SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Those are walnut trees.
SPEAKER_01: Northern California, where we've lived for several years, was walnut, and as they would say it, they're almond country.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow there's no L in the word almond.
SPEAKER_01: There they call them almonds.
SPEAKER_01: But that's a walnut tree grove that you see there, an orchard of walnut trees.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see that the base and higher up the trunk is kind of odd-shaped.
SPEAKER_01: There's a different texture.
SPEAKER_01: And it took me a long time to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: What really happened there is all those trees bear the marks of the grafting.
SPEAKER_01: You see, they were all grafted 25 years ago into a rootstock.
SPEAKER_01: And each graft is a clone from one singular tree.
SPEAKER_01: And so all those trees bear fruit at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: Their fruit are genetically consistent.
SPEAKER_01: But still, even after 25 years, those trees bear the marks that they've been grafted into a rootstock.
SPEAKER_01: So one morning we were driving to school, and I noticed a row of trees, actually, several rows of trees axed down.
SPEAKER_01: And several days later I came past those trees, kind of bothered.
SPEAKER_01: Why would the farmer axe them down?
SPEAKER_01: And I walked up closer, and those trees were actually budding and pushing out some leaves.
SPEAKER_01: And I was puzzled how these trees have been axed.
SPEAKER_01: They should be dead, but there was a little bit of growth.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I asked one of the guys in our church, why did this happen?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, there was enough sap in the trunk to provide water and nutrition so that those leaves would openly, the buds would openly up and produce some leaves.
SPEAKER_01: For one moment, I thought those trees were alive and growing, but the leaves soon disappeared and withered up, and they did not bear any fruit that season.
SPEAKER_01: How could it be that these trees appeared alive and growing?
SPEAKER_01: And that gave me a thought about those who profess Jesus Christ, but they're not bearing any fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Those of you who have been in the Christian church for a long while, you have heard this before.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, my son is a Christian, I know for sure, but he's not walking with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Or somebody would say, I know little Sally, she's definitely a Christian, though she has abandoned her faith.
SPEAKER_01: And that makes my head scratch.
SPEAKER_01: Were these branches severed from the root?
SPEAKER_01: Or were they never grafted into the root?
SPEAKER_01: The answer to this question lies, how can they be assured of salvation?
SPEAKER_01: How can anyone be assured of their salvation?
SPEAKER_01: Who says, you will not this week or next week walk away from the Lord and turn your back?
SPEAKER_01: It happened with Charles Templeton, who was this famous evangelist with the Billy Graham Association.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned his back after being an evangelist for some 10, 15 years.
SPEAKER_01: Often we see these religious trees who seem alive and growing, but upon closer inspection, we seldom find any fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a budding here and there and some leaving leaves showing at some point.
SPEAKER_01: But fruit are never born in the branches.
SPEAKER_01: To our surprise, we often find that those trees were never grafted into the root.
SPEAKER_01: They might have some enough sap in them from the days that they spend in church or Sunday school I wanna or things like that, and they produce the odd leaf and the odd budding here and there.
SPEAKER_01: But they are neither alive nor growing.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the title for my message this morning: Alive and Growing.
SPEAKER_01: In religious circles, many appear to be alive and growing, but upon closer inspection, the fruit is sparse, and even the fruits are imperceptible.
SPEAKER_01: They are hidden between all the thorns and thistles.
SPEAKER_01: But do these belong to Christ?
SPEAKER_01: It is without a doubt that religious folk often will struggle with their assurance of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: There's a few tests that they can do to see if they are indeed assured of their justification in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But they also need to look at things like the fruits of sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: The lack of the fruit of sanctification will often make for a lack of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Christians, true Christians, will often doubt their salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They will go through belts and periods of time that they really wonder if they are Christians or not.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see what Second Peter has to say about this thing about assurance and how assurance of salvation relates with our justification, our sanctification, our glorification.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read for us 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 to 11.
SPEAKER_01: Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Note that.
SPEAKER_01: May grace and peace be multiplied to you and the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, 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 steadfast and steadfast with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
SPEAKER_01: For if these qualities are yours, and increasing they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
SPEAKER_01: And here is the nexus of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.
SPEAKER_01: The NASB says, make certain.
SPEAKER_01: For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The thought of justification makes us somewhat assured, and it provides all the essential nutrients like sunlight and nitrogen for greater fruitfulness in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Greater fruitfulness leads to greater assurance and deeper assurance.
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, it leads also to a certainty about our eternal destinies, which is the hope of future glorification.
SPEAKER_01: Our passage today covers all that, and I hope this passage brings to you gladness and joy today.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm sure that there will be some here today, I'm warning you, that you will feel unsettled and saddened.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not here to peddle cheap grace as if it's Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: But to you who are struggling with the assurance of salvation today, I would like you to walk through this passage with me.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to begin with the root, and we're going to inspect the fruit, and we're also going to see if there's any blossoms and flowers.
SPEAKER_01: I want us especially to take note of verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.
SPEAKER_01: For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit bearing and assurance work in tandem.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like the roots of a tree, the fruits and the flowers on a tree.
SPEAKER_01: They all work together to tell you what tree it is.
SPEAKER_01: The way that I know that is a walnut tree is I looked at the flowers, I looked at the fruits, and I looked at the flowers.
SPEAKER_01: I did not see the root, but I know those trees are all crafted.
SPEAKER_01: You see, assurance is rooted in one's justification.
SPEAKER_01: Justification motivates fruit bearing.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit bearing can also be called sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification then works together to serve as objective proofs that we are indeed declared right, i.e., justified.
SPEAKER_01: So assurance then comes both from justification and sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Assurance motivates sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification in turn nurtures assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: As much as we should be concerned about assurance or the lack of it, I would also say you should be very concerned if you've never doubted your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never been at a point in life that you don't feel so assured of your salvation, I would say that is cause for concern.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain to you.
SPEAKER_01: The true Christian gains assurance from his or her justification that they were made right with God.
SPEAKER_01: That in turn spurs them on to sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: But you see, we all go through bouts and ups and downs in our sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: And if our sanctification nose dives and our assurance climbs, something is terribly wrong.
SPEAKER_01: They parallel each other.
SPEAKER_01: Assurance comes from something that God has done.
SPEAKER_01: And we simply believe it.
SPEAKER_01: But it also comes from something we have to do.
SPEAKER_01: If we look at this passage, and I'm going to give you just a broad layout of this passage, it deals with justification, sanctification, and glorification.
SPEAKER_01: Justification is something we have.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification is something we do, it's in process.
SPEAKER_01: And glorification is something that we will get.
SPEAKER_01: It is something that is promised.
SPEAKER_01: What is our response?
SPEAKER_01: The first we believe, the second, we do, and the third, we hope for.
SPEAKER_01: Let us begin here to look at the what I call the root of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: The root of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: We believe it.
SPEAKER_01: It's based on the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is there in the passage, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything.
SPEAKER_01: His precious and magnificent promises.
SPEAKER_01: Assurance, therefore, comes from what God has done and what he has promised us.
SPEAKER_01: But then sanctification are based on what is called imperatives.
SPEAKER_01: They're based on commands.
SPEAKER_01: It requires obedience and doing.
SPEAKER_01: It requires us to do something.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for this very reason, also applying all diligence.
SPEAKER_01: That is action.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Be all the more diligent to make sure about his calling and choosing of you, and for as long as you practice these things.
SPEAKER_01: You see, assurance of salvation will wax and wane.
SPEAKER_01: Assurance of salvation will wax and wane.
SPEAKER_01: But the security of salvation is always there.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope I can explain that to you as we go along.
SPEAKER_01: But for now, let's look at how Peter outlines this passage for us.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna use three simple terms the root of assurance, the fruit of assurance, and the flowers of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the root of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: The root of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: And that's in verses one to four.
SPEAKER_01: Assurance is rooted in Christ's merits.
SPEAKER_01: Both his righteous and obedient work, and also his perfect sacrifice on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: These are all the righteous deeds that Christ already done.
SPEAKER_01: There is no improvement on that.
SPEAKER_01: That is already done, already secured, and already accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: He has granted us, verse three, he has granted us what?
SPEAKER_01: Everything, not just something, everything.
SPEAKER_01: For us to stand right before God, He has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_01: He has granted us everything we need to feel assured.
SPEAKER_01: He has indeed given us everything so that we can be alive and growing as Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse four.
SPEAKER_01: For by these things he has granted us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
SPEAKER_01: You see, assurance comes from something that is promised that we believe.
SPEAKER_01: Assurance comes from a promise of an already accomplished fact.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ offered himself as the perfect sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: This perfect payment.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing you and I can do to change that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he was the perfect sacrificial Namb.
SPEAKER_01: He has done it already perfectly and completely two thousand years ago, and there's nothing you and I can do to change that fact.
SPEAKER_01: It happened.
SPEAKER_01: Our assurance, therefore, is rooted in our justification, which Christ accomplished for us on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't make us, as Charles Spurgeon would call, a log of wood.
SPEAKER_01: You see, people would say, I'm saved, I'm saved, I love Jesus, I believe in it, I have faith in Jesus, I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: But they are as dead as those trees that were axed a few years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Spurgeon says the following You see, it is not man's effort that saves him, but on the other hand, grace saves no man to make him like a log of wood or a block of stone.
SPEAKER_01: Grace makes a man active and alive.
SPEAKER_01: God has been diligently at work with you.
SPEAKER_01: Now you must diligently work together with him.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Christians must be diligent to work together with the author and the perfecter of our faith so that we might bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus say in John 15, verse 8?
SPEAKER_01: Apart from me you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, that was John 15, 4.
SPEAKER_01: And John 15, 8, Jesus says, My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Now something is to be said for this.
SPEAKER_01: That the branches that which was grafted into the root of Christ's promises must produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Not just fruit, much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Much fruit bearing requires reaction.
SPEAKER_01: It requires action, it requires human effort, it requires obedience, it requires personal diligence.
SPEAKER_01: We as Christians must be diligent to work together with God in our sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I call the fruits of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: These fruits of assurance, we can also call the fruits of sanctification or the evidences of sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot bear any fruit if you've not been grafted in Jesus Christ as the rootstock.
SPEAKER_01: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But if you are indeed grafted, you will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit is essential.
SPEAKER_01: But here again, assurance comes into the picture.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if somebody is truly assured of their salvation, it will be like the nitrogen in the soil and the rays of the sun.
SPEAKER_01: It will produce fruit, it will ripen the fruit, and it will even sweeten the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit in the branches is evidence of life in the bran in the root.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: What does it begin with?
SPEAKER_01: Now, for this very reason, he wants us to go look back and say, Well, if you are indeed saved, if you indeed have a living faith, you have been indeed granted.
SPEAKER_01: Into this rootstock called Jesus Christ, then things are to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And these are things you have to do.
SPEAKER_01: Peter lists for us there seven fruits of sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for this very reason, also applying all diligence in your faith, and I think the ESV did a not such a great job translating it there.
SPEAKER_01: But I like the NASB, it's very close to the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: It says, in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
SPEAKER_01: These are the much fruit that Jesus speaks about.
SPEAKER_01: This is our sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Watson once said, sanctification is not the cause of our justification, but it is the attendant.
SPEAKER_01: As the heat in the sun is not the cause of its light, but it is the attendant of it.
SPEAKER_01: What is sanctification?
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification is proof that we are indeed alive and growing.
SPEAKER_01: There are seven fruits there.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I had the time to go through all these.
SPEAKER_01: But look at verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: For if these qualities, if these qualities are what?
SPEAKER_01: Yours.
SPEAKER_01: And they are what?
SPEAKER_01: Increasing.
SPEAKER_01: You see a lot of people go on a high and they, oh, I got saved.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and it's just like singing.
SPEAKER_01: They brush their teeth, singing hymns, and it's all Jesus, morning, noon, and night.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is some growth there.
SPEAKER_01: But then it just stops there.
SPEAKER_01: Those who claim they are saved, but they stuck in the past.
SPEAKER_01: This verse makes it very clear.
SPEAKER_01: If these qualities are yours, it's not past things.
SPEAKER_01: Were yours once upon a time when you were just saved or you went to some crusade or some evangelistic event.
SPEAKER_01: For if these qualities are yours and they are what?
SPEAKER_01: Increasing.
SPEAKER_01: They render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the formula is as follows.
SPEAKER_01: Great assurance produces greater usefulness and fruitfulness in the Christian journey.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this is why people cannot produce fruit and they do not produce fruit because they lack assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Our assurance is what drives us to sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: If there's no sanctification, there's no assurance.
SPEAKER_01: But assurance is something that is given to us, but it's also something we work for.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Watch out, Pastor Anton, you don't bring works in this congregation.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa, what does verse five say there?
SPEAKER_01: Applying in all diligence.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that word applying is a verb.
SPEAKER_01: The isvi is very strong here, I like it.
SPEAKER_01: Which goes to sir, oh, there's no perfect translation, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, make every effort.
SPEAKER_01: So first, we got to remember, and don't hear me not saying this, while these fruits are not the cause of our salvation, they certainly stem from the assurance of salvation, that being rooted deeply into the precious promises of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Second, these fruits of sanctification does require human effort.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit of sanctification, spoken of here, requires human effort, it requires diligent work, it requires submission, and it even calls for tears of humility.
SPEAKER_01: For this very reason, also applying all diligence in your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's only by faith that you can produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit doesn't just come, it takes faith.
SPEAKER_01: But with that faith comes the effort and the motivation.
SPEAKER_01: If there are no fruits, there is no assurance.
SPEAKER_01: And what's the reason and cause for the lack of assurance?
SPEAKER_01: One of two things.
SPEAKER_01: Either lazy or you've never been grafted into the rootstock.
SPEAKER_01: John 15, 5 affirms this.
SPEAKER_01: I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever abides in me and I in him, he is it that bears much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: There are some who even wrote books on this, who says, There is no work left for the Christian to do.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus did it all.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he did it all for our salvation, our justification.
SPEAKER_01: He did it all, but he wants to participate, and he wants you to participate in your sanctification, because it says there in verse 5, applying all diligence in your faith and supply, supply, moral excellence.
SPEAKER_01: And in your moral excellence knowledge, and he goes on.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, therefore be all the more diligent to make certain about your, about his calling and choosing of you.
SPEAKER_01: For as long as you practice these things.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna quickly run through three important words here.
SPEAKER_01: The first word is diligent, the second word is supply, and the third word is practice.
SPEAKER_01: All three are verbs.
SPEAKER_01: All three are words of action.
SPEAKER_01: The first one, diligent.
SPEAKER_01: In the Greek, it comes from the word spude, which I think we get the English word speed from.
SPEAKER_01: It means to do something with readiness to expend energy and effort.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Your sanctification is going to take energy and effort.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the word supply.
SPEAKER_01: That's a sweet word.
SPEAKER_01: We get the English word choreography from that.
SPEAKER_01: What does a choreographer do?
SPEAKER_01: He puts things together so that everybody plays their part.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who's been acting, right?
SPEAKER_01: We've got two actors here in front of us in the front row here.
SPEAKER_01: There's a choreography.
SPEAKER_01: And the choreographer expects everybody to play their part.
SPEAKER_01: And in your sanctification, you have to play your part.
SPEAKER_01: Supply, supply.
SPEAKER_01: You must do your part.
SPEAKER_01: As the divine choreographer does, he's conducting in the grand symphony of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Every Christian must do their part.
SPEAKER_01: And then the third word there, in verse uh 10, practice.
SPEAKER_01: You know what's the uh the meaning of that word?
SPEAKER_01: Do.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that simple.
SPEAKER_01: Do.
SPEAKER_01: If you do these things, you will never fall.
SPEAKER_01: So let me remind you again that justification is a one-time event, it's a completed work.
SPEAKER_01: You are saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let nobody tell you anything other than that.
SPEAKER_01: Some theologians would say justification is monergistic, meaning God did it all.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification is synergistic, which means you have to do your part and cooperate with God.
SPEAKER_01: It is progressive.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a one-time event, it's increasing, as it says.
SPEAKER_01: It's yours, but it's also increasing.
SPEAKER_01: However, everything relates together.
SPEAKER_01: As our sanctification peaks, so will our assurance.
SPEAKER_01: And if our sanctification nosedives, so will our assurance.
SPEAKER_01: So will our assurance.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he relates it there in verses 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if these qualities are yours and increasing, it will make you more fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: So in other words, if you are producing fruit, evident of your salvation, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: It will give you greater assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Now you've got greater assurance.
SPEAKER_01: What will be the result?
SPEAKER_01: More fruit.
SPEAKER_01: More fruit, more assurance.
SPEAKER_01: More assurance, more fruit.
SPEAKER_01: How many times do I need to say that?
SPEAKER_01: We're good.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to repeat what is evident in verses 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: If these qualities are yours and increasing, it will not, the Bible states it there in the negative, but you can say, by implication, if you have great assurance, you will be more fruitful and useful.
SPEAKER_01: And if you have more fruit, you will be more fruitful and useful.
SPEAKER_01: But then he says, if you lack these qualities, by implication, you will be blind to your justification.
SPEAKER_01: You will start losing interest.
SPEAKER_01: Your assurance will be drowned out, and it will be something of the past.
SPEAKER_01: If there is little growth and meager fruit production, expect your assurance to be little and meager.
SPEAKER_01: For he who lacks these qualities is blind and short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
SPEAKER_01: So if we lack assurance of salvation, one way is to look at the communion cup and say, but did Jesus do this for me?
SPEAKER_01: Did he die for me?
SPEAKER_01: Did I put my faith in what he did on the cross?
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Then you are justified.
SPEAKER_01: But let's take something more objective.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Is there fruit?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I should just take a second and go through some of those fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse.
SPEAKER_01: Supplying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence.
SPEAKER_01: Excellence.
SPEAKER_01: See what's the opposite of excellence?
SPEAKER_01: Mediocrity.
SPEAKER_01: Your Christian life mediocre.
SPEAKER_01: Is that mediocre?
SPEAKER_01: Does everything regarding your faith just end up being kind of so-so mediocre, just bare bones?
SPEAKER_01: I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: Don't expect anything from me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: That word knowledge there is a very interesting word.
SPEAKER_01: It is actually applying what you have learned.
SPEAKER_01: It's a practical knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: It's more of an experiential knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: In contrast with a theoretical knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says self-control.
SPEAKER_01: What's the opposite of self-control?
SPEAKER_01: Flying off the bat when things don't go our way.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what about perseverance?
SPEAKER_01: What is perseverance?
SPEAKER_01: The old word, I think in the King James, is long suffering.
SPEAKER_01: When things don't go the way we want them to do, how's your reaction?
SPEAKER_01: That of patience and saying, well, God is at work here, He's accomplishing His purposes, He's working all things for good, or do we grumble and complain?
SPEAKER_01: That would be the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Do we get insistent in having our way?
SPEAKER_01: Well we will either bear fruit or we will bear thorns.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus did say, don't expect to pick grapes off a thorn tree.
SPEAKER_01: And in your godliness, that is general Christian piety.
SPEAKER_01: That's general Christ-likeness.
SPEAKER_01: Brotherly kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Are you an affectionate, kind person?
SPEAKER_01: Are you like a cobra?
SPEAKER_01: And in your brotherly kindness, love, agape love.
SPEAKER_01: What is agape love?
SPEAKER_01: It's a self-sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_01: What's the opposite of self-sacrificial love, self-serving love?
SPEAKER_01: And there I've I've given you some of these qualities in the positive and the negative.
SPEAKER_01: One looking more like fruit and the other looking more like thorns and thistles.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing of you.
SPEAKER_01: He says you got to work at it.
SPEAKER_01: You want to feel more assured of your salvation?
SPEAKER_01: Do more.
SPEAKER_01: There's a guy who wrote a book, a thick book, you make lots of money.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, you've got to believe more.
SPEAKER_01: And I go, no, you've got to do more.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says do more.
SPEAKER_01: If you want a more objective form of assurance, believing more is not everything.
SPEAKER_01: Believing more is important there.
SPEAKER_01: But rather doing more.
SPEAKER_01: And if you say, I can do more, Jesus says, Well, are you rooted in me?
SPEAKER_01: Have you been grafted in me?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you are in me, you can.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not rooted in me, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: And so, my dear brothers and sisters, assurance is such a sweet and precious thing.
SPEAKER_01: But assurance is something that sometimes is a bit of a roller coaster ride.
SPEAKER_01: It's a bit of a roller coaster ride.
SPEAKER_01: And people may say to me, uh, well, Anton, that that's terrible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, your assurance sometimes goes up and down.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say to you, my sanctification sometimes looks like a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm being a brat, I'm being sinful, does God just pour more assurance on top of it?
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, you okay, you okay.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep on doing what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the thing why I said earlier on, if you've never felt that you lack assurance, that you don't have assurance, if you've never had that experience, I think there's great cause for concern.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you can only miss something that you had and sense it when it's not there.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: A few years ago, ten years ago, we decided we're gonna go visit home, and my kids were probably about four, five, six, seven, I can't remember quite.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to them, look, we're gonna go through international borders and we're gonna go through different airports, and there's gonna be a gazillion people.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to hold my hand as tight as possible.
SPEAKER_01: And I will hold your hand as tight as possible, but I don't want to be fighting you here because it could be in a minute and you gone.
SPEAKER_01: And here are one of my little kids.
SPEAKER_01: We walking, I can't remember.
SPEAKER_01: I think we were at Heathrow Airport.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like crazy.
SPEAKER_01: People speak a funny English, it's like kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And here we're walking, my little girl, so tempted to say her name, but I know she will not like it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm holding her hand, but I can feel her tug because there's this something that's distracting her there.
SPEAKER_01: Can't remember if it was a toy store or something, and she's pulling, she's pulling, and she's working her hand out of my grip, and I'm like, okay, I'm done with this.
SPEAKER_01: And I let go.
SPEAKER_01: I just let go.
SPEAKER_01: And she like stumbled like three or four paces.
SPEAKER_01: Dad let go of my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Panic sets in, stops, looks around, can't see dad, I can't see her, she can't see me.
SPEAKER_01: What does she do?
SPEAKER_01: That's assurance for you.
SPEAKER_01: God will let go.
SPEAKER_01: He can see you.
SPEAKER_01: You're still in his reach, but you have to sense what it is to go through life without him.
SPEAKER_01: It's a safety mechanism.
SPEAKER_01: It makes us scream or stop, scream, and cry for help.
SPEAKER_01: So when God withdraws his assurance, it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: It puts on the brakes.
SPEAKER_01: It's like those Shindra brakes in the elevators.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Brooks said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, though man merits assurance by his obedience, yet God usually crowns obedience with assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Those who gain the certainty of salvation through diligent, obedient effort, they don't do it in their own merit and in their own strength.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: It's rooted in the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is empowered by the Spirit of God indwelling in them.
SPEAKER_01: It will produce fruit, but it will also produce blossoms.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the last portion of this passage, which I call the flowers of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: What is a flower and a fruit tree?
SPEAKER_01: A blossom.
SPEAKER_01: It's a promise of more to come.
SPEAKER_01: It's future fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, for in this way.
SPEAKER_01: So everything that I've said so far is now culminating in this.
SPEAKER_01: For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be abundantly supplied to you.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when we lived in Northern California, this time of the year is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, it's it's February?
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: It's in February.
SPEAKER_01: It's just either pink or white.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is just blossoms.
SPEAKER_01: And those who own the orchids, the almond orchids, would say, uh that is the promise of money.
SPEAKER_01: There's a promise, there will be fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And so what the Holy Spirit will do for us in giving us assurance, he will only not only give us assurance for now that we are safe, but he would look to the future kingdom that awaits us, which we call glorification.
SPEAKER_01: The glorification is a promise of something to come.
SPEAKER_01: It's like blossoms on a fruit tree.
SPEAKER_01: In the spring there is blossoms, in the summer there is fruit.
SPEAKER_01: First comes justification, then sanctification, then comes glorification.
SPEAKER_01: If we are indeed diligent in producing fruit, God will give us more assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Our assurance will be sweeter and there will be an abundance of blossoms.
SPEAKER_01: And when we say blossoms of a promise of something greater to come, it brings a gentleness, it brings a peace that surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_01: As Watson once said, a faith that cannot be sanctified is a faith that cannot be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: But lo and behold, if there is sanctification, that is, in a sense, not only fruit, but blossoms, promising that something is coming, something even better.
SPEAKER_01: So in conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying here?
SPEAKER_01: Assurance is directly tied to how we live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: There is a correlation.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody would like to be sure about their salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to live in doubt.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
SPEAKER_01: That is often the part we fail to play.
SPEAKER_01: Many Christians would love assurance of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: But I guess not many have it.
SPEAKER_01: If not most Christians, I think, live in constant doubt.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps we need to go back to our justification, make sure that we graft it into the root, and then in humble submission, in effort and hard work, produce the fruit of sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: And then flowers of spring will come and things will be beautiful, and you have that settleness that you are in your way to replace where there is perpetual spring.
SPEAKER_01: Let us go to God and ask us to help us and help us get things in the right place in the right order.
SPEAKER_01: And Heavenly Father, these are complex issues.
SPEAKER_01: They all related, they all fit like a puzzle piece together.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope God that uh using simple terms of trees and fruit and roots and flowers have not unnecessarily complicated things, but that has made it simple for us to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Or assurance is uh something that is rooted in you, but assurance also comes from the fruit that we produce.
SPEAKER_01: May we not boast, Lord, those are graces given to us, but these are graces that uh are rooted in the promises of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, make us a people that produces the sweet fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning with our faith as the foundation and love as the culmination.
SPEAKER_01: May we be, as John 13 says, a a congregation which is known for love, for our love for one another.
SPEAKER_01: People will know that we are your disciples.
SPEAKER_01: For our time of fellowship, our time of studying your word and in our different fellowship groups.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray, God, that uh we will take a moment and look around to those we've not met before or not seen before, and uh just uh love them with your love.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.