How can I know I'm saved?

Introduction

I have two trees. They are here today.

They are a similar height. They have similar leaf colour and shape. They both have barbs on their branches. One looks like it is better cared for than the other, but from here it looks like they could both be the same type of tree.

Yet there is one glaring difference between these two trees. What is it?

<wait for responses>

Yes! One has fruit growing on it’s branches!

Now I know what type each tree is, because I am the owner of these trees (and I've got their labels!). But to most of you looking on from over there it will be hard to see from the outset that these trees are different. It would be even harder before the fruit started to show on this one over here. Yet these two trees are radically different!

They belong to the same family of trees, and they have both been living and growing in the same environment, and they both have been fed and watered from the same source. Yet I can tell you now that one will produce beautiful sweet orange fruit later in the year, and the other will produce none. And if and when it does produce fruit in future years, it will be sour.

Imagine I gave you both these trees, without their labels, without fruit. For someone who is not familiar with the intricacies of fruit trees, the only way you are going to be able to tell what kind of tree they each are, is to wait and see what kind of fruit it produces. Unfortunately this can take months, or more often years before the trees successfully bear fruit.

Now where am I going with this? Today I want each of you conceive of yourself as a tree, like these ones over here. And you are growing in an orchard of other trees, which is everyone else here today; the person next to you. The person who greeted you this morning when you walked in. The person who read the Bible for us earlier. The person who played the music. We are all trees in the orchard together.

But none of us have labels.

All of us look kind of similar. Not physiologically speaking, but spiritually speaking.

We all live in a similar environment, and we all share the same Bible for our spiritual nourishment. We all turn up regularly for Sunday services, singing the same worship songs together, saying “Amen” to the same prayers, and nodding our heads in agreement with the words proclaimed from this pulpit.

Yet not all of us will bear, beautiful sweet juicy fruit. Many of us know people who have walked the christian walk and talked the christian talk, lived and grown with us in this orchard together, yet they have turned out to be fruitless or or sour. They may have turned their back on the faith publicly, or for some they have just coasted along, going through the motions yet never really grasping faith for themselves.

We know by experience, and by what the Bible says, that there will be false converts, people who look like Christians for a time, but are not authentic believers.

There is a scary verse in Matthew 7 where Jesus says:

Matthew 7:22–23 ESV

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

This is frightening, that perhaps the person beside us, or our family, or our friends, the people who teach you from this pulpit, or even you yourself might come face to face with Jesus only to find out you never really knew him as Lord and Saviour all along.

It’s scary because when you come face to face with Jesus there is no more chances, no more opportunities to be saved from the punishment we deserve. It’s scary because God takes Justice seriously, and we deserve God’s justice.

This verse is meant to shake us out of our complacency and think about this. It should make us question our faith. This verse and others like it make us ask:

“How can I know that won’t happen to me?”

“How can I know my Christianity is real?”

“How can I know I’m saved?”

This is the main question we want to answer here today; “How can I know I’m saved?”

For many of us we see the brokenness and sin in our own life, or we see others fall away from the Christian faith, and we wonder “How can I know I’m saved?”

To answer this question we need to ask follow up questions. We will look at 2 questions that will reveal whether or not we are saved. (0)

We must ask

How do I get saved?

How do I know it’s for real?

Hopefully the answers to these questions will illuminate to you where you stand in relation to God, and either give you comfort, or stir you up to action. You should either walk out of here in peaceful joy or in fear of what being a false believer means for you.

How do I get saved?

If we’re going to answer the question “How do I know I am saved?” it’s a good idea to figure out how God saves people to begin with.

Being “saved” means that there is something that we need saving from. So the Bible portrays Salvation...

as a rescue from the Kingdom of Darkness, that is the world influenced and ruled by Satan,

as a rescue from Sin which is like a cancer that has infected our whole being,

as a rescue from Death which is both the wages of our Sin, and a punishment of God for our rebellion.

Salvation also means being...

saved into the Kingdom of Light, ruled by Jesus Christ,

saved into purity, holiness and righteousness of character, attitudes and actions,

saved into eternal, joyful life with our King forever.

So how do we make the switch? How do I get saved? Well, Jesus himself tells us the good news (the Gospel) about how to be saved. Mark records it:

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Mark summarizes Jesus message of getting saved into that one phrase; “repent and believe in the gospel.” It’s that simple. You must repent, you must turn away from sin and disobedience, give up life in opposition to God so that you may then turn towards God and believe the Good News that he has saved you. You see the actual act of being saved is accomplished by God. He does that saving through Jesus Christ, but you have to claim that, grab that, receive that Salvation he has given you by putting your faith and trust in Jesus. He redeems, we receive.

Jesus says something similar in John 5, but he even breaks down what that faith looks like:

John 5:24 ESV

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

The saved person must hear Jesus words and believe the one who sent him. Essentially Jesus is saying you have to not just comprehend, but receive Jesus message, and believe that he was on a legit mission from God.

I was hanging out with my nephews the other day and they were “helping” me. One of them, a very inquisitive fellow, was investigating all the items in the shed, picking stuff up and looking at it, moving things around. At first it was harmless, but soon it became problematic, as he began to move things out of place, create trip hazards, potentially hurt himself with some of the objects he was discovering. So I had to speak to him to save him from himself and to save him from kindling my wrath. I said “Don’t move that please.”

Now, he heard me. It wasn’t noisy in there, and I spoke quite clearly. He heard me, but he didn’t “hear” me. See what I’m saying? He did not acknowledge or act on what I said.

I said to him again; “Please don’t move that”.

Still no change in action or response.

Next, I got down on his level, looked him in the face and said “Look me in the eye. Please don’t move that. If you don’t listen to me you won’t get to be in here with me.”

Now before I could even get the whole sentence out of my mouth, he said “Yes, I know. I know that!” with almost an insulted tone.

You see my nephew had “heard me” but he hadn’t received it. He had heard, but he didn’t listen. But when I began to tell him that third time, and warn him, He changed his actions, and stopped moving things around. It was only after he responded that I could truly say that he “heard” me.

See how this relates to getting saved?

We must hear Jesus. Not just hear it like a child who ignores the words, but we must hear the words by receiving and responding to them! We must repent and believe.

“whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life”

Paul the Apostle helpfully outlines how to have faith in Romans chapter 10:

Romans 10:9–13 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

See how Paul reminds us that we are saved through Faith? Everyone who calls on God will be saved. Everyone who takes him at his word and believes Him will be saved. We believe that Jesus is Lord and we acknowledge that by

confessing it,

saying it,

pronouncing that Jesus is King, Savior and raised from the dead.

Getting saved is a relatively simple matter. It seems too easy. Repent and believe. Trust. Confess. I think we often wonder if we really did it right. Did I pray the right prayer? Was I sorry enough for my sins? Was I authentic enough in my pleas for salvation?

But we don’t need to obsess over these things, after all my faith isn’t the thing that actually rescues me, that is what Jesus work accomplishes for me. He redeems, we receive. I simply access his work

by faith,

by believing,

by hearing,

by receiving,

He saves, and I receive it by faith. I get saved by believing that his mission on earth was a success, and that he has accomplished a rescue for us.

So how do we show that we have faith? How do we publicly confess that Jesus is Lord? - first stop is Baptism.

When we have repented and believed, we show through a physical act that the spiritual change that has gone on inside us. When we put our faith and trust in Jesus we are dying to the old world of sin and darkness, washed pure and clean, and raised to new life in Christ. Baptism is that external sign that this has happened in your life.

In Baptism the person who has disowned the darkness, pledges loyalty to King Jesus by confessing he is the true and rightful king. It is throwing off the old and calling on God to cleanse you, like water cleanses the body.

Baptism is a sign to other Christians and to yourself, “I got saved”. It’s not a magical wand that give you a ticket to heaven. It’s not a guarantee that your faith is valid, plenty of people get baptized an then ditch the Faith. But it is a external sign of what should be going on inside.

OK. So we get saved by repenting and believing, and the external sign that we have been saved is baptism. To answer the first part the question “How can I know I’m saved?”, you must have first repented and believed the Gospel. If you have never done that, then you can’t be part of God’s Kingdom. You can’t be saved from Satan, Sin and Death if you have not first repented and believed in Jesus.

You don’t catch Christianity by hanging around churches for a while.

You don’t inherit the faith of your parents, or their parents before them.

You don’t get saved by knuckling down and trying to be a good person.

You get saved by repenting of your sins and fruitless works before turning to God and receiving the Rescue that he has for you.

How do I know it’s real?

Once you have received Jesus, once you have converted to Christianity and are trying to live a Christian life, how do you know if is a genuine faith? How do you know your belief is authentic?

In the reading that we had earlier, Jesus used a parable of seeds growing to illustrate what it is like for people who hear the Gospel. Lots of folks “hear” the gospel, but for many it is not even acknowledged. For some, they appear to receive it, but after an initial burst of vibrancy their faith dies. There are some who seem to receive the Gospel and stick with things for a while but then when the going gets tough, or the other life looks more enticing, then they pike out. But then there are the true believers, those who truly hear the word and grasp it. And what is the signifying mark of the true believer? They bear fruit:

Luke 8:15 ESV

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Fruit follows faith. When the farmer looks out on a field of little sprouts from freshly sown seed, they are all going to looks the same, but over time as the sun burns out the seeds in rocky ground, and the thorns choke out others, it becomes apparent which ones are firm in the good soil by the fruit that they bear.

The same goes for us. We walk into this room, the majority of us claiming to be Christians, little green shoots growing in the soil. It will only become apparent who is truly planted in the good soil of Christ over time, when we bear fruit.

And we can’t dig ourselves up to heck that our roots have been planted right. If we navel gaze and obsess over ourselves, it is like trying to grow a plant that is constantly having it’s roots disturbed. Instead we ought to do what Jesus says here “hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience”. We look upward to receive from Jesus and grow toward him rather than obsessing over our selves.

Like these trees, we grow up, looking similar, in the same environment, under the same Bible, and teaching. But how can we know that you’re legit? By the fruit that the tree bears.

How do I know my salvation is real? By bearing spiritual fruit.

Fruit follows faith.

How do I see that I truly know Jesus? By seeing in your life some of the righteousness and purity that he imbued you with when he saved you!

John tells us how we can know that our faith is real:

1 John 2:3 ESV

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

If we have some to know Jesus, then it will be evident in the way that we live. We won’t be perfect at it as John notes elsewhere, but the demonstration of being in a relationship with Jesus as our savior and King is that his attributes will come through us.

Love is great example of this. God’s love is for his people, the broken but redeemed, and so we ought to love one another. So John says;

1 John 3:14 ESV

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

John sees that the evidence of us having been saved from death to life, is the love of God evident in the way we love the people of God’s church. This is a spiritual fruit of salvation evident in our lives that can remind us that we truly have been saved and belong to Jesus.

Unfortunately though, this fruit is not something that we can just muster up and spit out all over the place. It takes time. Like this tree here, these oranges will take a whole year to be ready from flower to full fruit. That’s a long time for us of the instant generation!

But, we must take Jesus words to heart, “hearing the word [of God], hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience”.

While we patiently seek to bear fruit, we will have doubts and concerns, especially as we see the recurring sin in our life that we just can’t seem to shake. But we must rest in what God has said and take him at his word. Even if it doesn’t feel like we are saved, we must look to him to see what he said and promised, and then seek the spiritual fruit in our lives.

William Gurnall has a excellent quote that encapsulates the situation where we have been saved, but we don’t feel like we have received that salvation:

“We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be past the prince’s hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner’s hand.” William Gurnall

Thankfully confidence is not the measure of our salvation. We don’t gain or loose our salvation based upon the amount of faith that we have! God gives the pardon, we need only receive it by faith. We need only the smallest faith. The smallness of our faith is not ideal, but it is enough (Luke 17:6). God redeems, we receive. Our faith is the way we receive our salvation, not earn it.

So can we have confidence that we are saved? We may have repented and believed, and we think we can see spiritual fruit in our life over time, but can we be confident that we have it in the bag? Can I know that I’m saved?

We ought not be arrogant, and we ought not presume we have some kind of inalienable right to be saved. However we can with reflection of scripture, and with the help of mature Christians examine our faith to see where we stand. Hopefully you will be able to find a quiet confidence, an assurance of salvation, not so that you can kick back and relax, but rather so you can do what Hebrews says:

Hebrews 6:11–12 ESV

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

What kind of tree are you?

If you are here today, in this orchard of trees, are you even the right kind of tree? Have you confessed Jesus is King and been planted in righteousness by him? Or are you a tree that looks like the other trees, but will never produce fruit? Are you trying to fake it till you make it? Are you hoping that no one will notice that year after year no one will notice that you never produce fruit?