Bible Lesson 141

Who Are The Saved: And Can We Know Them?

“FOR WE ARE HIS (GOD’S) WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM.” Ephesians 2:10

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into kingdom of heaven!” Jesus Christ Matthew 18:3

In this lesson we will open our Bibles and ask God to speak to us from His Holy, Inspired, Inerrant Word, to help us deal with the question asked in our title. Just who are those that are saved, cleansed by the blood of Christ, born again from above, and obedient to the Word and will of our Sovereign, Almighty, Creator God’

Many or probably most in the world today would answer we do not know and neither can we know; however does God not give us the marks of His Children, and we know that we can depend upon the Bible for the Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So with that foundation (The Bible), and with the instructions of the One and only God, let us proceed. I suppose that we must clear a path for our proper understanding of our subject and in order to seek the truth we must first clear away the myths, the false premises, the heresy and outright lies that have been posed by many who lead congregations in our world today.

Let’s deal first with the idea that so many in our day believe; and that is that nobody can know who is saved including the one who is saved. That is ridiculous on its face, because we have the words of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, who gives us clear marks of the truly saved person.

We used Matthew 18:3 as one of our Scriptural verses and in that verse, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, God with us, Emmanuel, and He gives us one of the first marks of the true Christian. We have to come to God through Jesus Christ being as little Children’not childish, but as little Children who trust and believe without preconceptions. We cannot and we must not come to God through His Son with preconceptions and prejudices concerning His Word or His Will.

We have to deal with reality if we are ever to come to the knowledge of the truth, so let’s have a go at some of the preconceptions and prejudices that have been made part and parcel of the visible churches in our day. First, we have been taught sublimely that Christianity is all simply about going to church and being a part of a group that calls itself a church.

Are there any who read this lesson who truly believe that the visible church is the way to God and His forgiveness of sin’ If you believe that, you have probably bought the Brooklyn Bridge at some point in your life. For those in other countries who subscribe to these lessons on the Bible, the Brooklyn Bridge is a huge bridge that connects parts of the city of New York. Unwary visitors to New York have been ‘sold’ the bridge by hucksters who took advantage of people who had more money than they had good sense.

We are easily swayed to most any ridiculous belief, if it sounds good and we think we can make some money or gain some advantage by it. It works the same way in the business of the Church. Over the years we have been led astray by men, some with seminary degrees, who have left the truth of the Word of God, and gone into business for themselves in an attempt to build large congregations. Many people in our time believe that the larger the congregation, the more beautiful the facility, the fatter the bank account and the more plans for fulfillment in a church, the more desirable it becomes and the more it pleases God. Some even believe that their particular denomination is the only people with the truth; and some believe it is the pastor/preacher/teacher/evangelist who speaks so lovingly, so softly, so assuringly is the one that they should listen to. Further, most people like the preacher who never confronts their particular sin, and never presents those hard truths that the Bible is filled with.

Too many of us have become practical Gnostics, better put that means they are practical atheist. In case you don’t know what a Gnostic is’, it is a person who has convinced themselves that the Bible is in error about certain things, and that they have some secret knowledge that corrects the Bible. The question now becomes, do we have Gnostics in our churches today’ If you are awake and aware when you go to church you have to know that in many churches today Gnosticism is alive and well. Gnostics are people who hold to the form and pattern of Christianity, yet they claim to have some secret knowledge that allows them to find meanings in the Bible that are not there. To prove my point, take the Presbyterian and Episcopal denominations among others that have thought that the practice of homosexuality is not condemned in the Bible. How about ‘The Jesus Seminar’ whose members claim that they have found the real Jesus. As far as I know, Jesus was never lost; however this is something new and novel and soul-damning, but people flock to it: I believe they do so because they want to appear different, and they simply cannot bring themselves to believe the simple gospel of the Bible. Just look at all of the doctrines that are set forth in the Bible”things like the depravity of fallen man, abortion, homosexuality, women in the ministry, the new birth, being crucified with Christ, and living the life that is set forth in the Word of God, and heaven and hell, just to mention a few.

I would ask, why would anyone want to dis-believe the Word of God or at least a portion of it. I think in the back of their minds they know that if we can disbelieve any part of it, we can set it all aside and that appears to be exactly what has happened. I pray that God will anoint strong men of God and enable them to stand against these who would destroy the gospel and send simple souls to hell by the thousands. Mind you now, it is not just those who undercut the scripture that will be judged and condemned to a literal hell for eternity, it will also damn those who are too busy or too involved in the world to take the time to read, study, and prove the gospel for themselves. Gnosticism did not begin in this century or even a century or so ago, it was alive and well, back in the first century after the cross. Jude the half-brother of Jesus Christ wrote in his short epistle titled”Jude’, about these people whose desire was to challenge or change the scriptures. In verse 4 of Jude, the writer tells us that

“Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude verse 4). It is our problem in this society that we live in that we tend to accept the style and forget about the substance of Christianity. We have accepted as fact, that if a man graduates from one of the many seminaries that abound in America that he is a God called man, ready to preach the Word of God. Just as a side light on Seminaries ,there are over 250 Seminaries with enrollment of about 8,000 overall. That is a lot of pastors and preachers coming down the pipeline every year, and sadly many of these young men/women go to seminary as lost people, and they graduate as lost people, and take pulpits and then confuse those they preach to. We have been conditioned to think that a degree from one of these hundreds of seminaries, a good hair cut, a polished delivery, and a quick smile makes a real Preacher/Pastor. In fact polls show that most of the church members in America look for a preacher who has a good sense of humor, and the ability to laugh.

We need to understand that Preaching is described in the Bible as a burden, and a burden is hard to laugh at (Malachi 1:1; Zechariah 9:1; Zechariah 12:1; Acts 15:28; Hosea 8:12). What real man of God has not felt the burden of the truth as He stood before lost men and women, and pronounced the Word of God that says. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”! Try to really preach about lost men and their eternal souls, being under the wrath of our Holy God, and try to get a laugh out of that. What is the base line of the gospel of Christ’ It is not the fact that God loves everyone and that we are all in the same boat, or that Jesus died for everyone, no indeed, it begins at where we are, and that is lost and blind and undone, unheeding and going to hell under the wrath of God, unless we believe and obey. Isn’t that where the Prince of Preachers, and the Prince of Peace began it when He came out of the wilderness and began to preach'”Repent because the Kingdom of God is near” and “Repent or Perish!” Did that amuse people’ Absolutely not’it made people mad, and finally the people had Jesus Christ nailed to the cross.

Preaching is a serious business but we have made it a time to laugh and celebrate when most people who hear preaching today have nothing to celebrate about because they do not know the truth and they have not been set free from sin. How dare a preacher who can keep his congregation rolling in the aisles for the few minutes he is allowed to preach on Sundays. What we have decided to do is make the gospel enjoyable and acceptable to sinners and that does not require any skill at all. The gospel was given to change sinners to saints, dead people to people alive to God, people who were not connected to Christ to people who live in Christ. The gospel was not given to make God acceptable to sinners, it was given to make lost men acceptable to God. Do not tell people that God loves everyone, or that Christ loves them and died for everybody; because that is not true according to the Bible (John 14:21-14; John 15:9-14;Hebrews 5:8-9; John 3:3,5; Ephesians 2:1-10; 2nd Corinthians 5:17; Titus 2:11-14; John 8:30-47;).

We can relate Gnosticism to false prophets, whom God consistently warns about, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament (Jeremiah 23:25-33; Zechariah 10:1-2; Matthew 7:15; Matthew 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22; 2nd Corinthians 11:13-15; 2nd Peter 2:1; 2nd John 6-11; Galatians 1:6-90). Now, there are all sorts of reasons why a person would fall into the false prophet cataloged, some are there because they consider themselves more intelligent than others and they influence others by speaking about things that they do not understand. Others are committed, as Saul (Paul) was before his conversion on the road to Damascus. Some are soft hearted and hard headed and desire to change the truth into a lie that sounds good.

We could go on and on, but that should suffice. What ever the reason men and women become false prophets, we know that they exist and if we know the Word of God, the Bible, we know that they abound in every church today. There are constant false prophets who influence the simple minded, by books that they write, others influence religion by their false prophesies and teachings on radio and T.V. The problem is that the only way to know if what a persons is saying or writing is false, is to know the truth of the Word of God and for so many in our day, that seems to require too much time and effort.

It will be so heart breaking at the Judgment to see people who went to church, tithed, held offices in the church and yet be sent to hell. They lived lives that looked like any other Christian and they had Bibles at home, they just never took the time or made the effort to read and understand the truth. Dear brothers and sisters, do not wait for the Judgment day to really commit yourself to knowing God in Spirit and Truth. Don’t think that because you are a graduate of some college, and have weathered many years on the earth that you are exempt from misunderstanding the Word of God. That is the reason that Jesus warns us over and over in His preaching while here on the earth, against false prophets.

I always stop and consider what God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, had to say to us in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:13-15). Jesus said in that sermon, verse 13, “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.” What is Christ saying there’ That verse carries a command to every man, and a warning of the possibility, that we could be fooled, because there is two gates and two ways that exist for men to take, and in this scripture Jesus Christ says that there are many that go in at the wrong gate and walk the wrong way.

Then Jesus goes on in the next verse (Verse 14) and says, “Because narrow is the gate and strait (difficult) is the way which leads to life, and few there be that find it.” In this verse Jesus presents to us the Christian life and tells us that the gate is strait, and the Greek word that is translated as strait there pictures a narrow crack between two rock faces that a person would have to squeeze through with much difficulty, and it shows us that we come to Jesus, with ‘nothing’nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy Cross I cling’. Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The life, no man comes to Me except through the Father.(John 14: 6). That scripture warns us not to go in at the wide gate or walk the broad way, but come to that gate (Jesus Christ) that is narrow, prepared to walk a difficult (narrow, constrained) way if we would inherit eternal life.

And one of the most frightening warning that can be found in the Bible’..” and Few will find it, or go in thereat! Now follow the scripture closely for in the very next verse of Scripture in verse 15 of Matthew chapter 7, Jesus give us another warning. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” The Savior, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh warns us about two gates, two ways, two destinations and then tells us that the danger is really false prophets, who look good and look just like preachers and pastors, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Now ask yourself some questions. First, what happens when there are sheep and wolves in the same area’ The answer is that the wolf kills and devours the sheep. Oh, they look good and sound good and tell us exactly what we want to hear every Sunday, but all the time they are patting us on the head and rubbing our backs, they are damning our souls. Unless, many church members wake up and wise up, they are going to be devoured by that wolf, who looks like them and acts like them. No person who does not know the Word of God for Himself, cannot identify false prophesy, that is the reason that study of the Bible should be stressed in every congregation. Not simply reading, which can be done without ever knowing what is read; but real study to understand all of it in its context.

You may ask, well, what does all of that have to do with knowing who is actually saved; and I answer that. Unless we know the truth, all of the truth and nothing but the truth, nobody will ever be saved. So we have to begin to prioritize our preaching and teaching and the first things must be first. God told us in Matthew 6:33, what was to be the first priority in those who would be saved and those who preach to them, when He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

That scripture must be placed in context by our knowing that a Pharisee (Nicodemus) one of the rules of the Jews in the religious area, came to Jesus by night and was told by Jesus that a person must be born again (born from above), before they can even see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3,5). If we are Biblically literate, we know that in order to be born again by God, we must first be ‘Quickened’ or brought back to Spiritual life; because we were born in the flesh dead’ in trespass and sin (Ephesians 2:1-4). In the genesis of our Salvation we are issued an effectual call by God to come out of sin, to turn away from sin and turn to God. God gives us the gift of Grace and faith and we always answer that call. The effectual call of God comes from His Holy Spirit, and it ways precedes real salvation. There is a general call that is preached when the full counsel of God is preached and everyone who hears that receives it as a call; and whether they heed it or not makes them responsible to God for their obedience which is impossible without salvation.

In the New Birth, we become the handiwork of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we would walk in them. That rebirth always brings forth a New Creature, who has been to the cross with/in Christ, dead, buried and arisen, to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4). The old things are passed away and all things have become new (2nd Corinthians 5:17). The New Creature has been created, changed and conditioned to seek out the truths of God’s Word, so that they can know God’s will for their lives; and they will follow Him wherever He leads them, just as the Apostles and disciples in His time on the earth. (Matthew 4:17-22).

Unlike the visible church in so many cases today, the true Christian knows that God’s hand has been upon his life and that a great change has been wrought in and on Him, He has presented his body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is their reasonable service. (Romans 12:1-2). This new creature can say with the Apostle Paul, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). This new creature, has been sealed by the Holy Spirit, sealed from the filth and evil in the world, sealed for the use of God alone (Ephesians 1:13-14). We along with the Apostle Paul are prisoners of God, and we have marching orders that tell us to walk worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1).

We were not called to a picnic, nor a parade; but to a war, in the army of Jesus Christ, so put on your armor and report for duty! (Ephesians 6:10:18). We are not the old creature with a new paint job, we are a new creature and have put off, the old man and have put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:17-24). We are sanctified positionally, and will grow into sanctification personally; because it is God’s will that we be sanctified. (1st Thessalonians 4:1-8). God always gives us what we need to do all that He has commanded us and to enable us to walk in a manner which reflects sanctification, God gives us Grace to teach us that we are to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. (Titus 2:11-12). Our job as Preachers is always begin at the beginning and that is to convince by preaching the truth of the Word of God, that we are all lost and under the wrath of God when we are born and that the sinner must come to the understanding that He has only one great need and that is their need of Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary in their forgiveness and justification before God.

It is not our job as preachers, pastors, teachers, etc. to make Christians! God is the one who does that, and the job He gave us was to preach, teach the Word of God, until people became aware that they are supposed to obey God (Matthew 28:19-20).

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob