‘BLESSED ASSURANCE’
2 Timothy 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
God wants every one of His children to sing, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.”
I heard the story of a man on an airplane during a storm. He was scared to death thinking the plane might crash. But it didn’t and as he got off, he was still sweating. He noticed the pilot as he got off and he was whistling? The man said, I had been just as safe as him but he had assurance.
Many Christians are sure but they are not very sure about their salvation.
Lets consider thecause, the cost, and the cure for doubting one’s salvation.
I-NOTICE THE CAUSE OF DOUBT CONCERNING ONE’S SALVATION
John the Baptist was called the greatest born among women by Jesus, yet he doubted that Jesus was really who he thought he was. Now John wasn’t lost, but he lacked assurance.
A-SATAN IS ONE CAUSE OF DOUBT:
1-Have you noticed that the first words we have recorded of Satan was a question of doubt? According to Genesis 3:1, he was trying to plant the seed of doubt in Eve’s heart concerning what God had said.
2-There’s an old fable that says the Devil once held a sale and offered all the tools of his trade to anyone who would pay their price. They were spread out on the table and each one labeled. Hatred, malice, envy, despair,sickness, sensuality -- all the weapons that
everyone knows so well. But off to one side lay a harmless looking wood-shaped instrument marked “doubt and discouragement”.It was old and worn looking but it waspriced far above all the rest. When asked the reason why, the Devil replied, "Because Ican use
this one so much more easily than the others. No one knows that it belongs to me, so with it I can open doors that are tightly bolted against the others. Once I get insideI can use any tool that suits me best." 1
3-I heard a man give his testimony during a revival on how Satan tried to get him to doubt his salvation. He said, after he got saved, he fell on his job and broke both of his shoulders. While in the hospital, he gave the account how the devil would whisper in his ear, and say, you are not saved, you are lost. For if you were saved, God would not let this happen to you.
3-But he remembered what you and I need to remember, that God is truth and Satan is a liar, and also, God is bigger than Satan. Thus, we can always trust God.
B-SIN IS ONE CAUSE OF DOUBT:
1-The Bible says when we sin, it separates us from the fellowship of God.
Thus when we loose the presence of God its leads to doubt.
2-I believe if we had old-fashion dose of repentance in our Churches, we could see a lot of people quitting doubting their salvation as they got right with the Lord.
3-Now a child of God will sin according to 1 John 3:6. But he won’t make it a habit.
4-An all-American football player once in a while will get blocked to the ground, but he doesn’t stay there, but he gets up and gets back into the game. It is the same with a Christian, when he does sin, he doesn’t wallow in it, but gets up and back into God’s fellowship and work.
C-SELF IS ONE CAUSE OF DOUBT:
1-Sometime it is we our selves who causes the doubt in our life.
2-Someone has said, sometimes I don’t feel saved on Monday morning but after about 3 cups of coffee I feel saved? We can’t trust our feeling, we have to trust the Word of the Lord, for our feeling can deceive us .
3-Someone asked Luther, “Do you feel that you have been forgiven?” He answered, “No!but I’m as sure as there’s a God in Heaven .” “For feeling come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving;my warrant is the Word of God, nought else is worth believing.”2
II-NOTICE THE COST OF DOUBT CONCERNING ONE’S SALVATION:
A-A PERSON’S WORSHIP WILL SUFFER:
1-A person that is doubting their salvation won’t be able to sing the songs of Zion, they won’t be able to pray or testify. They will have no joy in the Worship in the House of the Lord.
2-A wife remarked to her husband after the church service: "Did you see the hat Mrs.Jones was
wearing?" "No," said her husband, "I didn’t." "Did you see the new dress Mrs. Smith had on?" she asked. "I’m afraid I didn’t," said her husband. To this his wife replied: "Well a lot of good it does YOU to go
to church!" 3
3-In the same way, a person who is doubting won’t get much out of the services. I was preaching a revival in South Alabama several years ago. I noticed a man who came to every service but he was the most miserable man I had ever seen. He would hang his head the whole time I preached. On the final night he came to the altar, and prayed with the Pastor and told him, that he was doubting his salvation. Later found out, the reason he was doubting was that he had unconfessed sin his life. When he confessed his sins, he had no
more problems with doubt, and gained back his joy in worship.
B-A PERSON’S WORK WILL SUFFER:
1-D.L. Moody once said, “I have never known a Christian who was any good in the work of Christ who did not have the assurance of their salvation.”
2-But when a person is saved and sure of his salvation, great works can be accomplished for our Lord.
3-Longfellow could take a worthless piece of paper, write a poem on it, and instantly make it worth thousands of dollars -- and it’s called genius.
Rockefeller could sign his name to a piece of paper and make it worth millions of dollars-- and it’s called riches. A mechanic can take material worth only five dollars and make it worth five hundred --and it’s called skill. An artist can take a fifty-cent piece of canvas, paint a picture on it,and make it worth thousands of dollars -- and it’s called art.
Jesus Christ can take a worthless, sinful life, wash it in His blood, put His Spirit in it, and make it valuable to God -- and that’s called sanctification.
The Lord is in the business of taking rough, raw material and using it -- transforming men by His power to be the extension of His work in the world.
4
C-A PERSON’S WITNESS WILL SUFFER:
1-A doubting Christian has no testimony to the world, and he can’t be an effective witness.
2-But on the other hand, a Christian who has the assurance of Jesus as their Savior has apowerful testimony and witness to the world.
3 A little girl had just finished witnessing to a small group of friends. Joyfully she told of God’s saving grace and how His love had touched her
heart. With assurance, she appropriately concluded her testimony by quoting these comforting words of Jesus
recorded in John’s gospel: "And I give unto
them eternal life; and they shall never perish,neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, isgreater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand" (John10:28,29).
Just then a joshing, doubting friend piped up with the question, "But Maggie,suppose you slip through His fingers?" Quick as a flash, she replied, "Never, never! You see, I’m one of the fingers!" Maggie may not have been well versed in the language of
theology, but a biblical principal had been lodged in her heart; namely, that "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Eph. 5:30). She knew that she hadbeen joined inseparably to Jesus and that she belonged to Him. 5
III-NOTICE THE CURE OF DOUBT CONCERNING ONE’S SALVATION:
A-THERE IS THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES:
1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1-If I were called to appear before a judge and prove I was married, I might say, I know its a fact for I get goose bumps just thinking about it? But the Judge wouldn’t accept that,but what he would accept would be a record of my marriage license from the court house.
2-When I got saved and married to Jesus spiritually, I got goose bumps, but the real proveis the record I have in the Scriptures. Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
3-One way I know that I am saved is my attitude toward the Scriptures.1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep hiscommandments.
B-THERE IS THE TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT:
1 John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
1-His Spirit bears with our spirit that we are a child of His. He gives us the power to not only overcome our doubting but to live a life of victory.
2-A man who drank heavily was converted to Christ and lived victoriously for several weeks. One day as he passed the open door of a tavern,the pungent odor drifting out aroused his old appetite for liquor. Just then he saw this sign in the window of a near-by
cafe: "All the buttermilk you can drink -- 25 cents!" Dashing inside, he ordered one glass, then another, and still another. After finishing the third he walked past the saloon and was no longer tempted. He was so full of buttermilk that he had no room for that which would be injurious to him. The lesson is clear: to be
victorious over our evil desires, we must leave no opportunity for them to repossess us.
3-Dwight L. Moody once demonstrated the principle like this: "Tell me," he said to his audience, "how can I get the air out of the tumbler I have in my
hand?" One man said,"Suck it out with a pump." But the evangelist replied, "That would create a vacuum and
shatter it." Finally after many suggestions, moody picked up a pitcher and quietly filled the glass with water. "There," he said, "all the air is now removed." He then explained that victory for the child of God does not come by working hard to eliminate sinful habits, but rather by allowing the Holy Spirit to take full possession. 6
C-THERE IS THE TESTIMONY OF THE SAINTS:
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death.
1-God has put in our hearts a love for the saints of God.
2- The love life of the early saints astonished the heathen. "Behold," they said, "How they love one another." The Christians often called each other
’brethren’ which had a deeper and sincere meaning. The pagans were astonished how they loved each other without knowing each other.7
3-When the early disciples in the book of Acts were released from jail, it says they went into their own company.
D-THERE IS THE TESTIMONY OF THE SAVIOR:
1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
1-I was visiting a man one night during Church visitation. He had grown cold in his walk with the Lord. As I talked to him about his relationship with
the Lord, he said, he didn’t know if he was saved. I took him back to the night he walked the aisle for Jesus and read him I John 4:19, how Jesus first loved us. He broke down and began to cry, and he wept his way back to God’s fellowship. He said to me, preacher, pray that I will never again doubt the love of Jesus, and that I will always love Him with all of my heart.
Conclusion-A pastor asked a dying man, “Brother, of what persuasion are you?” The man replied, “I am of Paul’s persuasion.” “you don’t understand me. Of what persuasion are you?” “I understood you. I am of Paul’s
persuasion.” The preacher shaking
his head and said, “Brother, I’m afraid I do
not understand what you mean. There is a Methodist persuasion and a Baptist persuasion, and Lutheran persuasion, and Nazarene persuasion and a
Episcopalian persuasion, but what is the persuasion of Paul?” The man smiling, quoted 11Timothy 1:12-”I know whom I have believed, and persuaded that he able to keep thatwhich I have committed unto him against that day.” 8
1-Bible Illustrator
2-Knight’s Illustrations
3-Bible Illustrator
4-Bible Illustrator
5-Bible Illustrator
6-Wayne Steury
7-Bible Illustrator
8-Dr. Hyman Appleman
