Sermon Tone Analysis

Learning to Present a Winning Testimony

Testimony is Source of Power

What two things are mentioned in that the saints overcome by?

What does each one signify?

Two things in this verse are mentioned as a conquering power:

The blood of the Lamb which has purchased our salvation and without which we would be hopeless.

It’s the beginning, the middle, and the end of experiences.

The other which is rarely discussed is “the word of their testimony.”

Literally they overcome by their “utterance” of their testimony.

To be able to articulate and communicate your personal experience has the potential to have a powerful effect on your own experience, but only as you share it with others!

All who receive the gospel message into the heart will long to proclaim it.

The heaven-born love of Christ must find expression.

Those who have put on Christ will relate their experience, tracing step by step the leadings of the Holy Spirit—their hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, the results of their searching of the Scriptures, their prayers, their soul agony, and the words of Christ to them, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.”

It is unnatural for any to keep these things secret, and those who are filled with the love of Christ will not do so.

In proportion as the Lord has made them the depositaries of sacred truth will be their desire that others shall receive the same blessing.

And as they make known the rich treasures of God’s grace, more and still more of the grace of Christ will be imparted to them.

Testimony Defined

Every Christian ought to have a ready, vital testimony.

Unfortunately many do not!

Among Seventh-day Adventists the word “testimony” is no doubt misunderstood.

What we call “testimony meeting” usually has very little testimony in it.

It would be more properly described as a meeting of thankfulness and prayer requests.

(“I am thankful for … this … and that … and I want you all to remember me in your prayers, etc.”) Instead, testimony is really a statement of first-hand experiences, a witness given to personal knowledge.

It is the secret of faith, which is the burden of our preaching, and it says, in effect, “If you openly admit by your own mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and if you believe in your own heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

For it is believing in the heart that makes a man righteous before God, and it is stating his belief by his own mouth that confirms his salvation.

And the scripture says: ‘Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame’.

Phillips New Testament

SOP Endorsing Testimonies of Assurance

Can we be sure of our salvation and can we share our assurance with others?

It is your privilege to trust in the love of Jesus for salvation, in the fullest, surest, noblest manner; to say, He loves me, He receives me; I will trust Him, for He gave His life for me.

Nothing so dispels doubt as coming in contact with the character of Christ.

He declares, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out;” that is, there is no possibility of My casting him out, for I have pledged My word to receive him.

Take Christ at His word, and let your lips declare that you have gained the victory.

There are some who would rather entertain the idea that they cannot have assurance of salvation this side of heaven.

However, this mentality contributes to why we are so inefficient saving should from perdition.

Can we know and be assured that we are saved?

It is God that circumcises the heart.

The whole work is the Lord’s from the beginning to the end.

The perishing sinner may say: “I am a lost sinner; but Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.

He says, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ (Mark 2:17).

I am a sinner, and He died upon Calvary’s cross to save me.

I need not remain a moment longer unsaved.

He died and rose again for my justification, and He will save me now.

I accept the forgiveness He has promised.”

It is essential to have faith in Jesus, and to believe you are saved through Him

Here, Sis.

White says that is essential “to believe you are saved through Him.”

It does not say that its essential to believe that you will be saved, or can be saved through Him, but that “you are saved through Him.”

But interestingly, in the very same sentence she writes a caution:

but there is danger in taking the position that many do take in saying, “I am saved.”

Many have said: “You must do good works, and you will live”; but apart from Christ no one can do good works.

Many at the present day say, “Believe, only believe, and live.”

Faith and works go together, believing and doing are blended.

The danger is not that we can have assurance of salvation and “believe you are saved through” Christ, but the danger is “the position” that many take when they say “I am saved.”

She also cautions the other extreme that we must depend upon good works for salvation.

She writes that “believing and doing are blended.”

Why are so many people against having assurance of salvation and being able to declare with faith and trust they have salvation in Christ?

Because Sis.

White writes else where about the position of those who say, “I am saved.”

Keep in mind that those who believe in Jesus for salvation will not be bragging about their salvation to others using the “saved” word without any reverence or inspiration.

But when opportunity comes, they will not have doubt they are saved and can share this assurance with the one they communing with.

What does Sis.

White mean when she speaks against those who say “I am saved?”

However, anyone reading the context of these statements will recognize that they say that we are not to claim that we are saved in the sense that we can never be lost through rejection of Christ.

In other words, Adventists do not accept the Calvanistic position of “once saved, always saved”.

Neither do we believe that we are to sit back in false security feeling that there is no need to make progress and grow up into Christ.

Such a life is a denial of our profession of Him.

In one single sentence we read the essence of Ellen White’s teaching on this matter.

“It is essential to have faith in Jesus and to believe that you are saved through Him; but there is danger in taking the position that many do take in saying, “I am saved’.”

Obviously she is saying that a Christian without assurance of eternal life and salvation is a poor testimony.

But on the other hand, the position that many do take in stating that they are saved and can never fall, etc. are not following the teachings of the Bible.

We believe that a soul should know his present relationship to Christ.

As someone said, “We ought to know this as well as we know if we are married!”

When we accept Christ as a personal Saviour we enter into a “covenant” relationship with Him.

The Bible also likens our relationship with Christ to marriage, and using that analogy we should understand clearly that we do not believe that our marriage with Christ ends in divorce every time we fall in temptation, anymore than our human marriage ends in divorce every time we fail to demonstrate a perfect love.

When it is in the heart to obey God, when efforts are put forth to this end, Jesus accepts this disposition and effort as man’s best service, and He makes up for the deficiency with His own divine merit.

The character is revealed, not p 58 by occasional good deeds and occasional misdeeds, but by the tendency of the habitual words and acts.

Communicating Love to the Prospect

So the first ability is to have the assurance of salvation for ourselves which is obviously connected with a personal testimony.

The second ability is communicate warm affection and love to those who we are associating with.

Love is the end goal of everything as Paul says in .

The gospel is to be presented, not as a lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life.

God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power.

In Christ is the tenderness of the shepherd, the affection of the parent, and the matchless grace of the compassionate Saviour.

His blessings He presents in the most alluring terms.

He is not content merely to announce these blessings; He presents them in the most attractive way, to excite a desire to possess them.

So His servants are to present the riches of the glory of the unspeakable Gift.

The wonderful love of Christ will melt and subdue hearts, when the mere reiteration of doctrines would accomplish nothing.

Love and assurance have been considered at length because they are the foundation of valid testimony.

Without love, testimony and assurance can appear to be arrogant, boasting.

Without assurance there is nothing to testify about, and love expressed without assurance has no promise, no hope.

How did the apostles turn the world upside down in the first century?

1 jn 1 1-

They bore witness of what they had seen and heard and felt of Christ.

The two restored demoniacs were the first missionaries whom Christ sent to preach the gospel in the region of Decapolis.

For a few moments only these men had been privileged to hear the teachings of Christ.

Not one sermon from His lips had ever fallen upon their ears.

They could not instruct the people as the disciples who had been daily with Christ were able to do.

But they bore in their own persons the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah.

They could tell what they knew; what they themselves had seen, and heard, and felt of the power of Christ.