Edition 292: December 30^th 2015.

Are you really saved?

Are you really saved?

Introduction:

As we head into a new year full of enormous troubles on almost every front, we will see the beginning of a “great shaking” worldwide. (See next edition for more on this.)

Many will have their very foundations shaken and many will come, as it is said, as “Multitudes in the valley of decision.”

Many will come looking for salvation and many will come wanting to kill those who are saved. The stirring amongst the Jews is going to escalate and dramatically increase.

You need to be secure in your salvation and foundation. You need to be strong in the Lord for your own sake and for the sake of helping others.

This is not about doubting your salvation, but really about securing your salvation so that you can move forward with our Lord in strong confidence.

It’s about removing doubt and it’s about growing strong. It’s about destroying the works of the devil.

It’s about knowing exactly what God has to say on these critical, vital issues and applying them. It’s also about rejecting the garbage taught by many churches and ministers these days.

In fact many people in these days have no idea what salvation actually is and what its powerful implications are.

What salvation is and is not:

Right up front let’s define our terms exactly, so that there is no ambiguity or misunderstanding. Please don’t take any of these things lightly, you only get one life! Once you have stepped over into eternity, that’s it. You can’t go back and do it again!

Salvation is not believing in Yeshua. It is to believe in Him as well as acting upon His instruction to be born again and then to follow Him. Here it is from the Bible:

Romans 10:9-10 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Yeshua, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart one believes to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”

Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Messiah, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also for the Greek (Gentile.)”

Romans 3:20 “By the deeds (works) of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”

Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Yeshua our Lord.”

Acts 4:12 “There is no salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven, by which we must be saved.”

Acts 2:21 “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

1 Peter 1:23 “Having being born-again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

2 Peter 3:9 “...The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

2 Timothy 1:9 “Our Lord has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace...”

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate and confined is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Messiah he is a new creation; old things have passed away; and behold all things have become new.”

John 3:3 “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 8:23-24 “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins forif you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

1 John 5:12 “He who has the Son has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Titus 2:11 “The grace of God that brings salvation, has appeared to all men.”

Hebrews 7:25 “He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him...”

1 Corinthians 3:11 “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Yeshuah the Messiah.”

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (Just after John 3:16)

In summary, note the key words from the verses above:

●One is saved at a specific point in time by believing in Yeshua, confessing with your mouth that He was raised from the dead and that He is God. ●It is not by any works of law or good deeds or any such thing. ●It is a free gift of God for the lost sinner. ●There is no salvation in any other person, god or name or thing. ●No one comes to the Father but by the Son. Salvation is exclusive. ●The word of God is the life-seed of our salvation. ●You can’t dismiss the veracity, use and application of the Bible once you are saved. ●There are few you will be saved. ●Our salvation is holy. ●If you are not saved, you can’t even see the kingdom of God. ●Everlasting wrath abides on those not saved. ●Salvation is always to the Jew first and then the Gentile.

This encapsulates the foundation and beginning process. This is what salvation is. We have been planned, born and called for His great purposes from before the foundation of the earth and we’re heading for eternal majesty and glory.

Adult water baptism:

After salvation through the new birth comes adult water baptism and Spirit baptism. If you do these things sincerely by faith your salvation will be secure.

Note that I am not referring to infant sprinkling, which is a demon-originated tradition. The very word “baptism” tells the story. Baptism means full immersion and comes from the burial ritual in which a dead person is totally immersed in the ground and not sprinkled with dirt.

It is only for adults, because choice is required. You must choose it after salvation. If you do not, your salvation will always be incomplete and insecure.

Baptism puts you out of reach by the church as an institution or organisation. Baptism immerses you into the kingdom of God and not some business-like institution, with desires to control you their way. This is why it is a hated practise by many churches. In fact, some will excommunicate you if you have been adult water baptised!

Baptism is a sign to the people standing around watching and to the entire spirit world that you are now a kingdom child and you have died to the kingdom of the world.

Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved...”

Acts 10:47 “Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptised who have received the Holy Spirit just like we have?”

John 3:5 “Yeshua answered, ‘truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”

Romans 6:4 “We were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Yeshua was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

See also:

Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12, Acts 8:38, Acts 2:41

These verses above will rock the boats of many traditional churches.

Baptism in Spirit:

Baptism in the Spirit is similar. It is an immersion into the fullness of the Spirit with numerous evidences making you a kingdom child in a very real way, even with a kingdom language that no one on earth can understand.

Baptism in the Spirit is all about faith. It comes about in faith, operates through faith and has many powerful evidences and results, some of which we will only discover in eternity.

Here are some of the many verses:

Hebrews 6:1-2 “...The foundation towards perfection is repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms (plural), of laying on of hands (for use of the gifts), of resurrection from the dead and of eternal judgement.”

Acts 19:5-6 “When they heard this they were baptised in the name of Yeshua, and when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

Acts 2:18 “...In those days I will pour out My Spirit and they shall prophecy.”

1 Corinthians 1:7 “Pray that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revealing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.” (The gifts are in operation until the coming of the Lord.)

Acts 2:4 “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

John 14:16-17 “I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper and He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.”

1 Corinthians 14:4 “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophecies edifies the church.”

Free Choice:

The new birth, water baptism and Spirit baptism all come by choice. That may seem obvious, but thanks to the anti-Semite John Calvin, one of the so-called reformers, he invented a doctrine which goes by the acronym, TULIP. The bottom line is that his doctrine claims that man does not have free choice.

There are millions of deceived Calvinists out there believing that God even decides the eternal destiny of everyone.

It is widespread, but thankfully is a fast declining erroneous doctrine in all its forms.

Now let’s see what the Bible says on free choice:

Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

Proverbs 1:28-29 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek Me diligently, but will not find Me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15 “If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served or the gods of the Amorites. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Judges 10:13-14 “You have forsaken Me and served other gods, Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.”­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Once saved always saved and the loss of salvation:

This is a controversial doctrine, but if we go straight to the scriptures without any fancy interpretation and just let them speak, it will lead us into truth.

John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

Romans 8:38-39 “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in our Messiah, Yeshua the Lord.”

These two verses above seem to fully support the once saved always saved belief. Let me add here that I believe in eternal security in all cases but one. I do not believe that the backslider has lost his salvation.

The one single thing that causes a person to lose salvation is not addressed in those two verses above. It is you the individual. If you decide through your choice to reject and eject the Holy Spirit and your salvation – you are forever lost and will never get your salvation back again.

Hebrews 6:4-6 “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys this temple of God, God will destroy him, which temple you are.”

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 “I declare the gospel which I preached, which you also received ,in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”

2 Peter 2:20-21 “If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Yeshua the Messiah, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end for them is worse than the beginning, for it would have better for them not to have know the way of righteousness, than having known it and turned from it.”

There are a few references in the Revelation to being removed from the Lamb’s book of life. Here is one of them:

Revelation 3:5 “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

Do you know that all but two of the warnings about hell from our Lord were given to believers?

Testing your salvation:

Remember that it only the Bible that really is cast in stone in whichever shape or form it comes. You can safely put all your trust in all of it!

There are many methods to test your own salvation. I strongly suggest you seriously examine yourself and measure yourself against the scriptures.

You can’t put your hand up in a church service and respond to an altar call, go out and say you are saved. That may well be the case, but there will be and must be evidences and changes down the line. After all, the real spirit-you has died and been born again. “A tree is known by its fruit.”

If you were sincere at and about your conversion, something mysterious will happen. Something wonderful happens in your heart and soul.

Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

This verse above is so incredible isn’t it? No religion, no set of laws and works or any such thing can do this. In fact the verse above is a clear reason why true Christians are hated by the world and so much of the religious world. As believers, we are now suddenly in a new invisible family of God!

1 John 5:4 “For whoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”

The verse above is one of many describing a powerful evidence of true salvation. This overcoming of the world and its influences doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a long time and involves the renewing and exchanging of our minds and thought life for His.

The Bible says that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). It says that we are to judge ourselves according to the standard of the Word, so that we will not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:31).

The secret key to the Christian life lies in moving forever forward, getting to know our Lord deeply, personally and intimately. This wonderful knowledge comes only by revelation and has little to do with words concepts letters on a page and legalism of any and all forms.

It comes by surrendering every aspect of life to Him. It only comes by the application of the cross in our lives as we “die daily and follow Him”.

It produces in you safety, security, strength, purpose, meaning, endurance, victory, courage, restraint and the anger of God –at and for the right circumstances.

Being a spirit led and informed believer makes you wise. Wiser than any man made institution can make you! Is this happening with you? Are you starting to see with new eyes?

Going the right way:

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

You can only really go the right way with our Lord by revelation. We must have His light, His word and His will guiding us.

One of the great tragedies of the age is that many will go the wrong way! They will go back to Egypt (the world.) They will backslide and many will abandon their faith altogether. These people will have certain similar characteristics. They will have no fear of the Lord and no deep knowledge of Him and far too much pride!

Jeremiah 3:17 “Have you not brought this on yourself in that you have forsaken the Lord your God when He led you in the way? And now why take the road to Egypt...your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will reprove you...and the fear of Me is not in you.”

John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

John 15”6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.”

Psalm 36:9-12 “In your light we see light. Oh continue your loving-kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me and let not the hand of wicked drive me away. There the workers of iniquity have fallen; they have been cast down and are unable to rise.”

Finally:

This is a critical time. We are seeing an intensity of attacks from the devil, his demons, the unsaved world, political leaders, religious leaders, many church denominations, families, the workplace and just about everywhere that there are human beings!

These things are not going to get better. The Bible plots the course of the fallen world exactly. It is only the kingdom of God which is going to get better, brighter and stronger. But it will be a small component of the whole!

I took this picture in the beautiful Namaqualand.

Shalom and grow in grace!