How Does the Spirit Testify I’m Saved?

00:00:00.000 | [music]

00:00:05.000 | Ty writes in to ask, "What does it mean for the Spirit to bear witness with our

00:00:09.240 | spirit that we are children of God?"

00:00:12.600 | This is enormously important because what I have found over the years is that right

00:00:20.560 | up there with fear and lust and anger, Christians everywhere at some time, all of us, deal with

00:00:32.760 | the problem of assurance, the assurance of salvation.

00:00:36.760 | Am I really a Christian?

00:00:39.680 | Every Christian deals with this at some point, and some Christians all the time.

00:00:46.460 | And so I really would like to help here if I can.

00:00:51.160 | So this person is thinking about Romans 8, 14 to 16.

00:00:55.360 | So let me read the verses because the verses themselves provide the clue to what is being

00:01:01.000 | meant here.

00:01:03.120 | This is verse 14, Romans 8.

00:01:04.840 | "All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God."

00:01:09.000 | So led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

00:01:12.560 | A clue that you're the son of God is that you're being led by the Spirit.

00:01:15.640 | Verse 15, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you

00:01:21.560 | have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"

00:01:30.840 | A very intimate, warm, personal, affectionate cry to God as our Father.

00:01:38.320 | The Spirit is witnessing.

00:01:42.400 | Verse 16, "The Spirit himself bears witness," is witnessing in that cry, "Abba, Father,"

00:01:47.600 | with our spirit that we are the children of God.

00:01:52.480 | So here's the first thing I would say.

00:01:54.680 | The witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God is not a word whispered in

00:02:01.000 | your ear.

00:02:02.000 | "You're my child."

00:02:03.800 | That's not the way he does it.

00:02:05.840 | That's external, and the devil could do that to an unbeliever.

00:02:10.320 | I don't doubt that the devil does whisper that in people's ears, because it says at

00:02:14.960 | the end of the day, there are going to be people who think they've called Jesus Lord,

00:02:19.440 | and they really haven't.

00:02:22.400 | What it means is two things, and these are in the text.

00:02:25.160 | It is the work of the Spirit.

00:02:28.360 | So the witness of the Spirit is the work of the Spirit giving evidences in our lives that

00:02:35.560 | we are the sons of God.

00:02:37.160 | Now get that from verse 14, "All who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God."

00:02:43.360 | So the work of the Spirit leading us is the Spirit witnessing in our lives that we are

00:02:54.160 | God's.

00:02:55.720 | His work provides evidences, and that's what witnesses do.

00:02:59.120 | They give evidences of reality.

00:03:03.060 | So we look for what it means to be led by the Spirit.

00:03:06.520 | And if you go to Galatians 5, being led by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, living

00:03:16.400 | by the Spirit is the same as bearing the fruit of the Spirit.

00:03:21.240 | So we look for love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness.

00:03:24.840 | In other words, as we look at our lives, are there evidences that the Spirit is producing

00:03:32.880 | things that are contrary to a fallen, unbelieving, selfish human nature?

00:03:40.280 | And I want to be real clear here, never does the Bible say that the evidence is perfection.

00:03:48.240 | It's always a direction of life where we say, "This, this, and this was contrary to my selfish

00:03:57.760 | spirit, and God worked that in me.

00:04:00.240 | I thank you, God, for giving me some measure of evidence that I belong to God."

00:04:06.680 | That's number one.

00:04:07.680 | So verse 14 points to the fact that the witness of the Spirit is His giving evidences in our

00:04:13.720 | life that we're His.

00:04:15.480 | And here's the second one.

00:04:17.480 | It means a heartfelt cry rises up in us to God as our Father and Christ as our Lord.

00:04:30.220 | So verse 15 and 16, "You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom you cry,

00:04:39.040 | 'Abba, Father!'

00:04:41.360 | The Spirit Himself bearing witness with your spirit."

00:04:43.920 | So when there rises in the believer's heart a humble, authentic, dependent, thankful,

00:04:53.760 | happy Father, Father, that's the Holy Spirit.

00:05:00.900 | Because a person who is without Christ cannot call out to God in a dependent, loving, thankful,

00:05:10.700 | humble way.

00:05:11.700 | They're too selfish.

00:05:12.700 | They're too self-reliant.

00:05:14.180 | They don't treat God that way.

00:05:16.560 | And the reason I said it's also a heart cry to Jesus as Lord is because He says almost

00:05:23.940 | the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12.

00:05:26.780 | 3.

00:05:27.780 | "Therefore, I want you to understand, no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says,

00:05:34.060 | 'Jesus is cursed.'

00:05:35.860 | And no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except in the Holy Spirit."

00:05:42.420 | So if your heart rises up not only to say, "Father, Father, I need you," but also rises

00:05:49.700 | up to say, "Jesus, my Master, my Lord, my God, my everything."

00:05:55.820 | If your heart rises up to say that, that's the Holy Spirit in you.

00:06:00.880 | That's the evidence of God in your life.

00:06:04.380 | That's part of His assuring work.

00:06:06.660 | So here's one last counsel.

00:06:12.180 | The source of assurance, finally, is not found by focusing on our hearts and ourselves.

00:06:20.980 | It's found by focusing on that Lord and that Father.

00:06:27.140 | Because Jesus said, "When the Spirit of truth comes," this is John 16, 13, and 14, "When

00:06:35.260 | the Spirit of truth comes, He will glorify me."

00:06:40.460 | Which means, if you want the Holy Spirit to be at work in you, awakening that authentic

00:06:46.460 | cry to Jesus, "My Lord and to God, my Father," you look to them.

00:06:53.060 | You look to them, because that's whom the Holy Spirit glorifies.

00:06:57.280 | If you look within and take your life, I mean your eyes, off of Jesus, what's the Holy Spirit

00:07:02.820 | going to glorify?

00:07:03.820 | There's nothing for Him to magnify if you're not looking at Jesus and the Father.

00:07:09.560 | So bottom line, the Holy Spirit's witness is, one, His work in us to create evidences

00:07:17.740 | that we're His child by producing the fruits of the Spirit.

00:07:20.900 | And number two, it's His awakening in us of a heartfelt cry, "Daddy, Father, I need you.

00:07:28.500 | And Jesus, you're my Lord, you're my guide, you're my treasure."

00:07:33.140 | When our hearts are crying out with authentic dependence like that, and our lives are giving

00:07:39.220 | some evidence of His presence, then that's the work of the Holy Spirit witnessing.

00:07:46.500 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:07:49.180 | If you want more on this theme, visit us online at DesiringGod.org to listen to a sermon from

00:07:53.580 | Pastor John on Romans 8, 13 through 17, which is titled, "The Spirit-Led are the Sons of

00:07:59.540 | God," which was preached on April 14, 2002.

00:08:03.540 | And while you're there, you can find thousands of other free books, articles, sermons, and

00:08:06.500 | other resources from John Piper's 32-plus years of ministry.

00:08:10.660 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:08:11.660 | Thanks for listening.

00:08:12.260 | [END]

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How Does the Spirit Testify I’m Saved?

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