Assurance and Perseverance

Caleb Eissler

Foundations • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Witness of the Spirit

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Assurance of salvation is the fuel that drives us in perseverance and helps us rest in God. The Bible gives three basic elements of assurance which then relate to perseverance.

Notes

Transcript

Prayer

God, we thank you for who you are. May our time together magnify your name and stir us up to pursue you deeper and deeper in the faith.

Father, we thank you for the ability to be able to worship together tonight. Thank you for the men and women you have used to secure that freedom for us. May we not take it for granted. Bless the efforts of those who cannot peacefully gather because of fear of persecution. Be with them as they seek to meet in Your name.

God, as I seek to preach your Word tonight, help me do so faithfully. If I say anything that is contrary to Your Word, erase it from the minds of all who hear it. But if I say anything that accord with your Word and glorifies your name, magnify it in the hearts and minds of all who hear this message.

We love you God. Thank you for showing your love for us in the death of Your Son Jesus. It’s in His name we pray by the power of the Spirit….Amen.

Introduction

It was June 2008, and the only sounds I could hear in the hospital room were the pitter patter of rain against the window and the ever-slowing beep of my great grandmother’s heart monitor.

Circled around my great grandmother’s hospital bed and holding hands, several family members and I prayed together. We prayed for my great grandmother and thanked God for her. My father read Proverbs 31 over her. To unsophisticated observer, it would have seemed that a leak from the rain had made its way into the room as tear after tear trickled down our faces.

Then, imperceptibly at first but clearly soon after, there was silence.

As I watched my great grandma pass from this world to the next, one of the most pressing questions that I could shake was this: if I were to die right now, would I actually be counted as a Christian?

Sure, I’ve gone to church my whole life, I’ve served, accepted Christ at a young age, been baptized, and have read my bible, but would I actually be considered a Christian? That question terrified me.

I would imagine that I’m not the only person who has asked that question. My guess is that many, if not all of you, have asked that question at some point.

How can I know if I’m a Christian? How can I have assurance of my salvation?

Assurance And Perseverance

Our goal tonight is to answer those questions. We’re going to be talking about the topic of assurance. And in order to do that, we’re also going to be talking about the topic of perseverance since it goes hand-in-hand with assurance.

Before we begin, let’s define our terms.

Let’s start with assurance. Assurance is the confidence that believers can have that they are actually Christians. It is a certainty in their salvation.

Perseverance is when Christians endure in their salvation unto the end, unto glory.

We’re primarily going to be focusing on the topic of assurance tonight, but as you’ll see, there will be frequent mentions and relations to perseverance.

1 John/Jude

During our time together tonight we’re going to be flipping back and forth between 2 books of the bible, both of which are near the very end of the New Testament: 1 John and Jude. Both of these books have important things to say related assurance and perseverance. So I’d encourage you to have your Bibles opened to 1 John so you can follow along as we look through it.

We’ll be touching on a number of verses tonight so we’ll have them on the screen as well so you can more quickly follow along at points.

Before we dive into those version, I want to get our minds thinking about our topic for tonight, so let’s discuss a question as a group.

Question 1

What causes you to question your salvation the most? What often causes others to question their salvation? Is it seeing death? Is it a struggle with sin? Is it distance from God? What causes you to most often question your salvation or causes others to question theirs?

My prayer for those of you who are Christians here tonight is that you will feel a sense of confidence in your faith after our time together. I pray this would be a comfort to you. For those who are here and are not yet Christians, I pray that God would stir your Spirit to desire to know the true and risen Jesus so that you could live in full assurance that He has given His life for you so that you might experience an eternity of joy with him.

With that being said, let’s dive in to our discussion about assurance and perseverance

How We Can Have Assuarnce (3 Ways)

Assurance is one of the most beautiful doctrines in all of Christianity. Having confidence and certainty about salvation is a glorious and immensely helpful thing. Scores and scores of verses in Scripture affirm this. We even have a whole book of Scripture written to help us understand assurance, namely 1 John.

John even tells us this in 1 John 5:13 when he says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

John, and really God Himself, want us to have a confidence in our faith and salvation.

So how is it that we can have assurance? Traditionally, the Bible, plus the historic creeds and confessions of the faith have pointed us to 3 primary ways we can have assurance: faith in the truth and promises of the Gospel, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and the pursuit of holiness.

These three points will serve as our basic outline for tonight and then we will transition to a brief discussion about perseverance.

Let’s begin

1. Founded on the Gospel/Faith In Christ

The first and primary foundation for assurance is the truth and promises of the Gospel and our faith in those things. Faith in Jesus is the ground of assurance.

1 John 4:15-17 – “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”

If you have repented of your sins and put your trust in Jesus as your Savior then you are a Christian.

Romans 10:9 tells us “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

The foundation of your assurance is your faith in the salvation Jesus offers.

But you might say, “Caleb, I get that faith in Jesus is what makes me a Christian, but to be honest, my faith feels so weak right now. How on earth can I have assurance when my faith feels so week. When I look at others whose faith feels so much deeper and more alive I begin to wonder if I’m even a Christian at all. When I look at them I lose any sense of assurance.”

I imagine many of you have felt this. I know I have.

To answer this, I’m going to use an illustration I heard from theologian D.A. Carson several years ago.

D.A. Carson Illustration

Picture 2 Jews, Smith and Brown. Remarkably Jewish names (ha!). They are having a discussion the night before the Passover in Exodus.

Smith says to Brown, “Are you a little nervous about what’s going to happen tonight when the angel of death passes over?” Do you think your first born son will make it?

Brown replies, “God told us what to do through Moses. You don’t have to be nervous. Haven’t you slaughtered the lamb and put the blood on the door posts and lintel? Are you packed and ready to leave the city and eat the unleavened bread? Haven’t you done all of that?”

Smith says, “Of course I’ve done that. I’m not stupid. But it’s still pretty scary with everything that’s gone on lately with the plagues and the river turning to blood. And now there’s the threat of the first born sons dying if we don’t follow the Lord’s instructions. That’s alright for you since you’ve got three boys, but I’ve just got little Johnny. I know what God says and I’ve followed his instructions but it’s still pretty scary. I’ll be glad when this night is over.”

Brown says, “Bring it on. I trust in the promises of God.”

That night the angel of death passes over. Which one of the men lost their son

(Pause)…The answer, of course, is neither.

(Pause)…Because death doesn’t pass over them on the ground of the intensity or clarity of their faith. But on the ground of the blood of the lamb.

The same is true of us. If you have followed God’s instructions and have put your trust in the blood of the Lamb Jesus then you will be saved. It is not the intensity of your faith that saves you but the object of your faith. It is Jesus and Jesus alone who can save. If you are placing your trust in him then you are a Christian.

And this leads us to our second element of assurance: the testimony and witness of the Holy Spirit.

2. Testimony of the Holy Spirit

1 John 4:13 says - “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”

Romans 8:16-17 continues this thought when Paul says– “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. "

When you accept Christ, God’s very own Spirit comes to dwell within you. The Spirit intercedes on your behalf and testifies that you are a child of God.

From time to time, the Holy Spirit even gives us a special sense of nearness and intimacy with God.

Additionally, the Holy Spirit is the seal of our salvation.

In Ephesians 1:13 Paul tells us that “When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

If you are a Christian, God has given you His Holy Spirit as a seal for your salvation. That Spirit testifies to your faith and means that God is with you every step of the way.

What’s more, God’s Spirit stirs you up to do the final of our 3 elements of assurance.

3. Fruit Of the Spirit/Holiness

The Holy Spirit sanctifies us and stirs us up to pursue holiness and manifest the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. In fact, one of the clearest signs that we are Christians is that we strive for holiness, fight sin, and obey God.

1 John 2:3-6 tells us- "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."

If you are striving for holiness and fighting sin and seeking to obey God and love your neighbors, that is clear sign of your salvation.

But this is where some of us may begin to get nervous. Sure, we try to fight sin, love God, and love our neighbors, but we seem to stumble all the time. We battle sin and seem to lose the battle more times than we would comfortably admit. Our sin breaks our hearts and we repent of it often, but we still lose the battle sometimes.

Maybe it’s this point of fighting sin and pursuing holiness that is causes us to stumble. We look at our imperfections and wonder how we could possibly be Christians.

Maybe you’re questioning your salvation because of all of this.

Let me provide an illustration inspired pastor Kevin DeYoung that might prove helpful.

Parker Illustration

When my little cousin Parker was a child, he would sometimes draw pictures of me. He’d come up to me with a big smile and say, “Caleb! Caleb! I drew this picture for you!” He’d had me the picture and awaiting expectantly for my reaction.

I remember looking at the first picture he ever drew of me when he was a toddler and it looked nothing like me! My hair was blue and everything was all out of proportion. My midsection was like a big ball…which may have been more accurate than I would have liked to admit (ha!). The picture would never have been hung in a museum and in a technical sense could never compare to Rembrandt or Caravaggio. The picture may have been imperfect, but it was done in love, with all earnestness and effort. Therefore my response wasn’t condemnation but a smile.

I think God views our strivings for holiness the same way. He is not expecting perfection. But he desires earnestness, love, and all of our effort.

If you are struggling in the battle with sin, but you are earnestly seeking the Lord in love, repenting of your sin, and working to fight it then take heart. That’s a sign that the Spirit is at work within you. Keep fighting the good fight. God is with you. We must seek to view Him as a loving Father and not just a Judge. Don’t get fixated on one sin and despair. Trust God, repent of sin. Seek accountability, and strive for holiness. Let the assurance of your salvation fuel you to follow God in greater and holier measure.

False Assurance

It is here that I need to have a brief aside. Most of this sermon in meant to stir up assurance in believers. And while that is true for most of you, there are some of you here who should not take comfort in assurance.

Maybe you go to church every Sunday, tithe faithfully, serve in the church, and read your Bible, but if you’re honest, you’re not broken over your sins. You may intellectually assent that sin is wrong, but you’re not broken over it. In that case, you’re no different than the Pharisees. They followed the rules, but this only puffed them up into pride and self-reliance.

One of the clearest hallmarks of salvation is a brokenness over sin.

So if you’re here and you don’t feel genuine brokenness over sin then I encourage you not to take comfort but to earnestly ask God to help you fight pride and feel brokenness over sin that will lead you to earnest repentance and will drive you back to the Gospel.

There is still hope. Seek God. Seek holiness. Seek repentance. There is still grace for you if you are broken enough over your sin and willing to accept it and see your need for it.

Assurance should not fuel us to sin and pride but to holiness and humility.

If you are here tonight and you are repentant and pursuing holiness, however imperfectly, you can have assurance. Don’t let Satan throw you into despair while you are broken over your sin.

Christians have wrestled with this spiritual despair since the beginning. The famous Reformer, Martin Luther, counseled people through this very problem. In July 1530, Luther wrote to Jerome Weller, a 31-year-old friend who had previously lived in the Luther home, tutored his children, and was now struggling with spiritual despair. He said this to Weller.

"So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this:

'I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it?

For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also'"

We can take comfort in the forgiveness of Jesus as we repent of our sins and pursue Jesus in holiness.

Can’t Trust Our Feelings

So, we’ve covered the three primary elements of assurance, namely faith in Christ, the witness of the Spirit, and pursuing holiness.

But how can we best pursue assurance? What do we do if we don’t feel assurance. This is not an intellectual exercise. This is a serious, on the ground, practical matter for us.

To be clear, feeling assurance is not a requirement of salvation.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “Full assurance is not essential for salvation, but it is for satisfaction.”

I believe we can have assurance. It is one of the sweetest and most precious truths in all of the world. It is the glorious and is a powerful fuel for pursuing God.

Just because you don’t feel like you have assurance doesn’t mean it isn’t yours to claim.

Satan loves to bring accusation against us to cause us to question our salvation. But if we trust in Christ and have therefore been sealed by the Spirit, and are pursuing God earnestly (even if imperfectly), we can have assurance. We can know intellectually we have assurance, even if we don’t feel it emotionally.

So how can we seek assurance when we don’t feel it emotionally?

When we aren’t feeling assured, we seek it by leaning into the truths of Gospel.

Pastor Greg Gilbert draws a beautiful analogy here.

He calls our attention to the difference between a speedometer and the pedal of a car.

Then he asks this: “How do you make a car go faster?”

You don’t play with the needle of the speedometer to make the car go faster. You can push the needle all day, but that won’t make the care go faster. No, only by stepping on the gas pedal will the car accelerate.

Now think about our Christian life. If we want to feel more assurance, we shouldn’t just seek to rile up our emotions. That’s like pushing up the needle of speedometer to go faster.

Emotions come and go. We need solid ground for assurance.

It is the Gospel and the outworking of it in our lives that is our only true ground for assurance.

Leaning into the Gospel is like stepping on the gas. It is the only true way to accelerate. And if we are leaning into the Gospel, sooner or later we will begin to feel more assurance too, even if not immediately.

So when you don’t feel assurance, give into sin.

When you don’t feel assurance, don’t just try to rile up your emotions by reading a page of Jesus calling and singing the bridge of Oceans 10 times.

No, step on the gas pedal of the Gospel and lean into its glorious truths.

This is how you pursue perseverance which drives us to have assurance which then fuels our perseverance.

Pressing into the truths of the Gospel is exactly what Paul does in Romans 5:1-5 – when he says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When we struggle to feel assurance, we must press into the truths of the Gospel in pursuit of perseverance. As we persevere, we will grow in assurance.

Our daily lives are exercises in leaning into the Gospel in all things so we may persevere in the faith and rest in assurance as we journey to the golden shore of glory.

So what do you do to remind yourself of the Gospel? What helps you lean into the truths of the Gospel? I want us to talk about this as a group.

Question 2

What do you do to remind yourselves the truths of the Gospel (nature, church, worship songs, etc.)

Assurance Gives Us Confidence for Perserverance/How to Persevere

We talked a lot about assurance tonight, but where does perseverance come in? How does perseverance relate to assurance?

The relation is vital and goes like this:

When we don’t feel assured but are seeking holiness and trusting in Christ, what’s the best way to pursue assurance? It’s by pursuing perseverance. And how do you pursue perseverance? By driving yourself back to the Gospel and the very reasons we are told we can have assurance.

It’s a beautiful cycle of connection.

The best way to strive to persevere in the faith which will stir up your assurance is to pursue the ground of your faith: the Gospel.

Rest in the reality that Jesus paid the price for your sins, died the death you deserved to die, and rose again from the dead to defeat death and offer you eternal life. And if you put your trust in Him you can be saved.

When we aren’t feeling assured, we seek perseverance by leaning into the truths of Gospel.

Perseverance is an activity of leaning into the truths of the Gospel to see Jesus as Savior and better than anything the world has to offer. This fuels you to fight sin and pursue God which leads to a sense of assurance.

Perseverance is precisely what the book of Jude calls us to.

Jude tells us in verses 20-21 - "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life."

Peter further this thought in 2 Peter 1:10-11 when he says - “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Perseverance is nothing but keeping ourselves in the love of God by pursuing him and therefore confirming our salvation.

And the best way to persevere and keep ourselves in the love of God is to lean into the truth of God’s love in the Gospel; to lean into the truth of salvation and trust in that salvation.

The best ways to lean into the truths of the Gospel are through spending time with God in the Bible and in prayer, and through engaging in worship and community within the life of your church.

Notice what the author of Hebrews says in verses 22-25: "let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

In other words, we can rest in the truths of the Gospel and being around other believers helps us do this.

What we are doing right now here at Twenty-Somethings is an exercise in assurance and perseverance. We sing songs of worship, sing songs of praise, and spend time around fellow believers to stir each other up in love for God who helps us persevere in the faith and helps us deepen our assurance which in turn starts the cycle over and fuels our perseverance.

I pray that as you walk out tonight you would be able to better rest in the glory of the Gospel and pursue perseverance and assurance because of your time here.

Hope for Those Who Feel Hopeless

But some of you here tonight might be saying, “Caleb, I understand everything you’re saying about perseverance and assurance. It’s all great, but to be honest it sounds so hard. You’ve given me so many things I should do. Fight sin, lean into the Gospel, pursue community and more. It’s all great but it’s so hard. I’m not sure if I can do it. I don’t think I’m strong enough!”

(Pause)…To which I would say, “You’re not…..You’re not strong enough on your own.”

But the beauty is that you’re never alone in this journey.

See there’s a thread that goes through every part of our discussion and every verse we’ve read tonight, that may not be immediately obvious, but is the ground of everything.

(Pause)…It’s that God is the one who is ultimately upholding you. He has been there all along. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. Without Him, salvation would be impossible.

In your own power and strength you would be helpless.

It is a miracle that you are still a Christian. On your own power you couldn’t do it. If there was something you could do to make you lose your salvation then you would’ve already done it. But through the power of God you and I can be upheld in the faith and drawn nearer to the Father.

It is God who is upholding the universe and upholding you in faith.

Think about your salvation story and your Christian journey since you came to faith. Think back on those profound moments, whether at a summer camp, or on a mission trip, or in during a quiet time, or during a conversation with a friend. In the heat of those moments, it feels as if it is entirely us working out every detail. But if you look back and look at the broader picture, I think you’ll find that God’s fingerprints were all over each and every one of those moments.

God is the one by His Spirit who stirred in your heart that night at camp.

God providentially arranged the conversation with the friend where you first heard the Gospel.

God stirred in the hearts of those who donated so you could go on that mission trip and have your life changed.

I could go on and on but I think you get the point.

Of course we are making real decision. Of course we take real actions. But God is there upholding us every step of the way. Like a little child sitting on his Father’s lap steering the car, he is truly steering the car, but his father’s hands are also on the wheel the whole time, and he is the one pushing the pedal.

This is the divine mystery of God’s sovereignty and our freedom. And it is above anything we could ever comprehend. It’s just as Isaiah says in his prophecy:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So yes, we are to pursue God with all of our might, leaning into the truths of the Gospel and trusting in the promises of God as we pursue holiness, perseverance, and assurance.

And yet, all along the way, God is the ground of it all, upholding us every step of the way.

This is not meant to cause us to throw up our hands in confusion, but rather in worship.

We can rest in the glory and power of God as we strive after Him in love.

We can rest in the glorious truth articulated by John Piper, “Those whom God calls, he keeps”

We can rest God’s strength and power to uphold us as we listen to Jesus’s words in John 6 and John 10.

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”- John 6:37–40.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” - John 10:27–30.

We can rest in this assurance as we hear Paul’s words in Philippians 1:6 - "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

Or Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 41:10 – “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Our salvation and perseverance do not originate in us. Just as John says in 1 John 4:19 – “We love because he first loved us.”

So may we end our time together praising the One who saved us, upholds us, and keeps us as we pursue Him with all of our might in assurance and perseverance.

Jude 24-25

There’s no better way to close than with Jude’s doxology.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”