So here’s the Sunday we pivot from what God has done to us. He loved. He gave. We believe. We believe. Isn’t it interesting to think about what is it that we believe? And how do we know what to believe? And this is not just a question for church. I mean, think about, uh, what’s been going on in our country this last week. And, you know, I’m not, don’t panic, I’m not going to get super political on you here, but just a reflection that especially in an election year like we’re in, isn’t it something how we are just, and it’s just going to keep ramping up now until November, bombarded by just tons of political messages, campaign promises, and the ever spinning wheels of media interpretation. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I find it hard to know what to believe and who to believe sometimes. And in a world where truth is self defined and seems elusive to share, even shrouded in shadow, our Christian faith needs unshakable foundation. And that being Word of God, in which we learn about His trustworthiness, His faithfulness, How he not only gives us truth, but is truth. And today we, we’re gonna dive into this verse, once again, John 3, 16. Profound in its simplicity, but transformative in its power. We believe. This is powerfully seen in this verse. God loved, he gave, we believe. And what Pastor Pam just read for us from Ephesians chapter 2 is we’re going to use that as kind of a, a lens to, to delve deeper into John 3. 16. Where we see that the good news of our salvation, it’s not as any kind of a reward for what we’ve done, but rather it’s a gift freely and fully given us by God through faith in His Son. So, as we are doing, uh, every weekend here in this series, we’re gonna read the sermon text together out loud. And here it is up on the screen.

Let’s read together, John 3, 16. But have everlasting life. Amen. Let’s continue in prayer. Lord God, this is, it’s, it’s your heart in just a few words. It’s the gospel in a nutshell. It’s the promise we need to cling to. It’s you, Jesus, that we need to see, and so come, Holy Spirit. Ignite and enliven our hearts to receive your word, to open our eyes to see Jesus in a fresh way. And may our faith grow and the assurance of our salvation be even more firmly placed in you, bringing us peace and joy in this life as we hang on to the hope of everlasting life to come. Come now and speak to our hearts, I ask in Jesus precious name. Amen. Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. In the heart of the Gospel of John, we find this most profound declaration, I would say maybe ever made, a promise. It’s delivered to a Pharisee, an expert in keeping the law. It’s like a lawyer, an attorney. Who specializes in keeping the law. And this is a group renowned for this. Nicodemus is his name.

A Pharisee himself. And he comes to Jesus by night and it sets the stage for this hope diamond of the Bible. John 3. 16 That reveals the simplicity but also the depth of God’s love for us in Christ. And while this verse may be familiar to us maybe too familiar to you. It maybe seems simple. It was directed and it penetrated a man’s heart who represented a system that was very meticulous about keeping the law. And if we’re honest with ourselves, our hearts aren’t that far off from that either. We feel like, I mean, you just ask anyone on the street, how is it that you know you’re saved? If you can come to that question, they’re going to say some version of, I don’t know. It’s what I do. It’s how good I am. Really? Whoa. We’re gonna dive into that here in this message. And we’re gonna use that passage in Ephesians chapter 2 to, uh, to open up this wonderful gift. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. It’s, it, it’s almost as declarative and precious as John 3, 16 in delivering the heart of the gospel. Here it is. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. This is not from yourselves. It’s a gift of God, not by works. So here’s my first assertion. Salvation is a gift from God, with nothing to do from yourself. Let me explain. This passage, it’s the cornerstone of understanding that our actions, even no matter how good or righteous they are, can never earn salvation. The Bible puts it this way in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. All of us have become like one who’s unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. In other words, even our best efforts don’t measure up. They can’t earn God’s salvation. How much contaminant is needed to contaminate a sample? Just a small little bit and then the entire sample is contaminated. The Apostle Paul, who wrote Ephesians chapter 2 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, understood this better than anyone. He himself was a Pharisee. And then his transformation, meeting Christ, and then his subsequent writings, of which we get a lot of our New Testament, highlight that it’s not adherence to the law that saves us.

It can’t. It won’t. But rather, it’s God’s grace given us through faith in Christ Jesus. And yet, here’s the rub. I think when we hear a phrase like, we believe. We tend to think of belief as something that we need to work up within ourselves, something that we can muster. I gotta believe, I gotta believe more, I gotta believe better, I gotta believe stronger. And the trouble with seeing faith as something that comes from within ourselves is that if we focus on ourselves, on our own belief, we’ll never have the assurance of salvation. Because we’ll always be able to poke holes at the integrity of our faith. When all the while we should be focused on God’s faithfulness and not upon our faithfulness or lack thereof. So the Bible clearly states we are saved by grace through faith and this is a gift from God not from ourselves. And what is this grace that our faith is holding on to? Here’s one of the promises that it holds on to just a chapter earlier in the book of Ephesians. In Him, that’s Jesus. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us.

Have you ever pictured God’s love to you as Him just lavishly pouring it upon you? That’s what He’s doing in Christ Jesus. So rejoice! Your salvation is not at all dependent upon who you are or what you’ve done or haven’t done. And that’s a good thing. Your salvation, rather, is completely and fully given to you as a gift from God. It’s actually an act of God. In Ephesians chapter 1, we’re reminded that we are chosen by God. Listen to this promise. For He, this is God the Father, chose us in Him, that’s God the Son, for God the Father chose us in Christ Jesus before the creation of the world to be what? To be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. Here at Victory, you’re going to hear messages over and over again, not some spiritual self help TED talk. You’re going to get biblical truth that always kind of has to recalibrate our religious oriented hearts to see it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship that God has actually initiated. And through Christ Jesus and through faith and blameless, I don’t. I go like, how much I don’t believe enough. That’s what I want to try to disabuse you of today, in this time together. We didn’t choose to be holy. We can’t really choose to be holy. For this is something that God does for us through faith. Christ. Now, don’t get me wrong. As your pastor, I want you to want to be holy, okay? But just don’t rely on your efforts. That desire is just evidence of God’s Holy Spirit working in you on that which He’s already given you, which is the right, righteous standing before God. And then adoption as a son or daughter. And an heir, and then it’s the Holy Spirit working in you. Listen, listen. Here’s how Paul writes it to another church in Philippi. He writes, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. So even that desire to want to be holy, it can be there and that’s the work of the Holy Spirit, but that’s not the foundation of your faith.

Always remember God is the first actor. In your salvation, everything from you is a response to what God has done for you and what he continues to do within you. In fact, Jesus said it this way, recorded in John 6. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them. Alright, so God is the first actor. I’d like to take you to seminary class with me just for a little bit. Alright, so if you kind of, I don’t know, put your thinking cap on. And I want to, to to talk with you about two different kind of ways that we engage with faith in our spiritual journey. So here’s the 25 cent seminary word. The first is salvific, means saving faith, and the second is reflexive faith. Salvific faith is saving faith, that deep Trust and belief in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life It’s the faith that saves this is the faith that God gives you that you can’t muster up on your own You can’t give yourself this gift It’s given you from God and this is the gift that saves you but in our human Experience of it in the in our journey then as a child of God We experienced what I would call reflexive faith And I think this is what we often think of when we think about, we believe, reflects of faith. It really involves a continuous process of, of introspection and reflecting on what we’ve received, where we examine and, and even deepen our understanding of this faith and its implications in our lives. So salvific faith secures our salvation. It’s a gift. It really comes from the field of human development. Do you, do you remember where a child, uh, before puberty is very concrete in their thinking? Then they go and they become adults, and they move to abstract thinking. And here’s the way you can understand it. It’s someone thinking about themself, thinking about themselves. That’s abstract thinking. Reflexive faith, it doesn’t save, but it’s us reflecting on that which we’ve been given, and it creates gratitude and joy, and then a desire to even grow deeper in that faith. But if we rely on our reflexive faith, how we feel about our own faith, that’s going to be up and down. And this is why we need to always go back to God’s saving faith. God, the first actor, given to you as a gift. Here’s, leads to my second assertion. Salvation is not about how big your faith is. It’s about how great is the one in whom your faith is placed.

In other words, salvation, it’s not about the magnitude of, it’s all about the magnitude of God’s grace. It’s not about the measure of your faith. So when you consider we believe, look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. Don’t look to your own heart. In our own spiritual journey, it’s, I think it’s easy to become preoccupied assessing the depth or strength of our own faith. We might worry about whether our faith is big enough or strong enough or consistent enough to ensure our salvation. But the scriptures remind us that the essence of salvation lies not in the size of our faith. But in the greatness of the one in whom our faith is placed. We need to get this and be reminded of it continuously. Salvation is entirely the work of God. It’s a gift, not a reward or based on the size or quality of our faith. Our faith is a gift and it’s merely the means by which we receive the grace of God freely given us in Christ Jesus. You remember being with your child or a grandchild at a busy street and you’re going to cross it? What’s the first thing you do? You grab their hand, right? And then as you cross, is the safety of that child based on their strength and holding on to your hand? Not with my squirmy kids or grandkids and I doubt with yours as well It’s based entirely on my grip and I’m not letting them go. Dear friends in Christ Jesus That’s how God holds on to you.

He’s given you this gift of faith And yeah, you want to hold his hand and I want you to grow in your faith But your salvation is not based upon how strong your grip is on God It’s about the strength of his grip and his faithfulness to you It’s wonderful. So here’s the key. To shift our focus from your own faith strength to the steadfastness and power of God. Listen to how Jesus describes the amount of faith that you need. Okay, here’s what he says. Because you have so little faith, Jesus says to his disciples, Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, You can say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. You ever tried that? I have. I, and no mountain’s ever moved. So, I think that means that my faith is even smaller than a mustard seed. And yet, here’s the point. Even faith as small as a mustard seed is sufficient when placed in prayer. in almighty God. It’s because of whom our faith is placed in that we can rest in the assurance of God’s unchanging character and his overwhelming and steadfast grace, which are the true anchors of our salvation. And finally, this means that salvation as a gift from God, it means that you can have assurance of your salvation. The assurance of our salvation, it’s not based on the magnitude of our faith, but on the greatness of the one in whom it’s placed. Yes, I know I’ve said that before. We need to get that. And yet I would say in my own life, and maybe as you reflect on your own life, and even the experiences we have in a church such as Victory, we often encounter doubts, inner voices that challenge our worthiness, or highlight our sinful nature. I had one of the people who discipled me, you know, And this isn’t, you know, new by any means, but there’s like three primary sources of temptation. The flesh, the world, and the devil. And that it’s in our younger years that the flesh gets us. The sins of the flesh. Lots of temptation there. It’s in our middle years that the temptations of the world draw us away from God. Status, prestige, fame, fortune, whatever it might be. So in our younger years, it’s the flesh. Middle years, the world. Our later years, it’s the devil. And here’s how it comes. The devil whispers into your ears that goes to your heart, God doesn’t really love you. You’re lost. You don’t believe enough. God could love someone like you. You, still a sinner. And in this, the ministry here at Victory, um, especially a lot of us who are in our second half of life, We’re susceptible to this temptation and these lies from the enemy. A common concern and worry we hear is that that inner voice that whispers, you’re not worthy. You’re a sinner. So let’s first tackle that.

That first one, you’re not worthy. Well, the reality is you’re not. I’m not either, but God knows this and that’s why he sent his son. The only one who is worthy, the Lamb crucified, slain, before the foundations of the earth were laid. So when the enemy whispers to you, you’re not worthy, just say, you know, I know that, but so does God, and He’s taking care of it. Because I’m in the one who is worthy. And then there’s this accusation. You’re such a sinner. God will never love you. You continue to sin. And the reality is that, yes, even for believers, this side of eternity, we’re still going to wrestle and even succumb to sin. But there’s a solution God’s given for it. We just practiced it earlier. It’s called confession, forgiveness, absolution. You are absolved of your sins. As the scriptures say, if we confess our sins, God is faithful. and just. He has every reason to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Why is he just to do so? Because Jesus has already paid the price. And so even when we wrestle with sin until Christ comes again or we pass on to meet him, just know that we have this, this kind of dual identity going on. In Christ, we are a new creation, and we are a saint, declared so, to be holy and blameless. And yet we know we still wrestle with sin. So we’re simultaneously saint and sinner. The sinner’s side is already handled through confession and forgiveness because of Christ’s death. And then you can rest in God’s assertion to you, promise to you, that promise. When you’re in Christ, you are a saint. You are holy. I didn’t have assurance of salvation as a kid growing up. Now, I was brought up in a Christian home. Baptized as a baby brought up. My first Bible was a King James Bible. No pictures, just the text. And I memorized scripture in that as a young kid. My mom was a Sunday school superintendent. We were at church any time the doors were open. And yet I still didn’t have assurance of salvation. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. And this was well before Doppler or, you know, weather apps. But whenever a tornado warning would come, I’d go into my tent, the top bunk that I slept in, curl up and just kind of pray. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I pray, over and over again, no assurance of salvation. Lord, please, please, please, please, please take me if I were to die. You know what? And it’s not because my parents didn’t You know, didn’t point me to Christ, and I didn’t read the Bible. But it wasn’t until I was in seminary, when I got, I got to dive deeply into the, and learn the reality, salvation is all what God has done for me. What I do, don’t do, that’s law. What God has done for me in Christ, that’s gospel, that’s great news. It’s good news, and in that, is the assurance of our salvation. Pastor Susan Westland, our church chaplain, we’ll Uh, she, uh, cares for a lot of our congregation that the rest of us don’t get to see, those who are homebound. And she brings back what I like to call, uh, news from the front lines. These stories of dear saints who are part of the Victory Church family. She’ll ask them, when did you know that you were saved? And some have a pretty incredible conversion story, but the majority of them just have always, they’ve, they’ve been a Christian, they can’t point back to a date, but one said, it was when I was in confirmation class. So, Renee, take heart. Even Confirmation students can come to Assurance of Salvation. And we’re starting up a class in just a couple of months in September. We’re so looking forward to that. Another dear saint told Susan, You know what, I can’t point to a specific time or place, but I just, when I was in my young adults, I just kind of knew. And for some people it comes in the last quarter of their life. In our journey, we can be tempted by all kinds of forces, and certainly the flesh, the world, and Satan, who’s this accuser, brings us these accusations. He, he whispers them. Just silence him. Just say, you know what, I know you’re right. God’s taking care of that for me in Christ Jesus.

Wow, what a gift. The truth of the gospel counters every lie or whisper. We’re not saved by our works, as our text says, but by the work of Christ on the cross, it’s not bus about us trying to achieve worthiness. Following God and His Word is a response out of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. It’s not about our worth, but it’s about the worth of the Lamb who died for you and for me. So we can have this assurance of salvation when we continually remember, it is by grace you’ve been saved through faith. And this is not of your doing, it’s the gift of God. And in a world that so often demands justice, Or retribution. Isn’t it something, isn’t it precious that God gives us grace and mercy? Giving us what we don’t deserve and withholding from us what we do. This divine grace is the, the foundation for the assurances of our salvation. It gives us solid reason to face each day, not with fear, but with faith in the one who’s called us and holds on to us in his hands. So dear friends. Dearly beloved in Christ, believe in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. And then experience the strong assurance of your salvation, freeing you from the burdens of guilt or fear and bringing you rather peace and rest, a foundation for your hope and the source of your own strength. No matter the circumstance. Join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of salvation. It comes not from our own efforts, but it’s given solely by you. Grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Help us to rest in the assurance that our faith, no matter how small, when anchored in you, It’s solid because of your unchanging love and mighty power. And may we walk in the freedom and peace that comes from trusting each day in your promises given to us in Christ Jesus. In whose name I pray. Amen.