All right, so we're continuing in the first article of Westminster Confession 18, which is on assurance. Last week, we considered the danger of false assurance. So that was the first two parts of that first article. And you had the scripture proofs under there, under footnotes A and B. And that was, although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and the estate of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish. So that's what we heard about last week. And if you knew that, which is true, not everyone has assurance. Assurance is something that the Christian grows up into, which we'll hear about in the third article of this chapter. Not everyone has assurance. And there's such a thing as false assurance, which is an extremely dangerous thing. We might be tempted to say, well, why should I seek assurance? If I can just be self-deceived, and if it's so dangerous, and if I don't need it to be saved, then why should I seek it? Why would I want it? And then you might listen to those who say, well, and especially since if you have assurance, you're not going to want to obey God, because you'll think, well, I'm safe. I don't need to obey God, which of course is a very fleshly way of thinking, and if that's how you are using the doctrine of assurance, then you may be certain that you don't have the reality of assurance. But the reason that we ought to seek it and that we know it's good is because God says that he desires for us to have it, and God tells us reasons that it's good to have. And so we must always be careful using our logic when we come to an opposite conclusion of what God says. This happens all the time in the Christian life. One example that comes readily to mind are those who say, you shouldn't tell believers things that they should do. Because if you tell believers things that they should, if you tell people things that they should do, A, unbelievers will be tempted to try to get saved by doing those things. And B, believers will either think they stand by doing those things or they'll be crushed with depression because they can't do those things. So just don't tell Christians what they should do. Well, that all sounds very logical and reasonable. especially in connection with some important doctrines, the great problem with that is God fills his word with telling Christians things they should do. And so we must be careful of logic that leads us to an opposite conclusion than God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ through his apostles. And, of course, God tells us things that we should do to throw us onto Christ's independence and to see the fruit that he is producing and to anticipate heaven and desire sanctification all the more and to feel the plague of either a million good reasons that we should be told what we should do. And praise God also, we ought to desire assurance, we ought to seek assurance, we ought to make good use of assurance. And so, yes, last week's portion, the first half of Article 1, false assurance is a real thing and it is a great danger. And praise God, we should therefore be warned against it. But continuing now in the rest of Article 1, which we'll be looking especially at 1 John and Romans 5, as we consider, Yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love Him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace. Now you can already hear in the way that that is worded how obvious and good that is. How could you come to believe in the Lord Jesus except that it was by being in the state of grace? How could you love him in sincerity? It didn't come from you, it came from his grace. Where does the endeavor to walk in all good conscience before him, not just to be seen by men like we heard about the false religion and false righteousness, to which all of us are tempted, but to actually want to please God and be satisfied with nothing less than that which pleases Him, not just that which makes us feel a little bit better about ourselves, where would that come from except by His grace? And so, he's already hinting at where assurance comes from, which we'll especially get to in Article 2. Yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love Him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Okay, now these are, it's understandable all by itself, but this is using theological categories, there's learning that is hidden behind the way that this is phrased. We are to think of ourselves either as in the state of death or in the flesh, or in the state of grace or life in Jesus Christ, But we are not yet in this life in the state of glory. Okay, so some of you may have read Thomas Boston's Human Nature in its Fourfold State. Very useful little book. Boston is a father of the ARP. one of the historically incorrectly named, but it stuck, seceders. And it's the fourfold state, have Latin names, don't be scared off by that. But the first is Adam and his wife are the only ones who are in it. Eve was never in it because she didn't get the name Eve while she was still in it. And that is posse peccari, able to sin. And if you all have had Latin, you can hear that. Actually, if you know any Latin-based languages, you can hear that. And then when we fall, we become Non passe, non peccari. Unable not to sin. Okay? And then when you, that's the state of death and then the flesh. In the state of being made alive, regenerate in the state of grace, we are actually passe, non peccari. Able to not sin. We actually genuinely love God. It's mixed with sin, but there's genuine good that comes out of the believer. genuine good that comes from the life of God in us. Faith itself is a genuine good that comes from life that the Holy Spirit gives you. It's not a prerequisite for good. If there were any prerequisites, we would all just stay dead forever because there is no good in us. but passe non peccari. So that's describing truly believing in the Lord Jesus, loving him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him. These are things that are signs of life. You think of the scientist who is dying to find signs of life on the moon or signs of life on Mars and if they ever find like a chemical chain that almost looks like an amino acid, it is going to be the biggest news in the secular world for ages. Well, this is real sign of real life. truly believing in the Lord Jesus, loving Him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before Him. That's what this article is calling the state of grace. But there's one more state that is coming, and that's the happy one, non-posse peccare. unable to sin at all. That's what we're looking forward to at our death. Had a few conversations recently because we're almost to it now in your shorter catechism lessons, kids. My favorite catechism question, well, favorite answer, number 37. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness. That's the state of glory. And that is connected here in this confession article. So they're using important theological categories that have been hashed out as Christ's elders and ministers, by the help of his spirit, have guarded against errors of various kinds throughout the ages. But it's stated in such a way that it reads very clearly and easily even for the beginning believer, praise God. So, may in this life be certainly ensured that they are in the state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now, who has been listening the various times that we have come upon this word hope, and especially in Romans chapter 5? Is anyone able to tell me the difference between the way the New Testament uses the word hope and the way Americans today ordinarily use the word hope? Dave. Exactly, exactly. So the American says, I hope, meaning it's up in the air, right? Like Dave said, good possibility. The Bible uses hope to talk about enjoying already, being sure already of something that isn't yet. So we don't hope for what we already see. but hope as a certainty. And so we rejoice not in wishful thinking that maybe we could get there. We have a 94% chance. No, we rejoice in the certainty that we shall be glorified. We shall be non passe peccari. We shall be unable to sin. We can not imagine right now, you and I, what that will be like to give full expression to yourself in all of your affections, in all of your actions, without any possibility of sin. What unreserved energetic activity the glorified believer is going to be capable of because we do not have that which remains from our flesh, that which we are concerned about, that which we are halting, that which keeps us halting so that it doesn't come flying out of our hearts, quite often right out of our lips. But we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed. Okay, so there's a parallel there. The false assurance that we heard about last week of the one who assures himself even though he is in rebellion against God and serving himself and living according to his own desires, that hope will always perish. But the true assurance of the one who perceives that he's in a state of grace because God is graciously working in you that hope will never make you ashamed. And that's one of the things that answers the question already. We'll come to the scripture proofs in a moment, but you can hear how that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will not be put to shame. And I don't even see that as one of the scripture proofs that they've listed here. I believe Romans 9 quotes it from the Old Testament as well. But that answers the question of if false assurance exists and it's so dangerous, why would I seek true assurance? And the answer is because true assurance exists and it's so sure and so good. All right, so 1 John 5.13. is the first scripture that they give us behind, yet such as truly believe may certainly be assured that they are in the state of grace. And it turns out that giving Christians assurance, pointing them to the way and the test and the fruit of true assurance is the purpose of an entire book of the Bible. So 1 John 5 verse 13 says, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Okay, so the stated purpose, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle, the Holy Spirit's own stated purpose for 1 John is that you may have Christian assurance. Okay, so immediately we refuse now to listen to the Arminian, to listen to the Papist, to listen to our own internal logic that is afraid of false assurance, and therefore our flesh would be reluctant to seek true assurance. If God says that one of the purposes, or that the purpose, the great purpose of one of the books of the Bible is that we may have assurance, then A, assurance is real, and B, we ought to seek it. Okay, there's, if it's not real and you ought not seek it, then you would just tear 1 John right out of the Bible. You do your best Marcion, early church heretic. Some of you know Thomas Jefferson and his redacted Bible, of which there is very little left. And it was the word of Thomas Jefferson, not the word of God, because it was only the stuff that he approved of. And we always must be careful with whatever is hard or difficult in the Bible. So we refuse to listen to anyone who says that assurance is either not real or dangerous to seek because God says he writes to us. The Spirit says by the Apostle John that he writes particularly 1 John 5, the letter 1 John, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And that means, of course, right now in this life. He doesn't write to them so that when they get to heaven they will know that they have eternal life. No, he's writing to them while they are on earth so that they may know already in this life that they have eternal life. And, the rest of verse 13 there, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. So assurance does not make the believer to say repentance and faith are unnecessary because I'm safe now. I got my get out of hell free card, once saved, always saved, put that bumper sticker on the vehicle of my life, and now I can do whatever I want. No, he says that knowing that you have eternal life actually encourages you and strengthens you to continue in faith. That the fact that this is real, the fact that it is from God, the fact that it is working, the fact that it will be perfected All of those things encourage you to keep doing it. I don't think the one other competitive swimmer in the congregation that I know of isn't here. I'm sure it applies to running as well. But if you are running, say, and it is a fairly long race, but you have those metrics in your mind you have the stages of the race in your mind and there's that hump in the middle of the race where you know what you are going to do for the rest of the race and you know that you have enough That felt certainty, and it's not actually a certainty, you still trip and fall or whatever, but that felt certainty actually gives you a boost and you are mentally enabled to finish. At least I hope it's true for runners. It's true for distance swimming. It's true for sprinting too, but you know that on the blocks. The Christian who has assurance of faith, isn't just sure that it works hypothetically, theologically for others. The Christian that has assurance of faith is assured by God about your own personal condition, that God is the one who gave you this faith. God is the one who gave you this life. God is the one who gave you this seal. and you become certain that you will finish because he is faithful. In God's providence, we actually get to hear a little bit about that in the sermon next hour. But assurance enables you to continue. It is a means by which God gives you more resolve and more strength, not less. So that is, yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love Him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace. And 1 John 5.13, which comes as a conclusion to the book as a whole, does build upon things that he has said earlier in the book. So, whoops. Went back too far. So, 1 John 2, 3. Now, by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Now, think about the logic there. We know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. This is very similar to what we heard from the Lord Jesus just a few weeks ago in Matthew 7, verse 23. when he said, depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness. The way that they should have known that Jesus didn't know them was because they were what? Workers of lawlessness, they're disobeying the commandments of God. Now, if he says, keeping his commandments assures us, makes us certain that we know him, Where does that mean the commandment keeping came from? If you could come to genuinely keep his commandments in any other way, then the logic of 1 John 2 verse 3 wouldn't work, would it? If you could come to genuinely keep his commandments from your own good intentions, from your own intelligence and being convinced that his commandments are the best way to live and the most profitable for me, from your own strength. If the unregenerate man, if the man who is not in a state of being made alive by God's grace could genuinely keep God's commandments, then the logic of 1 John 2 verse 3 wouldn't work. Because you might be keeping his commandments by some other way than knowing him. Okay, so in order to have this doctrine of true assurance, we need to know, we need to have Jesus's definition of keeping his commandments. We need to have Jesus's definition of his law, right? You remember in Matthew 5, a couple months ago, kids, where Jesus kept saying, you have heard it said, but I say to you, And what did he keep doing? He kept taking something that they thought was keepable and showing them that the actual requirement of the law of God is entirely unkeepable to them. So that when they do come to start loving and obeying God and loving their neighbor the way that God's law says to, there's only one conclusion. These must be children of the Father in heaven. These are getting life and righteousness and goodness somewhere other than themselves. They're getting it from God the Father in God the Son by the work of God the Spirit. And so, if you are genuinely keeping God's commandment, you love Him. And not perfectly, but at all. You love him and you are keeping the first table of the law out of love for him and you love your neighbor and even your enemy and especially your brother. The only way that that happened is because you know him. And so 1 John 2 verse 3 says, now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. We could continue in 1 John 2, but we'll move on to 1 John 3. We're not going to be able to go into as much detail in chapter 3 and chapter 5. But beginning in verse 14, we know that we have passed from death to life. Okay, this is where the theologians get their categories. They don't just like invent theological ideas. Well, there are theologians who do that. The ones we follow don't do that, because if they did, we wouldn't follow them. We know that we have passed from non passe non peccari, unable not to sin, death, to life, passe non peccari, able not to sin. Remember, this is two chapters after saying what? If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We call God a liar, okay? So we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. Here's another thing that only comes by being alive, that suddenly Christians are the best people in the world to you. The godly ones in the land are your delight. That's from Psalm 16. Well, to whom are the godly ones who are in the land their delight? Well, the ones who have God as their inheritance, who are sure that the lines are set for themselves in pleasant places, that God has given himself to them and that that is guaranteed. So we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. is still in the second of the four states. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts off his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. Now that's a very high standard of assurance, isn't it? Not just feel assured to ourselves in our hearts, but we shall assure our hearts before Him. Okay? Loving in deed and in truth, loving genuinely from the heart is such a certainty that you are in the state of grace that even before God you are assured. Now that doesn't mean that you are your own assurance, it means Christ is your assurance. But it means that you know that Christ is the source of your loving in deed and truth. Okay? So, I'll just give you an example, autobiographical examples of two different ways in which I, in my own life, constructed by Scripture and this doctrine, cling to Christ. When I find myself committing some sin, or having committed some sin, and I am in terror, as you should be when you sin, you are doing something that the whole of God's glory burns against, I cry out, Lord, save me in Christ. None who cling to him can be lost. And I cling to Christ, as you should every time you are repenting. You should always be believing. Yes, there's no such thing as faith without repentance, but for the believer there ought to be no such thing as repenting without faith. You want the godly sorrow that leads to repentance, and godly sorrow always comes with faith. But then there is that condition in which your assurance has not been shaken, and you're walking with the Lord, and you actually see some of the fruit of his grace coming out of your life, and you're not proud, you're amazed, because you know that the only place that that comes from is Christ. And you say, thank you, Lord, that you have given me Christ, for none who have him can ever be lost. Right? Christ is the same in both conditions in your life. None who have him can ever be lost. But in one condition, due to some expression of sin, and we'll get to the various ways that assurance can be shaken in Article 4. It's a very pastoral document, the Westminster Confession. In one, your assurance has been shaken, but in one, In the other, the Spirit has given you assurance by enabling you to see the fruit of Christ's life and Christ's work in your own life. And in both of them, you cling to Christ. It's just in the one, you're sure that you're in Him, and in the other, you're desperately resting upon Him because you're not sure. and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. And that is the perfect proof text for there are believers who do not have assurance. Even if you lack assurance, you may yet be saved. And your hope is that God knows that you're saved, not that you know that you're saved. You're not saved by knowing that you're saved. You're saved by God who knows that he saved you. And so you cling to him when you lack assurance. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. Again, an amazing thing to say, to have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ. and love one another as he gave us commandment. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, dwells in him, lives in him, and he, that is the Lord Jesus, and God by and in the person of his Son, in the person of his Spirit, and he in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. There's a lot there. We're just going to run to Romans 5. And Romans 5 says, if we are in the state of grace, and if we are standing in that state of grace, that should make us certain of the state of glory. So Romans 5, I'll start in verse 1. I don't know why I put 2 through 5 down on the page. Probably to save text space. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So if grace has made you to believe, if grace has made you to stand, if grace has brought you by faith into a condition where you're justified. And I think we'll be hearing a little bit about justification later today. That act of God's free grace, not at work, like sanctification, which is progressive, but an act in which God declares something to be the legal reality about you on the basis of what Jesus has done. Okay, so that is done by God on the basis of something Jesus has done. It's absolutely certain. That's what enables you to rejoice in the certainty that you will be conformed to God's glory and enjoy God's glory. Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Okay, so you got that certainty that's in the future. based on what God has said about you on the basis of what Jesus has done. You've got that hope, that certainty that's in the future and you're already rejoicing in it. So what if you have tribulations along the way? Is not the sovereign God who has declared that about you and guaranteed that end? Is he not sovereign over these tribulations? Are they not now the means by which he brings you from where you are to that end in glory? for which you hope, not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now, hope does not disappoint, okay? So, our sure hope, our assurance of glory is sure. It will not disappoint, it will not fail, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Not because our love for God has been poured out, although the Holy Spirit does give us love for God, but because God's love for us is poured out, and he uses the language of a drink offering, which ordinarily means you dump the whole thing all at once. The problem is, this is an infinite thing that's being dumped, and so there isn't an all at once. There is a continual, eternal, and infinite pouring by the Holy Spirit, and we obviously had sermons on that in the Roman series. But true assurance will not disappoint you, because it is grounded in the work of the triune God. And if you have it, you do not have to worry that it will fail. But you can rejoice not only in the hope of God's glory, but even in all the difficult things he brings you through between now and when you get to that sure glory. So, you know, very opposite of what people warn about assurance, oh, it'll make you complacent. No, it actually makes me able to rejoice in troubles and to seek patience and character and to know the love of God by His Spirit. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you desire for us to have assurance, that you give us such clear grounds and ways to come by it, that you give us such help for when we don't have it, that you tell us about its great usefulness for our lives. Pray that we all, Lord, would be assured that we are in a state of grace. And so I pray that you would give us to believe truly in the Lord Jesus and truly about him. Pray that you would give us to love him and especially to love our brother who is united to him. Pray that you would give us to endeavor to walk as pleases him. And that by all of these things that you would give us to see that your spirit is assuring us that we belong to you in Christ. In his name we ask it. Amen.