Do you have “Assurance” or “Insurance”?
1 John 5:12-13
Let’s start by talking about the title of my sermon. Do you have “Assurance” or “Insurance”? Both words sounds very similar and have similar meanings. One of the definitions of both is a guaranty. Assurance is a guaranty of your word and Insurance is a guaranty of payment. The same, yet different.
I have assurance that if certain people tell me that they will do something that I don’t have to worry about it. There word is all I need. This is a quality that we all should have, especially those of us who profess to be Christians.
And I have insurance; lot’s of insurance. I have life insurance, car insurance, house insurance, and health insurance. They guaranty me compensation if anything were to happen to my possessions or my family or me.
But the one huge difference is that assurance is not based on anything I do. Insurance has everything to do with what I do.
Recently I received a “Final Notice” from my insurance in mail. They said that I owed $ 37.00 from my home insurance. I asked my wife about it and she assured me she had paid the bill. I went on line and bank statement and it assured that the money had been withdrawn from our account. So I contacted our agent and he didn’t understand why we got the notice either. But he told me he would research it and get back with me. Now it ended up that our company had put in a new computer system in and it caused the glitch.
But the point that I want is that my insurance was only good as long as I paid my premiums were being paid. And like a good neighbor, the only way that they are going to be there for you, is if you pay the bill. If you don’t pay your bill, then your insurance will be cancelled.
So back to the question and the title of my sermon. Do you have “Assurance” or “Insurance”? Do you have assurance that if you died today that you would end up in Heaven with our Lord and Savior or do you have insurance, thinking that as long as you do the right things that you will end up in Heaven.
Let me answer the insurance question first. I read recently that according to a survey taken in 2001, only 30% of the people surveyed believed that there is nothing we can do to earn your salvation. That means that 70% of the people surveyed thought you could get to heaven on your own. And in that same survey, 50% of professed Christians believe that they have to be good or have to do something to earn their way to heaven.
Reminds me about a story I heard about a boy named Billy. 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."
We cannot do anything to earn our way to heaven. Like you have heard me say before, there will be a lot of good people who will not make it to heaven. And I think that is where a lot of people make the mistake. They think that all I have to do is live my life the best I can by doing the right things and being the best person that I can be. But that is not what the Bible says.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
There is nothing you can do. You can pay your premiums with your good works all you want, but that’s not going to get earn your way into heaven. There is only one way to get to heaven. And Jesus paid that premium in full by giving His life on the cross for our sins.
When Jesus tells His disciples that He is going away to prepare a place for them and Thomas ask Him how do we get to this place? How do we get to Heaven? And Jesus replied in John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
I have asked people before about there relationship with the Lord and I hear replies like. I think I will go to heaven. I hope I will go. I want to go. But I am here to tell you this morning that it is the desire of God as our text says that you know. Not hope, not wish, but know where you are in your relationship with God.
Verse 12 in our text puts it very plainly. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
In other words, either you got it, or you don’t. There is no straddling the fence. You either have been saved, by entering into a relationship with Christ, or you are lost and you are headed to place called Hell where there will be eternal damnation.
So this morning for those of you who are not sure of the answer then my prayer is that before you leave this building, you will know. So in the words of Whitney Huston, “How will I know?” So let me give you some things this morning so that you will have the assurance that you have or you can be saved.
The First way that you know that you have assurance is that…
There will be a time
I can remember when I was growing up in church singing a song called “Somebody touched me”. And in this song they would sing, “happened on a Monday somebody touched me”; and they would repeat each day of the week and you would stand up on the day that you were saved. And the last verse would say, “Happened on someday, somebody touched me”. That verse was the one that I would stand up and sing.
I cannot remember the day, but I can remember the time when I gave my heart and life. I was five years old and my dad who was a preacher came into the bedroom my bother and I shared. I was in my top bunk listening to my dad tell my older brother how to get saved. And I don’t know if my bother accepted Christ that night but I know I sure did.
When the Pharisee Nicodemus came to Jesus one night, Jesus told him that you must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus being confused thought He was talking about a physical birth.
But just like you know your birthday, you know that one day your mom gave birth to you. You didn’t think you were born, you didn’t hope you were born; you know it. And everyone here has a physical birthday, and everyone must have a Spiritual birthday as well, and that leads me to my next point…
There will be a difference
1 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
How do you know that you have been saved? There will be difference in your life. Now as I shared with you, at the age of five I was not an ax murderer, but I can assure you that I knew that difference between right and wrong. But my difference was not as much of an outward difference but an inward one.
But there will be a difference. You cannot receive the Holy Spirit and not have a change. That is the reason that when someone walks down the aisle and says the words, and then leaves and never comes back to church and go out and lives like the dickens, then I would question the sincerity of the conversation.
They might have said the words, but they never received the words.
Tony shared with me that when he was young, he went forward at a children’s church because a buddy of his had done it before and he shared with him that if you go forward to get saved they give you extra candy. So Tony went forward but he had the wrong intentions.
There is a difference between saying the words and receiving he words. If I were to take a $ 20 bill out of my wallet and I were to ask you if you wanted this $ 20, you may say that you want it, but until you get out of your seat and you come forward and take this $ 20 out of my hand, guess who has the money. I do. It is more than just saying the words it is receiving the words and when you receive the words it will make a difference in your life.
Now just because you get saved does not make you exempt from sin, we all stumble and fall. But we will no longer be able to sin and not feel guilty about it, because the have the Holy Spirit living in our lives.
But not only will there be a change but my next point…
There will be evidence of that change
How do I have assurance of my Salvation? Even though our works does not save us, our works are the evidence of our Salvation.
1 John 4:15-16 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
If you have been saved then you will want to do things, (works) because you love Him and you want to please Him. And one the ways you can do that is by getting baptized. All through the New Testament, we read about when someone accepted Christ that they would almost immediately get baptized.
Now baptism does not save you nor is it a requirement to be saved. The thief on the cross did not come down and get baptized, but yet Jesus told him, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise”. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward change.
Another way that you can have the evidence of the change is how we live our lives.
1 John 2:3-4, Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him.
Like I said before, you cannot receive Christ and then walk out and live like the devil. You will want to do good to please your heavenly Father.
Now when we say keep His commandments, we think about the Ten Commandments. But I think it’s talking about ALL of His commandments.
But when Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment He responded like this.
Mark 12:29-32 Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is: Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all you mind, with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
That kind of sums up the best evidence you can give. Love God and love others. The last point that that assures us that we are saved is…
Understand who may be making you doubt
Can a Christian doubt their salvation? Yes… that is why John wrote this letter – for Christians who doubted to have assurance. Doubt doesn’t automatically mean a person isn’t saved. Doubt actually shows concern for salvation. Doubt is possible…just not profitable
Just like arguments aren’t good in a marriage, doubt is not good in our Christian walk. And we need to remember who can be putting that doubt there.
I Peter 5:9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Satan knows your strengths and more importantly, he knows your weaknesses. And if he can get you to doubt your salvation then he knows that you have very little chance of doing anything for God.
Trying to live our Christian 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.
You see if you can remember the time that Jesus came into your heart and life and there has been a change in your life, not that you will not sin but there will be evidence of that change, the you have no reason to doubt your relationship with Christ.
Jesus said in John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
And when you come to Jesus with ASSURANCE that you are a child of God, then become a ‘shouting Christian’ rather than a ‘doubting Christian’.
Do you know Him today? Do you have assurance or are you relying on your insurance? Will you come to Him today?
