Okay, today we're asking the question, one of the most important questions there is.
When it's all said and done, this is really all that matters.
Are you sure you're saved?
Are you sure you're saved?
These multiple ways of being saved we've all heard has led to mass confusion.
The question, Are you sure you're saved, is a very direct question that often gets inconsistent answers.
So today, I thought I'd share some of the ones I've heard over the years.
And I encourage you to try this.
Try asking some of those in your circle if they're certain of their salvation.
It can get rather interesting.
You'll be surprised at some of the different answers you get to the same question.
You might get, Yes, I believe in God.
As if believing in God saves you.
No, the question is, are you sure you're saved?
Not if you believe in God or not.
And don't be surprised when some say, Yes, I know Jesus.
Or they might say, Yeah, I'm saved, I love the Lord.
As if knowing or loving him saves you.
A couple of times I've heard, That's none of your business.
And here's one of the more popular ones I've got.
Oh, I'm saved, I go to church.
Because as we all know, church attendance is what saves you.
You'll find that over there in the book of 1 Opinions Chapter 2.
I asked one gentleman about it, and he said, Oh, yeah, I stopped drinking years ago.
One time I was actually told, Yeah, I'm saved because I try to do good, and I'm a vegetarian.
That's one for the books right there.
The diet gospel.
Another one I've heard a few times, Yeah, I'm saved, my father was a preacher.
And some, some will say, I hope so.
Others have said to me, Saved from what?
One common response is, I've always been a religious person.
Or as one lady I remember telling me, I'm very spiritual.
And then she said, I pray daily.
Because we all know, do we not, that in Acts Chapter 16, there when, when the man at Philippi, the jailer, when he asked Paul and Silas how to be saved, they said, Be spiritual and pray daily.
Be religious.
Attend church.
And don't forget to eat your veggies.
When I've asked the question, Are you sure you're saved?, many times I've heard, I'm a good person.
That's a popular response.
Another popular one I recall hearing, I'm being saved.
Probably a Catholic.
Not sure.
And I lost count of how many, how many I've encountered that they're trusting their eternal destiny to the sinner's prayer.
After one gentleman told me that I said, So you believe in salvation by works?
And pretty emphatically, he immediately said, No.
So, I had him read Colossians Chapter 4 Verse 12.
There where Paul describes prayer as a work.
Labor means work, to toil, to travail.
Prayer is a work, but salvation is Ephesians 2:9 not of works.
If we could say a prayer and be saved, we wouldn't need the gospel.
Christ came down for nothing.
Prayer is something we have as a result of salvation, but it cannot activate or achieve salvation.
But that's how false gospels start.
And they spread.
Over the years I've heard, Oh, yes, I walked the aisle.
Got baptized.
I'm a pastor.
Hey, because you're a pastor don't mean you're saved.
It just means you're a pastor.
Many unsaved men have a certificate on their wall.
I've heard, I made Jesus Lord of my life.
Gave him my life.
Committed my life to him.
Surrendered my life to him.
Turned from my sins.
Received the gift of the Holy Ghost.
I'm a faithful tither.
I'm a Sunday school teacher.
I've even heard, I keep the Sabbath.
All false ways to be saved.
Every one of these are about self.
Look at me.
Look at me.
Look what I have done.
Look what I can do.
All having nothing to do with what Jesus did.
And make no mistake, those who make salvation about themselves are the very ones who think they can lose it.
Not realizing that salvation belongs to the Lord, Jonah 2:9.
What the Lord done is permanent and you can't undo what he has done.
Some treat their salvation as something God started but you gotta' finish.
No, salvation is of the Lord.
He's the perfect object of my faith.
So, anytime old Mr. Doubt comes and pays you a visit, just remember, your salvation now belongs to the Lord.
It's not your responsibility to keep your salvation intact.
It doesn't hinge on your strength, but his.
Grace only works when we don't.
There's only one correct answer to the, Are you sure you're saved question.
However you want to word it, that's fine.
But the answer must always point to Christ and away from you.
The answer has to center around faith alone in his death having paid for all your sins, and his resurrection which justifies you to eternal life.
But sadly, most of the answers I've gotten place the focus on their own accomplishments.
When I get these answers, I'm reminded of just how bad today's ministers have failed.
So inconsistent with their various versions of what they call the gospel.
It's powerless.
Romans 1:16, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
But the modern day false gospels are powerless.
These I've spoken with, and listen, many tell me they've been in church most of their lives, but their takeaway on how to be saved is nothing more than
some self-evaluation psychobabble that they learned from the religious toxicity system they've been involved with.
Even if they do happen to mention the cross of Christ, they end up doing a 180 back to their self.
Salvation by performance.
It's truly a heartbreaking reality.
The old serpent has been changing God's way of doing things since the
garden, and with the help of man, he's still succeeding today.
Religion's only going to offer you a mixed bag of nuts with no consistency, and that's why these so-called church buildings are full of false converts. They've got 'em caught up in activities and ignorant to how they should Romans 10:3 give up on self and submit to the righteousness of God.
They're in the choir, the band, they're soloists, musicians, pastors, youth ministers, deacons, Sunday school teachers, greeters.
My wife, she grew up in a Baptist church.
Baptized, joined the church, daughter of a deacon, won a bunch of Bible trivia contests, always confessed her sins.
Was the church pianist and traveled the country with a southern gospel group.
But so what?
She had never heard the gospel of grace presented clearly.
She was on her way to hell from the piano bench.
After we met and got married, a few years in, I heard a clear presentation
of the gospel.
And it was then that I realized I was just religious and lost.
Got saved sitting in my office.
I'll never forget that day.
I was so fired up, I made the coffee nervous.
Went home, told her about it.
Her response was, I thought you were already saved.
Religious, yes.
Saved, no.
So, I presented the gospel to her.
And for several, several days, maybe weeks, she pounded me with questions and scenarios.
One after the other.
Then one day, I came home from work, and she shared with me how she had realized that after all those years of churchianity, she wasn't saved either.
And earlier that day, had finally trusted Christ alone for her salvation.
And listen, stories like ours are common.
For around twenty years of ministry now, we've had many others to give us very similar accounts.
Had one pastor tell me that he'd pastored a church for several years, unsaved.
Didn't know it until he came across our website and for the first time heard the gospel of his salvation explained in a clear and precise manner that he could finally understand.
Said when he heard it, he knew immediately that he wasn't saved.
He realized he'd been depending on Christ, plus himself.
Part God part him.
It don't work that way.
You're not the co-savior.
Hearing the pure grace gospel is a major wake-up call.
A game-changer.
It makes many realize that they'd been Christian in name only.
Just like I was, just like my wife was.
Listen, being a Christian is not about calling yourself one or hanging out with others who call themselves one.
Engaging in religious activity, that doesn't make you one.
Salvation happens when you get to the end of yourself and recognize that
the only thing you can do for it is believe.
You may have heard it said, Believing is the only thing you can do without doing anything.
A terrible saying.
Terrible.
And quite frankly, one that I might have said myself in the past.
But it's a bad saying, and it's not even true.
In Acts chapter 16, the jailer fell down before Paul and Silas and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.
They gave him what he asked for, something to do.
So, as it turns out, believing is not the only thing you can do without doing anything, because believing is doing.
But it's not doing something in your flesh.
And understanding that is key to your salvation.
It's paramount.
Because listen, you can't save yourself.
Resting your faith in the fact that Jesus did all the work necessary is your only hope.
100% him, 0% you.
Nothing other than you believing the gospel will save you.
Not your worship, your Bible reading, your good deeds, and kindness toward others.
Your participating in altar calls won't do it.
Satan has to be cracking up over that one.
There has probably been more false conversions at the altar than anywhere else in church buildings.
Well, no.
I'd say the baptistry actually gets the first place trophy for that.
Ask yourself why any church would need an altar today.
The altars in scripture were used for animal sacrifices and would have been a bloody mess.
But modern-day churchianity says, Hey, we got a better idea.
Let's have our people... let's see if we can entice them to come forward, kneel down, and lay their head on it.
Yeah, let's do that pastor.
You're such a genius.
Such foolishness is what this is.
Today, there's no sins been forgiven at any church altar.
We've had many denominations saying many different things about forgiveness and salvation, but there's only one gospel.
There's not different paths to salvation, there's only one.
Paul said, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But you've got to be a critical thinker.
Be discerning.
You'll know them by their fruit, by the words that come from their mouth.
If we could get the religious folk on a truth serum, they'd admit that they're not sure what they believe.
They don't know if they're saved or not.
They're never truly at peace about their salvation.
I know that feeling, but not anymore.
I now have a no-so salvation.
If you can have it and not know it, you can lose it and not miss it.
But those that have it know it, because of the incredible peace and assurance that it brings.
You see, for the most part, people really just don't think.
Most churches don't teach the art of thinking for yourself.
They teach groupthink.
And there you are trapped in the groupthink bubble, which most always leads to conformity.
And Paul gives stern warning about groupthink conformity.
Romans 12:2, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Notice the words here, That ye may prove.
You'll be hard-pressed to prove anything while caught up in groupthink.
You'll just go along to get along and believe everything everyone else believes.
We not only see this in church buildings, but on social media platforms as well.
It's real bad on TikTok.
Cult-like group members who have forgotten how to think for themselves so they can form and start believing what the rest of the team believes.
It's just like a Sunday morning formality.
A form of godliness, but denying the power.
And what's the power they deny?
The gospel of Christ.
The power of God unto salvation.
Because they add self-effort to the equation.
Your salvation is not based on a partnership.
It's either Christ alone, or you're on your own.
Many, what they've done, they've been socialized into the church, but never saved into the church.
The only way to become a member of the Bible church Paul calls the body of Christ, is to abandon self and rest in him.
Colossians 3:3, Your life is hid with Christ in God.
Adam and Eve were God's creation, and they still failed, so don't beat yourself up when you fail.
His perfect creation couldn't do it.
And we came through a sinful womb, so we certainly can't.
They couldn't live in perfect obedience, and neither can we.
We need Jesus.
That's how we have eternal life.
Not by works of obedience, but through faith in the second Adam who was perfect on our behalf.
Stop trying to gain salvation by living up to an expectation.
It's not about what others expect of you.
It's not even about what you expect of you.
It's okay to relax and be at peace while resting in him.
Christ lived the perfect life we couldn't live.
He took the punishment we couldn't take.
His perfect work was designed to take the pressure off us.
But religion comes along and tries to put the yoke back around our necks.
Christ died for all your sins before you committed the first one.
He was buried and he has risen.
Now there's an offer on the table that you should take advantage of.
He's offering you his eternal life in exchange for your faith.
Believe the gospel and be saved right now.
It's the best decision you'll ever make.
Remember, when a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he'll either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
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