2008 You Pick ‘em Series – “What
the Bible Says About…Assurance of Salvation”
1 John 5:13
Sermon preached at Curwensville Presbyterian Church – January 27, 2008
Prayer Introduction: This morning we begin a sermon series in which you have picked the topics for the sermons. The first request was, “What does the Bible say about assurance of salvation.” In this life, can a person be absolutely sure that they have been saved and will go to heaven and receive eternal life?
The answer is “yes;” but I don’t want you to take my word for it, instead I want us to take God’s Word for it. What does the Bible say about assurance of salvation?
Rather than trying to cover all that the Bible says in one sermon – we’re going to camp on this topic for a couple of weeks, so that we can see the various ways God’s Word speaks to this incredibly important, and encouraging, topic.
The goal is not
just to prove that the Bible does say you can have assurance of salvation; the
goal is for the Holy Spirit actually to give us assurance. This morning we are
going to center in on just one verse from the Bible –
Scripture Introduction
– Are any of you “numbers” people – people with a mathematical brain who just
love to think about numbers? When it comes to the Bible, some “numbers” people
find that they can remember a Scripture verse reference, but they can’t remember
what it says. Like you will more easily remember that this morning we looked at
Most of us
are probably “word” people – we can roughly remember what a Bible verse said,
but can’t remember where in the world we read it. You’ll think, “I know the
Bible says ‘Pray without ceasing’ – but I don’t have a clue where it says that.
It’s
The verse we are going to look at this morning is one to which I have referred in my life countless times. It radically affected me, personally; and has been a verse I’ve been able to use to minister to many others.
I want you
to have this verse in your spiritual toolbox. I want you to know what this verse
says – not just today – but for the rest of your life. One of the ways to do
that is to see it for yourself. Grab your Bible, and open it to
Have you ever tried to remember something you read, and you can picture where it was on a page? Like reading a newspaper, or magazine article, or a book – and you can picture it: “It was on the left-hand side, about 2/3 of the way down…” We are visual people, and so seeing it can help us remember it.
We are greatly blessed to live in a period of history that we can actually hold the Bible in our hand to look at it. For thousands of years, the only way God’s people could know what the Bible said was to listen to someone else read it. They memorized huge portions of Scripture, because it was the only way to take God’s Word home.
We are visual people and we are
auditory people. Let’s read
Let’s read it out loud again….
One of the ways to memorize something is just to repeat it out loud. And here’s the trick to long-term remembering. Instead of saying it out loud 100 times in one day, it is better to say it 10 times a day for 10 days.
Let’s break this verse down into its three statements – so that we can know where it is in the Bible, understand what it says, and even memorize it so that we might continually meditate on it.
I. “I Write These Things…”
Say the first 4 words with me, “I write these things…” Say it again, “I write these things….” Say it again, “I write these things…”
What things?
What things has John the beloved Apostle written? The whole letter really – this verse begins the conclusion of the letter – but especially 5:1-12 which highlights two things: (1) The testimony of God’s Word; plus (2) Believe AND obey.
First, the testimony of God’s Word. Look down at verse 9: “We accept man’s testimony…(read through 12).”
We have the testimony of God’s Word. And if we accept man’s testimony, certainly we should accept God’s.
This isn’t natural. Naturally we are more prone to accept man’s testimony, but reject God’s testimony. Do you find this – that someone says something on TV, and the next day people everywhere are repeating it?
Especially these days – with all the presidential election – analysts will make a statement, and people everywhere will begin to repeat the statement.
When I was going to seminary in Florida I worked part time in the administration office. One day there was a pipe that had burst and we had to cancel classes for the day. I was part of a group of people who called all of the student body to tell them that classes were cancelled. One of the people I called heard what I said and then asked, “Are you sure?” (Well, yeah, why else would I be calling you?!)
It became kind of the running joke for awhile, whenever someone would say something obviously true, someone would mockingly say, “Are you sure?”
We sometimes listen to the testimony of God’s Word and say to Him, “Are you sure? Pray continually – are you sure? Be joyful in all circumstances – are you sure?” And God says to us, “Well, duh, of course I’m sure – I’m God.”
II. “To you who believe in the name of the Son of God”
So let’s come back to our verse
–
Do you believe in the name of the Son of God? Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? Then John is writing to you. God had John write these words to you.
To believe engages
the heart not just the head. You can believe in your head that there is a God;
but
The word, here, for believe – is the same word often translated faith. Faith is not simply head-belief, but heart belief. If you only believe in your head, then there is no assurance – because you have not been saved. You must believe in your heart. You must pray for the Lord to take over your heart. You must trust in him completely.
To believe in the name, means to believe in the person. That your heart believes because your heart has been changed. You don’t just agree with the statement – “Jesus is Lord” – you BELIEVE.
Man says, "Seeing is believing." God says, "Believing is seeing."
Look at verse 1: “Everyone who believes… (read through verse 3a).”
In a nutshell that is the two ways to be sure that you are saved: (1) Believe and (2) Obey. Our closing hymn this morning is that wonderful hymn with the chorus: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
Does trusting in Jesus and obeying Jesus make you happy? Do you find your greatest joy in trusting and obeying Jesus? Does it frustrate you when aren’t trusting and obeying Jesus? (We will look at that in the weeks to come). Do you find your joy restored when you are trusting and obeying Jesus?
When I returned from study leave someone asked me if I had used the time to get ready for Lent and I said, “I got ready for Lent by just spending time with the Lord.”
And in the hymn that we will sing in a few minutes: “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!...Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest…”
What are the two ways to be sure that you are saved? First, ask yourself, “Have I really put my trust in Jesus alone for salvation?”
Donald Barnhouse would ask his flock: “If you were to die tonight and stand before the judgment throne of God, and He were to ask you – ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ – what would you say?” If we say something along the lines, “I’ve tried to be a good person and live a good life” than we are putting our trust in ourselves. The only right answer is, “Jesus. Jesus is the only reason I can get into heaven. Thank you, Jesus.”
Earlier we sang, “Jesus, my only hope.”
Two ways to be sure that you are saved: (1) Ask yourself: Have I put my trust in Jesus alone for my salvation. (2) Ask yourself: “Is this trust causing me to obey the Lord?”
Repeatedly the Scriptures say, “Be holy as I am holy.” James says, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17).
And we just read in
In each week’s service we have a prayer of confession followed by an assurance of forgiveness that is rooted in the affirmation of our faith.
How can we be sure that we forgiven? Because of our faith – a faith that has caused us to confess and repent.
III. “So that you may KNOW that you have eternal life”
The last 10 verses couldn’t be more clear in saying you can have assurance: “So that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.” Let’s say the whole verse together: “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.” Again. Again. Again.
Memorizing verses forces us to meditate on them. First they must sink into our thick heads; and then they penetrate our hardened hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I did a Google search on the word assurance – curious as to what might come up. At the top was the name of an insurance company. How ironic. We buy insurance because we lack assurance. Insurance is to give us assurance. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying insurance is a bad thing – with all the people in this congregation who work for insurance companies I better not say it is bad J. Insurance on worldly things is a good idea. We buy house insurance, car insurance, life insurance – because we cannot be assured that these earthly things will be trouble free. If anything, we can probably be more assured that something will go wrong – after all it is part of a fallen world.
Insurance on earth-bound treasures may be a good idea; but we don’t need insurance on our souls, because we have assurance in Jesus Christ. There is no extra insurance needed.
When I came to Christ it wasn’t with much assurance – because I approached it as insurance, not assurance. I’ve told you the story about hearing and understanding the gospel in my 5th grade Sunday School class. And I asked one of the two teachers, “Do you need to trust in Jesus in order to go to heaven.” And she replied, “Well I believe you do, but the other teacher doesn’t.” That didn’t leave me with much assurance.
If the Sunday School teachers had been honest with me, I could have had greater assurance. But by “soft-selling” the importance of Christ I walked around with no assurance for a long time.
Some religions, and churches, build on lack of assurance. They keep adding the things “you must do” to be saved.
Catholicism teaches not only that you cannot have assurance of salvation, but that you can even lose your salvation through mortal sin.
Interesting, they say they believe in ‘assurance,” but not “certainty” – as though there is a difference.
You can have assurance. You can be certain. You can KNOW that you have eternal life.
To be sure there can be false assurance. We see people fall away who had made a profession of faith. Their falling away demonstrates there was never true faith in the first place.
Next week we will look more at false assurance vs. true assurance. We will also look at reasons why we may not have assurance – and how to gain that assurance.
But for now,
know that God’s Word says, “yes” you can know that you have eternal life. Know
it from
You have homework. Say this verse 10 more times during the day today – look at it again if you can’t remember it. And then Monday say it 10 more times. You may have to look at it the first couple of times. And then 10 more times on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday – and then 10 more times to prepare your hearts next Sunday.
Take great comfort from the assurance that you can have assurance. God not only wants you to be saved – He wants you to know that you have been saved.
MAY THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE – AMEN!