Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As of men of old once came, the same is true today. Salvation is found in Christ and in Christ alone. This morning in 1 John chapter 4, we're reminded of that. We will not be looking at the entirety of the rest of chapter 4 as I planned. I knew when I was outlining the book that when I got to this particular text, it would be very difficult to treat these eight or nine verses together. So my hope this morning is to look at verses 13 through 15, and then we will return next Sunday morning, Lord willing, to look at the rest of the chapter. The reason being is that if we don't have 13 through 15 right, then what follows is of no consequence. Because really what we have in verses 13-15 of 1 John chapter 4 are what I call the objective grounds for assurance. And that objective ground is found in God's work of salvation in the gospel of Jesus Christ. What follows is the result. So this morning, really what we look at is the root. And if we don't have the root right, then the fruit that follows. will not be right. So this morning we'll look at verses 13 through 15, though I will read through the end of the chapter. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and He in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment. And the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him. that the one who loves God should love his brother also. This morning we do consider again the theme of chapter 4. The theme that we just sang of. Love is the theme. In particular, God is love. We noted in verses 7 and following that this is more than simply an assertion of God's action or an assertion of God's attitude. While that is true, it is more a statement of His nature, His being from which His actions flow. God acts in love because He is love. And as we saw, His love is most clearly demonstrated at the cross of Calvary. Verse 9, By this the love of God was manifest in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. We'll see that again in a moment. But God, we see this morning, does not stop in demonstrating His love for us. His purpose was to manifest His love in those who are called the children of God. For, you see, we're not simply to be spectators of God's love, sitting on the sidelines, as it might be, watching the grand stage of the world and everything that goes on around us. Even those who were at the foot of the cross that day, some 2,000 years ago, were spectators of His love, although they would not have seen the love behind the action. But yet they saw. God purposed His children, then, not only to be merely spectators, what He's done for us, what we have seen, but we are to be recipients and participants in the love of God. He demonstrated this. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us as a work of atonement. But His death, we see this morning, or we're reminded of this morning, was also necessary so that the Spirit could come into the world. And that's what Jesus said Himself in John 16, 7. I must go so that the Helper might come. And more particularly, that that Spirit might come and take up residence in the life of his people. This truth is central in our text. John wrote, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us. He again emphasizes his purpose in writing the letter, that we might know, that we might be assured that we have a right relationship with a holy God. John's concern is more than simply telling us that God loves us, though that is true. But his concern is more than that. John says, God not only loves us, but that He lives in us. He dwells in us. So when we trace God's dwelling places throughout Scripture, we find this indwelling has the ultimate pointing or unique to a new covenant believer. In Genesis, we find God in perfect fellowship with Adam and Eve walking in both union and communion with them in the garden until the sin of our first parents, which broke that fellowship and their sin broke their union with Him. Later we read that God walked with men like Enoch and Noah and presumably walked with Abraham because we're told that Abraham walked with God. And then we read later that Not only did God walk with His people, but we see a progression when we come to the book of Exodus, where we read in Exodus 25.8 that not only did God walk with them, but He was among them, most pointedly in the tabernacle, or the sanctuary. Exodus 25.8, Let them construct a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell among them. Again, the emphasis on among them. But, just as Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and their fellowship with God was broken, so did the people of God. Continually, we read over and over again in the Old Testament. And we were reminded from the Apostle Paul in our confessional reading this morning that they were given as an example of us not to be. The idolatry, the infidelity, the immorality, the insecurity, all of that should be under the cross. He says. And yet continually we read the people of God in the Old Testament given to sin until finally we read in 1 Samuel 4.21 the name Ichabod, which means the glory had departed. The glory had departed from the people. God no longer dwelt among the people because of their sin until the building of the temple by King Solomon in 1 Kings 8, where God once again comes to dwell among His people. And those people, just as their predecessors, sinned. They repeated the idolatry of their forefathers, and the result was the same. The prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of God on numerous occasions departing from the temple. You're beginning to see a connection here between the glory of God and the Spirit of God. The connection we'll make as we work our way through this text. This old covenant relationship of God to His people is important to recognize when we consider our relationship to God at present. Particularly, what God in love did so that His glory, or in particular in our text, what He has accomplished so that His glory and His Spirit might abide forever, eternally with His people. You see, yes, the glory departed from the temple, but we read in John 1.14 that the glory returned in the person of Jesus Christ, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld what? His glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And we read in the New Testament from the Apostle John that Jesus himself became the temple. Remember, he pointed at those religious leaders and he said, what you tear down, pointing at the temple, I will raise up, I will build up in three days. That was pointing to his own person, his own body, his resurrected body as the temple. And we know that Godless men crucified who Paul titled the Lord of Glory. But all of this, dear friends, all of this was simply to fulfill God's purpose to dwell in men so that His glory, that being the glory of Christ, might be their glory. That was Jesus' prayer in John 17. Father, give them the glory which we have together. That is the wonder that John sets forth. He wants us to know that we know. He wants us to know that we know not just about love, but God's abiding love. Not to simply know about the love of God, but for us to really know the love of God in us. And so John gives five evidences in the rest of chapter four. The first three are objective that we look at this morning. And the last two subjective that we'll look at next week. Five evidences that we abide in His love and His love abides in us. In other words, keys or marks that we are truly born of God. We look at the first three this morning. And the first evidence that John gives towards our assurance is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Verse 13. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us. How? because He has given us of His Spirit. We touched on this already by way of introduction, but here we need to connect the dots a little bit. Jesus Christ, we saw, became the temple, raised up, and He has now ascended to be with the Father. But, just as He promised in John's Gospel, He departed so that the Holy Spirit, the Helper, could come and abide with His people, and in His people forever. John 14, 16, I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. He says. That is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive. Now, it's interesting here. The world cannot receive this. So there's a distinction made between the saving world that God gave His Son for, and that world that cannot receive the Spirit of Truth. He says, I'll ask the Father, He'll give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. But you know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. The Holy Spirit is Christ's gift. It is what He asked of the Father for His people. It is His gift to everyone who believes in Him. That is exactly the way Peter put it and what he stressed on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2, verse 38, Peter said to them, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Now, we know that all too well, but sometimes people lop off the last part of the verse. Peter said, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Who asked for the gift? Who requested the gift? Jesus Christ as he ascended to be at the right hand of the Father. This is one of the distinguishing marks then that God has provided for one to know that they are a Christian. Paul stated the same truth negatively in Romans 8 and 9. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. That's pretty straightforward. Jesus asked for the gift to be given to all those who believe. All those who believe are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul said those who don't have that gift of the Holy Spirit are not truly children of God. Further, the Scriptures teach that the people of God both corporately and individually, are now the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3.16 Paul wrote, Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? That's a corporate aspect in chapter 3. Then in chapter 6 verse 19, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? whom you have from God, and that you are not your own." There's the individual indwelling of the Spirit of God. So the apostolic teaching of Peter, of Paul, and of John, is that by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the glory of God remains in His temple forever. Let that sink in. Lester began this morning by praying to the Lord of glory. Dear friends, if you know Christ saving me today, that glory resides in you as the temple. If we as a church are faithfully serving God and our risen Savior, that dwelling place is in this corporate body. The glory of God has taken up residence in your own life forever. It's written. Dear friends, what a promise. And really, what more assurance do we need that we are a child of God? Well, then I would assume that the obvious question becomes, how do we know that we have the Spirit of Christ living within us? This is a difficult question for many people today. They have a difficult time being able to discern whether they truly have the Spirit of God indwelling them. Perhaps because they see things on television that are, quote, marks of the Spirit living within you. People falling out and speaking languages that we would never be able to understand apart from the Spirit, this side of heaven. The abuses of our charismatic friends. Dear friends, do we not sometimes, as good Reformed Baptists, also abuse the work of the Spirit by neglecting His work in us. And so there's a confusion that exists today about how we can know that we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. How can we have this confidence that we're truly of God? I know what you're saying, that if we have the Spirit, we can be confident. How do we know? How do we know? Well, often I've found that when a person's confused on these things, they either expect too much of what is taught in the Scripture. Perhaps they've compared their own experience to the experiences of others. That's why it's important that we have the root right before we start examining the subjective part that we'll look at next week. They don't see the same spirit in them that they see in others, and so they question whether the Spirit of God truly does live in them. Or perhaps they've come to expect more than what the Scriptures really teach concerning the habitation or the tabernacling of God in their lives. And therefore, they simply don't feel the presence of the Spirit. Well, the Scriptures are clear on two things as it relates to our assurance in this regard. First, we are assured of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit by the inward witness of the Spirit Himself. Romans 8, 16, Paul wrote, and what Steve will preach on tonight, Lord willing, he encourages Christians, Paul does, by writing, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now, this is important on two levels. First, the Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you're a child of God. The Spirit doesn't bear witness with my spirit that you are a child of God. The Spirit doesn't bear witness with Abby's spirit that somebody else's. The Spirit, Paul says, bears witness with your spirit. That doesn't mean that as myself or Abby or others that are walking according to the Spirit of the Lord may not be able to discern there are certain things in your life that may be evident that you don't have the Spirit. Paul doesn't suggest that. As we walk with the Spirit, and as we discern in others things that may be dangerous in their lives, then we may need to approach them and say, you know, these things aren't necessarily evidences that the Spirit indwells you. Paul says the Spirit bears witness with your spirit, whether or not you're a child of God. Further, the indwelling Spirit witnesses to you. He bears testimony of your testimony. That's what the word witness means. And so, He bears witness with you, bears testimony with your testimony that you are a child of God. That God truly is your Father. What greater confidence could there be? The Spirit tells you, I know that you fall short of the glory of the Father that resides in you daily. hourly, perhaps even every second you're falling short. We are miserable worms. I know that you fall short of the glory that resides in you, but I also know, if this is true, that you desire to live for His glory, that you come to a point in your life where you realize that you are for Him and He's not for you, that you exist for His glory and He doesn't exist for you, and the desire has changed. Your passions have changed. You have the longing to live for the Lord. The believer responds, I know that I'm not what I should be, but by the grace of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, I'm not what I used to be. You see the difference? You see, the devil's greatest lie is to have you dwell on what you should be, rather than what you used to be, if you truly are a child of God. And so, We understand that yes, we fall short of that glory, that very glory that's taken up residence in our own lives. But yet we're not what we used to be in Christ. And dear friends, if you have that, then that is the spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. No, you're not what you should be. But we're pressing on in what we should be. And if your desire is to be what the Father wants you to be for His glory, then dear friends, that is an evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life. The natural man cannot come to that on his own. The second way, then, that we are assured of this inward witness is by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. First, it's the Spirit bearing testimony with your spirit, witnessing to your spirit that you're a child of God. If that is true, then there will be the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And when these graces are evident in a person, again, not perfectly, none of us have come to completion and complete maturity in our Lord as we'll see next week. But when these graces of the fruit are evident in the life of a person, then that is evidence that the Holy Spirit is living in them. These aren't graces resident in a man who is still dead in his trespasses and his sins. If God is living in you, then you will produce the fruit that comes from the root. When you have the desire to love others unselfishly, the desire to love for others first and for God, that's a mark, perhaps, that you know Christ savingly. When you have the desire to love unselfishly, where you might once have feared others, rejected others, ignored others, that is evidence of the Holy Spirit at working. When you desire to be with the people of God, that is a mark. that the Holy Spirit is in you. However, the negative is also true. You find yourself criticizing others, lacking patience and gentleness, gossiping, slandering, grumbling. If these things are more evident than the fruit of the Spirit, then realize, dear friend, at the very least, you are not walking according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh. But if harshness bitterness, anger are the rule and not the exception, then you don't have the Spirit living within you. Where the life of God is at work, when God is at work in you, it sweetens bitterness. It melts hardness. It multiplies love. It fosters patience. It exercises self-control. And so we see the first evidence, our objective ground for our assurance is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Indwelling presence of the Spirit, both in its witness as well as its fruit. But secondly, we see the evidence, or the second objective evidence is the confirmation of apostolic testimony. The confirmation of apostolic testimony in verse 14. John said, We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Linked to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, in fact inseparable from it, is the testimony of the Apostles. The two always go together. Spirit and the Word of God. The Apostolic Truth that Jesus said was revealed from the Father. Linked to this testimony of the Holy Spirit, then, is the testimony of the apostles. And that is what Jesus taught according to John in John 15, verse 26. When the Helper comes... Remember that Helper that He was going to ask for? The gift of the Holy Spirit? When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father... Now, this is interesting. That means that the Father gave the Spirit to the Son to send to us. And we have the the Orthodox teaching that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son. Well, here it is. He says, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth, he qualifies it again. Not just any spirit. Not just the stuff that you see in the media. Not just the stuff that people spend so much time in trying to refute, but the Spirit of Truth, he says. He says, I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father he will bear witness of me and you he says will bear witness also because you have been with me from the beginning who is the we in verse 14 of our text when John says we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son well it's the apostolic witness The we of verse 14, as well as the opening verses of the letter where we saw, we've seen and touched and heard and handled these things, refers to the apostles who had the unique privilege of having seen the resurrected Christ and because of that, and along with that, the unique responsibility to witness to that Christ which they saw and the Christ which they heard. To have seen and heard and been commissioned by the risen Christ was the ultimate test of apostleship. And it is their witness that the veracity, that the truthfulness of the gospel rests. Contrary to belief of men then and even today, the gospel is not something that a few Christians conjured up along the way to appease their misguided notions concerning Christ. But dear friends, it is something verifiable in the witness of the apostles. It is not like what one philosopher said, and Steve, forgive me, I forget which one it is, that men invent religion in their own hearts and their own minds to soothe their own conscience. In other words, religion is nothing more than to make us feel better about ourselves and our lot in this life and the things that are going on around us. Peter himself said, who was an apostle. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Dear friends, if the gospel and the apostolic witness was just something they made up, then they would have gone about it a much different way. But Peter says, we didn't make this up. We are merely proclaiming what we saw, what we heard. He says that in 2 Peter 1.16. And so John says the Christian can have confidence through the eyewitness accounts of the apostles. And note what is at the center of the apostles testimony. He says, we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. What was central to their message? Yes, they taught many things. There are many things that are important for us that the apostles wrote that helped guide our Christian life. But central to the message was the salvation through Christ and Christ alone. The centrality of the cross. He said, we have seen and heard the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. John moves from the sent Holy Spirit to then the sent Son of God, whose purpose was to seek and to save the lost. He came to serve rather than to be served, to give His life a ransom for men. John Stott comments, Thus God has provided a two-fold testimony to Christ. That of the apostles who witnessed the historic Jesus whom they had seen and heard, and that of the Holy Spirit who confirms their witness in their hearts of the believers in verse 13. And this is exactly what Jesus said in John 15 that we read earlier, and that Peter proclaimed in Acts 5.32, where he said, we are witnesses of these things, We being who? The apostles. And in that setting, I'm sure those others that had seen, we are witnesses of these things. Remember, this is immediately on the heels of Ananias and Sapphira. So there would have been others. But we have witnessed these things, he says, and so is the Holy Spirit. We are witnesses, and so is the Spirit, whom God has given to those, there's the gift again, to those who obey. It is this objective, verifiable truth that is important for our assurance. Word and spirit always work together. We need the objective witness because left to our feelings, we would be most miserable human beings. It's not that our feelings aren't important. It's not that our emotions are not important. God gave them to us. And our salvation is to be emotive. We'll return to that next week. But our feelings are not an accurate gauge of truth. Feelings change. Our feelings can be deceptive. Our feelings can be manipulated. But God's truth, as recorded in Scripture, is never changing. And how do we know that? Because the Scriptures are the very Word of God, breathed out by Him, bear His very nature, And God is never changing. His Word never changes. Our feelings are up and down and all around, but His Word is consistent as given to us in the apostles and the prophets. So that Jesus could look at Peter on that day and say, Peter, on your testimony, on your witness, I will build my church. It wasn't on the person of Peter. It was on his witness. You are the Christ, the Son of God. Paul summarized John's teaching this way. In Ephesians 2, 19 and following, Paul wrote, you are no longer strangers and aliens, by the way, writing to Gentiles who were outside the camp, so to speak, in the old covenant economy. He said, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. And what is the proof? What is the verification? What is God's house consist of? Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Paul is simply echoing what John wrote later. In whom the whole building in Christ being fitted together is growing into a holy temple. There it is again. In the Lord. in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." God's purpose is to take up residence in the lives of His people. Isn't it wonderful how the apostles, different men, writing at different times from different places, without each other's letters spread out before them, always agree in what they say, even in stressing the same things. Is that coincidence? Darryl, is that what they teach you at Beeson? I hope not. No, it's not coincidence. Dear friends, that is God's Spirit at work. So, we see first the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as a source of our assurance, objectively. the apostolic truth, the gospel that was given to them as they saw and heard and touched and walked with the risen Lord and Savior and were given his truth. A third way, objectively, we can be assured is by the confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. People try to make that more difficult than needed. This is a simple truth. If you confess that Jesus is the Son of God, you are a child of God. It really is that simple. So why is it so difficult? Well, a few things we know. First, the verb confesses is in the aorist tense in the Greek. This is important because John is not stressing here a future confession, though that will be true of those who are truly born of God. He's not even stressing a present confession, though that would also be true. But what John is stressing here, what John wants to get across in the Aorist tense, this confession, is his concern of a single decisive moment in time where one professed faith in Christ. In other words, that initial crying out to God, that initial confession that you make in repentance and faith, in crying out to God for your salvation. It's what we call our profession of faith today. It is a real profession, however, that leads to a possession of Jesus Christ. Confessing or a real profession, John says, leads to abiding. His abiding in us and our abiding in Him. So what we have in these verses is an assurance based upon what God has done for us and in us in order to bring us to Him. We confess the Christ of the apostles. The Christ that the Apostles set forth in the Scriptures, we profess that by faith, according to the Spirit that comes and takes up residence, and therefore we testify to Christ. This confession that Jesus is the Son of God is necessary for any who have truly been born of God. Paul, again in total agreement with John, wrote in Romans 10 verse 8, The Word is near you. There's the Word again. The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of Faith that we are preaching. There's the Apostolic Testimony again. The same thing that Peter said, Paul says. We didn't make this up. We received this from Christ Himself. The Word is near you, the Word of Faith which we are preaching. that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, man believes, resulting in righteousness. With the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation. What Paul is setting forth here is that something really has happened inside, it's going to come out. If the Holy Spirit is taking up residence in your own life, Others will know by your words, by your confession. Do you see how Paul put it? With the heart man believes. When the Holy Spirit changes the heart, takes the heart of stone and changes it into a heart of flesh, that dead heart comes to life and it believes, it trusts. And then Paul says it necessarily confesses with the mouth. John says, the Spirit works the truth of the gospel of the apostles in us, and we confess that Jesus is the Son of God. So our assurance comes through faith. Not assurance of our faith in our own faith. Not assurance of our faith of our parents. Not our faith in a man who walked on this earth, the historical Jesus. Not simply in the faith that we might have, plus our works. But it is faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ for you. And so our assurance comes in our confession. Our confession of the person and of the work of Jesus Christ. And that confession, dear friends, is more than just an acknowledgement that Christ is the Son of God. I love what Chobeke said. We could teach a parrot the words, Christ is the Son of God. A parrot can repeat that. What's the difference between the parrot and a person who truly says those things from the heart? The parrot doesn't know what he's talking about. And dear friends, I will admit that there are many today that say with their lips, Jesus is the Son of God, that have no more spiritual life than a parrot. But if the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in your life, You know the difference. We must remember that even the demons confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. And they shuddered. At least they have enough sense to shudder. Mere confession of the lips is not enough. So the question is, do we understand that God truly knows our hearts? Do we believe that God has saved us. Perhaps the question ought to be, do you believe what you say? You see, dear friends, if you don't believe what you say, you'll never be assured of your salvation. Yes, your confidence might rest in the wrong place. That's the reason we're going to these verses. It's always in Christ. But if you don't believe what you say, you'll never be assured. That's where we flee to the cross. We remember the promises of God. We remember what He has done for us in His Son, Jesus Christ, and His work at Calvary, so that the moment that doubt comes in, we remember Him. And not our circumstances, and not all that's going on around us, but we flee to Christ. If you've truly confessed Him, Aorist tense. If you've truly trusted in Christ and believed in Christ, then you, dear friends, can believe, because of the indwelling of the Spirit that will never go away, that nothing will ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Period. Why? Because God has said it. Let me close with a couple of thoughts. What we've seen in this section is a picture of what happens when one truly does know Christ savingly. The Holy Spirit comes and convicts us of our sin, the righteousness of Christ, and the judgment of God on our unrighteousness. He reveals the truth of God's gospel, that truth that the apostles gave, the apostolic witness. We're convinced of that truth through the preaching of the Word, and we believe that it is sure and that it is true. Just as Paul wrote, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the preaching of the Word. So when one is convicted of their sin, when they're convinced of Christ's work for them, through the regenerating work of the Spirit, they will confess Him. They will believe that God loves them. And as we will see again next week, that love is proven in their love for God and for others. That is our confidence. That is the objective grounds of our assurance. When we doubt God's love for us, we flee to our hope. Our hope that is in Christ and Christ alone. We plead His glory in us through the Spirit that has been given to us. You notice again, as I trace God's dwelling places, that they were often associated with the presence of His glory. This is exactly what Paul wrote in Colossians 1.27 He wrote, God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. What was the mystery? Paul said, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So when we doubt, we flee to the word. When we doubt, we plead the cross. We cry out like the father of that demon-possessed boy in Mark chapter 9. I do believe. But what were his next words? Help my unbelief. That's where we go. Second, while we have the ever-abiding indwelling of the Holy Spirit that God will never leave us or forsake us, we have that promise, we must remember that God will not allow His glory to be profaned. That doesn't change. Over in Hebrews, I mean Isaiah, I'm sorry, chapter 42, verse 5, Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out. Just in case the reader had the wrong God. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you. Dear friends, that promise is for the believer. I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. Verse 8, I am the Lord, that is my name. His covenant name with His people. I am the Lord. That is My name. I will not give My glory to another. Later in Isaiah, He says, I will not allow My name, My covenant name, to be profaned. We'll see in our series in adoption over the next weeks, that if you truly are a child of God, God disciplines His own children. Why? Because He will not allow His name to be profane. He will not share His glory with another. Dear friends, when we as believers shame our Father, He will do whatever it takes for His own sake. And so, we must remember that God will not allow His glory to be profane. Now, in Isaiah 42, that's written in the particular context of idolatry. They've given themselves to idols. They had shared God's glory with something that was less than God. And dear friends, that's what we do every time. We trust in anything other than God and Christ alone. He will not allow us to share His glory with idols. So we come to the point where we say, well, I understand all of those things. I know these things are true. I know that God has given His Spirit so that I might know. I know that He sent His Son and saved me so that I might know. I know that the Word of God is the Word of God and it is the sure witness. But yet you doubt. What I've found often when people doubt, this isn't hard cut, but when people doubt They begin, first of all, doubting because they don't believe God and His promises. They may not know them, but they don't believe them. They don't believe that nothing can separate them from the love of God. They don't believe all of the promises which are theirs in Christ Jesus. They don't latch on to that inheritance that is already theirs because of what Christ has accomplished for them. And so rather than taking God at His word, They look at their own lives and see how miserably short they fall every day. Receive the forgiveness of Christ. Another reason that people often doubt is they are living for an idol. They may not recognize it, but their confidence, their trust is in something other than the glory of God in them. Built upon something other than these objective grounds for our assurance. And we need to heed the warning. We more often make idols out of the good things that God has given us. Not the bad things. The good things that we begin to trust in rather than God and God alone. I will not share my glory with another. And so if we've begun to share that glory with something less than God, Or, let's put it this way, if ultimately we're living for our own glory, rather than for the glory of the Lord, He will get our attention. We must come to the point, as we've already seen this morning, where we realize we exist for God. He doesn't exist for us. He created us for His glory, He saved us for His glory, and we serve Him for His glory. End of quote. The moment it becomes about us, We're sharing our glory with another. Then a third area that people often doubt, we've read this in the psalm already this morning, is they fear man or others rather than fearing God. Over and over and over again, we're reminded in the psalms, fear the Lord. Trust in His word. Fear the Lord. Trust in His word. Fear the Lord. Trust in His word. The moment we Go off the path. Doubt. Do you have this objective grounds of assurance in your life? The Spirit of God testifying to the Word of God that you are a child of God. Let's pray.