First John chapter 2. We're going to talk about Christian assurance tonight. Because that's what the text is doing. And we're not going to be able to finish this by any stretch of the imagination. But we're going to do our best to put a big dent into it. What the apostle has to say is important. For us to have assurance is fundamental to joy. We're going to read verses 28 in chapter 2 through verse 3 in chapter 3. So if you have your copy of God's inspired word, if you'll turn with me there to the second chapter of 1st John, we're going to look at what the text says tonight about Christian assurance. The word of the Lord reads in verse 28 of 1st John chapter 2. Now, little children abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, You know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. See how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God and such we are for this reason. The world does not know us because it did not know him beloved. Now we are the children of God. And it has not yet appeared what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself. Just as he is pure. Well, Lord, just enlighten our understanding. Give us teachable hearts. Lord, I pray that we will, Lord, be comforted by the truth and Lord and afflicted by the truth. Lord, I pray that you would comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And Lord, that you would do a work in us to show us, Lord, in Holy Scripture, that assurance belongs to those that are born of God. But Lord, also, on the other side of that coin, Lord, we know those that have false assurance. that are not born of God that are not born again that show no evidence nor fruit of the spirit but yet have a fanged and false sense of confidence that they're a Christian. So Lord I pray that in that regard if there may be those here tonight that you would reveal that we are yet in our sins and that there is a cross in front of us that we need to run to, a Savior that we need to cling to, and Lord, a truth that we are to submit to. Lord, help us tonight. Teach us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to feel and comprehend the height, the breadth, and the depth that is in Jesus Christ. And it's for your glory and our good we ask it. Amen. It's good to see all of you. Thank you for coming. We're talking about Christian assurance here. The text is right. with this and we're gonna look at some points but before we do so let me just give an introduction it's really not difficult for us to understand and to see the reason why John is writing this letter he is desiring to give assurance to those little children that he calls them those are believers those are the people of God those that have been changed those that are committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and that assurance of our salvation that we know that we're born again and we know that we belong to God The assurance of the authenticity of our Christian faith is one of the reasons for us to have biblical joy That I know that I've been born again that I know that I belong to God that I am NOT who I used to be by the grace of God that there has been a work of God's grace in my life and His hand is upon my life that his word is alive to me. It is powerful It's at work in me and I'm not all that I'm going to be but I'm sure not who I used to be That God's grace is at work in me And John wants to give those Christians that have evidence of saving faith in their heart assurance that they belong to God. That they can begin to experience the joy of belonging to God. Now I want you to remember with me historically what's going on in the young church in these days. The young church was under the attack of imposters, that is false teachers. And one of the harmful doctrines that was spreading through the church was the doctrine of Gnosticism and the idea of dualism. And what I mean by that, that the Gnostics taught and they believed in the Gnostics believed that they were Christian. In fact, they believed that they were super Christians. They believed that they had higher revelation. They believed that they had a higher exposure to the things of God than just the normal run of the mill folks. But the thing was that the Gnostics were not Christians. They were not born again. They had a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof. But they embraced a doctrine, namely dualism. And this is what dualism is. Dualism teaches that there is a gulf between the spiritual realm and the physical realm, that there is a separation between them. In other words, you can do whatever you want to do in the realm that is physical, and it has no bearing upon the realm that is spiritual. Redneck language is that you can go to church and sing like an angel and then on Monday you can live like a devil That's not what we find in Holy Scripture John finds a problem with this doctrine John finds a problem with the idea that you're walking your talk Don't meet John finds a problem with in fact John here is defining the spiritually righteous person as a person who practices righteousness And that is John taught that true spirituality is practical true spirituality It's tangible. It's tangible. In other words Christianity is more than theory It's more than that. There's always a practical outworking of the doctrines of Scripture there's always an application There's always practical Exhortation in the scripture. So John really has a twofold aim First of all, John wants to bring assurance to the true believers that are in the church He's talking to them addressing them as little children. He wants them to be assured. He knew how important Christian assurance is to a lasting joy and those who belong to God for lasting joy Jude also tied assurance to joy. Listen to what Jude said in Jude 24, and you'll probably have this memorized, but Jude says, that is that Christ will keep us he keeps his people that for those that are in Christ that He wants us to know that there's an assurance and that salvation is not mutable It's not subject to change that what God begins God completes in us and that there is a joy from that assurance a joy from that confidence that we belong to God Mutable salvation is a joy killer. What I mean by mutable salvation is, is a salvation that is subject to revocation, a salvation that is subject to change, a salvation that is subject to be taken away if you don't just perform up to snuff. If you don't do enough, if you don't work hard enough, if you don't perform good enough, that God will revoke that salvation and take that salvation from you, that the good work he began in you just might not complete in you. Mutable salvation is a joy killer. That is that continuance of Christ in salvation is based upon our performance instead of upon Christ's grace, instead of his power at work in us to perform in us what he demands of us. That means that if we don't do enough, if we don't assert ourself enough, that we can lose our sure footing and slip Go back into a lapse of an apostate condition. That's not what the Bible teaches It's impossible for us to have confidence at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as this text is teaching in verse 28 Under that kind of a weighty load That I'm going to perform good enough And that's the idea that John's battling against here with the true Christians. He wants true Christians. He wants those that have truly evidenced regeneration, conversion to understand and to know that they can have confidence in assurance of their salvation. That is immutable salvation, that it is unchangeable and it is fixed and it is sure that God will keep us people. But second, John wants to do something else with his instruction here. He wants to bring reality to bear upon those who have a false sense of assurance. The Gnostics, as I mentioned previously, thought that they were truly Christian. The Gnostics thought that they were elitist among the Christian ranks. But their lifestyles testified against them. Their lifestyles were full of darkness. Their heads were supposedly full of light. Gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S. That's what it means to have higher illumination. Light, gnosis, light. Their heads were full of light and their body was full of dark deeds. Dark deeds. High spirituality of mind and low morality of practice. That's not a Christian. A Christian may stumble, a Christian may fall. He may fall seven times a day, but he's repentant and he gets back up according to the Proverbs. And he goes on in that straight and narrow way. But not these Gnostics. They had a low morality. They were practically wicked. They're practically unrighteous. They had that form of godliness. They had a high sense of theology, even though it was wrong, but they did not have any power to live a godly life. They didn't have any power to live a godly life. They had assurance, but they didn't have a foundation for assurance. They had a false sense of assurance. They were self-acclaimed spiritual stalwarts, but everybody else recognized them to be spiritual paupers. The true church, of course, did. So John's aim here in this text is to deflate them, to deflate them, to reveal the falsehood of the spiritual deception that they had given away to. Listen, nobody has a right to Christian assurance apart from the evidences that would ensure it Apart from the biblical evidence that would reveal to us that we belong to God Nobody has a right to biblical assurance unless we're biblical people In other words Christian assurance is extended to only those people who evidence Christian fruit Christian fruit. And so these verses that we are looking at tonight, and we will next week by the Lord's will, characterize the virtues of those who rightly espouse Christian assurance. First, I want us to look at the foundation of Christian assurance. Second of all, I want us to see the fountain of Christian assurance. And then last, I want us to see the assured future for Christians. The assured future, that certain future that belongs to us. that Christ has prepared for us. Let's look at the foundation of Christian assurance, and that's all we're going to be able to do tonight is to look at this one point, but I pray that it will be impacting in our lives. The foundation of Christian assurance, look at verse 28 in chapter 2 of 1 John. Verse 28 and verse 29. Now little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him and shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of him. John amazingly here in this little word now. It's an emphatic particle in YN and the Greek, and it's introducing a new section, a new thought, a new paragraph for us to deal with. And John is beginning to deal with the subject of Christian assurance. And John's epistle is ripe with the theme of assurance. John's writing to Christian people, calling them little children. That is a term that is characteristic of John. And as mentioned before, John is intending to comfort the afflicted Christian and to afflict the comfortable, unregenerate church member. He wants to build assurance for a true believer. And then he wants to dismantle falsehood to where people have assurance that they belong to God, but that they don't belong to God. The true Christian has certain evidences that prove his proclamation of faith. The unregenerate church member doesn't have that evidence, that biblical evidence. Listen to what Puritan John Cotton said about this. He said, the promise of perseverance in the state of grace does not open a gap to carnal liberty. And that's a powerful statement. That the promise that God makes to the church, those that belong to Christ, those who have been born again, it doesn't open a gap to carnal liberty. It doesn't give a permission slip because we belong to Christ and we're secure in Christ for us to live Indifferently or for us to live sinfully Now we're gonna see in this text in these two verses the foundation of Christian assurance Stands upon two immutable pillars you ready for them. They're inflexible These are absolutely unmovable. These are the outflows of divine grace and And apart from them, we have no claim upon biblical assurance. This is what I mean. If we don't have these biblical virtues in our life, we have no foundation to stand upon to think that we're saved. We have no right to claim assurance in Christ, assurance of salvation. And we're going to discuss these as we continue on tonight. The first of them is found in verse 28 and it is continuing with Christ. And there are two. These are two immutable pillars. And the first is, is that a Christian is marked by his continuance with Christ. Look what the apostle says, abide in him. Minnow in the Greek, continue, remain, be rooted in him, cling to him, be one with him. Abide in him so that whenever he appears we may have confidence that we may have confidence That we're to be knitted to Christ that we are to be rooted in Christ by the spirit that we have received from Christ That we're to stay that we're to remain with him the fact that we're continuing on with Christ even amidst Difficulty is an is a signet that we belong to him and that we have a right to that assurance That he provides us This is the man or the woman or the child that has an eye upon obedience. That we want to please God, that we want to obey Him. Our heart is inclined to do the will of the Lord. Abiding in Christ is characteristic of genuine saving faith. It is always marked out by abiding. It's always marked out by abiding. And in John's Gospel, and the fact we've preached through this in the recent year, We see that Christianity is marked out by abiding in Christ, that Christians abide in him. In fact, apart from abiding in Christ, there's no such thing as Christianity. John 15, 6, Jesus says, if anyone does not abide in me, listen what he says, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and they cast them into the fire and they are burned. Judgment as judgment The Christ centered Christ focused Christ exalting life is the Christian that is abiding in Christ it is one of the pillars of Christian assurance that we abide in him and That we remain in him that we continue with him that we're rooted in him That our life is focused upon him that we have a Christ centered worldview that for me to live as Christ and for me to die as gain I'm crucified with Christ, but you ever nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me in the life that I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the son of the god the son of God who loves me and has given himself for me the Christ centered life And that is this that all of our faculties of mind, all the faculties of our will, and even the submission of our bodies is caught up with Christ. Christ-centered, Christ-focused. His will is our will. His purpose is our purpose. His delights are our delights, and His way is our way. And that's what Paul is declaring whenever he's writing to the Colossian believers in Colossians 3, 10, and 11. And he says, And having put on the new self, who is being renewed with the true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man. But listen to what he says, that Christ is all and is in all. That Christ is everything and He's in everything in our lives. Listen, the Christian life is about remaining in Christ. That means that out of the pores of our being is Christ. It's what Spurgeon said about himself or it was said about Spurgeon. If you cut the man, he bleeds bibline. He was so full of the scriptures. He's so full of Christ. He's so full of the truth of God. If you cut the man, he's going to bleed Bible out. That we were to be pregnant with Christ. And what I mean by that is that everything that we do, our hearts are overwhelmed by and that our wills are submitted to and our delight is him. That's the Christian life. Christ is all and in all, Paul says. And I want to answer a question. And maybe it's rhetorical. In fact, it is. What does that mean to abide in Christ? In fact, let me put it this way. What's the method? What's that look like in the daily grind? What does it look like to be a person that abides in Christ tomorrow when you get up for work? What does it look like tomorrow on your lunch break for you to be abiding in Christ? What does it look like while you're folding laundry or if you're a parent changing diapers on a baby? What does it look like in the home? What's the practical side of abiding in Christ, in other words? Let me detail them for you. Let me just give a few. Number one is abiding in Christ is abiding in the word of God. The word of the Lord says in John 15, verses 7 and 10, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. John 15 10 says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Let me read first John 2 24. And as for you, let that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If what you hear from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the son and in the father. Clearly. Abiding in Christ is being a student of the scriptures. It's being a people of the word of God. That we're a people that delight in the word of the Lord. We're a people that submit to the word of the Lord. We're a people that obey the word of the Lord. We're a people that are occupied with the word of the Lord. We're a people that study to show ourselves approved. It's abiding. We rightly divide the word of truth. And what the word says, we don't argue against. When the word comes and deals with things in our life that are difficult and that the word is contrary to our actions, we repent of our actions and we go with what the word of God says. That's abiding in Christ. Submitting even to the difficult places in scripture, even though our minds are struggling to understand the spiritual truth or maybe a concept of scripture, that we know that the scriptures are right and our minds are wrong because our minds are fallen. It's abiding in Christ, that the word of God has supremacy in you and I. It's abiding in Christ. There's no sense biblically of abiding in Christ, which is fundamental for our assurance apart from the scriptures and them saturating our lives. We should be a people of the word. We should be a people of the book. We should be a people of the truths of God. Secondly, abiding in Christ is depending upon Christ's strength. Depending upon Christ's strength. That we don't live our lives under the guise of the arm of the flesh. That we are a people that depend upon Christ. Jesus told us in John 15 for abide in me and I and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. In fact, Jesus goes on to say that apart from me, you can do nothing. So abiding in Christ is clearly depending upon the strength of Christ. Apostle Paul says I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me. And I know that there's a tendency for people to miscontextualize that scripture, but there is a general truth about that that is so glaringly true and we should not ignore it. That the life that we live should be lived by the strength supplied by Christ, that part of abiding in Christ is that we're living by what he supplies to us to live in. The strength he gives us. The passions for his name he gives us. Abiding in Christ is depending upon his strength. And third, abiding in Christ is growing in grace. Abiding in Christ is growing in grace. It says in verse 5 of John 15, who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. He bears much fruit. We're growing in grace. That means that we're advancing in the will and in the knowledge of the Lord. That there's fruit increasing in our life. What fruit are we talking about? We're talking about the fruit of love. We're talking about the fruit of gentleness. We're talking about the fruit of meekness. We're talking about the fruit of temperance. We're talking about the fruit of self control. Yes, self control. It's fruit of the spirit. Self control has a big span, by the way. Self control helps us keep our mouth shut when we should. Self control also issues out a warrant for us to open our mouth when we should. Self-control pushes away the remote control. Self-control pushes away that second or third or fourth plate. Self-control walks away from the guys at work whenever they're talking dirty. Self-control, growing in grace, growing in grace, bearing fruit. It's what it means to abide in Christ. The fourth thing is, is abiding in Christ is an ongoing life of repentance and restoration. It's an ongoing life of repentance and restoration. Listen to what Jeremiah 3, 1 says. This is amazing. God says, if a husband divorces his wife and she goes from him and belongs to another man, will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? Listen to what God says, but you are a harlot with many lovers. Ain't done yet. Yet you return to me. That doesn't give you goosebumps all over your body. God is looking at his people and say, you are a sinful people. You're a people that have been running after sin, but you're repentant and you keep coming back to me. You're repentant, you keep returning to me, declares the Lord. The Christian life and the life of abiding in Christ is marked out by repenting and returning. The Christian life is not inaugurated by repentance only to never return to it, but it is inaugurated by repentance only to continue in it. You see? We're repenters, brother. We're repenters. And abiding in Christ is manifested in the life of ongoing repentance. That is this, that whenever we sin, and we do, we don't just go back to the wallow and wallow in it. We repent of it. And sometimes we fall into the mire. Sometimes we fall into the pigsty. It happens. Cole and I were just discussing about a Dear man that fell into some horrible sin, an awful situation, a hurtful situation, a damaging situation. The repentance marks out God's people. Repentance and restoration. You have many lovers. You are a harlot, but you return to me, saith the Lord. It's an amazing talk. The foundation of Christian assurance is abiding in Christ. It's abiding in Christ. John says that if we abide in Christ, that we can have confidence in that day. By the way, what that's talking about, that's talking about when Christ comes back. that we can have confidence that we don't have to be afraid about Christ's return whether or not that we're going to go with him or we're going to be with him whether we're going to be included in that great number we can have confidence and this is how you have confidence if you abide in Christ you will have confidence Christ will grant it to you have assurance and by the way that word confidence there in the original languages simply means assurance assurance that you will have assurance on that day There's no such thing as a Christian that doesn't abide in Jesus Christ. I hope that helps. The second pillar, fundamental or foundational to Christian assurance, the first is what? Continuing with Christ, abiding in Christ. The second one is practical righteousness. That means that we got some righteous shoes walking in the straight and narrow way. That means that our talk and our walk meet at some point. That we're not like the Gnostics that have high spirituality and low morality. You should be able to tell a Christian by the way that they live. You should be able to walk in their home and observe them and find out with a certainty and quickly That that person is a believer. That person is born of God. That person has been changed by divine grace, practical righteousness. That is that there's righteousness in our actions. Look at verse 29. It's our last verse in this chapter, chapter two. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of him. practical righteousness guys and gals this is not rocket science if God the God of all holiness and righteousness changes our hearts and indwells us there's going to be a radical change in the way that we live I love the story that Paul Washer tells at conferences about It's just a silly illustration he uses that he's late for showing up for a preaching assignment. And the passion like Brother Paul, you know, why are you late? You're supposed to been here an hour and a half ago. Oh, you won't believe what happened. I had a flat and got the jack out and jack the car up. And when the lug nuts ran out the road, I ran out to get it looked up. And there was a Mac truck 80,000 pounds coming down the road at 75 miles an hour. And it ran right over me. That's why I'm late. You'd be going Okay. There's no way you're going to have an encounter with a Mack truck running 80 miles an hour with 80,000 pounds and not be radically altered. I know that for a fact, because I've had to pick up pieces of people from those kinds of situations. And how can we say that we've had an encounter with the living God of the universe that called the universe into being by the word of his own mouth? And that we've not been changed by him. If you know that He is righteous, if you know that He is holy, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Here's the concept. Children carry the likeness of their parents. That's the thought. A holy God does not beget unholy children. Does He? Let me ask you, did God create the universe Did God create man upright? Or twisted Says that Ecclesiastes that God made everything including his man upright and man has sought out his own schemes Then a holy God when he creates he creates perfectly God looked at the universe and says is good. He looked at his man said it is very good perfect Without any blemish, without any spot, morally perfect, spiritually perfect. A holy God cannot do otherwise. So the concept here is that a holy God begets holy kids. They carry the likeness of the father. And listen, they're not just reckoned holy even though that we are. We're justified and we're accepted on the basis of Christ's merit, on the basis of Christ's substitution. But because God has done a work in our heart and changed our desires according to Ezekiel 36, we live in a way that's radically different than what we lived before. I think your life testifies that if you're born again. There should be a transformation. There should be practical righteousness. I'm all for justification by faith alone. I'm all for reckoned righteousness, that God perceives us as holy on the strict basis of His Son's substitution and what His Son has done and who His Son is. I'm all with it. But also know that when God transforms and changes the human heart, there are subsequent actions that verify that grace at work in your life. Interestingly, there are some really neat Greek terms here. And I don't know, this Greek stuff may bore you. It fascinates me because it really shows us the power and the import of God and his communication to us in the way that God communicates. It says that here in this text and again, we're in verse twenty nine. If you know. And then it says. That he is righteous, then it says, then, you know, that everyone who practices righteousness is born in him. Those are not the same word in the Greek. The first one is a wider and it means to perceive an absolute truth. If you have perceived the absolute truth that God is holy. Then you will know Janosko is that word we use to have an intimate relationship with to know something by experience. If we've come to that concrete foundational truth of God's absolute holiness and who he is as God, that anyone that is born of him, we know intimately now on the basis of that foundational truth that we're going to live righteous before God. If we know, if we know, if we have that absolute revelation, that absolute truth of God's absolute holiness, We also know in the intimate sense that everybody that is born of him practices righteousness. Y'all are looking at me funny. I thought it was pretty neat. Do you remember the historical problem? The Gnostics were not practicing righteousness. In fact, they're living wickedly and perversely. their claim to God was counterfeit and then John later clarifies in 1st John 3 7 & 8 listen to this little children make sure no one deceives you the one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous and the one who practices sin is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning ouch I simplified this the best that I could are you ready Christians act Christian You know, whispering to your spouse, we pay him for this? Christians act Christian. You may think, well, that is in fact elementary, but it is also confused in this world that we live in. Because there's a whole lot of folks out there that say they're Christian. There's a whole lot of preachers that say they're Christians, and they don't have any lifestyle to support it. They don't have any lifestyle to support it. The Christian is godly in their behavior. The Christian is godly in their behavior. There's an evidence of the work of God through Jesus Christ in your life and you're being transformed into his likeness. There should be righteousness, observable righteousness in the way that we live, in the way that we walk, the progression of our life. Observable, tangible, visible evidence that we are Christians. Brother Philip, do you remember the first sermon series I ever preached in this church? I'll mention it and you'll remember. I don't know if it was a long time ago. Evidences of being a Christian. The very first series I preach in this church. Let me ask you a question, beloved, is your walk godly? Is your walk godly? Listen, and I agree, I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I am not the same old sinner. Remember that song, Cody? Same old sinner, willing to change. No, we're not the same old sinner. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man is in Jesus Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, the new has come. We're new. There's a new heart. There's new desires. And they should produce a new way of life, a new way of living. The second pillar of our Christian assurance is that there's a change, a fundamental change in the way that we live. We no longer walk in darkness. We walk in the light even when it costs. New in Christ. I'm about done. I do want to clarify. Our justification is based upon the merit of Christ and the work of Christ alone. Let me say that one more time. Let me drive that point home. Our salvation, our justification, being made right in the eyes of a thrice holy God is solely, completely on the merits and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mark of our being affected by that work is that we're going to live godly. We're going to live godly. The outworking of a just position before a thrice holy God is exemplified by a Christ like lifestyle. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 12, 1 and 2. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 1 John 2, 6. The one who says that he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. godliness in our lives Christ likeness in our homes Christ likeness in our marriages we have no claim upon Christ nor do we have any right or any issuance of biblical assurance apart from these two pillars that we abide in Christ and that we live godly do you continue in unforgiveness with people that have hurt you Are you angry with someone and you're still angry and you won't let it go? Do you still harbor anger? Do you still harbor unforgiveness? Do you still harbor that bitterness, that unforgiveness? Do you continue in self-centeredness, a selfishness of lifestyle where it's all about you and your feelings are always out here and you're always getting your feelings hurt? Selfishness is the foundation for that, of course. Do you always insist upon having to have your own way? Do you prefer other people to yourself? Do you submit to the will of God and do so joyfully? These are important questions. In fact, eternal questions. If your life was examined under the scrutiny of the Illumina of this book. Would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Whenever your lifestyle, your attitudes, the intentions of your heart. Are brought to bear underneath the all seeing and all searching Word of the Lord. Would we conclude at the end of the day after the examination that there is a likeness to Christ, at least in some measure? None of us, of course, have that full likeness that's coming. We'll get to that in the sermon. But these are the pillars that mark out biblical assurance, that we can have assurance and not shrink away in fear at the appearing of our Savior. So continuance with Jesus Christ, that is abiding in Christ, and then practical righteousness are the two pillars upon which Christian assurance is built, granted, given by Christ. And without these, assurance of salvation is most certainly fraudulent. It is a fraud. It is a fraud. And without them, we have no biblical support whatsoever to back our claim upon the saving name of Jesus Christ. Well, Father, I pray that these words of truth, Lord, will Lord, do what we ask in the beginning, that it will. Lord, help us that are saved to have assurance. You'll comfort us in our affliction. And Lord, if there are those that are yet outside of the kingdom, but yet maybe have perceived wrongly that they're born again, that you will afflict our hearts. And bring about a godly sorrow and contrition. that we will repent of our sin and place trust, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, do in us what we could never do in ourselves. And Lord, give us a heart, Lord, that begins to walk out the Christian life biblically, to be godly in Christ Jesus. And Lord, we give you the glory and we give you the praise for it. In Christ's name, amen.