Body

HOW TO BE SURE YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN

1 John 5:1-13

January 7, 1996

INTRODUCTION

a. Today we begin a series of sermons designed to give you the concepts and tools you need to grow in your relationship with Christ

b. Over the next eight Sundays I will be giving you concepts that you can use and also that you can transfer to others

c. I believe these are crucial for you and hope you will not miss a Sunday.

d. At all the military reviews of Peru they have a custom by which they pay honor to Admiral Grau, Peru's noblest naval hero, killed in battle off the coast of Chile. Always at roll-call, Admiral Grau's is the first name called. An orderly steps forward and pointing upward answers, "Absent but accounted for. He is with the heroes." So we may call the roll of the dead in Christ, and pointing upward say, "Absent, but accounted for; safe in the arms of Jesus."

e. Today I want to address this issue - "How to be sure you are a Christian"

1. Billy Graham says doubt in this area is the greatest doubt Christians have

2. Dr. James Kennedy in his Evangelism Explosion Training uses this question to open conversations, "If you were to die today, do you know you would go to heaven?"

f. The answer to that question will reveal a persons understanding of their relationship with Christ

g. There is nothing more important than this issue - The Security of the Believer - Once we understand the truth, it will free us to serve God and others without major focus on ourselves

I. SALVATION IS ROOTED IN THE CHARACTER OF GOD

a. Our salvation is are rooted in God's Character and Nature

1. We are saved by Grace through Faith alone without any human merit

2. God draws, convicts, saves and keeps us - we only respond to His work in us

b. Being a Christian is dependent on God not you

1. A little girl had just finished witnessing to a small group of friends. Joyfully she told of God's saving grace and how His love had touched her heart. With assurance, she appropriately concluded her testimony by quoting these comforting words of Jesus recorded in John's gospel: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28,29). Just then a joshing, doubting friend piped up with the question, "But Maggie, suppose you slip through His fingers?" Quick as a flash, she replied, "Never, never! You see, I'm one of the fingers!" Maggie may not have been well versed in the language of theology, but a biblical principal had been lodged in her heart; namely, that "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Eph. 5:30). She knew that she had been joined inseparably to Jesus and that she belonged to Him.

II. THE EVIDENCE FOR OUR SECURITY

a. The Biblical Witness

1. John 3:16;

2. John 6:37;

3. John 10:27-30;

4. Ephesians 1:13-14

5. Romans 8:38-39

6. Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave you"

b. Look at the language used

1. Definition of "Eternal" or "Everlasting" = cannot be terminated or else not eternal - If it can it is not eternal

2. No One can snatch them from God's hand

a. Illust. Use ring to show how secure

c. If not secure then "When do we lose our salvation"

1. Is it 1, 10, 100, 1000 sins When??? If we did nothing to gain salvation what then can we do to lose it?

d. If we are not secure then it makes schizophrenic wondering if we are in or out

III. SOME CAUTIONS

a. Can a person become a Christian and then live any way please

1. No - Never understood forgiveness or belief

b. An intellectual understanding or the "Big Time" tingles and running down an aisle and being pulled through a pool are not enough - It requires an honest giving of yourself to Christ - Being born again into His family