Thank you. Does your life reflect the things you say you believe?

Since the early church, there have been those who have professed faith in Jesus and yet maintained sinful lifestyles.

Often their lives are indistinguishable from people in the broader culture.

Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg considers the Apostle John's test of genuine faith.

I invite you to take your Bibles and we'll turn again to one John and the second chapter.

Our focus this evening is on the portion that was read for us from the third to the 11th verse of the second chapter. We should keep in mind all the way through our study that just as John is very clear as to his evangelistic purpose in his gospel,

and he's equally clear concerning the purpose in this letter, and it's in the 13th verse of the

fifth chapter, where he says, I write these things

to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

So as he writes his gospel, he's writing that men and women might come to discover eternal life, and as he writes these gospel, he is writing that men and women might come to discover eternal life,

and as he writes these letters, he is writing in the realm of assurance.

But the very obvious thought which follows in John's exposition here is simply this.

If it is possible to make claims about knowing God which are invalid, then how may we

be sure that we know him at all? If it is possible to make invalid claims about knowing him,

spurious claims, that may pass the superficial tests of those who look from the outside, but do not pass the test of the all-surpassing gaze

of God, then is it possible for us to be assured of a knowledge of him at all? Now, to state it in those

terms is to immediately remind one another that we're not dealing here, therefore, in the realm

of superficial theory. We're actually talking about a matter of life and death. We're talking

about the difference between spending eternity in heaven or spending eternity in hell. We're talking about the difference between spending eternity in heaven or spending eternity in hell.

We're talking about the difference between living in communion and fellowship with God through Jesus Christ,

or living in ignorance of Him and in the darkness of our own meanderings.

So it is not that we're engaged in some theological exercise in dipping into one John that is a kind of rarefied treat for those who may be tuned

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