20 Sermon Illustrations on Salvation Assurance

Dwight L. Moody once said, "The great trouble is that people take everything in general, and do not take it to themselves. Suppose a man should say to me, 'Moody, there was a man in Europe who died last week, and left five million dollars to a certain individual.' 'Well,' I say, 'I don't doubt that; it's rather a common thing to happen,' and I don't think anything more about it. But suppose he says, 'But he left the money to you.' Then I pay attention; I say, 'To me?' 'Yes, he left it to you.' I become suddenly interested. I want to know all about it. So we are apt to think Christ died for sinners; He died for everybody, and for nobody in particular. But when the truth comes to me that eternal life is mine, and all the glories of heaven are mine, I begin to be interested. I say, 'Where is the chapter and verse where it says I can be saved?' If I put myself among sinners, I take the place of the sinner, then that salvation is mine and I am sure of it for time and eternity."

There was a little fellow who was returning home from a store with a pail of honey in his hand. A gentleman who walked beside him saw him slip one finger down into the pail. Then, because his mother had told him never to wipe his sticky fingers on his blouse or trousers, it found its only logical destination, his mouth. It really tasted good. After he had done this several times, the gentleman approached him and said, "See here, Sonny, what have you in that pail?" "Some honey, sir." "Honey-is it sweet?" "Yes, sir." "How sweet is your honey?" "It is very sweet, sir." "Well, I do not understand you. I asked you how sweet your honey was, and you have not yet told me. How sweet is it?" "Why, it is very, very sweet, sir." "Well, you are a funny little fellow; I asked you how sweet your honey is, and you just tell me it is very, very sweet. Now, can't you tell me really how sweet your honey is?" The little fellow was impatient by this time, so he stuck his finger down into the honey, and holding it up said, "Taste and see for yourself."

Well, let me illustrate it then, and perhaps you will be able to understand it. Suppose I am dying with consumption; which I inherited from my father or mother. I did not get it by any fault of my own, by any neglect of my health; I inherited it, let us suppose. Well, I go to my physician, and to the best physicians, and they all give me up. They say I am incurable; I must die; I have not thirty days to live. Well, a friend happens to come along and looks at me and says: "Moody, you have got the consumption." "I know it very well; I don't want any one to tell me that." "But," he says, "There is a remedy--a remedy, I tell you. Let me have your attention. I want to call your attention to it. I tell you there is a remedy." "But sir, I don't believe it. I have tried the leading physicians in this country and in Europe, and they tell me there is no hope." "But you know me, Moody; you have known me for years." "Yes, sir." "Do you think, then, I would tell you a falsehood?" "No." "Well, ten years ago I was far gone. I was given up by the physicians to die, but I took this medicine and it cured me, I am perfectly well--look at me;" I say that it is a very strange case. "Yes, it may be strange, but it is a fact. That medicine cured me; take this medicine and it will cure you. Although it has cost me a great deal, it shall not cost you anything. Although the salvation of Jesus Christ is as free as the air, it cost God the richest jewel of heaven. He had to give his only Son; give all He had; He had only one Son, and He gave Him. Do not make light of it, then, I beg of you." "Well" I say, "I would like to believe you, but this is contrary to my reason." Hearing this, my friend goes away and brings another friend to me and he testifies to the same thing. He again goes away when I do not yet believe, and brings in another, and another; and another, and they all testify to the same thing. They say they were as bad as myself; and they took the same medicine that has been offered to me, and it cured them. He then hands me the medicine. I dash it to the ground; I do not believe in its saving power: I die. The reason is, then, that I spurned the remedy.

So it will not be because Adam fell, but that you spurn the remedy offered to you to save you. You will have darkness rather than light. How, then, shall ye escape if ye neglect so great salvation? There is no hope for you if you neglect the remedy.

A man was once being tried for a crime, the punishment of which was death. The witnesses came in one by one and testified to his guilt; but there he stood, quite calm and unmoved. The judge and the jury were quite surprised at his indifference; they could not understand how he could take such a serious matter so calmly. When the jury retired, it did not take them many minutes to decide on a verdict "Guilty;" and when the judge was passing the sentence of death upon the criminal he told him how surprised he was that he could be so unmoved in the prospect of death. When the judge had finished, the man put his hand in his bosom, pulled out a document, and walked out of the dock a free man. Ah, that was how he could be so calm; it was a free pardon from his king, which he had in his pocket all the time. The king had instructed him to allow the trial to proceed, and to produce the pardon only when he was condemned. No wonder, then, that he was indifferent as to the result of the trial. Now that is just what will make us joyful in the great day of judgment: we have got a pardon from the Great King, and it is sealed with the blood of His Son.

"As a man falling into a river espieth a bough of a tree, and catches at it with all his might, and as soon as he hath fast hold of it he is safe, though troubles and fears do not presently vanish out of his mind; so the soul, espying Christ as the only means to save him, and reaching out the hand to him, is safe, though it be not presently quieted and pacified. The soul's grasp of Jesus saves even when it does not comfort. If we touch the hem of his garment we are healed of our deadly disease, though our heart may still be full of trembling. We may be in consternation, but we cannot be under condemnation if we have believed in Jesus; even as the man who has grasped the branch may be wetted, but cannot be drowned. Safety is one thing, and assurance of it is another. Whether the believer in Christ Jesus is able to rejoice in his safety, or is still under bondage to fear, the word of the Lord standeth true beyond all question—‘He that believeth in him hath everlasting life.’

THE COIN AND THE PRINCE. "In the Scriptures there is a draught of God, but in Christ there is God himself. A coin bears the image of Caesar, but Caesar’s son is his lively resemblance. Christ is the living Bible." We rightly call the Scriptures "The Word of God," and yet in the deepest and truest sense Christ only is "THE WORD." What reverence, then, is due to him, and how important it is that we get beyond all the outward signs and symbols of religion, and even beyond the letter of Scripture, to the person of the Son of God himself. His promise of rest is to those who come to Himself,—“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden"; for it is in himself that the divine power is centred. He tells us, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"; but the eye of the mind has never yet beheld the glory of God, or known him in any true sense until it has gazed upon Immanuel, God with us; for he alone is “the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person.” God is in every covenant blessing, but not as he is in Christ, for "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." A man had better have the prince for a friend than possess a thousand images of the king his father upon gold and silver; and so it is a happier thing for us to know that Christ is ours than to possess all other blessings, however much of God there may be about them. "Christ is all," and he is more than all. To his people he is all in all, for such is God. My soul, let this endear Jesus to thee beyond all else, and let it make thee urgent and eager to draw very near to him. Here lies thy way to God, for God is in him, and nowhere else canst thou ever find him. What a happy thing for thee that thy God, thy heaven, thy all, are treasured up in one so accessible to thee as thy Mediator and Friend.

Ye lame, fear not, you will not be cast out. Two snails entered the ark: how they got there, I cannot tell. It must have taken them a long time. They must have set off rather early, unless it be that Noah took them part of the way. So some of you are snails: you are on the right road; but it will take a long while, unless some blessed Noah helps you into the ark.

— Spurgeon

"God is merciful!" shouted a few young converts in the ears of a distressed and despairing young man. "Yes," said he, "God is merciful; but he is also just, and his justice will cut me down." In his despair, he came near self-destruction; but God revealed his favor, and he afterwards preached the gospel with great power.

A physician who was anxious about his soul asked a believing patient of his how he should find peace. His patient replied, "Doctor, I have felt that I could do nothing, and I have put my case in your hand; I am trusting in you. This is exactly what every poor sinner must do in the Lord Jesus." He saw the simplicity of the way, and soon found peace in Christ.

When the Rev. Andrew Fuller first visited Scotland a notoriously wicked and abandoned woman, seeing a number of persons thronging the doors of a chapel, felt her curiosity awakened, and being informed that an Englishman was to preach, she mingled with the crowd, and entered the place. Mr. Fuller took for his text the words, "Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." "What then," she exclaimed in her heart, "surely there is hope even for me! Wretch as I am, I am not beyond the ends of the earth." She listened with eager delight, while the good man proclaimed the free salvation of the gospel. Hope sprung up in her heart, a hope which purified as well as comforted; and the grace of God taught her to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the present world."

The following statement was made by the Rev. Mr. Carey, from India, in an address before the American Tract Society, in 1825.

A young Brahmin obtained one of our tracts, and after reading it, he came to us full of anxiety, inquiring, "What shall I do to be saved?" We instructed him out of the Gospel. He came again and again, and at length renounced his idols, and, we have no doubt, gave his heart to Christ. After many weeks he joined a Christian church. But God did not suffer him to remain with us many years. He fell a prey to the cholera. A little before he died, another young native Christian came to see and to comfort him; and as he laid his languishing head on the bosom of his young friend, he broke out in an ecstasy, and said in his native tongue, "Sing, brother, sing." "And what shall I sing?" was the inquiry of his friend. "Sing salvation, salvation through the death of Jesus! Salvation through Jesus Christ." And I believe these were the last words he uttered.