<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Certainty of Salvation

The future hope and happiness of every living soul is wrapped around 1 question.

Life or death issues all begin from the point of this question and its answer.

Stay tuned for the amazing facts about the supreme decision of your life.

Hello this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts Broadcast, facts which affect you.

Today we turn to a very important phase of the Gospel story and the tremendous question, how can we know that we are saved?

So many times men and women wonder about this.

Does God just keep us in the dark till that great day comes?

What we all need, friends, is assurance and There are no uncertainties in God's great plan.

Every truth and every doctrine is based on a plain, thus saith the Lord in the Bible.

God doesn't expect men to base beliefs and practices on suppositions or speculations.

For every requirement there is a command clearly expressed.

They are very clear cut and stated in very explicit language.

You can take it, too, that God has made known how we may know that we are saved.

We can be sure beyond any shadow of doubt.

First of all, God wants to save all men, and He has made provision for this.

All that men need do is to follow His instructions.

Do you remember that wonderful passage of scripture in John 3, 16?

I'd like to read it again to refresh our minds and I hope it will come with new force and meaning.

Verse 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 42, 43, 44, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56, 55, 56, 57, 57, 58, 59, 60, 60, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 71, 72, 73, 74, 74, 75, 75, 76, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 79, 80, 80, 80, 80, Now notice it says, Whosoever believeth.

Well, first of all, that God loves the world.

Second, that He gave His Son to die for us and to pay our sin debt.

And if we believe this and accept him, we need not perish, we may have then eternal life.

We must believe that in Jesus we have pardon, that He cancels our guilt and our condemnation.

The apostle John said, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now that is what we must believe, friends.

It is difficult for some to take that the way it reads.

It is hard for them to believe that we are saved by what God does for us and not by what we can do for ourselves or do for Him.

He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness, And this is God's part.

If we confess to Him and believe that He has forgiven according to His promise, it will be done.

Now suppose you've wronged somebody and you feel deeply over it.

You go to that person and tell him, look, I'm very sorry.

And he answers, Yes, of course, I am glad to forgive you.

Then you think and think and wonder if he really did forgive you.

So you go to him again and say, I am sorry for what I did, please forgive me.

And he answers, Of course, but I have forgiven you.

And then you come again the third time, and say, Won't you forgive me?

And his eyes fall as he says, Don't you believe me when I say I forgive?

O friends, if that were kept up several times, he would be highly insulted, and would know that you really didn't believe him.

So if we have confessed our sins to Him, we can know that He has forgiven them by faith.

Now that we have been forgiven, shall we go back and commit the same sins over and over again?

No, no, the good book says, He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.

You remember how it was said of Jesus, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Jesus will not save men in their sins, but He saves them from their sins.

Paul declares, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every 1 that believeth." Romans 1.16.

Then further on in the same book, the apostle asks this question, What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

No, friends, men are not saved to continue in sin, and saved men do not live in sin.

It never has been God's plan to save them in their sin.

Not only from the guilt and penalty of past sins are we to be saved, but also from the present power of sin.

The drunkard is forgiven, of course, when he confesses his sin, but he is not saved from drink until God has delivered him from his drink habit.

And that same thing can be said of every sin.

God can and will do it for anybody who repents and who asks and believes.

And when he is saved, does he never sin again?

Now John has this to say in his first epistle, My little children, these things write unto you, that ye sin not.

Now here is the purpose and power of the gospel clearly set forth, and that is, that ye sin not.

The apostle also recognizes the possibility that men might fall, and so he adds this, If any man sin, if any man sin, We have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous.

So the purpose of the gospel is to forgive sin and thus deliver the guilty from the penalty of sin.

Its purpose also, though, is wider than that.

It is to deliver them from the power and bondage of sin right now, in the present, to enable us to live above sin.

And yet there is always and ever that Advocate, if man should sin, and that is Jesus at the right hand of the Father for us.

But now let's follow the apostle a little bit further and we'll hear him say this, Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

And then verse 4 shouts a stinging rebuke to those who say they are saved and do not keep his commandments.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

And then verse 5, But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.

Well those are mighty, mighty clear passages, friends, and we can't deny it.

Obedience is necessary, and it is 1 of the characteristics of those who are saved by grace.

Thus the means by which we may know that we are saved are simply that we have sincerely repented of our sins and confessed our sins, and we have forsaken our sins.

Now we are living a life in harmony with the commandments of God, and we are doing it because His love has been planted in our hearts and we count it a joy to obey His precepts.

We don't try to sidestep them by saying they were abolished or they were given to the Jews or that God is not particular.

If it weren't so tragic, friends, the excuses that some supposed modern Christians give for disregarding God's commandments would be almost amusing.

Their reasoning is childish and senile and is an attempted whitewash of their own carnality.

The apostle Paul splits their reasoning wide open and lays it all out before us in chapter 8 of the book of Romans.

Listen, he says, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

And then look at verse 6, Because the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Back to Menu

Certainty of Salvation

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine