Isn't it good? It's good to be in the house of the Lord here tonight. It's always a blessing. If you have your Bibles, if you open it up to 1 John chapter 5, man, are we ever coming to a close of our study in 1 John 5 tonight. Come to the pulpit full. It's been a very good, I guess, couple weeks of study. And man, what a passage we are looking at tonight. If you remember last two weeks ago, we considered the greatest witness of Jesus Christ. And we saw that witness in 1 John 5 verses 6 through 12. And that was God. God is the greatest witness of his own beloved son. He witnessed of Christ at his birth. He witnessed of Christ at his baptism, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. God witnessed of his own son. And he calls on us to be a witness of his very son as well. We as saints are called to bear witness of Jesus Christ in this lost and dying world. We are called to testify now. of the one who saved our souls. And what a call that that was and is for us today. And tonight we find ourselves in verse 13 of 1 John 5. Verse 13 of 1 John 5. God's word says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. As you probably already know from the little worksheet that I printed out tonight, we're talking about blessing assurance. And I promise you, if we will be attentive to God's word, we will leave out of this building full tonight. So bow with me as we pray. Father, Lord, we thank you for another day of life. We thank you for another opportunity to come into your house, to be around your people. Father, to be here and to be worshiping with our families. Lord, what a privilege that that is. A privilege that has been taken from so many families that are displaced right now. And Father, now as we open up your word and as we study it, Father, we pray that you would speak to us through your spirit, through your word. And Lord, we pray assurance wouldn't be something that we are that we don't have but we pray salvation assurance would be attained here tonight. Lord be with us now. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. Blessed As we have talked many times, verse 13 of this passage is the summary verse of the entire epistle of 1 John. It says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. And as we have talked about many times, the word know, as used in this passage, comes from the Greek word that means to perceive. And as used in this context, it means to perceive mentally. It is literally mentally seeing something. This is a word that is used to describe something that is certain, something that is absolute, something that is sure. An example of that, I think we've mentioned this before, is that when you came into this building tonight and you plopped down on that pew, you knew that that pew was going to hold you up. You might be doubting that right now, that I've said something. We've not cut the legs out from underneath it or anything like that. But you didn't even think twice about plotting down on that pew. Why? Because we have learned through experience that that pew is going to hold us up. And not only through experience, but we know through just knowing how pews are constructed and wood and all of that, that that pew will hold us up. We can mentally see We can perceive that. Well, John wrote the epistle of 1st John so that we could mentally see, so that we could know that we know that we know that we have eternal life. And I personally cannot think of any greater truth that I want to be certain of than to know that when I die, I'm gonna pass from death unto life with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Some have called this epistle the epistle of assurance or the epistle of certainty and the right on target. That word no, it's used over 40 times in this epistle and in chapter 5 alone it's used five times, eight times to be exact. And the Apostle John, if you think about the Gospel of John, why was it that he wrote the Gospel of John? It's so that we may know how to have eternal life. Well, he wrote the epistle of 1 John so that we can know that we actually have eternal life, so that we can have that assurance. And as we think about assurance, it is so vital in our Christian life. Assurance is actually something that no other belief system has. youth this past week we talked about the the Big Bang Theory and if you think about the Big Bang Theory It bases its whole belief system, the whole eternal destiny, on a belief that comes from a man by the name of Fred Hoyle, who was an English astronomer. And he himself admits that the Big Bang, or life being produced from non-life, which is what the Big Bang theory is, is actually almost impossible. He said that the odds of that happening is 10 to the 40,000th power now how would you like to base your eternal destiny on the odds of something that is ten to the forty thousandth likely to happen it's not too good of odds but yet People believe it. It is more likely for a tornado to go through a junkyard and fully assemble a Boeing 747 jumbo jet that is fully functional than for life to be produced from non-life. But yet millions will believe that. Those that believe in evolution. They believe in a theory that has not only been proven wrong, but its leader Charles Darwin has actually debunked himself with the comments he's made. Those who are stuck in Roman Catholicism. They believe in a sacrament-based religious system that sends them to purgatory in hopes that they can one day get out and get into heaven. And in times in church history they actually hoped that a family member that was still alive would give enough to the church to buy them out of purgatory. Now how would you like to base your chances of getting into heaven on your family member buying your way there? Friends, I am so very thankful that we can know without a shadow of a doubt where we are going when we die. My God has given us this entire epistle from which we can learn of this blessed assurance so let's open up the message tonight by first considering the substance of blessed assurance the substance of blessed assurance in first john assurance or full full assurance of salvation it's made up of 11 elements if you go back all the way to chapter one and you read through chapter 5 in its entirety, you will come across 11 elements of blessed assurance that build this blessed assurance. And we have looked at many of these elements as we have worked along through the 26 messages that we have looked at in this wonderful epistle. So to build our case of the substance of blessed assurance I want to go back and look at each one of these elements. We'll be brief because there are 11 of them and we do want to get out of here before midnight. But we must look at them all And we must look at all 11 of these elements to really use as sort of mirrors, to put up against our salvation, to see if we're truly saved so that we can sing with confidence that wonderful hymn, Blessed Assurance. Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of the Spirit, washed in the blood. If we don't have assurance, We cannot honestly sing that wonderful hymn. So what is the first element? It is blessed assurance is learned through fellowship with the Trinity. Through fellowship with the Trinity. You could turn all the way back to 1 John chapter one. 1 John chapter one. And what I've done is I went in chronological order from chapter one through chapter five so that we can sort of follow the flow of the epistle. The fellowship we have with the Trinity is with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. And we clearly see that explained here in verse three of chapter one. It says, that which we have seen and heard Declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with the son Jesus Christ We see this divine fellowship again in first john 5 in verse 1 when john says whosoever believeth that jesus is the christ is born of god and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten This born-into-fellowship is a divine communion with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. It is a divine intimacy with our Creator, with our Sustainer, with our Redeemer. It is a close connection with God, God who planned our salvation. with Christ who purchased our salvation, with the Spirit who applied our salvation. It's in and through this close communion with the Trinity that blessed assurance is learned. Blessed assurances learn through fellowship with the Trinity. Next, blessed assurance is learned through the confession of sins. The confession of sins. We see this in verses 8 through 10 of 1 John chapter 1. John says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in This confessing of sin is not the Roman Catholicism type of confessing which we confess our sins to another human being. Confessing our sins simply means that we are very aware of our sins, we fully agree with God about them, and we are constantly putting them away. Do we ask for forgiveness? Of course we do. We're sorry that we have sinned. But a true Christian will not only ask forgiveness of sins, they will repent of their sinfulness. A true believer will remain sensitive to their sins and will never grow into this sin is okay attitude that we see so many professing Christians having blessed assurances learned through the confession of sins. Next, or C on your outline, blessed assurances learned through an increasingly obedient life. An increasingly obedient life. We see this increasing of obedience of our Christian life in verses 3 through 6 of chapter 2 of 1 John. 3 through 6. John says, And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked." Even as he walked. If you go back to the Gospel of John, Christ himself talked about this obedient life in John 8, verses 31 through 32, when Christ said, if ye continue in my word, if you're obedient to my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. A true Christian will continue in Christ's Word. They will continually know His Word, believe His Word, and keep His Word. It's interesting to me, if you look back to the Greek word used for keep, and keepeth, back in 1 John 2, it comes from the Greek word tereo. And tereo means to observe. And in this context, it means to observe God's commandments. It's more than a mere acknowledgement of a command. It is an agreement with it, an agreement that does or obeys that command. Keep, as used here, is the action of obedience. If we truly know and love God, we will observe His commandments. Simply put, I love simple statements, if we're truly saved, we will obediently follow the commands found from Genesis to Revelation of this great book. Blessed assurance is learned through this increasingly obedient life. Next, blessed assurance is learned through a love for the brethren. And this truth, as we have found, it is strung all out over 1 John. First we will look at 1 John 2 verses 9 through 11. 1 John 2 9 through 11. John says, he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in the darkness even unto now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness, darkness hath blinded his eyes. This love for the brethren is mentioned again in 1 John 3 in verse 12, when John says, In this the children of God are manifest, or they are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Later on in verses 16 through 19 of 1 John 3, John says, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the world's goods, and seeth his brethren need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know, there's that word of certainty, hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. We know we're of the truth because we love those who believe in the truth. John even talks about this love in his gospel when he records what Christ said in John 13, 35. When Christ said, by this all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another. A true love for the brethren is a true mark of a true believer. And just to be clear, the word used for love in this passage is not a worldly, fickle type of love that is based on circumstances or sexual desires. The word used for love in the Greek is agapao love. This is a divine love. This is love, this is an act of love that does what God prefers through His power according to His direction. This is a love that is defined by God in His Word. This is a love that is discriminating and it is a discriminating affection which involves choice and selection. The choice being Christ and the selection being His people. Agapa'o love is a preferential love that Christ lives out through his chosen people that is directed to his chosen people. Blessed assurance, it is learned through this genuine love for the brethren. Next, or E in your outline, blessed assurance is learned through a hate for the world system. It is learned through a genuine heartfelt hate for the world system. We see this hate in 1 John 2 verses 15 through 17. John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth for To love not means to do the furthest thing from love which is possible, which is hate. So we are to hate the world system. We don't hate those who are in the world, but we hate the world system. And as Jesus, if you go back to the gospel of John chapter 8, as he is talking to these scribes and the Pharisees, he describes this world system for us. by describing the scribes and pharisees himself. Listen to what Christ says about these scribes and pharisees, and this paints a picture of this world system from which we are to hate. Christ says in John 8, verse 44, Ye are of the Father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you conceiveth, convinceth me of sin? If I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's word, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. You see, the world system is nothing more than the devil's playground that is designed for use by the devil's children. He entices these children in with sin, he encourages them with sin, he trains them to sin, and then sends them out to try to drag others into sin. Friends, a true Christian will hate the playground, but not those playing on it. We will hate the lies and deceptions. We will hate the falsehoods and outright denial of God's truth. We will hate the absence of obedience to God's will. We will never fit in. We will never give in. We will never jump in to the devil's playground from which we are classifying as worldliness. Why? Because we are born of the truth and the truth is what we are. Blessed assurance is learned through a hate of the world system. Next, blessed assurance is learned through a longing for Christ's return. It is learned through a longing for the return of Christ. And this is a blessed truth that every saint should be constantly having on their minds. Look to 1 John 3. 1 John 3 in verse 1. 1 John 3, 1. Says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. but we know, word of certainty, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure the persecuted greatly Apostle Paul said this about this longing for Christ's return in Philippians chapter 3 verses 20 through 21 he says for our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself." You see, he longed for Christ's return so much so that Christ was ever present. He was always on his mind. He was in everything that he said and done. even down to closing out his first letter to the church at Corinth. When he said this in 1 Corinthians 16, verses 22 through 24, Paul said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema moranthema. I said that 10 times before I come up here. Anathema moranthema. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with you, my love, be with you all. In Jesus, amen. That phrase, it's a phrase that the translators left in the Bible as is. I love what it means. That word anathema means to withdraw or separate. And more anatha, anathema, I said it right that time, it speaks of the future coming of Christ. So Paul is telling these believers at Corinth to separate themselves from all those who love not the Lord because His return is imminent. Paul is calling for holiness, and not only holiness, but for holy company. He is calling for Christians to separate themselves from those who are not looking for Christ's return, because if we are not looking for Christ's return, we are not doing what Christ has called us to do. Paul always had his spiritual eyes fixed on the imminent return for Christ. Why was that? Because he longed to be with the one who had saved his soul from the very pit of hell. He longed to be with Jesus. Friends, it's in this longing for our Savior's return. It's in this looking unto Christ, looking for Christ to return, that we learn of this blessed assurance. Next, blessed assurance is learned through a decreasingly sinful life. A decreasingly sinful life. This is the truth that must be preached in today's apathetic and worldly modern-day church. We find this call to a decreasingly sinful life in 1 John 3, beginning in verse 8. 1 John 3, in verse 8. John says, He that committeth sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he was born of God." Even the Apostle Paul again addressed this issue in Romans chapter 6 and verse 14 through 18 when he said a familiar passage, for sin shall not have dominion over you. For ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God bethanked that we were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Friends, when the seed of God was planted in us through this new birth, sin will no longer and can never have dominion over us again. We have been made free from that which once we used to be slaves to. We have been made free from the law that required us not to sin. We now live under grace. We obey the law, not because we are required to, but because of the God-given desire that has been put inside of us to obey it. And through this ever-learning obedience, we continually decrease the sinning in our lives. I'm saying that for the Christian. The less we sin, the more assurance we have. I mean, how else can you interpret verses 8 and 9 of 1 John 3? It's a simple equation if you want to be a math scholar about it. And here it is. A subtraction of sin and an addition of obedience equals a multiplication of assurance. A subtraction of sin and an addition of obedience equals a multiplication of assurance. If you want to know that you know that you know that you're saved, you sin less and you be more obedient. Assurance will be learned in that way. We should sin less today than we did yesterday. We should be sinning less 10 years from now than we are today. We should be living a decreasingly sinful life. Next, blessed assurance is learned through being hated by the world. Now we said earlier that blessed assurance is learned through us hating the world or us hating the world system. Now the tables are turned and the Apostle John in this epistle tells us that we learn this blessed assurance through the world hating us. But go back to 1st John 3 and verse 12. 1st John 3 in verse 12. It says, Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, who slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate If you go back to verse 12, that Greek word, and we looked at this a little bit as we studied this passage before, but that Greek word that is used for slew is phadso, and it means to butcher or slaughter. Phadso was used in the Greek to describe a violent slaughtering by the slitting of the throat. In the Septuagint, we talked about how that sfadzo was used to describe, in Genesis chapter 4, the way that Cain killed Abel. You see, the slitting of the throat was the way that the animals were sacrificed in the Old Testament. So if we look at this picture, Cain, in response to his unrighteous sacrifice not being accepted by God, and Abel's sacrifice, his righteous sacrifice, being accepted by God the Father, in response to that, Cain resentfully and brutally slaughtered his brother by slitting his throat. Cain's wicked actions revealed that he was a child of Satan. It revealed that he hated with a passion both his righteous brother and his righteous sacrifice. Friends, this is the same way that the world and its systems looks upon the righteous. They are angry and jealous that God accepts us. They, if it were not for the restraining power of God, would murder us in the same way that Cain murdered Abel. And we talked about how that this is why Adolf Hitler killed over 11 million people during the Holocaust. Stalin killed over six million. This is why the Jews in the book of Acts killed Stephen and tried time and time again chasing Paul from city to city trying to kill him. This is why history tells us that the unregenerate killed every one of the apostles except John who died of old age and they tried to kill him this is even true today the world is still killing true born again believers this is why john makes this statement in verse 13 he says marvel not my brethren if the world hate you To marvel means to be surprised. So John is telling us, don't be surprised when the world hates you. It always amazes us when someone says or when someone thinks that this world and the world systems are their friend. And as we have talked about before, this is a lie that stems from the very pit of hell. The world and its system and its people do not love us. And John actually says that they hate John makes it clear what this hate shows forth there in verse 15 when it says, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. John says, Whosoever, that means anybody who hates. His brother, that's a Delphon, that's a member of the same religious family. Anybody who hates the member of the same religious family is a murderer, therefore they do not have eternal life abiding in them. That word hate is talking about an inward attitude of disgust or despise. What John is getting at is those that hate Christians, they are murderers because they have murdered with their inward attitude. But there is good that comes out of this hate, and it is this. It is through this hate of us that we learn of our rusted assurance. And that's a God given blessing to know that we are saved. Blessed assurance is learned through this hatred by the world. Next, blessed assurance is learned through spiritual discernment. It is learned through spiritual discernment. That word discernment simply means judgment. It is learned through spiritual judgment. With that in mind, look with me to chapter four in verse one. Chapter four in verse one. The apostle says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try or test or judge the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world. Now skip on down to verse 5. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. But we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know. We, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Friends, we as God's people, we are called to make spiritual judgments according to God's word. We know the difference between truth and error because the word of truth defines that difference for us. We are of God because we have been born into His family by way of adoption made possible through His Son, Jesus Christ. And since we are of God, we should make judgments that honor Him, which is only possible through knowing and believing sound doctrine. Listen to how Paul closes out. The final chapter of 1 Thessalonians. What he's doing at the end of Thessalonians is he's given a list of exhortations. And we will go jump right into the middle of that list in verse 21. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 21. He says this. Paul says, prove all things. That phrase means to test or judge all things. And then he says, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. So Paul says that we are to prove or we are to judge all things. And then he says we are to hold fast to that which is good. We are then to abstain from all appearance of evil. And all of this is done through the power of the God of peace. And then he says in verse 23 that the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. So God, who is perfect peace, sets us apart through spiritual living and spiritual discernment, and it's through this that we learn peace. It's through this judging of all things that we learn blessed assurance. Simply put, the more righteous judgments we make, the more right we know we are. The more righteous judgments we make, the more right we know we are. Does spiritual discernment merit salvation? Of course not. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God, alone. But the Bible clearly teaches that spiritual discernment teaches us of our blessed assurance. Blessed assurance is learned through spiritual discernment. Next, blessed assurance is learned through the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Now this testimony of the Holy Spirit, it cannot be explained, but it is real, and it is really happening in the hearts of every believer. John mentions this work of the Spirit in the heart of the believer a couple times in this epistle. The first time we see it is in 1 John 4, in verse 13. 1 John 4, 13. John says, Hereby know, again, word of certainty. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, how do we know that? Because he hath given us his spirit. And then look at verse, well you can flip on back to 1 John 2, 27. I think we'll have it on the overhead. 1 John 2 and 27. John says, but the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. this anointing it's a permanent anointing of the holy spirit and he teacheth us all things the spirit teaches us the word the spirit convicts us the spirit encourages us the spirit gives us joy produces fruit in and through us. He even leads us into living the Galatians chapter 5 fruit of the Spirit, which is singular, by the way. All of those fruits that we want to make plural, it's one fruit that is placed in the believer, and we are to live those fruits out into our life. And we do all of that through the power of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He teaches us all things. He does all of this for us. He teaches us so that we know that we abide in Him. We all want affirmation. And it's true that some people require more affirmation than others in the everyday life. since but there's one type of affirmation that we all should desire to have and that is a holy affirmation from the holy one and we want affirmation that we are truly saved this is a learned affirmation and what's so good about this learned affirmation is we can't mess this one up this is a spirit that has been implanted into each and every one us. It is taught to us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Blessed assurance is learned through the testimony of the Spirit. Next, blessed assurance is learned through answered prayers, through answered prayers. And this is the last one of the substance of blessed assurance, through answered prayers. We ended up with this one not only because it came last in chronological order, but it actually gives us a boost into the next section of our passage here in 1 John chapter 5. But before we jump ahead, let's expound on this wonderful truth. Look at 1 John 5 and verse 14. 1 John 5 and verse 14. And this is the confidence. that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. John not only mentioned this in chapter 5, but he mentions this back in chapter 3 as well, when he said in chapter 3 verse 22, and whatsoever we ask, We receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight. A true believer prays according to the will of God, and when those prayers are answered by God, they are encouraged, strengthened, and taught blessed assurance. Blessed assurance is learned through answered prayers. So we consider the substance of blessed assurance. It's learned through these 11 elements. Fellowship with the Trinity, by the confession of sin, an obedient life, love for the brethren. You've got them there on your list. So that's the stuff substance. Now let's look at the results of blessed assurance. The results of blessed assurance. We've worked our way all the way up to our passage in first John five and in this passage we see three key results and we're going to give you a freebie at the end. So we're going to look at four results of blessed assurance. First of all, blessed assurance results in bold petitions. In bold petitions. Look back to our passage in verse thirteen. First John five in verse thirteen. The Apostle says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that you have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. That word confidence simply means a boldness. We have boldness that is a direct result of the full and blessed assurance that has been learned through the teachings of this entire epistle, through these 11 elements that we looked at, that gives us boldness. Because we have fellowship with the Trinity, because we confess sins and live an increasing obedient life, we have a boldness in Him. We have a confidence in Him. Because we love the brethren, hate the world system, long for Christ's return, we have a boldness in Him. Because we live a decreasingly sinful life, because we are hated by the world, because we are spiritually discerning, we can have confidence in Him. Because we have the wonderful testimony of the Holy Spirit, and because God Almighty answers the prayers of His people, we can have a boldness in Him. You see, the substance of our assurance has a direct impact on the results of blessed assurance on our life. If we want to have confidence in Christ, we must partake of what builds that confidence, and that is blessed assurance. Those that have blessed assurance, they will not bow their head in defeat. They will not run away in the midst of the battle. They will not tuck their tails when confrontation strikes. Those that have blessed assurance, they will not give up, shut up, or pack up. Those that have blessed assurance, they will not give in, step out, or give out. They will keep on keeping on. They will hold fast to the face. They will run the race. They will see what God has put in them through to completion. You see, blessed assurance gives us a boldness, not only in our prayers, but blessed assurance gives us a boldness in our everyday walk. Those who are assured of salvation, they will boldly pray for the salvation of the worst of criminals. Those who are assured of salvation, they will boldly pray for that prodigal son or daughter who is eyeballed deep in sin to come home. Those who are assured of salvation will boldly pray for that brother in Christ who has rubbed their name in the mud. Those who are assured of salvation will boldly pray for the leaders of this great country to come to the saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Those who are assured of salvation will boldly enter into the throne of grace with their bold. petitions. Blessed assurance results in bold petitions. Next, blessed assurance results in bold expectations. It results in bold expectations. We see that there in verse 14. And this is the confidence or the boldness that we have in Him. If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. So the bold petitions we make in the will of the Father should be made in total confidence that He is fully able to accomplish what we are asking. And furthermore, we should actually boldly expect Him to answer our petitions. Listen, if you do not believe that the Creator of the universe has the power to answer the prayers that you prayed according to His will, you've gone crazy. Our problems and petitions are easier for Him to answer than it is for us to take the next step. Breath, His ways are so much higher than our ways. His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. He is so much greater than we are, so much powerful than we are. He can do anything He wants, when He wants, how He wants to do it. He knows all, does all, is all, and will do all. He is in control. He is all control. And when we pray in His will, we should boldly expect Him to fulfill those petitions. Blessed assurance results in bold expectations. It results in bold petitions. And thirdly, blessed assurance results in bold answers. Not only do we have bold petitions, not only do we have bold expectations, but then we should expect bold answers. Look back to verse 15. And if we know that he hear us, which he does, whatsoever we ask, we know." Again, a word of certainty. We know without a shadow of a doubt that we have the petitions that we desired of him. So we boldly ask in His will, all the while expecting an answer. We then know that He will always boldly hear those petitions. And then it gets even better. We know that He will always boldly answer those petitions. We do not pray to a God that is made of hay, stubble, stone, or even precious jewels. We capitalize His name when we write it because He is proper. He's the only real God, the only true God. He is great, mighty, holy, and this great, mighty, and holy God, He will always answer the petitions of those who are His. And as we see from the following verses, in verses 16 through 19 in 1 John, the answer that we receive might not be the answer that we want, but He will still answer. And it's not because that if you look at verses 16 through 19, which we'll look at next week, the answer that is given, it's not because he didn't fulfill his will, but it's because we don't fully know his will. We cannot know his will. Again, his thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts and his motives are so much greater than our motives. All we know. that we are called to witness to we are called to pray for and we are called to minister to those around us and we go to the throne of grace praying for their salvation praying for them to return to the faith praying for them to do the will of the Father that's God's will for our lives we'll leave the harvest up to him we'll leave the doing up to him we'll bring it to his throne of grace, and we'll bring it boldly. Blessed assurance results in bold answers, bold petitions, bold answers, bold expectations. And lastly, and this is not in our passage, but we find this place after place in the scriptures, blessed assurance results in full joy, full joy. We could not talk about blessed assurance without talking about joy. In Ephesians chapter 3, for the sake of time, you don't have to turn there. But in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul tells the church at Ephesus this. He says this in verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. of whom the whole family in heaven and in earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with the might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth all, which passeth knowledge. that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. For it's just the thought of how that God dwells in us and that what he can do in and through us, these exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask, according to the power that worketh in us, demands the response that Paul had in this passage. Paul bowed his knees and he said unto him, Be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all generations, world without end. Men, if you feel like somebody or something has stolen your joy, which by the way is not biblical because it's impossible to steal something that's been implanted by the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of you, but anywho, since we're talking about that, Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and if you have that fruit within you, you have learned blessed assurance. Nobody can take that joy, and that's the application for us here tonight. To enter into full joy, we must be fully assured of our blessed assurance. So are we fully assured of our salvation because we have partook of the 11 elements that we have talked about tonight because we have learned through the fellowship of the Trinity the confession of our sins every one of those learned elements are we fully assured of our salvation. Our spiritual life is built on Jesus Christ and it is fueled by the assurance that we have through him. Bow with me as we pray. Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for sending him to die on the cross for us. And Lord, we thank you for passages like 1 John 5 that tell us how that we can know that we know that we know that we are truly saved. And Father, it's my prayer that every single one of us that's in this building here tonight is fully persuaded, fully assured that we are saved, by your grace through your son. Lord, we pray that you'll have your time, your way with this time of invitation. We promise to give you all the glory for anything that is accomplished here tonight. Lord, it's in your son's name we pray.