinful life.
Look again,
1 John 3.
No one born of God
makes a practice
of sinning.
How clear can this be?
No one who is born of God
makes a practice
of sinning
for God's seed
abides in him.
He's talking about
the Spirit of God
as we referred to
last week.
And he cannot
keep on sinning
because he's been
born of God.
It's like this.
If the Spirit of God
lives within you,
He gives you a desire
to live a life
that pleases God
and not sin.
If the Spirit of God
lives within you,
He is going to give you
a desire to be
sexually pure.
Doesn't mean you won't
be tempted,
not be.
If the Spirit of God
lives within you,
He is going to
work in you
and cause you
to not want
to lash out
in anger
every time you
don't get your way.
The Spirit of God
will work in us.
And when we do sin,
we won't be able
to rest easy
until we confess it
and seek God's forgiveness.
If you can just lust,
be engaged in sexual
immorality,
cuss people out,
be meaner than a snake
and look them in the eye
and say what you think,
cheat,
use,
say whatever comes
through your mind.
If you can live that way
and sleep good at night,
you are not a Christian.
The Spirit of God
does not live in you.
If you think so,
you have been deceived
by the devil himself.
You have a false sense
of what salvation is.
I want you to understand
that very clearly.
A Christian
can and will
sin terribly.
But when I do
my sinful things
in rebellion,
not doing what I know
God wants me to do,
God whips me.
I don't want to look
you in the eye.
I don't sleep well
until I confess my sin
and agree with God
about it
and turn from it.
I don't want to live
that way.
The Spirit of God
within me
won't let me live that way
because He's there.
He's changed me.
What the Scripture says,
no one born of God
makes a practice of sinning
for God's seed abides in him
and He cannot keep on sinning
because He's been born of God.
It's just an impossibility.
Clear as it can be.
Number three,
a genuine Christian
will have a desire
to live a pure life
and everyone
who thus hopes in Him,
that's talking about Jesus,
purifies himself
as He is pure.
So let's make this personal now.
Do you have these kind of desires
to obey God's Word?
To not engage in sinful behavior?
Not dwell on sinful attitudes?
Do you have a desire
to live a morally pure life?
If you have those kind of desires,
that's a good sign
the Spirit of God
is living within you.
He's the one
who does those kind of things,
causes us to desire
those kind of things.
But if that's not characteristic
of who you are,
the Spirit must be absent.
And if the Spirit's absent,
you are not a child of God.
We also saw last week
that a true Christian
genuinely loves
his or her brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Look at what John said.
We know that we've passed
out of death into life
because we love the brothers.
Whoever does not love
abides in death.
It's very clear
the love for our brothers
and sisters in Christ
is a sign
that we have spiritual life.
We've been born again.
The Holy Spirit just gives us
that love for one another.
We went into a lot of detail
about that.
We may not like everybody,
but there will be this
love for our brothers
and sisters in Christ
that's Spirit-given.
Now,
one of the major
indications
of the Holy Spirit's
work in our lives
will be that
we are people who love.
And that leads us
to the next thing
I want us to see.
The Holy Spirit gives,
excuse me,
the Holy Spirit gives us
assurance
by producing
spiritual fruit
in us.
I want you to think
about this.
This is found
in Galatians chapter 5
beginning in verse 16.
What I want you to see
first,
we're not going to read
the whole,
most of that chapter,
but I want you to see
the Holy Spirit
will lead us
to say no
to the desires
of our sinful nature.
I want you to look
at Galatians 5
beginning in verse 19 here.
Now the works
of the flesh,
the word flesh here
is another word
for the sinful nature.
In fact,
some of you are looking
at a translation
and it says,
now the works
of the sinful nature.
Let's read it.
Now the works
of the flesh
are evident.
That which is not
of God,
that which is
of our sinful nature
is evident.
Look at it,
just a list here.
Sexual immorality,
impurity,
sensuality,
idolatry,
sorcery,
enmity,
strife,
jealousy,
fits of anger,
rivalries,
dissensions,
divisions,
envy,
drunkenness,
orgies,
and things like these.
I warn you
as I warned you
before,
those who do
such things
will not inherit
the kingdom of God.
That's what I was
talking about
a while ago.
If you ever get mad
at me for saying
something like that,
I don't care.
I won't lose
a wink of sleep
because I'm just
telling you
what the scripture
says,
what the scripture
says is what God
says,
and I don't apologize
for repeating
the word of God.
And you should not
ever shy away
from speaking
the truth in love
that comes from
God's word.
if you really
and truly love
your children,
your grandchildren,
your nieces
and nephews,
your parents,
your grandparents,
and they're just
what appears to be
based on what
we're looking at
this morning,
if you know people
that what they call
their Christian life
is just a sham,
there's no real
evidence,
you need to call
them out
in love,
in a way
that lets them
know you hate
to say it,
but you need
to let them
know what you
call being a
Christian is
nowhere in
scripture.
The Bible is
clear how a
Christian will
live,
what we will
desire.
We'll see in a
moment,
none of us does
it perfectly.
We still have this
sinful nature and
we still fail
miserably,
but there's a
difference in when
a Christian fails
and when an
unbeliever fails.
A Christian cares,
is broken,
feels guilt,
guilt.
Now,
look at those
things.
We have such
desires as
Christians.
We battle such
temptations,
sometimes we fail
and give in to
them.
But if we are
indwelled by the
Spirit of God,
as we saw just a
moment ago,
we'll be broken,
we'll be guilty,
and we'll not be
able to rest easy
until we confess
and repent and
seek God's
forgiveness.
Now, our true
desires as
children of God,
because we're
indwelled by the
Spirit, will be to
cooperate with the
Spirit and develop
the fruit of the
Spirit that Paul
talks about in
verses 22 and 23.
Look at it.
But the fruit of the
Spirit is love,
joy, peace,
patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.
Against such things,
there is no law.
If we're truly
Christians and
dwell by the
Spirit of God,
those character
qualities are things
that we desire,
that we admire,
that we want to
develop,
and we want our
lives to demonstrate
them,
because the Spirit of
God causes us to
desire this.
Now,
we'll never
demonstrate these
qualities perfectly,
but we should be
making some progress
in them.
It's a lifelong
process.
As the Chuck
Swindoll book title
goes, a true
Christian will desire
to live this kind
of life, will
desire to cooperate
with the Holy Spirit,
but will never do it
perfectly.
But over time, we
should see that we're
making three steps
forward, even though
there are times that
we take two steps
back.
But over time,
over years, three
steps forward and
two steps back, we're
still making a little
bit of progress, and
we should be able to
see progress in our
lives.
If you've been a
Christian for ten
years, there ought to
be more love, joy,
peace, patience,
kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control in
your life now than there
was ten years ago, or
five years ago.
That means you've
arrived, that none of
it is full-blown
perfect or anything like
that.
There should be
evidence of the
Spirit of God
working, developing
this character of
Christ in you if
you're a Christian.
So look at yourself.
Quickly, one more
thing the Holy Spirit
does in the life of a
Christian.
He creates within us a
loving relationship with
God as our Father.
Now I want you to look
at what Paul says in
Romans 8, 14 through
16.
Paul writes, for all
who are led by the
Spirit of God are
sons of God.
For you have received
the Spirit of adoption
as sons or daughters,
by whom we cry, Abba,
Father.
The Spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit
that we are children of
God.
Paul is describing here
how the Holy Spirit
gives us an inner sense
of closeness with God.
The Holy Spirit works in
our lives as Christians
to enable us to
understand we are
children of God and to
feel this sense of
closeness that we can
call him Father.
That word Abba is an
Aramaic word that means
Father and was used in
the home, in a home by
children.
Maybe even like our word
dad.
Or maybe even if you have
a close relationship with
a grandfather.
Pop.
You know, those really are
special words, aren't they?
The fathers in here.
If you're, you've got a
child that has, does,
call you dad.
That signals something
special, doesn't it?
There was only one man in
my life that I called dad.
I had two grandfathers on
both sides.
I call them both Pop.
I never was around them
together.
So one of them away from
each other, they were
Papa Stone, Papa Williams,
but in person they were
pop.
They were special.
We should have a special
relationship with God.
It's nothing forced, it's
just natural.
It comes from within.
Sometimes as you read the
Bible, as a Christian, the
spirit of God in you should
just help you to understand
God is speaking to me.
This is God's word to me.
Sometimes as you pray as a
Christian, you just sense, I'm
just really in the presence of
the Lord.
I'm just really talking to him.
Sometimes as a Christian, you may
just be out in the woods one day,
riding down the road one day,
and you're, for whatever reason,
you just sort of, your mind's, you
know, you're not occupied about
something else, and you're just
thinking about your relationship
with God, and you just sense
this closeness with him that the
spirit of God is enabling you to
experience.
You ought to know what I'm talking
about if you're a Christian.
You know, it may be that you are
lacking this kind of assurance right
now because you're not close to God,
and you know why.
Let's just wind it up right now.
Do you have assurance of your
salvation?
Are you sure, confident that you are
a child of God?
If you are, you need to thank him
because that's his spirit working in
you.
That's a real blessing.
God has affirmed you, maybe as we've
gone through this message, as you think
about what a real Christian is according
to scripture, is you just know the
spirit of God has confirmed to your
spirit that you're one with him.
Thank him for that.
Enjoy that.
It's not because of who you are, what
you've done.
It's all because of who Jesus is, what
he's done.
And when you trust Jesus, God accepts
you, and you know that, so just thank
God.
But it could be that you don't have
assurance of your salvation right now.
But your thought process is this.
I know what you've been talking about
this morning.
Most of my life, I have had assurance
because most of my life, well I've never
been perfect, I've never whole, I've
never just, you know, been totally
faithful, but all my life I have sent,
sought to please God, to turn from sin,
to study his word and do it.
But for whatever reason right now, you
just feel distant from God.
And it could be that you know why.
It could be that there's something going
on in your life, maybe no one else knows
about it.
But you've allowed something sin, selfish,
something that you know is just totally
wrong, you've embraced it, you're
participating in it.
You know you shouldn't.
God can, God's been whipping you about
it.
But you're just stubborn and you're
holding out and you, you're not ready
to give it up yet.
And as a result of that, you don't have
good assurance.
I'm glad you don't have good assurance.
You should be glad you don't have good
assurance.
Because that's the spirit of God not
letting you have assurance.
But he will if you'll confess it as the
sin that it is.
If you'll turn from it.
It could be that there's no one thing.
It could be that you've just allowed the
busyness of life to cause you to drift
away from the Lord and closeness with him.
And the Lord is convicting you of that right
now.
Come back to him in real confession,
repentance, renewing your commitment,
your love to him.
Ask him to return to you the joy of your
salvation.
But if you know, you say, there's no matter
about assurance.
I know I'm not a Christian.
Maybe you're a member of this church or some
church.
Maybe you've even been involved in the life of
the church.
But as you compare the way you are, the way you
think, feel, and live, the way the Bible says the
Christian will, it's obvious you're not.
And if that bothers you, if that really disturbs you,
and you don't want it to be that way, give it up.
Admit to God, I am not a Christian, even though people
think I am.
Repent of your sin.
Change your mind.
Turn.
Do an about face right now.
Put your faith and trust in Jesus truly.
Trust that he died for you when he died on the cross.
Call upon him to save you.
Surrender your life to him now.
The Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved.
And when we truly are, become children of God, the
spirit will give us real assurance.
Call upon him now.
Let's pray together.
Dear God, show us how we should respond now.
Each one of us, in light of what you've said through your
word, through your spirit, and in an attitude of prayer,
listen to the Lord and do what he's saying.
If I could pray with you during this time, I'd be happy to
do that.
I'll be here at the front.
But you do what it is that you know God's calling you to do.
Maybe just give him thanks.
Praise him for calling you to be his child, for giving you good
assurance.
Maybe you need to come back to him.
You know you're a Christian, but you're not close to him now.
You're not enjoying real fellowship with him.
Deal with whatever it is that's causing that.
Come back to God.
If you know you're not a Christian, the only thing, the only way
you're ever going to find relief and hope is to come to Christ
in faith and commitment.
Pray, obey the Lord during these next few minutes.
Do we?
Do we think about tune and preaching?
Doing this right whenever the Bible doesn't exist.
You're not.
The only thing about�s that you are when you're on the
Lord is saying, listen to the rightklars class,
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