These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
2 Peter 1:3-11
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS."
Message: Pursuing Assurance, Assurance and Sanctification, False Assurance
What the Lord is Saying: Jesus is exclusive. I John 5:13 states, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." There are not multiple ways, but one way. Refuse to believe and one is condemned. Peter states in 2 Peter 1:10, "give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." Again, what you believe is important; nothing more important. It is one thing to believe an airplane will take you from one destination to another, but it is quite something else to board that plane, experience it and actually travel. Again, in reading the Bible we must remember the two perspectives, what God knows and what people experience. They are not always one in the same. God is infinite, all-knowing. Man is finite with boundaries. A God who created the world is different from a man who builds a house. Jesus uses pictures or stories to communicate truths. The Parable of the Sower is one of the stories. This parable tells us to simply look at the type of soil we are, but to examine oneself. Again, to what 2 Peter 1:10 says, make sure. Confirm your faith. And so we go through a process, according to scripture to confirm or have assurance of our being saved.
I John in general is a great book to speak to assurance of one's salvation. I find a lot of similarities between it and what I read and studied in John 3 about the Light and Darkness. I John tells us to "walk in the light", to confess our sin. Again, walk and confess are the first subjects spoken of in the book. Romans says, "For all have sinned." Romans 1 is a book that speaks of people falling away from their faith and one of the marks of a person falling away and distancing themselves from God is "being wise in their own eyes." People who think they are great do not think they have done anything wrong.
I John also tells us to keep His commandments, to Love One Another, to Not Love the World, to practice purity or righteous living. So many people treat faith like going to the supermarket, it is good and necessary to do but not something I need to do all the time, only when I'm hungry. But, this isn't a part of our life, this is our entire life. As I John 2 says, we can't practice sin and expect to abide in Him. We must live the way our heart states we are to live. We are to give to those in need. And also test those spirits because there are alternate truths or beliefs that will be presented to us throughout life. Again, these are all ways we assure our salvation. They prove to ourselves that we are saved. Paul says, to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Each of us needs to know we are in Christ, it is part of our duty.
Therefore, much of our faith is about reminders. 2 Peter 1:12 says, "Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present in you." And much of scripture is written to remind us. I see this in the Old Testament. God wants people to honor Him and yet there are numerous examples of him continue to love and provide for His people despite their rejection of Him. He wants His name to be great. He wants us to know that our lives will be lived better, with more peace as we live according to His ways.
I think we can know we are saved. We can know we are set apart. We can have that same knowledge that only God can have. Other faiths don't agree. Again, there are differences in understanding. Our faith systems are made up of people talking and conversing and further developing their faith.
Some say that having this assurance makes one not want to serve and yet this misses the point of the assurance because this assurance is not a one time event, but a continual process, I believe. Assurance grows us in holiness.
Knowing I am saved encourages me to do good works. Ephesians 2:8-10 speaks of my salvation by grace alone not be works, but then in verse 10 I am moved to do those good works. The works don't save me because that is an act of God. I am not God. God is different from me. The works I do confirm my faith. Without the works I am not saved, it is true. But the works are there to strengthen me and give me assurance.
Matthew 7:21-23 is a great passage and the pastor preached from this text this past Sunday. For the first time I was really struck by the phrase, practice lawlessness and it reminded me of I John 3:4, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness." The stumbling block of our faith is continually practicing our sin. We need to rise to a point in our lives where sins that we have struggled with in the past are somewhat conquered.
The focus today on this passage though is the danger of false assurance. These are individuals who think they are saved, but are not. I found that when my friend and I went to the mall to speak to about what they believe, we often found people that believed they were fine with God. I think what stands about this passage is this individuals were practicing supernatural sort of things such as casting out demons and performing miracles. These are not ordinary people that may think they are saved because of growing up in the church. These are individuals that are practicing religious theatrics. But perhaps they are not doing them with the right motives.
The point in this verse to me is we need to evaluate our motives always for what we are doing for God and get serious about our sin.
Summary: Assurance of Salvation is possible and necessary in our life as we grow towards holiness.
Prayer: O Father God, I praise you for granting me that assurance that I am born again and sealed forever with You. Thank you for that assurance and providing me multiple ways in Scripture to confirm this in my life.
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