Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, July 7th. Life is full of uncertainty, but one thing never changes. If you are a Christian, you can have unshakable confidence in your relationship with God. Today, discover solid biblical truth that assures you, once you're saved, you're secure forever. The little epistle to 1 John is a beautiful word of encouragement to believers, and in the fifth chapter in the 13th verse, John makes a statement, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
that is so very important to believers when he said in verse 13 These things, all that he's written in these chapters. I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. in order that You may know that you have eternal life. He says, the purpose for which I have written this is That you could eliminate all doubts and all fears and all questions about. your eternal security.
The title of this message is Saved and Sure. One of the primary reasons that a lot of people who are saved don't have the joy that God has provided is because they're not quite sure what their relationship is. And if you're not quite sure what your relationship is, it's hard to be free and relaxed in that relationship. Many people who sit in church pews or who watch television or listen to radio and hear the gospel week after week after week. Believe what they hear.
Apply some of those things to their heart. But if you should ask them, Are you certain? Are you sure? Are you confident? that if you were to die right now, you would go to heaven.
Many of them would say, well, I think so. I hope so. I'm not sure. I used to feel I would. Oh yes, I'm certain that I would go to heaven.
If you should ask them on what basis do you place your certainty?
Some of them would give you all kinds of different answers. Those who say to you, I'm not sure. I'm not quite certain. I used to be sure. But I have some doubt.
would place the basis of their doubt On the performance or behavior of their lifestyle. Not on the only foundation upon which a person can be saved. And if you're absolutely certain that you're saved, wonderful. If you're not, we want to clear that up and clarify that today. And I want to give you this in a form that you can take it.
And share it with someone else to help release them from the bondage and the fear. and the entanglements and the shackles of Fear. Unbelief, doubt, uncertainty about their relationship to Almighty God.
So, the first thing I want you to write down is this: it is the will of God. for everyone to be saved. If you'll turn to 2 Peter chapter 3, one of those familiar verses that most of us know. Beginning in verse 9, he says, The Lord is not slow about his promise. As some men count slowness, but is patient.
Toward you, not wishing for you to perish, but for all to come to repentance. That is, if it is not his desire for men to be lost, then it must be his desire for them to be saved. He said, Listen to this. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Jesus said, And I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.
He says, It's not that my will that any man should perish, but all should come to the saving knowledge of Christ. The second thing I want you to jot down is this. It is not only the will of the Father. That we be saved. It is the will of the Father that we be saved by grace through faith.
Now, in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9, you know that passage, he says, For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That is, not by performance, not on behavior. For by grace are you saved through faith.
Grace is God's unmerited love. His undeserved love. He says, It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It isn't something we do. It is not performance.
It isn't how good I am. How good I'm going to be, how well I perform. It is not my behavior. He says it is the grace of God. If it is grace, it cannot be purchased.
If it is grace, it cannot be purchased. It isn't the result of performance. It is the result of the unconditional love of God.
Now here's a trap many people fall into. They say, well, here's what God did. Back in eternity past, God looked down to the future and He saw all of those who were going to trust Him and all of those who were going to live a Christian life. And for seeing those who were going to live a Christian life and be good, he chose them. That would have meant that in eternity past, God chose you on future performance and thus not grace.
If I am saved by the grace of God plus anything, it's no longer grace. It cancels out grace. Grace is an unconditional free gift motivated by nothing within me. And the fact that we believe in our minds, well, you know, I wasn't so bad after all, so surely God saved me. I grew up in a Christian home, my folks were fine Christians.
We bring all this to God and we say, well, sure, God's gonna save me, then I wanna tell you, my friend, you just canceled that grace. The truth is, and this is a very important point. There is not anything. There never has been anything, there never will be anything in you that motivated God to save you. The motivation is not from within you, the motivation is from within Almighty God alone.
If it is any other way, it is not grace.
Now, the foundation of all salvation either must be the atoning death of Jesus Christ, period. Or it must be the performance and behavior of the man or the woman. It's either or, it can't be both. The atoning death of Jesus Christ is God. coming to earth in his son and paying the penalty for all of my sin Past, present, and future.
How much of it? All of it. If I pay for one single sin that I have committed. If I pay for that sin in order to be saved, it is no longer grace, it is now payment. The scripture says in Ephesians chapter 2: God is going to be glorified in all of eternity as He demonstrates before His angelic host, which He has created, as He demonstrates His.
Here's Infinite expression of grace by saving us. You and I are going to be on display forever and ever and ever, God demonstrating His grace. Salvation is by grace plus nothing. Not anything that you do, anything that you give, anything that you promise, because you see, the atoning death of Jesus Christ that atoned for your sins paid the penalty for all your sins, past, present, and future, before you were ever conceived in your mother's womb. Your sins had been atoned for.
There isn't anything you can do to have your sins atoned for. It's already been done.
Now, whether you accept that And whether you apply that atoning death to your life or not is your decision. There is not anything that you can do. You say, well, why do you keep emphasizing that? I'm going to show you in a minute.
Now, I want to give you a list of scriptures here, and I want you to jot them down. I want you to look for two things in these scriptures. I want you to look for what is there. That is absolutely essential for salvation, and I want you to look for something that is glaringly absent. John 3, 16.
He says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting or eternal life. The 36th verse of that chapter, look at this because this is where. You will misinterpret if you're not careful. The 36th verse of the same chapter says. He who believes in the Son has eternal life.
But he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
So someone says, Hold it right there. That says you've got to obey Jesus to be saved. No. Here's what that says. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey What he's saying is that disbelief regarded in its activity is to disobey God.
All right. Let's look at two or three other scriptures here. Look in chapter 5 and verse 24. He says in this passage, truly, truly I say to you, He who hears my word. And believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has already passed out of death into life.
That is, the moment you believe, The transforming experience Takes place. He says, once you have trusted in Him, you have already passed from death unto life. Chapter 6, verse 35, Jesus said it this way. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger.
He who believes in me shall never thirst. Chapter 7 Verse 38. Verse 1 start with 37.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke Of the Spirit who whom those who believed in him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And then chapter 8, verse 24. He says, I said therefore to you that you shall die in your sins.
For unless you believe that I am He, that is the Messiah Christ, you shall die in your sins. And back to Ephesians chapter 2. A to none. For by grace are ye saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
What is to be found in every single one of those verses? What is it? Faith.
Now, according to all the verses that we read, A person is saved as a result of placing their faith in Christ Jesus. Which means that they have placed their trust In Christ Jesus as God's atoning, all-sufficient sacrifice for their sin. And the moment they place their trust in him, they're saying, To God, I do believe. that you love me unconditionally. And have given your Son Jesus Christ to pay for my sin.
I accept Him, receive Him as my Savior, and the moment they're willing to do that, That moment they're saved. Turn to John chapter 1. And the 11th verse, a very important verse here now. In John chapter 1, there's something that is said, and again, something that is not said and both are important. He says in verse 11, he came to his own, speaking of the Jews primarily, and those who were his own did not receive him.
But as many as received him To them gave he the power to become the sons of God. Even as many as believed on his name. In that passage of Scripture, again we find faith.
Now here's what I want you to see. Salvation is the result believing someone not doing something. Believing someone is to receive that person. It is receiving someone, not doing something.
Now here's where I want us to take a moment to clarify something. The average person who reads the Bible about salvation in all these verses. The natural, normal, immediate reaction is, but that's too simple. You mean I've just got to believe in Jesus? I don't mean simply a mental accent that there was a Christ, but to believe in Jesus Christ is a word of action.
It is a word of action. then when I place my faith in Christ, there is a result. Placing one's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. is to receive and to accept Jesus Christ as Savior of their life. It is an act of faith.
Someone says, well, where does repentance come in? Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. If you express faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, in the process of doing so, you are repenting because the word means a change of mind. You will not place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without a change of mind. If you don't change your mind, then you'll be satisfied the way you're living.
If you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have to change your mind. You cannot separate repentance and faith. Repentance Listen to me carefully, repentance isn't. The promise of doing better or being better or performing in a certain way. Repentance is the change of mind.
That change of mind will cause me to place my faith in Jesus Christ. Placing my faith in Jesus Christ is a part of that changing my mind. You can't have one without the other. If I place my faith in Jesus Christ, it is because. I have come to the realization of my lost condition.
Of Jesus Christ's total sufficiency, and therefore by faith I receive Him, accept Him as my Savior.
Now, if salvation is by faith plus performance, let me ask you another question. How much performance? How long? How good? If I should ask you, would you like to be a little better?
You'd say, oh, I'd like to be a little better. How much better do you want to be? Oh, much better. How much better do you think God wants you to be better?
So let's say that we work on your getting better for six months. You come back and I say all right, let's have a little report. How you been doing? Boy, I've been doing super.
Well, do you think God is pleased? With you the way you are?
Well Not exactly.
Well, what do you think? Yeah, I need to get a little better. Did you know that you could come back every six months for 100 years and you'd want to be a little bit better? Because you see, being better didn't get you saved, and being better won't keep you saved.
Now think about this.
Now, what did you do to get saved? You expressed faith in Jesus Christ, and that's all you did. It is amazing to me that people that sit in church week after work and listen to sermon after sermon after Sunday, and they don't think through this.
Now, what were you saved by? Performance? If you were saved by performance, who's the judge of your performance?
Well, if somebody else is the judge, by some you're saved, and by some you're not saved. Satan can't trust them. If you're saved by performance and you're the judge, You still don't know where you are because you think, well, I'm okay today, but yesterday I was a mess. God loves me today, but yesterday, oh, He couldn't even look at me.
So you're up today and down tomorrow. There's no security in that. And I want to go back to remind you that the Apostle Paul, when he was saved, I want to tell you, he didn't live like a saint all of his life, and proof of that is Romans chapter 7. He said, what I want to do. I'm not doing.
What I don't want to do, I find myself doing. Listen. Paul went through some terrible times in his life, and I know that for two reasons. First of all, the Bible says that, and secondly, When the Holy Spirit chose Saul of Tarsus, Converted him and inspired the writing of Holy Scripture through that man. He likewise chose a man.
And sent His word through that man and His personality and His life. And Paul knew in the writing of that scripture that it was God who was writing it through Him, but His own experiences are all through that. Paul suffered defeat after defeat after defeat. He says he did. Was Paul saved today and lost tomorrow?
If he had been, and if he'd have believed that, he could never have said, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, things present, things to come shall ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He'd have never said that. Nor would he have said. There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. What were you saved by?
Expressing faith in Jesus Christ, plus what? Whatever else you did, you can count that off because God never recognized it. I want to tell you again: there wasn't anything in you that motivated God to save you, not one thing. You say, What about my faith? Listen, where did that come from?
Who gave you the faith to believe in God? God. God didn't look within you and choose to save you. God looked down upon humanity and God's loving salvation and forgiveness is stretched out to every single man, woman, boy, and girl who will by faith accept His Son. And I want to tell you, though every single one of us is special in God's eyes, God didn't pick you out to choose you and send your neighbors to hell.
Because the truth is, you ain't listened. You are no better than your worst neighbor. Has that for humiliation? You aren't. You say, well, you don't know me.
Yes, I do. I know this. That you were a sinner. Rotten in living in sin and rebellion toward God. It may have been sophisticated or it may have been crude, but you were a sinner rebelling against God, independent of God, and whatever form your independence takes doesn't make any difference at all.
You were still lost and doomed by your sin, and regardless of the condition of your neighbor, you are no better than your neighbor is today. It is Christ in you. that makes you what you are. Thank you for listening to Saved and Sure. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station.
And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
