Love’s Assurance (1 John 4:12-20)
CrossWay Community Church
October 18th, 2020
Love’s Assurance (1 John 4:12-20)
assurance
Faith is a Posture
Evangelical shorthand for the gospel is to “ask Jesus into your heart,” or “accept Jesus as Lord and Savior,” or “give your heart to Jesus.” [pg.7]
“Praying the sinner’s prayer” has become something like a Protestant ritual we have people go through to gain entry into heaven. [pg.9]
I have begun to wonder if both problems, needless doubting and false assurance, are exacerbated by the clichéd ways in which we (as evangelicals) speak about the gospel. [pg.7]
Placing an overemphasis on phrases like “ask Jesus into your heart” gives assurance to some who shouldn’t have it and keeps it from some who should. [pg.8]
The biblical summation of a saving response toward Christ is “repentance” and “belief” in the gospel. [pg.7]
The Gospel for Christians
This message is the fourth and final message I delivered at Winterfest, 2011, at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in Pembine, WI. Up until this point we had looked at the Gospel [Good News] of Christmas, the Gospel According to Jesus (the cost of discipleship), the Gospel’s [Inevitable] Effects on Those Who are Saved, and finally, in this message we looked specifically at Philippians 1:27-30 and how the Gospel is still the most important thing for us as believers. We took Paul’s principles from this passage and made multiple applications to our contemporary context of how the Gospel ought to affect our lives as believers.
Other Winterfest 2011 messages.
“Abiding: A Characteristic of All Believers” by Andy Naselli
In this article, Andy Naselli discusses the beginning of John 15 and Jesus’ command, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (v.4). The article seeks to answer two questions many have posed regarding this passage. First, who are those represented by first type of branch that abide in Christ and therefore bear much fruit? Does this speak of some or all believers? Are these spiritual Christians or is abiding in Christ a characteristic of every true believer? Second, who are those represented by the second type of branch that never bears fruit and is therefore cut off? Is this a once saved believer who loses his salvation? Is this a saved yet unfruitful believer whom God is chastising? Or might this simply be a professing believer is not truly saved? Obviously, such questions have immense soteriological implications.
____________________
* Originally posted on former blog, I’m Calling Us Out.
Kirk E. Miller 