21 May 2000

How Can I Know I'm Saved?

Colossians 2:1-8

During the first three weeks of this month, Barbara and I drove to Seattle to see Jennifer, and I had planned to make this a sort of a "working vacation".
I took books to read, tapes to listen to, I wanted to get spiritually refreshed and ready for whatever God wanted next.
We took five days going out, seven days coming back, (we stopped to see Yellowstone), and by the time we came through Nashville heading back, I had a whole bunch of sermons going through my head.
I had one all thought out for today. So we got home, I talked to some folks, and God did it to me again.
"Put that one away, save it for later, I want you to talk about this over here instead." Oh. OK.

See, what happened was; someone was praying for me, and praying for the church, and this verse of Scripture came to their mind; "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees."
So they passed that on to me, they didn't know how that applied to our church situation here, neither did I.
Then I got to talking to another person, and they asked me this question; "What does it feel like to be saved?"
"Because sometimes people tell me that if I'm saved, I ought to feel this way or that way, and I don't; I'm not sure what I feel, so does that mean maybe I'm not really saved? How can I know for sure if I am saved?"
Wonderful question. All spiritual questions are good, some are better than others, that one was excellent.
Because just in case you weren't here Wednesday night, the study was; "If I don't come up from the waters of Baptism speaking in tongues, does that mean I'm not saved?"
And then I began to see how God was putting things together, there were questions in peoples minds, there were some needs to be met, and the sermon that I was all hot to preach was not the sermon that was needed for today.
What we need for today, is to see what the leaven of the Pharisees is, how does it affect our salvation, and how can we know we're saved?

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Colossians chapter 2, and verse 1.
Just to set the context here, Paul was concerned about the churches at Colosse and also at Laodicea, because they were being subjected to false teachings, and he was anxious to clear up what was troubling them.
Col 2:1 "For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
Col 2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
Col 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Col 2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you" -lead you astray, deceive you, mess with you - "lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
Col 2:5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power."

Notice especially verse 8, and the things that spoil us: philosophy and vain deceit: What is Paul referring to here?
In that day there were certain Jewish Christians that had come up with various philosophies, theories of how Christians had to keep the Jewish ceremonial law, and interact with God through the assistance of different classes of angels.
It was a system of doctrine that had no basis in Scripture, and God had not asked for it. It was a man made religious view that was simply wrong.
A religious philosophy that was useless and a lie. Do we still have anything like that around today? Sure, the world is full of man made religions.
The other things that spoil us are the traditions of men, and the rudiments of the world, the ordinary things we see and hear and feel.

Over in Matthew 16, we won't turn there because I have a lot to cover, and don't want to take the time, but Jesus told His disciples to beware the leaven, the corrupting influence, of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
The Pharisees were hung up on legalism and traditionalism, they were convinced that they could live holy enough and self righteously enough to make it to heaven on their own merits. Legalism.
Cross all the T's just right; dot all the I's, and God will reward you with heaven. They thought you got to heaven by keeping the rules. Uh, which rules?
How did they come up with knowing which rules to keep? They interpreted the Scripture through their own traditions rather than just letting the Bible simply say what it says.
Then there were the Sadducees: they were rationalists. They didn't believe in miracles, they didn't believe in the supernatural, didn't believe in resurrection.
If they couldn't see it, feel it, touch it, or analyze it, it didn't exist.
Jesus tells us to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Legalism, traditionalism, and rationalism.
All those things are still around, still confusing and troubling the church.
Instead of trusting the revelation of God's word, we trust the philosophies of vain deceit, based on the traditions of men, and also; we trust the things that we see and hear and feel and experience.

Maybe you're sitting there thinking; "Wait a minute, are you telling me that I'm supposed to trust the Bible more than I'm supposed to trust my own natural senses, what I see and hear and feel and experience?"
How many Old Hippies do we have here today? Well, just in case you are inexperienced, it is not always accurate to trust the things you see and hear and feel, and experience.
We see and hear and feel and experience things through our bodies, and with our minds. The mind works through the brain, which is an enormously powerful organic computer.
Normally, our brains are trustworthy, but during the 60's and 70's, a whole generation of people discovered that if you didn't like what you saw, better living through chemistry would let you reprogram the computer to see something different.
Don't like what you hear? Not a problem. Don't like what you feel? Easily taken care of. Are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced?
Smoke this, drop that, sniff something else, reprogram the computer.
Normally we should trust what we see and hear and feel. But it's naive and foolish to ignore that the mind can be deceived merely by the application of certain chemicals, and also by outside influence from hostile spiritual beings. Deception.
We live in a world that is frequently deceiving. And we get deceived.

Over in Romans 3:2 it says; "Let God be true, and every man a liar."
When you're not sure what it is you're seeing, if you`re not sure that what you're hearing is true, if you're not sure you should trust your feelings about something, there is a solution:
Find out what God says about it, and go with that. I can trust that when I can't trust anything else.
I can take that to the bank when nothing else makes sense. I can have confidence that I won't get spoiled, deceived, messed around, if I just do that.
And don't mistake me here, I'm not saying that when you become a Christian, you check your brain in at the door, as if Christianity required some kind of unthinking, blind faith, I'm not saying that.
I am saying that if you ever get to a time in your life when nothing makes sense; God's word is still true, and it will be reliable even when nothing else is.

Back in verse 8 of Colossians 2, Paul tells us that these things that spoil us, these lying man-made earthly philosophies and traditions are not like Christ.
Compare what we get in verse 8 with what we get in verses 9 and 10: If there is anything we lack, if there is anything we need, if there is anything we ought to have, where do we find it?
In the man Christ Jesus, the God-Man, a person who was fully God and also fully man.
In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, in a human body, and if we are in Christ, verse 10 tells us that we are complete.
If we are in Christ, if we are complete, then we are all done, there is nothing that we lack, we will not come up short. If we are in Christ.
Something that I have tried to emphasize these last couple years, is that when a person gets saved, not only does the Holy Spirit come into the believer, not only does Christ come to live in us, but at the same time, the believer is also put into Christ.
At the time of salvation, God fully and entirely identifies the believer with His Son, Jesus Christ, and that is how God sees every one of us that is born again through receiving Jesus Christ by faith. He see us as in Christ.

Turn over to Ephesians chapter one, I want to very briefly review the truth of our identification with Christ.
Let's start with verse 3, follow along with me; "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us" - that's present tense, we have it now, today- "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."

Did you notice what all came in this package deal? If we are in Christ, we are adopted children of God, He chose us, we didn't choose Him, He sees us as Holy and without blame before Him, Why is that?
Well, how does God see Jesus? Holy? Without blame? If we are in Jesus, then how would He see us? As being accepted in the Beloved.

Skip down to verse 17; "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Guess what? That is the exact opposite of what we read earlier over in Colossians 2 and verse 8.
Instead of being spoiled by the lying philosophies of men, and their traditions and worldly wisdom, God says that He will give us His wisdom in revealing Jesus Christ to us, and in us.
Not the kind of wisdom that men have; not legalism, or traditionalism, or rationalism, but wisdom from God, that satisfies us, and meets our needs.
Moreover, everything that God gives to Jesus Christ, He also gives to us, if we are in Him.

Look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse one; "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins" skip to verse 5;
"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Do you see the principle of identification here, that when we are saved, God puts us into Christ, and everything that He gives to Christ, He also gives to us because of where we are, which is, in Christ?
If we are in Christ, God cannot give anything to His Son without also giving it to us as well.
Notice verse 10; we are not saved by good works, but after we are saved, by trusting in Christ for salvation, then God has ordained that good works should follow along as part of our behavior, a normal result of who and what we have become.

So now that we have said all this, do we now have something that we can use as a foundation to build on when other questions come along?
If someone comes up to me and tells me that I have to be able to give some demonstration of my salvation by some particular way of feeling something, or doing something,
For instance, getting baptized, and then coming up out of the water speaking in tongues, how does that fit in here?

Well, lets go back to basics, how do I get saved? Over in Acts 16, verse 30, turn there please, a jailer that was in charge of the prison where Paul and Silas were held, took them out of a cell, and asked that very question; verse 30
"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord," -teaching him who Jesus is, and How to believe in Him,- " and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he -the jailer- took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house."
In order to be saved, we need to know who Jesus Christ is, to recognize that He is Lord, which implies that He calls the shots, and our rebellion needs to quit, we need to lay down our weapons and surrender to Him, and we need to trust Him and receive Him as Savior from sin.

Over in Mark 16 and verse 16, Jesus tells us that whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe shall be dammed.
What is baptism? It is obedient identification with Jesus in His death and resurrection.
It symbolizes that we have died to our old life, our old nature is dead with Him on the cross, and we are now raised with Him to walk in newness of life, raised up with Him, and trusting in Him to make us acceptable to Himself.
If a person says they are following Jesus, but then refuses to be baptized, that says a lot about their obedience to Him, doesn't it?
Jesus asks the question; "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say?" Good question.
A person who says they are saved, and then does just what they want, and not what the Bible plainly tells them Jesus expects from His own, is not saved at all.
They are just fooling themselves. They are playing head games with themselves, and some day they will wake up in hell.

Genuine belief in Jesus Christ includes obedience to Him.
Total obedience? One hundred percent? From day one? Never confuse performance with willingness.
Are we genuinely willing to obey God, to trust Him, accept Him as Savior, and be obedient to Him?
God is looking to see if we are truly willing to turn from our rebellion and surrender: are we genuine? He'll teach us His ways as we go along.
Just like a loving parent teaches a child. You can't teach a rebellious and strong willed child much of anything.
And if we are rebellious toward God, and want heaven on our terms, then there's not much that God can do for us either. That's not complicated.

Sometimes we want to make it too complicated. The Bible makes salvation so plain and simple, that even a child can understand it.
Romans 10:9 tells us; "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." That's pretty simple.
Which takes us back to one of our original questions: do I need to speak in tongues to be saved? No.
Why not? Because I don't need to do anything except trust and believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and God credits me with all the righteousness of Christ, and Christ counts all my sin as having been nailed to His cross of death.

Let's take this idea of our identification with Christ, and see what it does with a few of those other questions that I got asked this week.
What about the question of "Maybe I don't feel saved? Maybe I have trusted Jesus as Savior, and I truly desire to follow Him and do His will, but I don't feel very religious."
Maybe we should ask the question; how does a religious person feel? And if we do that, we also need to ask the question, which religion?
Some religions worship spirits, and invite the spirit to come and inhabit them; the Bible calls that demon possession, and I bet you those people feel religious feelings that I really don't want to know about.

But you say "No, we're talking about Christians, how do Christians feel?"
Well, I'm a Christian, and some days I feel close to the Lord, and I think I know just where God wants me to be, and exactly what He wants me to do.
Some days I feel all self centered and grumpy, and some days I just feel sorta ignorant, like I haven't got a clue.
So my experience isn't much help in figuring out how Christians feel. Maybe we could decide by concensus? You know, take a poll.
I'm gonna have some fun with this: for instance, JW and Kathie think Christians have sore joints, arthritis, and normally feel stiff and achey.
Laurie thinks Christians like to talk all the time, Jeff thinks they like to listen, and Angel and Toby think Christians feel like they're in love.
It doesn't matter how we feel. Galatians 2:20 tells us; "I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
It doesn't matter how I feel, because I live by faith, not by feel. I might feel bad, I might feel good, it makes no difference.

"But what if I'm not sure I'm saved? Once I thought I was saved, but now I'm not sure if I was, or if I am?"
If you were ever saved, then you still are. If you're not saved now, then you never were, because you can't get saved, and then turn around and get lost.
I have heard arguments over the years about eternal security, but there is a portion of Scripture that pertains to the topic that I never heard anyone use, and I want to use it today, it is 1Corinthians 12:12. Turn there, please.
Paul is using this passage to point out that every person who is a member of the body of Christ is important and has value, but I think it means more than that.

Follow along with me; "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
1Co 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
1Co 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body."

If we go back to our earlier truth of being in Christ, identified with Christ, seated in the heavenlies in and with Christ, and then propose that some one might be saved, and then subsequently lost, and then maybe re-saved again, what does that do to our understanding of our being in Christ, and Christ in us?
It really complicates things, doesn't it? Does it mean that what we do or don't do on any given day will increase or diminish the Lord of Glory?
There are any number of Scriptures that tell us that all believers are part of the body of Christ, so if we could be saved and then lost, and then restored again, and then get lost again, and on and on, what does that do of our understanding of the body of Christ?
When would the church ever be complete? And would the last five minutes of the church being completed be a real juggling act by God so that He doesn't lose any, and the body come up minus anything?
If you are genuinely saved, and therefore part of the body of Christ, then you cannot, and will not, ever be removed from that position.

Never let a plain and primary, well explained truth of Scripture be confused by any obscure or questionable teaching.

Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:16 that in Paul's writings there are some things hard to understand, which those that are unlearned and unstable will twist (as they do also the other scriptures,) to their own destruction.
I don't need to perfectly understand everything that's in the Bible, because the things that I do understand fill in the blanks well enough to take care of the things that I don't understand.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Legalism, traditionalism, rationalism.
The opposite of legalism is grace. G-R-A-C-E: God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
Why would you want to try and please God with your own abilities or merits when you could just let his own beloved Son please Him, and then you be accepted in the person of that Son? Unfortunately, that's what legalism tries to do.

Traditionalism. Letting the rules and practices and procedures of men and organizations be your religious authority instead of simply seeing what God says in His Word, and then doing it.
It's always easier to let somebody else set the rules, and determine the practices than it is to simply read God's word, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into His truth, but the results of simply trusting in God are a lot more rewarding.
Don't mistake what I'm saying here; there is nothing wrong with keeping genuine Christian traditions that God has ordained, according to what His Word tells us.
Some traditions in the church are traditions because they're right and true. I like traditions, we need traditions, but we don't need traditionalism.

And finally; Rationalism. Thinking that the only truth is what we humans can figure out, or understand, or see, or feel, or hear.
Isaiah 55:8 tells us; " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Our God is a rational, reasonable God, but the mind of God is greater than we could ever possibly figure out by logic and reason. We are too small.

That same chapter in Isaiah also tells us something else about God, and about His relationship to us: He tells us; (55:6) "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
What is your relationship to the Lord today? Have you come to Him, as a sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation?
Are you trusting only in Him, have you received Him as your Savior and atonement from sin?
Have you surrendered, thrown down your weapons, ceased your rebellion, and simply trusted in His mercy and grace to meet your needs?
If you have never trusted in Him, or if you are just not sure that you are in the relationship with Him that you need to be, why not take care of it today?
Maybe you did something once upon a time, but now you're not sure just exactly what you did, there is a solution for that.
There is no reason for anyone to leave this place without the full assurance of having a finished and complete salvation in Jesus Christ.
His Word tells us; "Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation."
If you need to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you need Him right now, not later, not tomorrow, but right now.

Not after you get your act together, that's legalism.
Not after you join some church or do some religious thing, that's traditionalism.
Not after you figure it all out, that's rationalism.

But right now. His Word tells us; (Isaiah 1:18) " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
If you feel any urging, any tugging to trust Jesus Christ as Savior today, that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you. That means that God is willing to receive you today.
Are you willing to receive Jesus Christ today? I hope that you are!