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Now if you are here, as a church we study the Bible for our preaching ministry. So we are in the book of 1 John. If you have your Bibles, if you are here for the first time it would be great if you could open your Bibles to 1 John and we looking at chapter 2 this morning 1st John chapter 2 and will get into the text soon.

But before I do that I want to show you a little picture a kind of food that I love and many of you here love and that is the picture of durians. Now for all of you are caucasians you're overseas, you say what is this stinky socks fruit. Well this is the favorite for many people here is durians, it's the king of all fruits and do you know the king of durians? Mao Shan Wang absolutely the Mountain Cat king, that is a breed of durians, Mao Shan Wang that is very, very popular. The Mao Shan Wang durian is very popular because it is rich and creamy, it is bittersweet, it has a nice aroma to it and the flesh is said to just drape round the seed. It falls off very, very nicely, very, very easily. You know, the normal durian, you eat the flesh get stucked on to the seed one aah, but for the real Mao Shan Wang it's supposed to just fall off and what is beautiful about Mao Shan Wang also is that it is Chew Chee, we call it in Hokkien, meaning the seed is very very small, so every seed of that durian is goodness to the max.

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It's red, it's creamy, it's thick, it's a bittersweet, it's just the perfect durians. But with every good thing, it comes with a price and so Mao Shan Wang is also the, one of the most expensive durians you can get and with anything that is expensive, you can also expect imitations ah. A lot of fakes that are being sold as Mao Shan Wang when actually they are anything but Mao Shan Wang. So that's why people write on blogs, "Thanks for the tip", so this is not someone who shared how to recognize the real McCoy and so,thanks for the tip, recently got conned into paying Mu Sun Wang OK wrong spelling into paying Mao Shan Wang price for some Thai durians, trusted the durians seller to my regret. So, you can get cheated right, because, people sell you, Mao Shan Wang, Mao Shan Wang $15, $20 per kilo but it is actually just Thai durians and then there are people, because they've been cheated or because they have heard about being cheated, they decided they would never buy durians from durians sellers.

"He says, thanks, I love durians but I always shy away from the durians seller, afraid of being cheated, so I settle with styrofoam durians, and not that the durians is Styrofoam but, durians are sold in Styrofoam boxes all right. Yellow, yellow that's the best I can do to make my money worth but, deep inside I wish I can know from someone kind enough to share the trade of picking the right durians. Now it is very terrible, if you pay lots of money and then, you go home realized ee, I got cheated, it's not the real stuff, is the fake Mao Shan Wang, nobody likes that.

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Now as a pastor who cares for you, let me share with you the 5 traits about choosing Mao Shan Wang, not that I'm a durians seller but I learned from the blog Johorkaki, alright which I, Google and searched. How do you look for the real Mao Shan Wang how do you prevent yourself never to be cheated again. I'll give it a 5 tips next time you buy Mao Shan Wang remember me. (Laughter in the congregation)

Well according to this blog post, they say, number 1, Mao Shan Wang durians is usually oval or egg shaped, rarely round, usually on the elongated kind of a version or shape, this is the 1st characteristic. A 2nd characteristic is found in the thorns. Look at a picture here and tell me what you observe about the thorns. (Someone say Sharp) (Laughter in the congregation). Not sharp, won't call thorns lah. What's so unique about the thorns ? Well, I wouldn't have noticed it apart from what you told me, they say that the thorns on the Mao Shan Wang durians is pyramidal, in other words it is flat and angular can you see that? It's flat and angular versus round and conical, so this is one of the characteristics of Mao Shan Wang durians.

A 3rd characteristic is that the thorns converge at the base of the stem to found a circle. Can you see that? It forms a circle number.

Number 4 this is a very cardinal characteristics and that is the 5 arms starfish appearance at the bottom and you will see it really looks like a starfish with 5 arms and the arms draw up all the way to the middle of the durian and

Lastly for this starfish, not only the 5 arms but the body is it's the same pictures and the other one and the body of the starfish is that it is flat, it's brown, it's bald and the thorns faced away.

Okay so these are the 5 tips if you want to know more you can listen to the video when it is posted up online.

But why, do I I share with you all? Well people get very appreciative, oh! Thank you so much for sharing, now I know how to choose the real thing, everybody hates to be cheated we want to get the real thing, we want to know all the real thing and as a pastor, I am concerned that you choose the right durians alright.

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But more than caring for you that you would choose the right durians, I pray that you would know the right stuff for your spiritual life. I pray that you will really not just being assured of buying Mao Shan Wang, you be assured that there is a real spiritual life in your own self. You see, it is terrible when you thought this is Mao Shan Wang and you open on the inside, it is not Mao Shan Wang. It is terrible when we say look at me I'm a Christian on the outside but when you really open up, I don't have the real life, I don't really know God, I don't really have eternal life, I am not the real McCoy, I just thought I was, but when it really opened up, I'm not the real Christian.

There's nothing more important to a durians lover that you get the right durians and there's nothing more important to someone who attends church, to come for services, who want to explore Christianity or maybe even call yourself a Christian, than to know that you are the real deal, that there is the real life of God in you.

I pray today we would all have this blessed assurance, I am a child of God and Jesus is mine. I think, assurance of salvation is a very very important thing. Why, why is it important for me to know today I am God's child, I'm truly saved and there is a Zoe, the eternal life in me. Why is it so important ? Because if you don't really hear from God, if you are really ascertain for yourself from God's Word, you may be in for a horrendous surprise, and a surprise will be on a day where you meet with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, the Bible says Jesus says, there will be a day when many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name and do many works, mighty works in your name and then I would declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

These words are not imagined, these words are in the Bible, these words are exactly what Jesus had said and there will be a day of unbelievable shock and surprise to many people in this world. Lord, I thought I did so many things, Jesus says, I never knew you. Hey, I thought I bought Mao Shan Wang, the durians seller told me it's Mao Shan Wang, it is not Mao Shan Wang. No matter what you believe, if it is not the real thing, it is not the real thing.

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Some of us say you know pastor, I go preaching, I go to overseas, I go Philippines E-campaign, I preached a lot. You know there may be a possibility, you will stand before Jesus and he said "I never knew you". There are people today who will say, I can cast out demons, maybe none in our church has done that yet, but Wah I can go and cast out demons and Jesus could say to someone like that, "I never knew you." Hey, Jesus, I did many mighty works, I performed miracles. Jesus can say to someone like that, I never knew you.

This message I hope is not to shock you in the degree to make you discouraged and to shake your confidence in Jesus Christ if you are truly saved. I don't have the intention and that is certainly not the desire and intention of the Bible. That is not the work of the Holy Spirit to shake the confidence of the true believer. But I believe these passages are given so that we may be shaken out of our own presumption if we are not really saved.

So please if I share these things a little bit on the stronger side it is not so that I want to condemn or shame you, but I hope today will be a glorious day for you that when you look at the reality of Scripture and you look at your own life, if you are not yet truly saved, this will be a glorious day, that all the pretenses will be peeled away and that you can really come to the eternal life that is found in Jesus Christ. But for those of you who are Christians already, I think this subject of assurance is absolutely vital, because it is necessary for you to go through life knowing that God is your Father. It is very hard to live in a family where dad always tells you I don't love you, where your dad always tells you, I am not you make sure you are my own child. Wah, that kind, you can't function well right, I mean you won't study, you won't work hard, because you don't have that assurance, you are in the right family.

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As a Christian, if you don't have the basic assurance that I am God's child, my Father loves me and I have a real relationship with Him, you can't go through life, you can go through sufferings, you can't go through ministry to God, you can't give of yourself entirely for Jesus Christ, you can't without assurance. That's why, Keller he says, "Unless you have that assurance, you're not tapped into the resources the Bible says are there for Christians, you can't live the life the way the Bible says a Christian can live a life, you can only really live out the full Christian life when you have a blessed assurance."

This subject of assurance, is not an easy one, let me say this right from the word go. Why? Because people take this subject of assurance to extremes. One extreme is this thinking, I'm standing on this side, one extreme is this thinking, that we should never allow people to have assurance. Why? Because once people have assurance, they take their salvation for granted and they continue to live in sin. So we give them assurance and they may twist that assurance, that security, to do whatever they want, a.k.a. sin. Now this kind of thinking, this kind of aversion is manifested when people preach very much about the fact that, look at your life, you're not so much what God wants you to be, you must not be a Christian and they teach such high standards that people get demoralized and they have a kind of a morbid self introspection.

The whole fear, is that with assurance, people lead lives astray. I don't think that is quite balanced because if you are truly born again, you won't take God's grace for granted to lead life astray. But this is what has happened, maybe in some of the teachings in olden times, the reformers, the Puritans. It's a severe message and you will hardly read on anyone having this blessed assurance.

In today's day and age, maybe the puritanical teachings are less and so on, but there are, there is a group of people who suffer from a lack of assurance. Who are they, they are the people who believe that a Christian can lose his salvation. I say categorically, as a church and in accordance to the teachings of the Bible, you don't lose your salvation if you are truly born again. Once truly saved, always saved.

It's interesting that Joshua are mentioned that in the Scripture reading in John 10 that no one is able to pluck us out from our Father's hand. The security of a true believer is very clear in the Bible. But when you believe that a man can lose his salvation when he sins, you don't have that security. So, let me say this, you don't lose your salvation, that's not in the Scripture although if you live a life of continual sin, it shows up that you were not a Christian to begin with in the first place. So this is the extreme, assurance is near impossible to experience or to have. Let me go to the other extreme. The other extreme is assurance is very casual and simplistic. How do you have assurance? Very simple, as long as you say you believe in Jesus Christ and you pray a sinner's prayer, you are saved and you can be assured.

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But I'm not so sure, I did say the prayer, I did say I believe in Jesus Christ but I'm still not sure. Then what they will throw you is 1John 5:13 and they read to you "I write these things unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. So they use 1John 5:13 and bulldoze any doubts away. Are, look at this verse, you must be saved, you must be assured and they ignore the reality of Scripture, that there are other things that contribute to a man's assurance. You see, John says "I write these things to you, meaning, he has written the letter of 1John, to give you the marks, to give you the evidence, to give you the 5 marks of the Mao Shan Wang, the Mountain Cat king to know that this is the real durians and God has given you marks and characteristics, so that you may know that you are the child of the King. Don't, missed it, it is not just saying, oh, 1John 5:13, you believe in Jesus, you can be assured and don't deal with any doubts. No, they are marks for you to check. Now, certainly there is a certain assurance, when a man first places his trust in Jesus, there is a certain assurance as in Romans 8 telling us the witness of the Spirit, but that is not all the assurance and there's a richer, fuller, grander, stronger assurance when you can see these things in 1John.

So let me share with you the 1st of these things. It's found in 1John 2 and it says here and by this we know that we've come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says I know Him but does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected, by this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him to walk in the same way in which he walk.

This verse is very clear, very simple, by this we know that we have come to know Him. It is God's absolute desire for us to have that assurance. That is why he says, By this we may know. He wants His children to know, He belongs to them and they belong to Him, He wants that. So assurance is not a nigh impossible achievement. It is a promise, it is a reality we can have. On the other hand, looking at this verse, we know that assurance of salvation is not simplistic or overly casual, by saying, oh, as long as you believe in Jesus, you must have assurance. No there is, there are things you need to know. So one of the 1st things, one of the 1st marks of knowing the real thing, the real life, is really encapsulated in this one word, obedience.

How do you know you are a child of God today? Many people will say, because I was baptized, because I've a Christian name, because I wear a cross, because my father and mother are Christians, because I've been in church since I was 2 months old, because I love to read the Bible before I go to sleep, because I pray 3 times a day. You know, there are many reasons why people think they are Christians, but here in 1John, John says "If you are a child of God, you must have a life of obedience." If you don't have this obedience, you can be baptized thousand times, you can read the Bible 10,000 times, you can have 10,000 Christian names for yourself, you're not a Christian. As simple as that! Hey, this is Mao Shan Wang ah, very big, very nice, blah, blah, blah, but don't have the starfish, not Mao Shan Wang maybe Gou Shan Wang whatever but is definitely not Mao Shan Wang. You must have the starfish! A Christian must have obedience. You see this is not what I said, nor only what John said, but Jesus Himself said, " Why do you call me Lord, Lord and you do not do what I tell you." It doesn't make sense, if I am a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ but my life is a live in conformity to His Word, I don't obey Him. Do you really have a relationship with Jesus? No, you don't. The unsaved, the people who have yet to come to Jesus Christ, the Bible describes them as the sons of disobedience, that's the mark of someone who does not know Jesus, he lives in disobedience, that's what he is called. But when you turn to Jesus Christ, you are now called as obedient. You see the difference?

It is not so much unsaved, saved, actually, that term, not so relevant, okay, is in the Scriptures, but what is very clear is disobedient, now obedient. This assurance comes when you realize you are obedient and that's where John says in verse 3, By this, by what?, By this we know we, have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Today you can know if you know Him by checking if you keep His commandments, do you obey God.

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We live in a day where people say, as long as you believe in Jesus, you don't have obey His laws anymore, no, not quite. Yes, you don't have obey the law of God, in order to get saved, because nobody nobody can anyway. You don't obey God's law in order to keep yourself being saved, it's all by grace anyway, but if you are really a child of God, your heart is so changed that you will say, I want to keep God's law, I want to obey Him. That tells if you really know Jesus Christ. So you will not be someone who is living happily and habitually in sin, you will not be someone who is always stucked with pornography with no breakthrough. You will not be someone who is always bitter and angry, you will not be someone who is always loving the world. you won't, because if you really come to know God, you keep His commandments.

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The word keep, is a beautiful word, it is a word that refers to someone who guard something, as something very precious, maybe not a very good example but one which is vivid for you, is Gollum.

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"This is my precious..... He treasures that ring.... It's precious..... He gets all frangle and messed up when someone takes his ring away."

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Now, I said, it is also good because, I hope you don't say, you don't have such an eerie attitude when you come to the Bible. Nonetheless you must have a very great regard and value for the Word of God. The word keep here is to keep something as very precious. In other words, you look at the Bible not just as oh, my, this is such a impossible set of commands for me to obey, ahh, I just have to do it. Your attitude switches, this is such a delightful Bible, the Word of God is sweeter than honey, better than fine gold, the Word, the law of God is not burdensome, but I delight to do the Word of God. That is the heart and that is the evidence of a child of God.

Don't hide behind baptisms, Christian family, Christian cross, asked yourself this question, do you have the starfish, do you have this mark of obedience and a heart that delight in obedience. John is very strong with his words, he says, "Whoever says, I know him, I know him, I know Jesus, he is my Savior, but does not keep His commandments, no excuse, no ifs, no buts, he is a liar" and I've known and met many people in my life sadly, I wish I could, I could really believe them and I know, they are people dear to me, relatives, I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus, but their lives is anything but obedience. And I hope I am not being critical and I did not want to look at it as a critical judgmental kind of a perspective but to really see are there marks of new life in that person, because you may say you know Him, you may say you are, you pass all the doctrine tests in church, but if you do not keep His commandments, you are a liar. This is not knowing God's Word, there are a lot of smart people can memorize and study the Bible. The key here is whether you keep it, you do it, you observe it. So John is absolutely, brutally, but I think kindly honest, so that will not be led astray, so that we would not sit on a false presumption and be shocked on the day, I never knew you. He goes on to say whoever keeps His word in him, truly the love of God is perfected, the word perfected, means fulfilled. How do you know you love God? That you can pass all your catechism class tests, that you call yourself Moses David John, that you come to church every Sunday, how do you know you love God? When you keep His Word.

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Jesus said, if you love Me keep My commandments. You know it's, it's so clear when you think about this in a husband and wife relationship. The wife says to the husband, dear I love you, but she's sleeping around with other men. Huh, but, dear, believe me, I love you. But you are sleeping with other men, but you must believe what I say, I really you love. No, you don't love me, by this I know you don't love me, you are not loyal to me, you don't keep my commandments. Mummy I love you, I love you, but I never obey mummy, that's not love (pastor mentions a Mandarin phrase) , and that's what it is , but is not real love. There are many churchgoers today who can have very Christian lingo, (pastor mentions say Mandarin phrase again) to God, how I love you God, and in worship, in singing they, Wah. I mean, no, I am not against emotion. Actually I think our church we are little bit emotionless. (Laughter in the congregation) That's true, the only times, you guys really could be yourself maybe is during sermon, somehow in singing, you just feel that cannot. No, no I think it's okay to be feeling, responding to God with not just our heads, but also with your hearts, but, what I am against, are people who have all that feeling and talk big but in their life, there is no obedience. You are the most godly looking people when they sing, but after the church, they are another people. Now that is not what a child of God will do, if he loves God. It's a life of obedience that proves that.

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And John goes on in verse 6 to say by this we know that we are in Him. How do you have a relationship with Him? How do you know you really abide in Him? How do you know you have this deep abiding relationship like the branch and the vine? You know this when you walk in the same way He walk? How did Jesus walk? He walk in absolute obedience to the Father and if you know God, if you have Jesus in your life, if you have that Zoe in you, this is the evidence, you will walk in absolute obedience to your Father. There are no 2 ways about it folks, this is a very absolute to him, John is a very clear-cut guy, he is called the apostle of love, but he is also the son of thunder, he is. His love is on the wishy-washy wimpy kind of feeling, it's a very clear-cut objective understanding, if I love God okay Him. That is the challenge that is the teaching, and that is the fact, that is the starfish of this Mao Shan Wang.

How do you know you bought the right Mao Shan Wang home, when you see the starfish? How do you know that you are a child of God? Because there is a life of obedience. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven" many people today call Lord, Lord, many, not just in this church, but in all the churches in Singapore and its throughout the world, you add that together, you know you have statistics of the number of Christians? People always say, how many Christians in this country, how many churchgoers, I never quite believe those statistics, I never quite believe those. It may give you a feel because there may be a proportionate kind of representation. But no, the number of Christians today are not so easily discerned as I was baptized, I put my name down as a Christian. It is also easily known as putting Christianity on your pink IC because God says there is a test, it's not what you say, Lord, Lord, but one who does, who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

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And again you can do very spectacular things, they are preachers, they are leaders of churches, who, who proclaim that they can do many spectacular things, but the words of Jesus still are a shocker, "I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness". So if you really know Christ, it is not seen in the spectacular things you do, not always, not often. You say how do I know if I really know Christ, let me tell you what, it's seen in the daily things you do. It's seen in your everyday life. Do you obey God in the small things of life, do you obey God in everything in your life, when nobody is watching, the evidence of salvation is seen in the dailyness of your obedience to Jesus, not once in a while, come out, say, do big things and then, if you go down and live like a devil. You do the will of the Father consistently, because knowing Christ will result in obeying Christ. Having faith will result in works, justification will lead to sanctification, grace will lead to holiness, having the new birth, will result in having the new life, it is an inescapable reality. You say, why is this so, very simple dynamic. A man who comes to know God will be changed why ? Because the Bible tells us in the new covenant, ah, this is a term that you may be thrown off, but let me just say this old covenant is thinking that I can reach God, I can get saved by obeying the commandments. That's the old covenant and God says by the old covenant nobody can get saved, because nobody can obey perfectly.

Let me tell you the new covenant, the new covenant is when I sovereignly worked in a man's heart that I will change him, I will give him a new heart, I'll give him a new spirit, I will work within him. So it's not that he works his way up, but I work into his life. When someone believes in Jesus Christ, the operation of the Holy Spirit takes place and he is given a new heart, this is a new covenant. So how do you know if you really know God? Well you know when you have a new heart. Why because when someone knows God, the Spirit of God comes to the man's heart and performs a heart transplant, a brain transplant, changes him so that his heart that was used to be disobedient, is now careful to obey my rules, he wants to do it not because he is forced from the outside, but he has a new heart, totally changed from the inside and he says, I want obey God.

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Think of it, if you have a brain transplant, you won't be the same you, right? If you have Einstein's brain, you will think like Einstein and you have receive God's heart, you would delight in God Word, you will obey God's Word, not just talk about it, but you are truly convicted and convinced and therefore you live a life of obedience.

I think of it like a pig and a in a pig please don't be offended if I call you pigs, because, all of us are pigs in a sense, in this illustration. Imagine a pig, when a pig goes to the mud, what does he do? He revels in mud, he enjoys, he rolls in mud, yeh, yeh , yeh he loves mud, I mean, that is his nature. But imagine one day, a magician comes and changes the pig into a man. Now, his outside may still be pig but this magician changes the way he thinks, changes the way he looks at things, this magician changes the pigs brain and a pigs' heart into a human brain and a human heart. Now, this pig, suddenly realizes, hey why am I in the mud, dirty yah, he picks up his two legs and he says, I want to get out of the mud, I want to get out of the mud and, he gets out of the mud. But, when he walks like a human being, when he has two legs sometimes he is not careful, he trips, he falls and he gets back into the mud. What does he do, when he gets back into the mud? Does he do this,shiok,shiok, shiok shiok,shiok. Does he do that, he doesn't, he says, eee, it is so dirty, I want to get up and he gets out of the mud.

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You see, you may fall into dirt, but he doesn't delight in the dirt, he delights in purity, he delights in cleanliness, because he is no more a pig, he is a man. How do I know he is a new heart ? When the pig doesn't want to get in the mud, how do you know you have a heart transplant by the Holy Spirit. how do you know if you are a child of God? When you don't live in the mud. It is very simple, this is not, this is not E equal to MC squared. This is basic, by this fairly obvious mark you know you are a child of God. Do love the mud today? Like I said, all Christians will stumble in the mud, because we still have the flesh, we are still not properly totally freed from the, from the influences of sin. But will you stay there, or will you get out of that mud. Blessed assurance, blessed assurance is for those who keep his commandments and this keeping as I want to share with you is a consistent one. Now, I'm not saying that you will be perfect, as we have mentioned before, walking in the light is not sinless perfection but sincere progression and it's again seen here, how do you know you're a Christian? When you are keeping His commandments. The tense in the Greek is a continuous one, meaning, this is not something that happened to you ten years ago. You know, pastor, I'm a Christian because 10 years ago, I live for Jesus, now I, I believe something else. No, no, no, a true Christian will keep on keeping.There is no such thing as I used to believe and now I don't, I'm still a Christian, no you will keeping his commandments. That's the new heart, that's why for the reformers, the Puritans who may have thought that it's not so safe, not so healthy to give people assurance based on Scripture, I don't is a very good rationale, because they might not understand that grace changes a man's heart, that he will not abuse that grace anyway, but you will keep believing and if someone leaves, if someone disobeys consistently and forsakes the Christian faith, it is just showing up that they were not saved from the beginning. It is the story of the parables, parable of the sower, 4 kinds of soil, only one kind is fruitful, there are 2 kinds of that seem to have some fruit, but when there are trials, when there are temptations, they die off. They never were of the right soil in the 1st place.

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So with time, a consistent life of obedience is the, one of the best signs for you to have this blessed assurance. Knowing is not enough, Bruce Lee ah, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

I shared with you this very very simple feature. I want to bring it to a close. I want to ask you, what are some of the applications. So Pastor, you have told me, alright, a Christian's assurance must not be based on mere profession, must be based on his outward conformity to some ceremony or naming or attire or dressing, it must be based on a life of consistent obedience to God, because he is like a pig, a child of disobedience, transformed in his heart, to be like a man, with a heart that desires God's Word and obey Him. But what has this got to do with my life today, how should this impact me. I want to suggest four simple things for you today based on how you have received God's Word.

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Some of you have heard this, ah you hear this message and you say wow, I, I can clearly see that I see the starfish in my life, some of you can say that. You can say it, from what I was 10 years ago, to what I am today, there has been a change in my life, I'm less angry, I'm less lustful, I'm still not perfect, I've many problems, but I genuinely see that I'm a different man, I'm a changed man, I want to obey God and I do obey God. If you are someone like that, don't be proud and say look, huh all of you laoyah (colloquil for lousy) I'm the best Christian. Now, don't have this attitude, but be humble before the Lord, stand at the foot of the cross and I say to you, if you have this blessed assurance as this picture goes, praise God for His divine work in your life, you are who you are toda,y not because of yourself, but by the grace of God and therefore, when you have such an assurance, it is a blessing, it is a wonderful gift from God and our appropriate response is to praise Him. Therefore, Fanny Crosby, wrote this song Blessed Assurance and she says

"Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

and her consistent refrain or chorus is this",

"This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;"

If you're here today, you know Jesus and you know, you know Jesus, you got that? You know, you know, Jesus because you see the starfish of obedience, consistent obedience in your life, I say to you, the appropriate response, is to bow before the Lord and praise His work of grace, this is given to you and you are privileged, you are blessed, you should be thankful.

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For some of us we may be thinking well, I think I'm a Christian, but I, I wish I had more assurance. What do you do? And I hear this a lot of young people, who grew up in Christian homes. I speak with some teenagers here and one of the big dangers for, not a big danger but one of the big struggles, of a teenager is you know, Pastor, I, I grew up in a Christian family, I've always been to church. To be honest, I do not know when I trusted in Jesus, I've, I've raised my hands in SUnday schools so many times I'm lost. Whether it is for sweets or for salvation, I can't remember.

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I'm confused but I, can I ever be saved or should I make a decision again today. How can I have the assurance? Well, there is good advice in the Scriptures here and I say this is a little bit paradoxical, if you think about. I thought to be saved, to have the assurance, I need to do something, to get that ah, but you know the Bible, says if you want to have assurance, if you, if you sort of think you're saved but you're not so sure and you want to grow in that assurance, the Bible's teaching is that you should pursue Christ in Christian growth and as you pursue Christ in Christian growth, as you nurture the spiritual life in you, as you cultivate the spiritual life in you, as you see this growth in the Christian life it gives you assurance.

You say, how do I get that, where do I get that? That's found in 2nd Peter.

Time stamp in audio 0:42:19.6.

Peter says, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, so you are saying, now, now that they are washed, now that you are cleansed, you're a child of God, but you're not very sure. You are to grow in this assurance. What you do is you add to your faith, virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, self-control, self-control, steadfastness and then godliness, brotherly affection and then charity or love or agape. And he says, as you pursue these values, as you pursue these virtues in your life, depending on the Spirit to bring that about, if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

(2 Peter 1:5-9 ESV)

So it says that if a Christian is slack, if a Christian is not pursuing growth, if a Christian is not growing in Christ, he loses his salvation, he becomes nearsighted, he forgot that he was cleansed from sin. Don't you see that in your friends around you sometimes, they are not walking with the Lord and they are they are shaken in their confidence. But if you pursue Christ, and you see all these qualities develop over time, in the midst of trials, in the midst of temptations, what happens is that as you are diligent to confirm your calling and election, when you practice this qualities you will never fall. It becomes clear, you don't have a lack of evidence. If you are a young person today, if you're relatively sure, but you want to grow in the assurance, I say pursue Christ. Be diligent to confirm your calling and election.

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But this is not just a personal venture because God has given to us the church and when I mean church, it does not refer to the preacher. Church refers to one another and therefore if you want to grow in your assurance, it is and you want to help others in their walk with God, we need to understand what it means to encourage one another. You see this is the teaching again of the writer of Hebrews (Heb 3:12-14),

Take care brothers this is serious all right. Sometimes I fear that when we read the Bible, we read it almost as if they are good advices for us and we don't take it so seriously and we don't do this. I say if spiritual eternal destiny is important to you, if the life of God in you is important to you, then take God's Word seriously. He says "Take care brothers lest there been in any of you, an evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, means it's not something you delay, something you do today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The moment you stop pursuing Christ, you allow sin to fester and grow in you, it can harden your heart and eventually you may fall away from Christ.

Time stamp in audio 0:45:36.8.

Now that again I say is not that you lose your salvation. But this evil heart is now brought to surface, you now see that you never believed in the 1st place. And the community that God has given to you in the church, is so that they may point you to Christ, lest you be continuing in the indulgence of sin, being unchecked, unaccounted for and ultimately destroy your spiritual walk with God. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ?today,? that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
(Hebrews 3:12-14 ESV)

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The child of God will be seen as someone who perseveres to the end and to do that, is never easy alone, to do it alone, it's got to be done, is got to be journeyed together with other brothers and sisters, we need one another to keep believing in Jesus and if you do, it will be shown that you do have that assurance, you do have that salvation.

But finally I want to say to those of you who today, as you hear this sermon, wah, you say, pastor really severe huh, my purpose again is not to shame you, nor to expose in an unkind manner, but I think one of the horrors of my life, will be, that when we all die and meet with the Lord Jesus Christ, that there will be those who have been with us, week after week, month after month, year after year, where we would hear those words from Jesus, "Depart from me, I never knew you." As the pastor, that will be a nightmare. I hope is not because we have failed to teach Scriptures, the way it should be taught, so that you can check your heart the way it should be checked. Again the purpose is not to shame you, but I pray this day will be the most glorious day for you, the day when you would say, I honestly stand before God today and say I have been hiding behind all kinds of excuses, I don't love God, I don't delight in His Word, I have not had a change in my life that is consistent all that honors Him.

I have been hoping that I'm a Christian simply because I come to church. I say to you today, it may be the most glorious day for you because you can be freed from all that and really I beg you, I pray for you, really come to Jesus Christ for salvation and life. How to get saved , how do you know Jesus? Is it by working your way up? No, you don't try to be holy in order to be saved. The teaching of the Bible is that God saves you in order for you to be holy and he saves you when you're willing to turn from your sin and believe in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. Salvation is not a difficult process whereby I have to obey every commandment in order to be worthy to be saved. No, salvation is recognizing I am absolutely unworthy to be saved, but God is so amazing He gave His Son for me. Obedience is not the path to salvation, obedience is the proof of salvation the cross, the Gospel, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, is the way, to salvation.

Young people again I say this particularly to you, don't hide behind your parent saying he's a Christian, we are Christian, I must be a Christian. Are you really saved? Don't you fear hearing those words from Jesus, "I never knew you." All that could change today, if you humble yourself, turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ and when He changes your heart, that day when you meet with Him, His words will be, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Time stamp in audio 0:50:04.7.

Time, would tell, all of us will be with Jesus one day at the judgment and I pray all of us would hear those words together "Well done thou good and faithful servant." May God have mercy on us.

Let's bow for a word of prayer. Amazing grace isn't it? Every religion says you must be worthy in order to be saved, but this is the grace of God, when we are absolutely unworthy and when we can never change our unworthiness, Jesus died for you and He says to you whosoever believes in Me, shall not perish but have everlasting life, this is my gift, you don't have to deserve it, I want to give it, would you humble yourself today, to turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh, what a foretaste, of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. Does this describe you, it can, if you are willing to humble yourself and come to Jesus Christ. It is for you, ah my friends if you have been backsliding, you have been living in sin and like that pig that has been changed in the heart, you are living in the mud, I say to you, why do you stay there, come on, get up, get others to help you get up. We are, a church, we are a people together, we are part of this community, not just in the service, not just in in this preaching session but come into fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ, because not only do you need help, others need your help. That's what God has called you to, but to pursue Him. The amazing thing is that as you cultivate that in the life, the fruit manifest and He gives you, tremendous assurance. Jesus is life. Today, if you know Jesus and you sure, you're certain, because you have believed in Him, because there is a witness of the Spirit, because you see the starfish of consistent obedience, do not be proud, do not be self-righteous, but be humbled, it is all grace, it all Him, to God be the glory, what a great day, what a great assurance, what strength in suffering, what abandonment in service and sacrifice. Oh yes, Father we thank You, Your Word is given not to shake about confidence but Your Word is given so that we may be sure, we may know and for those who are not sure, not certain, that day today can make it known as well, by turning from sin and believing in Christ, if we strip away all pretenses, humble us and through a divine operation within our souls, to give us a new heart, a new mind, that delights in Your Word and obeys You and may this church, be a people where there is genuine understanding of the Gospel changed life, that we would journey one with another, that will pursue Christ and the heights of glory together and dear God make Yourself, glorious again to us. Thank you for this time, bring each one of us closer to You today, we asked pray all this in Jesus Name. Amen.

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