SERMON SERIES: “Blessed Assurance”
SERMON #1: “The Believer’s Birthday”
SERMON TEXT: I John 5:13
(Series inspired by “What every Christian Ought to Know” by Adrian Rogers and “Saved without a Doubt” by John Macarthur)
OPENING JOKE: “IF I CAN’T BE GOOD ENOUGH” Little Billy, caught in mischief, was asked by his mother, "How do you expect to get into heaven?" He thought for a moment and then said, "Well, I’ll just run in and out and keep slamming the door until they say, ’For heaven’s sake, either come in or stay out.’ Then I’ll go in."
INTRODUCTION: One basic truth every Christian ought to know is whether or not they are truly saved.
This should be a knowledge that is “beyond the shadow of a doubt”
Today, we are beginning a series called, “Blessed Assurance” which is a study of the third chapter of John’s Gospel and His first Epistle
John the Apostle wrote all of the books carrying his name in the NT. And interestingly we see a continuation from his gospel to his first epistle.
- John’s gospel was written to encourage people to believe in Christ for eternal life
(In fact, the word “believe” appears 86 times in John’s gospel alone, which only has 21 chapters)
- John’s first epistle was written to believers that they “may know that [they] have eternal life”
(The word “know” or “known” is used 38 times in only 5 chapters)
So assurance of salvation is something that God obviously wants us to have
QUESTION: But what is salvation, what are we to be assured of?
(1) It means every sin is forgiven and buried in the grave of God’s forgetfulness
(2) It means that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us
(3) It means that when we die (or Jesus comes again) we have the blessed assurance of a home in Heaven
QUOTE: Knowing that our salvation is a reality is a must if we are to live in the fullness of joy that we are called to by Jesus Christ.
Too many times we say things like, “I hope I’m saved” or “I think I’m saved”
Illustration: “Question Mark Christians” You ever see a question mark? A question mark is nothing but an exclamation point that’s hanging its head.
When we continually question our own salvation, we are going through our Christian walk with our heads bent over like a question mark.
Assurance allows you to stand erect, confident that you have a home in Heaven, and the deed has been purchased by the blood of Jesus
QUOTE: And you then become a ‘shouting Christian’ rather than a ‘doubting Christian’
A. Now, I am absolutely not teaching Christian pride fullness
o As you will see later in the message, I am not teaching assurance in myself
o Assurance of salvation comes when we realize that the one we are really trusting in is Jesus, and not ourselves for our eternal life
B. There was a time in history when it was taught that being assured of salvation was, itself a sin
o It was labeled as the ‘sin of assumption’
o The purpose of labeling this a sin was to try to keep people in line with the fear that they may not be saved
o And it was a very dark time in the history of the church, because salvation was solely based upon works and human merit
o Then a monk named Martin Luther came along… with a heart for God’s word… and he began to teach people the truth – that salvation can be a certain reality in their lives because salvation is based on the work of God and not human merit
o And this great truth, along with many others, began what is known as the ‘Great Reformation’
C. The uncertainty of salvation still plagues many people
o Illustration: “You can’t tell her that” Pastor Adrian Rogers tells of a time he went to visit a woman who was dying. He asked her if she was assured of her salvation, and she said she was not. He asked her if she would like to be. And she said, “Indeed I would”. So he explained to her from God’s Word what it meant to be saved, and then prayed with her. She prayed fervently and asked for forgiveness and confessed her trust in Jesus as Savior.
o He turned to her family, who was there, and said, “Isn’t it wonderful that she has been saved, and is going to heaven?”
o Her son-in-law immediately rebutted, “Nobody can know she’s saved”
o To which Pastor Rogers took out his bible, opened it to our passage for today and read “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (I John 5:13)
o Do you see the word “know” in this verse? The man said, “Yes, I do”. Then Pastor Rogers said, “Of course we can know that we have eternal life, the Bible says so”.
D. When we discuss the assurance of salvation in the next few weeks, we are talking about something that is vitally important
o We aren’t talking about the height of the church steeple, or the color of the carpets, or what denomination we prefer
o We are talking about our ever living, never dying, eternal soul
QUESTION: Can a Christian doubt his or her salvation?
A. Yes… that is why John wrote this letter – for Christians who doubted to have assurance
o Evidently some were having serious questions and doubts about whether they were saved, and others thought they were saved, yet were not really
o Doubt doesn’t automatically mean a person isn’t saved
o Doubt actually shows concern for salvation. A person who has never doubted ought to check himself to see if he is really in the faith.
o Illustration: “Never Doubt It” A woman approached an evangelist and boasted, “I have been saved 25 years and I have never doubted” to which the evangelist replied, “I doubt you’ve ever been saved”
o Its like saying “I’ve been married 25 years and never had an argument”
B. Doubt is possible…just not profitable
o Just like arguments aren’t good in a marriage, doubt is not good in our Christian walk
o QUOTE: Trying to live our Christian constantly in doubt is like trying to drive a car with the brakes on – you may move forward, but it will be only inches at the time
o We don’t need a “HOPE SO” salvation, but a “KNOW SO” salvation
***Throughout this series of five sermons we are going to study through the book of 1st John , as it has so apply been referred to as “THE BOOK OF ASSURANCE”
But before we dive into John’s first Epistle, I want us to look today at his gospel to the one thing which assures us of our salvation standing – our NEW BIRTH
READ: John 3:1-18
John 3 is Jesus’ great explanation of the believer’s new birth to Nicodemus (A Jewish Teacher), and there are a few things I want us to notice from what Jesus said in this passage…
I. Being Born Again is Required for Entrance into Heaven
a. John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
i. If you notice, Jesus totally changed the subject from what Nicodemus was saying in verse 2 and immediately began talking about the new birth
1. Nicodemus (or Nick-at-Night) was praising Jesus for his good works
2. But Jesus began talking about the New Birth
ii. This was Jesus’ way of putting what was most important out first
iii. Being born-again would take predominance over anything else they would discuss that night
b. So what does it mean to be ‘born again’?
i. The literal Greek wording means to be “Born from above” or “Born from Heaven”
ii. Jesus later says it is being “Born of the Spirit”
iii. Being Born-again is a spiritual rebirth into the family of God
c. The key to being Born Again is REGENERATION
i. Definition: The work of the Spirit of God whereby men are given God’s life and nature and made a part of the family of God.
ii. Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”
iii. Through regeneration we receive a new nature and new spiritual desires
iv. QUOTE: C.I. Scoffield writes about regeneration: “The necessity of the new birth grows out of the incapacity of the natural man to "see" or "enter into" the kingdom of God. However gifted, moral, or refined, the natural man is absolutely blind to spiritual truth, and impotent to enter the kingdom; for he can neither obey, understand, nor please God”
d. QUOTE: Being ‘Born Again’ is having a regenerated life in Jesus Christ and it is essential for entrance into the Kingdom of God
II. Being Born Again is likened to Physical birth, but is not achieved by the act Physical birth
a. John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
b. Many people say, “We are all children of God”
i. But this is not grounded in Scripture
ii. Though we are all created by God, we are not naturally born into His family
iii. We must be reborn into His family
c. Question: What if I ask you, “Have you always been physically born?”
i. You would say, “Of course not, I was born on ‘such and such’ a date
ii. Likewise you have not always been spiritually born
iii. There was a time when you trusted Christ as your Savior, and you received the new birth where you were then born into God’s family
iv. Illustration: “I was there” Someone asked Melvin Trotter, who was a hopeless alcoholic before his conversion, "How do you know you are a Christian?" Trotter replied, "I was there when it happened!"
d. John 1:12,13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”
i. This says your physical birth doesn’t place you in God’s family
ii. Your Spiritual birth does
iii. Galatians 4:4, 5 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
e. QUOTE: Your become a child of God by being adopted into His family through the blood of Jesus Christ
III. Faith is the Essential to the New Birth
a. From verse 12 through verse 18 Jesus expounds on the truth that faith in Him as Savior is how one receives the new birth
i. READ: John 3:12-18
ii. The word believe shows up 7 times in this short bit of text
iii. And the word ‘believe’ does not just mean an ‘intellectual assent of the mind’
iv. It refers a to trust likened to that which you would willingly stake your life on
1. If I were in a sinking ship, I would stake my life on the lifeboat for protection
2. If I were in a falling airplane, I would stake my life on the parachute for protection
3. Every time I drive I stake my life on the fact that my brakes work
4. Likewise, belief in Christ is staking your eternal destiny on His finished work on the cross
b. Like I said earlier, many people try to place works and faith together in the plan of salvation
i. But this is Scripturally spurious (bogus)
ii. Works never have and never will save
iii. The Bible says that even Abraham was justified by his ‘faith’
c. God’s “grace” is the saving agent and “faith” is the way by which it is received
i. Illustration: “Faith paddle, works paddle” There used to be an old incorrect illustration that went something like this, “Salvation is like being in a rowboat – you have a paddle called “faith” and another called “works”. If you paddle with just faith, you go in circles, likewise with works…but together they can get you across the stream.
ii. QUOTES: This is a good illustration for Christian living, but a poor one for salvation
1. Because we aren’t going to Heaven in a rowboat!
2. We are going to Heaven by the steamship of God’s divine grace – and our responsibility is to simply get on board!
3. And our ticket has already been purchased by Jesus Christ!
iii. Ephesians 2:8, 9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
d. QUOTE: “Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; But it is not the price which buys it” – Charles Spurgeon
e. We work not for salvation…ultimately it is a gift given to those who will receive it
CONCLUSION: Jesus was a terrific story teller, and in these verses it is easy to miss when reading that Jesus gives us a wonderful story to illustrate salvation:
John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,”
If you are unfamiliar with this story, it goes like this…
The people of Israel had sinned against God, and he allowed snakes to come and bite them while they were in the wilderness and they began to die from the bites.
Moses prayed for the people and God said, “Put a bronze snake on a pole and whoever comes and looks at it in faith will live”
Numbers 21:8, 9 “Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
Why would Jesus use this story to illustrate His salvation?
Because it mirrored His work on the cross
Looking to the serpent in faith, is likened to us looking to the cross in faith
When the people were stung by the fiery serpents, they needed to be healed – and their healing came by looking to the pole in faith
Quote: Likewise, we all have been bitten by the fiery serpent of sin – and our healing comes only by looking to the cross in faith and receiving the new birth promised us by Jesus
