We'd like to continue in our series, our Be Ready to Answer series, where we ask a question and then try to find the Bible's answer to that question. We try to ask questions that are commonly asked. This morning's question, can we know if we're saved? And maybe a second question, if so, how can we know? Are we condemned to face death, wishing and wanting, yet wondering? Is there no certainty about eternity? How can we know if we're saved? What do we need to know so we can know? We basically need to know two things in order to know we're going to heaven when we die. We first need to know that God's plan of salvation is entirely of God and nothing of us. And then we need to know how to know if we're part of God's plan. So let's take that first one up. As long as we believe that we have a part in our own eternal salvation, we can never be sure we're saved. Whatever part we perceive to be ours is the weak link in our plan of salvation. God's not a weak link. He accomplishes His purposes all the time, every time. Yet we're not so. So the very idea that we have a part forever prevents us from knowing for sure that our salvation is sure. If we believe our eternal salvation hinges on our good works, then we can never know for sure if we're saved, because how much good is good enough? Our best works still cry, as Paul did, when I would do good, evil is present with me. If we believe our eternal salvation hinges on our believing, we still can never be sure if we're saved. How much faith is faith enough? Our best faith still cries, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief, Mark 9 and 24. So to believe that salvation is based in any way on self is to admit that there's no way to know for sure that we're saved. On the other hand, If we understand the truth about salvation, even that God successfully saves His people entirely by Himself, then the weak link, me, is eliminated from the plan. If we're not at all involved in saving ourselves, and if God is totally involved in saving us, then the chance of our being saved becomes infinitely better now, doesn't it? Even to the point of certainty if God's going to do it all. The Bible does truly teach that God successfully saves His people entirely by Himself. So the first step in becoming sure that we're saved is to become sure that our salvation is all of God. The Bible's plan of salvation is all of God's grace and in no way depends on the sinner. Perhaps most people who sing Amazing Grace are not so sure just how amazing grace really is. By definition, grace cannot be earned or merited. Grace ceases to be grace if cooperation is required. The whole idea of grace becomes a contradiction if man has to do something so God can give the man an unearned and undeserved gift. The very idea that man has to do something makes grace not be grace. The amazing truth about amazing grace is that it stands alone. It needs no help. The amazing thing about amazing grace is that nothing else is needed. Perhaps the most amazing thing about God himself is that God entirely saves sinful man exclusively by God's amazing grace. Nobody has to cooperate with God to help God save anybody. We don't help save ourselves. We don't need to help God save anybody. The angel said thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus did completely and precisely what that angel said he would do. He and he alone saved his people from their sins. He didn't call for help. There was none to help. He doesn't now call for help. He doesn't need help. Yet the vast majority who believe in Jesus believe in a Jesus who needs help in order to save. They fail to see the sovereign ruling Jesus who accomplishes His salvation according to His will. They fail to acknowledge that salvation is by God's sovereign grace and His grace alone. They miss the whole point that grace is really grace. I guess real grace is hard to swallow, seems like. Most who claim to believe in grace prove they don't believe it when they add their but. I believe in grace, but... They preach grace for 50 minutes and then add what the sinner has to do to help God do what their little God can't do. Their salvation by grace gets all tied up in what the sinner has to let God do. Their salvation is not to the praise of the glory of His grace, but to the merit of the response of the sinner. They cry, oh yes, we believe in grace, but surely there must be be a fig leaf or two somewhere in this plan that we have to stitch together to make the plan work. They cry, oh yes, we believe in grace, but we believe in a lesser kind of grace than pure grace would allow. We believe in grace that the kind of grace we believe in is the kind of grace that has to be agreed to. We know that God saves by grace, but even the sovereign God of grace can't save us unless we help grace to be grace by agreeing to grace. Now is that the Bible's grace? Is that amazing grace? Or is that God just responding to something the sinner does and the sinner earns his salvation? Grace is grace. The Bible's grace is grace. The Bible makes the case for amazing grace and grace alone that God successfully saves all his people. Amazing grace is controlled by God and not man. Amazing grace began with God's unconditional election of a vast host of people from every nation and family under heaven, not based on foreseen works or cooperation in the ones chosen. Amazing grace shined brightest when God sent his son to a cruel cross and when that son willfully went to that cross. Amazing Grace was accomplished in Jesus' particular redemption, not offered to everybody, but certain for the multitudes which Amazing Grace had chosen. Amazing Grace prevails through unassisted Holy Spirit regeneration, not based upon the consent of man, but wholly and solely based in Amazing Grace. By God's amazing grace, each one that God chose, God died for. And each one that God died for gets born again. And each one that gets born again goes to heaven. Amazing grace will finally put in heaven all it initially put in the plan. Amazing grace is the plan of salvation that fits perfectly together in its design. It's perfect in the way it was designed and the way it fits together. It'll be perfect when it's finished and all is successful. So let's imagine that we've just come to know the gospel of grace. We've come to know that God entirely saves his children by amazing grace. We breathe a sigh of relief in knowing that we really never had a part in our own eternal salvation anyway. So we no longer have to worry about whether God is satisfied with our part. We now know that God was satisfied with Jesus' part, and when God got satisfied with Jesus, we got justified. We now know that God even does the born-again part too. So that takes a load off our minds now, doesn't it? not only about our own salvation but also about the rest of the world that we thought we had to help God save. Perhaps for the first time in our lives we experience the peace that passes understanding and truly knowing salvation is of the Lord. Yet we're meditating upon this salvation by grace and grace alone and then all of a sudden haunting thoughts begin to flood our minds. These are common thoughts. There's still very personal questions that scream for an answer. Has God saved me? Is grace for me? Am I one of the ones that God saves by His grace? Am I going to heaven when I die? The way to know if we're going to heaven is to know if we've been born again. Remember, That amazing grace is the plan of salvation where each one that God chose, God died for, and each one that God died for gets born again, and each one that gets born again goes to heaven. So if we can know that we're in the born again part of the plan, we can be sure that we're in the rest of the plan too. And if we're sure that we're in God's plan, we can be sure we're going to heaven. He doesn't lose any that's in His plan. So how can we know if we're born again? Generally speaking, There's two ways we can know. We can either know by remembering that it happened, or we can know it by proving that it must have happened. If we assume that Paul was born again when Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus, then Paul could remember his instant, his moment of born again. Paul's case is an easy case, but all cases aren't that easy. Paul often told his experience, but John the Baptist had no experience to share. Yet that doesn't mean that John the Baptist wasn't born again. The Bible says that John leaped for joy while still in his mother's womb, Luke 1 and 44. Now all babies leap in the womb, I suppose, but John leaped, it says, because of joy. The Bible says that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5 and 22. So if joy is a result of having the Spirit, a fruit of the Spirit, then John must have had the Spirit in him while he's still in the womb. If John had the Spirit in him, John was already born again, my friends. Since John was born again before he was born, he wouldn't have had much memory of that born-again experience, now would he? Yet both the Bible and his life testify that John must have been born again. Some have a great story about their born-again moment, while some have no memory of the moment at all. Yet it's possible to be sure even without having a moment. We don't remember the moment of our natural birth, now do we? But if we're now living a natural life, I guess we can be sure that we must have had a natural birth sometime, didn't we? It's very possible in the same way that we don't remember the moment of our spiritual birth either. But if we're now living a spiritual life, we can be sure that we must have already been born again sometime. We have our answer either way. If we remember a born-again moment, then we're sure that we're saved. If we can't remember a born-again moment, but we're now doing born-again things, if we're doing things that pertain to having a spiritual life, to live in a spiritual life, then we too can be sure that we're saved. So some find their answer by straightforward thinking. All they have to do is remember what happened. Some need to use backward kind of thinking to find their answer. Yet in the end, one can be as sure as the other. So for those of us who can't remember, let's learn how to use a little backward thinking. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 and 14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That word means understood, they are spiritually understood. Here we see that the unborn-again natural man will not receive spiritual things. He thinks everything is spiritual foolishness. He cannot know such things, it says, because only a spiritual man can understand spiritual things. So with a bit of backward thinking. We can see that if we have received spiritual things, and if those things are not foolishness to us, and if we do know and understand things pertaining to the spiritual realm, then we must be more than this unborn-again natural man that Paul spoke of. If we know and do these spiritual things, then we must already be a born-again spiritual man. So by knowing what a natural man will not and cannot do, and by knowing what we do and have done, we can know that we're born again. This is a backward way of thinking in order to prove that we're born again, but it does provide logical proof that we are. Let's go a little further in our backward way of proving things. Jesus said in John 5 and 40, you will not come to me that you might have life. Jesus said in John 6 and 44, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. Now you may say that you came to Jesus years ago, and I'm sure you did. If you say you did, I'm not arguing with you about it. Yet, according to Jesus, the only way you could have come to Jesus was by God first drawing you to Jesus. So unless you're looking at your coming to Jesus with a little bit of backward thinking, it's likely that you've got things backwards in your thinking. If you think you came to Jesus in order to be born again, then you're thinking backwards, and your backwards thinking is an error in your thinking. There's a backwards way of thinking that's right. If you understand that your coming to Jesus is the result of the Father drawing you through the means of born again, then you understand the backward way of thinking, which provides you undeniable proof that you must already be born again. Since no man will or can come to Jesus until he's first born again, the backward way of thinking says that if you've come to Jesus, then you must already be born again. There's your proof. You have to go at it from the back door, sorta, but you can have a proof there. Look at it a little further. Paul said, you have the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2 and 1. To quicken is to make alive. To quicken the dead is to raise the dead. God raises those who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins so that they are spiritually alive once God gives them life. Jesus said it a little different way. But the same thing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. John 5 and 25. That's not the final resurrection. This raising from the dead, Jesus said, was then happening. He says it's now happening. It's going to keep on happening. This is the same as the ongoing process of born again. Jesus did not liken this born-again part to healing the sick or giving strength to the weak. Jesus says born-again is like raising the dead. How dead is dead? Dead folks don't see, don't hear, don't believe, don't come. So how is it with you? Can you see and hear the good news that's in the gospel? If you can, you're not still dead. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God and your Savior? You must have spiritual life before you can believe such a thing. Otherwise it's foolishness. So if you believe... You're not still dead. Have you come to Jesus? Dead folks won't come. The spiritually dead can't come. So if you've come, well, you're not still dead. So in a backward way of thinking, if you're not still dead, you must be alive. If you're alive, it must be because Jesus spoke his life into you. If Jesus spoke his life into you, then you've been born again. If you've been born again, you'll live forever in heaven. So with a little backward way of thinking, If we're sure that we're not still dead, if we're alive and doing spiritual things, then we must be alive. And if we're surely spiritually alive, then we'll surely live with God forever in heaven with that spiritual life. The Bible provides us with various proofs that we've been born again and are now spiritually alive. John tells us that we are able to know that God dwells in us. 1 John 4 and 13, hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. Born-again happens when the Spirit moves into our hearts. Yet this verse goes beyond the truth that God dwells in us after born-again. It tells us that we can know that God dwells in us. There's more in this than just the Spirit slipping in quietly and you not knowing it. The Spirit in some way lets us know that God is dwelling in us. How does He do it? Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he's given us. How does he do it? We can know we have the spirit in us if our hearts cry to God as children to a father. Galatians 4 and 6, because you are sons, because you are the children of God, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying, Abba, father. Do you ever cry to your father? Well, that's the spirit in there. You can know the spirit's in there because he's telling you to cry. We can know we have the Spirit by the Spirit's leading. Romans 8 and 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Do you sense God leading you in paths of righteousness and getting on you when you're not in that path? We can know we have the Spirit if the Spirit is witnessing to us. Romans 8 and 16, the Spirit itself bears witness to our spirit that we are the children of God. We can know the Spirit's dwelling in us if we exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Galatians 5, 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. We know we have passed from death unto life if we love the brethren. The first fruit in the Spirit is love. We can know we have eternal life if we love our brothers, 1 John 3 and 14. We can know we're born of God if we love one another. Listen to this, 1 John 4 and 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Do you have the Spirit of love, the fruit of love from the Spirit in your heart? Do you love your brothers? That's an evidence, that's a proof. The Bible often speaks of our faith as the proof that we have spiritual life. We can know we're born again if we believe in Jesus. 1 John 5 and 1, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Don't look at that statement as if it says, whoever believes gets born of God. That won't fit with the rest of God's Word. That's not what it's saying. Belief cannot be the means to born again, in that faith is the fruit of the Spirit which results from born again. Except a man be born again, he cannot see, hear, know, understand, or believe. So whoever believes does not become born again by his belief. Whoever believes must already be born again. He's exhibiting a fruit, a result of having the Spirit in him. The fact that we believe is our proof that we're already born again and have eternal life. Jesus said in John 5 and 24, He that heareth my word and believeth on him sent me hath everlasting life. Jesus didn't say whoever hears and believes gets eternal life. He said whoever believes has eternal life, has everlasting life. 1 Corinthians 12 and 3, no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. We don't confess that Jesus is the Lord in order to get the Holy Ghost. Anybody who confesses that Jesus is the Lord is doing it by the Holy Ghost. If we confess that Jesus is the Lord, that's the proof that we already have the Holy Ghost in us because He's moved in. 1st John 4 and 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him. Again, notice that we don't confess in order that God will move in. Whoever shall, future tense, notice, whoever shall confess, God dwelleth, present tense verb, God dwelleth in him. The confessing part happens after. the God dwelling in part. God moves in, then you confess Jesus. You don't confess Jesus so God will move him. God's in there if you're confessing. No man can say Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost gotta be in there first. So whoever believes and whoever confesses, they are already born of God. There are some things that God directly teaches his children. John 6 and 45, they shall be all taught of God. We can't know that Jesus is the Son of God unless the Father reveals it to us. Do you know that? Matthew 6 and 16. Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He knew that. He said that. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Who taught Peter that? God taught Peter that. Listen to this one. We can't know the Father unless Jesus reveals Him to us. You can't know the Son unless the Father reveals. You can't know the Father unless the Son reveals. Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matthew 11, 27. How do you know the Son? The Father reveals Him to you. How do you know the Father? The Son reveals Him to you. One man can't truly teach another man to know God, but God teaches His children to know God. Hebrews 8 and 11, they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. God directly teaches some things, you see. Writes it in their hearts. So do you know Jesus is the Son of God? Do you feel to know your Heavenly Father, the one you pray to? If you know your God, it's because God has taught you of Himself. If you know your God, it's because He dwells in you. It is God in you. that lets you know that God is God. And if He's in you, you've been born again. And if you've been born again, you're going to heaven. We know we have eternal life if we do right. Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of God, 1 John 2 and 29. Again, we don't do right in order to be born again. Everyone that does right is already born of God. God doesn't make us to be new creatures because of our good works. God makes us to be new creatures so we will do good works. Listen to Ephesians 2 and 10. for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." There's a sense of truth in the statement. Good guys go to heaven thinking about this doing righteousness. Now there's fallacy in that statement, in that there's none that doeth good, no not one, Romans 3 and 12. So I admit that there is truly no such thing as a good guy. And another fallacy in the statement is that we don't go to heaven based on being a good guy. Not of works lest any man should boast, not by works of righteousness which we have done. God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. It's not your works that get you to heaven. And really there's none that do good works anyway. And the third misconception in this statement, good guys go to heaven, is that if there are any who are so-called good guys, it's God who's worked his good and he sent them. where his workmanship created unto good works. Psalm 65 and 4, blessed is the man whom thou choosest in a causeless approach unto thee. Acts 13, 48, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. It's God working in their first, you see. Psalm 110, 3, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because he first loved us. John 15, 16, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. So anybody that brings forth fruit, it's God working in there anyway. But after all these disclaimers, let me share with you a conversation I had with my wife after preaching a friend's funeral. I said maybe I should have explained how we get to heaven. Everybody knew he was a good guy, yet he sometimes did things not so good maybe, the way a lot of people look at things. He wasn't much on church either. I wonder if people might have been wondering about whether he's in heaven. Maybe I should have told him about God's plan of salvation. Maybe I should have told them about God's plan of salvation. That's all by grace and not by us. Yet maybe They're in such a state of minor defuneral, all those details just overwhelm them. Maybe they just figure he got there on the good guy plan, I said. My dear wife answered, that's how we know if anybody gets there. Her words were profound truth, quite honestly. She didn't say that his being a good guy is how he got there. She said his being a good guy is how we know he got there. Nobody does good works good enough to get to heaven by their works. Yet we can know the ones who are going to heaven by the good works they do. My friend was a good guy, and I expect to see him soon. God totally does the getting us to heaven part. But how can we know if we're going? Do you believe? Face the fruit of the Spirit. Whoever believes is born of God. Do you love? Love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God. Have you come to Christ? Without being born again, you would not come and could not come. So if you've come, then you were born again. Do you have the Holy Spirit in you? You can know He's in you if He's leading you to right and convicting you of wrong. So, I ask, do you do the good guy thing? You know that everyone that does righteousness is born of God, the Bible says. Perhaps we can never be absolutely sure about our eternal destiny. In a real sense, we do fail in all these things. Our belief falters. Our love falls short. We often catch ourselves going from Christ instead of coming to Him. We certainly fail in that good guy part. We sometimes even wonder if the Holy Spirit's really in us. Yet perhaps the best evidence that we need to mention is the last evidence. If it's bothering you that you fail, then you've got the Holy Spirit in you. It's the Holy Spirit within you that convicts your conscience. So the very idea that we're concerned about whether we're going to heaven is evidence that we'll end up in that heaven. If our desire for heaven is real, then our getting there is real too. I hope to see you there, and I hope you'll join us here next time.