Jack Graham - A Know So Salvation

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TOPICS: Salvation

There is no person that God cannot save! There is no promise that God will not keep! There is nothing that our God cannot do! Take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 John, and we'll begin with the fifth chapter. There's a tombstone in England somewhere that is inscribed with these words: "Pause, stranger, as you pass by. As you now are, once was I. As I now am so you will be. Prepare to die and follow me". Someone read that and inscribed on another little sign beneath the tombstone, "To follow you I'm not content until I know which way you went"!

Do you know where you are going? So many people don't, in life or in death. But God made you on purpose for a purpose. And God has a wonderful plan for your life. And unfortunately, so many people aren't sure about their salvation. I'm speaking of people who are members of churches, some who are attending church, some in this room or watching online right now; you are not absolutely certain of your salvation. But God has given us the clear Word of Scripture in order that we may know that we have eternal life, and live with this purpose and with this peace, that we know that we're saved and that we are on our way to heaven.

Do you know where you are going to spend eternity? I mean are you totally and completely certain? We need to think more about our mortality because one day you will in eternity and so will I. I'm calling this message "A Know-So Salvation". Not maybe-so or think-so or feel-so or kinda-so, but know-so! And to say I know that I'm saved and I know that I'm going to heaven! That's not arrogance! Maybe someone could accuse us of arrogance and "How can you possibly say 'I know that I'm going to heaven'? You're bragging now". No, we're not bragging on ourselves; we're bragging on Jesus who gives us this eternal life. If there's anything good in you, if there's anything good in me, it's all by His grace and what Christ has done for us!

So today we're going to talk about knowing salvation in Jesus Christ, living in this absolute certainty. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:28: "Let every person examine himself and then eat of this bread and drink of this cup". Before you eat the bread and drink the cup, you're to take an inward look and to know that Christ lives in you. He goes on in this same passage, 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, to give a stern warning about taking of the Supper unworthily or in unworthily manner. And I view that as just going through the motions, just the ritual, just the things you do when the Church decides to do it. No! Let every person have a time of person examination today, and in particular, your relationship to God through Jesus Christ.

Paul added on to this same theme of testing or examination in Second Corinthians, chapter 13 and verse 5. Look at this verse. We're putting it on the screen. "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test (Guarantees) that Jesus Christ is in you - unless you fail to meet the test". So there's a test at the table today. I don't know about you, but I've never really enjoyed those pop quizzes in class. It really exposed where you were on the knowledge of the information you were supposed to be studying. And so those pop quizzes, those tests.

So this is a test today. For of you it's a pop quiz. You haven't thought about this in a while. It's an examination and it is a personal and prayerful examination. And it begins with this question: Am I saved? Do I know Christ? You say, "Well, can you know"? First John 5:13 is our text for today to start, says: "I write these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know", K-N-O-W, "know that you have", present tense, "that you have eternal life".

Now this little letter of 1 John, you know, John the Apostle is the human author of this book, 1 John, a letter, an epistle, First, Second and Third John; also the book of Revelation was given to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. He's also the author of the Gospel of John. So this one whom Jesus loved very much, an intimate among the disciples, Peter, James and John. John was one of the fishermen that Christ called and he was known as the son of thunder and Christ changed his life and channeled all that thunder in his soul to be a powerful witness of the Gospel and a writer of five New Testament books. And it is John who is saying that "I write these things to you, that you may know".

Thirty-nine times either the word know or to know or to acknowledge is in the little book of 1 John. I often advise new Christians to read 1 John. If you are a relatively new believer, read 1 John because 1 John will bring you the assurance that you need as you're just getting started. Or if you're doubting your salvation, if you're wondering whether you're on your way to heaven, read 1 John, because as we are going to see in just a moment there are the guarantees, the evidences of a genuine faith in 1 John. Near the end of his earthly life the Apostle Paul said these words: "But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I believe and am convinced that He is able to guard that until that day what He has entrusted to me".

I memorized it in the King James. I say it again: "I'm not ashamed: for I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against That day". What day? The day we stand in the presence of God, the day we have final exams in the presence of God. And I am persuaded with Paul that I will be there because Christ will keep what I have given to Him. Well, Jesus Himself echoes these words, John 5:24. This is a verse you should know, mark, memorize in your Bible. It is veritably your spiritual birth certificate! Are you ready for it? We'll put it on the screen.

Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes on him who sent me has", what's the tense of that verb? Present tense, has it right now! Eternal life does not begin when we die; it begins the moment we receive the life of Christ. Now we are in process. It will be fulfilled in the presence of God when we go to heaven. But we have this eternal life right now! And "he does not come into judgment, but has", again present tense, "passed from death to life".

What security, what strength there is in this! And John the Apostle adds to this word in 1 John 5 and verse 1: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has", notice the tense again, "has been born of God". You're going to see in 1 John the word born or born of or begotten of God. Jesus spoke of the new birth. He said "You must be born again". So we are alive in Christ. He said: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and every one who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him".

Verse 11: "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life and whoever does not have the Son, does not have life". So what we have in 1 John are marks of a Christian. What marks us as believers, what are the evidences, what are the assurances that we have that we are in Christ? We call these the "birthmarks" of the believer. When you are born again, these birthmarks identify you as a Christian. What is the evidence in my life, in your life that we do know the Lord?

Number one, a Christ-filled life. You have a Christ-filled life. This is the very beginning. To be a believer is to believe! To believe what? To believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, to believe that He died and rose again and gives eternal life to all who believe. The simple question is: "What must I do to be saved"? It was asked by a jailor in Philippi and the answer came as clear as possible. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved"!

Believe is to commit your life to Christ and confess Him as your Lord and Savior. So this is where it begins; it begins with a birth. You are not saved because you grow up in church! You are saved when you personally and decisively believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving Him as your Savior and following Him as your Lord.

"He who has the Son (Jesus) has life" because Christ is "the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me," said Christ. The Apostle Peter would later say, "There's no salvation apart from Jesus Christ". No other way to be save apart from Jesus! He's not a way; He's the way. He's not one of the ways; He's the way to eternal life! So you pray and invite Christ into your life. Romans 10 says "If we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved". "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved".

So there is a beginning, a new beginning, a new birth. It is simple faith. But in today's culture, in today's church there are many who have never made this declaration including preachers in pulpits. They don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Both preachers and church members across this country are living in doubts and fears and in error because the ultimate and the eternal confession of the Christian is about Jesus the Savior. Christianity is not a code, it's not a cause, it's not a creed, it's not a church; it is Christ and Christ alone! First John 4, let me put these verses up. You're in 1 John. You just turn back and look at them yourself. It's speaking of those who deny Christ. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world".

Who is a false prophet? "By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God! This is the spirit of the antichrist which you heard is coming and is now in the world already". So the spirit of the antichrist is in the culture, it's in the world, it's also in the church today. So I don't assume anything regarding people who grow up in church or in churches. So I ask you today, do you know that you're a Christian? If your answer to that question starts with: "Yes, because I am living a good life, because I am a Baptist, because I am a Catholic, because I'm trying, because I'm a good family man, because I'm a good person".

If you're answer to the question: Do you know you're saved? "Yes" and if the answer is "Yes, because I", you've missed the whole thing. Because salvation is not about me, you or my. If you're thinking "I'm the master of my fate; I'm the captain of my ship; this is all on me; it's about my character; it's about my human goodness". No! Most people need to repent of their human goodness because the Bible says "Our righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God"!

We don't always feel saved. When you're tired or when you're guilty or when you're discouraged you may not feel the Spirit. You may not feel like you're going to heaven. God may seem far away at times. But God does not depend upon your feelings. I mean you get up these days like some of us do, fighting raging mount cedar, you may not feel all that saved. But salvation does not depend on how we feel but upon what Christ has done for us. It's what we remember again and again at the Lord's Table, His blood, His body, that He has finished the work that He came to do. And in addition to the Word of God, "These things are written that you may know that you have eternal life", is the Spirit of God. Romans 8:16 says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God".

You say, "what is the witness of the Spirit"? I can't describe it to you, but there is a sense, because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we know that we know that we know that we know that we're saved. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Assurance is not about what I have done, it is not about us; it is all because of Jesus and His cross and His resurrection. How wonderful just to trust in Jesus and rest in His promise to pardon us and the peace that He provides when we know Him.

So the first believer's birthmark is that of a Christ-filled life. Is Christ in your life? Is the Spirit of God bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? But there's a second mark that I want to mention briefly here and that is continuous joy. You're in 1 John; go back to 1 John, chapter 1 and look at the fourth verse. John says, "And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete".

Continuous joy. He speaks of our fellowship with Christ, and John was saying, "We walk with Him, we talk with Him, and we want you to know Him so that our joy in Christ will be complete". There is in this certainty a continuous... are you listening? In this certainty there is a continuous, conspicuous, contagious joy in Jesus Christ! "You said just a moment ago, Pastor, it wasn't about your feelings". I didn't say feeling joy. I don't always happy; I don't always feel joy. But deep within there is joy in my heart because of Jesus that is not dependent upon my feelings, not dependent upon our circumstances, but it is joy that is given in Christ.

I mean, just to begin with the fact, Jesus said, "Rejoice that your names are written down in heaven". Just start there and spend eternity filled with joy, thanking God for HHHis salvation in Christ. Psalm 16, verse 11, a verse that I love, it says, "in your presence, O Lord, is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore". So when Christ lives in you, there is this abiding joy. When I was a teenager, someone wrote in my Bible: "Joy is the flag that flies high in the heart when the King is in residence there".

Secondly, not only a Christ-filled life and continuous joy but thirdly, changed behavior. 1 John 2:29: "If you know that He is righteous", speaking of Christ, "you may be sure", there's that word again, certainty, assurance, "that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him". In other words, we're not saved by good works, but we live in these good works for "We are saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves, it is a gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast", but then, "we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works".

So what happens when Christ comes to live in us that our lives change. It changes the way we think, that's the very word repentance is to change your mind or to change the way you think. So when Christ lives in us our belief produces a behavior that is transformed by the presence of Christ, and therefore, He changes the way we think; He changes the way we act; He changes the way we speak, the words that we us. Second Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away; everything becomes new".

And as we learn and live our faith, we grow in Christ's likeness. The Spirit of God will see to it, the Word of God will feed you and grow you into godliness and our habits and our attitudes and our actions are changed. We are no longer the same person. It's like the fellow said, "I'm not what I ought to be; I'm not what I'm going to be; but thank God, I'm not what I was". Christ changes our lives. And this is evidence. Someone asked the question if you were convicted or arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? What's the evidence that Christ lives in your life? And then next, there is compassionate love.

First John 4:7, this is another birthmark of the believer. "Beloved, let us love one another, for to love is from God, and whoever loves has been", here's our phrase again, "born of God. Whoever loves has the love of God in him and knows God". How do you know you're a Christian? Love for God and because you love God, you love the brothers. You see, when I became a Christian, I wanted to be right with the Father and I wanted to be right with my brother and sister in Christ. And so we have a family of faith and we love one another. We are the body of Christ; we are the bride of Christ. And how can you say you love the Groom (Jesus) if you don't love His bride?

So a mark, according to the Scriptures, that you are saved is that you love the brothers and sisters in Christ. You have this continuous joy, the Christ-filled life; you have a changed life and you have Christian love. Jesus said to His disciples, "By this shall all people know that you are my disciples, that you (what?) love one another".

The greatest joys of my life come when our family gathers around our table. Our children and our grandchildren, Deb and myself and we are a family. We're not perfect by any means, but we're family; we love one another. We pray for one another. And in the church, this is a family. This is not a professional organization. This is the body of Christ. This is the family of God. The church is not something you join, it's something you're a part of. Your life is in it; your love is in it. And don't tell me that you're saved, that you know Christ and you're going to heaven, but you spend hardly an hour every month or so with the family of God in church!

We have people who never attend church. Never even think about it. It's not even on your schedule in any way. How can you say, "I know and love Jesus" and according to the Scripture, not love the brothers and sisters of Christ? I want to challenge you to faithfulness in the family of God. Get in a small group where you can get to know people. In a Life Group where you can study God's Word with other Christians. Be in a support group, a family group. Be in a choir, a worship group. Be in a mission group. Be with other believers. Be in church on Sunday morning. We love the church because we are family. I know we got some crazy uncles in the crowd.

Then there is conquering faith, 1 John 5:4 says: "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith". So there is a conquering faith in that when we are Christians, when we decide to follow Jesus and determine that we will live differently in the world, we're going to find opposition. There will be resistance. There is the world, there is the flesh, there is the devil. But how can we live in this victory? Our victory is in faith! This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith! Faith is the victory!

And then one final thing, There's confident prayer. First John 5:14 to 15 says: "And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us and whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him". You know how you can know you're saved? Continuing prayer, confident prayer. Because if you're not praying, everything else is just religious talk. If you're not communicating with God and asking God and receiving from Him what He has promised you, then are you missing this mark? Are you saved? The Scripture says, "Let everyone examine himself". Are you saved? You say, "How can I know"? If you've never received Christ, do it right now. Say:

Lord, I do trust You as my Lord and my Savior. And I ask You to help me to know now and forever that I belong to You because I believe in You, and because of what You have done for me.