Our Assurance of Salvation

Our Assurance of Our Salvation

1 John 2:3-11

By Sean Kelly

Good morning, once again, our study in first John. We did chapter two this morning, so let's go ahead and we'll open in prayer and then we'll read our passage. Matt, would you open us up, sir?

God, thank you for letting us be.

Thanks for the visit. Just let us be attentive for today's Sunday school lesson. Amen.

First John, chapter two. We're going to try to cover verses three through six this morning. So who would like to read that passage? Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.

He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him.

He who says he abides in him, on himself also to walk just as he walked. So in the previous section, remember, we just talked about John explaining that we cannot act like we cannot have sinned, talking too much about if we say we have no sin or if we say we have not sinned and we talk extension about that. But through God's faithfulness and his justice, he's faithful and just.

He forgives us of our sins and cleanses us of unrighteousness in our lives. So then, starting in chapter two, we talked about Jesus Christ being our advocate, that he's being our case before the father based on his sacrifice for our sin, that propitiation, that rapture, sacrifice. So if our sins are forgiven, what's the big deal? If we continue to sin? God's already taken care of that.

We can confess our sin. You know, who cares? We can fall into this trap of thinking, who cares how we live? God's already taken care of it. He's forgiven us, he's cleansed us.

It's fine. Let's go do what we want. So John, I think you know what John is trying to do throughout his book here.

I mean, I think overall famous, so that the Christian ought to be walking the light. He's trying to show us why it is important that we do what God wants us to do. And here he starts to a case for that.

We're going to talk about this morning, the first proof being assurance. That's one of the benefits of us as we walk and obey God's commandments. So one, John two, three, we read this.

It says, not by this we know that we know him, that we keep his commandments. So number one here, we're going to talk about the assurance of our faith. So we use this word assurance a couple different ways.

One of them is kind of a doctrinal way. We're talking about the assurance of our faith that our faith is assured because of Christ sacrificed by faith in camp, that we don't have to worry about ever losing our salvation. We have that church.

That's a doctrine we hold to, and that's positionally, once you trust in Christ, once you believe in his death and resurrection for our sins, that you're safe. That's not going to change. So that's not what I'm talking about here.

This assurance is a personal assurance. This is a feeling of knowing that you are safe here. This is what John talks about in his passage.

So first of all, we're talking about the guaranteed assurance that the way we feel assured of our faith in our lives is if we keep his commandments. So we talked about here by this, we know that we know him. This word know, it means to learn, to understand, to perceive.

And here is the present tense, which is very important because we're going to see it in a different tense in just a bit here. It's in the present tense. This is present tense.

Knowing. This is present tense. Right.

Now, I know this is true about me. I brought in a little bit of MacArthur here. I do this once in a while.

Not so much so far. I think it's the first time in this class. But MacArthur defines this word no, as he continually perceives something by experience.

You can see that in his commentary chapter out, page 55 there. So this is a full knowledge. This is an understanding of the truth.

This is knowing for certain that something is true about you. Let's look at a couple of passages here that talk about knowing, having assurance. One, John 318 and 19.

Who would like to read for us? Not a lot of hands weighed on this morning here. Go ahead, my little children. Let us not love them.

We're poor in time, but indeed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the. So here's something of being that we know that we are of the truth.

And it's based on verse 18 where it talks about loving the deed and the truth. And if we do that, then we can know that we're of the truth that says that we shall sure our hearts before God as if we're doing the right things if we're living the way he wants us to. Chapter five, verses 19 and 20.

You can see that John talks a lot about that. You know that we love God and the whole world. We know that the son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and then in him who is true that his son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God.

So here again, God's time of us knowing that we're in God. He knows that. And this is based on what Christ has done here, obviously, that you've seen this passage.

The whole world lies in this way with one. But we know that the Son of God has kind of given us an understanding, and so John wants us to know, to be assured of our salvation. So what do we know? Well, we know that we know him.

Now, this word for Noah is the same word. This is where it's in a different tense. Now, this is a perfect tense.

Trying to understand the perfect tense in Greek, if we haven't been through it, is a little bit difficult. So I'm going to try to explain the best I can. But the perfect tense is something that has been completed in the past that affects our experience in the present.

So we know that we know him well. This is based on what Christ has done, his salvation for us. He died for us, that we can talk in verse two.

He's a propitiation for our sins. And this sacrifice that was in the past has an effect on our relationship with him now. So we can know that we know him.

John 17 three, who would like to read this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, Jesus Christ. Eternal life starts with this initial knowing of who Christ is, and we build on that in our relationships. First, John 413.

One. John 413 says, by this we know that we abide in him and he is us because he has given us of his spirit. So there's a knowing that we abide in him and him in us, because we have the Holy Spirit within our lives.

We see that there's this knowledge based on what Christ has done for us. John 513, Josiah. These things I have written to you, believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God.

So here, the knowing, it starts with the belief in Jesus Christ that you may know you have eternal life. And that also here brings up the other point, that you may continue to believe, that you continue to do what Christ wants you to do, that you can trust what he said. So our assurance here is based on art, that we know that we know him.

And what's the condition? The condition here is if he keeps his commandments. So that's what we need to do. So the, if you say, if this is the knowing only occurred with what comes next there.

How do we know that we know him well, if we're doing this, you know, I can make lunch for everybody if I knew how to cook. So I'm not going do that because there's people in my house that know better than I do. So if we keep his commandments, the word keep here means to observe, to obey, to pay attention to.

So the idea is not that, you know, I don't know what you think of keep, like, I keep things in my room. I have a bookshelf in my room now. So I keep those in my room.

And it just kind of sitting there, a lot of them just sit there a lot because I don't have time to read all the books that are on the bookshelf. That's not keeping. Keeping is an actual doing.

It's an actual taking God's commandments and putting them to work, obeying them, doing what he says. And then we see that we keep his commandments. And this is not talking about salvation here.

Obviously, our salvation does not come by for us. We're not saved because we keep his commandments. So this has to do with our assurance in this passage.

We know that we know him if we keep his commandments. The idea here is, as you're keeping his commandments, there is that assurance in your life. Does Jesus tell us to keep his commandments? Yes, he does.

Very famous passage. Not famous passage, Matthew 20 819 20 talks about kings, commandments. Who would like to read for us? Go.

Therefore the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you even to the end of the age. Here in verse 20, there you see teaching them to observe, to do, to keep those commandments, all the things that Jesus has commanded them.

And so that's something that Christ wants for us. John 1415 so there's an idea here. Jesus tells his disciples, if he love me, keep my commandments.

There's this motivation that we have to keep God's commandments and that he wants us to walk in the right way. John two first. John 229.

Again, I laughed off the I know that he is righteous. You know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. Let's talk about Phoenix commandments that talk about practicing righteousness, doing what is right.

And that starts this time. Yes. What's your question? How do we have motivation to keep yachting.

I know sometimes when people get depressed, date for people who are in rebellion, they're like, what's the use? Where do you find motivation? Okay, so where do you find motivation to keep God's commandments? Okay, so I'm going to open this up to the class. I'm going to have you help me on this one. I have some ideas, but working on the fly, I'm not going to probably give everything here.

So what do you think? How are we going to do best? Again, I'll give it the first one I thought of. I'm going to use this word, but this comes with a lot of things. Okay.

I think sacrifice for us. If you understand that I am a sinner, I'm depraved, I do nothing good, nothing ever earned God's salvation. Then you understand Christ, who is God, who lived perfectly, who was without sins, our sin upon himself, and paid that cost for our sin.

God died for us, rose again for us, and that salvation is by faith alone. There's something I have to do, I don't have to live by, certainly quoted there. And God's salvation.

I don't have to follow southern sacraments or go to church or humble ladies across the street or whatever. There's a thankfulness there that I want to do that. And I even had an idea on here, an idea of love, because what Christ has done for me, that I want to show my love to him like he gives his command.

So I think that's a first chapter one of this passage talks about having fellowship. When I walk in the light, as he is in the light, we talk about walking the light. This is action, this is a lifestyle that we're walking in God's truth.

If we're walking like he sees the light, we have a fellowship, one that is one other Christ. We have fellowship with God, the son of the God, and we have fellowship with one another. So there's fellowship.

Not only do you think other believers like to put these together here, but with God and with other believers, your walk affects your fellowship. So if you're not walking right, it's gonna be hard to fellowship with people that aren't. You're not gonna have that commonality because you're not living.

But that's not my everything. I think that even just the question of how do you find motivation to follow your backwards? Because we're not to live based on our feelings. We're based on the truth.

The truth. And the truth is that it doesn't matter how we feel we should obey God's commands. And one of the things we learned in common classes is feeling smaller behavior.

So instead of thinking I need to do what I feel like doing, you need to do it, sprite. And as you do it sprite, most likely your feelings will align. Okay, the next one that I had actually thought of too, is because it's the right thing to do.

Right. God's word is truth. God is good.

He's righteous and righteous. I think that's a good point. Like, when I say motivation, I'm not really thinking like we feel like doing it.

But these are, you know, being thankful for Christ's sacrifice is a way to show God that I love, and that's got to keep his commandments. And people see this over and over in first John, especially if you love God, keep his commandments. Jordan yeah.

So building up the last point, the idea that we're free from sin and now we're slaves of righteousness. Romans six talks about this, verse 18. And as Paul transitions in the book, he talks about how you don't have to abide it to sin.

You can be free not to do what you want, but to choose to present yourself. Sacrifice, the Romans 12.2 talks about is your reasonable service.

So logically, reasonably, what we should do, because we're not stuck in our sin, we're free to walk in Christ, which is how we ought to be, walking, giving. But our sinful nature wants us to be stuck. Sin.

But yeah, that idea that before Christ we were sinners and we lived in sin. Why do unsaved people sometimes do what's right? It all comes down to selfish motivation. They're fearing the consequences or making self feel good.

But they're still, when sin has opportunity, they sin because that's what saved people, too. We talked about the natural event last week. That's who we are as people now, because Christ came, he freed us from sin, and we can present ourselves as slaves to righteousness.

We can do what God wants us to do next. Kevin I'll build on what Jordan said as well, that too often we think there's a neutral and you're either serving sin and Satan or you're serving God. There's no middle ground.

So obedience is serving God, not obeying is serving self and sin and Satan. Right? That's the two options. And you'll get into that in first John three.

But it's either or not something we don't ever drift as a Christian. We're either disobedient or we're serving God, that's the choice. It's not a choice.

I'm not gonna live for God today. I don't feel like. No, that's a choice.

To live for sin that way. That's the only two options. And then you'll get into this a little farther down.

In first John too, this is a different one, but it says, and now this is 228. And now little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before this coming. The whole motivation is not just today, it's tomorrow, it's what's coming.

And everyone who has this film purifies himself. It's an active looking for the future. We don't live for today, for today, we live today because today isn't the end, it's the future.

You've obviously studied for a shot and you were in your voice. What I learned in that navigator is as an obedient you are forced in your life that the center is prayer. Going up is prayer.

You have to fill your life with the word of God. And the horizontal means that you have fellowship with other Christian and the other one is to share the gospel. I'm going to start here and I'll try to get everything you said here starting with the word of God.

As you put the word of God in your life, it changes you. The word of God is powerful, sharpening into a sword, denying the flesh and bones from. That's not a word for word, by the way.

That's John Bowie in this translation. But you have the word of God, you have prayer as you pray to God that reminds your heart who God is and what he wants for you. You just fellowship.

The fellowship helps us to be encouraging one another, building up one another, helping each other grow sideways. That's how I think of it. So, yeah, that.

Any other thoughts? Community here, like you not only need to have a place testimony for your household, but for your church, for your community. And have like what grace is saying. The word of God work through you so that you can go ahead and live out the gospel in all the different sectors of your life.

In the workplace. Yeah, it's hard to be a witness for God. It's hard for your life, obviously, if you're not doing forgotten one other one.

And then I think method this year. I don't know if you're gonna be able to see if I write it down here. So I'm gonna put it over here.

This is one we overlook a lot. We don't talk about a lot. The Bible talks about that there's consequences when we don't get forgotten.

We don't do us right for this reason, something, you sleep because they weren't taking the Lord's table in a manner, there are consequences in our life. We talk about the person of children, obey her parents where this is the first command with the promise. It's a promise that they belong in the land.

Well, what does that mean? They're not obeyed. They're not going to live long in the land. There's consequences.

So there's a fear of the just judgment of God. And as God's children, we know what the truth is. So we're how more responsible.

Now, if you're loving God, you probably don't have to fear this as much because you're doing what's right. If you're looking for the future of Christ's second coming and I'll just pick out random ones here, you don't have to fear because they're already doing what's right. This is kind of a motivation.

If I'm not doing what's right, I ought to be concerned that there's going to be consequences, there's going to be judgment. And we don't like to talk about that. We don't like to hear that.

But God is adjusting righteous down and he dissolves his children. He's things that we go through the hardships in our life are to bring us back into a correct walk with God. Okay, does that help Ryan? It does.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you guys for helping. I think I had several goals.

I'm not sure that I got every one of those in my head, off the top of my head. So that's how we work together. So looking at this reassurance of our faith, by this we know that we know him.

By this we have knowledge, a deep knowledge that we are in Christ. Because if we keep his commandments, that we're doing this right, that we're walking in his ways, to use a tongue from the first chapter, we're walking in the light that we have this assurance. So now he gives a couple examples of different types of people here in first John, chapter two, verse 4.2.

Here he says, he who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. So this is the person that's lacking. And my pen is not really doing a lot of the fried chain, these pens, by the way, I don't know how old these are suitable for me a long, long time ago.

I think when I first started teaching song they so much in 2004, maybe. So they lasted a long time. Anyway, person lacking evidence here.

They say, I know him, saying, I know God. I mean, God. I'm a Christian.

I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I know him. This is in a context of personal knowledge of Jesus, a relationship with him, that they're walking the light, they're going around saying, yeah, I'm doing what Christian is supposed to do.

Maybe they're not saying those exact words, but they're acting like everything's fine. They say, I know him. But then you look at their actions.

It says, peter, who says, I know him. Again, the same word, no, as in the previous verses, and does not keep his commandments. So their actions, they don't keep God's commandments.

They're not walking in a way that's consistent with what a Christian should be walking. They're not obeying what Jesus has said. They're consistently living in sin.

Now, we talked about in chapter two, verse one, that John's writing is that he writes us that we may not sin, but then he turns around the next phrase and says, but when we do sin, we have an advocate, right? So the idea is not necessarily that you never sin, because every single one of us, I think if I were forcing you to tell the truth and say, yeah, every once in a while I sinned, it still happens. So, but this is the idea of somebody who's consistently living in sin or living, not obeying. And so that's somebody who's trying and fails at times, but is working towards me more Christ.

So let's look at Titus, one who would like to do that for us. Josiah. They profess to know God, but in works, they deny him being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work.

So that is a sign of these people who they're going on professing. They're saying, we're Christians. They're saying, we're doing what God wants us to do.

But he says, their words don't show that evidence. They deny him, they're abominable, they're disobedient, they're disqualified. Very good work.

Sounds familiar, right? The Lord of sign up here. So this is in the church. This is people who are acting like that.

They got their relationship right with God, but they're not walking that way. And so the reality, the reality here is that someone says, I know him, does not keep his commandments. It looks like I left off the phrase.

That's weird. He's a liar, first of all, and the truth is not in him. So I always find it funny people that say we, you have to be really compassionate and you need to be considerate of other people's feelings and efforts and feelings.

John Hans says, this guy's a liar. You know, I go around calling people liars. People are being offended at times.

I've been called the liars. Who says call me a liar and she's lie, offset it. But most people aren't like that.

I don't belong. John's calling this person a liar. They're liar.

They say, I know him, but they're not walking in the right way. They're lying about that no God. And it goes on to say the truth is not in him.

So let's look at how both passages this is familiar here. First, John one six and eight. Somebody could read those.

You can revolve. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walking directly, relying do not practice the truth. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is nothing.

So this phrase comes up quite a bit in first John, back in chapter one, you see this similar phrase in here that we say we have fellowship with him. This is kind of the same thing. We say we're in him, but we say we have fellowship with him and we do not.

And we walk in darkness. We do not practice the truth. You say you have fellowship with God, that your relationship is good with God, you're doing the right things, but you're not walking the right way.

You're lying about that. The truth is animal. And so this kind of idea to say that I know him, but I'm not walking with him, there's something disconnected there.

There's something not right there, and you're making yourself a liar. Then. John one eight, if we say that we have no sin, so this is the kind of person that says, hey, I have no problem with sin.

It's not a big deal for me, and I'm always doing what's right. Like I said when I came to the Pharisee that talking to Jesus, Jesus said, what must I do to inherit salvation? The guy goes, I Jesus says, follow the commandments. And he said, oh, I've done that since my youth.

But really, you have perfectly everything. Really. Yeah.

So this phrase comes up a lot here. In this case here, he's talking about a guy who says, I know God, but not. James 217 18 go ahead.

Thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Well, some people get confused over this whole passage.

You can read the whole James two passage. They think that's not, you need to have works in order to be saved to have that faith. That's not what it's saying here.

It's talking about what's the proof of your faith. And it's saying here that faith by itself, if it does not have works, is death. You say you have faith, but there's no show for it.

It's not working, it's not doing anything. And he was on the same show me your faith without your words. How can I see your faith if I don't see any evidence of it, if I don't see any proof of it? And he goes on, James says, I'll show you my faith by my words.

You can see my faith in action. You can see God working in me as I'm trusting him, as I'm obeying him, as I'm counting his commandments. You can see that work on my life.

And so someone who would say, I have faith, but I'm going to live the way I want, there's that disconnect, there's something wrong there, a liar. The truth is that they are so that's number two. Point number two here, the person lacking evidence.

.3 we have the person with evidence. I used a huge word there.

Oh, what did that mean? That was high. But that's important. First, John two five.

But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. That is, we know that we are in him. So here there's just an assumed that this is the guy that's in the same place as the other guy that he says on Jonah.

And now, what's the difference between this guy and the guy in verse four here? The difference, he keeps God's word, he's doing what he's supposed to be doing. He's obeying God's commandments. Again, is this perfectly well, no, John already dealt with that.

We don't do it perfectly. That's why we have to have an advocate of Jesus Christ the righteous. So it's not that, but it's an idea of someone consistently living according to things of God--consistently obeying.

So this is the same as keeping his commandments. They are living a life consistently as a not necessarily perfectly forgotten. Don't go to Psalm.

When we're studying the New Testament a lot, but this is a good passage about God's word here. Psalm 100, 1933 through 35, Matthew. Go ahead and do that.

Teach me, o Lord, the way of these statues and I shall keep it to the earth. Give me understanding and thou shalt keep through the law. Indeed, I shall deliver my whole book.

So here's the idea again. This kind of fits this word of God. As we're in God's word.

The outflow of that is going to be that we start keeping his commands and start living as we're taking God's Lord, as we're meditating on it, as we're memorizing, as we put it in our life, it's going to help flow in our life. And you see that this is the type of person who's tying out here, the person who says, I am in, I know him and that there are actions that keep his word. Doing what this word says, it comes by knowing God's word.

So the person whose actions he keeps God's word. The reality is that we see the love of God where he made the love of God. And John talks a lot about discuss it as we go along here.

The love of God is perfected in him. This word perfected is a tough one, bringing those two different old songs next to each other. But we see this again, this song, this word is used a lot.

This is a good one to know. Let me see. Perfected a lot of times.

This is what it really means. It means to make complete. It's full.

So this is what it's talking about. The love of God is full of his life. Added further than one, John.

Let's look at verse three. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not. There's a connection between the love of God and keeping God's commandments.

If we love him and if God's love is working in us, the result is going to be an obedience in our life. That's the outflowing of love. Remember that.

Pastor Kevin Gildas in Justin. He was here. Love is a choice.

Love is a decision make. You choose to love God. God has chosen and shown his love to us.

We choose to love him back. And that love is showing him keeping his commandments, making those choices to do what God wants us to because of our love for him. So the love of God is perfected.

John 14 2121-2324 I think I put all three of these. Who has my sin, which he keeps them. It is he who loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my father, I will love him and man that myself to him. Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our own. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the fathers who sent me.

Look at how often this is three verses. The word love appears over and over. Verse 21.

There he who keeps doing commandments and keeps them is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father. I will love him, manifest myself in verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him.

Verse 24. He does not love me, does not keep my word. And so over and over it goes back to this one right here, just, you love God or you don't love God.

That's the two spots between man, and there's no in between. There's no kind of love. Or I like God a lot of no, it's you love God or you don't love God.

It's showing how and how we live, what we're doing. The person that loves God keeps his word. The person who's God's love of perfectly keeping his word is growing in that, more and more in shape.

That's a bit. John 1521 talks a lot about, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my laws, just as I have kept my father's commandments in abiding his love. And here we talk about abiding in a second, because this is a word that comes up a lot in first.

John also. But the idea here is not that when we keep his commandments, God loves us. It's commandments.

We live in his love. We regain it as love, or in that presence of his love or that sphere of what his love compasses. And in order to love God, you have to to keep his commandments.

There's no other way. They make the choice to do what God says. You make that choice to love him by doing what he wants you to do.

So love and keeping God's commandments. These are connected in the christian world. If we say we love God and put love up there, that's the result in a change in our action.

So he gives us an idea. Whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God's perfection, to keep them clean, by this we know that we are in him. So this is kind of going back to verse three, summarizing that how do we know that we're in God what we know, because we keep his plans, we keep his word, we don't do that.

We don't have that assurance that we're in. So six here. .4

he who says he abides in him also, himself also walking just as he walked. So I called this an instruction to believers, because this is not. He went from scenarios.

Now he's giving me direct instruction here. And the invitation here is that he who says he abides in him. So as someone saying, if you want to be a believer and say, I abide in God and in him, this is what you have to do.

This is what's required of you. The word of God is Menno. It means to remain the stage and live and, well, it's a very common word that John uses a lot.

It's between the book of John and first John and second John. I didn't even comment any time. Other authors use it, too, since John really likes this word.

So this person here is saying, I abide in him, I dwell in him, and I live in God is I remain in gap. And this ought to be our goal as Christians. Don't we want to be in gap? Don't we want to be under his presence? And we want to be living under his power and his authority.

We want to be doing the things that please enjoy our love. This should be our goal. So every one of us should say, that's what I want to do.

I want to say, I abide in Christ. Like I said, john uses all. I picked up several of the places, but not every place here.

So let's look at a few of these verses. John 15, four and five in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the mind, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much free, for without me you can do nothing. So here talks about in our passage how bites of him ought to walk as he walked.

We can't even walk as he that walks without abiding. Again, that's a requirement. The point of John here, you can't bear any fruit unless you're abiding in Christ.

You can't have any result in your life. You can have anything that's pleasing to God without abiding first in Christ. So while if we're abiding in him, we can see in our lives, we can't see it in our lives unless we're by, you see, it kind of works together doesn't it? And so Christ has given his disciples this idea that you need me.

You need to be in me. You need to be dwelling in me, remaining in me, if you're going to produce fruit. And that's true of all of us as Christians.

We need to be have a focus in our lives on God, his word, and be seeking to please and obey him by who he is. Let's look at first John a couple places. First, John 224.

Go ahead. Here. Therefore, let that abide in you that you heard from the beginning.

If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also divide in the son and in the following. Here John is talking about. That was it.

From the beginning of the document. You've heard that abides in you, that you're a gain man. You are.

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone has practiced his righteousness. So here the abiding is connected with confidence when he appears at his second coming. But verse 29 also goes on to say, if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.

There's a connection between the body and what your practice is. That as you're abiding in him, your practice is going to result in righteousness. First John 412 through 16.

I saw Ryan's handwriting. Do you want that one? Ryan? I do. Yes.

First John 3434. Yeah. Now, he keeps his commandments, abides in him.

And he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us. By the spirit he has given.

He who keeps the commandments abides in him. Christ. And Christ abides in him.

So not only is the person who's keeping his commandments, not only is he abiding in Christ, but Christ is involved in your life. Christ is working in your life as you keep his commandments. He's working me.

And does this through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit working in our lives. I've often gotten teased by some of my non baptist relatives about how they are trinity as father, Son and the Holy Bible instead of spirit.

But the spirit plays a huge part of life. God gave us this holy spirit to be that paraphernalia. That when he comes along the side of the outpost and that's how he works through us.

So we have that now. First, John 412 16. Go ahead, pastor.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us. And his love has been perfected in us by this.

We know that we abide in him, that he can he in us. Because he has given us his spirit that we have seen and testify that the father has sentence. The Son and savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides infinitely. He is God. And we have known and believed and love that God has.

God has for us. God is love. And he who abides in love, finding God in him.

John is saying very similar things in a lot of different ways here. First, Christ talking about, we love one another. God abides in us.

This is reflecting our actions. Again, if we're acting in our way, we can see that God is working. We know that we abide in him.

And he announced, because he gave us his Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit is working in our life. When we're under the authority and submitting to the Holy Spirit's will, we know that God is abiding us and demanded on us. But on verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus, the Son of God, God abides.

In another confession is this idea of agreeing, of having the same opinion, acknowledging the truth, what it is. So you're acknowledging who Jesus Christ is, which is, he's God, he's the savior, he's the Lord. And that changes the way you think when you're saying, yes, that's true.

I truly believe that I want to live like that. It changes that. So there's a confession there.

And then in order to believe the love that God has for us, God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God. So as you're living awareness of loving, if you're doing what God wants you to do in love, you remain in Christ.

So all this to say that if we want to abide in him, we have to be living our way. This is what he says here in first John two six. He says he abides in him ought to himself walk also, just as he had walk.

So this is our walk. That shows that we are abide in him. So the word ought, this is literally the word that means holds.

You're obligated. This is something necessarily necessary for you to do. If you want to abide with him, you need to walk in the right way.

It's not an option. It's not something I want. This would be helpful.

You know, sometimes I go places and I try to give an example now, but I know, like, I went for bank Ms. Payton, gave the kids some money and put it on one check. So I had to deny that. So I went to the bank and deposited the money so I can write checks to everybody and the teller there who actually knows me really? Well, I'm not sure what once upon.

Hey, mister Kelly, how are you? That's good. He starts talking about, oh yeah, we have these cds that you can do if you're interested in that. I'm like, okay, thanks.

That's optional at this point. That's not what I'm here to do. This is not what this is.

This is not like, well, that's an optional. Good band. I guess if I walk with God, that's good.

How much? No, if you want to buy a guy, you have to, you're obligated to walk as, just as he walked. So this walk here concerns our lifestyle. Our lifestyle needs to be consistent.

John already in chapter one has talked about our walk. Whether we walk in darkness or walk into light, we see that, an example of that in first John one seven. But if we walk in the light and see us in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from.

So walking the light has an effect in our life, right? If God wants us to walk in the light, it's true. It affects our culture more than other. It affects our relationship with Jesus Christ as us.

So our lifestyle needs to be consistent. God wants us to walk in the right way. He wants us to be obedient to his commandments if we want, if we want to abide in him, that we are going to be like, I'm in God, I'm doing what God wants to do.

We actually have to be doing what God wants us to do. We can't just be saying that in doing the way we want to. It's not an option.

So we walk just as he walked. And we know that Jesus Christ, he's our model, he's our example. He showed us the perfect way to live before God.

So he's the example. Walking, speed walk. A couple summary verses here of this section I thought would be really good, would be one Peter 113 and 16.

I don't have the other notes there. We might just open our bibles for once. That would be weird, right? So let's do first.

Peter 113 16 1st. Therefore, Grant, be sober and rest your home fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you all in revelation of goodness. As obedient children, not conform to yourselves to the full or less as you.

But as he who called you was holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy for all you passionate rested upon the grace that you brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is future grace that's coming, by the way. This is not by all the grace that we were saved by, but this is the grace of living by the future grace that we have.

But it affects us. It's not just sitting back in the God's grace unit. Everything's great.

Good. I feel good. God's grace is.

It's not that kind of thing. It affects us, that word. To be obedient children, we're not to be conspiring ourselves to form a lust.

We're not to be holy because he is holy, because of who he is. It changes us. And when we say we're in Christ and we're valued him and that affects the outflow of our life, that affects what we're doing and we're oblivious to him.

Let's grab our bibles. Because I can study while I can't put together. Don't sit, Vivian.

John starting in verse 14, verse twelve, or chapter 14, verse twelve.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he believes in me. The works that I do, you will do also greater and greater works than the U. Because I load.

Yeah, I'm checking because that doesn't sound familiar. And the verse I have down here doesn't look right. Sorry.

No, that's not right either. Yeah, I'm not sure. This might have been copied from my pass notes on here.

So let's go ahead and just pass those off. That might be why it's important. Sorry about that.

I am not the best at putting the elites votes all the time. We don't. So anyway, so the last point there, just what is the instruction for belief is that if we are to remain in Christ, we say that we abide in him, that we live in him.

We need to keep his commandments and walk just as he walks. That's what's required of us. So a couple takeaways.

I kind of summarized the whole thing here. Number one, we have assurance of our salvation as we walk into light and keep his commandments. Our salvation is not determined by our works, but our assurance is based on our works.

We choose to walk in darkness and just based God's commandments. We lose that assurance if someone. Because sometimes you hear about Christians who said you would have doubts about my salvation.

Well, part of that is finding us not walking the word there's supposed to be walking. If you're not doing what a Christian's supposed to be doing, how can you say, hey, I'm a Christian when you're not acting that way? You know, I go around and I don't think this is a surprise to anybody, but I'm a huge ninja. So as a J fake packer fan, I can go around telling people I love a manga packers and I could show up everywhere wearing purple and gold and people would be like, you're not a jacket fan.

You're not acting like one. You're not dressing like one. You don't look like one.

It's kind of the way it is with our. You can go around and say, hey, I'm a Christian, but I'm going to live like the rest of the world. I'm going to live in the lust of flesh.

Lusty. I think you can say, you say you're a Christian, you sure don't look like it. You're not acting like it.

And that type of person should not have assurance. If I say I'm a premier tacker fan and I love wearing the purple gold, I should be questioning whether I really am a Packer's fan because I would not do that. Right? So a Christian ought to live the way fishing all the way.

That's why this is the way off the subject. That's why I said the other day about different teams, I want to wear the knees, pretend dialysis. That's besides the point.

That's pretty much so anyway. So if you don't have assurance, maybe you're nothing walking the way you're supposed to be walking, maybe you're not living the way that God wants it to. That's part of the reason.

How do we know that we know him? Because we keep his hands. If there's that effect in our life, we can see God working. My second one.

As a Christian, our walk ought to be consistent in life. This does not mean, while this is actually wild, well, this does not mean that we are completely free of sin, should be that of obedience, and our progress should be more and more Christ like. A person who professes to be a Christian should be living like a Christian.

It's required, it's necessary that they do that. If we say we know Christ, we need to determine to walk as Christ walk in our lives. So I think John's message is pretty clear here.

A Christian walks like a Christian, a Christian acts like a Christian. If you say that we know Christ, that you're in instead of shoulder. So that's what I got this morning.

Any comments, questions, concerns? Let's go ahead and pull the paradigm.