Believer’s Basics #10 – Assurance (Part C)

Why do some people act like coming to Christ is going to a funeral?

Well, in some ways it is. Your old nature is dead and gone, but that's a funeral you won't attend. It's going to a banquet. You're going to a feast. There's a place reserved for you in glory where none of the things that hound us in this life exist. And you either accept it or you reject it. It doesn't matter.

The call is yours to make. If you want God to treat you with respect, He will. Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through the book of 1 John 5 and his study called Assurance. Everyone who loves Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him. Now, I've got some criticisms for how John writes, and when I get to heaven, maybe you can talk to him about it. But he is essentially saying in verse 1, whoever believes in Jesus Christ is joined to the Father and the Son. Jesus Christ, the sole source of our salvation. 1 Timothy chapter 2, For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, through Him and no other. And any time you have somebody come along and say, yeah, well, you can also, you have the voice of the devil.

There is no you can also. And what about all those, we have to stop and say this, what about all the people who haven't heard the gospel? God will do the right thing.

That's really none of your business. If they have not heard the gospel, and it's not your fault, in other words, you haven't withheld it. If they have not faith, they're born in a place where the gospel has not yet reached, God will do the right thing. Don't be the fool and charge God with injustice. But for those who have the light, it is very clear, and there are no exceptions that we know of, and we are to preach it as it is given to us.

And if they don't like it, then they don't like His Word, which is why Satan attacks the Word and makes you, the Christian, think that it's not trustworthy. But you can't believe the Bible. Pseudoscience, fake science. We hear a lot about fake news. Well, there's a lot of fake science, too. Or maybe I should, there's really no fake science, there's fake scientists, and their message is just that, fake. They have philosophies about science. There's nothing philosophical about science. Science deals in the facts of creation. And when you begin to have theories about it, it stops being science.

It may be philosophy built on science, but it's still philosophy nonetheless. And to come along and say, well, I don't like the Word of God, I don't believe in it, and it's not true, and you have nothing to back that up with, makes you an incredible witness to me. And so, coming back to our consideration about this thing called assurance, this blessed assurance, is Jesus Christ to you, every bit, God the Son and Savior of your soul, is Jesus Christ to you, God the Son, and every bit, the sole Savior of your soul. If He is, then you are saved. Do you believe that He died for sinners, which all men are, all men have fallen short of the glory of God? We are all sinners, we all need a Savior. Do you believe that He died on a cross for you and rose again in demonstration of His power and authority and fulfillment of His prophecy? Romans 10 verses 9 and 10 give us a recipe for salvation, for converts. If you confess with your mouth, Paul writes, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Well, do you believe this?

He continues. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I mean, it's got to be genuine. True believers, not make-believers. So you say, well, I hear these messages and I still doubt. Well, have you talked to God about this?

Have you get to the bottom of it with Him? Or do you dismiss it and romp off to play and do other things afterwards? Because it's really not that important to you. This should be the most important thing that there is if you've not settled it. God has spoken to His children and He gives us this assurance of salvation. He promises eternal life in His Word. The Bible is central to faith. That's why we know these things, because God has spoken.

I don't have any problem with that. He can hang the sun in the sky and leave it where it is to do what it does and not burn us up or crash into something or double park. Then He's got a lot of power.

And I don't have, I really don't need anybody to tell me that. All I have to do is look up at the sky. I mean, there's just so many things in creation that scream out the presence of God. The beginning of this letter, John says in chapter 1, verse 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the Word of life. John is saying God became a man and when He did that, we were with Him. We saw Him, we touched Him, we heard Him speak, we watched Him.

He is the Word of life. Peter went on to say in his letter, and if you don't believe our testimony, we have the martial word of prophecy. We have the Scriptures that have called it before it's happened.

Nothing like this on earth and we've laid this out for you to examine it yourself. Chapter 20 of 1 John chapter 5, I said chapter 20, I meant verse 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

I mean John just does, he just puts it out there. No Christian should be doubting themselves before the throne of God. Satan again will exploit your sin. You commit a sin, he seeks to exploit it. God says I've forgiven you. Satan says no, not you, not this one.

You've crossed the line this time. Nobody is as messed up as you are. Nobody knows how messed up you are, but you know the voice of the devil. He's got his word too.

It's all lies though. And the only way that you can neutralize it is through Scripture. I worked in a lab supply company of some years back and one of the workers in the warehouse knocked over a bottle of acid and they got a little burned, but not much because whatever splashed on them did damage. So there's this acid all on the floor and what they did to clean it up is they set the building on fire.

No, they did not. They put baking soda on it, a lot of baking soda, and it neutralized the acid. And this is what we have to learn as Christians, that the Scripture neutralizes the acid of Satan, that which would do harm to us. That is why it is the sword.

It cuts through the junk and you're either going to cleave to that or you're going to fall to the lie. So don't cave to his challenges against these things because he challenges them. God doesn't say, oh, well then let's take 1 John chapter 5 verse 20 out of the Bible because Satan's challenged it.

Let's just take it away now. Woo hoo, Satan wins. Trust God. Trust his word. Suppose, suppose an angel appeared to you to tell you that you are born of God and your salvation is sure. Would you be more inclined to believe that angel's testimony than the word of God? You shouldn't be.

You should not be. It is what God has spoken. That is what he has protected. In spite of all of the difficulties that go with the word of God and the theologians wrestle with these things, some evil theologians, a theologian is simply someone who studies God, and some righteous ones. And they argue about commas and capitals and things and they should. But at the end of it all, they all get the message. The evil ones reject it, the righteous ones accept it. And it's just like that because there's too much to it to overrule the things that are apparently confusing.

The truths, the things that are not confusing overrule everything else because they are that potent, that strong. First John chapter 5 again, verse 18, And the wicked one does not touch him. In the face of sin, he can't touch you. That whole, that verse deals with the very sins that deal with us and yet at the end he closes with that verse, the wicked one doesn't touch him.

You may feel his heat, you may hear the wind of the sword whiz past your head, but he doesn't touch you. First John, well John's Gospel, chapter 1, one of the most classic verses dealing with this subject, But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. And of course that believe in his name is everything the prophets have said about him and everything the apostles have said about him is sufficient.

It is enough. John's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 24, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. I started off this morning saying, when you die, where are you going, heaven or hell? That's a question that can be settled right now. No one should have this doubt. Why do some people act like coming to Christ is going to a funeral?

Well, in some ways it is. Your old nature is dead and gone, but that's a funeral you won't attend. It's going to a banquet. You're going to a feast.

There's a place reserved for you in glory when none of the things that hound us in this life exist. And you either accept it or you reject it. A call is yours to make. If you want God to treat you with respect, he will. He will respect your decision.

If you decide against him, he'll respect that. He has a place for people. He has a place for people who reject his word, and you don't want to go there. It is, in a way, on the GPS of Scripture. You can find it by rejecting and accepting the wrong things and the right things of the word of God. And so the Holy Spirit even gives us this assurance. Now, when I say the Holy Spirit, we mean God. God has a way to confirm things in us as no one else does. Oh, there are imposters, yes. But the imposters lack one thing, the Scripture.

That's why they try to add to it or take away. That's why Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons try to add to the Scripture, because they cannot prove their points from Scripture. And so what is the tag team of God to make things sure to us, knowing that we are doubters by nature, a fallen nature? It is the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 8, Paul says the Spirit himself, God himself, through the Holy Spirit, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

He comes along and he says, he says, yeah, that's it, you got it and you know it. When you, you who are born again, when you first gave your life to Christ and you felt the Holy Spirit rush into your heart, will you ever forget that time? Will you not agree that there's nothing like that, that that was God? You should have had subsequent experiences similar to that in its force that lets you know, yes, this is God.

Maybe it's a decision that you have to make in life. Maybe it's something as simple as, well, Lord, I want to serve in a church, which ministry do I serve in? And God says, I need you to serve here.

And you know it's him. This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Frustrating, frustrating as the battles are that we face and the setbacks. You can lose battles against sin and still go to heaven.

Surprise! A happy one at that. Losing battles against sin will not disqualify you. Rejection of Jesus Christ disqualifies you. I'm no longer following him. I no longer love him. That disqualifies you.

But failing? No, that would make it too easy for Satan. That would make it, that would put the controls in your hands. The protection would be all up to you. You would no longer have a shepherd.

You'd be left alone to your own, our own menacing flesh. Again, 1 John chapter 1, the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. Believe that all the time, okay? Don't just believe it when someone else is saying it or when you're saying it to someone else or when you're feeling strong.

Believe that all the time. You fall flat in your face. You leave from the church and you say, I didn't like that sermon. You're sinning if you do that.

You leave the church, you get out on the road and you find yourself saying, harakah, to some driver. You find yourself in your heart sinning. That doesn't make 1 John chapter 1 verse 7 less true. The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. That cleansing is washing away the guilt that will damn your soul. 1 John chapter 1 verse 9 this time. He reinforces his statement.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, all of it. Who would say no to this? Is there anybody in this room that says, I don't believe it. I don't want it. I want to be left with my sin. I don't want to believe that there's a savior that is bigger than me that can deal with this his way. Is there anybody that's tied up like that? You've been suckered by Satan if that's you and you're helping him do it and you will have no one to blame when your time of judgment comes but yourself and that, that can be avoided. I don't know about you, but you ever hurt yourself and you have no one to blame? It's so frustrating. Let me go up the stairs and you bang your shin or something or you cut yourself maybe doing something and you've no one to blame. It's your fault. Well, I don't want to be there when it comes to these matters of the soul.

I'm almost done. The lost, they are self-excluded because Jesus is not appealing to them. Jesus said, Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

That's a promise. The converts have an open door and many have found it and some are, many are still finding it. But the non-converts don't.

The fake ones don't. So when Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Interesting, Jesus is the one that has the right to say depart because he is God. What they don't say, what they don't say says everything. They never said, Lord didn't we love you. They never said that. We did this, we did that. It wasn't genuine.

It was on a foundation of sand, which is why shortly after he will bring that up. The foundation of rock is love. God is love. And why should God delight in those who don't delight in him? 1 Corinthians 16, If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. But, offset by 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3, but if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. God knows who loves him.

And they are rewarded with an eternity that is extraordinary. And so if you live after your own will and care not for what God wants, you're not going to be his. And those that do not remain with Christ are those who no longer care for him. I've been giving you a lot of scripture verses, so that if you've said that Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have no excuse. You cannot say the Bible does not promise me this. The promises are everywhere in scripture. I take probably as much time putting together the scriptures as I do eliminating too many of them. Paul says having condemnation because they've cast off their first love, their first faith, pardon me, their first faith. Well, Christ warned the church at Ephesus, you've left your first love, and you're going to be judged for that. 2 Peter, chapter 1, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.

Stay with it. Abide with Christ. Settle the question. John, chapter 20, verse 31. Just think, here I am reading these scriptures, and there are multitudes of people in places of worship getting no scripture. Not one, or maybe one. And without context, and without the force of the Holy Spirit, what right has anybody to hear the word of God over and over and over and reject it when so many else can't get it?

Settle the question. These are written, John said, pardon me, John's Gospel, chapter 20, verse 31. These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

This is a guarantee. We are guaranteed these things if we abide in Christ. John has been insistent about knowing and loving God throughout this letter. 1 John, chapter 13, chapter 3.

There are no 13 chapters in 1 John. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brethren abides in death.

That's pretty powerful. If I read that as a believer, I immediately begin taking inventory. Who have I not loved? Who have I not loved in the house of God? Do loveless Christians know that they are loveless? Or do they think everybody else is mean for daring to point out their lovelessness or not wanting to be around them?

Why doesn't anybody like me? Because you keep jabbing them with needles, criticisms, dirty looks. There's a reason if you're not loved by the love of God so easily, we have to love the abrasive people. I wish it said we need to love them abrasively, but it doesn't. Do they know the severity of lovelessness? I just read it to you. That you abide in death.

If you claim Christ, but you have no love. You say you have a hard time with that. Are you fighting for it? Yes, okay.

Can't ask for more than that. But if you've dismissed it, if you've filed it away, if somebody's hurt your child's feelings. Listen about your mom's, your kid. This kid did that to your kid.

In 20 years it ain't going to matter. They'll all grow up and have their own kids and start the whole process of annoying each other all over again. Don't be hard on other people's kids because I never liked that kid. Well, maybe the kid don't like you either. And this happens in the house.

It's so silly. Some kids are more difficult three or four times. But you can't.

You've got handcuffs for people like that. Okay, I'm supposed to finish this up. According to my timer.

Liar! I'll finish with this. I'll leave out the other 50 verses that you should be getting. If you know that you are saved, if you love the Lord, you can sit in poverty, in sickness, you can come under the attack of slander and be still somehow at peace in the core of your soul. This is because you've received the promise and you know where you're going.

This is because you know that ultimately you won't be here forever. That God will settle the score. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. He is not just Jesus to me.

He is Jesus Christ my Lord. Over my life. And so it is an invitation not to a funeral, but to a banquet. To come to Christ. It's your decision. With or without your feelings.

It's a decision. I close with this verse from Jude's letter verse 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless for the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. God is going to present us faultless.

All your sins will be gone. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. The daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. We hope you've been blessed by this Believer's Basics series.

Exploring the fundamentals of what it means to follow Christ. If you'd like to listen to more of this series or share it with someone you know please visit crossreferenceradio.com We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit crossreferenceradio.com and follow the links under radio. Again that's crossreferenceradio.com That's all for today. We hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the word of God on Cross Reference Radio.