Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] But let's take our Bibles and turn to the book of First John, if you would turn to First John, First John, the fifth chapter, Lord willing. I would like to teach and preach on a subject both this morning and tonight. And so if this obviously is a subject that piques your interest, that I hope that this evening, I hope this evening to continue what I start this morning and that to complete it and give kind of a full picture of this. What I want to talk about this morning is the subject of biblical assurance of your salvation.
[00:01:02] Biblical assurance of your salvation. I'm going to read something and really I just want to pause here and say something. This particular subject with me personally is an important subject that I have personally dealt with and many of you have probably dealt with this issue as well because this is not an uncommon question. This is not an uncommon question, but I want to read something to you that I got off of the Internets.
[00:01:30] If you did a search like I did, I did a Google search for. I just asked a question, something like ways to know you're saved. Alright, that's what I did. And I looked, I looked through there and just at some of the results and I came across this one and I thought it was a good representation what you might find on the Internet. Okay. And why we should all be careful. Okay.
[00:01:58] The title of this is 10 important signs to know if you are saved by God. Okay. That's what I'm just reading it. So listen to these. 10.
[00:02:09] Number one, you have fully understood the gospel. Number two, you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Lord.
[00:02:17] Number three, there is a sense of freedom.
[00:02:23] Number four, you have completely repented from your sins. Number five, you are confident that God has already forgiven your sins.
[00:02:33] Number six, obeying God's commands is easier. Now I'm just, again, I'm just reading. Number seven, there is a hunger for God's word.
[00:02:45] Number eight, you feel the need to fellowship with other believers.
[00:02:49] Number nine, you have been changing for the better ever since.
[00:02:53] And lastly, you are passionate about sharing the gospel with other people. Now what I want to. The reason I wanted to read that to you is this is that when you, when you listen to those points, they all have a positive kind of encouraging message, but they are largely subjective and some of them are flatly false.
[00:03:27] As an example, you are passionate about sharing the gospel with other people. This is a important sign to know if you are saved by God. Quoted. Alright, how many of you that have believed in Christ, you are a born again believer, have not been passionate about getting the gospel to other People that's going to be a fair, probably all of us at some point or another, might be some of us right now, but that's not a biblical sign. That's the point.
[00:04:00] Be careful, be careful of this stuff on the Internet, this fear feel good Christian esque stuff. The Bible is the grounds for our faith.
[00:04:14] Not Christian esque things, but the Bible and the Bible only. So when we read this, there's some things that are no doubt true in here. But what we need to base our biblical assurance upon is the Bible. And you know what? The Bible gives us some very clear and distinctive ways that we can know with certainty that we have passed from death unto life. At this moment we have eternal life. The Bible does tell us that. Now I want you to look at first John, hold your finger there if you would and go to the book of Matthew, chapter four. I just want to read one quick thing from Matthew chapter four before we read first John.
[00:05:12] Now before I read it, let's pray together and then we'll read a few couple of verses here in Matthew 4. Our Father, thank you for this day that you've made. Thank you for being our creator. Thank you for being our sustainer, for the things we need physically, for the food that we eat, for the money that we have the ability to provide for ourselves by your grace. Thank you for that. But Lord, way more than that is the knowledge that you have provided our Savior, that Jesus has come, he has died for our sins, that he has been buried, he has risen again. Thank you Lord for the assurance of eternal life. Thank you Lord that you've given us your word which is perfectly clear. Lord, help us to rest upon it. Rest our very souls upon what you have said.
[00:06:07] Lord, I pray that there be one among us that is not sure that they pass from death unto life, that it would be a matter that they would look upon with great examination.
[00:06:19] Lord, give me wisdom to know what to say. And Lord, please stop me from saying anything that you do not want spoken. And Lord, help your people as we look into your word, to receive the word of God with meekness, with desire and with expectation. Lord, we need it. And your word is enough. It is sufficient to do what you want done.
[00:06:41] And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:44] Matthew 4 the temptation of Christ the temptation of Christ, verse 3 says, and when the tempter, that's Satan, came to him, he said the first 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 words the devil said to Jesus, what are they?
[00:07:08] If thou be the son of God, was Jesus the Son of God. That was a fact. That is a fact. That is a fact. Of who? Of his identity, of his person. That is a reality. Now look at verse number. Look down at verse number six and saith unto him, this is the devil time. Number two.
[00:07:32] If thou be the Son of God.
[00:07:37] See that two times in the temptation of Christ, two of the three temptations. What did the devil insinuate?
[00:07:44] That Jesus Christ, who was indeed the Son of God, was not the Son of God. Now the devil is speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ directly. The Lord knows who he is. He knows his position within the Trinity. We know all of that.
[00:08:02] He knows who he is. But the devil is casting doubt upon his relationship to his Father and upon his relationship as. And his position as God's Son. I just want to say this before we go to First John.
[00:08:20] If the Lord Jesus, our Lord, was tempted to doubt his position and his condition, his relationship with his Father, certainly the devil will tempt us in the same way to doubt our position, our state and our relationship to God.
[00:08:44] Now look at First John.
[00:08:49] Look at First John, chapter five, if you would.
[00:08:54] I want to look down at verse number nine.
[00:09:00] The Bible says this.
[00:09:03] If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.
[00:09:10] Now sometimes parents have a tendency in families where. Listen, we all that have children, younger children or medium age children, non adult children, we all should be concerned that our children have personally put their faith in Christ.
[00:09:30] Of course, no one gets eternal life by proxy. No one gets eternal life by virtue of inheritance from their parents. The faith of mom and dad is not passed by default to the children. It can be passed in a way that the faith is taught to the child. But the child must himself embrace his faith in Christ personally. All right. So in that way they say, there are no grandchildren of God. There are only children of God, every one of us. That's why we're all brothers and sisters in Christ.
[00:10:06] And it says here, the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. So be careful when you talk to your kids to state to them you are saved. A lot of kids have been confused when mom and dad have said that. Mom and dad. You don't know that answer.
[00:10:24] You don't know that.
[00:10:27] Well, I was there. You don't know that. And besides that, do you want your child to trust in what you have told them is their relationship and position before God? Or do you want the Lord to convince them of that? Because if the Lord convinces them of it, it is permanent. It is permanent. You do not want to give your Child, a false assurance by stating something that you do not know for sure yourself of them. That's just a word of warning.
[00:10:55] And to be careful.
[00:10:58] He says for this middle of verse nine. For this is the witness of God which he hath testified of His Son.
[00:11:05] He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. You see that God can convince every child of God who he is.
[00:11:15] God can give us assurance himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. Verse 11. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. Love that it's clear. This life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
[00:11:42] And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So it should be perfectly clear. It is not possible to have eternal life without Jesus.
[00:11:51] The Bible is clear. Either we accept what the Bible says is true or we reject it as true. But there is no more than one Savior, and Jesus is he.
[00:12:03] And this is also why we must make sure we understand who Jesus Christ is according to God's word. Because the Bible says he that hath the Son hath life. So if we have an impersonator of the Son of God, we have someone who is playing charades. Is that the right word?
[00:12:23] He's acting like the Son of God. He has the name of Jesus, but it's not the Jesus of the Bible. It's a Father Jesus. There's not eternal life in that Jesus, but in this Jesus, the Son of God.
[00:12:34] And of course, there are religions that peddle that and that teach a false Christ, an Antichrist, as the Bible refers it. But the Bible says that eternal life is in this Son, Jesus Christ. All right, you cannot detach eternal life from Jesus.
[00:12:54] Eternal life came in a package, and that package is Jesus. Right? Verse 13.
[00:13:02] These things have I written unto you that believe. Notice that word, that clause that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
[00:13:21] Okay, stop there.
[00:13:24] This is the stated purpose of the book of 1 John. This is the stated purpose.
[00:13:31] These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Now if you look at this book was written by the apostle John. The Lord leading him. He wrote the book of First John. But this is also the same writer as the book of the Gospel according to John. In the Gospel of John, he also states his purpose for writing. And in the Gospel of John he states that his purpose is this. In John, chapter 20, verse 31, he says, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. So the Book of John, written by the same author, its purpose was that we might believe on Christ, seeing the things he did, knowing he's the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through his name. But the Book of First John is about assuring us that those that believe in him have eternal life. Certain with certainty. Alright, so one is about.
[00:14:40] The Book of John is about what is the truth.
[00:14:44] The book of First John is do I have the truth?
[00:14:49] One states the truth.
[00:14:52] One enables the believer to know he has the truth personally.
[00:14:58] Now, as you can see here, the whole book was written. The book of First John was written to give us the assurance of our salvation. Actually it's twofold.
[00:15:12] But what we can see clearly from verse 13, these things are written. I'm going to cut out the prepositional phrases. Here's what it says. These things have I written that ye may know that ye have eternal life. So what does that tell us?
[00:15:28] God wants us to know for certain that we are saved.
[00:15:33] God wants us to know without any doubt the word know. You see that word know, not believe, not hope. No. And the question is, how can you know something that you have embraced by faith?
[00:15:46] How can you know something you've embraced by faith?
[00:15:50] But upon the basis of our faith, we have certainty.
[00:15:55] Certainty. Everybody these days talks about how they want proof and they want evidence and they want. Like I saw one video not too long ago and this girl was screaming at a preacher, you got to show me proof. Proof Jesus rose from the dead. Proof. Proof. She knows very well that the proof that she's demanding is not available to her.
[00:16:15] She knows very well. And there's an entire body of things that she has accepted by faith. Words that professors have told us, words that parents and friends have told her that she has no proof of. But she accepts those and she knows they're true. You see, certainty can come by faith.
[00:16:36] Certainty can come by faith.
[00:16:39] This verse says, certainty can come by faith. We know, we believe in Christ, and it says that you may know.
[00:16:47] God wants us to know for certain that we are safe. So if you do not know for certain, if you have lingering doubts that you are a child of God, there is reason for you to examine Yourself.
[00:17:04] It is not a condition that the Lord wants you to be in permanently.
[00:17:09] It is definitely not to be, not intended to be the condition which God's people live never really knowing if they have eternal life. That is not scriptural. The Lord wants us to know for certain the book of first John is written for that purpose. But notice in verse 13, to whom this verse is written, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. Now hold on.
[00:17:41] This is addressed to believers, to those that have received Christ.
[00:17:49] So if they believe already, why is there still a question about their eternal life?
[00:17:59] And I can tell you just as a matter of personal experience and in a matter of knowing the experience of others. There are many, many people that have believed in Christ. They have fully trusted in Christ, they have received him, and yet they do not know they have eternal life. It is possible to fully believe in Christ. I say fully just to differentiate between the kind of casual, yeah, I'm a Christian, whatever, and true, wholehearted faith in Christ. It is possible to fully believe in Jesus Christ and yet not have the assurance of eternal life. It's not God's will, but. But it is possible to be there.
[00:18:42] So I want to say this point. I'm just following what I call the logic of faith.
[00:18:49] So doubts about your eternal life or lack of assurance, remember why he's writing. We just read the text is not proof that you're not a believer.
[00:19:01] A believer can doubt.
[00:19:03] Believer can be unsure whether they are going to heaven when they die and they have eternal life. It is possible.
[00:19:10] And just because you doubt doesn't mean that you are not God's child.
[00:19:16] God has a solution, but that is not foolproof.
[00:19:21] But it does give you reason to examine yourself. Right? I look at chapter three, since we're already here, verse number 19.
[00:19:34] I have taken great comfort in chapter three, verse 19, through verse 21 in my own life.
[00:19:42] I just want to tell you as a personal note, I was saved. I received Christ on the 4th of August of 1999.
[00:19:52] It was a Wednesday, early Wednesday morning, about 12:30 in the morning.
[00:19:59] That's when I received Christ. I am positive of that. No doubt at all. Now, I'm going to say more about that in just a minute, but I'll just. Just for me personally, I'm not saying this as an example to you. I'm just testifying to my own experience. Okay?
[00:20:16] I was saved at 12:30 in the morning on the 4th of August.
[00:20:21] And before that day was over, I was already doubting my salvation.
[00:20:32] I went to bed that night at the camp where I got saved. I went to bed that night, and the next day when I woke up, I went to bed. I mean, I was like, I was on cloud nine. I was just. I was rejoicing. Even though I had been religious, you guys, many of you had knew me at that time. I was in the church, I was serving whatever, and I got saved. And I laid in my bunk that night, and I looked up at the ceiling. I was on the top bunk. I looked up at the ceiling, and it was like I had met God for the first time, even though I'd been in church and all that because I had been converted, God had saved me.
[00:21:09] The next day, go to bed that night, the next day, I was already questioning whether I had been saved, whether I was saved immediately, almost immediately. You know what? My wife can verify this. You know, we got married another. What was it? Oh, it was about a year and a half after that, I guess all the way through the beginning part of our marriage, first several years of our marriage, I had serious struggles of whether I was saved. I was in Bible college. All that I did.
[00:21:50] I don't say that to set myself up as an example, see, you know. No, but it's a matter of the word of God, little by little, settling this question. But it must be based upon the word of God.
[00:22:05] It must be based upon the word of God. See, here's the thing. A lot of times we. We rest our assurance and we console ourselves on things that are not firm.
[00:22:17] All right, Hear me, for instance. Our experience.
[00:22:25] Because, you know, the older we get, that moment when we receive Christ gets less clear, does it not?
[00:22:36] The older we get, the details that used to be a part of our testimony, you know, they used to be very vivid. They used to be very. They used to be very. Just fresh in our mind. And as time goes on, those details start to fade. And we don't remember all the details like we used to. But the thing is, if we were assuring ourselves that we were truly saved based upon the details of that experience, and as that fades, so our assurance can fade.
[00:23:06] And then there's some people that were raised in a Christian home, and it's a difficult thing to ascertain. I mean, they've been in church their whole life. They've gone to the altar, they've prayed.
[00:23:18] It took them a long time just to settle the question.
[00:23:22] They don't even have an experience. We know salvation is at a moment of time. It is a new birth. It happens instantaneously but sometimes because it is spiritual in nature and not physical, sometimes it's hard to nail that down, even though it had to have happened at a moment in time in our lives. But we have a hard time nailing it down.
[00:23:44] And so we. Some people have no experience they can nail down. I'm saved because of this happened. Now I have an experience like that. I know Pastor Stewart has testified that Pastor Craig before him talked about that. I still remember March 24, 1960. I remember 1964, which was, ironically, the same year Pastor Stewart was born.
[00:24:08] So some people have that experience. Listen, you will not find an experience in the Scripture as assurance of salvation. You won't.
[00:24:19] Some people console themselves that they're saved because they maybe before they receive Christ, there's a certain sin they had a problem committing, and now they don't commit that sin anymore. But you know what? Not committing a particular sin is not a positive assurance that you're saved.
[00:24:37] Of course, a big one is emotion, that emotional experience, our emotions from day to day. I feel saved. I don't feel saved. That is a big thing people trust in to console themselves. And another big one that is not scriptural is the idea of answered prayers.
[00:24:58] How do I know that? Okay, look at chapter five again.
[00:25:03] Verse 14. I know I told you to go to chapter three. Forgive me. Go to chapter five again, if you would, look at verse 14.
[00:25:11] Verse 13. Just got done talking about assurance of salvation. Verse 14 says, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.
[00:25:26] So some people look at that verse and they see if God answers your prayers, that shows that you're saved because it happens right after verse 13. But the problem is the word if.
[00:25:35] What happens if you ask something that's not God's will?
[00:25:39] You don't get that answer. And if your trust and if your comfort for assurance is resting on that prayer, you're not getting it, because it's not God's will.
[00:25:53] You know what? God answers the prayers of people that don't know him sometimes. Cornelius, thy prayers are had in remembrance at a memorial before God. Cornelius was not yet a believer. He didn't even know about Christ.
[00:26:09] So go back to chapter three. This is. I told you. This is something I've dealt with personally in my life.
[00:26:15] Chapter three, verse number 19.
[00:26:18] And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.
[00:26:29] Listen, it is important this way. And shall assure our hearts before him, before God. It is important that we have Confidence that we know, we are certain that forget about everybody else. And the way you look before other people forget about all that, just throw that to the side. It is important that we have assurance, biblical assurance before our God that we are his child. Do you know? Listen, if you doubt that you are saved, it will kill any desire you have to live for God. It will kill it dead, graveyard dead, because you can't get past this thing.
[00:27:10] Well, how can I hand out a tract? I don't even know if I'm saved. How can I pray? And how can I pray in church? I don't even know if I'm saved. I've been there, done that, got a T shirt.
[00:27:21] It will totally debilitate you. And this is why we need to assure our hearts before him. Verse number 20 or verse number 19. Look at verse 20.
[00:27:30] For if our heart condemn us.
[00:27:34] I love this next sentence. God is greater than our heart.
[00:27:40] So just because a person who is God's child doubts it, that doesn't change God's mind.
[00:27:46] That's some serious assurance. If we can get our heart locked into that, that alone will give us a great deal of peace.
[00:27:56] If you're a child of God and you are truly you pass from death into life, like Jesus said, there is no doubt in God.
[00:28:05] Your doubt has not altered your state.
[00:28:10] You were just as safe as you ever were. You are just as safe when you have peace and assurance and just as safe when you are in the turmoil of doubt.
[00:28:23] God is greater than our heart. Look at this. And knoweth all things. He knows who has believed in him. Verse 21. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we what confidence. That's what we need, and that's why this book is written. If you would look at verse. Look at Second Corinthians, chapter 13.
[00:28:54] Second Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 3 says this.
[00:29:13] Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which is to you, which to youward is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him. But we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Verse 5. Examine yourselves.
[00:29:40] Now. Stop here. There's a lot of ways we can examine ourselves when we're examining ourselves, analyzing ourselves, looking, inspecting ourselves. Like this word means it depends on what we're looking for. Sometimes we ought to examine ourselves. And it is biblical to examine yourself. Whether you have sin in your life. Maybe that's out there dangling that you haven't dealt with.
[00:30:06] But the context of this is important. It says, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves.
[00:30:17] Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate. So what is the context of this example? Examination. It is not for sin.
[00:30:27] You're not looking through your heart to see if there's some bitterness or some secret sin that maybe you've forgotten about. No, no, no. You're examining yourself to determine. To inspect your own life and heart to determine whether you're in the faith, whether Jesus Christ is in you. That goes down to where you stand with God. Am I saved? Do I have the Son? He that hath the Son hath life, right? Do I have the Son? Do I have eternal life?
[00:30:58] That's the context of this.
[00:31:01] But the fact that it says, examine yourselves, prove your own selves tells us that this question must not be avoided.
[00:31:11] Because it's unpleasant when you have doubts. You ought to search that thing out.
[00:31:19] You ought not just brush it off to the side, put it in the back of your mind, Block it out, because it's an unpleasant thought.
[00:31:26] The Lord says, examine yourself, prove your own selves. Well, I might not like the answer. You might not.
[00:31:35] You might not.
[00:31:39] And it also must not be presumed upon. Oh, I'm good. I'm saved.
[00:31:43] No, no, no. God doesn't say, listen, the Book of First John was written to give us assurance. And you know what? For a child of God that reads the Book of First John, you know what they'll find? They'll find assurance.
[00:31:59] But to some people, God doesn't want them to have assurance, Right?
[00:32:05] To some people, God wants them to doubt.
[00:32:09] The Scripture will not give every person assurance and peace that they're saved. It just won't.
[00:32:15] At times it will give a person trouble and distress, and it should. And when that trouble and that distress comes and that doubt arises, and you don't know where you stand with God, you know what the Lord says to do. Stop. Don't brush it aside. Don't block it out. Don't just presume. Stop. God's command. This is imperative.
[00:32:36] Examine yourself. Prove your own self. That means you need to inspect yourself, to judge. The word examine means to judge or appraise according to a standard, to test, to try to evaluate, to test or assess the genuineness or the qualities of something.
[00:32:59] You have a standard, the Word of God. That's why I mentioned those other standards that are not scriptural. Because the standard has to be right or it's going to send you into turmoil. So we look at the Scripture.
[00:33:12] I'm telling you, I'll tell you this as a personal testimony. The Bible works to give you assurance and nothing else. The Bible is enough to give you assurance.
[00:33:37] So here's what we find from these verses in 1st John and in 2nd Corinthians is this number one.
[00:33:45] It is absolutely possible to know that you're saved with certainty.
[00:33:50] If you're falling short of that, I'm not getting on your case.
[00:33:54] The Lord knows I'm not getting on your case.
[00:33:58] It is possible, though, to know. You know, there are some people, and you know what, religion does not allow you to know that for certain, because religion dictates that we must do a certain prescription of good works in order to eventually be saved. And hopefully, if we do enough, we will be saved. But the point at which you've crossed the finish line and you are secure eludes you because it's dependent upon your good works. But when it's dependent upon Christ who has done the work, who has died for us and rose again, assurance is possible.
[00:34:40] It is absolutely possible to know that you're saved with certainty.
[00:34:44] Second thing, and I already mentioned this in passing, some people should doubt that they have eternal life.
[00:34:52] And the third, the scripture will not give every person assurance and peace that they are saved. That's why it says, examine yourselves.
[00:35:01] Sometimes the answer is going to be positive and sometimes it's going to be negative. The point is examine.
[00:35:09] Now, I'm about out of time, but I want to look at Romans chapter eight really quick. And we'll have to pick this up tonight, so I trust you'll come back tonight and so we can finish our study of this. It is so important.
[00:35:23] The first way, the first biblical way we can know that we're saved is in Romans chapter 8 and verse number 9 to pick up the context in verse 7 of Romans 8. The Bible says this because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be so, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Side note.
[00:35:53] Side note. A person who is not God's child, who is in the flesh, that's what that's referring to.
[00:36:00] It doesn't matter how many religious works they do, how many old ladies they help across the street, how much money they give to charity, God's not pleased.
[00:36:08] That's what the verse says.
[00:36:10] You say, well, that's mean. Well, it might be, but I'm not the one who said it.
[00:36:20] Verse number 9 But ye believer are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
[00:36:32] Now listen to this sentence. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his, well, that's pretty clear.
[00:36:43] The presence of the indwelling spirit of God is the first biblical way that you can know for certain that you have eternal life. Alright, now what do I mean by that?
[00:36:58] I know in popular religion, different denominations, I don't care about all that. That's not what I'm talking about.
[00:37:06] Some denominations teach how the spirit of God comes upon people and they do certain things to show that that's not what we're talking about here. John chapter 16, John chapter 14 are very clear about the spirit of God would come and would indwell us. Indwell the believer forever. He would come. When a person believes in Christ, they receive the spirit of God. You cannot see the spirit of God, He's a spirit.
[00:37:30] But just like you can't. The biblical example is just like you can't see the wind, yet its influence is obvious.
[00:37:39] So a man who has, or a woman who has a spirit of God cannot see the spirit of God. The outward man looks the same as he ever did. But inside there is a big difference because within that person, what is happening inside of the believer who has the spirit of God? There is an invisible presence of God within us. That is another person.
[00:38:02] The spirit of God is a person is within us and actively working within us to do his will.
[00:38:13] There is another person in us. You say that sounds weird, it feels weird too.
[00:38:20] But when you have the spirit of God and you can hear the Lord talking to you in the innermost part of your being and you know it's not your, your own thoughts, it's God speaking to you, that's the spirit of God talking to us. And this is different. This is not our conscience.
[00:38:38] It's not the same as our emotions.
[00:38:40] This is a person living in us that's distinctive.
[00:38:44] You know, even people that are possessed of devils, which is a real thing, will describe how that even in the news you hear people, there's no reason to doubt it. They'll say, well, you know, they'll say, well, a person drowns their kids in the bathtub and they'll say, well, God told me to drown my kids in the bathtub. That wasn't God's voice, but it was a voice.
[00:39:04] I don't doubt that it was a voice because another person was in them, a personality, the devil.
[00:39:11] But when a person has the Spirit of God.
[00:39:15] The Spirit of God lives within us.
[00:39:19] And I'm referring to believers only. This is, as I said, this is not just a feeling or an emotion or a warm fuzzy or something like that. No, this is an individual who is speaking to us and guiding us and leading us. And the Bible says that the Spirit of God is a mark, an undeniable mark of a truly born again person, of a believer. The Bible says it is a seal.
[00:39:50] A seal. We don't use seals anymore back in the day, actually, not too terribly long ago. Some of you probably, you can buy seals on the Internet, wax seals, they're kind of a neat thing, but they would melt the wax and sometimes even metal onto a document or onto something that they wanted to seal. In fact, I think the tomb of Tutankhamun King Tutorial was actually sealed with a metal seal.
[00:40:22] And when they found it back in the early 1900s, there's a photo, you can find it online, where there's a photo of the seal where they took that metal and they melted it until it was soft and they stamped a signet into the metal. You know what that verified? That verified that this is genuine.
[00:40:42] And the document, when you talk about a document, a wax seal like they used to use back before our times, they would drip that wax on it and they would press that signet into that seal, into that wax. And once that wax hardened, it was permanent. And because it held it together, that seal verified that everything that was in that document was genuine, the authentic piece.
[00:41:06] And so the Lord says, the Spirit of God is a seal. We are sealed by the Spirit of God. You know what that means?
[00:41:15] Everyone who has the spirit of God is the genuine article.
[00:41:20] That's what that means.
[00:41:23] So I just want to ask you this. We'll pick up tonight.
[00:41:30] Do you have eternal life?
[00:41:36] Do you know that you have eternal life, life?
[00:41:41] Please don't brush that question aside.
[00:41:45] You know what?
[00:41:48] If you answered that question in your heart as I said it, and you said, in your heart, I don't know.
[00:41:55] But then the next thought was, I don't care.
[00:42:00] You're in a bad place.
[00:42:02] You're in a bad place.
[00:42:07] Do you have the spirit of God in you?
[00:42:15] The Lord's will is that we have assurance of our salvation.
[00:42:20] Let's pray together.
[00:42:23] Lord, thank you for the attention of your people. Thank you for the word of God just unambiguously telling us what we need to know. Because, Lord, if it wasn't for that, we would never have any assurance at all in this world. There's no assurance to be found here, but I pray you give us joy in believing.
[00:42:45] Lord, I don't know what you're doing in the hearts of each person here, but I know Lord there's people here that need to get assurance to have assurance and probably there's people here that need to care. Lord, working among us by your spirit, use your word and we commit it to you that you would use it however you see fit. Lord, you are the one who searches the hearts and reigns and you know the thoughts and intents of every person. So Lord, we commit this service to you in Jesus name. Amen. Father Ari is going to come and lead us in a song. I just want to invite you if the Lord spoke in your heart. Come down here and you can say where you're at if you please and talk to God about it. But please deal with it with the Lord.
