Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Luke 18:18-24
We made several points in our last message, "Why I Should Know I Am Saved":
I. It is God’s will that you be saved, II Pet.3:9; Lk.19:10.
II. It is also God’s will that you know you are saved and going to heaven, Rom.8:16; I John 5:9-13. It is not arrogance or boasting to say I know I am going to heaven. One of the most humble men ever recorded in the Bible, the Apostle Paul, notes for all believers in II Timothy 4:6-8 that after a life of coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ and serving him that he without a doubt had a crown of righteousness awaiting him. He also said everyone one else who is saved could qualify for this same crown. My friend crowns are not offered to the unsaved. Crowns are not offered to a person unless they are present at heaven’s throne. King David said in II Samuel 12:23, after his son died in infancy, that his son could not return to him here on earth, but David was absolutely confident that he would one day go to be with his deceased son, and we all know where innocent children go at death; Heaven! Jesus Christ in comforting his disciples, in light of his soon crucifixion, said in John 14:1-3 that he was going back to heaven and there he would prepare a place in his Father’s house for his followers. That he would come back to take us to heaven to be with him forever. Why wouldn’t folks want to believe this and then accept this? Are we so skeptical today that faith has no part in our lives? And yet we will almost blindly accept directions from a total stranger if we get lost along the highway. This is why our Lord said many are called, but few are chosen. The chosen are those who have and will accept the call to faith. The chosen are those who acknowledge they are lost in sin, who when Jesus Christ is presented to them, they accept him as their Savior.
Next we have our third reason as to why I should know, without a doubt, I am saved.
III. You Can Fool Yourself Into Subjectively thinking You are Saved
When the disciples heard our Lord tell the rich young ruler in Lk.18:18-24 to give up what he had to follow him, they saw that rich young man walk away and they were puzzled. The disciples who heard these words of our Lord, said, “Who then, can be saved?”
The answer is seen in Rom.10:12 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It makes no difference what kind of past you have. God saw your past before he ever created the worlds; before his Son ever came and died for your sins.
But no man can come to God for salvation if he or she thinks anything they have or they can do is comparable to what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross.
The rich young ruler in Luke’s gospel was impressed with his religious life and his personal morality, but his first love was his money and all it did for his personal image. He loved his money too much to turn it over to the Lord. He identified his personal value by the amount of money he possessed, not by what value God put on his soul. Our Lord didn’t need this man’s money, but he knew this man lived for what his money could do for him.
When you look at the cross you see the value God puts on a human soul. This young ruler was proud of his religious affiliations and his morality, but he was obviously not objective enough to repentant, for in his heart he did not see his lost sinful condition. Our former pastor used to say of the late Dr. Stephens, the founder of Piedmont Bible College in Winston Salem, N.C, that in order to get a man saved you first had to get him lost.
This young ruler subjected his relationship to God based on what he did, not what Jesus Christ came to do for him.
As a matter of fact he did not recognize Jesus Christ as Lord, but simply as Good Master, or good teacher. He dismissed who Jesus Christ was as the Son of God, and this was made known to him when our Lord replied to this rich young ruler that no man is good, only God is good. This man failed to acknowledge that he was talking to God in the flesh as he only addressed him as a good master. This rich young ruler compared his goodness with that of the Good Teacher, and there was no comparison. He had three things going for him that the world equates with success and happiness. He had wealth, youth and power and these things fool a lot of people into ignoring God’s word, and their sin. This is why I entitled this message, The Perils of Good Fortune. A person’s wealth, youth and power are all passing things and they will all disappear in time. This young man felt his good living and religious observances alone would save him and Christ told him otherwise. Don’t fool yourself into feeling you are saved, know it. As one minister said to a man he was visiting in jail when the minister asked the man if he was saved and the man replied, “ Well I’ve been saved all of my life.”, and the minister responded to this man by saying, “Mister, you’ve been saved too long.”
And why had he been saved too long, because Jesus Christ said “Ye must be born again” in John 3:3, 7; as Peter also said in I Pet.1:23. If you do not want to experience the second death (which is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire) then you must experience the second birth (born again) during your life here before you die.
IV. Don’t be afraid to Examine yourself to make sure you are saved.
II Cor.13:5 Examine yourselves; whether you are in the faith, tes pistai; prove yourselves. Know ye not yourselves how Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are discredited.”
Here the Apostle Paul challenges the Corinthian believers to take stock in how they were living and to ask themselves in light of their constant debating, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, conceit, disorders; and in light of their uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness which some were committing as per 12:20-21. Paul exposes their mental attitude sins, their sins of the tongue, and the sins of the flesh in which they were practicing. And he asks them to examine their salvation experience. In light of how you are living, how can you say you are in the faith, Paul says.
He tells them to examine themselves, not somebody else’s life, but their life. Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. The words the faith, relates to the body of Christ, not ones personal faith. Paul doesn’t call on them to see if they have faith, but if they are in the faith.
Everyone on the planet has a form of faith. It may be in themselves, i.e., their works, their morality, their likable personality, or their attention to religious observances. But none of these expressions of personal faith warrants forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Prove yourselves, dokimazo; a present active indicative verb meaning to test yourself. Look at yourselves and test your faith unless you be unapproved, adokimoi, that is unless your faith does not pass the test of being a believer and you be discredited as a counterfeit Christian.
Is your faith real and healthy, because if it is you will consistently bear certain Christ like characteristics.
1. You will avoid any kind of sin.
2. You will want to be cleansed as soon as you realize you have sinned.
3. You will love the brethren and you will want to talk about the Lord every chance you get.
4. You will set your mind on things above, not on things below.
5. If the word of God reminds you that have strayed from the faith, you will not waste time getting right with the Lord. I know all of this may seem a bit narrow minded because we all sin from time to time and we all can get out of sorts with God and people from time to time. If your salvation is real God will discipline you if you refuse to get back under the filling of the Holy Spirit, Heb.12:5-11.