Did you know, you can KNOW you have eternal life? Even if you are the oldest person on earth, at some point you are going to die. Let's see how you did on the question I asked earlier…
The average human life span is 82 years with women living 6-7 years longer then men on average. Did you know that the oldest people in the modern era live in the Dominican Republic? The oldest person died last October. Do you know how old she was?
The answer is 128 years. Born January 27, 1875, Elizabeth "Ma Pompo" Israel, died October 14, 2003 making her the oldest person to ever live.
I want to introduce you to a man that some of you may not know, but most of you have heard of. His name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was a British, Baptist preacher who began his ministry as a nineteen year old young man in 1854 and remained in the same pastorate until his death at age fifty-seven. He was, to put it mildly, a phenomenon. He is the Michael Jordan, the Babe Ruth, and the Tiger Woods of pastors.
Long before the modern mega church ever came into being, six thousand people crowded every service to listen to him preach. In fact, he couldn't build buildings large enough to hold the masses that wanted to come hear him. When he was only twenty-seven years old, he preached to 23,654 people at the Crystal Palace without any amplification whatsoever.
One time, he asked the members of his church not to attend church on the following Sunday, so that newcomers might find a seat. One time, he asked the entire congregation to get up and leave so that newcomers waiting outside could get in. The newcomers filled every seat in the building.
His messages were printed in newspapers all over the world and single copies of his sermons were selling up to 25,000 a week. His collected sermons filled sixty-three thick volumes, the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity. There is no question if you asked evangelical pastors who would be the greatest preacher since biblical times, Spurgeon would win hands down.
You would think that this great man of God, who had an unbelievable impact on millions of people for decades and decades, would never doubt that he was a Christian. At the very height of his spiritual power and popularity, he wrote these words in his autobiography. "I felt at that time very weary and very sad and very heavy at heart; I began to doubt in my own mind whether I really enjoyed the things which I preached to others."
Isn't that incredible? The greatest pastor and preacher easily of his generation and maybe of any generation was not even sure at times of his own salvation. There are two groups of people that absolutely fascinate me. The first group are people who are saved, but they are not sure they are. The second group are people who are not saved, but they are sure they are. I have talked to hundreds of people in my lifetime, who were absolutely convinced they were going to heaven, but based on the reason they gave why, they were not.
That raises this big question. If there are people who are not saved, who are sure they are, how can the people who are saved, really know they are?
To answer that question, we have to ask another question. Why do some people have a false assurance of their salvation? That really is not a difficult question to answer. The reason why there are many people who are not saved, but are sure they are saved, is because they have a false understanding of what it takes to be saved.
Suppose for example, that a person is a Universalist - that is he believes everybody is saved. This is the way he reasons:
Everybody is saved
I am a body
Therefore I am saved
I am reminded of the story of a famous Christian author was talking to his little five year old boy and he asked him two questions. He said, "Do you know for sure that if you were to die today you would go to heaven?" The little boy said, "Yes sir." He then said, "If you were to die right now and God said to you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' What would you answer?" The little boy said, "Because I'm dead." Many people think that is all you need to do to go to heaven is just die and you will be there.
This is an important issue. Ninety-six percent of all Americans believe in God and seventy-nine percent believe there is a heaven. If there is a God to believe in and a heaven to go to, then life's greatest question has to be, "Do I know for sure that when I die I am going to heaven?" Believe it or not, a lot of people who are going to heaven really are not sure. The church suffers from a great illness today. I call it ADD (Assurance Deficit Disorder). There are millions of people who have done everything God requires in order to be a part of his family and to go to heaven and yet if you ask them if they are going to heaven, they said, "I think so", "I feel like I am", or "I certainly hope so."
I want to share with you today that not only is it possible for you to know that you have eternal life, it is your duty to make sure that you know that you have eternal life. II Peter 1:10-11 says, "Christian brothers, make sure you are among those He has chosen and called out for His own…And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 1:10-11, NLV, NLT)
Believe it or not, knowing that you have eternal life is as easy as one-two-three and it is as easy as A-B-C.
I. Believe God's Statement About Eternal Life
I John 5:9 says, "If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His son." (I John 5:9, NASB)
As you know a testimony is a statement that is given by a witness oftentimes in a court of law. A witness is absolutely useless unless his testimony is reliable. If you can't trust a witness, his testimony is useless. Lawyers have a real of thumb. They say if you have the law on your side, you argue the law. If you have the truth on your side, you argue the truth, but if you have neither the law nor the truth, you attack your opponent. That is why so often an attorney will try to attack and destroy the credibility of a witness that is being used against his client, because a witness is no better than his trustworthiness and his credibility.
God has given testimony concerning His son. What testimony is John referring? There is one time in scripture where God actually gives a verbal testimony. He gives a verbal witness to Jesus Christ. It happened at the baptism of Jesus. John the Baptist was baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River and as Jesus was being raised up out of the water we read these words, "And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" (Matthew 3:17, NASB) God Himself said that Jesus Christ was His son.
Now we have a choice to make. Either we believe God's statement about Jesus Christ and therefore about eternal life or we don't. We either believe His testimony or we don't. John gives an argument that is known as going from the lesser truth to the greater truth. Here is what he says, "If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater." (I John 5:9, NASB)
We live our life every day believing in the witness and the testimony of people we don't even know. We go to the drugstore and we will pick up a pharmaceutical prescription. We really don't know that the medicine that we are taking home with us is the medicine that we need. I don't demand for the pharmacist to take out that medicine and break it down into all of its chemical compounds and prove to me that I am getting what I am paying for.
When I get on an airplane, I don't demand to see the pilot, examine his credentials, ask to see his log book, or let me know how many hours he has flown. I just take the testimony of the airline that the pilot is qualified to fly that plane. John's simple statement is this, "Since we believe human testimony, surely you can believe the testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about His Son." (I John 5:9, NLT)
Obviously, there are billions of people in this world who have not accepted God's testimony. They have refused to believe it. You may be one of those people who have simply refused to believe what God has said about His son, Jesus Christ. Here is what John says about people like that in verse 10, "Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because He has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son." (I John 5:10, NIV)
John doesn't beat around the bush and he doesn't mince words. If you reject Jesus, as the Son of God, you reject the testimony of God about His son. If you do that you are calling God a liar. In other words, you are accusing God of spiritual perjury. That is true of anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is God's son.
The real testimony of rejecting is this, "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His son." (I John 5:11, NASB) Eternal life is real. Eternal life is for right now. Eternal life is yours for the asking and yours for the taking, but only through Jesus Christ, because this life is Jesus Christ and that is God's statement about eternal life.
II. Receive God's Son Who Is Eternal Life
John gets even more specific, "So whoever has God's son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life." (I John 5:12, NLT) Do you know what this means? If you do not have Jesus Christ in your life, you are literally a dead man walking. You are just a corpse waiting on a casket. The car that you drive home in today is really a coffin.
I know you are sitting there saying, "Wait a minute I have a pulse. I have blood-pressure. I am breathing. I am hearing you speak. I am as alive as I can be." That is true bodily, but I am not talking about your body and neither is John. I am talking about your spirit and without Jesus Christ you are spiritually dead.
Let me explain it to you this way. What blood is to the body, Christ is to the spirit. Without blood, the body dies. Without Jesus Christ, the spirit is dead. There is more to life than the physical. Real life is in the spiritual and that is why Jesus came. He said, "I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." (John 10:10, MSG)
That is why if you don't have the Son, you don't have life. Therefore, let me ask you a question. What are you trusting in to take you to heaven? If are trusting in…
- Baptism - No Life
- Church Membership - No Life
- Good Works - No Life
- Charitable Giving - No Life
- Belief In God - No Life
- Sincerity - No Life
The only way you can have eternal life is to receive God's son who is eternal life. There was a billboard outside of a church one time and it had these words in bold letters.
KNOW Christ, KNOW Life;
NO Christ, NO Life
God has made a statement about eternal life. He said that His son is Jesus Christ and in Him is life. Do you believe that? Jesus Christ, God's son, is eternal life. Have you received Him? If both of those things are true, then this also is true.
III. Achieve God's Security Of Your Eternal Life
Now we come to the key verse in this entire book and one of the greatest verses you will ever find in the Bible. "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." (I John 5:13, NKJV)
I realize there are a lot of things in life we cannot be sure of, that we cannot know with certainty. We are told here very plainly that we can be sure that we have eternal life and that we will go to heaven. I heard a man say one time, "I had rather know a few things for sure than to be sure of a lot of things that aren't so." God's word says that we can be sure that we have eternal life.
I heard about a little boy that was standing by the side of the road and a man came by who was lost and he said to the little boy, "Son, do you know how to get to town?" The little boy said, "Nope." The man said, "Do you know where route 20 is?" The little boy said, "Nope." The man said, "Well, do you know where this road goes?" The little boy said, "Nope." The man said, "Do you know what the name of this street is?" The little boy said, "Nope." The man finally exasperatedly said, "Boy, you don't know anything. Do you?" The little boy said, "I know I ain't lost." You can know for sure that you are not lost, that you are indeed going to heaven.
The only thing more important than the assurance of your salvation, is your salvation itself, because if you could be saved and not know it, you could lose it and not miss it. Let's review. If you believe God's statement about eternal life and you have received God's son who is eternal life, then you will achieve God's security of your eternal life. Notice again to whom John wrote these words. He said those who know they have eternal life are those who, "Believe in the name of the Son of God." The word "believe" means more than just to believe it in your head. It means to be absolutely committed to with your heart - to totally trust in something or someone. If you have totally trusted and are totally trusting in Jesus Christ and Him alone for your salvation, you can know you are saved.
I want to address something here that is going to sound very controversial, but hopefully it will be helpful to some of you. There are people who teach that unless you can tell the exact day and the exact hour and the exact minute of the exact month of the exact year that you accepted Christ, that you are not saved. I do believe you ought to be able to point to a time when you did receive Jesus, but you don't have to remember the exact time and the exact date. Spurgeon himself said, "A man can know when he is alive even if he cannot remember his birthday.
Suppose a person truly has been saved and he is in an automobile accident and loses his memory. He not only can't remember when he got saved, he can't remember who he is. Does that mean he isn't saved? Absolutely not. I thank God that my salvation is not dependant upon my memory.
I heard about a man who went to see his doctor and he said, "Doctor, there is something wrong with me. I can't remember anything." The doctor said, "Sit down and tell me about it." The man said, "Tell you about what?" I may not remember the exact day and time I trusted Christ, but God knows it and that is all that matters.
This is where Christianity is so radically different from so many of these cults and other religions that come knocking on your doorstep. You ask these people sometimes, if you get into a conversation with them, "Do you know for sure if you were to die today you would go to heaven?" They will quickly tell you they don't know and you can't know either. To much of the world, timely is everything. The world thinks salvation is performance driven and they just hope that when they die, they are living just right so they will go to heaven.
Going to heaven is not a matter of timing, it is a matter of truth, and it is a matter of trust.
The worst thing that the church can do for non-Christians is to convince them that they are Christians. The best thing the church can do for true Christians is to assure them that they are Christians and can never lose their salvation.
The only basis for that assurance is God's word. One of the single most important documents that I have and I thank God it is on record is my birth certificate. That birth certificate proves that I am who I say that I am. I may one day get Alzheimer's and forget who I am, but I've got a certificate that says who I am. Someone may come up one day and deny that I am who I am, but I've got a certificate that says I am who I am. I can even doubt that I am who I am, but I've got a legal certificate that says I am who I am.
This book is your spiritual birth certificate. It holds in it the testimony of a God who cannot lie and God Himself says if you will believe His statement about eternal life and receive His son, who is eternal life, you will achieve His security of your eternal life. You can not only take that to the bank, you can take that all the way to heaven.