Introduction:
Three Things To Ask Yourself When You Have Doubts If You Are Really Saved (2 Thessalonians 2:13-17):
- Have I been
Changed ? (2 Thes 2:13a)
Four Amazing Aspects of Salvation:
- God Loves you.
- God Chose you.
- God Saved you.
- God is Changing you.
Change in:
- Affections
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Love God's Word
1 Peter 2:2 - Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation
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Love other Believers
1 John 3:14 - We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
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Actions
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Repentance
Matthew 3:8 - Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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Growing into Christlikeness
Romans 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son...
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- Ambition
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Witnessing
2 Corinthians 5:20 - Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
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Money
Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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- Do I Believe the Gospel ? (2 Thes 2:13b-14)
- Am I unwilling to Compromise ? (2 Thes 2:15-17)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles with me please.
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As Laura said, we're in 2 Thessalonians, we're picking up in chapter 2.
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Second Thessalonians chapter 2, picking up in verse 13.
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If you're still turning there, once upon a time, my brother Darren and I and another friend of ours went to Cedar Point.
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Remember that?
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We rode that thing, you know that thing where they strap you to the cables and they pull you up like a hundred thousand feet in the air, you know the thing I'm talking about?
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What's it called?
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The ripcord.
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All right, I probably should have looked that up before the sermon, thank you.
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I knew you'd be here and have my back though.
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You guys know what I'm talking about?
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You go in the park and you see that giant thing, you know, and people are pulled up and then, "Whee!" So we decided we were gonna ride this thing And so we were all, our time came and we got all strapped in and the person running the ride said, "Your harness is frayed." And I found out later that was supposed to be a nudge nudge, wink wink, hee hee, like little joke they were gonna play on us, but they were like, "No, you're," meaning mine, "Harness was actually frayed." And they're like, "We better replace that." And I'm like, "As well as my pants, yes." So they got me a new harness, and when they were getting ready for us to be lifted up into the stratosphere, into outer space, if you will, I remember the one person working, I remember this there, and they said, "That other harness "probably would have held you." And I said, "Probably." But let me ask you, church, how sure do you think I wanted to be?
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50%?
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Before I'm pulled up and let go and launched, and then the harness gives out, and they like shoot me to Toledo, right?
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How sure do you think I wanted to be that the harness was gonna hold me?
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How sure?
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Do you think 90 would have been good enough for me, 90%?
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Nah, probably not.
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I want it to be a hundred percent sure, right?
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Like, why are you telling us this story?
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Well, first of all, it's funny, but it does have a point.
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Every single one of us, every single one of us are heading into eternity.
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So I want to ask you, how sure do you want to be when it's your time to go?
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How sure do you want to be of how safe you will be?
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Are you good with 50%?
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You're gonna roll the dice on that eternity?
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You want to roll the dice on 50%?
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You want to roll the dice on 90%?
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How sure do you want to be?
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What if I told you that you could be 100% sure?
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And that's what we're gonna be talking about today.
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We're going to be talking about, the word of the day is assurance.
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All right?
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So far in 2 Thessalonians we've talked about the day of the Lord and when Jesus Christ will ultimately return to, as Paul put it, "inflict vengeance." I've got to tell you, these passages are jarring because we've talked about hell, we've talked about God's judgment, we've talked about the Antichrist, we've talked about worldwide deception, and we've talked about condemnation.
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And honestly it should be jarring. It should cause us to self-examine, right?
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But it can bring some believers to really doubt their salvation.
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True believers to doubt their salvation.
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And that is not what God wants from you.
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But there are some true believers that live in this mindset.
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"What if I fail?
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What if I'm still here when the Antichrist is revealed?
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Can I lose my salvation?
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What if I'm deceived?
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What if I'm deceived right now?
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Would I even know if I'm deceived right now?" I mean, have you ever struggled with that?
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Like, am I really saved?
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Have you ever struggled with that?
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I imagine a lot of you are struggling with that right now.
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Like, am I really saved?
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How sure am I that my harness isn't frayed?
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That it's going to hold me?
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What I'm trusting to take me into eternity is going to take me where I'd like to land.
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Well, in verses 13 through 17, following the terrible conditions of the world under the Antichrist, you're gonna see in this section, really what Paul's doing here, he's giving assurance to the church.
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Very clear.
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He's wanting God's people to know, "Hey, hey, hey, hey.
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I'm persuaded of better things concerning you.
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So on your outline today, three things to ask yourself when you have doubts, if you are really saved.
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You're like, I thought you were gonna make these headlines shorter.
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I tried, sorry, maybe next week.
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Three things to ask yourself when you have doubts, if you are really saved.
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First question, ask yourself, have I been changed?
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How have I been changed?
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Look at verse 13, first part of it.
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He says, "But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits." That could also be translated "from the beginning." "To be saved through sanctification by the Spirit." Stop there, first word.
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But, that's a huge word right here.
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He's contrasting the church with those he was just talking about in the previous passage.
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The deceived, the condemned, the unbelieving, the people that are taking pleasure in unrighteousness.
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He's like, there's those people, but you, "Hey, while the unsaved are heading for destruction," he says, "thank God for what He's done in you." And you're like, "Well, what's He done?" Like, "Well, He's brought salvation." And salvation is a wonderful word, but truthfully, it's kind of a general term.
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Because what you see, in just this little bit we just read, He gives four amazing aspects of salvation.
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He gets into some specifics here.
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I'm gonna go through these quickly.
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But first of all, God loves you.
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Did you see that?
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He says, "But we ought always to give thanks to God "for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord." Stop there, God loves you.
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You're gonna see in this passage, he starts and ends with this.
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because I think this is the hardest truth for us to really embrace.
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Because the reality is, we know our failures, don't we?
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And I think we are so used to just being loved and accepted when we perform, right?
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We carry that mentality into every aspect of our lives, Right?
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Like you say, "Well, you know, my spouse is only happy with me when I do what he wants or do what she wants." Right?
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"My kids are only happy with me when I do what they want.
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My boss, he is only happy with me when I do what she wants.
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Or my teacher at school, only happy with me if I do what he wants." And then we carry that mentality over to the Lord.
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God's only happy with me when I what?
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Do what he wants.
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And that's not true.
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You see, in Christ, God's love for you isn't based on your performance.
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God's love for you is based on what Christ has done for you.
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So he comes out of the gate and says, beloved by the Lord, and you're like, so why does God love me?
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You ever wonder that?
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Why does God love me?
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If God loved me so much that he sent his son to die for me, let's back up a step, Jeff.
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Why does God love me?
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Write this down.
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I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I've been thinking about that for 20 some years now.
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Like why would God love me?
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But here's what I know.
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He does.
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All I know is He has chosen to love you.
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Oh, speaking of chosen, letter B, write this down.
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God chose you.
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Talking about four amazing aspects of salvation.
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God chose you.
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It says, "Beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits or from the beginning." God chose you.
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We're talking about the doctrine of election, right?
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Salvation is according to His purpose and His power and His choice.
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And it's a mystery of the Bible.
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And immediately people want to say, "Why would God choose some people and not others?" And I would say, "Well, I can tell you this for sure.
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God never does anything randomly, right?
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Nothing random." "Hold on, do you believe in election, Jefe?" And I would say, "Yeah, I believe in election, because right here, he says, 'Because God chose you.'" And you're like, "Well, can you explain that to me?" And I would say, "Sure, I would be glad to." Would you like to learn about election today?
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Would you like to be crystal clear in your mind?
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Here it is.
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My dog thinks I'm God.
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I mean, just if you think for a second, if you have dogs, you can, right, Mark?
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You can plug and play yourself, but your dog thinks you're God.
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I mean, think of life from my dog's perspective.
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There's a bin in the dining room full of dog food that never gets empty.
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Now you and I know it like comes on a truck from Amazon and we dump it in there.
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My dog doesn't know that.
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She just looks at me like, "He's awesome!
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I don't know how he does it, but he just keeps the food always full!" And then if that doesn't dazzle her enough, I take her water bowl over to the sink, and with a flick of my wrist, I make water appear out of nowhere.
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And I fill her bowl up, and with the very power that I made water appear, I make it stop.
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And she's like, "You are awesome." "How great is our Jeff?" she says.
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Look, you and I know, come on, come on, you and I know about plumbing and pipes and water pressure and she doesn't know that.
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So let me ask you this, be careful how you answer it, but is there some sort of an intellectual, developmental creative gap between me and my dog? Some of you would say not much. Fair. But is there some? Absolutely. And she looks at me and she has no idea how I do the things that I do. She just trusts me and she believes in me so to speak. But she can't explain anything that I do. All right now let me ask you this, is there a gap between me and God? How big is that gap? It's infinite, isn't it?
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So why do I think I can explain God? When the Bible talks about things like election, I think of my dog watching me at the kitchen sink. Like, "He's awesome! I don't know how he does it! I can't explain how he does it, but He's awesome!
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So do you understand election now?
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I'll take that as a yes.
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He chose you.
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Look, God chose you.
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What God purposed in eternity, He carried out in history.
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Look, look, I can't explain a lot of things, but here's something I'm absolutely for sure of when it comes to election.
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It teaches us that salvation is all of God's doing.
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What that means is there's no room for pride on my part, or on your part.
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But it gives lots of room for assurance because God didn't choose me from eternity past in order to change his mind in 2022 and drop me.
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Otherwise he wouldn't have chosen me at all.
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You're like, "Chosen for what?" Well, I'm glad you asked that.
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Letter C, it says God saved you.
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Did you see that?
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Chose you as the first fruits to be saved.
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Saved you.
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Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, God Himself comes and indwells you. He lives within you. That's regeneration, it's new life, and your relationship with God changes.
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You're no longer a stranger to God. You're no longer an enemy of God. You are now called a child of God. Your relationship with Him forever changes because he did what? He saved you! Oh and speaking of changes, letter D, jot this down, God is changing you. God is changing you. That's the next phrase, it says, "through sanctification by the Spirit." Stop there. Sanctification, that's a fancy word, it just means spiritual growth. When you are born again, growth begins. And it's a lifelong process. As we're talking about assurance today, you see this, this is a subjective test. Like, if you came to me and said, "Jeff, do you think God chose me?" I mean, I have I have no way of discerning that.
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But if you're like, "Jeff, has God changed me?" See, that's a subjective test.
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That's one that we can look at and evaluate and self-examine as God's Word calls us to do.
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Have I been changed?
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This is a whole other sermon series, but I'm just going to go through this very quickly.
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want you to consider these three buckets. Okay? We're looking at, "Have I been changed?" considering three buckets of you, right? Of your life. This isn't an exhaustive list, by the way. Enough to get you going. But here's the thing, God's Word gives us ways that we can examine ourselves to be sure that we're in Christ. And here's three buckets. The first bucket of change, do you have change in your affections, change in your affections.
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Like what do you mean?
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Well, for example, do you have a love for God's word?
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1 Peter 2 says that we should long for God's word, the pure spiritual milk, like a baby loves regular milk.
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Somehow a baby instinctively knows to long and crave for and desire and consume the very thing that it needs for its growth.
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A baby just knows that.
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A baby isn't taught to want or love milk.
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And it's the same for baby Christian and adult Christians.
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We should naturally have this longing for the thing that we know is going to give us growth.
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So you should have a change in your affections for love for God's word.
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Another affection is love for other believers.
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1 John 3.14 says, "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers." Passed out of death into life.
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That's another way of meaning getting saved, right?
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Being saved, receiving salvation.
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He says, "We know that we're saved because we love the brothers.
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Whoever does not love abides in death." So another test God's word gives you is love for other believers.
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Say you look around the room, you're like, "I really can't stand these people." Well, that's not a good sign for you.
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Because a natural result of coming to Christ is a love and affection for God's people.
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So change in affections, another bucket here, you should see change in your actions.
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Change in your actions.
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For example, repentance.
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Repentance literally means a change of your mind.
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But a change in your mind results in a change in your actions, right?
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And that's why Matthew 3.8 says, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." Repentance isn't like, oh yeah, that's something I did when I came to Christ, you know, lo, many decades ago.
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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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Repentance is a lifelong, continual thing.
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Right, so you should see that in your life.
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Am I constantly turning from sin?
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Another change in action is growing in Christlikeness.
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Romans 8.29 says, For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
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God, what's your goal for me?
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What's your purpose for me?
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God says, here it is.
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I want you to be like my son.
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And you should see growth in Christ's likeness in your life, change in action.
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Do you see that kind of change?
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The third bucket here is, I just called it change in ambition.
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These are areas of change you should see if you're truly a Christian.
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If you're truly saved, if God's spirit lives within you, you should see a change in your ambition.
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A couple areas, a couple examples of change in ambition.
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How about witnessing?
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1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 5.20 says, "Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God, "making his appeal through us." A true Christian recognizes and embraces that he is God's ambassador on the earth.
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And there's a natural love for witnessing.
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Why?
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Because we have no problem talking about the things that we're passionate about.
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When you're passionate about Jesus Christ, nobody has to guilt trip you into talking about Him, into sharing Him, because you know what He's done, you know what He can do for others, you know what's at stake with eternity.
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Witnessing is a natural thing for you.
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You should see yourself growing in that area, change in ambition.
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How about one more?
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Another area where you should see a change in your ambition is regarding money.
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Matthew 6.21, Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Look, that's an objective test.
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You cannot explain your way around this one.
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Jesus said, "You show me where your treasure is, and I'll show you where your heart is." We wanna say it the other way around, don't we?
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We wanna say, "Pastor Jeff, my treasure's with mission work, and that's really where my heart is.
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My heart's for missions, and I just love missions." And that's really where my treasure is.
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Jesus said, no, no, no, no, it's the other way around.
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You show me where your treasure is, I'll show you where your heart is.
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In other words, give me your checkbook.
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Let me look at the register.
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And just by looking at the way you spend your money, I can tell you where your heart is.
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That's what Jesus said.
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Where your treasure is, that's where you're gonna find your heart.
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See, that's the change in ambition.
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You have a kingdom mindset.
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You're like, this stuff, it really all belongs to God anyway, I'm going to use it to advance His kingdom.
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Those are some changes that you should see.
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Again, that's a partial list.
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All of this and more.
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So much happens with sanctification.
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So we talk about salvation.
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Have I been changed?
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The things we've been talking about so far really have been God's side of salvation.
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Number two, write this down, "Do I believe the Gospel?" Three things to ask yourself when you have doubts if you are truly saved.
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Have I been changed?
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Number two, do I believe the Gospel?
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Picking up in verse 13, he says, "And believe in the truth." Stop there. "A choice of the will must be made." This is man's side. This is responsibility.
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And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait.
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You just said salvation was like all God, and now you're saying man has a side of it and a part of it.
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Those two things absolutely do not contradict." They're like, "Wait, wait, wait.
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How does that not contradict?
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I thought you said it was all God's doing." Yeah.
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Where do you think the gospel came from?
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You're called to believe in His gospel.
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Look at verse 14.
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He says, "To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." He talks about belief in the truth, but then he turns right around and clarifies what the truth is.
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Why does he do that?
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Because many people think that they have their own version of the truth.
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You end up like Pilate, right?
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What is truth?
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Belief has to have substance, right?
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And some people want to make it so generic, like, "I just believe in a God, or I believe in a higher power." No, it has to have a substance, and that's what he says.
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That's the gospel that he chose you, and he called you through the gospel, whether it's you were reading God's word yourself, Or you heard a sermon or somebody witnessed to you.
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At some point in your life you had to have heard God's promise and believed it.
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You had to recognize that you're a sinner, you're hopeless on your own, you deserve the worst that God can give you.
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But instead of God giving you the worst, he sent his son to die for you.
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The gospel calls you to believe in Jesus Christ.
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That He died on the cross for your sins, and He rose from the dead to give you eternal life.
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That's the gospel.
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The gospel calls you to turn from your sin to receive Him.
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Like, I thought we were talking about assurance.
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Yeah, we are.
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Because don't miss this.
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Our assurance rests in God keeping His promise.
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The assurance of your salvation is not based on your integrity, it's based on God's integrity.
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That's your assurance.
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See many years ago a friend of mine had this other friend, he was an elderly gentleman, lived alone, tiny apartment, and this friend said, "Hey, would you help him move?
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Would you get some guys together and help him move?" He had to move and he was, you know, as the Bible would say, advanced in years, and he's going to need some help.
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I said, "Yeah, I'll help the guy." was his name was Rick and I said yeah I'll help the guy out. She's like well great he's moving next month I'm like no problem we can do that. She's like and I gave him your number I'm like no that's fine I found out that that wasn't fine Rick called me every day multiple times a day for a month always the exact same conversation. You're like, "Jeff this is Rick. Are you gonna help me move in July?" He says, "Yeah Rick, I'm gonna help you move." "Are you sure you're gonna be there?" "Yes Rick I'm gonna be there." "Alright, I was just worried that you weren''t gonna be there." I'm like, "I'm gonna be there Rick." "Okay, that's that's July 6th, right?" "Yeah Rick I'm gonna be there July 6th." "10 a.m." "Yes Rick, I'm gonna be there at 10 a.m." You're gonna be there. Yes, Rick. I'm still gonna be there Multiple times a day for a month right Aaron Constantly he would call me at the office. He would call me at home. He would it was I Was doing really good for a few days My patient I was being really patient for like a few days and then finally Again, he calls you Jeff. You're gonna help me move on the sit. I said Rick. I said Rick. Why don't you believe me?
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He goes, "I believe you." I said, "Rick, you don't trust me, man." I said, "You don't trust me, and it kind of hurts my feelings a bit.
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You don't trust me." "No, I believe you." You see, some people do that with God.
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God says, "Look, here's my gospel.
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If you believe in my gospel, you're saved." And they genuinely have believed in the gospel.
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They genuinely have taken God at His word.
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But they're constantly, "Am I really saved?
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I don't know if I'm really saved.
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And now we're starting to put God's integrity in question.
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God said, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
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So I'm gonna make this really nice and easy for us.
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Those of us that need, you know, tell me like I'm five, right?
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I'm gonna make it easy for us.
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Do you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
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Do you see the evidences in your life that we discussed that naturally come with new life in Christ.
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Do you see those things?
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Then you're saved.
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Like, well, Pastor Jeff, I don't know how you think you can say it so confidently, because God said it.
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That's how I can say it so confidently.
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I'm just repeating it.
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And if you want even more assurance, you see, we understand that salvation has an end game.
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Did you see that in verse 14?
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He says, here's the end game of salvation.
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Look at the last phrase again.
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so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is mind boggling.
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It keeps me from finding the words to accurately describe how awesome this is, that God's ultimate goal for you as a believer is to obtain the glory of our Lord.
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And you're like, what does that have to do with assurance?
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That has everything to do with assurance because God says, "My objective in saving you is to ultimately glorify you in my son, So I'm going to make sure that you get all the way to the finish line.
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He's going to see it through.
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Do I believe the gospel?
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And finally today, am I unwilling to compromise?
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Am I unwilling to compromise?
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Look at verse 15.
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He says, "So then, brothers..." That means brothers and sisters, right?
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You get that.
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So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
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Stop there.
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He goes, so then, because you are saved, because Jesus is coming soon, because you are living on the edge of the apocalypse, he says, I want you to do two things.
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And I just paraphrase it by saying, stand firm and hold firm.
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That's what he tells the church.
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Two things, Jesus is coming soon.
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You believed in him, you trust him.
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He's changing you, so stand firm.
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What's that mean?
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That means no backing down.
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Right?
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No backing down.
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Like that great, great theologian, Tom Petty.
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♪ No, I won't back down ♪ Sing it with me.
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♪ No, I won't back down ♪ You know what I'm talking about?
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That's what he's telling the church.
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He goes, "Don't back down." He says, "You have every reason not to act like the world because you have every resource of heaven." And he says, "Hold firm." Then he uses a word a lot of us don't like, and myself included.
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He says, "Hold firm to the traditions." And when I think of traditions, I think of like, you know, stale smelling pews and, you know, you know, I'm talking about Methodist potlucks and stuff like that.
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Anybody else?
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We think traditions, we're like, "Eh, yeah, traditions just means we keep doing things the way our great grandma did it." But that's, first of all, it's not always bad.
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But the word traditions just means, literally means things handed down.
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The gospel that you have received, he goes, hold on to that.
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That's all that means.
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He's saying, hold on to the truth of God's word.
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In other words, to paraphrase it again, Paul is saying to the church, look, don't compromise your behavior and don't compromise your beliefs.
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You want to see assurance?
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Do you want to see assurance?
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You show me someone who is unwilling to compromise their biblical behavior or their biblical beliefs despite pressure from the world, you show me that guy or girl, and I'll show you someone that's truly saved.
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And that's why at a time like this, church, it's good to sort of call ourselves out a little bit.
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Don't compromise.
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Church, church, we are called to reach the lost disciple the found.
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That's what we're called to do.
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We need to stand firm on that.
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And it's easy to compromise because lots of people are doing it.
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Let's water it down.
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Talking about sin makes people feel uncomfortable.
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Let's instead talk about social issues that we should be going after and maybe not all this Bible stuff.
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He says, "No, no, no, no.
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You stand firm." He believed that the Word of God does the work of God.
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And God isn't about trying to make people feel comfortable.
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And God isn't about trying to make people behave.
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He's about saving people from their sin.
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That's what God's about.
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He's about delivering people from the wrath to come.
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People of every, according to Revelation 5, every tribe and language and people and nation transformed and one in Christ and exalting him on the earth as we shall do in heaven.
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That's what God's about.
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So church, that's where we need to stand firm.
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Like, well, did you see what the church up the street is?
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I don't really care what the church up the street is doing.
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God's called me to shepherd this one.
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So church, we need to stand firm and we need to hold firm.
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Men, I want to speak specifically to dads for a second.
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Dads, you are responsible for the spiritual direction in your home.
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You need to stand firm on that.
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And if you've sort of loosened your grip or abdicated your responsibility, you need to get back at it.
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You need to stand firm.
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No excuses not to serve Christ in His church.
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No excuses not to be a part of a small group where you're ministering to others and you're allowing others to minister to you.
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No excuses for that.
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Dad, you need to set the tone in your home.
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Dad, you need to disciple your families.
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Stand firm.
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Women.
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And I've got to tell you, church, I am so proud.
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And I mean that in the good way, not in the pride as an abomination before the Lord way.
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I am so proud of the women of this church to see the way that God is using you to make disciples in this church and in your homes.
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It thrills me to hear what the ladies in this church are doing.
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But I would encourage you just by echoing what the Bible says here, stand firm ladies, hold to the truth.
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And younger people, I know Jesse I'm going to sound like grandpa here for a second, but younger people, listen, you're living in a world that's much different than it was when I was your age.
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And you're already seeing a preview of the apostasy and the deception that's to come.
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You're seeing the preview of it.
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And when you watch the news and see all this stuff happening and you're like, how can people be so blind and so ignorant?
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It's just God giving us a peek.
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This is what's coming.
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And I would say to the young people, you need to be preparing to reach your generation because you're gonna find out there's a lot less of you guys following Christ.
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Among your peers, there's a lot less of you.
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It's going to be up to you to stand firm and hold to the truth.
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You're like, "Man, stand firm and hold firm, you know Pastor Jeff, if I'm going to do that, I'm going to need a lot of comfort and I'm going to need a lot of hope in order to sustain that kind of thing." Well, I've got some good news for you.
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Look at verse 16.
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He says, "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word." Paul here is just underlining the point that the believer's resources all come from God God Himself.
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Do you see the flow here?
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He's commanding you to stand firm, which you can only do if you have a real hope and you're receiving real comfort, and God is the one who graciously gives those things.
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So the fact that you're standing firm, the fact that you're holding to the truth, the fact that you're unwilling to compromise on these things, that's assurance that you belong to Jesus because true saving faith is always persevering faith.
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So, have you been changed?
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Do you believe the gospel?
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Are you unwilling to compromise?
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I've got to tell you, if you answered an emphatic yes to all three of those questions, You have good reason to be assured of your salvation.
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If your yeses are true and sincere, you have reason to be assured.
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And as we close our time here, I'm going to ask if our elders would come forward and the worship team would come up.
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Because what a great opportunity we have now.
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is one of the things that the Lord gave us to keep us focused, to keep us on track as the Lord's Supper.
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In just a moment, we're going to be gathering around His table.
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And this is so important to the church for so many reasons.
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But specifically today, One of the most important reasons is this.
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By nature, we have this tendency to start to think that it's about us.
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Right?
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It's about me.
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It's about my ability.
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It's about my strength.
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It's about my intelligence.
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It's about my creativity.
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And we start to insert ourselves in this.
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And I think that's one of the reasons the Lord gave us the Lord's Supper because it brings us back.
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It's His body that was killed.
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It's His blood that was shed.
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And when I take these elements in my hand, and when you take these elements in your hand, and as we're going to do in just a couple of minutes here, we're reminded, it's really not about me at all, is it?
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The only thing I bring is the total belief and trust in what He's already done.
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So I'm going to ask you to stand, and when you're ready to come, receive the elements, I'm going to ask you to come down to the center aisles, take them, and return to your seat in the outside aisles.
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And I'm going to ask that you would hold on to the elements, that when everybody who who comes forward to receive them does, as a sign of unity in the body of Christ, will receive the Lord's Supper together.
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The Bible tells us that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it and He gave thanks.
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He said, "This is My body which is given for you.
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Eat this in remembrance of Me." After the meal, Jesus took the cup, and He said, "This is the blood of the new covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.
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Drink this in remembrance of me." Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
What was your big take-away from this passage / message? What was the most helpful thing for you in regard to assurance?
How would you respond to a friend opening up to you saying, “Sometimes I have doubts. How do I know if I am saved?”
How would you explain “God chose you” (2 Thes 2:13)? Why do people struggle with the doctrine of election? How would you counsel someone really struggling with this?
Look at (2 Thes 2:15) again. In what areas are you tempted to compromise, either in behavior (“stand firm”) or belief (“hold to the traditions”)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.