Assurance of Salvation
Joh 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Joh 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Joh 6:39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Joh 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
I went to a baseball game with my wife years ago. My work had given us some free tickets only 25 rows from the field. I had never been that close to the field before. We were right at third base. They were really good seats. The only thing wrong with the tickets was the lady behind us.
The starting pitcher that night was a guy named Micah. The man that was with the lady said who is that, is this a new pitcher? She said yea. He is great. We just brought him up from Tucson because he is so good. Micah throws the ball and the batter hits a line drive straight to the pitcher. Instead of dodging it, Micah catches it. The lady behind us goes wild. Micah is wonderful. He is such a great athlete. That’s why I love him. She kept yelling we love you Micah. I am so glad that we brought him up. He is going to do such great things for us. We love you Micah. For the next two innings she sings his praises.
Then comes the third inning. Micah gives up 7 runs in one inning. Now the lady behind us is cursing him. She is saying that they never should have brought him up from Tucson. She went from praising him to cursing him in two innings. She now wanted to kick him out not only from this game but from the team. She had eagerly welcomed him and now she was kicking him out. She went from Hosanna Hosanna to Crucify Crucify. She was all for Micah and singing him praises when she thought that he was going to do what she wanted. But as soon as he did not do what she wanted and expected. As soon as he was no longer good enough. As soon as he did not give her the performance that she desired, as soon as he was no longer pleasing her, she turned to cursing.
The same thing happened to Jesus when He rode into Jerusalem. The people were singing Him praises when they thought that He would bring in the kingdom.
But when He did not, they switched from yelling Hosanna Hosanna to Crucify Crucify. That is the fickle sin nature of man. Man will welcome you in one minute and then be kicking you out the next. That might be the way with sinful man, but that is not the case with a Holy Righteous Just God. With man it is based on performance. But with God it is based on Grace. With God it is based on Mercy. With God it is simply based on accepting Jesus as your savior. God promises, “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
He promises that no matter what happens, and no matter what the situation. He promises that if you come to Him you will not get cast out. No way no how and at no time will you ever be kicked out. Ever! That is a wonderful promise. That is a priceless promise.
You know the value of a promise ultimately rests in the one who makes the promise.
Now I could promise to give each one of you a hundred dollars if you can listen to this entire message without falling asleep, but my promise would not be valuable because I cannot keep it. I do not have the money. Now if I promised you a penny each, I might be able to handle that one. But you still could not totally count on it. I might forget. Or I might change my mind. After all I am just a sinner saved by the Grace of God. I might have the resources when I made the promise, but something might happen between now and then. I might get a little too excited preaching tonight and have a heart attack right here. You see the value of my promises are not very high, but the value of the promises of Jesus are priceless. I don’t have the power or ability to keep all my promises.
That is not a problem with Jesus because Jesus has the power. John chapter one tells us:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jesus has power. All things were made by Him. Jesus can keep His promises because He has the Power to keep them. Jesus is God manifested to us in the flesh.
Phi 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Phi 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Here is some simple logic for you, you cannot be equal with God unless you are God.
Joh 20:27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Joh 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Joh 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed [are] they that have not seen, and [yet] have believed.
Thomas flat out called Jesus My Lord and my God. And Jesus accepted it. He did not rebuke Thomas. Why? Because Thomas spoke the truth. Jesus is God.
You can count on the promises of Jesus because He has the power to keep them. And you can count on the promises of Jesus because He cannot lie.
Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
Spurgeon used to tell the story of an old woman who was a humble follower of the Lamb. A skeptical neighbor loved to poke fun at her, especially at the assurance she displayed regarding her own salvation. How do you know that?” he asked. “God tells me so a hundred times,” she answered, and then she quoted one promise after another, especially from John’s first Letter, where the phrase, We know is used fourteen times in five short chapters. The question was then shot at her. “Suppose God doesn’t keep His word?”
Quickly she answered: “His loss would be greater than mine. I would lose my soul. He would lose His honor.” She was right. We have a great God a wonderful God. A God that cannot deny Himself. A God that cannot lose His honor. A Holy Just Righteous Perfect Almighty God. A God that cannot lie.
You can count on His promises because His Honor is on the line. If He lied it would bring dishonor upon Himself. But praise God, He cannot lie.
The promises of Jesus have more value than anyone else’s. If you come to Jesus for salvation, you have His Promise (the promise of Almighty God) that you will not be cast out. Do you have assurance of your salvation? Do you have any doubt about making it to heaven?
You don’t have to have doubt. You have His promise that you can know for sure. Why would He give us this wonderful promise? The answer is found in our verses.
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He said I will. It is simply because it is His will.
It is not because we deserve it.
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Rom 3:13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips:
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness:
Rom 3:15 Their feet [are] swift to shed blood:
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery [are] in their ways:
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
We were all sinners on our way to hell. With no power of our own to change that.
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were yet sinners Christ died in our place and He did not do it because we were lovely. He did it because it was His Will.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Jesus did not want anyone to go to hell. So He left the glories of heaven and went to the cross so that we don’t have to. He gave us a way to be saved. He gave us a way to come to Him and He gives to everyone that comes this wonderful promise him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
He did it because he is a God of Love. He paid for our sins because it was His will and after we come to Him He keeps us saved because it is His will.
It is Jesus’ will that anyone that comes to Him is not going to be cast out.
We also see that it is not only the will of Jesus that you do not get kicked out but it is also the will of the Father.
Joh 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Joh 6:39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Joh 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
You might backslide, and you might fall into a terrible sin, you might do something that you regret, but because it is God the Father’s will and God the Son’s you will be raised up at the last day.
After you accept Christ you have nothing to do with it. You are kept by God. In fact all three personalities of the one true God are involved in keeping you saved.
Joh 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.
You are held by the almighty hand of Jesus.
Joh 10:29 My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand.
You are also held by the almighty hand of the Father.
Joh 10:30 I and [my] Father are one.
Joh 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
You are held by God the Son and by God the Father.
And you are sealed by God the Holy Spirit.
2Co 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
When you get saved the Holy Spirit comes into your heart and He seals your salvation. You get the Holy Spirit at salvation and not later.
Rom 8:9 … Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
You receive the Spirit at salvation. And nothing is going to kick Him out. What God seals no man and no thing and no devil can unseal.
1Jo 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
The Holy Spirit that seals you is more powerful than the devil and He is not going to leave you.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
You have been sealed unto the day of redemption. And that is an unchangeable fact. It has nothing to do with your amount of faith.
Now do not misunderstand me you are saved by faith. You must come to God in faith. But it is not, I have enough faith to trust Christ but I don’t know if I have enough faith to stay saved. If you are thinking like that your focus is on the wrong thing.
If you were traveling a down a highway and should approach a bridge of whose strength you were not satisfied, would you stop to examine your faith in that bridge, or examine the bridge itself? Common sense would tell you to examine the bridge, and then, when satisfied of its strength, you would cross over with confidence.
Don’t examine the value and strength of your faith. Look and examine the promises that were made by God and trust Him. Trust not in your own strength. Trust in His strength. It has nothing to do with the strength of your faith. And it has nothing to do with your feelings. For feelings come and feelings go and let me tell you feelings are deceiving. Feelings change, feelings can’t be trusted, and feelings don’t change facts.
Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:
Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You believe on Jesus and you become a child of God and you have everlasting life and that is just a fact.
Another simple truth. To be everlasting life it must be everlasting. If it could end, if you could lose it, then what you had was not everlasting life. But God gives to us everlasting life. It lasts forever. This blessed assurance has nothing to do with your feelings and It has nothing to do with your actions
If you had to work to get saved, then it would stand to reason that you would have to work to stay saved. But we are not saved by works.
Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
You did nothing to get saved and you do nothing to stay saved. You were saved by His Grace and you are kept by His Grace. The assurance of your salvation has nothing to do with your level of faith, or with your feelings, or with your actions. It has to do with the One who greater than my faith.
It has to do with the One who is greater than my feelings. It has to do with the One whose word cannot be broken. We have been given a great assurance of salvation and such a great assurance should have an effect upon us. It should give us peace in times of danger.
An aged lady left Buffalo by boat for Cleveland, Ohio to visit a daughter. A terrible storm arose, and the passengers, fearing death, gathered for prayer. But the aged lady seemed quite unconcerned. She sat praising the Lord. Some of the passengers, after the storm subsided, became curious to know the reason for the old lady’s calmness.
They gathered around her and asked her the secret. Well children, she replied, “It is like this. I had two daughters. One died and went home to Heaven; the other moved to Cleveland. When the storm arose, I wondered which daughter I might visit first, the one in Cleveland or the one in Heaven, and I was quite unconcerned as to which.”
That lady had assurance of her salvation and it gave her peace even in the storm. Assurance of salvation will give you peace even in the storms of life. And this wonderful promise should give us the attitude of confidence that Paul had.
Paul wrote:
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s assurance should bring us peace, God’s assurance should bring us confidence. And it should give us joy.
Rom 5:11 And not only [so], but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
It is not will receive or can receive; it says we have now received the atonement. We have received it. And if that doesn’t bring you joy, then I am sorry but something is wrong with you. God’s assurance of our salvation brings us peace, confidence, and joy. And this wonderful promise should make us want to share it with others.
We should want to tell people what it says in 1st John.
1Jo 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
1Jo 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1Jo 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life,
God’s wonderful promise of assurance should make us want to tell others that we have a know so salvation.
On Christ salvation rests secure,
The Rock of Ages must endure;
Nor can that faith be overthrown
Which rests upon the Living Stone.
No other hope shall intervene,
To Him we look, on Him we lean;
Other foundation we disown,
And build on Christ, the Living Stone.
In Him it is ordained to raise
A temple to Jehovah’s praise,
Composed of all the saints who own
No Saviour but the Living Stone.
We don’t look to ourselves to stay saved.
We look to Jesus to keep us saved.
We don’t rest in our power.
We rest in His power.
We don’t have to hold on to the end.
Jesus holds us to the end.
We don’t persevere
We are preserved.
We don’t trust in ourselves.
We trust in Jesus.
And Jesus says, him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.