The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 6

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Well, this morning as we continue our study of 1 John, I invite you to turn with me to 1 John, chapter 5, and keep your finger there. We're going to start in another passage, but as we continue our study of 1 John 5, we come to the biblical doctrine of assurance, the assurance of our salvation. But before we examine the text, I want to remind you of a couple of important truths about assurance.

First of all, understand this, it is possible to have a false assurance of salvation, that is, to be convinced in your heart that you're truly a Christian, when in fact, you're not. That's obviously a huge problem and a concern. Turn to Matthew, chapter 7; Matthew, chapter 7, again, keep your finger in 1 John 5, we’ll be back there in just a moment. But in Matthew, chapter 7, Jesus, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, warns those who are listening, not only is there a danger of false teachers who lead you to the wrong entrance to eternal life, but there's also a danger of self-deception, of having a false assurance. Look at Matthew 7, verse 21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven...” In other words, not all of those who confess to know Jesus are actually His, “…but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” And then He fast forwards to the Day of Judgment, and Jesus, the One who will be the Judge, tells us something tragic that will happen on the Day of Judgment.

Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME…”

That is a sobering passage and can be frightening for many even true believers.

But you don't need to be frightened by this passage because right here, in this very text, Jesus tells us how to recognize those who have a false assurance. You want to know if you have a false assurance? He tells us; look at verse 23 again, “…I will declare to them ‘I never knew you;’” now watch this, here they are, here are the ones with false assurance, “…DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”

In other words, the way to identify somebody with false assurance is somebody who claims Jesus, who says, “I know Him, I'm a Christian, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ,” but who walks in disobedience to Jesus Christ, whose life is characterized by sin and disobedience. He goes on to tell the parable, you remember, of the two men, the wise man and the foolish man; one built his house on the rock, the other built his house on the sand. I always ask this question, “What's the rock in that story?” And ninety-nine times out of one-hundred, Christians say to me, “It's Jesus.” Well, that's the right answer for another question. That's not the answer to this question, because read the story. Jesus tells you what the rock is. He says, “You want a Christian life that holds up at the Judgment that proves to be genuine?” We're not saved by our works, but we are saved unto good works, and when we live a life of obedience, it shows that we really are Christ’s because He says, “The one who builds his house on the rock is the “one who hears My words and does them.” (Paraphrase.) The foolish person whose profession will not stand at the judgment is the one who says, “I know Jesus, but who builds his house, not on the rock of obedience to Christ, but builds his profession on a life that's characterized by sin and disobedience.” (Paraphrase.) So, there it is; people who have a false assurance claim to know Jesus but the consistent pattern of sin and disobedience marks their lives. So, it's possible to have a false assurance.

Secondly, it's possible for true Christians to have only a weak assurance of salvation. We're going to see that this morning in our text, and I can tell you that this is very common. Early in my own Christian life and at times throughout the many decades now that I've known Jesus, I've struggled with doubts, that's not uncommon for believers, and we'll talk about some of the reasons for that in a moment. I’ve counseled many who struggle with doubts, even when there's reason to think they're genuine believers.

A third important truth that we need to understand about assurance is that assurance isn't something that doesn't matter. Assurance is crucial for our spiritual growth. John Bunyan, in his classic work Pilgrims Progress, describes Christian as sleeping when he loses his role of assurance. Listen to what Bunyan writes.

But who can tell how joyful this man was when he had gotten his role again, for this role was the assurance of his life and acceptance at the desired Haven? Oh, how nimbly now did he go up the rest of the hill. (In other words, he's saying, “When you have assurance, you can climb the path to heaven, you can continue to live for Christ and to grow in your knowledge of Him.”)

I love the way Spurgeon puts it. He says, “It is one thing to hope that God is with us, and another thing to know that He is. Faith saves us, but assurance satisfies us.” So, assurance, then, which we'll study together today, is a crucial issue.

Now, just to remind you, the theme of 1 John is “The Tests of Eternal Life,” and there are three tests, and there are also three movements or cycles, and each of those movements contains the same three tests. We're finishing the third movement or cycle; it runs from chapter 4, verse 7, down through the end of the book. And we are studying the second test in this last cycle, 1 John 5:1 to 15; and for the third and last time, we're looking at the test of “Faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel.” Now, let me note for you, I told you several weeks ago I was still struggling with what to do with verses 14 and 15. Well, I put them back with verses 1 to 13; you can see in the outline here, alright? And I'll explain why next week when we get to it.

The theme of this paragraph is that “The one who believes God's testimony about the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel (The one who believes that testimony.) has been born of God and has eternal life.” In this text, John explains four key elements of true saving faith. So far, we've seen “The Cause of Saving Faith,” “The Results of Saving Faith,” and we've just completed our study of “The Object of Saving Faith,” in verses 6 through 12–it's the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel. Now today, we come to a fourth key element of saving faith, and that is “The Assurance of Saving Faith.,” and this is verses 13 to 15, the assurance of saving faith. Let's read it together, 1 John 5, verses 13 through 15.

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.

Now, I don't have to tell you that verse 13, which I just read, is the key verse in this letter. It's where John clearly states the theme of this letter. John likes to do that; he did it in his Gospel, and John's Gospel was written for unbelievers that they might believe; and believing, have eternal life. John 20, verse 31, “…these (things) have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, (Messiah), the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” But this 1 letter of John was written for believers, that they might know that they have eternal life, that we might have true, biblical, real assurance of our salvation.

Now, today in verse 13, we learn about “The Reality of Assurance,” and next week, in verses 14 and 15, we learn “One Result of Assurance.” So, let's consider today then “The Reality of Assurance,” the reality of assurance. In verse 13, John teaches us several crucial facts about the reality that we can have assurance and some facts that are really important about assurance. So, let's look at the these together.

First of all, we need to see what assurance is; we need to get a definition. So, the first fact we learn is this, “Assurance is confidence that we have eternal life, which includes confidence in our forgiveness of sins, our justification, our adoption as sons and daughters, and our ultimate glorification.” Notice verse 13, John says, “…that you may know that you have eternal life.” That is really a simple definition of assurance; to have assurance is to know that you have eternal life.

Here are two other definitions from a couple of theological works. In Biblical Doctrines, there's this definition, “The divinely given confidence of the believer that he or she is truly saved,” the divinely given confidence of the believer that he or she is truly saved. That's one definition. Here's another, this is from the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, “The confidence of the believer in Christ that notwithstanding his mortal sinful condition, he is irrevocably a child of God and an heir of Heaven.”

Now, I told you before that assurance is crucial, but sadly, there are many who downplay or reject the concept of assurance. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, denies that a Christian may have real assurance in this life. Armenians argue that a true believer may enjoy assurance of salvation for a time, but can apostatize and lose that salvation, so the assurance is really short lived. Wesleyans teach that assurance is only for those who are living without voluntary sin. Because of their doctrine of perfectionism, they define, you know, being without sin as you're not choosing to sin. And so, if only in that case, can you have assurance. Postmodernists claim that certainty about anything is just arrogance and presumption. So, there are many attached to the Church of Christ who deny the reality of assurance. I like what John Stott writes when he says:

It is common today to dismiss any claim to assurance of salvation as presumptuous, and to affirm that no certainty is possible on this side of death. But certainty and humility do not exclude one another. If God's revealed purpose is not only that we should hear, believe, and live, but also that we should know, presumptuousness lies in doubting His Word, not in trusting it.

I love that. It's not pride to say, “You know, I know!” It's pride to say, “God said I could know, but I don't think we can.” And Scripture is absolutely clear that it is possible to have real assurance, to know with certainty that we're Christians.

Let me just give you a sampling. Consider Romans, chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Paul, after explaining the Gospel says:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have (are having) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

He's talking about a confidence. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 12, Paul says, “…I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until (against) that day.” You say, “Yes, but that's Paul, he's an Apostle.” Okay, just think about what we've learned in 1 John. Ordinary Christians can have assurance:

(1 John 2:3) By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

(1 John 3:14) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.

(1 John 4:13) By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

So, if you are confident that you have eternal life, then considering the verses I just quoted, you also know and you are confident that you have been forgiven of your sins, that you have been justified, you've been declared right with God based on the work of His Son, you've been adopted as His son or daughter, and you will absolutely be glorified. That comes with assurance.

There's a second fact about the reality of assurance, and that's, “It is only for those who believe in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel.” It's obvious, but he punctuates it here in verse 13. Notice what he writes, “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.” Let me read verse 13 to you from the Greek text; this is the literal word order. Look at verse 13, and then let me read it to you, as it appears literally in the word order in the Greek text, “These things I wrote to you in order that you may know that life you are having eternal, to the ones believing into the name of the Son of God.” Now, why does John, add at the end of that verse in the Greek text, “to the ones believing into the name of the Son of God?” He does that intentionally to identify those who can legitimately have biblical assurance. So, who can have biblical assurance?

Well, first of all, only those who believe in the biblical Jesus. Verse 13, “…you who believe in the name of the Son of God.” Jesus is identified as the Son of God seven times in verses 5 through 12. Those who can know that they have eternal life are only those who “believe in the name of the Son of God.” That is, they believe that Jesus of Nazareth, the human person, is at the very same time from the moment of His conception, the eternal Son of God. He is, as we learned in verses 6 through 9, the God-Man from the moment of His conception, and throughout eternity. That’s the only Jesus in which there is salvation and assurance.

Secondly, they not only believe in the biblical Jesus, they believe in the biblical gospel. Those who have a right to assurance are only those who believe the gospel that we saw last week in verses 10 through 12, that biblical gospel; those who believe that eternal life is solely a gift of God's grace through His Son, a gift based on Christ's work alone and received by faith alone. It's only those who believe that Gospel who can have assurance. And not only do they believe in the biblical Jesus and believe in the biblical gospel, but they continue to believe. Verse 13 in the original literally says, “The ones believing.” This isn't something you did in the past; this is what continues to characterize you throughout the rest of your life, you continue to believe.

In fact, go back to chapter 2, verse 19. John says, speaking of those who followed the false teachers there, teaching pre-Gnosticism, in Asia Minor. He said, “They went out from us, (out from the churches), but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are (were) not of us.”

You see, it's only those who continue to believe in the biblical Jesus and the biblical Gospel who are truly saved. In fact, go down to verse 24 of chapter 2. He says:

As for you, let that abide in you (He's talking about the gospel, ‘let that abide in you.’) which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning (remains) in you, you…will…also…(remain) in the Son and in the Father.

The false teachers and those who followed them in the first century, could not legitimately have biblical assurance. It's not good enough to have made a profession of faith in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel at some point in the past and then to walk away from it. That shows you were never truly saved at all. Assurance is only for those who believe in the biblical Jesus and in His Gospel, and who keep on believing it.

Thirdly, “Assurance is not equally enjoyed by all true Christians,” assurance is not equally enjoyed by all true Christians. You see, all Christians do have a basic confidence that their sins are forgiven and that God is their Father at some point in their lives. It begins that way. Go back to chapter 2; you remember we saw this in chapter 2, verse 12. He says, “I am writing to you, little children (Those who are young in the faith.), because your sins have been forgiven you for His (Your) name’s sake.” The youngest Christian understands that his sins have been forgiven. And notice the end of verse 13, “…I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.” There is a basic understanding that God is my Father. That's true for the youngest Christian–I know my sins have been forgiven, and I know God.

However, while that is true, true Christians have varying degrees of assurance and may entirely lack assurance at times. Remember, John wrote this letter to those he identified, again and again, as true Christians. But he wrote so that those true Christians may come to enjoy assurance. What does that say? They were at varying degrees of not enjoying that assurance. Verse 13, “These things I have written to you who believe…so that you may know.” For many of the believers to whom John wrote this letter, the teaching of the false teachers had rocked their assurance because those teachers claimed to have a higher, more sophisticated knowledge than the simple faith of the average New Testament Christian. “You don't really know God the way we know God,” and it rocked their assurance in some cases.

But what about today? What are some of the common reasons that true Christians can lack assurance today? There are certain things in our lives that can be like spiritual cataracts that gradually cloud our spiritual perception, even of our own condition before the Lord. What are those things? This isn't a comprehensive list; it's a representative list. First of all, one of those common reasons that erode our assurance is temptation, unrepentant sin, and sinful habits. In other words, temptation and sin, those things can erode our assurance. We ask ourselves, “Would any real Christian face this temptation?” Or we ask ourselves, “Would any real Christian have committed this sin?” Or we ask ourselves, “Would any real Christian continue to sin, seek forgiveness, sin, seek forgiveness; maybe this means I'm not a Christian at all.” That can erode confidence and assurance.

Another common reason is the neglect of the spiritual disciplines, especially God's Word and prayer. If you neglect the food for your soul, your soul will grow weak and wither, and so will your assurance. Ignorance of or failure to personally apply the doctrine of justification. I can tell you in my own life, it wasn't until I really came to grips with the realities of justification, my standing before God, that my doubts of salvation began to ebb, and my confidence began to flow. You need to understand what's really happened to you and how you stand before God. Go listen to Romans, the Romans’ messages starting in chapter 3, verse 21, as Paul unfolds the gospel and through chapter 8. That section is crucial to do that. Or pick up a good book on the application of justification like Transforming Grace by Jerry bridges, or A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent, or the little booklets Gospel Meditations for Men or Gospel Meditations for Women by Chris Anderson and Joe Tyrpak. You need to understand the doctrine of justification.

Another reason for lack of assurance is feelings of guilt about past sins, and that really relates to what I was just talking about, not understanding justification. Uncertainty about the timing of one's conversion or a person who was saved when he was younger, who never really had the chance to express his sinfulness; he can begin to wonder. The influence of other professing Christians, and that happens positively and negatively. We can read about the great saints of the past and read their biographies and begin to wonder, “Am I a Christian at all?” Or, the opposite happens, like in the first century, some false teacher teaches a different gospel and we're exposed to it, and for a short time, it unsettles our assurance. A very practical cause of a lack of assurance can be physical exhaustion or illness. I've known genuine believers who’ve served the Lord faithfully their whole lives and then in old age, they get some form of Alzheimer's or dementia, and they question and doubt whether they know the Lord at all. So, there are a number of reasons; for those reasons and others, true Christians can lack assurance.

However, number four, “It's God's explicit plan for every believer,” assurance is God's explicit plan for every believer. Look at verse 13, “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.” John wrote the believers in Asia Minor because he wanted them all to have assurance. But understand that when we look at the Scripture, this was not prompted by the mind of John. These letters are inspired letters; it wasn't just John's desire; it was the goal of Jesus Christ our Lord that we would have assurance. He's the one who commanded John to write this letter. So, this verse then, reflects the heart of Christ, it reflects the heart of our God. God desires us to have assurance. And He does numbers of things to accomplish that. I love Hebrews, chapter 6, verses 17 and 18, where we read this:

God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise (That is us, the heirs to the spiritual promise made by Abraham of the gospel.) the unchangeableness of His purpose (Desiring to show us the unchangeableness of His purpose.) (He) interposed with an oath, (God swore.) so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

God wanted us to have strong hope and encouragement!

Let me go a step further, though, and maybe you haven't thought about this. But God commands us to pursue assurance. This isn’t optional; He commands us to do so. He does so negatively in 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 5, where we read, “Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test?” But He also puts the same command on us positively. This is 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 10, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.” It's not an option. Assurance is something that God commands you to pursue. It’s God's explicit plan for every believer to enjoy assurance; it's the reason for this letter of 1 John. You know, we often use 1 John in a negative way. We encourage those who profess Christ but who are living in sin to read 1 John. It's like, “You need to examine yourself,” and rightly so. But that's not the primary purpose this letter was written, as we're seeing in verse 13. The primary purpose of 1 John is positive–Christ wanted us to know that we have eternal life! That's the reason for this letter.

Number five, here's a fifth fact about assurance. “Assurance is primarily objective, not subjective.” Notice verse 13 says, “… that you may know that you have eternal life.” The Greek word translated ‘know’ here, ‘oida’ was used in classical Greek ‘to express knowledge, knowledge that is characterized by assurance, knowledge in which something is known with certainty.’ So, in the New Testament, this word is used with that nuance. Sometimes it's used just as a synonym for other words for ‘know,’ but at times, it is used with this nuance. For example, in Romans 8:28, there we could translate it this way, “We are sure that God causes all things to work together for good.” By using this word here, John is emphasizing that assurance is primarily an issue, listen carefully, assurance is primarily an issue of what you know and are therefore certain of, and not what you feel.

Emotions vary, emotions are unpredictable; even throughout a given day, our emotions can take large swings. I'm not that way as a person, I'm a fairly level person, but that's just my personality, that's how I am. Others, their emotions take wild swings in a given day. Regardless, our emotions are a terrible way to measure the reality of our salvation. Frankly, there are many times when I don't feel saved. Usually, it's every morning until I get a cup of coffee and a shower. Feelings have nothing to do with it. In fact, in the New Testament, the Greek word for ‘assurance’ means ‘full conviction,’ and it's talking about knowledge. Assurance, listen carefully, assurance doesn't come to you in your emotions, in your feelings. It's just like everything else in the Christian life. Your emotions are not the engine of your Christian life; they are the caboose. The engine of your Christian life is what you know from the Scripture, and your emotions follow. In the same way, assurance starts with what you know, and given enough time, your emotions will catch up. But don't let your emotions be the engine of your Christian life or of your seeking of assurance. Assurance is a knowledge of the objective evidence that is set forth in God's Word. Notice again, verse 13, “These things I have written…so that you may know.” Real assurance is found in Scripture alone.

And that brings us to the sixth fact about the reality of assurance, and that is this, “It's gained by applying the three tests of eternal life in 1 John.” Assurance becomes ours when we examine our lives in light of the three tests in 1 John. Now, before we talk about the right biblical means that's here in this verse, let's talk about the wrong means to gaining assurance. There are several popular but wrong means to try to seek assurance.

For example, some tried to seek assurance in a religious ritual. In the Roman Catholic Church, that's the sacraments, even though they don't believe you can ever really be certain. Those who try to seek assurance do so in the sacraments. The Protestant version of that is Christians who try to seek assurance in baptism, they try to remember their baptism, and that's where their confidence, their assurance is placed. That's a wrong place to seek assurance.

Another wrong place to seek assurance is in assurance itself. Now you say, “What does that mean Tom?” Well, it takes a couple of different forms. Here's one way it works, and I've talked to people like this; well, how do you know that you're a Christian? “Well, I just know.” Well, how do you just know? “Well, you know, I know I'm saved, because I'm sure I'm saved.” I'm serious! I mean, that is how some people think. This person knows he's a Christian because he just knows he is, and nothing you can say will ever shake his confidence, regardless of how he's living. That's a dangerous place to be. It's like the warning in Deuteronomy 29:19, which says, “It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart…’” It's a bad place to be. Don't generate your own peace based on your own assurance, “I know I'm a Christian, so I know I'm a Christian.” That's circular logic, and it won't get you anywhere, and it certainly won't give you genuine assurance!

Another form of this is the sort of expression some have, “Somebody told me, somebody I trust, told me I was a Christian,” and that's where their assurance is. Usually, that trusted person is a well-meaning parent, that maybe led them in a profession of faith, or the person who shared the gospel with them, some other person. And this person who has this kind of assurance, they prayed to receive Christ, and then after the prayer, they were told unequivocally after praying a prayer, “You are a Christian,” and that's where their confidence is.

Another wrong place to seek your assurance is in experience. For some, assurance is based on a supposed vision. I've talked to people who, you know, I know I'm a Christian, because, you know, I had this wonderful warm, fuzzy vision of Jesus and He just assured me we were okay. Or for others, a near death experience and because they survived that near death experience, somehow that assures them that they, you know, maybe they had a vision in the middle of that experience that they really are a Christian. And that's where their assurance is. For most, the experience that gives them their assurance is remembering when they prayed the sinner’s prayer or remembering when they walked an aisle.

Listen folks, those are wrong places to seek assurance. Why? Because false Christians have done all those things! Some of those who will show up to judgment to whom Jesus says, “Depart from me, I never knew you,” have done all those things. Don't put your confidence of assurance there. So, what are the legitimate means for gaining real biblical assurance?

Let's talk about the biblical means, and we can arrive there. I love the way both the Westminster and Baptist Confessions of Faith put it:

Being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, a true believer may without extraordinary revelation (In other words, without God whispering in your ear or some miracle, may without extraordinary revelation.) in the right use of ordinary means attain to assurance. (The right use of ordinary means, you can attain assurance.)

So, what are those means? Well, in our text, John explains the biblical means. Look at verse 13 again, “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.” “These things;” there's the biblical means. Now, what is that? Well, some argue “these things,” that expression refers to chapter 5, verses 1 to 12, just referring back to the rest to this chapter. But most agree that “these things” refers to the contents of the entire letter. That's based on several pieces of evidence.

First of all, the clear parallel between John’s statement of purpose at the end of his gospel, “These have been written,” and here in verse 13, clearly the statement in his Gospel refers to the entire Gospel, so it's likely this verse is referring to the entirety of the letter. Another reason is that this letter was written, and it's clear throughout, to provide assurance, and so doesn't it make perfect sense that there would be a statement of that's why he's written? In addition, if you go back to chapter 1, verse 4, as John began his letter, he explained why he, notice verse 4 of chapter 1, “is writing (Present tense, we are writing.) so that our joy may be complete.” And then in chapter 5, verse 13, as he ends the letter, he summarizes why he has written, “I have written…so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Put the two together and you have the purpose of this book. John's joy, as an Apostle, as one who loved and cared for these people, would only be full when believers have real assurance. So, the phrase “these things,” then in verse 13, refers to the contents of the entire letter, and also here in context to verses 1 through 12 of chapter 5, where the tests of 1 John are summarized. So, in the end, it doesn't really matter.

So, this entire letter then teaches us the means we must use to “Truly gain assurance of eternal life.” Remember, there are three tests: Test number one, “Love for God and His People;” Test number two, “Faith in Jesus Christ in His Gospel;” and test number three, “Obedience to Christ and His Word.” Those are the three tests.

But how should we use those three tests to find assurance? Well, let me get very practical. If you claim to be a Christian, here is the practical path to real biblical assurance. There are only two steps. Number one, “Examine your life against the three tests in 1 John.” Do you believe and are you believing in the biblical Jesus as He's been explained in this letter, and in the biblical gospel, as it has been explained by the Apostle John? A different Jesus can't save you and a different gospel won't save you. And it's not just that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior; it's that you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and your Savior. Do you believe the biblical Jesus? “Do you believe in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel?” If so, you pass that test.

Let's go to the second test, “Do you have a love for God and His people?” We've seen that again and again throughout this letter. Do you have a love for God? Do you love God? Can you be convicted of loving God? And do you love His people?

Thirdly, “Is your life marked by obedience to Jesus Christ and His Word?” That’s not the perfection of your life, but the direction of your life? Let me put it differently, “When you look at your life, is there a decreasing pattern of sin, as you look back at the years you claim to be a Christian, a decreasing pattern of sin, and you can see an increasing pattern of obedience?” You don't have to be perfect or sinless to enjoy assurance, but there does have to be real evidence in your life that you've experienced the new birth. If you don't pass those three tests, if you can't put a checkmark by all three of those tests, listen carefully, this is Jesus Christ through His Apostle saying to you, “You are not a Christian. You have no right to think of yourself as having eternal life.” My call to you today is to repent of your sin and throw yourself on the mercy of God because of the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, so that you can experience forgiveness, justification, adoption, so that you can then be confident of it rightly and biblically.

If you do pass those three tests, if you say, “Tom, you know, those aren't perfect in my life, but honestly, before the Lord, as I open my heart before the Lord, I can say that I passed those three tests, that those are a reality in my life, then you can know that you have eternal life. And that's not a matter of feeling; that's a matter of faith in God's revelation–He gave you this Book to know.

That brings us to a second means of assurance. Not only do you need to examine your life in light of the three tests in 1 John; but secondly, you then need to “Believe and rest in the promises of the gospel,” believe and rest in the promises of the gospel. God calls us, throughout the Scripture, to believe and to rest in the simple promises of the gospel.

One of the things that aided me in my assurance, and I'm getting off track here a little bit, but I'll just say this, when you look at the armor that we're to put on in Ephesians 6, one of the pieces of armor that helps us fight the spiritual war is the little, short sword that the Roman soldier used. That is an analogy to using short passages of Scripture to fight the battle against temptation and sinful thinking. So, when it comes to this issue of assurance, the verses I'm about to share with you, write them down somewhere, memorize them, and when you've examined yourself by the tests of 1 John and you pass those tests, but doubts still come, rehearse these simple promises of the gospel, and say, “God, you're not a liar, I believe you!”

Here they are:

(John 3:16) “…God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

(John 5:24) “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

(John 6:40) “…this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.

(John 10:27 to 29) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the (My) Father's hand.”

(John 11:25 and 26) “…I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never (truly) die.”

(Acts 10:43) “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”

(Romans 8:29 and 30) “…those whom (God) foreknew, (That is those whom He predetermined to have a relationship with.) He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

You need to examine your life in light of the tests in 1 John. Having done that and having passed, you need to believe and rest in the promises of the gospel.

Ian Murray writes, “We gain assurance by looking to Christ alone, and to Christ as is revealed to us in the promises of Scripture. The Christian will never get beyond the promises of Christ as the sure ground of peace.” Samuel Rutherford puts it this way, I love this. He says, “Believe God's word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.”

So how can you gain real assurance, genuine biblical assurance where you're not kidding yourself, you're not living in denial? How can you gain real assurance of your salvation? Number one, the first means, “Examine the evidence in your life against the three tests in 1 John.” But let me say, if that is the only means you use to gain assurance, if you only emphasize that, it will result in what John Murray calls, “an unhealthy subjective form of legalism.” Because, if all you do is focus on the three tests in 1 John, personal holiness almost becomes the basis on which you think you're accepted before God, which is, of course, totally a lie. And if you take that approach, it will absolutely destroy your joy because your confidence is based on you. You do need to examine yourself, no question, we're called to do that, we're commanded to do that. You need to take the tests of 1 John, but as the Puritans used to say, “For one look at self, take ten looks at Christ.”

The second means of gaining assurance is “Believe and rest in the promises of the gospel.” But again, if that's all you do, if your entire ground of assurance is based on just the promises of the gospel, then it can lead you to superficial, false assurance; you can be kidding yourself, you can be saying, “I have peace, when you have no peace.” The fix is to examine yourself with the tests of 1 John.

So, what I want you to see is it's not one or the other of these, it's both of them together that become the vital means to assurance. I love the way Archibald Alexander sort of summarizes the means of assurance, listen to this:

In its essence, the evidence that shows a real Christian is eminently simple. Number one, entire trust in Christ for justification; and number two, a sincere and universal love of holiness with a dependence on the Holy Spirit for its existence, continuance, and increase.

It's both of those together. And if you will use those two means to gain assurance, then you can have real, true God-given assurance where you're not manufacturing something in your own mind to give your soul peace; you're trusting the revelation of God Himself. That's my hope and prayer for every true Christian here. You can know that you have eternal life!

Let's pray together. Father, You know my prayer has been and is now as I finish this message, that You would use 1 John, that You would use the message today, to grant real, biblical assurance to those who are truly Yours. Those who've taken the tests of 1 John and can say, not with perfection, but the direction of their lives is marked by those tests. Lord, help them to rest in the promises of the gospel, and may those promises speak peace to their soul, may they have true, real God-given assurance, confidence that they've been forgiven, that they've been justified. Father, help every Christian here to pursue that assurance as You've commanded, to be diligent to make their calling and Your choice of them sure.

Father, I also pray that You wouldn't allow a single person who has false assurance, who has wrongly convinced himself or herself that they're a Christian, when they don't pass the tests of 1 John, Father, don't allow them, for a moment, to gain assurance from this message, but use Your Spirit working in their hearts to help them to look in the mirror of Your Word and see the reality. And, Lord, I pray that even today You would bring them to true repentance and true faith.

So, Lord, may Your Spirit sort this message out at every heart so that it doesn't harm a single believer, but it doesn't allow a single unbeliever to rest in false confidence. I pray it in Jesus’ name, Amen.