It's a great privilege to be here and to be a part of this weekend especially. One of the things that we get to do this weekend as a church and then as those who are joining us as visitors is to take one particular doctrine, in this case the doctrine of adoption, the teaching in the Bible about the fact that Christians are sons of God, children of their heavenly father. And we get to take that like a diamond and sort of turn it around to the light and look at the different facets of it. And that's what we'd like to do this morning. That's what the plan is for this Sunday school, to look at one particular facet, not the whole doctrine, but one particular facet of the doctrine of adoption. And the way I want to frame this is in terms of a question. The question we're going to seek to answer this morning is, how can we know, how can we have assurance that we are indeed children of God? We've spent some time Friday and Saturday looking at what it means to be called God's child, the significance of it, the benefits of it, the rights that that entails. And we'll do more of that as we worship God this morning and this evening. But one question that we haven't yet addressed is, in light of all of that, how do I know that I am, in fact, a child of God? So let's pray together and then we'll look at this important topic. Our great God and loving Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for this time together. We thank you for the fellowship that we enjoy with one another because of our fellowship with Jesus Christ. We thank you for the hope that is ours in Christ. We thank you for the very clear teaching in your word which gives us confidence. We ask that as we come to your word, you would give us ears to hear what you have to say. We know that your word is holy. It is precious. It is without error. And it is living and active. And so, Father, as we stand on this holy ground and examine your oracles, may we do so with humility, with reverence, and with care. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. The topic that we're going to be looking at today is one of the most significant topics, one of the most significant doctrines to be formulated out of the Protestant Reformation. One of the counter-Reformation figures, one of the great Roman Catholic apologists whose life mission was simply to refute the clear biblical teachings of the Protestant Reformation, his name was Robert Bellamy, and said this, the greatest of all Protestant heresies, the greatest of all Protestant heresies is the doctrine of assurance. It's striking, isn't it? He didn't say justification by faith alone, although the Roman Catholic Church anathematized that doctrine. He didn't say the doctrine of the Bible alone, although it was clear that that was a dividing line in the Reformation. No, he said the greatest of all Protestant heresies is the doctrine of assurance. And that gives you some sense of how important this is, how integral this is to our understanding of the Christian faith. And frankly, what we'll see is how integral this doctrine is even to the Bible's own portrayal of our salvation. And so this is the question, can we know and how can we know that we are in fact sons of God, children of our Heavenly Father? Now, I want to make a recommendation to you here at the outset because this is framing almost everything I'm going to cover today. If you want to review some of the material that I intend to cover, So, what I would suggest to you is that this afternoon or sometime when you have a little more time in your schedule that you go and you read our Westminster Confession of Faith. This is our confession of what we believe that the Bible teaches and particularly look at chapter 18. There is an entire chapter in our Confession of Faith dedicated to this topic. Assurance. And much of what I'm going to say is directly driven by the way in which Westminster outlines it. So Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 18, is vitally important. Now, the question we might want to ask ourselves here at the outset is, why is this considered by the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation to be one of the greatest of Protestant heresies. And there are a number of answers to this question. Number one, we see that they thought it was presumptuous. It was presumptuous that anyone could say with confidence, I am a child of God. I have God as my heavenly father. Another connected issue is the fact that they denied the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And if you deny the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and your works play a part in your justification, then it's understandable that you could never have real confidence about your standing before God judicially. And they also said this, that in fact, this doctrine of assurance is just going to increase lawlessness. It's just going to increase sin. If we have assurance that we're sons of God, then perhaps we'll no longer care about the commands of God. Now, in contrast to this, of course, as I've said, our confession makes it very clear that we can have assurance that we are God's children. And I think the Bible itself is premised on that because everything we've looked at in terms of the benefits of adoption with respect to prayer is premised on the idea that we can know this, we can address God as our Father and we can do so in a confident way. Now, what the confession says is this, that there are three primary ways, three primary ways in which we can gain assurance that we are in fact children of God. And so perhaps if you've struggled with this in the past, if you've struggled with knowing for sure that you are accepted into God's family, knowing for sure that you have this secure foundation, this secure relationship with your creator, These three tests, these three evidences may be of great benefit to you. So the question is, how do you gain this assurance and how do you grow in this assurance? The first evidence that we see in the Bible, and the one that I want to start with because it uses the language of being a son of God, is an inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. Now, I have to say at the outset that while this is biblical and while this is significant, of all the three evidences that I'm going to look at today, this is the one that is the most subjective. This is the one that is, in some sense, the most difficult to pin down or wrap your arms around experientially. But it is biblical. Here's what Romans 8, 16 and 17 says. The Spirit himself, and this is the Holy Spirit himself, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. And there we see it. One of the ways in which we can gain and grow in our confidence that we are indeed children of God is through this inward testimony of the Holy Spirit to our spirit. Now as I said, this is difficult because each of us experience different emotions, each of us has a different temperament, each of us struggles with different kinds of things, and so there is no cookie cutter approach given in the New Testament for how this takes place, how exactly the Holy Spirit ministers to our spirit in a direct way, letting us know that we are children of God. But there is, I think, an important hint in this text in Romans 8, because what Paul says in Romans 8 is that because the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God, he causes us to cry out to God, saying, Abba, Father. So one of the results of this inward testimony of the Holy Spirit, as hard as it may be to exactly define, is this, that we come to God with confidence. We come to God in prayer, knowing that He is our Heavenly Father. Knowing that the God whom we are addressing in our prayer is the loving Father of us. And so I think all of this inward testimony of the Holy Spirit finds its expression, if you will. It comes to full fruition when we come to God in prayer. And of course, if you think about the way in which prayer is described in the New Testament, and the way in which God's fatherly care for us is described in the New Testament, you know how rich a blessing this is. Because the Bible tells us that our Father knows what we need before we ask. that our Father will not give us that which is not best for us, that our Father hears us and He cares for us. And the analogy even with a good human father is used in the scriptures. And so we have the Holy Spirit witness to us that we're God's children, and that finds its expression as we come to God as our Father in prayer. That's one way in which we can be confident that we are God's children in a saving way. The second also is related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but it's related somewhat differently. It's not an inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. that is individual and can't quite be described and is not something necessarily observable by others. No, this is something that is very observable by others, but it's nonetheless a work of the Holy Spirit. And that's this, the Bible tells us that we, it's right for us, in fact, it's our duty as Christians to look at our lives and to see if we're bearing fruit, to see if we're growing in good works. This is one of the ways the Bible tells us to determine whether we are in fact savingly related to God as our Father, whether we are in fact sons of God in the sense that the Bible speaks of it. So we're to look at our lives and look at the fruit born by the Holy Spirit in our lives and to make a determination that way. So you should be able to say, if you're a Christian, that you look back six months ago, or a year ago, or five years ago, and you see ways in which God has grown you. You see ways in which you have demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit. You look back and you say, well, by God's grace, I have so much further to go, and I'm perhaps even more aware of my sin now than I was then, but at the same time, there are specific ways in which I can see that God has borne fruit in my life. Now, what are some passages that talk about this. Well, one of the perhaps most significant ones is in 2 Peter 3. In 2 Peter 3, or rather it's in 2 Peter 1 beginning in verse 3, and here's what it says, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us great and precious promises so that through them you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. And then listen to this. Listen to the logic of this text. For this very reason, because we've been given all these things by God in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. Listen to this logic. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, in conclusion, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall." Now, what's Peter saying, among other things? Well, what Peter is saying is this, that if you're a Christian, God has given you everything you need for life and godliness. And so there are commands that go along with that. There are ways in which you need to be growing. There are things you need to be pursuing. There are things you need to be leaving aside. And as you do that, and if you do that, this confirms for you the fact that you are indeed called by God. You are indeed one of His sons. And it's critically important. In fact, this is perhaps the most, it's used far more in the New Testament as evidence of salvation than the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. You remember John in his first letter, and 1st John says at the end, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And if you look back at the things he's just written, that he's written that we might know that we have eternal life, many of them have to do with our obedience. They have to do with loving one another. They have to do with forsaking sin. They have to do with pursuing righteousness and saying no to worldliness and all kinds of things that John envisions. And they're all there, John says, that you may know. that you have eternal life. It's not wrong for us. It's not sinful for us. It's certainly not in any way undermining the doctrine of justification by faith alone to say that if we want to grow in assurance that we are indeed sons of God, one of the ways we do that is by looking at our life, looking at our actions, looking at our works, looking at the change. Remember I said this is really also an evidence of the Holy Spirit, because what the Bible teaches is that in fact it is God the Holy Spirit who is at work within us, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. So that the Apostle Paul can say things like this, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God working through me. So that's the second one. The inward testimony of the Holy Spirit, which is personal and works itself out in prayer, and the evidences of God's grace, the evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit, which play out in our growth, play out in our good works, play out in us bearing what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit. Now, there's a third one, and the third one is the most solid and sure. Because perhaps you could be sitting here, and I think this happens a great deal to Christians, they're saying, well, this inward testimony of the Spirit, this is vague, I'm not positive of this, I have all kinds of doubts about this. Sometimes I feel that, but sometimes I don't. And even when it comes to my growth in good works, while I do see some change, I'm increasingly aware of my own sinfulness, which by the way, is actually usually a mark of spiritual growth in your life. The way in which it works is analogous, I think, to a room that we might clean or even dust. And then when the light comes in through the window, we see all kinds of places that still need to be cleaned. That's the way it works in the Christian life. The more light you have, the more understanding you have, the more you see areas of sin. But nonetheless, that can also become somewhat crippling as we say, am I really growing in grace? But this third evidence, this third evidence is the most solid and sure. And that's this, the Bible tells us that if we want to be assured with confidence that we are sons of God, that we are God's children related savingly to him as our father, then what we need to meditate on is the promises of God in Jesus Christ. Robert Murray McShane said, for every one time I look at myself, I want to look 10 times to Christ. And this is what he meant. He meant that Jesus Christ has made very clear promises for those who come to him in faith. And if you are struggling with assurance, you're struggling as you look at your own life, as you take stock of your own experience, you're struggling with that, look to the promises of Christ. Think about some of these promises. Jesus Christ said this, all the Father gives me will come to me and I will not cast them out. And I will raise them up on the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, Jesus says, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise Him up on the last day. You hear that repetition about the future? Everyone the Father gives to me, I'll raise up on the last day. Everyone who comes to me, I'll raise up on the last day. Whoever looks to me in faith, whoever believes in me, I will raise up on the last day. And so then we look at our lives and we ask ourselves a very simple set of questions. These are questions you should put to yourself even today, no matter how long you've been sitting in church, these are questions worth considering even now. Have you come to Jesus Christ in faith? Are you looking to him for salvation? Have you believed in him? And if the answer to those questions is yes, and I mean right now, if the answer to those questions is yes, then what do we have in these words from Jesus? We have clear promises. I will raise him up on the last day. And the Bible's teaching about that is glorious because what the Bible teaches us is that on that last day when he raises us up, he will call us to himself. He will show before the world. that we are indeed his sons, that we are indeed his children, will be vindicated publicly, identified with publicly by Jesus. You know, of course, the inverse is true. Jesus says, there will be those on the last day, and I will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. But for those who have come to Jesus in faith, you can look at these promises He's made and you can say, I believe. I am coming to you. I'm entrusting my life and my salvation and my eternity to you and to you alone. And because of that, I know what you've promised. And that is the most solid ground on which we could base our assurance, on which we could base our confidence. Now, there is one more thing. I said there were only three, and that's right, although there is another element, I would say, to one of these. And that, too, is found in the confession, although it's found more clearly when we get to the catechisms themselves, particularly the larger catechism, and that's this, that our God is so gracious to us, so kind to us, He knows, the psalmist says, that we are but dust. He understands our frame. He knows how weak and feeble we are, how prone to doubt, how prone to look at ourselves with discouragement. And so one of the additional things, as if piling on to these three major sources of assurance, one of the additional means that God gives to us within the context of the church, and this can only be found in the context of the church, is God has given to us, Christ has given to us particular sacraments, particular signs and seals of those gospel promises. So remember I said that these gospel promises, these promises of Christ are the most sure foundation and that's exactly right. But what God has given to us because he knows the kind of people we are, What God has given to us is not just words of assurance and promises that are very clear, but he's given us what we call sensible signs, that is, signs that appeal to and we take in via our senses. So we see some of these promises, not just hearing about them, not just hearing them in the word, But we actually see them played out. We see the symbolism represented by baptism. We taste and smell and touch and swallow these symbols of bread and wine. And in that way, God, as it were, seals these things to us. So you're not just hearing about it, you're tasting it. Your senses are all engaged in the process. And that, I think, is a subset of looking to the promises of God, because, indeed, that's what these sacraments are all about. I want to talk about the implications of all this and then issue a few warnings, because these warnings are found in Scripture and they're not talked about very much in our evangelical church context today, I'm afraid, but they are significant, they are sobering, And if you look at any of the earlier works on assurance from the time of the Reformation or just after when this is really being fleshed out and written on and preached upon, what you'll find is these warnings were pervasive and they took up a good portion of a lot of that preaching and that writing. Let's talk about the warnings and then we'll talk about the benefits. One warning is this. We have to be clear, this is in the Bible, there is a possibility of false assurance. So we look at these three ways of growing in assurance. We look at the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. We look at the fruit of the Spirit born in our lives. We look at the foundational bedrock promises of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, which are crystal clear to us. But we also have to recognize that because of our sinfulness, because our hearts are deceitful and desperately sick, Because of these truths about us by nature, we can, as human beings in our natural state, be prone to a false kind of assurance. You see that play out today, very sadly, even in church circles. You see people who seem to think that the reason they can have confidence is because of a momentary action that they took. I said some words once. I raised a hand once. I walked down an aisle once. That's not scriptural assurance. It may in fact be a means that God uses by His Holy Spirit to convert people. We don't doubt that at all, but you won't find that in the scriptures as a means of assurance. The means of assurance are the ones that we've outlined. Those are the ones given in the New Testament. And we also have to be aware that the Bible does have a category of those who think they are part of God's family, but in fact are not. This is very clearly stated in the Old Testament. We have passages like Micah 3.11. Here's what Micah says about the people of Judah at that time. Its heads, it's looking at the people of God in a general sense, Judah. Its heads give judgment for a bribe. Its priests teach for a price. Its prophets practice divination for money. And yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us. What we see these covenant people doing is using the name of the Lord or the rituals associated with the worship of the Lord as a kind of magic talisman. We've got the Lord here. Didn't you just hear? I prayed in the name of the Lord. I'm doing these things in the name of the Lord. We're the Lord's people. We've got the Lord's word and we read it and we think about it and we would check off a box on a survey form that said, we're people of Yahweh. Is not the Lord in our midst? And the Lord says, they think I'm in their midst. They think that I am with them and that they are part of my family. But just look at their actions. Look at every phase of their society. Look at every part of their religious practice. Their priests are doing it for money. Their leaders are doing it for money. That everyone is motivated by selfish desires. There's no living relationship. There's no familial resemblance to me. They bear no resemblance to me as their father and yet they lean on me and think that I am. That happens again and again and again in the Old Testament. It's one of the most common maladies that we see in the Old Testament. Among those who name the name of the Lord and yet know nothing of him experientially, know nothing of him in terms of his saving grace and his fatherly care and love. And I've referred to this verse already, but nonetheless, it's one that we need to do business with. It's a sobering one. These are the words of Jesus himself. And here's what he says, on that day, speaking of the last day when he comes and vindicates those who are his, acknowledges them before men. On that day, many, he says, will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? cast out demons in your name, do many mighty works in your name. In other words, like the people in Micah's day, they were naming the name of the Lord and doing good works in the name of the Lord, exercising powerful ministries in some cases in the name of the Lord. And Jesus says, I will declare this to them on that day. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity." Jesus doesn't say on that day, oh, I'm sorry, you may have misunderstood. Let me make it clearer to you now. It's through faith alone that you're united to me. No, he doesn't say that. At that point, it is too late. At that point, he simply says, I never knew you. And he calls them for all their superficially good works, for all the things they did in the name of Jesus. On that day, he says to them, you are simply workers of iniquity, never had a relationship with me, and I never knew you. What a tragic thing that is. And that's why it's all the more important that we do what the Bible tells us to do over and over again, which is to make our calling and election sure. But as we do that, we don't do that by simply trying to gin up in ourselves some kind of emotional experience that we think corresponds to what genuine religious conversion looks like. A lot of people do that. They're concerned about their status before the Lord and so they try to say, well, perhaps if I can sort of get myself going enough to have this religious experience that seems to be normative in the scriptures. No, no, no. That's not where the Bible places us. What the Bible says is, Look to the inward ministry of the Holy Spirit in your prayers. Look to the way in which God the Holy Spirit is working in your life and define it by the scriptures. Not just, I think I'm becoming a better person, but look at the fruit of the Spirit listed and ask yourself, As you go back a reasonable amount of time, is God doing this in me? Would others see this change? Am I a different person than I was before I met Jesus Christ? Oh, and then again and again and again, for every one look at yourself, give ten looks to Jesus Christ and to His promises. The Bible also says that there's a possibility not only of false assurance, but of losing genuine assurance. And I would expect, in a room like this, there are those who have experienced this. You'd say, I was so certain, and now I'm less certain. Well, you know, the Bible has a category for that. David says in Psalm 31, I said in my alarm, I'm cut off from your sight. But then what he goes on to say is this, but you heard the voice of my plea and you came to me in help. If that's your situation, then look to Christ, plead with God that he might give you this renewed assurance. Well, why is it so important? Why is it so important that we know? We know that The opponents of biblical Christianity considered it to be a great heresy. But why do we consider it to be such a great treasure? Well, think about this. Think about the relationships in your life. Think about the relationships and the people with whom you have the greatest intimacy, the greatest security. Isn't it the case that those with whom you have the greatest intimacy, those whom you know the best, are those whom you trust the most? You know the nature of your relationship. You're confident in it. You're secure in it. And it's because in that security, there is great freedom. And you know, when that security is lost, when you no longer have confidence, perhaps in a friend that you used to trust, but you now know you can't trust, Now, there's great constraint in your thinking and even in your feeling and certainly in your action. No, God wants us to know. God wants us to be confident in our relationship to him. This was brought home for me very vividly in an experience I had probably now about 25 years ago or so. For about five years I worked in Israel and I was on an archaeological excavation and we lived in a hotel near the excavation. And so we'd spend months in this hotel and eat most of our meals in the hotel. And so because of that we had a floor reserved for us but the rest of the hotel was in use for tourists who were coming through or other travelers or groups or things like this. And there was one group that came every year that was always striking to me. And I didn't know who they were, but I saw them as different because of the way in which they would go through the food line, the way the restaurant was set up, where we would eat our lunch. It was a kind of buffet. And there were these older people in the buffet line, and they would always get in the line ahead of us. And what I would see them do that was perplexing to me, and at first annoying until I learned more about them, was they would not only pile the food on their plates, and they would also take whatever they could, whatever was dry in the buffet, and stick it in their pockets. start taking things from the line, things that I maybe had my eye on, and it's going in their pockets. And I asked someone about it. Actually, the very first time they came, I asked someone about it. I said, what is going on with these people? What were they doing? It's rudeness. And a friend of mine who had been there in the past said, oh, you know, look very carefully at them. These are Holocaust survivors. And indeed, they were. the tattoos on their arms. And he said, these are people who have suffered for years in ways that have just marked them. And he said, what's going on is for some of these people, including the ones who are in front of you in line, their mind is so shaped by those few years of torture and terror that they think this might be their last meal. They've been there before. And so they'll do this every time through the line, thinking, perhaps this is it for me. Now, you see how that has bearing on this. God wants us to know, to have confidence that we are his, that we will be raised up on the last day, that we can trust him, that we can live in freedom and confidence. in our standing with Him. We are not meant to wonder whether somehow, perhaps, God will not be merciful to us on that last day as we face death. We're not left to wonder about our security today and tomorrow. No, in fact, the Bible gives us every reason to be sure that we are sons of God. Well, that's a profound difference. Think about living your life insecure in those things. Think about the spillover effect that has on you psychologically and spiritually and relationally and as you face sickness and death and difficulty and heartache. One of the great truths recovered in the Protestant Reformation is that we can know for sure that we are sons of God. And if we are God's children, we are also joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And on that day, he will receive us as his and declare openly that he knows us. Let's pray together. Our God and Father, you are kind to us beyond our comprehension. You've given us great and precious promises in your word. May we reflect on these promises and live and pray and work and suffer in light of them. We ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.