Sermon Tone Analysis

How to have Full Assurance of Freedom

ILLUSTRATION

Freed Soldiers Learn to Trust Rescuer's Voice

On January 28, 1945, as World War II was groaning to a close, 121 elite Army Rangers liberated over 500 POWs, mostly Americans, from a Japanese prisoner of war camp near Cabanatuan in the Philippines.

The prisoners, many of whom were survivors of the infamous Bataan death march, were in awful condition, physically and emotionally.

Before the Rangers arrived, the primary Japanese guard unit had left the camp because of Japan's massive retreat from the Philippines.

The new situation was precarious.

Japanese troops were still around and in the camp, but they kept their distance from the prisoners.

The men of Cabanatuan didn't quite know what to make of their new freedom—if freedom was in fact what it was.

And then, without warning, the American Rangers swept upon the camp in furious force.

But one of one of the most interesting facets of the story was the reaction of many of the prisoners.

They were so defeated, diseased, and familiar with deceit that many needed to be convinced they were actually free.

Was it a trick?

A trap? Was this real?

One prisoner, Captain Bert Bank, struggling with blindness caused by a vitamin deficiency, couldn't clearly make out his would-be rescuers.

He refused to budge.

Finally, a soldier walked up to him, tugged his arm, and said, "What's wrong with you?

Don't you want to be free?"

Bank, from Alabama, recognized the familiar southern accent of his questioner.

A smile formed on his lips, and he willingly and thankfully began his journey to freedom.

Finally, well away from what had been, for years, the site of an ongoing, horrific assault on their humanity, the newly freed prisoners began their march home.

In the description of one prisoner, contrasting it with the Bataan nightmare years earlier, "It was a long, slow, steady march …but this was a life march, a march of freedom."

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BIG IDEA: The freedom of Assurance brings us to Endurance

Definition of endurance

1: the ability to withstand hardship or adversity especially : the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity

3: PERMANENCE, DURATION

1.Full Assurance leads us to a faith that believes what God says.

ILLUSTRATION:

Faith is to believe what God says, to take Him at His word, to take it to be true, real, a matter of fact.

Let’s say for example a man tells you that your house is one fire.

What do you do?

Do you stand around debating whether your house is really on fire or not?

You know what I would do, you know what your would, you know what any sane person would do.

But when we are told in God’s Word that you are in danger of the wrath to come, do you believe what you read?

No, you do not, or you would not be so at ease right now sitting in your chair.

Your imminent peril would prompt an instant policy change in your life.

I wish to God that what men call faith in a religious point of view were as prompt in it’s proceedings as the common acts of faith that we exercise everyday toward our fellow man.

The fact is that we say we have assurance of faith but what we really mean is that we raised our hand in some evangelical event, or walked an isle, said, a prayer, put our name on a card and that’s it.

If you want to be saved believe God as you would believe the one who told you that your house was on fire.

Believe God as you would believe your friend.

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What we value the most shows what we treasure the most.

If we believe what God say’s then we learn to value the freedom we have in Christ.

v.5 tells us that faith is all about eagerly waiting for the hope of righteousness.

When Christ has true value in your life you believe Him as you would the friend who tells you that your house is on fire.

“If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you....(of no value or benefit)

v.1 reminds us of our subjective freedom in Christ; that we are no longer obeying God under a burden of enslavement as our motivation.

v.2-4 reminds us of our objective freedom in Christ; that we are freed from the obligation to obey the whole law in order to be justified before God.

Paul is saying that the gospel frees us from both the guilt and slavery of sin.

Does verse 4 mean that real Christians can lose their salvation, can truly fall away from grace?

It can appear that way.

But, as we will see immediately below (v 5–6), Christians base their whole lives on the assurance and certainty of their present and future acceptance with God.

Assurance of salvation is not possible if we think we must earn or even maintain our salvation by our efforts.

If we keep ourselves saved by good living, how could we ever be sure we were being good enough to retain God’s favor?

Yet the Bible often says that we Christians can know we are safe and saved (eg: ).

In other words, we didn’t earn our salvation by our behavior, and we can’t “un-earn” it by our behavior.

John says of anyone who turns their back on the faith permanently: “They were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” (, ESV).

John’s point is that true Christians are saved by grace, and show they are Christians by continuing to trust in that grace!

Therefore those who fall away from grace never truly trusted in the grace of God in the first place.

v.10 “This is why Paul say’s that he is confident in the Lord that you will take no other view” - he believes that they are real Christians, and so their positive response to his warning will show that they do believe the gospel and take it to heart.

WARNING: Don’t miss the warning that v.2-4 bring.

Paul is saying no matter whether you insist that you have been converted or you say you feel Christ has changed your life.

If by deciding your salvation rests in any way on your performance you deny Salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, you cannot be saved by Him.

He is saying that this is an acid test of whether someone is a Christian or not.

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We Hope for what we Have.

Instead of striving for righteousness - an effort which is doomed to failure - Paul encourages the Galatians to simply “WAIT”.

The word translated “value” means “to have power” when used to describe people, but when used of things it means “to be serviceable” or “to make a profit”.

Neither moral exertion nor moral failure counts for anything period.

Why? First, neither religion nor lack of religion count toward establishing a relationship with God.

Paul has just said that our future acceptance with God is already certain through the work of Christ; we can eagerly and confidently await our glorious righteousness.

The biblical word elpida, translated “hope”, does not have the much weaker meaning that it has in English Language.

The biblical word elpida, translated “hope”, does not have the much weaker meaning that it has in English Language.

In the Bible, “hope” does not mean “hope so”, as in: “Will it be sunny tomorrow?”

“I hope so (but I have no way of being confident it will be so)”.

It means a powerful assurance and certainty of something (see ).

This is a major problem for the reader of the English Bible.

The word that means “total assurance” in Greek means “not so sure” in English.

It is easy therefore to misunderstand many passages!

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The posture of our hope is Waiting!

Cultural Connection: We are horrible at waiting.

Our nature is bent towards impatience.

We want what we want and we want it now.

We go to God for answers and if they don’t materialize in a timely manner we move into our holy pout.

*We must practice our waiting skills.

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him....”

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

*Notice the benefits of learning the posture of waiting.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said.......

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

NOTE: Child-birth takes 9 months that seems like an eternity, but when the moment of the birth happens the pay-off is incredible, it’s well worth the wait.

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What does it mean to have Full Assurance?

2.Full assurance leads us to a faith that brings balance to our Christian life.

Christian life.

Can someone live the Christian life without full assurance of faith.

Yes, but their effectiveness will be meager at best.

The true sense of the word “hope” is indicated in verse 5 of , because Paul says that we simply “await” this righteousness.

We don’t work or strive for it.

We know it is coming, on its way.

So we can wait eagerly, rather than anxiously.

What is it that we are Waiting for?