Gospel Logic, Gospel Assurance

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI …

As we come to consider God’s Word today, let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you that you have given us the Word of God, that through your Son and by your Holy Spirit you continue to talk to us today. And Lord, we thank you that particularly in the preaching of the Word we hear Christ with clarity. And Lord, our heart’s desire is for that today. Lord, we pray for speaker and we pray for hearer, that the Spirit of God might work within us, that each and every one of us would leave here not with the words of a man, but with the very words of the living God echoing within our hearts. For Lord, your Word is like silver refined 7 times. We thank you that your Word never returns to you void, that it is sharper than any 2edged sword. And so, we pray, Jesus Christ, wield your sword. Pierce our hearts. Help us to behold wonderful things in your law. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Uh, a, a story I’ve told many times here, and I’ll probably carry on telling it for the next 50 years. I’m c- not sure if I’ll be around in 50 years’ time, but if I am, I’ll still be telling it. Uh, once upon a time, a, a woman came up to George Whitefield and said to her, “Mr. Whitefield, why do you always preach that we must be born again?” And Mr. Whitefield responded, “Because you must be born again.” It’s very important, isn’t it?

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the fact that if you’re not born again, you are dead. And so, a very important question for every single person is what? Am I born again? Am I born again? And, and as we think about that, there, there are 2 dangers that enter. One of the dangers is what we might call false assurance, an assumption that’s not true, that, “Am I born again? Well, of course I’m born again.” And we just assume that we’re born again. And we go through life never feeling fear for our soul, never concerned about the next life, not overly convinced that we’re saved, because we just assumed that we’re born, born again, and we’re not. And so, there’s an error on that side, but there’s also an error on the other side.

“Am I born again?” And you immediately think to yourself, “No, I can’t be born again.” And then you list off a series of reasons why. “I’m not good enough. I’m not holy enough. I still get it wrong. I’m rude. I’m disrespectful at times. I, I don’t follow the, the patterns of the Church set for me.” And so, then you begin to doubt your salvation, as opposed to assume your salvation on the other side.

Now, as we think about people professing their faith, and as we think about this reality of assurance and Gospel hope, it’s absolutely essential for every believer that we lay hold of the reality of what the Gospel declares. You see, God has given us Gospel logic with Gospel fruit and a Gospel root that, that by laying hold of, we can live our life not in false assurance, not in assumptions, and neither in fear of whether we’re saved—but we can live with boldness, with courage, with encouraged hearts in the reality of what the gospel tells us. And we’re gonna see that this morning.

And so firstly, I want you to see in this verse, where John says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, I want you to see the gospel logic that’s at play here. And you just have to put your thinking cap on a little bit here. Gospel logic. See, logic used to be a very standard part of the education system. When you went to school, you got taught logic, and when you went to university, you got taught more logic. And after that, guess what? You got more logic. Why? Because the education system knew that if a per- person can’t think logically, they’re gonna fall into error. They’re not gonna be critical thinkers. A- and so when we think about logic, there’s all sorts of different types of logic. There’s philosophical logic, there is mathematical logic. There’s general life logic. You know, when you say to someone, “Well, that’s logical.” What are you saying? Their actions make sense.

But there’s also what we might call gospel logic. There is a logic to the gospel. There’s a logic to everything God does, and if you get it wrong, much like in mathematical logic, you end up in a wrong place. But not just with the wrong answer. When you get gospel logic wrong, you end up either bound up in legalism or with false freedom. And so John comes to us with quite a profound gospel logic, and if you don’t see this, there’s the potential you misunderstand the whole verse.

And so we, we have 2 parts of this sentence. Have a look at the text. “Everyone who believes” Part one. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ,” that’s your first part. second part, “has been born of God.” This is 2 parts, okay? And the question is, what sort of logical reasoning is John using? This is very important. Don’t just think Logan’s engaging in theoretical discussions. This is extremely important.

Is it, something that gets frequently used in the Bible, if A, then B? In other words, if you’ve believed in Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, then you will become born of God. Is that what he’s communicating here? You know what I mean? So, if, if you’re, if you put your faith in Christ today, then you will be born of God. That’s not the logical pattern he’s using here, because otherwise what he would be communicating is your hope of regeneration and being born again is your ability to believe. And there’s a major problem with that, because those who are not born again are spiritually dead.

Now, you’ve probably all been to a funeral before. Dead people can’t believe in anything. They can’t do anything. So, what is John saying if he’s not saying that? Well, the logical f- the logic from a technical point is called effectual cause and evidence logic, which you can forget. But what it means is, if I have done A, then B is true of me, because only B people can do A. So have a look at the text and I’ll show you. So, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, if I have believed in Christ, if I am believing in Christ right now, then I must have previously been born of God. This is the logic of John. Because A, B must be true, because only B can do A.

Now, why is this absolutely essential? Now, children, young people, uh, all of us, if you’ve checked out when Logan said something about logic, just tune right back in right now, and this is the thing you must understand. It is absolutely imperative that you understand this gospel logic. Regeneration, being born again, always, every time, comes before faith. And the order must never, ever be changed. If you put faith as making regeneration happen, you leave people hopeless, because then when you say to them, “What is your assurance that you’ve been born again?” what’s the only thing they can say? “Well, I believed God would do it for me, and my faith is enough.” And so what, what John is laying down for us here, and it’s very intentional ’cause he’s gonna segue. We don’t have time to deal with it. But he’s gonna segue into the love of other people that have been born again. But the thing I want you to get hold of is that faith is always a result, always a result of what God has first done in your heart.

And the wonderful illustration of this is Lazarus, right? He’s dead in the tomb. He’s wrapped, and at this point, we’re told he stinks. not surprising, children. He’s a dead person. And what happens? Lazarus decides he’s going to come to life, right? You know, he’s dead, and he thinks to himself, “You know what? Being dead isn’t very fun, and I know my sisters would really like me to be alive. And so I’m gonna come to life.” And so then Jesus says, “Ah, well, Lazarus wants to come to life, so I better raise him from the dead. Because he’s asked me to make him alive.” That’s not what happens, is it?

Now, Laz- I, I don’t know, I’ve always wondered this. I don’t know where Lazarus is. Is he in Heaven already? ‘Cause if he is, I’d feel pretty ripped off being raised from the dead. But wherever he is, he’s got no thought of coming back to life, right? And then a voice echoes into the tomb, “Lazarus, come forth.” Did Lazarus have a choice? J- Immediately, he just awoke, and he was made alive. And he came forth. This is the picture for you and me of what God does. We’re dead in our sin, in our trespasses, and we live in rebellion against God. And we haven’t had a second thought about coming to Christ. Nothing inside of us has said, “Ah, I wish I was Christian. I think I’m gonna go and choose to be a Christian.” No. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, right? Everything inside of us says, “I hate God. I want nothing to do with Him. He’s nothing but a controlling overlord who wants to take all of my fun away.”

And then one day, we opened up our eyes and everything was different. One day, we took up the Word, or we heard a word from a friend or a brother, or we sat in the preaching of God’s Word, and all of a sudden, that which angered us, all of a sudden drew us. That which filled us with wrath, all of a sudden filled us with joy. And we looked to Christ, and we said, “I, I heard your voice. You said, ‘Come.’ Ah, I come.” And we walk out of the spiritual tomb like Lazarus and find a Savior waiting to greet us.

You must have this down in your head, firstly because your assurance depends on it, as we’ll see. But secondly, because it reminds you that you are utterly dependent upon God for anyone to be saved. You all have people you wish were saved, right? Parents, children, sisters, brothers, friends, work colleagues. And as I say this, I know there are names and faces coming into your mind’s eye of people you long to know Christ. And what you must acknowledge is that their only hope is that God causes them to be born again. And what should that make us do? Fall down on our faces in dependence before the living God. “God, be merciful upon them.” save them, give them new hearts because it makes no difference how well our preacher preaches, how well I witness, how well we share flyers. None of it will achieve anything, God, unless you give them new hearts. Do the work, Lord. Save sinners. It should drive us to our knees.

See, this logic is absolutely essential to understanding assurance, too. You see, because just the logic alone is a little bit like a skeleton. Uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried hugging a skeleton, but I imagine it’s not very enjoyable, because it’s, it’s missing something, right? It’s missing flesh. It’s missing what makes it real. A- and we need to attach to gospel logic the flesh to make it come to life in our hearts. And so, the first thing I want you to see, or the second thing we’ve talked about, is the gospel fruit. So there’s gospel logic, and in that gospel logic the first thing we must consider is gospel fruit.

You know, one of the, one of the biggest arguments in the Reformation, there were lots as you could imagine between the Reformers and the Catholics, but you know the thing that angered the Catholics more than almost anything else? It was assurance. It was the fact that the Reformers claimed that every believer can and should have assurance of their salvation. Do you know why the Catholics hated that doctrine so much? Because they had the fruit wrong. Because they believed that it was my works that would bring assurance. It was my goodness. It was what I contributed that would bring me assurance. Now, if that’s your frame of mind, of course you’re never going to have assurance, right? Who of us felt like we nailed it last week? I mean, let’s be honest. If we spent the rest of the day taking turns coming up and confessing all the sins we did this week, all of the things we didn’t do and did do, w- we wouldn’t have time. We’d have to skip our afternoon service. There’s no hope in assurance if you look to your own actions. We must look to gospel fruit.

And so, the fruit that John says is everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, and I want you to observe 3 things about that statement. Firstly, the who. Who does John say, say that this applies to? White people? Brown people? No? Men, heads of homes. Women. Those who have matured. Those who have aged. Those who are children with childlike faith. Everyone. All. Pas is the word in Greek, which means everyone without distinction. There’s no one excluded from this category of people. This is why the Apostle Paul can say in Galatians, “There is no Jew, there is no Greek, there is no Scythian, there is no barbarian. There is no male and female. There is only people in Christ.” You see, because the gospel shows no distinction, this is what is so abominable about both racism and sexism in the church, because there is no distinction in the gospel. Before Christ and in Christ, it makes no difference who you are. You are one of his people. And so that everyone is everyone without distinction, so notice that who, that means this includes You. Unless you’re not a human being here today, you are included in everyone.

But notice also, the action. Everyone who believes. Everyone who believes. Now, here is we- we run into a little bit of a problem, because there are phrases that we use all the time, and it’s really easy for us to just glaze over them, because they become part of our vernacular, right? It’s just Christian-speak, believing. 2 commentators make the comment that- that this belief John is speaking about is no mere profession. What- what they mean by that is, it’s not just saying, “I believe.” It’s not just saying the words of belief. It’s something far more than that. What- what is this belief? It’s captured really beautifully by Gill, the commentator, Gill, when he tries to describe what faith is, and he describes it with 7 terms. He says, “Faith is believing in, looking to, trusting in, dealing with, laying hold of, receiving, and depending on something.” Eh, this is not just saying something, right? It is the whole person and being, setting aside every other thing in the world. All contenders are stripped away, and all of our being is thrown in the act of believing upon one thing, and one thing alone.

And this is where we must ask the question, what is the thing? But before we get there, let me give you 2 illustrations to help you capture what faith looks like. Firstly, Old Testament, Exodus. Do you remember the story, children? Yeah. The people of God are leaving Egypt, and they’re being attacked and harassed, and they’re on the way out. And just before they go, the last plague is a plague of death. And God says to his people, “The angel of death is going to go to every house, every house, and kill the firstborn child, the firstborn son in every house. And here is how you’re saved. You take a lamb, you kill the lamb, you take the blood, you paint it on the doorposts.” Now, I want you to imagine for half a second here that you’re a father. It was the job of the head of the house to do this. And he goes out with blood in his hand, and- and a hyssop branch, and he looks at this blood, and he looks at the door, and he thinks about the almighty God’s angel of death coming to kill the firstborn child in this house that he lives. And he looks at some blood in a cup, and a brush. What would you be tempted to think? “Well, how’s this gonna help? Uh, how is it gonna help, chucking a bit of blood on the door? Wouldn’t I be better off locking the door?” And what does he do? He takes the blood and he paints it on the door. Why? Because he believes that the Lord has told him, “Blood means no death.” “A lamb has died in your place. You shall not die.” And so he lays hold of the promise of God, and he believes him, and he paints the door. It’s a beautiful display of faith.

But- but the other amazing example, I find, is- is the woman Rahab. Remember the prostitute Rahab in Jericho? Eh, as the spies come to her, she hides them. She cares for them. A- and then she says to them, “When you come to destroy this place, please, please spare me and my family.” Remember what they say? They say, “Here’s a scarlet thread. Hang this in your window, and you will be safe.” Could you imagine if you’re her? And off they march, and your whole city’s getting butchered, right? It’s wipe out Jericho, and all you have is a scarlet thread. But the whole point is you don’t just have a scarlet thread, because you have the promise of God. And that scarlet thread just simply represents the promise of God that you will be safe in the day of God’s wrath. And she believes it, and she is spared, her and her whole household with her.

So what is our scarlet thread? What is the blood that we paint upon our doorpost? What is that which we look to to believe? And John says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ.” Observe the object of our faith. You see, faith and belief, faith and belief can only be raised as high as the object that it rests upon. Now, when I was a, when I was a teenager, uh, remember, you know those white stacking picnic chairs that everyone used to have? I sat in one of those. I was a, I was a big boy, okay? Some of you have seen photos of old Logan. I was a big boy, and, and I, I was with a group of mates, and I sat on one of those picnic chairs, and it gave way in front of all of my mates. Like, it snapped and just exploded in pieces. One of the most embarrassing moments of my teenage years. But, you know, every time I sit on one of those plastic chairs, even now, I have a little bit of heart palpitation. I’m like easing myself into it, ’cause I’m like, “Please don’t happen again.” I don’t trust this chair. Why? Because it’s shown itself to be not trustworthy. But when I sit on the rock outside our house, I don’t have any fear that I’m gonna fall through that rock. I know it’s going to hold firm.

And I said this to the th- the 3 that professed their faith as we were talking about what faith is and how it works, a- and, and they were sitting on this wooden bench at Matthew’s house that’s got big, very strong beams, and it’s solid as a rock. Even I could sit on it and I wouldn’t fall through it. And these 3 young people were sitting on it, and I said to them, “Are you worried to sit on that chair?” “No.” “Why?” ‘Cause it’s strong. It’s stable.” And so they could raise their faith as high as the object they were sitting upon. Well, brothers and sisters, we have the highest object of our faith. John tells us that the object of, of our faith is that Jesus is the Christ.

Now, this is a theme that’s been building through 1 John. H- Have a look at Chapter 2 with me very quickly. In Chapter 2, verse 22, John says, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Then in Chapter 4, verse 2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” And then Chapter 4 again, have a look at verse 14. “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and He in God.”

And, and there’s 3 wonderful examples of this in the Scriptures. Firstly, Simon Peter. Remember in Matthew 16, Jesus says to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they say, “Well, some say a prophet. Some say Elijah.” And then Jesus turns to them and says to them, “Who do you say that I am?” Do you remember the words of Peter? “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” He looks at flesh, but his eyes are open to see something far more. And so you remember, Jesus says to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for the flesh did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.” That’s exactly what John’s talking about here.

The second example is in John’s Gospel, in John chapter 6. So Jesus is busy doing ministry, and he says some pretty offensive things to the Jews, like, “You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood,” which is the height of inappropriate conduct, scandalous behavior, and all the disciples start leaving. And by all, I mean all of them. Everyone’s forsaking Christ until there’s only the 12 left, and Jesus turns to them and he says to them, “What about you? Will you leave too?” And Simon Peter declares, “To whom will we go? For you have the words of eternal life. You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” In the face of all people rejecting him, Simon Peter falls down and lays hold of him as the only sufficient Savior of the world.

And then we see it marvelously again in the Gospel of John, with Thomas. He gets a bit of a bad rap, old Thomas, but I can sympathize with him. The other 11 disci- the other ten disciples, they got to see Jesus in the flesh, and they believed. Thomas says, “I’m not believing unless I see it with my own eyes and put my hands in his holes. Not a chance.” And Jesus turns up, and remember what he says to him? “Don’t disbelieve, but believe.” You remember the words of Thomas? “My Lord and my God!” And he claims complete exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings of the entire universe.

What does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Christ? Well, as Calvin puts it so well, “Believing that he is the Christ is hoping from him for all things that have been promised to us.” See, it involves taking up the word and seeing the promises of the Word of God. All who confess the name of Christ, all who believe will be saved. Seeing the promises of God come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Looking to the promises of God and believing that God will make good on the promise. And so we look to the promise that God declares that Jesus is the all-sufficient Savior of the world, and we take him for his word.

2 other authors, authors put it this way. It means to believe, in keeping with the Scriptures, that Jesus is the prophet of God who declares the will of God, that Jesus is the priest of God who makes atonement for our sins, and that Jesus is the king of God who rules over his people and this world eternally. The evidence, the evidence, the fruit of the gospel is hearing God’s promises, looking to Christ, and resting in him and no one else, because where else would you go? Every other hope is like a broken picnic chair. And even if it lasts a while, they’ll always go brittle and break eventually. they will do you no eternal good.

And so we see this marvelous gospel fruit laid before us, but then we have to see the gospel root, the gospel root that sits before us. Remember our logic. If A, it’s because of B. So John says everyone who has believed that Jesus is the Christ, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the reason you’ve done that is that you’re born, you have been born of God.

Now, to understand this, we have to talk about Greek just for a little bit. I don’t like doing this. Sometimes it’s necessary. Uh, in, in Greek, unlike English, there’s lots of tenses. There’s, like, 9, so if you feel bad about having to learn children, past, present, and future, it could be way worse. You could have to learn 9 tenses. But the, the, the tense that the word “believe” is, is present continuous, which means it’s something I am doing and keeping on doing. So right now, I am believing Jesus. When he says, “Has been born of God,” he uses a different tense called the perfect tense, which, which communicates an action that happened in the past. So go back in time to the past. An action took place that created a state that continued to today. So in other words, back then somewhere, I was begotten of God and I entered into a state of being born of God, and that state has continued, and now today, I believe in Jesus Christ. And so what John is doing is stressing for us that the begetting work of God is something that happened back there, but of course the immediate question comes to us: Well, what does it mean to be born of God?

Is he talking about adoption? You know? We’re gonna sing later, “Oh, what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God.” Is he talking about that? No. There’s different words for that. He’s talking about begetting, giving birth, physically or spiritually. And if you’re not thinking of John 3, I’d be surprised. Those of you who are familiar with your Bible, you will remember the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night. Remember in John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says to him, “Look, we know you’re a good teacher from God. You do wonderful things. We recognize the signs you do.” Jesus says to him, “No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he’s born again.” Nicotimus s- Nicodemus says, “Well, what do you mean? Do I have to, like, re-enter into my mother’s womb and be born again? That’s a bit creepy.” Jesus says, “No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born of word and spirit. Unless he is born by the work of the Holy Spirit, there is no hope for him.” And Nicodemus doesn’t get it. He can’t get it. Why? Because he’s not born of the Spirit.

And you guys know what this is like, right? You take the gospel to someone, maybe it’s a friend, a family member, a work colleague, and you share, and, and you know, you do the absolute best you can, and you’re like, “I’m not great, but I actually thought that was pretty good, and I found that pretty convincing.” And, and you talk about Christ and how wonderful “And, you know, you can have eternal life. It’s amazing.” Let me give you an illustration of this. I went to a, a hospice care center. Young lady, I was invited by the family, not part of our church, unbelieving family, but it was like, “We’ve tried everything.” They literally told me this. “We’ve tried everything. We’ve tried the Catholics. We’ve tried the Muslims. We’ve tried Mormons. We’ve tried everyone,” because she’s just terrified of dying. I said, “That’s fine. I’ve got the solution. I’ll come.” So I came, and I walked in, and I shared the gospel with her, and I pleaded with her, and I mean pleading earnestly. She had, like, 2 days to live with cancer. She would have been about 21 years old. And the family’s sitting there wide-eyed as I’m, like, pouring the gospel on this girl. And I get to the end of the conversation, and I say to her, “So, what will it be?” And she says to me, “You’d be a fool not to take it, wouldn’t you?” And I said, “Amen. You really would. So what will it be?” And she said, “Ah, maybe not.” I’m like, “What have you got to lose? It’s 2 days! Just accept Christ for 2 days, and you can have eternal life. You don’t even have to change your life. You can’t do anything!” I didn’t say that, obviously, but my exasperation, my mind is exploding. And as far as I’m aware, she never, ever accepted Christ. And you know people like this. Why? Because they’re dead. And again, their only hope is be born again, and if you’re here today and you’re one of those people, your only hope is not my words. It is not our testimony as we celebrate the Lord’s supper or as we have fellowship together, as we act like the people of God. Your only hope is that God gives you a new heart. So cry out to Him, “Lord, help my unbelief that I might live.”

You gotta notice the difference here to really understand it. Observe the difference between a demon and a believer. Remember those words in the New Testament, that even the demons believe in God and shudder? The devil believes in Christ. He knows Christ. But what’s the difference between you and the devil? You have a new heart, and he never will. And so if you do have a new heart, render all thanksgiving and praise to Him. Fall down and worship. Take no credit for yourself. A- as Spurgeon whimsically puts it You know what Spurgeon is like. He says, “Ah, who gets saved and then immediately stops and prays,” and says, “Ah, I just want to thank myself for a moment. Isn’t it wonderful that I’ve saved Oh, I’m so glad that I’ve made the decision to get saved, and I’m so glad for all that I’ve done in coming to Christ.” No, no one does that. What do they do, and what do we do but praise God for his steadfast love endures forever? Come praise and glorify our God, the Father of our Lord. Why? For His grace and His mercy and His love which is sufficient for sinners.

And so we see that with gospel logic fueled with an understanding of gospel fruit and gospel root, you can have outrageously bold comfort, courage, and hope that you are saved. And there was a man who used this to set free from the bonds of despair thousands of people. You’ve, you’ve probably never heard of him. His name is Cesar Malan. If someone has heard of him, I’d love to know. But he, he was a Frenchman laboring in Geneva, and he was kicked out of his church. He was removed from the ministry, and he went off to Scotland to do work, to do ministry work, of course, you see. And, and he went, and he met with an extremely significant person in church history called Rabbi Duncan. He wasn’t a rabbi. That was his nickname ’cause he was such an incredible Old Testament scholar. Rabbi Duncan. And as he sat with Rabbi Duncan, he plied his trade, which was 1 John 5:1, and he would do the same thing to every single person. He would say to the person, one-on-one, in private, no one else around Can you read the text for me, please? “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” Read it again. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” And he would say to them, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?” Now let me ask you-“Do you, my hearers, believe that Jesus is the Christ?” And the hearer would say, “Well, yes.” And he would say, “Well, then you’re born of God.” And do you know what people raised in a legalistic context will do? They will immediately say, “Um, II” And he would say, “Wait a second. Is there something you don’t understand with the text? It’s pretty straightforward. Do you know what it means to believe?” “Yes.” “Do you know who Jesus is?” “Yes, I’ve read of him in the Word.” “Do you know what it means for him to be the Christ?” “Yes.” “Well, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?” “Yes.” “Well, then you are born of God!” And people, one by one, would go out from his audience, I’m talking 5 minutes, and people were set free from bondage of despair and doubt. “What if I’m not born again?” And what John is giving us is a Gospel syllogism, a litmus test to take up and have confidence.

You see, we can simply say to ours- when our doubts assail us, when the devil attacks, we can say to ourselves, “God, you said everyone who believes is born of you. I believe, and so I must be born of you! Because that’s what you say.” And you can go out every single day knowing that you are a child of God. Don’t doubt the goodness of God. Don’t doubt his love, don’t doubt his mercy. Lay hold of his promises and believe, and live in freedom. Don’t let the enemy sap your joy, and your comfort, and your hope.

So let me ask you, do you believe? May God grant us all to believe and know that we are born of God. Amen.

---