2016-12-25 - Christmas

The Gift of Assurance

- Introduction -

To believe or not to believe … that is the question!

In the center of this great question lies a thing we call doubt. All people experience doubt at times.Even those with faith in God struggle with doubt on occasion and can easily identify with the man in Mark 9:24 who said,“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

But what is doubt? According to the dictionary the word means:tobeuncertainaboutsomething orundecidedinopinionorbelief.Doubt is a normal healthy human response to an unsubstantiated claim. Doubt says, "I won't believe this unless I have good reasons to."

  • Many people think doubt is the opposite of faith, but it isn’t. Unbelief is the opposite of faith. Unbelief refers to a willfulrefusal to believe, while doubt refers to inner uncertainty.
  • Many people think doubt is unforgivable, but it isn’t. God doesn’t condemn us when we question him. Both Job and David repeatedly questioned God, but they were not condemned. God is big enough to handle all our doubts and all our questions.
  • Some people are hindered greatly by doubt; some see it as a springboard to life; and others see it as an obstacle to be overcome.
  • The Bible has somethings to say about the causes of doubt and provides examples of people who struggled with it.
  • Doubt itself is not sinful or wrong and is often the catalyst to new spiritual growth.
  • Doubt is closely allied with both fear and failure

- Assurance -

Doubt is overcome by having reasonable assurance. What is assurance? According to the dictionary the word means: "full confidence," or "freedom from doubt" or "certainty".We begin getting assurance from the time we are born and it usually remains with us until the day we die. Initially assurance comes from our parents. It stems from the soothing words they speak … coupled with their actions that make us comfortable when we are tired, hungry, frightened or hurting.

As we grow, others come alongside to help reassure us … to encourage us, to build us up and to give us strength. Assurance comes to us in the midst of our struggles, frustrations, failures and sorrows. We get assurance from people's words … coupled with their actions or deeds towards us. Assurance comes to us through parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, friends and God.

Assurance acts in direct opposition to doubt, fear and failure … and helps us overcome them. Without assurance … we lose hope, become dejected, and give up. This leads to weariness, depression, defeat … and possibly self-destruction. Assurance gives us courage to try something new and then to do it over and over again until we master it … until we become over-comers. In the Scripture, this "fullconfidence," or"freedomfromdoubt" or "certainty" is called faith. It is a gift from God!

- Visual Demonstration -

We are able to overcome doubt when our assurance of success is greater than our potential for loss. Let me give you a visual demonstration. We will deal with 10 quarters. I will mark one of the quarters with an X and put it in the bag with the other 9 quarters. If I say I will give you a chance to draw out the marked quarter for a reward of ten dollars will you take the chance?

  1. It depends what it is going to cost me to take the chance.
  2. What if it costs you five dollars to take the chance?Do any of you want to take the chance? No Why?Because it cost me five dollars but my chances of winning are only one in 10.
  3. What if it costs you five dollars to take the chance but I tell you that all the quarters are marked with an X. Do any of you want to take the chance? No Why? I might be lying?
  4. What if it costs you five dollars to take the chance but I tell you that I will guide your hand to the quarter marked with an X and you don't have to pay me the five dollars until I have given you the ten dollars. Do any of you want to take the chance? Why will you believe me? It doesn't cost you anything!

Faith in God or assurance from God is much like the last opportunity.

  1. It begins when anyone believes God is giving them a chance to get a reward.
  2. Then the person says he wants to take that chance.
  3. Then he extends his hand to God.
  4. God guides the person to the reward.
  5. The person takes the reward.
  6. Then God says give away a portion of the reward he has gotten.

-Group Discussion -

So what does anyone have tolose:

  • by believingwhat God says in the Bible?______
  • by believingthat they have forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ? ______
  • by believingthat they will live forever? ______
  • by believingthat God raised Jesus Christ from the dead? ______
  • by confessing with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord? ______
  • by being immersed in water? ______
  • by receiving the Holy Spirit? ______

- Remember -

People have three important rights when it comes to believing.

  1. They always have the right to believe whatever they want. However, what they believe may either be true or false and what they believe will greatly impact their life.
  2. They always have the right to change their mind, opinion or belief as long as they are alive.
  3. They always have the right to develop their beliefs based on reasonableassurances they have been given. These assurances may come from 1) data they receive, 2) people they trust, 3) observations they have made and 4) their own experiences.

* Sing "Blessed Assurance"

- God's Assurance -

God's gift of assurance to mankind also comes through His words and Hiscorresponding actions. In other words … He does what He says! In the Scripture,God's words are referred to as "prophecy." There are twoaspects of prophecy: forth-telling and fore-telling. Forth-telling deals with a declarative statement of truth from God. Fore-telling(telling about something before it happens) deals with speaking about future events. Fore-telling also serves as a sign or assurance that it is God speaking … since only He knows the future.For example, God's statement from Genesis 2:16-17 contains both the forth-telling and fore-telling elements of His words.The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, (forth-telling) for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (fore-telling)

J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy lists 1,239 fore-telling prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 in the New Testament. The totalof these 1,817 fore-telling prophecies encompass 8,352 verses of the Bible's 31,240 verses.In other words, more than 25% of the Bible consists of fore-telling prophecies.

Of the 1,239 fore-telling prophecies in the Old Testament, 456 of them pertain to the Messiah (Christ). Alfred Edersheim,an outstanding Biblical scholar who lived in the 1800's converted to Christianity from Judaism based on Jesus' fulfillment of these 456 passages of Scripture and outlined them in his work The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.

- Understanding Probability -

Probability, also known as "odds", is a branch of mathematics that measures the likelihood that a given event will occur. Let's look at some interesting "odds":

  • You will eventually die = 1 in 1
  • That you can cut a king out of a deck of cards = 1 in 13.
  • Being struck by lightning in a year = 7 x 105 or 1 in 700,000
  • Being killed by lightning in a year = 2 x 106 or 1 in 2,000,000
  • Becoming president = 1 x 107 or 1 in 10,000,000
  • A meteorite landing on your house = 1.8 x 1014 or 1 in 180,000,000,000,000

- Assurance That Jesus is the Christ -

In 1957 Moody Press in Chicago, Illinois published a book by Professor Peter W. Stoner, called Science Speaks, An Evaluation of Certain Christian Evidences.In the book, Dr. Stoner looks at the probability that one man, Jesus Christ, could have fulfilled even 8 of the 456 prophecies that pertain to Him in the Old Testament. Let's look at the eight prophecies he used. Keep in mind, the time span between the prophecies of the Old Testament and the New Testament fulfillment is hundreds, even thousands of years.

Old Testament Prophecy / New Testament Fulfillment / Probability
Christ to be born in Bethlehem
(Micah 5:2)
/ And Herod asked where Christ had been born ... they answered Bethlehem
(Matt 2:4-6) / 2.8 x 105 or 1 in 280,000
Forerunner of Christ
(Malachi 3:1)
/ John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ
(Mark 1:2-8)
/ 1 x 103 or 1 in 1,000
Christ to enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey
(Zech 9:9)
/ Christ enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey
(Matt 21:4-11)
/ 1 x 102 or 1 in 100
Christ to be betrayed by a friend
(Psalm 41:9)
/ Judas betrayed Jesus
(Luke 22:21)
/ 1 x 103 or 1 in 1,000
Christ to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver
(Zech 11:12)
/ Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver
(Matt 26:15) / 1 x 103 or 1 in 1,000
30 pieces of silver casted down and used to buy a potter's field
(Zech 11:13)
/ 30 pieces of silver used to buy a potter's field
(Matt 27:3-10) / 1 x 105 or 1 in 100,000
Although innocent, Christ kept silent when on trial
(Isaiah 53:7) / Jesus kept silent when questioned
(Mark 14:60-61)
/ 1 x 103 or 1 in 1,000
Christ crucified
(Psalm 22:16)
/ Jesus was crucified
(John 19:17, 18) / 1 x 104 or 1 in 10,000

The odds or probability that any one man in the history of the world could ever fulfill these eight prophecies is 1 x 1017power. This is the number 1 followed by 17 zeroes or as we would say it in English …100 quadrillion.

- Visualizing Chances -

#1 - Let us try to visualize this chance. If you mark one of ten quarters, and place all of the quarters in a basket, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right quarter is one in ten.

#2 - Now, try to visualize this. How many silver dollars would it take to completely cover the carpet in our sanctuary?The sanctuary is approximately 20' wide and 40' long. The width of a silver dollar is 1 1/2". It would take 160 silver dollars laid end to end in a single row to cover the width of the sanctuary. It would take 320 silver dollars laid end to end in a single row to cover the length of the sanctuary. Therefore, the total number of silver dollars that it would take to cover our floor is 160 x 320 = 51,200. If we blind-folded one of you and brought you into the sanctuary and told you to pick out the one silver dollar we had marked, what are your chances of doing it? (1 out of 51,200)

#3 If we wanted to make it more difficult to find the silver dollar we could stack them equally to a depth of two feet. It would take 300+ silver dollars to make one stack of them two feet deep. Therefore the odds of finding the one marked silver dollar would be one chance in 15,360,000 (150 x 320 x 300 = 15,360,000).

* Show picture - State of Texas

Texas is the second largest state in the United States encompassing 268,581 square miles. It is 790 miles long and 773 miles wide. It is more than 2 1/2 times larger than Colorado which is the 8th largest state in the United States.

#4 Suppose that we take 1017or 100 quadrillion silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom. Yet Jesus Christ fulfilled them all! But it was not based on man's wisdom but God's words and how He had them to come to pass in one man.

#5 Now suppose we add eight more prophecies to our list, and assume that their chance of fulfillment is the same as the eight we just considered. The chance that one man would fulfill all sixteen is 1 in 1045 power or 10 quattuordecillion

Let us try to visualize this as we did before. Take this number of silver dollars. If you make them into a solid ball, you will have a great sphere with a center at the earth, and extending in all directions more than 30 times as far as from the earth to the sun or 2,790,000,000miles. If you can imagine the marking of one silver dollar, and then thoroughly stirring it into this great ball, and blindfolding a man and telling him to pick out one dollar, and expect it to be the marked one, you have somewhat of a picture of how absolutely the fulfillment of sixteen prophecies referring to Jesus Christ proves both that He is the Son of God and that our Bible is inspired. Certainly God directed the writing of His Word.

Think about this! What if we added the other 440 prophecies to come up with Alfred Edersheim's 456 … and especially the one that says Christ would be born of a virgin? Now what are the odds that God is telling the truth and at the same time giving you assurance?

And of course there are the other 1,361 foretelling prophecies that don't involve the Messiah, Christ Jesus our Lord.

- How Much Assurance Do You Need? -

I'm a numbers guy, so when I hear things like this …they just add up for me.

You have been going to church for a reason!You are here today for a reason!God has been drawing you to Himself and guiding youto make the right choice!

As an ambassador for Christ I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God made Jesus Christ, who knew no sin … to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

And working together with Him, I urge you not to turn away from the grace of God, for He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU."

Can you see, NOW is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," … can you see, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION" (2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2)

What do you have to lose by believing in God's goodness and way of salvation?

Remember you always have the right to develop your belief based on reasonable assurances. Based on the prophecies of God concerning His son … do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?

Remember you always have the right to believe whatever you want. However, what you believe may either be true or false and what you believe will greatly impact your life.

What do you have to lose… by believing in God's goodness and way of salvation?If the Scriptures are false you have lost nothing, but if they are true … you will die in your sins.

What do you have to gain… by believing in God's goodness and way of salvation? If the Scriptures are false you have gained nothing, but if they are true … you will live eternally with God in a new body He will give you.

God doesn't expect you to believe everything now but He does want you to get off the fence and make a decision concerning His word. In fact it is written: O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalms 34:8)

Did you notice the words "taste and see?" God didn't say swallow the whole enchilada … just take a taste! If you don't like the taste … spit it out.

So what steps does He want you to take now?

  1. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day.
  2. Profess with your mouth that God has made Jesus Christ Lord.
  3. Getbaptized.

Is it worth taking the chance? You decide!

*Play the song - 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus