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A young man waited around recently in a meeting to talk with me. The first question I put to him was, “Are you saved?” He replied, “I hope so.” I said, “Do you hope that Christ died for your sins?” He said, “I know He did.” Then I asked, “Do you hope that you believe on Him?” He said, “I am sure that I do.” I then read to him these words from the Word of God: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed out of death into life.” John 5:24.
“Do you truly believe?” I asked the young man. “I most certainly do”, was his reply. Then said I, “Are you saved?” He said, “I can only say ‘I hope so.”’ I said “Forget what YOU say, but what does the Word say? Read it for yourself.” “Heareth…believeth…hath everlasting life.” “Does it say that if you hear and believe you have the right to hope that some day you might be saved?” “No,” he said, “hath everlasting life.” Then, I said, “why do you not believe it and have the assurance?” He said, “I wish I could.”
Dear friends of the Lion and Lamb Ministry, dear Christians the world over, do not dishonor the LORD Jesus Christ, by doubting his Holy Word.
Satan causes many unsaved religious people to feel that they are perfectly safe and that all is well with their souls; while on the other hand he brings doubt and fear into the minds and hearts of many true believers who are really saved, but who are untaught in the Word of God. Many such believers when asked the direct question, Are you a Christian? or Are you saved? reply…I believe so…I think I am, or, I hope to be saved when I die.
Many Christians are being taught by ignorant teachers to do all kinds of things to keep from losing their salvation. Others depend very largely for their assurance upon their feelings of their faithfulness in service. The Bible speaks of believers as those: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” 1 Peter 1:5.
The sinner is saved by the power of God through The Faith; and receiving the salvation, he becomes a Christian. The Christian is kept by the same power; by the same God; through the same Faith. Let us refer to three verses in the Epistle to the Romans and emphasize the expression “much more”…“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. MUCH MORE then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” Romans 5:8-20.
Certainly if God loved us when we were the children of wrath, when we were His enemies, out in the world in sin, serving the devil, He will not love us any less, now that we have become His children. Looking moment by moment to our Father for grace and strength and guidance, we should walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. We should seek to please Him in thought, word and deed; that is, we should act like God’s children. But we are His children by Faith in Christ Jesus. By grace are ye saved. “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform (further perfect) it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6.
A Christian should be confident that the same sufficient grace of the same almighty Savior, that saved his soul, will keep him until the day of redemption.“Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall at appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2.
Let us always remember that it is the Gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. When you believed the gospel of salvation, “Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.”Ephesians 1:13-14. And furthermore God clearly states that this sealing is “unto the day of redemption,” Ephesians 4:30. “For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5.
Can you not rest, as the Apostle Paul did, in the gracious promises of the faithful God? Paul said, “in hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Titus 1:2. Therefore he had always sweet and blessed assurance.
Paul was willing to rest his soul in the One who died for him, and who had taken His seat in heaven, where He ever liveth to make intercession for His saints, and who is, therefore, “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God, by Him.” Hebrews 7:25.
It was this same Christ who declared to His disciples in the John 10, that He was the Good Shepherd who would give His life for the sheep. In this chapter He said: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” John 10:28-29. Eternal life is eternal life. It is not life for a few months, for a few years. It is life that is forever. And remember Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”John 6:47. When He entered heaven once for all, He obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9:12.
Eternal life never depends upon our faithfulness in service; it is the gift of God to believers. Romans 6:23
Our desire always should be to be faithful in service for Him who has done so much for us, and who said, “If any man serve me, him will my Father honor.” But at the same time we should say at all times, “And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith.” Philippians 3:9. We are not righteous in God’s sight, because of our righteous acts, but because of the acts of Christ, the Righteous. We should live righteously because we are on the way to heaven. But we are not on the way because we live righteously, but because we are righteous by The Faith in the One who was made sin on the cross of Calvary that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. We are not discounting the value of good works, but want to impress upon your mind and heart that the believer is justified without works. Christians should always maintain good works.
In Exodus 12 is recorded the story of the Passover. The children of Israel were instructed to slay the lamb and sprinkle its blood above their doors and thus escape the wrath of God when He came that night in judgment upon all the firstborn males of Egypt. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
“Under the blood” was the only place of safety that dark night. No one was safe because he felt all right, or felt safe.
How many thousands of poor deluded sinners there are today on the road to perdition, to suffer forever the sorrows of the second death, who FEEL all right. They are apparently not the least disturbed about their spiritual welfare or their eternal destiny. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
The story has been told of two Hebrew boys, the firstborn sons, who were delivered that night in Egypt. Their fathers had been very careful to see that the blood was placed where God had told them. Therefore, the two boys were perfectly safe and in no danger of judgment. But, according to the story, there were two entirely different scenes in the two homes. The boy in one home went peacefully to sleep, having absolute confidence in God’s promise and the assurance that he would rise to see another day. In the other home, the boy spent a sleepless and restless night and continually had to be reassured by his father as to the faithfulness of God and his own security under the blood. When the morning came he was just as much alive as the other firstborn, but he was worn in mind and body, and he was ashamed because of his lack of trust and confidence in the almighty Deliverer. Both boys were equally safe, but they were by no means equally certain and assured. So it is with Christians today. Are you not safe, sheltered under the precious blood of Christ?
It is dishonoring to God for any true believer to doubt his salvation!
Do you doubt that God will hear and answer the prayer which Christ made for His own: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory?” John 17:24. We believe our Savior. And because we believe Him, we are going to say with Paul: “I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39.
If you have really surrendered to the Son of God and are trusting in His finished work, if you have thrown yourself on the Grace and merry of God for your salvation, in other words, if you have committed your way unto the LORD and you are also trusting in Him, remember that he will bring it to pass. Do not say, “I think I am saved,” “I hope I am saved,” “I believe I am saved:” But say, “I know I am saved.” God says so. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may BELIEVE on the name of the Son of God:” 1 John 5:13.
If you know that you believe, then you know that you are saved. Why? Because God’s Word says so. And, “He, that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” 1 John 5:10.
Now, bow and thank God for your assurance!
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In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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