Sure Thing:  How to be Certain of Heaven

A Pocket Paper
from
The Donelson Fellowship
______________

Robert J. Morgan
June 17, 2007

 

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, the body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water – Hebrews 10:19-22

 

***

 

A couple of years ago, I noticed a lot of quotes in the newspapers from football and basketball and baseball coaches whose teams weren’t doing well.  At press conferences and in interviews, sports writers would ask, “Coach, what’s wrong with your team?”  And the coach or maybe one of the star players would explain, “The problem is that we’ve gotten away from the basics.  We just need to get back to the essentials.  We need to focus on the fundamentals of the game again and start doing those better.”  I’ve noticed that golfers say that a lot, too.  And it reminded me of something my friend, Joe Medina, told me many years ago.  “Rob,” he said, “in the Christian life, there are a few basics, and you have to always be working on those basics.  If you do that, you’ll do just fine.”

 

So with that in mind, two summers ago I preached a series of messages on the essentials of Christian living—the ABCs of Christian living.  We called it SIMPLE, and it was later published as the book we’re offering today to our guests.  It dealt with:  A for Assurance, B for Baptism, C for Church, D for Devotions, and E for Evangelism.

 

Today I’d like to begin a new series of five messages along the same lines.  These will be new and different sermons, but on the same five basics:  Assurance of salvation, Baptism, Church involvement, Daily devotions, and Evangelism.  We can call this series SIMPLE 2, and I want to begin today with the subject of assurance of salvation.  The book of Hebrews says that we should draw near to God in full assurance of faith.

 

This week I flew to Tulsa for a couple of days to see our missionaries, Micah and Becky Derby.  To get there, I had to go through airport security, and it seems to me that security procedures are at airports are on the verge of being unworkable.  Every new threat requires a new procedure, and the lines are getting longer, the regulation more complex, and it has taken a lot of the joy out of flying.  You have to take off half your clothes including your shoes because of that man who hid a bomb in his shoes.

 

We put up with it all for one simple reason -- when people get on a plane, they don’t won’t to worry about whether or not the person beside them has a gun or a bomb.   For some reason, people want to feel safe as they hurtle through the sky, five miles up, at 500 miles per hour, in a pressurized cigar tube in which people are crammed like sardines, bouncing around in the turbulence, trying to eat their handful of peanuts and drink their free cup of water.

 

Well, we can take all the security precautions we can think of, but we still live in a very insecure and uncertain world.  This life doesn’t offer much assurance about anything.  Followers of Jesus Christ, however, have assurance, security, and peace of mind, and we have assurance of our salvation.  God never wants His children to be insecure or to worry or wonder about whether or not they’re going to heaven.  Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

 

In my message today, I’d like to show you four other critical passages on this subject, beginning with one that I read last week at the end of our series of messages on 2 Corinthians.

 

Introduction:  Test Yourselves:  2 Corinthians 13:5-6

In 2 Corinthians 13, the Bible tells us to examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith. 

 

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.  Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

 

As we’ve been studying for the last several months, the Corinthian Church of the New Testament was troubled, and some of the people attending there weren’t living like Christians at all.  Some of the Corinthians evidently thought they were Christians, but Paul had his doubts about it.  In this passage, he told them to nail it down, to be certain, to examine themselves, test themselves and make sure about it.

 

Late last year I came across an interesting article in the newspaper that bears on this.  The paper said:

 

A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed more than 8,000 miles way near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.  Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday.  Instead of arriving “down under,” Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.  “I did wonder but I didn’t want to say anything,” Gutt told the newspaper.  “I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States.”  Gutt’s airplane ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana.  Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney—an oil town of about 5,000 people—did he realize his mistake.  The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany. 

 

In 2 Corinthians 13, Paul was warning that it’s possible to believe we’re going one place when, in fact, we’re going somewhere else.  I believe that churches in America are filled with half-hearted churchgoers who assume they’re going to heaven, but their lives have never really been committed to Jesus Christ.  The Bible says to test yourself.  How do you do that?  Well, you look at your own heart and see if you’ve really made a decision to follow Christ; and you look at your life and see if there’s any evidence of it.

 

It’s important to realize that we are qualified for heaven, not through our own good works or merits and not by trying to live a good life or do more good deeds than bad ones.  We are fitted for heaven purely on the basis of the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If we have received Him by grace through faith, we are qualified for heaven on the basis of His shed blood.  Then you can “know that Jesus Christ is in you,” as Paul put it in this passage, and that you are “in the faith,” as he also put it.  Is it possible that there’s someone here, and you have a false assurance of salvation?  We need to examine and test ourselves, asking, “Have I actually committed my life to Jesus Christ by faith and am I trusting His grace alone for my eternal salvation?”  If so, we are qualified, we are saved, and we have assurance.

 

1.  Nothing Can Separate Us From His Love:  Romans 8

The second passage is this wonderful doxology in the last part of Romans 8.  In Romans 1-8, Paul explains as systematically and as carefully as he can the doctrine of justification by grace through faith.  Romans 1-8 is on the topic of justification, which is a word having to do with our being reconciled to God and restored into a relationship with Him.  It means that in Christ we are declared not guilty of our sins, but indeed, we are declared righteous in God’s sight based on the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 1-8 explains this systematically and thoroughly.

 

Now, I want to show you how the Bible works as it relates to this.  Everything up to this point in the entirety of Scripture points toward this doctrine, which is articulated and set forth in the first eight chapters of Romans.  There are forty-four books in the Bible prior to Romans.  There are 39 books in the Old Testament, followed by the four Gospels and the book of Acts.  Romans is the 45th book of the Bible.

 

Romans takes the history and realities contained in the Old Testament and in the Gospels, and it lays them all out for us in their theological and philosophical interpretation.  It deciphers and explains and interprets for us how the Messiah who was predicted in the Old Testament and announced in the Gospels was, in fact, nothing less than God’s great plan for reconciling the world to Himself through the shed blood of the Passover Lamb.

 

For example:

 

Ø      In the book of Genesis, long before Jesus Christ was born, the Bible predicted that the Seed of Woman would appear and crush the serpent’s head. 

Ø      In the book of Exodus, the Passover Lamb was slain and its blood was shed as a symbol of atonement to avert God’s wrath from sinners, pointing toward Christ. 

Ø      In the book of Deuteronomy we’re told that a prophet like Moses would appear among His brothers to deliver God’s people in Messianic ways.

Ø      In the book of Joshua, we’re introduced to a man, Joshua, whose name in the Greek becomes Jesus, which means God Saves, Jehovah or Yahweh saves, who leads God’s children in conquest and victory. 

Ø      In the book of Isaiah, we’re told this Messiah would be born of a virgin.

Ø      In the book of Micah, we’re told He would be born in Bethlehem.

Ø      In the book of Daniel, we’re told He would be born at the beginning of the first century AD as we reckon time.

Ø      In Psalm 22, we’re told He would suffer a horrendous public execution that would leave His body exposed, His bones out of joint, His mouth parched, His clothing gambled away, and His witnesses ridiculing Him.

Ø      In Isaiah, we’re told, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…  He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.  The punishment that brought us peace was laid upon Him, and by His stripes are we healed.”

 

The Old Testament contains hundreds of predictions, prophecies, types, indications ,and adumbrations of this coming Messiah, and everything about His birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection is given in great detail.  When the Messiah was born, the angel told Joseph to name Him Jesus, for He would save His people from their sins.  He Himself said that He had come to seek and to save those who are lost.  The book of Acts tells us how this message spread around the world.

 

And that is what the first 44 books of the Bible are about.  It is a recounting of the facts related to the Messiah.

 

Then we come to book #45, and it’s the book of Romans that takes all the 39 books of the Old Testament and the first five books in the New Testament, and puts it together for us philosophically and theologically, explaining to us what it all means.  It deciphers and elucidates all that precedes it and shows us its vast and eternal implications.

 

And what the book of Romans says is that every one of us is separated from God because of our faults and failures and sins.  God Himself became a man—Jesus Christ—with undiminished deity and perfect humanity—and somehow in the wisdom of the Almighty, He offered His life as a sacrifice for us all.  Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice of atonement on our behalf, and we receive this gift of forgiveness and eternal life by simple faith.

 

And having explained all this to us in Romans 1-8, he ends by saying:  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

 

And later in the chapter:  What, then, shall we say in response to this?  If God if for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies.  Who is he that condemns?  Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:  “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  Now, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death or life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Now if God devoted the first 44 books of the Bible to telling us what He did, as planned from eternity past for you and for me, and if He devoted book #45 to telling us what it means, and if He ends His great discussion in chapter 8, telling us that in Christ nothing can separate us from His love and that we can be utterly and absolutely convinced of that, why would any of us who are in the faith ever go to bed at night unsure of our eternal home?

 

Why would anyone who had truly accepted Jesus Christ as his or her Savior ever worry and doubt and be uncertain about eternal life when we have a passage like that?  Every verse in this passage drips with the sweet oils of security, assurance, and being persuaded that nothing in heaven or on earth, either in time or eternity, can ever separate us from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

2.  Nothing Can Pry Us from His Hand:  John 10

Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from His love.  And John 10 tells us that nothing can pry us from His hand.

 

In this chapter, Jesus paints a wonderful picture of the Good Shepherd giving us abundant life.  The terminology of this passage breathes assurance with every sentence.  Look at verse 9:

 

I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved.  He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (more abundantly).  I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep….  I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

 

Down in verses 27-29, Jesus states it even more emphatically, My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

 

Why would anyone of us, then, who have truly trusted Christ as our Savior ever worry about assurance of our salvation?  When I go to bed at night, I’m prone to worry about many things, but one thing I never worry about is my eternal destination.  I have it on the authority of the Word of God and of Christ Himself that nothing can separate me from His love, and nothing can pry me from His hand.

 

Conclusion:  These Are The Facts:  1 John 5:11-13

But I’d also like to show you a final passage on this subject.  In 1 John 5, we have one of the Bible’s premiere texts offering us full and guaranteed assurance of eternal life.  The words in verse 11 say:  This is the testimony, the μαρτυρία, referring to a witness or testimony given as fact in the courtroom.  Who is the one giving this testimony and stating these facts?  It is God.  Look at verse 9:  We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son.

 

Verse 11:  And this is the testimony—the facts that God is presenting:  God has given us eternal life.

 

That is not equivocal.  It is not vague or ambiguous.  He has given you eternal life.  It is a done deal, a sure thing.

 

And this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has eternal life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

 

I spent some time this week with our missionaries, Micah and Becky Derby, and their two little twin boys.  Becky is battling cancer, which appeared suddenly, inexplicably, and without warning or welcome; and one of the things they are dealing with now is uncertainty.  There’s uncertainty about her prognosis, about her health, about their future, and about their place and plan of ministry.  Uncertainty is very hard to deal with, and when it comes down to it, that’s what faith is all about.  It is trusting God with the uncertainties of life.  We have to give the uncertainties to Him and trust Him through them.

 

But there’s one thing that is absolutely certain, and that’s the eternal destination of the child of God.  If we’re in the faith and Christ is in us, we should never go to bed at night insecure or uncertain about eternal life, heaven, and our relationship with Him.

 

If you struggle with knowing for certain that you’re going to heaven, you can ARM yourself with assurance in three ways, using the acronym ARM:

 

A = Ask yourself:  Have I sincerely asked Jesus Christ to forgive my sins?  Am I trusting His blood for eternal salvation?  Have I received Him as my personal Savior and Lord?  If not, it’s important to do so today, for “today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

 

R = Realize that doubting your salvation is an insult to the Lord.  It’s questioning His faithfulness to His promises.  Lewis Sperry Chafer wrote, “The evidence underlying a positive conviction, or assurance as to personal salvation, is primarily the fact of the faithfulness of God as revealed in the Word.  When God has made an unconditional declaration of His faithfulness, it is hardly becoming in one of His children to entertain any uncertainty in those things which He has promised.”   Repent of this sin, tell God you’re sorry for doubting His integrity, and ask Him to strengthen your faith.

 

M = Memorize one of the passages we’ve read today, meditate on it whenever you’re tempted with fear, and rest in the promises of God’s Word.   Nothing can separate us from His love.  No one can snatch us from His hand.  For this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.  He that has the Son has life, and He that has not the Son has not life.

 

Let us then draw near to God in full assurance, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

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