Sermon Tone Analysis

Biblical Assurance

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Jon and Sara Shepherd built their dream home a couple of years ago on a mountain several miles north of San Francisco.

Because of its remote location insurance companies wouldn’t insure it.

This past week that home went up in flames when a raging fire swept through their area.

They tried to flee at 1:00 a.m.

Sometime later a neighbor found both Jon and Sara, who were badly burned, their teenage daughter later lost her legs because of the severe burns, and their son, unfortunately didn’t survive.

Uncertainty surrounds us.

We never know what an event will bring or a tomorrow will hold.

The Bible says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” ().

Sonny and Heather Melton, a couple from Big Sandy, had looked forward to the highlight of the one year marriage.

They had planned for and then attended the country music festival in Las Vegas, Tennessee.

But just before it ended, their dream vacation turned into a horrible nightmare.

In rain of bullets, Sonny shielded his wife and it cost him his life.

She returned home to Tennessee, a widow after one year of marriage.

Uncertainty surrounds us.

We never know what an event will bring or a tomorrow will hold.

The Bible says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” ().

There are very few things we can be certain of, but according to God, we can be certain about our salvation.

We can be certain that we have Christ.

We can be certain that when death takes us, or when Christ comes back to receive us, we will be safe, secure, and on our way to heaven.

But despite the clear teachings of the Bible, many Christians lack assurance, they lack confidence that heaven awaits them and death is powerless to hurt them.

If this is true of you, it doesn’t have to be.

So listen close and take to heart what God tells us in His Word.

But let me warn you, what God says and what a lot of people in Christian circles, including ministers have said about the assurance of salvation, are often very different.

This is why I’ve titled my message, “Biblical Assurance.”

For the only assurance that is certain to work is that which is based on the sure Word of God.

Jesus assures us of this, for He said, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” ().

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There is no clearer verse in all the Bible concerning assurance of salvation than , yet it is often the least used.

Why?

Because it can be measured.

It can be used to determine the certainty or uncertainty of one’s salvation.

Other verses can give true followers of Christ confidence of his or her salvation, but it can do the same for those who falsely believe they are saved.

This is not the case with .

It gives us several testing points by which to confirm our salvation.

One of the big testing points is that of love; love for other believers and for God.

I.

The Test of Love

We saw a month or so back that the tree of knowledge located in the center of the Garden of Eden was more of a testing tree than anything else.

Adam and Eve could have anything they desired with the lone exception of that tree.

But it did more than test their will power.

It did more than test their degree of self-discipline.

It tested their love for God.

We know this because of what Jesus said in He states, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

He later said, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me” ().

If they had loved God, they would have obeyed His commandment to not eat from the tree of knowledge.

But in our text today and in various verses throughout this small book of five chapters in First John, we see how love can give us assurance or steadfast confidence that we are saved.

If we have love for other believers, we can have confidence that Christ is in us, and eternal life belongs to us.

A. A Love for Believers

One of the most outstanding characteristics of the Christian Faith is love.

Jesus demonstrated it throughout His earthly ministry.

The reason behind His coming into the world was to go to the cross.

The reason He was focused on going to the cross was His love for humankind.

tells us that love is the reason God sent Jesus into the world.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” ().

The cross was once a symbol of shame and reproach.

It was once associated only with pain and punishment.

But God transformed it to symbolize love, unconditional love, amazing love.

So in John’s letters he shows us that if God, who is love, dwells in us, then we will have that kind of love in us.

John is saying this love should be visible in a follower of Christ.

And where better should and can we see it than in our love for other brothers and sisters of the faith.

In fact, he points out that by seeing it in our own lives we can have assurance that we are saved, that we do have the promise of eternal life He writes in , “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

The one who loves his brother is in the light, the light of Christ.

But the one who doesn’t love is lost, He lives in darkness.

This love is not feelings void of actions, but love in action.

He wrote these words in this same letter, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;” (1 John 3:17-19).

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

What this verse is not saying, is that we need to give to anyone who sticks a sign up along the intersection saying they’re in need.

For that one, you need to pray real hard before giving, because you don’t know for sure if they are in need.

However, your brothers and sisters in the faith that you know well, that you know is actually in need, these are the ones John is talking about.

They are the ones that enable us to know with certainty that we are saved, because God’s love in us motivates us to help them.

It may mean giving money, it may mean prayers, it may mean giving them a job, it may mean helping them to find a job, or finances from other sources.

But this much I know it means, it means showing that your care and showing that you are there for them.

It’s about making time for them.

More than anything else, love is making time for those you love.

Our love for our brothers and sisters in the faith is not the only love that show us we are saved, so does our love for God.

B. A Love for God

We can worship God without loving God, but we cannot love God without worshipping Him.

One of “these things” that John is referring to in verse 13 of our text is our love for God.

He writes in the first part of our text in , By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome.

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome.

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

One of the greatest pieces of evidences we can have that we are saved and going to heaven, is our love for God.

In this passage John describes what this love looks like.