Topic: S) Questions By
The Way…..
No 1
How can I know for sure that I am saved?
This is the first in a series of
questions that begin with the designation “By the way”. These questions,
which seem very basic at the outset, are fundamental in understanding God’s
plan for humanity. The above question
was once asked of me by a Sunday School student who had been attending church
for a long time and needed some reassurance of the decision she had taken
earlier in her life. Salvation is a gift
of God and you either have it or you don’t; it’s as simple as that. When someone gives you say…. a birthday gift,
you can’t say well maybe I have it, but I’m not sure. When we made the decision to repent of our
sins and accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, “
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with that holy Spirit of promise,” Ephesians 1:13), we were sealed by the Holy Spirit “ And I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28).
Of course, when it comes down to the nitty gritty of the matter, there
are only two persons who really know that we are saved: God and ourselves. Agreed, there are times when we ask ourselves
if we are really saved because we are in difficult circumstances; let me say
just this – the Bible does not tell lies.
When we are unsure of our relationship with God, His Word is our only
recourse. We must feast on His Word
every day and not just take light snacks by reading a daily devotional that is
primarily composed of a certain man’s view of God; it must be more than
that. Jesus Christ Himself said “Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John
No 2
Do we always have victory over sin?
Everyone has, at one time or another
asked him or herself this question. The real truth is that we, as true
believers, always have victory
over sin. “Sin is a departure from God’s love and when associated with a desire to
progress in the direction of a selfishly-appointed end rather than a divinely
appointed end, the result is always guilt and loss of communion with the
Creator” (Oswald Chambers). The Lord
does not want us feeling guilty or out of communion with Him, He sent His Son
to the Cross for those very reasons.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1). To say that we, as true believers don’t have
victory over sin is like saying: “Well Jesus, I know that you died on a cross
for me and that You paid the punishment for all my sins, but the sin of (fill in the blank) that’s in my life, I just
can’t seem to be victorious over it, I guess You didn’t….. ” If we can’t get rid of a sin in our life,
it’s because of us not Jesus. We mustn’t
say : “I’ll wait for the Lord to deliver me of this sin”; He already has,
it’s up to us to acquire the victory and to repent of the sin. Read Romans 6 and see just how victorious we
can be over sin. The opening verses of
this chapter are especially comforting “What shall we say then? Shall we continue
in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin,
live any longer therein?” An illustration to show just how dead we are to
sin is like as if an impure or immoral picture were to be placed in front of a
dead corpse. The dead corpse would not
and cannot react to the temptation, it’s dead; we are just like that. May we be consistent in our commitment to God
to always be dead to sin and resist temptation as a dead corpse would.
No 3
Is the Church ready to be raptured?
Someone asked me that question once and
without hesitating, I said YES. This
person could see a whole bunch of hindrances and problems that could delay the
Rapture. God is sovereign, He knows who is in the Church and who isn’t; He also knows when this event
will happen. Now Jesus Himself said the
following three statements: a) “But of
that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but
the Father alone.” (v36) b) “Therefore
be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”
(v42) c) “For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an
hour when you do not think He will.” (v44). The important thing is to be ready; you are
either in the Church or you’re not!! The
rapture could occur before you finish reading this E-Mail
No 4
(Is There Really Spiritual Warfare going
on?)
The answer is yes; at many levels and in many places. The Bible has many examples where angels
fight against demons in the spirit world; we will look at some of these and see
how our world is affected by this war.
The first demonstration of this war was in the Garden of Eden of course
where Satan, disguised as a serpent, warred against God’s perfection by deceit
and falsehood; the conflict has never stopped from that point on. All through the Biblical account we read
about God’s people (Israel) involved in idolatry and there were times when we
felt that the demons were almost winning the battle. A striking example of demons fighting against
angels is in the book of Daniel in chapter 10 where we read “But the prince of the
No 5
What Does it Mean to be Filled with the
Holy Spirit?
In Ephesians 5:18, the apostle Paul
commands : “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the
Spirit”. There are other places in
the Bible that mention being filled with the Holy Spirit but here is the only
time where we are commanded or ordered to do so. Here Paul is not talking about the Holy
Spirit’s indwelling (Rom 8:9) or the baptism by Christ with the Holy Spirit (1
Cor 12:13) because every true Christian is indwelt and baptized by the Holy
Spirit at the time of salvation. Here he
is ordering believers to constantly be under the influence of the Holy Spirit
in their every day lives. Being filled
with the Holy Spirit is the same as walking in the Spirit as described in
Galatians 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
The verb “be filled” is in the aorist tense of the Greek. The World Book dictionary defines aorist
as “It
is one of the past tenses of Greek verbs.
It shows that an action took place at some time in the past without
indicating whether the act was completed.”
Therefore the verse could read “…but
continually be being filled with the Spirit.” A person cannot say “Wow, I’m filled with the Holy Spirit, I’m good for 3 weeks!” No, it dosen’t work that way. Rather it orders us to continually live under
the Spirit’s influence….so you ask. How
do we do it and for how long are we filled?
There is no magic here, a true believer simply prays the following
prayer “Holy Spirit, fill me.” How
long does it last? As long as you keep
asking. The Holy Spirit is the one who
guides us, who helps us discover Biblical truth, who shows us our sin and who
is always there no matter what the situation.
“Whither shall I go from thy
spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Psalm 139:7
No 6
(When are we in communion with
God ?)
As true Christians, we are always in
communion with God, even in the darkest moments of our existence, even when we
are in difficult situations and when everything seems to be hopeless, there is
always one thing we can fall back on – our communion with God. Sometimes, you will hear someone say “that brother or sister is out of communion
with God.” I don’t believe that
statement to be Scriptural; to say that a brother or a sister is out of
communion with God is like saying that he or she lost their salvation; we know
that is impossible. The Bible says “That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3.
Another word for communion is fellowship. The Bible continues to say “But if
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:6.
The antecedent for the word “another”
in this verse is God (v5).
Therefore, by deduction, if our sins are
forgiven because we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, our fellowship
cannot be broken. We can oftentimes
place ourselves in situations where we commit sin and think our communion or fellowship is broken but it’s not, “God is faithful, by whom ye were called
unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” 1 Cor 1:9. Our consolation is that He is always there
understanding, forgiving and loving us so much that He sent His own Son to
establish reconciliation with us. Now I
ask, how can we as true believers, be out of communion with such a God who
loved us so much? We are the reason He
sent His Son to the cross in the first place!!
Only God knows who the true
believers are and our communion will be realized in its fullness in eternity “16 They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17 For
the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes” Rev 7:16,17
No 7
Is there really only one way?
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but
by Me” (John 14:6). This very
familiar passage has been used by many to seek forgiveness for sin and to ask
to become children of God. As true
born-again Christians this verse is everything true; there really is only one
way; the Bible says so and that’s it!!
But it is not so for this postmodernist world we live in with its
all-inclusive view of things, a statement so exclusive does not go over too
well. How many times have we heard
statements from friends and family that sound like “….you have your beliefs and I have mine, you must respect my choice”? For the world, there are many ways and there
is no absolute truth; absolutes are foreign.
In the peace/love era of the seventies,
it was quite acceptable to say that Jesus was the only way. In those days, you had your Jesus freaks and
love was everywhere. Back then, the true
Christians did not agree with the way Jesus’ name was being propagated but at least it was understood that Jesus
was the only way; not so any more. So
what are we to do as believers? Change
the message? Water down the strict
doctrine of salvation by grace through faith?
Adapt the Gospel to fit this new age?
Absolutely not!! We must preach
the Gospel exactly as our Lord instructed us
“Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15). Will we be ridiculed? Maybe. Will the Lord still save people? Absolutely!!
It happens everyday; do you want to know why? “The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
(Jer 17:9). The message of the Gospel
has not changed because the hearts of men have not changed; they are just as
wicked as they were when Jeremiah penned these words a long, long time ago.
In other countries, missionaries
encounter many other religions and customs but only the Gospel of Jesus Christ
saves. God has abundantly blessed us
here in North America but may we be vigilant not to abuse these privileges
through immoral lifestyles and compromising livelihoods because, as we know, “vengeance is mine saith the Lord” Romans 12:19b.
No 8
(Can We Lose Our Salvation?)
More often than not, new believers ask
this question. I’m not really sure why;
possibly because it is so easy to become saved.
However I have, on occasion, heard other, more experienced believers not
ask the question but state that salvation can be lost. The Bible is so clear on this point that it
is beyond my comprehension that there would be the least worry or doubt as to
the power of the cross. There is, of
course the distinct possibility that these doubters are not saved at all.
As to the ease of being saved, the Lord
made it so that it would not be difficult to attain justification for our sins;
otherwise more learned persons would better understand the intricacies of this
wonderful grace gift. There is a good
illustration of the ease of God’s demands in the Old Testament in 2 Kings 5
with the story of Naaman, the leper who thought it too easy to bath in the
Jordan River seven times to be healed.
His servants however had understood this truth and said to him “My father, had the prophet told you to do
some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says
to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?” v13b)
So Naaman went and bathed seven times in the Jordan River and, voila, he
was cleansed of his affliction!
The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8, 9 “For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” In other words, someone cannot earn his or
her salvation – again, some could be more “deserving”
than others. No one deserves to be
saved; everyone deserves to go to hell, but because God made it so easy, I
suppose that the above question does
need an answer.
NO, WE CANNOT LOSE OUR SALVATION. To say that we can lose our salvation is to
say that Christ’s work on the cross was not enough and that we can somehow “fall out of grace.” This is a lie forged in the pit of hell to
confuse believers and to make them unfruitful in their testimony. Jude’s epistle really nails this truth with
one simple word: “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those
who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus
Christ.” (v1) True believers are kept for Jesus Christ.
No 9
(How can I know for sure that my
neighbour is saved?)
This same question could be asked of a
loved one, a friend or a co-worker. In
short?..... You can’t know for sure. The Bible says in Luke 6:44a “For every tree is known by his own fruit”
but people can have fake fruit. I know
people who have signs of fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5:22 “....love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith” but they are not saved because
of that. If you were to go up and ask them
– are you saved?; they would probably answer – Oh, I
hope so. There are really only two
people who know for sure if they are saved – God and themselves.
Then there is the flipside – If a friend
or neighbour is saved, why doesn’t he or she come to church or read their
Bibles? I also know of people who don’t
do these essential things and could be saved.
“Judge not, that ye be not
judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged:” Matt 7:1,2. What it all comes down to is that this is a
question that is very difficult, if not impossible to answer. You can observe someone’s actions and
conclude that they are saved, but you can’t be sure. It’s a issue of the
heart.
I believe that when we get to heaven, we
will be very surprised to see who is there and who is not. I can hear myself now saying in heaven “Where is Aunt Matilda; she was such a good
person and she never missed church?”
Or also “Heh, my neighbour Freddie is here; he hardly ever went to church and he
is divorced. Wow, the Lord sure works in strange ways.” The Lord is sovereign in the universe and He
saves who He wants – Jesus said “No man
can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise
him up at the last day.” John 6:44.
I am very happy that the burden of knowing who is saved and who is not
is on God’s shoulders.