October 25, 2015 | 1 John 5:11-15 |
Do you have proof that you are a citizen of heaven? Do you have confidence that you are a citizen of God’s Kingdom? Many people struggle with doubts in this area. Wouldn’t you like to be sure? In the apostle John’s first letter, he told his hearers that they could have assurance of salvation by receiving and believing in Christ Jesus. We can be sure of our salvation by receiving and trusting in Christ Jesus.
December 4, 2014
What the apostle John here calls “proof,” the apostle Paul calls a “guarantee (deposit, earnest, pledge)” (Eph. 1:14). Paul spoke of how the Holy Spirit seals our salvation, giving us inward assurance of salvation. But John is more concerned with what this mutual abiding looks like outwardly. He says that the one who lives in the Spirit and has the Spirit living in him, will testify that Jesus is the Son of God with his lips and have the love of God for others in his actions. The outworking of the Spirit living in us is evidenced by our testimony about Jesus and our love of others.
December 3, 2014
When we receive Christ, we receive the love of Christ. This is the love that moved Christ to die in our place, so that we might have eternal life. Real love takes action. The evidence that we have received Christ is that the love that goes beyond mere words and takes action is suddenly ours. Christian love communicates itself through word and deed.
December 2, 2014
Determine to finish well. How? “Remain in fellowship with Christ.” Stay close. If you wander, come back. If you stray, return. If you sin, repent. Keep short accounts. “Remain.” Which is to abide, to stay, to live and walk in constant “fellowship” with Jesus. This is not work or earning. It is remaining. It is clinging continuously to the One who saves us. If we stay in constant fellowship with Him, we won’t be ashamed when He returns. He has done all the work. He declared, “It is finished” on the cross. There is no work for us to do. It is done. Yet, we must remain in Him to finish well ourselves.
May 11, 2014 | 1 John 4:7-21 |
Pastor Gary Combs continued the sermon series “Diagnosing Your Spiritual Health” with this message from 1 John. This sermon discussed the importance of examining your spiritual heart. Does it beat with the love and forgiveness that comes from God? This sermon was preached on Mother’s Day.
December 29, 2013 | 1 John 4:7-12 |
In this conclusion of our Advent Conspiracy series, Jonathan Combs helps us understand what it means to love with the same love God showed when he sent Jesus as a baby on that first Christmas
December 5, 2013
John explained his purpose for writing his first epistle. It was to assure new believers of their salvation in Christ. This letter is still a great place for new believers to begin their Bible studies. When we receive Jesus as Savior, believing in His name and trusting Him as Lord, we can have confidence in our relationship to Him and our future with Him. As newly adopted children we may struggle with separation anxiety, but God says, “never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). You can “know” with confident assurance that when you “got” Jesus, you “got” eternal life.
December 1, 2013
These same three “desires” were the weaknesses that Satan targeted in the garden and the wilderness. The first Adam and his wife fell to the temptation that the fruit was good to eat, pleasing to the eye, and would make you wise like God (Gen.3:6). But the second Adam, Jesus, did not succumb to Satan’s 3-way temptation in the wilderness (Matt.4). Satan still uses these same three temptations. But living in the power of Christ, we can overcome.
November 30, 2013
Confess – ὁμολογέω (homologeó) – literally “say the same,” to agree or admit. When we confess our sin to God it is not news to Him. He knows our sin already. Confession is agreeing with God that we have sinned, so that He can forgive us and cleanse us.
December 5, 2012
John made it easy for his readers to understand his letter’s purpose: Assurance of salvation. John says that we can “know” that we have eternal life. Notice he doesn’t say that we can hope, think, wonder, pray… No, he says we can “know” with certainty that if we have received Jesus, we have eternal life!