My sermon notes for Sunday morning, June 9th. Remember, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon. They are provided as an outline each week for our Tabernacle Church family. The church provides a live stream of the service each Sunday at 10:30 on Facebook. We also provide the services through YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, Prayer List, and other resources at our Church Website.
2 Peter 1:10-11
INTRO
- We continue our study of Assurance.
- 1 John 5:13 – So that you may KNOW
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 – Let us examine ourselves
- As true believers we can be sure of our salvation.
- Assurance in our salvation = Confidence in our salvation
Donald S. Whitney, How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian? The Satisfying Certainty of Eternal Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2019)
To Order book from Amazon – How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian?: The Satisfying Certainty of Eternal Life
True Believers May Struggle at Times
(Doubting is not the same as unbelief)
Living in this world may cause seasons of doubt
- Trials and circumstances of life.
- We struggle with sin
- Health (sickness, fatigue, depression)
Spiritual immaturity
- Lack of growth. Babes in Christ
Sin and how we deal with it.
- How can I keep doing this if I am saved?
- Why am I tempted if I am saved?
Comparisons to other believers
- They are doing fine, but I continue to struggle.
- Look how spiritual they are.
Childhood conversion
- Hard for us to remember when we were lost
- The understanding of sin is different as an adult
SPIRITUAL MATURITY IS KEY HERE!!!! GROW AND CHANGING INTO THE LIKENESS OF CHRIST.
Unbelievers May Have a False Assurance
Matthew 7:21-23 (last Sunday)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (ESV)
The Basis of True Assurance
The Character of God
2 Timothy 1:12 – which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. (ESV)
Not me, but whom I have believed
- God is…
- His attributes (all powerful, all wise, all loving)
- His Grace saved me. His Grace will keep me
- He is perfect
- Perfect wrath toward the unrepentant
- Perfect mercy toward the repentant
- Saves, Empowers, Keeps
Philippians 1:3–6 – 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 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. (ESV)
Completed work of Christ
Luke 19:10 – For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (ESV)
John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (ESV)
Romans 5:17 – For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (ESV)
Repentance and Faith
- Turned from self and our sin
- Turned to Christ and His righteousness
His forgiveness, acceptance, and presence.
God’s Word (His promises)
John 3:16-18
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (ESV)
John 5:24 – Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (ESV)
Acts 2:21 – And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (ESV)
John 10:27–30 – 27 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.” (ESV)
Romans 8:16 – The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (ESV)
The What Now
- Know that you have trusted in the work of Jesus Christ and have come to saving faith.
- You have repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you.
- Embrace your life in Christ and live for Him.
Assurance may be experienced partly through the presence of the attitudes and actions the Bible says will accompany salvation. (Whitney’s Book)
- Do you share the intimacies of the Christian life with other believers?
- Do you have a deep awareness of your sin against the Word and love of God?
- Do you live in conscious obedience to the Word of God?
- Do you despise the world and its ways?
- Do you long for the return of Jesus Christ and to be made like Him?
- Do you habitually do what is right more and sin less?
- Do you love Christians sacrificially and want to be with them?
- Do you discern the presence of the Holy Spirit within you?
- Do you enjoy listening to the doctrines of the apostles taught today?
- Do you believe what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ?
Romans 8:28-39