Sermon Cloud

How Can I Be Sure I Am Saved?

(c)2007 by Joshua Krohse

Do any of you know someone whom you used to think was a Christian, but you’re not so sure anymore?  Maybe you were with this person when he prayed a prayer to ask Jesus into his heart or when she walked an aisle.  Maybe this person seemed interested in spiritual things for a few months or a few years, but then he just sort of fizzled out on the whole thing.

He is no longer interested in church, doesn’t read his Bible, doesn’t pray unless he’s in a jam, and doesn’t really seem to want to talk about anything spiritual.  He’s a generally nice guy, but you would never guess that he was a “born-again” person if you just met and talked with him.

Let’s say this person is almost killed in a car accident.  His car is totaled, but he walks away with only minor injuries and a good scare.  When you talk with him a couple days later, he says to you, “I’ve been thinking.  I almost died in that wreck.  I’m sure glad that I’ve got my ticket to heaven.  I mean, you were there when I signed that decision card.  So I’m all set, right?  The pastor told me I could never lose my salvation, no matter what.  I’m glad I got that religion stuff taken care of so I don’t have to worry about what happens next anymore.  Once a Christian, always a Christian, right?”

What are you going to tell your friend?  Is he “once save, always saved”?  Can you offer him any assurance?

Can someone with true faith in Jesus Christ lose his or her salvation?

First, we need to define the word faith?  Faith is trust.  You can’t just have “trust.”  You have to trust something.  The object of saving faith is Jesus Christ, His death in your place and His resurrection life.

Saving faith is a transfer of trust from unstable, untrustworthy things to Christ, who is ultimately stable and trustworthy.

Saving faith is a gift that God gives to spiritually dead people.  Ephesians 2 says that we all start out dead in sin, but God in His rich mercy and great love takes some of us dead people and makes us alive together with Christ.  By grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In Ephesians 1:4, we find that God chose some before the foundation of the world.  The next verse says that He predestined them to be adopted as His children.

Romans 8 says that there are those whom God foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.  And those He predestined, He calls, justifies, and glorifies.

All people were dead, enemies of God, without hope and without desire to know and please God.  But God grants some, because of His grace and by the power of His Holy Spirit, new life and faith, despite their wickedness.

So, saving faith is a gift of God.  He chose to whom He would give saving faith before the foundation of the world, and it has nothing to do with the goodness of the recipient and everything to do with the glory and goodness of the giver.

In Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is called the founder (or author) and perfecter of our faith.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give faith, maintain faith, and perfect faith.

God chose us.  If we choose Him, it is only because He first chose us.  So if you have saving faith, if you truly trust Christ, you have received a gift from God.  He did not save you because of you, but because of Him.  He did not save you because you were good, but despite your wickedness.

So, since salvation is not and cannot be earned, but is a gracious gift to undeserving wicked sinners, neither can it be lost.

Jesus said in John 10:29 that His Father is greater than all and no one can snatch Jesus’ sheep from the Father’s hand.

But, some say, maybe they can jump out.  Listen to Romans 8:31-39:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be  against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hypothetically, how would tribulation, distress, persecution, famine or nakedness, danger or the sword separate someone from the love of Christ?  By driving him or her to leave Christ!  But none of these things can come between Christ and the ones He loves.

Therefore, the true believer is held by God and cannot and will not lose his or her salvation.

So, the question we need to ask in situations like this isn’t whether someone can lose his or her salvation.  The real question is, does the person have salvation?  How can we know if someone has true saving faith?  How can we know if someone is really a believer? 

Please turn in your Bible to Philippians 1:6.  This verse is often presented as a comfort to those who are concerned for the soul of a supposed believer who is wandering or running away from the faith.

            Paul was sure that at the day of Christ, God would complete what He started in the Philippians.  Why?  Had they prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, signed a card?  Maybe (I don’t really think so), but that’s not the criteria used for his confidence.

            Why was Paul so sure?

·         Vs 7: He held them in his heart

·         Vs. 8: He yearned for them with the affection of Jesus Christ.

·         They were partakers with him of grace in his imprisonment

·         They were partakers with him of grace in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

Additionally, throughout the book we learn that:

·         1:5 They are partners with him in the advance of the gospel.

·         1:29 They believe in Christ

·         1:29-30 They suffer for Christ, engaged in the same conflict as Paul

·         2:12 They have always obeyed in the working out of their salvation

(2:13 It is God who works through them)

·         2:25 They had sent Epaphroditus to minister to Paul while he was in prison.

·         Chapter 4 They had sent financial assistance to Paul more than once (3x, I think)

Paul was so confident, because He saw a group of people living out what they said they believed.  They not only claimed to be Christians, they had produced the fruit of true faith for an extended period of time in the face of adversity.  That’s why Paul was so sure.

In many cases in the United States today, we don’t have this kind of evidence with which to assure someone.  Therefore, most of the time if we are wondering about someone else’s salvation, we would be wise not to offer assurance but rather to offer them the basis by which they can come to assurance through self-examination by the help of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit will assure those whom He indwells.

So then, let us say you want to examine yourself to see if you are truly a believer.  What should you look for?

            In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the seed.  You know the story.  Most of the seed fell on soil that was inhospitable for one reason or another, but some fell on good soil.  Jesus explains to his disciples that the seed represents the message of the kingdom of God.  “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”  The distinguishing mark of “good soil” is that it produces fruit.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:15-20, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”  According to Jesus, a true believer will produce good fruit. 

In John 15:8, Jesus says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

How can you prove to be Jesus’ disciple?  How can you know that you are a truly saved, truly born-again Christian?  If you are, you will be producing good fruit.

What, specifically, is this “good fruit” that true believers bear?

The Bible is full of descriptions of those who know and love God and those who do not.   If we were to look at all these passages, we would be here for months.

So today we will focus primarily on the book of I John.  John wrote in I John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”  The book of I John is full of tests that are intended to assure believers and drive unbelievers to repentance.

There are several different ideas as to how many different tests there are in I John.  The simplest arrangement summarizes them all under three main headings.

First of all, true believers worship the true Christ.  I John 5:1 says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”  I John 5:5 says, “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”  A true believer will trust in Christ for salvation.  He will not trust in anyone or anything else for salvation.

He or she will not believe that Jesus is a way to God, but that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  The believing man will recognize that he is completely unworthy of God’s grace and favor and will see that Jesus, by His death and resurrection, is his only hope.  He will not be satisfied with any savior except for Christ.

JC Ryle in his tract, “Are You Born Again?” writes about the man who does believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, “He may have his fears and doubts.  He may sometimes tell you he feels as if he had no faith at all.  But ask him whether he is willing to trust anything instead of Christ, and see what he will say.  Ask him whether he will rest his hopes of eternal life on his own goodness, his own amendments, his prayers, his minister, or his church, and see what he will reply.  Ask him whether he will give up Christ, and place his confidence in any other way of salvation.  Depend on it, he would say that though he does feel weak and bad, he would not give up Christ for all the world.  Depend on it, he would say that he found a preciousness in Christ, a suitableness to his own soul in Christ, that he found nowhere else, and that he must cling to Him.”

The true believer will trust in the true Christ.  This also means that the true believer will desire to know the true Christ better.  He or she will read and study God’s Word, because that is where God has revealed the truth about the true Christ most plainly.

So, one of the most obvious good fruits that will be present in the life of a truly saved person is a desire to know and worship Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, the Son of God.

Secondly, a true believer will practice righteousness.  A born-again believer does not practice sin.  I John 3:9 says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”  I John 5:18 says, “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning.”  So a person who is born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, will not practice sin.

Yes, she will sin. “ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” –I John 1:8.  But, she will not practice sin.  She will not continue in it.  She will fall, stumble, sometimes outright disobey.  She will be tempted to sin, and sometimes she will give in, but she will hate sin.

She will delight in the law of God in her inner being, though she is overcome by sin.  She will feel the pain of the battle and cry out, “I am wretched!  Who will deliver me from this body of death!”

The believer will sometimes sin, but she will not love sin or even tolerate it.  She will hate sin and desire to be entirely free of it.

A true believer will continually repent.  To repent means to turn away from sin toward Christ.  A believer, by the help of the Holy Spirit, will put to death the deeds of the body.  If a child of God is confronted with his sin, he will confess it and turn from it.  David, a man after God’s own heart sinned greatly, but when he was confronted with his sin he repented greatly.  If you are a believer, you will not continue in unrepentant sin.

When Jesus speaks in Matthew 18 about the brother who has sinned, he says that if the sinner will not repent after he has been confronted and entreated by even the church, then treat him as a Gentile and a tax collector.  In other words, if he refuses to repent like believers do when they are confronted with their sin, then treat him like an unbeliever.  A mark of a true believer is continual turning from sin to Christ.

A truly saved person turns from sin and practices righteousness.  I John 2:29: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”  He loves God, he loves Christ, he loves what Christ loves and wants to be conformed to Christ’s image.  So, He truly tries to obey what God commands.  He desires to love God with everything he is and to love his neighbor as himself.

He desires that not only his actions will conform to the requirements of God but that his heart will reflect the holiness and righteousness of Christ.  He has the Holy Spirit of God within him and therefore he produces the fruit of the Spirit.  And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  These are almost all attitudes of the heart, and the true believer will possess these attitudes, perhaps in small, unstable, unsteady degrees at various times, but in ever-increasing fullness.

The believer is not perfect and is painfully aware that he is far from perfect, but he is being perfected.  He should be able to look at his life and see that by God’s grace through training and discipline he is being conformed to the image of God’s Son.  The true believer produces the good fruit of righteousness.

There is much more to say on this—we could look at II Peter 1:5-11, for instance, to see how growth in righteousness assures us that we are children of God, and how a lack of growth should drive us to Christ.  But for now, let’s look at the John’s third defining attribute of a person with genuine new life in Christ.

I John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”  Do you love other Christians?  I think a lot of people would say, “Yeah, for the most part, anyway.  I get along with almost everyone.”

So let’s look at this a little more closely.  The question you should ask if you want to test yourself is, do you love those who love Christ?  Do you want to spend time with people who are persistently following Christ.  Think of someone you know who clearly loves the Lord.  He or she is constantly becoming more like Christ, earnestly throwing off sin, avoiding temptation, seeking to understand and be transformed by the Word of God, humbly serving others.  This person takes his or her faith seriously.

Do you want to be his friend?  Do you invite her over when you invite your other friends over?  Would you love the chance to get to know this person better, to encourage him or her and be encouraged?  Do you see God’s grace in this person and think, “That person loves the same God I love, follows the same Christ, is filled with the same Spirit, and is living the same kind of holy life I want to live.  I can’t help but love that person in Christ.”

Or, do you think that person is maybe a little bit nuts.  He’s a goody-two-shoes.  She takes her faith waayyy to seriously.  She needs to learn to relax.  Nobody’s perfect.  He probably looks down on me.  I can’t invite her over, she’d make all my friends uncomfortable.  He wouldn’t want to hang out with me anyway—he probably wouldn’t approve of the music I listen to or the movies I watch.  Anyway, he’s too poor or too rich or too smart or too stupid or whatever other excuses you can come up with not to spend time with that person.

Do you really love those who love Christ, or do you only love those who are like you—content to call yourself a Christian and live like the world, valuing possessions and power, comfort and happiness and looking down on those who consider all of that rubbish for the sake of Christ.  Are you glad to have your “fire insurance” but not interested in pursuing God along with the rest of his people.  If you do not love those who love Christ, you do not love Christ.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Do you see the good fruit of love in your life?  Do you love, however imperfectly,  those who are clearly following Christ?  If you think that you do not, you probably have no reason for confidence that you are indeed a regenerated true believer.

If you examine yourself and see that you do indeed believe in the true Christ, that you want to know Him more and more fully, and that He is your only hope no matter how much your faith may falter.  If you see decreasing sin and  increasing righteousness in your life, if you are continually repenting—turning from sin to Christ.  And if you love those who love Christ, then be confident.  Study the book of I John.  John wrote these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.  Be confident that the Father will not let you go.  Trust that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.  Be encouraged!

But, if you examine yourself in these areas and find that you do not put your confidence in Jesus Christ alone, or that you actually enjoy some forms of sin and would sin more if you could get away with it, or that you dislike or even despise those who take up their cross daily to follow Christ, then be very afraid.

Hell is a very real place, the destination of all those who are not born again, receiving the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.  Do not ignore the Lord.  He will not be ignored.  You will die.  You will face judgment.  And all your good intentions and church attendance and your going forward and the commitment card you signed and your work in the church kitchen or nursery or mowing the yard or teaching Sunday school or serving as a deacon or pastoring a church will not help you one little bit.

You will cry, “Lord, Lord!”  But Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ”

            Are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance?  If not, I offer you no assurance.  Do not try to justify yourself.

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Please recognize that you are in a desperate situation.  Your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.  You have offended the infinitely holy, good, and perfect God.  He hates wickedness and has every right in His justice to crush you in the winepress of His wrath.  But He offers you hope, for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

Cling to Jesus, cry out to Jesus.  Jesus Christ, God’s Son, God in flesh, lived a perfect life and suffered the full wrath of God on the cross for the sins of and in the place of sinners like you and me.  He died and was buried and on the third day God raised Him from the dead.  He offers you forgiveness and new life and salvation.

Seek the Lord while He may be found!  If you have a hard time believing the gospel, ask God to give you faith.  If you have a hard time believing you need Christ, ask God to show you your wickedness.  If you love sin, ask God to make it detestable to you.  If you see that you are without God and without hope in the world, turn from your sin, stop trusting the world, and put your trust in Christ and His righteousness and His power and His goodness.  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.