{"id":3780,"date":"2021-06-26T17:27:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T17:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=3780"},"modified":"2023-01-14T22:33:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T22:33:13","slug":"the-assurance-of-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/06\/26\/the-assurance-of-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Assurance of Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Ninth Sunday after Trinity<\/strong>| <strong>Rolf D. Preus<\/strong>| <strong>August 5, 2012<\/strong>| <strong>1 Corinthians 10:12-13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Christ-for-Us-for-Sunday-8-5-12.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.&nbsp; No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?&nbsp; If you don\u2019t know, what is it that causes you to doubt?&nbsp; How do you expect to get to heaven?&nbsp; If you think that it depends on you, you are just trying to be humble when you doubt yourself.&nbsp; Humility is good.&nbsp; But if it is Jesus Christ himself who has earned heaven for you and if he has promised it to you as a free gift of his grace, then you shouldn\u2019t doubt that you are going to heaven.&nbsp; That would be doubting Jesus.&nbsp; We should doubt ourselves.&nbsp; We should never doubt God.&nbsp; If going to heaven depended on us, we could never be sure of our salvation.&nbsp; If, on the other hand, going to heaven depends on God\u2019s faithfulness to us, we can and should be sure we are going to heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Christian can and should be sure of going to heaven.&nbsp; Yes, but couldn\u2019t I fall away some day?&nbsp; Isn\u2019t it possible for a Christian to fall away from grace, to deny Christ, to live in sin without repentance and so to reject the saving faith and be lost forever?&nbsp; Isn\u2019t this possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, it is.&nbsp; Some teach the doctrine known as \u201conce saved, always saved\u201d.&nbsp; They claim that it is not possible for a Christian to fall away.&nbsp; There\u2019s a story about the Calvinist preacher from Scotland who was once asked by a dying man who had lost the faith how he could regain the certainty of salvation.&nbsp; \u201cWas there ever a time when you did believe the gospel?\u201d he asked the man.&nbsp; \u201cWhy yes,\u201d he replied.&nbsp; \u201cWhen I was a little boy.\u201d&nbsp; \u201cThen you have nothing to worry about,\u201d the minister replied.&nbsp; \u201cFor once you believe, you can never be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that\u2019s not true. Our text makes it plain that it is possible for a Christian to fall away.&nbsp; \u201cTherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.\u201d&nbsp; The Bible not only says that it is possible to fall away from the faith, it also gives examples of people who did fall away.&nbsp; St. Paul mentions Hymenaeus and Alexander who made \u201cshipwreck\u201d of the faith. (1 Timothy 1:20)&nbsp; The parable Jesus told about the sower and the seed mentions those who believe for a while but fall away when things become difficult for them.&nbsp; So the \u201conce saved always saved\u201d doctrine is wrong.&nbsp; It is possible for a Christian to lose the faith and be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a Christian can fall away can a Christian nevertheless have confidence that he won\u2019t fall away?&nbsp; Can you be sure that you are going to heaven when you die?&nbsp; After all, we may believe today and deny the faith tomorrow.&nbsp; Can we be sure that we won\u2019t lose our faith?&nbsp; Within the historic Funeral Liturgy of the church is a prayer to be spoken by the minister at the graveside.&nbsp; It includes these words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O holy and most merciful Savior,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shut not thy merciful ears to our prayers;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But spare us, Lord most holy; O God most mighty,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O holy and most merciful Savior,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thou most worthy Judge eternal,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suffer us not, at our last hour,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For any pains of death to fall from Thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is this the prayer of someone who thinks he might fall away from the faith?&nbsp; It might sound that way.&nbsp; Why else would we pray, \u201cSuffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from Thee.\u201d&nbsp; Well, we could fall away.&nbsp; We could.&nbsp; If our salvation depended on us we surely would.&nbsp; But it doesn\u2019t depend on us.&nbsp; And our assurance of salvation does not depend on a doctrine of \u201conce saved always saved\u201d as if we could not fall away.&nbsp; Of course we could!&nbsp; That\u2019s why we pray!&nbsp; Not just this prayer, but the prayer that our Lord himself has taught us, \u201cLead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.\u201d&nbsp; It is unthinkable that God should ignore the prayer that he himself has taught us to pray.&nbsp; It is impossible that God would teach us to ask for something that he refuses to give us.&nbsp; So we pray.&nbsp; We pray for God\u2019s faithfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We pray for what God has promised.&nbsp; That is what it means to pray, Thy will be done.&nbsp; We want what he has promised.&nbsp; And he has promised his faithfulness.&nbsp; That is what we depend on and that is what gives us the assurance of salvation.&nbsp; His faithfulness, not our own. When Peter said that even if the whole world denied Jesus, he would never deny him, he wasn\u2019t speaking in faith.&nbsp; He was boasting about his own faithfulness.&nbsp; That is how to lose your salvation.&nbsp; As our text says, \u201cLet him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.\u201d&nbsp; True faith is based on God\u2019s faithfulness, not on our own.&nbsp; As our text also says, \u201cGod is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is faithful.&nbsp; He knows the common temptations that come our way.&nbsp; If you look at the various sins listed in the Epistle Lesson for today that led to the downfall of the ancient Israelites, you see the common temptations we face today as well.&nbsp; They lusted for what was evil.&nbsp; We face the same temptation because our nature is just like theirs.&nbsp; We love what is just plain wrong.&nbsp; We enjoy sinning.&nbsp; They fell into idolatry.&nbsp; We are constantly facing the temptation to love and serve the creation over the Creator. They committed sexual sins.&nbsp; Today it is those who promote chastity and condemn immorality who are ostracized by the socially respectable.&nbsp; Sexual immorality is considered a civil and social right.&nbsp; They put Christ to the test.&nbsp; Today Christ\u2019s work and his words are discarded within the church herself in favor of a shallow humanism.&nbsp; They complained against God.&nbsp; Today, God is seen as existing for our comfort.&nbsp; God as the heavenly aspirin tablet is taken in doses sufficient to ward off life\u2019s troubles and if it doesn\u2019t work, God is to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the things that brought ancient Israel to ruin.&nbsp; St. Paul brought these matters to the attention of the Church in Corinth because they were doing the same soul destroying things.&nbsp; They weren\u2019t living Christian lives.&nbsp; They divided themselves into warring factions, ignored gross sexual immorality, denied basic teachings of the faith, and acted like a bunch of heathen.&nbsp; Paul warned them about losing what God had given to them.&nbsp; Paul warns us as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The assurance of our salvation depends on God alone.&nbsp; First, it depends on what God did for us and then it depends on what God does in us.&nbsp; It depends on what God did for us on the cross.&nbsp; Is there a sin for which Jesus did not shed his blood?&nbsp; Is there a debt we owe to God that he didn\u2019t pay?&nbsp; Is there anything at all lacking in Jesus\u2019 redemption of us sinners?&nbsp; No, no, and no.&nbsp; So there can be no doubt at all that Jesus has fully earned heaven for us.&nbsp; There is nothing at all that we need to do.&nbsp; Jesus has done it all for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, our assurance of salvation depends on what God does in us, that is, on God keeping us in the faith.&nbsp; St. John said, \u201cGreater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.\u201d&nbsp; (1 John 4:4)&nbsp; In other words, God the Holy Spirit is greater than the devil.&nbsp; God, who created faith in our hearts, is greater than the liar and murderer of souls, who is bent on ripping it out.&nbsp; God can and will keep us in the faith in the same way that he called us to the faith, by his gracious word and sacraments.&nbsp; God is faithful and his faithfulness for us is given to us so that we have the assurance in us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week we saw how Jesus warns us of false prophets who would destroy the faith.&nbsp; Lies coming into us from the outside are like a spiritual poison to the soul that slowly destroys the faith within us.&nbsp; But it is not only false teaching coming from the outside that can destroy our faith.&nbsp; It is also the sin on the inside that is fanned into flame by temptations of the devil.&nbsp; The devil is a great con artist.&nbsp; What makes a con artist successful is his ability to identify the common weaknesses of people.&nbsp; He preys on a person\u2019s vanity, greed, or pride.&nbsp; So when the con goes down, it succeeds largely because of the cooperation of the mark.&nbsp; When you are had, you have done it to yourself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We want honor because we are proud.&nbsp; We want riches because we are greedy.&nbsp; We want pleasure because we love ourselves first and most.&nbsp; All of this destroys faith.&nbsp; Faith is born is humility, poverty, and shame.&nbsp; Therefore, these are truly God\u2019s gifts.&nbsp; Yes, when God humbles you, he loves you and he is protecting you from the evil one.&nbsp; When God takes away whatever idol you were trusting in, he loves you and is saving you from idolatry.&nbsp; When be brings you pain, he loves you, he is saving you from yourself.&nbsp; If we only knew how much God loved us.&nbsp; We can only look at the price he paid and wonder at the depth and riches of such a love.&nbsp; That the one against whom we sinned would pay for the sin.&nbsp; That the one whom we dismissed in our arrogance and sinful pride should come to us in humility and such deep condescension.&nbsp; That God would love us when we are the most unlovable, and not with a grudging or conditional love.&nbsp; He loved us with an almighty love.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God cannot deny himself.&nbsp; He is faithful.&nbsp; This is what we cling to when we face the guilt of our own sins.&nbsp; This is what we hold on to when we face testing and when we have failed the test.&nbsp; God is faithful.&nbsp; His last word to us is, \u201cIt is finished,\u201d as Jesus fully took our burden of sin and bore it, as Jesus fully faced the penalty of our death and removed it.&nbsp; Oh, we could fall away, there\u2019s no doubt about that, and we would fall away if it depended on us to the least degree.&nbsp; But God cannot lie.&nbsp; And he lives inside of us as surely as he has given to us his word of absolution.&nbsp; He lives in us to give us complete assurance of eternal life, just as surely as he feeds us with his life-giving body and blood in the Holy Supper.&nbsp; Yes, we can and we should we sure that we are going to heaven.&nbsp; But we won\u2019t go there on our terms.&nbsp; We will go on God\u2019s terms, as we receive in simple faith his faithful promise of everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord.&nbsp; Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ninth Sunday after Trinity| Rolf D. Preus| August 5, 2012| 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 \u201cTherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.&nbsp; No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/06\/26\/the-assurance-of-salvation\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,69],"tags":[377,238,212],"class_list":["post-3780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-9","tag-1-corinthians-10","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3782,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}