You do have desire for God, that is there. Will it always be there? That will fluctuate. You're going to see that this is different than just sitting at the drawn line between heaven and hell and hearing about God, hearing about humans, hearing about Jesus, and just mentally assenting. I kind of believe that over there.
Assenting brings you right up to the throne of God and you say, "Give it to me. I need you." That's what that is. A word you could think is, "Enter through the narrow gate." In Matthew 7, verse 13, it says that. It says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many." I think there are a lot of people who are standing right up against that gate.
They say, "I believe," and even with all their hearts, they say, "I want that." Then it's just like, "Man, I wish I could go around pushing people through those gates." Then go. Walk. Make that decision. Do it. Stop thinking like, "Oh, then what do I have to do to be saved?" Enter.
It's leave your baggage behind and take up Christ. You need to leave the world and enter the kingdom. This is the step of faith that trusts. There's a guy named Steve Lawson, I like the way he put it. This is kind of like when you're at the gates of an airplane.
You go into the plane, or you stay off of it. That's it. There's no staying in the middle kind of thing. This plane is about to take off. Get in the plane. You make this decision. Another way to think about it is found in Isaiah chapter 55 verse 1.
That word is come. Here's the next slide here. Come. Isaiah 55 verse 1 says, "Come, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters. And he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." Pastor Mark's teaching still got stuck in my mind of what it means.
You want to ... Man, Pastor Mark, that idea of Black Friday, it's stuck in my mind. You want something, you trample people to get it. There was this time where Tri-Tip was on sale before Memorial Day weekend. I was at Ralph's. It was all gone. Everyone was waiting for the butcher to come out with this crate.
I was standing there waiting for it too. I was getting pushed. By the time this guy came out with the thing, people were pushing each other and grabbing for it and things like that. I was like, "Dude, that's totally ... Pastor Mark, you're right. We should be doing this.
If we understand God, humanity, Jesus, we're in trouble. We need him." He's like, "Give that to me." A question we should be asking as we're going through all of this, and the last one, let's go through this one first before I get to that. It's forsake, letter either. Forsake.
Luke 14, verse 26 through 27 says, "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him." It's saying, "Deny everything about who you are. Now take up your cross and follow the one that you love." Follow him. If you're thinking right now, "Am I genuinely converted? Am I actually saved?" Question to you, "Have you repented of your sin and have you crossed over?
Have you made that decision or have you been at the line staring at everyone else do it? Have you been standing at the line and thinking, "Dude, that looks so good. I kind of want that. I've been living here, trying to live like that, but I haven't actually crossed over into there and therefore I have no assurance of my salvation." Have you repented?
It gets us into our second point here, belief. In Acts chapter 16, verse 31 says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You and your household." Clear. Clear. Crystal clear. Believe, saved. So easy. First one, there's knowledge. You need to have knowledge. That's what belief is.
Knowledge of who Christ is and what he has done for us. In Romans chapter 10, verse 14 and in 17, it's done through the word of Christ. "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. It's a knowledge, it's an understanding that comes through the word of God. You hear it. So in belief, you do need it. You need the knowledge part. So for those of you who are walking around saying like, "Oh, they're going to understand who Christ is by my life that preaches." That's true.
But not all the way. You need to preach it. They need to hear it. They need the knowledge. You need the knowledge. Many of you guys here already have this knowledge. But knowledge alone is not enough. And we see that in James chapter 2, verse 19. We've already stated this as well, but it's like standing at the line in James 2, verse 19, it says, "You believe that God is one.
You do well. Even the demons believe in shudder." They have knowledge. That's not enough. Secondly, it brings us into agreement. That is approval. Approval. You can't believe in Christ without approving and agreeing to the knowledge that's presented to you. You need to say, "I believe this." And this knowledge that comes to you, there's a steady growing of agreement of this knowledge that's pouring in.
So you're reading through scripture? Praise the Lord. As that's happening, what needs to be happening is your heart comes more and more in line with what you're reading. The truths that you see. "I agree with this. I agree with this. I agree with this." And this has to happen with the gospel.
"I agree with this." It is not just like, "Jesus died, rose again, okay. I just kind of agree with this general message. I agree with the depths of what scripture is saying about the salvation that's presented to us." Even that's not enough. In John 3, verse 2, it says, "This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher.
Come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.'" Look, you see knowledge here and you see agreement. "Come from God." But that wasn't enough. It brings us into our third point of belief, trust and depend. John 3, verse 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." It says, "Whoever believes in Jesus." It's not just believing what he says.
It's a believing in someone. That word there, did I put that down? Oh, yes. That word E-I-S there, or epsilon, or yoda, or sigma, or whatever. That right there is this word into. Believe into Christ. You're believing into someone. It's a trust into a person. So letter B there is belief must end in trust.
If you truly believe, you will. This is no trick question. It's trust again. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then you will trust that he has been given the power to save through the power of his life, death, and resurrection. You cannot add to the work of Christ.
This is the difference between someone who stands off at the line and someone who draws near to that line and crosses over. Here are some words of what it means to trust and depend and to move into this life. Some words to help understand trust and dependence. First is surrender.
Luke chapter 14, verse 25 to 33, it says, "Now great crowds accompanied him, and he said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.'" Now what you should be getting is, "Okay, I want to be his disciple." He says, "You cannot be my disciple." What is he saying about me not becoming a disciple?
Well, it's to hate all these things, right? Okay, good thing verse 27 and on comes because then you're going to go and hate your family. Verse 27, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." He expands on that. It's something about taking up a cross.
Verse 28, "For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'" Ridiculous.
This guy, like, you know, if you talk to a contractor or someone, like an architect or a builder, an engineer who's saying, like, "We're going to build this thing," and then we say, "Make all these plans," and you start working on it, and at the end you're like, "Oops, sorry." That's ridiculous.
He's saying, "You have to consider the cost." In verse 31, another one, this is the one we're going to focus on. "Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down and first deliberate" – I love that word, deliberate. You're like, "Deliberating." It's like if you have a beard, right?
You're just deliberating. "Deliberate, deliberate, whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000. And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So, therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." This is a picture of an army, and you have – how many did it say?
10,000 versus 20,000. You have an army of 10,000 versus 20,000. You might think like, "That's still a lot." You know, you're kind of thinking generally, but this is for real. This is a time of war. You have 10,000 people, and you look up. Think about the movies. This giant army is coming, and you're like, "Okay, we're all going to die.
Like, death is coming at us full speed ahead right now." And he says, "Which of you, seeing this, isn't going to count the, 'Okay, okay, okay, I see them. We're going to die. All right, let's surrender.'" Like, who would not do that? He says, "Before, you need to be able to calculate." That word in the Greek is called "lagitsimai." What it means is "consider." You're like deeply considering.
You're calculating a cost. So God comes, just like this king, this other nation. And we're coming before this God, and he's the one asking for peace, right? Yes? God is the one coming to us and asking peace. He's stretching it out to us. And not like we talked about this in the Revelation series.
He's not a God who's just like, "Please, please, please." No, this is like, "Hey, I have a million to your ten. You want peace?" What should be our response? "Yes. Right now. Please. I'm sorry. I'm yours." Surrender. This is to trust and depend on him. E there is "submit." Oh, sorry.
Roman numeral two there. "Submit." You can surrender and never submit. Someone can totally do that. You can surrender, it can be an act, but submission comes in the heart. The third one there is "deny." See this Mark chapter 8, verse 34? We saw that. "Deny yourself. Come to an end of yourself.
Die to yourself." And this is what it means to trust in God. So you need to repent. You need to believe. Do you want assurance of salvation? Have you done this? Is this you? Is this who you are? This is how you become a believer. Letter B there, after the box.
"Your life doesn't need to be perfect and all cleaned up. Repentance and belief is found up front where you simply come and plead before God. That's it. This is why this is a scandalous grace. Because there's nothing you need to do but this. You do not need to produce all this fruit and say, 'Look how much I've cleaned up my life, my speech, my relationships.' Be saying, 'Come as you are, and you drop that before me.' That's it." Luke chapter 18, verse 13, "Be like the tax collector." He says, "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven." I like that.
The humility, the shame, the, "Ugh." He beat his breast saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." That's it. You know what it says right after this passage? I forgot to put it in there, but it says, "He was justified." That is, God declared him righteous. He is saved.
Ever and ever and ever into the kingdom of God. He will not be able to be snatched out of God's hand. "I'm a sinner. Be merciful to me. I need you." He repented, and he believed. And he moved into that. It wasn't just a mental thing. However, it also does mean that how you used to be is different than how you are.
Your life as a wretched sinner and as a saved person needs to look different. We'll talk about that a little bit in Roman numeral four. Let's go into Roman numeral three here. Let's run through this one. Is salvation a guarantee? Simple answer, yes, it's a guarantee. So four points here.
First, pursuit of assurance is encouraged. Pursuit of assurance is encouraged. In Hebrews chapter six verse 11, it says, "And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end." In 2 Peter chapter one verse 10 through 11, it says, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure.
For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail." Scripture does tell us, "Pursue it. Pursue this assurance." Meaning, it's there for you. Assurance is there. Secondly, full assurance is given. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 21 through 22, it says, "Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith." Full assurance of faith is given to us.
Thirdly, full assurance is guaranteed to the end. Ephesians chapter one verse 13, "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory." I love that word because it's just guarantee.
There it is, guarantee. Take it to the bank, the deposit. Second Timothy chapter one verse 12, "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me." This guard, this understanding of the century that he is guarding this door.
And if God is guarding it, he can sleep. He can rest assured in this. In John, this isn't there, but in John it says that everyone that you have placed into my hands, no one will be able to snatch them out of the Father's hands. And fourthly, assurance comes from the Spirit.
The Spirit actually testifies to you this. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Can you become a child of God and then run out of the house? And say, "I'm leaving." No, you can't do that. You're a child of God, you are a child of God.
That's Romans chapter eight verse 16. So that is the assurance of salvation. It is scriptural. Bringing us to Roman numeral four, "Then why might I doubt my salvation?" Everyone's doing okay? Yeah? I heard a really big yawn. Roman numeral four, where are we here? Why might I doubt my salvation?
First of all, you are called to examine your faith. Those are the lines right there. First of all, you are called to examine your faith. Why? Because in Jeremiah chapter 17 verse nine, it says that the heart is deceitful. In second Corinthians chapter 13 verse five, straight up right there, it says, "Test yourself to see if you are in the faith." Examine yourselves.
That wasn't my talking. Look at the scripture, it says it. Or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test? So doubting salvation is actually part of this, right? You're examining yourself. Like, am I really a believer? So doubting in and of itself is not a bad thing.
It's actually probably a healthy exercise for all of us. We should all be doing it right now. I know I did while I was putting this together. Letter B, this is the big question that leads to doubting. And I think this is why doubts come. It's because I'm sinning too much.
Where's the fruit of salvation? I think that's the main question. I think that's why doubts come. So obviously only a person who thinks that he's Christian doubts his salvation. It's sin that gets this ball rolling. You begin to think, "This isn't what a Christian should look like." You look at your life and you're kind of examining.
You question a few things right there in letter A, B, and C. You question, "Do I have the Holy Spirit? If I did, can I really be sinning like this? Can I really feel so enslaved like this?" Letter B, if you really believe the gospel, you question that. Do I really believe what I'm saying?
Because my actions don't really follow through with that. Letter C, you question, "Do I really love God?" All because of sin. This produces guilt. A human can't stand under the weight of guilt. You can't live with guilt. You need to do something with it before you move on with your life.
And we're masters at masking, covering, or doing the right things to get over guilt. This leads to two extremes. Now we have to do a really just a boom boom kind of thing with antinomianism versus legalism. That's why I printed out that worksheet for you guys. And by the way, there are certain things in there that on other theological points, like one or two things, I'm not completely in line with, but this is a brother and a wise one at that.
So you can go through that worksheet of antinomianism versus legalism and kind of see a little bit deeper why doubting salvation will lead to these extremes. But let's go through a little bit. The first way you can, and usually these are two extremes, but usually most of us are swinging back and forth between the two.
Antinomianism basically means free grace, driven by carnality. Literally it means anti-law. And people tend to find an answer for their sin and guilt through this. They say grace is free and there is nothing needed on our part other than a declaration of the saving work of Christ. An antinomian will then say faith is all you need in your life.
God's forgiveness is that great. Do I have Romans 6? Can you go to the next slide real quick? Nope, I didn't have it, sorry. Okay, Romans 6, verse 1 talks about this, that God's forgiveness is that great. But let it be there. This statement will appease your guilt in a bad way, in a negative way.
It's like trying to mask your guilt by saying, "Well, God is gracious. Well, God forgives, he loves. I repented and I believe." Letters C, here's the problem. James 2, verse 17 flies in the face of this. Faith without works is dead. If there is no evidence of faith, then the reality is there is no faith.
We call this fruit. Yes, faith and belief is all you need. But if you're not producing fruit, then you don't actually have that faith and belief. We all know the example of a fruit tree, right? You have a fruit tree and then I guess it's an apple tree, then you expect it to bear an apple.
But if it's not bearing an apple, guess what? It's not an apple tree. It's probably an orange tree or something. It needs to bear fruit. Martin Luther says, "We are justified by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone." One way to kind of think through it is, you know, we like to think it's justification plus...
Oh, actually, never mind. We'll get to this one later. Let's go to John 15, verse 1-10. It says, "I am the true vine and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away." Listen to this. "And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean." So in verse 2, you're kind of thinking this. Okay, if you're bearing fruit, he'll prune that will bear more fruit. If you're not bearing fruit, he says he'll take it away. Big question, what does it mean to be taken away? Is it like he's going to discipline us or what's he going to do with us?
And that's a big question. Verse 3, "Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine." There's another thing. It's evidence of the fact that you're in the vine.
If you are in the vine, it's almost like you can't help it. Fruit is born. Right? But if it's not bearing fruit, that means you're not in the vine. This is very logical stuff. Verse 5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me," here it is, okay, here's what happens to the branches, "he is thrown away like a branch and withers." Oh, I die, sad. "And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned." Uh-oh.
Verse 7, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so you prove to be my disciples." Meaning if you're not bearing fruit, it's proof that you are not his disciples.
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." Commandments, law. Antinomianism is anti-law. Just grace, give me grace. Forget the law, it doesn't matter anymore.
If you love him, commands, you will follow them. So it sure seems like you need to do things as a result, as a result of salvation, not for salvation. Big, big difference there. So how do you counter this? Chapter F, what do I do when I see traces of sin in my life?
Well then you are called, if you don't want to be driven by this carnality, by this living of free grace, it's pursue holiness. See a holy God and the ugliness of sin. Number two there, what is the freedom? What is freedom in Christ? It's not freedom to do whatever I want, it's freedom to follow God.
That's what's always being talked about. In Titus chapter 2 verse 11 to 12 it says, "For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all mankind." The grace of God has appeared, there it is, grace. So if you're anti-Gnome-ing you're like, "Grace!" And it says, "It trains us to renounce ungodliness." It says, "It trains us to say no to the things of the world." Then Romans chapter 6 verse 12 to 14 it says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace." So we would agree with that last part, right?
Verse 14, "Not under law but under grace." Great, but what is it talking about? It's saying then, "Don't let sin reign in you." Something, it needs to look like something. Sin cannot reign. In that counter, that was Romans chapter 6 verse 12 to 14. Let's go to number two, legalism, work salvation.
This is driven by guilt. This is the other extreme. When you doubt your salvation you might start to become more legalistic. It means you do more things. Letter A, people tend to this to find an answer for their sin and guilt. Just like with antinomianism, right? You work harder.
So it's not just a quick fix, but it's like, "Okay, I've got to do more." Letter B, "I need to come cleaned up and holy before I can receive true salvation." Letter C there, "The conscience speaks against forgiveness. Conscience knows only guilt and conviction but nothing of grace and mercy." That's what guilt is, right?
It comes from conscience. And this conscience says nothing about forgiveness. And so I've got to do something about this. So instead of turning to the right place of forgiveness and grace and mercy, it goes to this, "Okay, how do I achieve this for myself? How do I live up to this standard?" So the counter, "What do I do when I see traces of sin in my life?
And when the temptation is to work harder, what must I do?" Here's what Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 to 23 says, "Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink." By the way, right before this it talks about Christ and what he did for us, that he saved us and that he freed us from the law of God and all the legal demands.
He nailed it on the cross. It's crucified and it's gone. And he says, "Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ.
Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to, I'll just say, the law." Verse 20, "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?
Do not handle." So basically, don't do this, do this, do this, don't do this. Verse 23, "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting self-made religion." Yikes. Self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body but they are of no value in stopping indulgence of the flesh. We see some kind of sin in our life and we're like, "Oh, this is not good." So we become legalistic and we're trying to do more things.
So like a common used example, something like pornography, if you're struggling in pornography, "I got to just not do that." And you try so hard and we do different things and we put different filters and we do all these things that says that they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh because you're trying to address something where another thing is supposed to be addressed here.
So the temptation is to work harder, what must I do? But what we should be doing, here's the next part, is take a harder look at grace. Take a harder look at grace. And I know Kazeeha got this from somewhere, I can't remember, but she tells this to me all the time because I beat myself up all the time over my sin.
I'm like that kind of guy. It says, "For every look at my sin-stained heart, look 10 times at the cross. If you have repented and believed in Christ, every time you look at your sin-stained heart, you just keep going back to the cross. Keep going back to the cross.
Keep going back to the cross. Keep remembering what He did for you, that while you were still sinners, not just in the past, but forever and ever, every sin, everything has been justified. As far as the east from the west, your sin is taken away from you. You are cleaned.
You are made white as snow. All these things, this is the truth for you. Remember what has been done for you. And then the result then becomes desire to work harder against sin. That's fruit. It's not that you're trying to fight sin because this is sheer willpower. It's that you see the cross, you see what God has done, and constantly you're revisiting this.
Sin is good in the sense that it constantly brings you back to the cross. And every time you see it, and you just break over it again, you repent all over again, "Please, I need you today just as much as I needed you when I first became a believer." And then the desire to work harder against sin happens.
And it's no longer a work in the sense of legalism, but a work in the sense of joy. And this will be a cyclical thing. You're going to be repenting forever, or for this life. But either grace is free, there is no more work to be done for salvation.
Remember that. All right. We're almost there now. Roman numeral five. What happens as a result of salvation? Letter A. Wow, look at that long passage. That's the text I put there. But it's so good. So increasing understanding of grace. We must understand the grace that saved us continues to grace us.
Charles Spurgeon. This guy is the man. I'm going to go and talk to this guy when I get to heaven. He says, "Whenever I feel that I have sinned and desire to overcome that sin for the future, the devil at the same time comes to me and whispers, 'How can you be a pardoned person?'" I don't know why I started doing that.
"Accept it with God while you sin in this way. If I listen to this, I drop into despondency. And if I continue in that state, I should fall into despair and should commit sin more frequently than before." Have you guys sensed that before? You despair and you just fall right back into it.
And you feel like, "What is going on?" That's the enslavement feeling you have because of what you feel. "But God's grace comes in and says to my soul, 'Thou has sinned but did not. Jesus comes to save sinners. Thou art not saved because thou art righteous. For Christ died for the ungodly.
And my faith says, 'Though I have sinned, I have not advocated with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And though I am guilty, yet by grace I am saved. And I am a child of God still.'" What then? Why then the tears begin to flow and I say, "How could I ever sin against my God who is so good to me?
Now I will overcome that sin and I get strong to fight with sin through conviction that I am God's child." This is so cool. So increasing understanding of grace, that happens as a result of salvation. Better be transformation of the previous life. It's an entire renewal of man. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 states that, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.
The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. You are set free. The truth will set you free." It says that in John chapter 8 verse 31 through 36. It says that Christ's burden is light. And this is not talking about just trials of life. This is talking specifically, most specifically about this burden that they feel over their sin in Matthew 11, 28 through 30.
Side note, reminder that context is very important. Don't use that just anywhere. Matthew 11, 28 through 30, "My burden is light. My yoke is easy." We are completely transformed. The reality and the reminder of our identity, that that is who we are, is very, very important. Letter C, what's another result?
You kill sin. You kill sin. Here's a practical reminder, practical application. Try starting by killing off one major sin in your life. Sometimes you get so like, you see all the sin in your life and you just like, "Oh, I give up. Forget this. I'll just play the part." Or it becomes like, "I'll deal with it later when finals are done." Just start by killing off a major sin and you'd be surprised.
It really gets you into this mentality of like, "Oh, dude, this feels good fighting sin. This is like who I am. This is what I love because I love God." As you're fighting this one major sin, a lot of things start to trickle effect in. So if you're overwhelmed by sin, just tackle one major sin and say, "I'm going to kill it." Notice the word "kill." Don't just like, it's not like, you know, when we're in front of an in and out burger and, "I'm going to kill this." It's not like that kind of kill.
It's like, "Kill it. Kill this thing. Uproot it. Make sure none of it exists. Obliterate it. There's nothing left." If you're an alcoholic, you're like, you're, it's not just that you hide it back. You know, "I'm going to hide one wine bottle in the back of the cabinet just in case like company comes over." It's like you get everything and then you go, not even outside to your trash can because you know you might go back to the trash can.
You go to the town dump and you dig a hole and you throw everything in there and you bury it and you say, "Get out of my life." And that's what you do with sin. You kill it. Number two, go on the offensive. This is what it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 14, "Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse them." And okay, and the reason why I'm using this, you're like, "What is this all about?" It's because God actually talks a lot about going on the offensive as Christians. That it's not, if someone's persecuting you, you would think the best thing to do is to like avoid them, ignore them, or just like shut your mouth.
You know, like, "I'm not going to say anything back to you and that's going to be my grace on you." No, no, no, don't just not take it but like go out and bless them. Do the opposite effect. You know, some of you guys might say, "I have anger issues with my dad.
I have anger issues with my mom. This is really hard. My sister, annoying to death." And you say like, "I'm going to try not to be angry anymore. That's my conviction. That's my application." But God's call is not for you to just be defensive like that. I'm not going to get angry, but to go on the offensive and say, "I am going to love.
I am going to serve." Number three, they're kill the enemy. We did this again. That's okay. Here are some five sub points. Don't sugarcoat sin in your life. Don't sugarcoat sin in your life. Sugar tastes good, right? Don't wrap that like sugar stuff around sin and say like, "It's not that bad." It's killing you, so kill it.
Letter B, be consistent in dealing with sin. Consistency is big. You don't have a conviction because you came to praise and prayer night last night. That conviction needs to be here today. Your killing of sin, if you thought about that last night, needs to continue tomorrow. And don't just think after a Sunday sermon, "Oh, conviction.
Yes, let's go. Pastor Peter is amazing. Let's go do this." And then Monday, you're like, "Oh, all right. Well, trying to remember why I felt that way." Be consistent in dealing with sin. Letter C, use the word, that's the word of God, to poison sin. That means you can never be apart from the word of God because the word of God is going to be the consistent truth and foundation in your life that will never shake.
It's going to constantly... It's like that friend who's really blunt, who constantly tells you what you need to hear but you don't really like it, but you know you need it and it's good and you realize that's a good friend. The word of God, and then use it to poison your sin and say, "Oh, sin that looks so attractive, the word of God reveals it for what it is.
It's like, "Whoa, get this thing away from me. I did not like that." Letter D, use prayer to expose your hidden sins. Pray, get down and say, "God, expose me my sins." We see this in the Psalms a lot. Use prayer to expose your hidden sins. God, even the things that I can't see, there are a lot of us who are here who have grown so jaded and apathetic and we think like, "Man, I feel like I need to force myself to feel the conviction and weight of sin.
I know this is wrong but it doesn't feel that bad anymore." Well, use prayer to expose them because even though you see it as sin, it might be hidden to you right now. Letter E, relentlessly move forward. That means guns blazing like that horse, you know when the gates open and not NASCAR.
What do you call horses when they run? Horse races. When the gates open and they're just running, it's just boom, like a bullet out. You're just relentlessly just going, going, going, going forward, forward, forward, forward, truck through like this. I think we need to become a generation that's a generation of more conviction.
It says we hate it to the point where we're like, "We're going to take this to the end." We hate sin that much. Letter D, pursue growth. That means don't just sit back and coast but push yourself to grow. Letter B there is cultivate fruit. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 through 18, you might memorize the fruit of the spirit but I remember this part, "But I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law." It talks about what the fruit of the spirit is, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, justice, self-control.
When you look at these things in your life, you have to cultivate it. That means don't think like, "Oh, here are nine things, let's cultivate it." It's like you go into each thing and think, "How can I cultivate this type of fruit in my life?" Love, camp there. Joy, camp there.
Self-control, camp there. Think about it, cultivate it. No farmer is going to go out there and be like, "I'm just going to throw a bucket of water here and hope things grow." It's like you got to go and then, okay, this one, my dad was a landscaper. That's why I like agricultural things.
But like every time, he went back to Russia on Tuesday and then every time like I got to think about plants again because our whole backyard is covered with plants. So every plant, he's like, "This one, you got to water every two days. This one, make sure you don't water it every two days or it will die.
Water it once a week. This one over there, do not touch it or I will kill you." My dad said that. And these kinds of things, you realize you got to cultivate fruit and so do that as a believer. And these things, all these things are going to work to help you in your assurance of salvation.
Let her see there, this hard work is part of faith. Sometimes we think that effort proves that it's not real, but a lot of times, effort is what proves that our faith is real. Don't get that mixed up because I think there are times where we feel like if I have to force myself, then it must not come from a genuine heart, right?
Millennials, you know, like it needs to be genuine. It needs to be authentic for it to like real. It can't be forced. It can't be shaped. And so if it feels like that, then it's not real so I might as well not do it. Well, it's not like that.
Actually, in the effort, in the work, it does show a great faith and it shows a great love for God. Let her see there, faith is tested through your hardship. John Newton says there, "We cannot be safely trusted with assurance till we have that knowledge of the evil and deceitfulness of our hearts, which can be acquired only by painful, repeated experience." And so there will be hardships, both external and internal, that will come in our lives.
Just a few verses to note here, Matthew 26, verse 34-35. Remember Peter? The one who just a moment ago cut off a priest's ear saying, "Gung ho, Jesus. I'm going to die for you. I'm not going to let these guys take you." And then this little girl, a little bit later, the little girl says, "Hey, don't you know Jesus?" He's like, "No." And so these things are going to come into your life that test your faith.
James chapter 1, verse 2-4. It says, "Count it all, join my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." So the word perfect and complete, there's an element of maturity, growth, completion of who you are as a believer.
And that happens through trials. And even through trials of your own sin, fighting your own sin. That is a trial. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 3-7. "And God will discipline us." This is another type of hardship, right? God will discipline us to grow in faith. Okay, you guys can read that on your own some other time.
Here's some diagnostic questions. Roman numeral six. And ask this of yourself. When did you realize that you were a sinner? Oh, by the way, these five came directly from Pastor Mark. I think, Pastor Mark, these are great questions. Pastor Mark, I heard that when he counsels you guys, all he does is ask you questions and it drives you crazy, but you realize how amazing it is.
Like, when did you realize that you were a sinner? This is like, oh, oh man. Have you even had a point where you realized you were a sinner? For real? Not just that you have to force yourself to believe in a theological concept of human depravity, but like, that's me.
You feel it. I'm a sinner. Question number three, when and how did you repent and ask God to forgive you? Did you move into that repenting and believing type of thing? God, that is me. I need you in this. Letter C, when did you trust in Jesus' sacrifice? Now, you could get to the point where you say, like, I need you, I need you, I need you, but if you sit there, remember, we went through that list.
If you sit there, that's not gonna be enough. That's not gonna get you anywhere in your salvation. You'll still go to hell believing that. You need to trust in Christ's sacrifice and that it's done. It's complete, holy, completely finished for you. Letter D there, when did you feel his repentance?
This repentance? Huh? His forgiveness. Oh, I took it as this repentance. Okay, cool. When did you feel his forgiveness? So you're sitting there, and good thing you're here. Not only that you repent, but have you ever, like, repented at a brick wall? Or like you repented and then, like, that person was like, okay.
And that's it. And you're like, all right, thank you for saying that. And then they leave and you're like, oh. You know, like, oh, no. This is not okay. Well, that he actually forgave you. He looks at you and says, I forgive you. And take him at his word.
His belief. And letter E, how have you been changing? This has to result. If you do, if you have fully comprehended this, and maybe I shouldn't say fully comprehended. If you've really attained this, then you will change. Because this kind of meeting up with a God like this, there is no way you can leave unchanged.
(Session concluded at 4pm)