Children of God: Assurance - Knowing That We Know - Andy Bennett

Hey guys, Pastor James Murray here, and I want to welcome you to the Abide Sydney podcast. This whole podcast is designed to help you on the journey of discipleship, and our mission is to make disciples of the people of Sydney. But maybe you're not from Sydney. We hope this blesses you. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this podcast. We are on the third week of our Children of God series as we travel through the Book of 1 John, and we're going to jump straight into it. Bring it up on the screen. There it is. So we're looking at from 1 John chapter 2, verse 3 to 11. In the first week, we looked at the first four verses of the Book of 1 John, and John was talking about that we can have fellowship, real fellowship with the real God, and that that is how we experience complete joy. That real fellowship with the real God is the most complete and lasting joy that we can experience as human beings. Then the next part of chapter 1, John goes on to talk about, he says, this is the message. So to have that fellowship, there's a message that we need to believe. It says, this is the message that God is light. He is perfect. The next part of the message is that we are sinners. But then the next part of the message is the good news that Jesus Christ became our atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world. And if we confess our sins, that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's 1 John chapter 1, verse 9. So then we get through invitation to fellowship, and then the message of how we have fellowship. And then in this part of the second chapter of 1 John, we're looking at how to know for sure, how to have assurance. That you have that fellowship with God. So look at the very first verse in this passage of scripture. It says, we know. Say, we know. We know that we have come to know him. That's probably the key sentence of today's message. Charles Spurgeon said, it's one thing to believe in Christ. It's another thing to know that you believe in him. Assurance is. It's what John is talking about. It's one of the major themes of the letter. And he looks at one particular way to know that you have relationship with God, real relationship with the real God in this passage. So here we go. You ready to read? All right. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar. Tell us what you really think, John. And the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word. What for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command, but an old one. Which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command. Its truth is seen in him and in you. Because the darkness. The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light. And there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded them. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. God, we know that your word is the force and power that created the universe itself. You uphold all things by the word of your power. So come and speak into our lives. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So we come hungry to you, God. Feed your people this morning. They don't need to hear what a man has to say. They need to hear what you have to say. Let your words nourish us and give us new life this morning. And everybody said? Amen. Amen. You can go ahead and take a seat. Take a seat. Let's thank Nick. Thank you so much. Thank you, Nick and worship team, production team. You guys are the very. Yeah, thank them. Put your hands together. They serve us so faithfully. When I was a kid, mum and dad signed me up for little athletics. Anyone do little athletics as a kid? Yeah. And from the age of about nine or 10. And by the time I was 12 or 13, I started to become. I got really. I got really, really good at high jump. And I'd started to sort of like. I would win high jump every week at. Every time we did it at little athletics. And I sort of went on and won at zone, won at regional, won the state championships when I was 14 years old and went and represented New South Wales at the nationals in I think it was 1995 or 96. I was a state of origin high jumper. The thing is when you're 14 years old, there's this massive. There's this massive disparity in height. And so I'm like coming up to the bar and I'm jumping over bars that are like over my head. Some kids come up at like 14, 15, just abnormally tall. It's like, bro, you have a beard at 14. And it's like up to his chest. So eventually I just couldn't keep up. But that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. But the thing about high jump, if you've ever gotten really into it, you discover that there's special high jump shoes that make a really big difference. And the high jump shoes, high jump shoes have spikes in the front and the back. Whereas most track shoes or long jump shoes have only have spikes in the front because you're on your toes. But in high jump, you ready for a demonstration? In high jump, as you come up to the bar and you come around, you plant your foot heel first. And so you've got to have massive traction. And it's 37.5 times your body weight goes through. I just made that up. 80% of stats are made up on the spot. I just made that up. I made that one up too. You land on your heel and huge amounts of pressure goes through that leg as you drive up your other leg. The arm comes up, frosberry flop, and you're over the bar, hopefully. But you have to have traction. Now, when you put those shoes on, and they're more sturdy, more stable than sprinting spikes. They're thicker, more supportive because of that. They're coming around a corner and need to plant your foot really hard. When you put those spikes on, those high jump spikes, and you're standing on tartan, you know that red coloured surface they do track and field on? You feel like a cat on carpet. You have so much traction. You have so much grip. You feel so strong and steady because of those amazing shoes. I loved my high jump shoes. This is what I think about when I think of Paul's definition of, when he says, remember in Ephesians chapter 6 where he talks about the armour of God? And he talks about the footwear of the armour of God. He's describing the armour of a Roman soldier. And he gets to the footwear of a soldier and look what it has. I mean, technology has come a little bit further. But Paul says that a Christian is to fit their feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. And that that's what gives them traction. It's what helps them stand firm. This connects to 1 John's theme about assurance. Because you know what he says makes a Christian steady? What makes a Christian actually be able to have traction and have grip in life and not be easily thrown off their feet? Not just have the first trial or temptation or negative thought or bad feeling or I let myself down, how it doesn't throw them off. He says the shoes, that footwear that gives you that stability is the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. The good news of peace. What does he mean when he talks about the gospel of peace? Is it just the gospel that makes me feel peaceful or tranquil? Tranquility? He's actually not talking about that. He's talking about the good news that because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross, you have peace with God. That you have a status of peace with God. That the sin that was there, God's seen it and acknowledged it. And he's given his whole self on the cross to take it away, get it out of the cross, get it out of the way. So there's no more hostility. There's nothing between you and him, but an open armed embrace for you to come into the father. That's the good news of peace. He says, when you know that God has made his mind up about you and that your acceptance from him is not determined by your performance and how well you've obeyed him that day, but it's based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that that gives you a firm, solid stance in life. It's like a power stance. If you've done boxing, they teach you how to stand. If you learn to play guitar, they teach you the power stance. So you can, it's a powerful stance that you have in life. One of the main reasons that John is writing this letter, one John, is because there's lies coming into the church and there's things that are tripping people up and taking them out of the faith because they don't understand, stand. what their relationship with God is grounded on. It's not grounded on our performance, how much I deserve God's love, how well I obey him, how I feel about myself, whether I feel like I had a great experience with God this morning in church worship, whether I've missed my quiet time this morning. The love of God is so much more robust than that. How many people know that your feelings towards God, towards other people, feelings go up and down? Every single day. And if I'm gonna base my relationship with God on that, I'm in big trouble. If I'm basing my confidence for all eternity on just how I feel about my relationship with God today, my latest experience with him, I'm in big trouble. I'm gonna be unstable. But Paul says, and John says, you can have an assurance. Assurance of salvation is the traction control of the Christian life. The more firmly our feet, our feet are planted in the gospel, the harder it is for the enemy's accusations to knock us over. And the thing with, here's the thing, for every single one of us, there will come a time in our life when we need that certainty. Hebrews chapter 11, they call it the faith hall of fame. It's this list of all the heroes of the Old Testament that just did these incredible things. It starts at Abel, goes through Abraham, Moses, Noah, like the things that these guys did. David, you're gonna walk out in front of a whole nation's army. You don't have any sword, any armor on you, but you're gonna take down a Goliath. He speaks to Noah. He tells him to go and make an ocean liner in the middle of the desert. Never seen rain before. He goes and does that. He says to Moses, go to the most powerful nation in the world and deliver them, deliver a whole nation out of slavery to them. And he's like, okay, and goes and does it. How do these guys do something like that? Well, here's the thing. Hebrews chapter 11, it starts off with two powerful verses. Have a look at this. This is how they did it. Read this with me. It says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction, say conviction. Conviction. You're invited to live with conviction. Not just feelings, but powerful conviction based on assurance. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen. For by it, by that, by that faith that brought assurance and conviction, that's how the people of old received their commendation. Commendation from God. Another translation says that they knew that they pleased God. They knew that they were approved and accepted by God. They knew that they knew. Do you know that you know this morning? You're invited in. You're invited into that kind of certainty, that kind of confidence. How did Paul do what he did? Chained up as a prisoner, he preached the gospel passionately to the king of the Roman Empire, one of the kings, King Festus. He was abandoned by everyone in the court in Rome, but stood strong and testified to Jesus. How did he do that? Paul wrote in 2 Timothy, I have known whom I have believed. He had this certainty. He had assurance. The way he finishes Romans chapter 8. He says, I am convinced. Say, I am convinced. I am convinced. I wonder how convinced we are this morning. I am convinced. If you're convinced about this, you are rock solid. He says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. The love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Not just the love of God that I feel in my heart today. Not just the love of God that I feel like I deserve based on my actions. The love of God that has come to us through Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross. John, Paul, the New Testament, they're all trying to help you ground your faith on something that is unshakable. Something that's so much bigger than you. Paul needed that commendation, that witness, on the inside of him that he was pleasing to God. Amazing thought. Even Jesus. God gave it to him too. After his baptism, comes up out of the water, what happened? The father speaks to him and says, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. He said that before he even prayed for and healed a single person. It was just because of his relationship with his son. This is my son. This is my son in whom I am well pleased. All of these people, including Jesus himself, had this inner witness, this confident commendation, this knowledge that they pleased God. And the Bible teaches us that we can have that. You can have that kind of certainty, that kind of grip. You can be like a cat on carpet when it comes to your life and being rock solid doesn't mean that you're gonna feel consistently the same every day. It just means that you're based on something that's so much more powerful. Than that. Assurance. There's only two points in today's message. What is assurance and how can I get it? Ready to go? Let's go. What is assurance? John says, we know that we have come to know him. Anyone that's in their sane mind, embarking on a real relationship with God is gonna ask at some point, is this real or is this made up in my head? And I never had that thought. That's actually a helpful thought. It will save you from getting sidetracked into plenty of the nonsense that's out there. But John is assuring us this is real. He said, we have relationship with that which is from the beginning. So it's the eternal God, but he appeared to us. We heard him, we touched him. We saw him with our eyes. We ate with him. He's saying, this is real. He's introducing us to the doctrine of assurance. What is the doctrine of assurance? There's a screen here. Assurance is the believer's God-given confidence that they are truly united to Christ, forgiven of their sins and heirs of eternal life. God-given confidence. Another definition, it's the settled conviction. Say settled conviction. Settled conviction produced by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ evidenced in the believer's life that one belongs to God and will be saved on the last day. That settled conviction. Isn't that good? It's God-given confidence. It's not confidence you have to conjure up and psych yourself up to feel. It's something that the Holy Spirit produces in you is this confident assurance. When you come home to your house after a day at work, you don't walk up to the stairs and go, I wonder if I'm allowed to come in tonight. Have I earned the right to come in? No, you just get the key out, put it in the door, open the door and go in because you belong there. Assurance is the Christian knowing they belong in the Father's house. A child doesn't spend every day asking, am I still a part of this family or not? They may disobey from time to time. They may need correction. They may even be disciplined. But discipline doesn't make them less of a son or daughter, right? Any parents here? It actually proves that they are one. That's why I discipline them is because I care about them so much. I care about their future. The child's confidence isn't in their performance. Do I deserve to still be called a child of this family? Their confidence is in their mother and father's love. They know that they know. John's concern is that believers stop standing on the doorstep wondering, whether they belong to the Father or not. He wants them to know that they are home. That's what assurance is, that settled confidence, that through faith in Christ, I belong to the Father and the Father loves me. It's a beautiful thing. You're invited to experience that. 1 John 3, 1 says, see what great love, say love, love. The love and fellowship with your heavenly, heavenly Father, that is the great invitation. That is the treasure of human existence. It's the best thing that Christianity has to offer because it is the key to everything. It's what you were made for. You were made for fellowship, to know your Father and in Him to be released into your full human experience. See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And just to close this point off, J.I. Packer says in his great book, Knowing God, he says, assurance is more than a belief that one is saved. It's a God-given certainty of being loved and cared for by the Father and of being destined for glory. God-given certainty of being loved and cared for by the Father and destined for glory. That's what John is writing to the church and he wants the church, he wants believers to know, He wanted them to know, and this is for us to know now. that we are loved by our father, that we are cared for by him and we're destined for eternity with him. That's what assurance is. All right, so how can I get it? Does that sound like something you'd wanna have in your life? I wanna live with that assurance. I don't wanna wake up every morning wondering. Assurance, the theologians over the centuries have basically broken it down. There's a number of ways they've broken it down. A really great clear way is this. Assurance is based on three things. The promises of God, sorry, I cut out. The promises of God, the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the evidences, it says evidences because there's two specific things John talks about here. The evidence of grace in our lives. The first one is objective evidence, the promises of God. I can look at, do I actually believe what the Bible teaches about the gospel, about Jesus? The second thing, testimony of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that lives within me. That's my subjective experience of God. And number three, the evidence of grace in my life so I can see that God is at work in my life producing change. They're the three things that the Bible teaches we can base our confident certainty that we know that we know we are God's. And do you know what? John gives us, he gives us a series of tests. He constantly is saying, if you see this, then you know you're in God. If you don't see this, you might say you're in God, but what did it say? It said you're a liar. You meet people that present all kinds of things in church, but then you find out what's really going on behind the scenes. It's like, oh no, you're just actually saying this, but you're actually living on a completely different level to your words. Anyone ever met anyone like that? No condemnation, you're welcome here. I hope that today we can invite you into something more real and more powerful. Those tests, it says that there's three tests. We can go to the next slide. There's the truth test. That's the promises. That's the promises of God, believing what the Bible teaches about Jesus. Number two, the spirit test, your subjective experience. So knowing, experiencing that fellowship. When you're in prayer with God, you feel him, you encounter him. And number three, the evidence of grace, obedience and love. If you see obedience and love growing in your life, John says this is one of the ways to know that you are in him. Why do we need these tests? It sounds so weird. It's like my relationship, my relationship with God is so personal. Why are you giving me something so practical like a test? Well, the idea is that they're not here to reduce your confidence, but to build your confidence that you know that you know God. John Stott wrote, he said, the purpose of the test is not to make us doubt our salvation, but to assure us of it. A few years ago, Irina and I took a holiday up to Bangalow. You don't know where Bangalow is, right next to Byron Bay. And we're sitting at this beautiful Airbnb, little farmstay thing, cattle, and our dog was with us and nice outdoor area. I'm sitting on the veranda of this house. And I thought just over the days of this holiday, I'm going to read through one John. This is maybe three or four years ago. I'm going through it and I see one of these tests. It's like, if you see this in your life, you know you are in God. And I just thought, thank God there is something so concrete by which to measure something that is so subjective. It can sometimes, it can sometimes feel so spiritual and so personal. And is anyone else experiencing what I'm experiencing? Is anyone else having the same doubts or questions that I am? And you read one John and he gets incredibly practical with some ways that you can just look at and go, yeah, I see that in my life. Thank God. I may not always feel the same way, but thank God he's given us something that's much more reliable than just our emotions and feelings to base our confidence on, especially when it comes to our eternity. Amen. So the first test is the truth test. Now you're going to hear more about the first two later in this series. So we're just going to do a flyover over the truth test and over the spirit test, and then we'll get into the next one. But the truth test, do I believe the truth about Jesus? This is a test to make sure that I have right belief concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. If our salvation for eternity is based on this, how many people think it's a good idea? to know what I believe. Really, really important. They basically break it down into five things that to have real fellowship with the real God involves these five truths about Christ. Number one, Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. He is the King and Rescuer that the whole Bible points to. Now they're talking about Old Testament scriptures, hundreds and hundreds of prophecies that all point to the Messiah would one day come, all fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. That's why the whole Bible points to Christ. Second one, Jesus is the Son of God. What does that mean? It means that Jesus perfectly reveals God to us, that he is the embodiment of the eternal God. Paul writes that Jesus is the, he is the image of the invisible God. He is the only way that you can see God. God is through the person of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter one, it says that he is the radiance of God's glory. The radiance of God's glory. What does that mean? You know how the sun is this big burning ball in the sky? What comes out of it? Radiance. It radiates. That light and warmth and heat that comes from the sun can't be separated from what the sun is. They're not two entities. That is a radiance of what the sun actually is. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. He is, the Bible says in, I think it's Hebrews one as well, he is the exact imprint of his nature. Whoa. How cool is that? You ever, when you were a kid or maybe even recently, have to do your fingerprints? And that fingerprint, the only way that it got there, that pattern is 100% truthfully from your finger because that's what created it. That's what made it. It is an expression of it. Jesus is the embodiment of God, the father. He said to his disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. Do I believe the truth about Jesus? He is the promised Messiah. He is the son of God. He came in the flesh. He was fully God and fully human. Salvation doesn't work unless he fully became a person, became a man, took on all of mankind's sin on himself, became a sin for us. It only works if he is actually a human being. He's a fully, he's fully human and fully God. Jesus, the next one, Jesus alone is the source of eternal life. No one else, he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. John 14, six. No one comes to the father except through me. He said, he didn't say I'm a way, a truth, a life. No one else can provide eternal life because he is that which is from the beginning. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one else can provide eternal life. He is the eternal God. Out of his heart came all of creation, came the universe. He is the source of eternal life. No one else can provide it. No thing else, not Jesus plus, it's not that you need Jesus plus an experience or Jesus plus special knowledge, the Gnostics were saying, or Jesus plus special insight or Jesus plus belonging to this or that. Jesus alone, not listening to your pastor's message. Out of his heart came all of creation. It's Christ coming to know Jesus Christ himself. He personally is the source of eternal life. And then lastly, Jesus' death is the atoning sacrifice for sin, our sin and that of the whole world, which we talk about. You'll hear more and more about that. That's the first test. Second test, the spirit test, the witness of the Holy Spirit within the believer. Do I experience the reality of God's presence within me? John writes, we know that he lives in us by the spirit he gave us. That spirit living in us is one of the ways that we know that we are in fellowship with God. And this is not about us hunting for mystical experiences and saying, I need to feel God, I need to feel God. Sometimes you'll feel him, sometimes you won't. But what it is, it's the Holy Spirit producing an inner awareness of God as Father, he produces in us a growing love for Christ, a conviction of sin. I still sin. I just can't do it the same anymore. Now it really hurts me to do it. It hurts my heart. A desire for holiness. He produces a desire for holiness. He produces a confidence in God's love. The other tests are evidence you can observe, but the spirit test is an internal test. It's evidence that we experience. And this is one that we experience in varying degrees. Sometimes we experience it in how many people know, sometimes you experience the presence of God in a powerful, overwhelming way. Sometimes you experience it in just like a gentle, abiding, communing kind of way. Other times, to be honest, he feels like he's a mile away. But that's why this test is not the first test. It's not the primary thing. But if you're in fellowship with God, he will make his presence known to you in some way. That's why I love that song from Delirious in the 90s, Obsession, that line. He says, sometimes you're further than the moon. sometimes you're closer than my skin. I love that lyric. As a new Christian, I heard that sometimes you're further than the moon, sometimes you're closer than my skin, because that's what I felt. And I'm like, thank God someone put that into words. And that's okay if you feel that. Where are you, God? It feels like you're miles away. But in that moment, thank God that you're not basing your entire confidence and your entire hope for eternity on what you're feeling in that moment. That's why the first test, the truth test, is test number one, knowing what you believe. The next two, these are external, super practical tests that John gives us. Two evidences of grace in our lives. You can look at my life and see that God is doing something. His life is in me producing something. Am I seeing him produce these things in me? The first one, is obedience. The second one is love. Obedience. See, we see a scripture like, if you love me, you'll obey me. And we sort of hear it like, if you love me, you'll do what I say. But that's not the heart that this is coming in. How many people know that when you're in love with someone, you want to find out what pleases them. And all of a sudden, that's your favourite thing as well. Remember that movie, Nacho Libre? And it's like meeting the nun, Sister Incarnacion, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Who is this Incarnacion? There he is. He's like, who are you? What makes you tick? And she, what did she say? I've written this down because I can't remember. She says, my favourite colour is light tan. I lived in San Diego when this movie came out. So half my friends were Mexican. And so this just really has a special place in my heart, this movie. We used to quote it to each other all the time. My favourite colour is light tan. My favourite animal, animal, poopies. I like serving the Lord, hiking and play volleyball. And Ignacio replies, you got to be kidding me. Everything you just said is my favourite thing to do every day. I love Jack Black. But when you love someone, you are eager to please them. You're like, wow, we're on the same page. You get pleasure out of, I just want to see you happy. It makes me happy to make you happy. When I really, really see what Jesus has done for me on the cross, that he gave his life for me when I least deserved it. You know, we talked about the truth test. I gave myself the truth test this week because I just felt like I needed some reassurance of God for me. And I went to Romans chapter five, where it says, Romans five, eight, it says, God shows us his love in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And I just sat there and I preached that to myself, preached that to my heart. This is how loved you are. It wasn't when you were good, when you were behaving yourself, when you were living up to your expectations, little, I mean, God's expectations, I can only hope. But half the time I can't even live up to my own. That's how good he is. He gave his life for you at your worst. How many people know there's moments in your life, when you are, you are not that lovable. Like even in your thoughts and your thoughts are as loud as your prayers in heaven. So like, God hears your thoughts. I have this thing, he probably smells your thoughts. That's gross. But like, he just, he knows you from the inside out and he still came and gave his whole life for you. He gave himself on not just death, but death on the cross. When I start to see the love of Jesus, man, it makes me, I'm just like, Jesus, I just want to be one with you. I want to be united with you, that you would love me like that. I want to find out what pleases you. And I want to walk in connection with you. I want to walk in union with you. Remember what, what the gospel is all about. It's, it's about everything in heaven and earth becoming one, primarily mankind and God becoming one with each other. Marriage is a picture of exactly that, two becoming one. The invitation of the gospel is to know God and to be close to him, to be close with him. So obeying him, of course, comes as part of that. He is the author of life itself. Only he knows how I should live and what would be the right thing for me to do. So when I, when I, when I see how much he's loved me, I mean, he could, he could legitimately just command me, but he came and showed me how much he loved me. And the more I see that, the more I just want to obey him. It's not that you never disobey, but when you do, you feel it. It feels like a tearing of something that's attached to you. It feels like betraying something sacred and it makes you wince. And you're like, oh, I'm sorry, Lord, I come back. I'm bringing my heart back right now. Let's have fellowship again. If, if we're asking how much can I get away with and still go to heaven, like we're so on the wrong page with, when it comes to this, you're invited into union, into relationship with him, into an embrace with him that just makes you go, it just melts me into a whole different shape. It, it, it just melts me into a whole into a shape of somebody who wants to walk with God and be in union with him. And our conscience, if we're, if there's regular patterns of consistent disobedience, your conscience will be accusing you and eating away at your assurance of salvation. And good, if you're stuck in a, if you're stuck in a habit of behaviour that keeps recurring like that, good news, there is no condemnation in Christ. And the fact that you even recognise it as a come back to him, run back to him. Jesus says, if there was anything that caused you to sin, even if it was your right hand, it'd be worth cutting it off so you could come and know the embrace of God. Better off losing something that's super precious to you, that's leading you into sin than chasing that like Gollum with the ring all the way into hell for eternity. Let go of it because what God offers you in embrace with the Father is so much more beyond that. It's so much better. And Jesus is just saying, anything that you're attempting to do, anything that you're attached to, do whatever you've got to do to sever ties with it, to run into my arms. That's where you'll find ultimate fulfilment. The obedience test. When you have real relationship with Jesus, you want to obey him. Is this helping anybody today? It's helping me. I hope it's helping you too. And lastly, the love test, or sometimes it's called the social test, the moral test. It says, anyone who loves their brother and sister, anyone love their brother and sister here? I'm talking about fellow believers. Anyone hate their brother? No, just, you can keep that one to yourself. Maybe by the end of today, you might not hate them so much. 1 John 3.14 says, we know, say we know, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other. If you become a Christian, God starts producing love in your life. Irina and I had dinner with Ward and Nicole, two great friends of ours that are here. They're our elders in the city congregation here. And Ward and I were chatting over dinner and we were both saying how early, when early on in our Christian life, we got saved. And then one of the first things God started to do with us is he started telling us that both of us experienced this like 15 years apart in our lives. God started moving me and him to tell our parents that we love them. I couldn't get those words out of my mouth before I met Christ. I didn't tell any of my family, I love you. I don't know if I've ever said it to anybody before I met Christ, but he starts producing love in you. And I had to like force those words out of my life, out of my mouth. But the fact that I could do it was a massive change in me. And then my heart just started to get softer and softer. This happens, like early in your Christian life, you'll find that your heart starts to get moved more to love. God just gets straight into his work here. And it's some of the, it's the fruit that he produces. Galatians 5.22 talks about the fruit of the spirit. What's the first one? It says the fruit of the spirit is love. And then the rest of them, some theologians say are all just expressions of love, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, general self-control. They all sound like love to me. He starts producing love. In your life. But he's not just talking about love just for anyone. He's talking about love for brothers and sisters. He's not just like Ron Burgundy, Anchorman. I love carpet. I love lamp. I love lamp. Brick, are you just looking at things and saying that you love them? I love lamp. I love lamp. He's talking about love for brothers and sisters in Christ. Loving fellow believers. And the way, the way that starts to happen is you start to see your fellow believers as precious. The love and value that Jesus showed you by going to the cross for you, you realise he also showed them, your brother and sister for whom Christ died, Paul tells us. The Bible talks about, it uses many different words for love. One of them is friendship, philia. And, friendship is about commonality in surface things. Like there's a few of us are good friends, because we have commonality that we all love the footy. We love the NRL. If you're like George Solomon, our Shire pastor, we have real fellowship because we both back the Canberra Raiders. And there's a lot of hardship attached to that. But we have fellowship, it's friendship. There's people in this congregation I'm really good friends with because we love the same kind of music. That's friendship love. But the love that John is talking about here is we know this word agape, agape love. It's one-way sacrificial love. It's love that comes from the Father brought to us by the Holy Spirit. The way Jesus has loved us. And then he says, the way I've loved you is the way to love your brothers and sisters. And you start to recognise that with your brothers and sisters, you don't just have a surface level commonality with them. You share the most precious thing in the universe is your common ground with them. Because you as a believer, you've come to know that the most precious thing in the universe is the blood of Christ. The broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. That's what allows you to enter into relationship with God. That is the most precious thing in the universe is the blood of Christ. He shed it for you. The reason he had to go to the cross was because of your sin and my sin. He did it because of his love. And so we look at that and go, that is the most precious thing I've ever seen. That's what gives me life. That's what defines me as a person. That's what shows me my value as a person. That's the most precious thing anyone or anything could ever do is what Jesus did for us. He brought the body and blood of God himself broken and shed for us so that we could come into relationship with him. And it gives us life. But when I look over at Shez and Graham and Susie and Ty and all of our beautiful church family and realise, that you have the same precious fellowship, that you also are sustained and brought to life by the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ, we share commonality in the most precious thing in the entire universe. The love that created the universe itself. We share commonality that has brought us life from the dead and will bring us eternal life. Because the brother and sister relationship, it's the only relationship that lasts forever. All our other relationships are built on that foundation. All the married people here. Our marriage relationship, there's another love called eros, romantic love. But that only works well when it's built on the foundation of agape love. When my first responsibility to my beautiful Irina is that I'm her brother in Christ. That sets the foundation for a beautiful relationship. Now my first intent for her, regardless of how much eros I'm feeling that day, up and down. My commitment to love her as her brother in Christ is unchanging. And it's foundational. That's why the brother and sister relationship is so precious, so foundational to us. And this is the one that the Holy Spirit is producing in us. Friendship love is beautiful, but he's talking about agape love. More foundational, longer lasting, than all the others. It crosses cultural lines, it crosses age barriers. You form dear connections with people that you would otherwise have no business hanging out with because you share this commonality with them. They're your brother and sister in Christ. This kind of love, it leads you to action. John says, don't love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. It's not just saying hi to people in the foyer. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's actually getting involved in their lives. One of the ways I see this community, and there's a picture of a vineyard if we put this up. One of the ways I see our beautiful church is I think of it like this. Isn't that a beautiful picture? And it's a, it's a Bible picture. Jesus talks about coming to work in his vineyard. And I look out at you and I see all the beautiful vines that God has planted. And loving one another is getting in, getting our hands dirty and helping nourish and cultivate and feed these beautiful vines that the Lord has planted in his field. And loving each other, you know you love each other when you get started, you get some dirt under your fingernails from getting involved in other people's lives. Helping them, going to places, being there in their hardest moment. I have one of my best mates from San Diego. He says, he calls me his best friend. And the reason for that, he says, because you were the only one that was in hospital when I was getting my appendix cut out. You were the only one that came. When I lost my job, you were the one that was there. It's a brother relationship. If you're really loving one another, to love your brother and sister, there's times when you go home and you're tired from loving people. That's good tired. I go home on Sundays, good tired from bringing love to our brothers and sisters. Most of what I do, it's not out of being a pastor, it's out of being a brother. It's being a brother in Christ to somebody, loving them. That's the relationship that will go forever. How do we get started on this? You can't really just start that in the foyer, right? Getting really close and intimate with each other. We help make that really simple and easy for you. Two ways, connect group and team. You're literally invited to someone's house to start this beautiful, all important relationship of brother and sister in Christ, to learn what it means to love, to agape other believers and start to, it's not an emotional thing, it's a commitment thing. So you schedule it. So I join a group with people, people that are different to me. It might feel awkward at first, but I'm going to go, and I'm going to be in a group so that it's, the priority is scheduled for me. So when I don't feel like it, it's in my calendar, that's where I'm going. I'm going because I need to love other people. Helps me. Helping them helps me. Jumping in a connect group, jump in a team, serve one another in love. Two really simple, easy ways to do it. You can just get that white card, fill it out, take it to the connections hub. And then you'll be able to put yourself on a track that will enable love to start to grow in your life. I've seen this grow in people's lives. I remember having some good friends of ours have conversation that they would tell us, man, people in the foyer annoy me so much. I hate being in the foyer. And we're just like, we hear that and I'm like, oh, it's okay. We'll just keep loving and like, you're going to get it. These guys lead connect group, a connect group now. And we hear the stories that come out of it. You can grow in this kind of love. Just put one foot in front of the other and decide, you're going to be the kind of person that produces this, that brings this kind of action in people's life. Are you seeing that kind of love grow in your life? Are you becoming more loving? That's the four tests, the love test, the obedience test, the truth test and the spirit test. Three things that block assurance, a loveless heart, disobedient life, producing a guilty conscience and a lack of understanding of the gospel. Those three things will erode your assurance and your salvation. But when they're all working together, love growing in your heart, working to be obedient, learning the truth of the gospel more and more and more, then you'll find the Holy Spirit comes in and gives you that inward testimony, that inner commendation that you are approved and pleasing to God. Amen. And no matter what happens, because sometimes there's things in your life that you're going to need that stance. Something will happen. You lose a loved one. Something terrible goes wrong. You get sick. Someone gets sick. That's when you need to know that your relationship with God is not determined by the things that happen around and about you. You have assurance based on the promises of God, your fellowship with Him and the fruit that you see Him producing in your life. Amen. Let's stand as we respond to the word. Thank you, Jesus. We like to put together a few questions that just help bring this home. But it says, what is my assurance resting on right now? Christ's finished work or my own performance? As I said, I went to work and brought myself through the truth test just this week. Find scriptures, preach them to your heart. Second question, is there an area of ongoing disobedience that's weakening my confidence and intimacy with God? If you know that, you need to repent of something today, you can repent. There's no condemnation in Christ. Come to Him. Let it go. Run to Him. And third question, where can I actively love a brother or sister in Christ this week? Not just with words, but with actions. So you can use those questions this week as reflection. And there's a prayer that we'll use to respond together. It says, Father, thank you that through Jesus, I am your child. And I belong to you. Help me to rest securely in your love. Walk closely with you in obedience and love others as you have loved me. By your spirit, help me, keep me abiding in Christ, living in joyful hope of His return. Ready to pray this together? Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you that through Jesus, I am your child and I belong to you. Walk closely with you in obedience obedience and love others as you have loved me. By your Spirit, keep me abiding in Christ, living in joyful hope of His return. In Jesus' name, Amen. Why don't you just close your eyes as we pray. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus, for what you've done for us on the cross. We can know that we know. Well, we hope this podcast has inspired you on your journey of discipleship to Jesus. If you want to know more about our church, just go to Abide.Sydney. We'd love to get to know you. If not, you're from another place, hey, why don't you share this with someone else? And hopefully it helps them as they continue to follow Jesus. Have a great week.