Okay ... Im Saved: Now What?: ... what can or cant I do? ...

Assurance of Salvation

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All Christians doubt from time to time. A woman once told Dwight L.

Moody she had been saved for 25 years and never had a doubt. He said, "I doubt you're saved.

But while we may all be bothered by an occasional doubt, it is a problem that must and can be overcome. John said he wrote chapter five to us as God's children so that we may know that we have been saved. The words know, knoweth, or known appear 38 times in this epistle on assurance. The next logical question, then, is "How can I know? What is it we believe?

Are Christians just gullible? Do we believe in fairy tales, or is there a basis for our belief? Why do we believe what we believe? Faith is the root of our belief. But faith is not walking on eggshells and Jello. It is evidence and substance Hebrews It has some spiritual steel and concrete in it. It is real, and God has given us some authentic, bona fide witnesses, a testimony that we might know we are saved and going to heaven.

John says these witnesses are the eternal work of the Savior, the internal witness of the Spirit, and the external Word of Scripture. This is the eternal work of the Savior, that we are saved by blood and sanctified by water. The tabernacle is an Old Testament picture of Christ. When you entered, you came first to the brazen altar upon which the bloody sacrifice was made.

Next was a laver, or great basin, in which the priests would wash. First the blood, then the water. The blood of Jesus Christ pays the price for our sins, and the sanctifying water keeps us clean. That is a historical fact.

That is the saving work of Christ. How do I know there was a man named Jesus Christ? How do I know He was the sinless Son of God? How do I know that God sent Him? How do I know that He actually died on that cross and took my sin?

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Thank God I don't have to depend on somebody's argument. The Holy Spirit of God is here to make that real in my heart. You see, God gave us the work of Christ.

You Can Be Sure

But to make the work of Christ—the water and the blood—real to us, He gave us the Spirit. Since we believe the witness of men. All of us believe the witness of men. One night I was in Augusta, Georgia, preaching at a missions conference. The next morning I went to the airport and flew back to Memphis. In order to do this, I had to exercise faith in an airplane pilot I didn't know. I never saw his credentials.

I never saw him fly before. But Delta Airlines put its stamp of approval on this man, so I just got on the plane and never thought too much about it. We accept the witness of men. Before I went to the airport, I had breakfast in a restaurant. How did I know the food was not poisoned? I had faith in that lady who served it. We receive the witness of men.

When your doctor writes you a prescription, you look at it, and although you can't read it, pronounce it, or understand it, you give it to a pharmacist who puts pills in a bottle. Then, without a second thought, you take them home and swallow them. In the same way, through faith we receive the witness of God through the Spirit that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead for our sanctification.

There is, therefore, no excuse for not believing. The Bible promises that the Holy Spirit will help anyone to believe who wants to believe. First the Spirit witnesses to us; then He witnesses in us. Before I got saved, He witnessed to me. He told me what Christ did is true. Now He witnesses in me. I have the witness in myself. Suppose I am enjoying myself by eating a piece of apple pie, and you come to me and say, "There is no such thing as apple pie. I don't believe in apple pie. And if there is apple pie, it is no good.

Despite your arguments, I have the witness within me. I have the witness on the inside. A Christian with a testimony is never at the mercy of an unbeliever with an argument, because he has the witness in himself. Here is the basis of our belief. Here is the reason for our certainty. We are not just gullible fools. He came by water and blood.

The Holy Spirit of God says yes, that is true. It is all attested by the Word of God. To doubt the Bible is to call God a liar. Some say, "Well, I'm trying to believe. Either this is His Word—His inerrant, infallible Word—or it is not. And the work of Christ, the witness of the Spirit, and the Word of God all say it is. It is fact, a matter of record.

Let me give you another example. Suppose I am in a courtroom, and the judge says to me, "Mr. Rogers, are you married? You see, I was there in the church, and I saw Joyce coming down the aisle. My heart got all twitterpated, and I was so happy. Your honor, it's the most wonderful feeling in the world to be married. When I'm finished, the judge will say, "I'm sorry. While I am glad you feel that way, your feelings are not evidence in this courtroom. Do you have some proof? Then I go down to the courthouse. And I get that document, notarized, signed, and sealed, and I bring it before the judge.

And he accepts my marriage as proven fact. My salvation does not hinge on my emotions. I have an official record. I have the Word of God: One night while out soul-winning, I asked a man if he wanted to receive Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. After we prayed together, I said, "Now, sir, I want to give you your spiritual birth certificate. We started to read it through again. Then I told him, "It's Jesus who is speaking. Do you believe this? I said, "Let's read it again.

Again, he answered yes to every question except the last. Again, he said, "Well, I hope so. This time, when I asked him if he had everlasting life, the light went on inside. That is the basis of your belief. That's the source of your certainty. Isn't it better to have God's Word than Adrian's or your neighbor's or your opinions, emotions, wishes, or whims? In addition to the root of our belief, we need only look at the fruit of our behavior to know whether or not we are truly saved.

What has Jesus done in me? Is this all just some intellectual exercise, or has there been a change? The Apostle John is very practical here. He shows us how our salvation ought to show up in our behavior, and he gives three tests. I wonder if John had been in a testimony meeting where somebody was bragging about being saved—saying he was, but his walk and his talk did not get together. If you say you are saved, it is absolutely going to show up in your life.

You are going to be keeping the commandments of God. You do not keep the commandments of God in order to be saved; you keep the commandments of God because you are saved. This presents a serious problem, because not one of us has always kept all of God's commandments. I haven't since I've been saved, and you haven't since you've been saved. Yet the Bible says that we know we are in Him in that we keep His commandments. Both the problem and the solution are found in the word keep.

It is actually a mariner's word. In the apostles' day, sailors navigated by the stars. And a sailor setting his course by the stars was said to be "keeping the stars. To keep God's commandments, then, means to use the Word of God as the Guide for our lives. It is the desire of every child of God to live by His Word. While we may be blown off course, distracted, or confused, the goal of our lives is to keep the commandments of God.

Ever since I gave my heart to Jesus, there has been a deep, divine, radical change; and there is in me a burning desire to live for God. And there should be in you, too, if you are saved. This is not to say that I don't sin anymore. The difference is that before I got saved I was running to sin; now I am running from it. And if I fail, I turn right around and start running away again. The commandment test says: A lot of people say, "Well, I walked down an aisle somewhere, and I got saved.

I know I'm just an old backslider now, but I'm still saved and going to heaven. No, you are not. If you are living that way—high, wide, and handsome—and it does not break your heart, then you do not know the God of the Bible. When I am saved, I want to be right with my Father, and I want to be right with my brother. But there are some who would say, "Well, I'm saved, but I have no use for the church. In what ways should we love the brethren as demonstrated in verse 22? How should believers love? Look again at verse We see this taught about believers throughout the Scripture.

Remember what Christ said of his disciples when his family was trying to stop him from preaching.

Listen to what he said:. Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. He told Timothy to treat older men as fathers in the church, to treat older women as mothers and younger women as sisters. If your mom was in the hospital, would you call and check in on her?

If your younger brother was making wrong decisions, would you not rebuke him in love? If you were trying to make a decision about the future, would you not call your parents and seek wisdom? This is how we treat people who are part of our natural family. This is what Paul teaches every believer should do to one another as a result of salvation. What ways is God calling you to show familial love to members in the church? How can you grow in this? The only way a person could tell if it did not have wax was by putting the pot to the sky and allowing the sunlight to shine through it.

By doing this, you could tell if it was sin cera, without wax. Sincere in this text means to be honest--without ulterior motives. In the church, our love must be honest and without hypocrisy. Also, sincere love is never given with ulterior motives in order to receive something from others. The world gives love for the purpose of receiving, instead of loving simply to give. When people have served their purpose or no longer can benefit them, they move on.

It is not sincere. The second love in verse 22 is the Greek word agape. It means to love like God: This is a very difficult challenge because agape is a love of the will. It is not necessarily a love of the emotions. God loved us while we were still enemies of his Rom 5: He loved us when we were in rebellion, when we did things to hurt his glory. God is love 1 John 4: This love forgives our sins and separates them as far as the east is from the west.

To agape someone means to even be willing to die for them. Remember what the early church did when they first were born again? The wealthy sold all they had in order to give to the poor in the church Acts 2: This is a sacrificial love of the will. It is even shown to our enemies and to those who harm us Matt 5: That is what it means to agape. Our salvation should result in not only family love and sincere love, but agape love.

The final way Peter describes the love of a believer is with an athletic term. Metaphorically, the word means to go all out, to reach the furthest extent of something. It should always be stretching itself; it should always be pushing itself to its capacity. As a former personal trainer, I believe the word picture of a muscle stretching itself is a perfect analogy for love.

Love needs to always be stretched to its capacity in order to grow. Paul said in Galatians 6: God often will be stretching your love in caring for a family member, a sister, or a brother who is struggling in the church. And yes, it is hard. Yes, sometimes we want to give up under the pressure, but as we stretch that love to capacity, God will equip you to love further and deeper. He is equipping you to love more like him. I would even say that many times, heartbreak is just a door to love more. The flesh will respond to heartbreak by loving less and withdrawing.

Maybe you have been praying to be able to love God more or love your neighbor more. It is possible God is already developing this by stretching you to love someone who is difficult such as a friend or co-worker. Peter says our love should be sincere. It must be familial, it must be god-like, and it must be deep or fervent. Why does Peter talk about the Word of God as an imperishable seed right after commanding believers to love in verses 23—25?

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed , but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Someone might look at the command to love and say that it is too difficult to do. He describes the Word of God as a seed. In a seed is great power. A seed may not appear that powerful if you just look at it, but if you put it in the ground, water it and give it sunlight, there is tremendous life in it. It can grow into a large tree with fruits that feed and bless many. Peter mentions this to encourage believers with the power that is within them to love.

Jesus said in John 3 that no one can be born again except by water and the Spirit of God John 3: Scripture often is pictured as water. Paul said that husbands should wash their wives with the water of the Word of God Eph 5: They are made new by the power of the Spirit. The glory of man is like the cherry blossoms—here for today and gone for tomorrow. But the glory and the power of the Word of God is eternal.

This is how we have been saved and this is how we will love. It is through the power of this seed that has changed us. Let us remember what Paul says:. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. We are a new creation in Christ. We have the Holy Spirit who has given us the power to love as God does.

OK, I’m Saved. Now What?

Look what Scripture says about the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5: Against such things there is no law. In the believer is a tremendous capacity to love. This love is especially cultivated as we live in the Spirit Gal 5: This is one of the ways we stretch and grow our love. In what ways has God stretched your love or is stretching your love in order that it may be more familial, sincere, god-like and fervent? The word therefore in 1 Peter 2: Peter is saying get rid of all sin as a result of your salvation and because of the power of the Word of God, the imperishable seed that brought you the new birth.

This image would have reminded them of the common practice in ancient baptisms. The new believers were instructed to wear old clothes to their baptism, and they would exchange them for white baptism robes. After their baptism, they would throw away the old clothes, representing their old life of sin. The word picture of throwing away clothes of sin is used commonly by Paul. He uses the same word in Ephesians 4: You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness emphasis mine.

One of the things we must do as believers is take off our old clothes and put on new ones. This is a continual process in the life of the believer.

Becoming What We Already Are.

We are getting rid of old mindsets as we renew our minds Rom We are changing our habitual practice of certain sins in response to our salvation. In fact, the Apostle John says that a change in our relationship to sin is a proof our salvation, just as loving other believers is. Look at 1 John 3: No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray.

He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. John says that knowing God, being saved, will always change your relationship to sin. You cannot go on living the way you previously did. Therefore, a necessary step after salvation will be working to continually get rid of wrong attitudes and actions. We will never be completely free of sin while living on this earth, but it will be our labor until we get to heaven.

What characteristics does Peter tell us to get rid of in 1 Peter 2: This call to get rid of sinful attitudes and actions fits with the previous call to love 1 Pet 1: If we are going to love our brothers, we must get rid of everything that is uncharacteristic of love.

Again, this makes perfect sense in the context of the believers in Asia Minor who were being persecuted. When people are under duress, even the simplest thing could potentially start a conflict and begin a chain of unloving actions. Imagine these believers getting mistreated by their bosses and having more work put on them because of their faith. Often, when one would come home, his patience would be already spent and it would affect his relationships with family and friends. This pressure would even affect the relationships in the church. When Israel was in the wilderness undergoing stress, what happened?

They started pointing fingers at Moses, Aaron, and God. They complained, and they divided into factions. If we are going to love, we must get rid of any divisive attitude or action. Malice is a general word for evil generally directed at someone else. Deceit is the desire to trick or deceive someone for gain. Hypocrisy is to be two-faced and not genuine. Envy means to desire or be jealous of what someone else has.

In order to put on love and righteousness, you must take off some other things. It is good to remember that sometimes, confession of sin before God is not enough. We must also confess to others. Listen to what Christ said:. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift emphasis mine.

To put off the clothes of sin means to make things right, and for some, they need to reconcile with people not just God. When we sin we have offended God and we may have offended others. If we have offended or harmed others, we must make reconciliation with them. In this text, it should be noted Jesus is not even talking about whether it was our fault or why the person is mad at us. Love is not about pointing fingers—it is about itself.

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