The heart that is truly believing and truly united to Christ in saving faith may go through periods of time in which there

is a question mark written over your life and your conscience is wavering and you are wondering whether or not you are real and

whether or not the promises will come true for you. It is possible for that to happen.

Many believers have faced that kind of struggle in their own lives.

So what should we do when we struggle with the assurance of our salvation?

John Piper turns to Ephesians 1.4 to answer that common question in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 1st, 1992.

Before I, I,

before I jump into Ephesians, let me say a couple of words about two ways of pursuing assurance.

There are two ways. They're both right, they're both biblical, but I think the second one is far more important than the first one.

So let me just talk briefly for a moment about the first way to pursue assurance. It is possible you know for believers who have authentic faith

to go through periods of time in which they do not have the full assurance of hope.

1st John 513 I write this to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

In other words, the heart that is truly believing to Christ in saving faith may go through periods of time in which there is a question mark written over your life and your conscience is wavering

and you are wondering whether or not you are real and whether or not the promises will come

true for you.

It is possible for that to happen. Many believers have faced that kind of

struggle in their own lives. Now the first way of pursuing assurance over against that struggle is to examine yourselves to see whether or not you find evidences of grace, evidences of new birth, evidences of new birth,

desires,

evidences of new disciplines, evidences that God is at work in your life.

For example, this is what Peter meant in 2 Peter 110 where he said,

therefore brethren be more zealous to confirm your call and election.

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