How Can I Know For Sure That I Am Saved - 1 of 2

Written By Gaylan Henry

Published 1/23/2005

I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to First John chapter five.  Over in the back of your Bible before you get to Revelation you will find this little book, First John chapter five.  Let’s stand together as we read one verse of scripture, verse thirteen.  John tells us why he wrote this book.  He said, “these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”  May we pray?  Our Father in Heaven we thank you for all the Bible, but especially for this assurance verse and this assurance book of First John. And I pray Lord that you will bless the message this morning to our hearts as we need it.  I pray Lord that you will give me clarity of thought and liberty to speak, because without you presence, without the Holy Spirit we will gain nothing from this service.  I pray Lord that you will be here in your presence and power and I pray it in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Amen.  You may be seated.

The subject this morning is “how can I know for sure that I am saved?”  I have had that question asked of me many, many times in the last fifty years of people who wanted to know for sure that when they died they would go to heaven.  You can know for sure that if you died today you would go to heaven.  The passage that I just read guarantees that. John said, I have written these five chapters; I have written this little book of First John that ye may know that ye have eternal life.  And having eternal life is knowing God and his son Jesus Christ according to John chapter seventeen.  The same author wrote the Gospel of John and we can know.  But a lot of things happen to people in life and some people get confused.

The word “know” is use several times in this little book.  Thirty-nine times that I have counted and eight times in chapter five alone.  This tells us that we can know some things.  I’ve had people say, “O, I wish I could believe like Baptists.  I wish I could believe that I know that I am saved.”  And I have a pat answer for that when someone tells me, “I wish I could believe like you.  I wish I could believe that.”  I will say, “do you believe the Bible?”  And I give them this passage of scripture and leave it with them.  If folks can’t believe what God said, they will never believe what I say.  And so, you take it from God this morning. God has given you a book of the Bible so that you can know that if you died today you would go to be with him in Heaven.

The apostle Paul said, years later, “for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which is committed unto him against that day.”  The apostle Paul knew for sure that if he died he would go to Heaven.  And he had committed his soul, his life, his all and he said, “he is able to keep me.”  You and I would have no assurance or no salvation if it was up to us to get it and to keep it, but God gives it to us and God keeps it and it is in safe hands.  And so, we can know whether or not we have it.

Some have doubts about their salvation.  Some of you here this morning, I know, are saved, but you have some doubts.  I hope I can clarify some things and help you from the word of God.  God understands when you have doubts, but there’s always a word of caution when I preach on this subject.  I don’t want to give somebody who is not saved a false hope, a false assurance.  And I don’t want to cause somebody who knows they’re saved to have doubts about their salvation.  So, you see, it’s difficult sometimes to preach on some subjects.  That’s why I pray that the Lord will direct this message as we need it.

Some folks have doubts about their salvation simply because they are not saved.  They may have joined the church; they may have been baptized; they may have been confirmed, it depends on what denomination they are in; and they think “well, this is all I need.”  But do you know Jesus Christ?  Do you know him personally?  Have you invited him into your heart?  Can you go back to a time and place where he came into your heart and you know there’s a bright spot there; there was a change?  Now something happened at that moment.  There are some causes why people…church members…let’s say church members...there are some causes why they have doubts.

Number one, they fail to grow in grace.  You know, when you get saved, you are like a little baby.  You have to have nourishment; you have to be fed; you have to have food and water; you have to have milk in order to grow.  And as newborn babes we are to desire the sincere milk of the word of God.  We want to get into this word.  We want to grow.  And we have a responsibility in the great commission to teach people all things that Christ commanded us to teach.  That’s why we try to enlist people in Sunday School, in the WMA and in Awana and other teaching agencies of our church.  We want people to get into the word of God and to grow.  But I read a little while ago, Peter said, “he that lacketh these things…hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”  You can get away from God and you begin to have doubts and you say, well was I really saved?  A failure to grow will cause you to have doubts.

A second thing that will cause you to have doubts is false teaching.  I was fortunate, when I was saved, to be in a Baptist church where we had doctrinal teachings and I was grounded in the faith.  But a lot of people now get saved and maybe they are children and their parents won’t even let them come back to church and so they go on for years without having any teaching, any instruction.  Maybe even go to another denomination that teaches that you can get saved more than once, which is heresy.  You can only be saved once.  But a lot of people keep coming back to the alter, trying to get saved a second time, a third time, a fourth time and yet, they were saved the first time.  But false teaching can cause people to have doubts.

Failure to grow, false teaching and thirdly, unconfessed sin in your life can cause you to have doubts.  You’ve done something; you enjoy doing it; you want to hold on to what you are doing; you know it’s wrong; it pricks your heart; you’re miserable; but you keep doing it.  And you won’t confess it to God; you won’t let go of it and God keeps bothering you about it; he keeps pricking your conscience about it.  And you begin to wonder, am I really saved?

There is also, I believe, a fourth reason why people have doubts.  Some people, when they begin to feel a call of God on their life after they are saved, God convicts them they there is something you need to be doing.  And I had this experience myself.  It was a whole lot like when God convicted me that I needed to be saved.  God was convicting me to serve him.  I didn’t know what he wanted.  I was was scared to death that he wanted me to preach.  That was in the back of my mind all the time and I was too timid to do that.  And I was just miserable because God was calling me to preach and I wouldn’t surrender.  I kept wanting to be sure.  And during that time I thought well maybe I wasn’t really saved.  And some of you have had this experience.  I would recommend it; if you’re not sure; if you have any doubts, get on you knees and ask God to save you.  I’ll tell you what.  One or two things will happen.  He will either save you or he will say, I’ve already done that.

I remember, when I became pastor of this church, over on Hemphill Street, and there was little twelve year old girl in our church named Martha Lucas.  And Martha had been saved.  And then Martha became a teenager and she became fourteen, sixteen and Martha would come and she would say, “Brother Henry, I just really don’t know if I am saved.”  I don’t know how many times I talked to that kid and went back over some scripture to give her assurance of salvation and she would say, “thank you so much.  That’s what I needed.  I know I’m saved.”  And she would go away and she would be real happy.  But you know, a few months later she would come back again.  And finally when she was about seventeen years of age she came down the aisle on Sunday just weeping.  She said, “Brother Henry, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I’m having doubts about my salvation again.  I want to be sure that if I died I would go to heaven.”  You see, what Martha didn’t know was that God was calling her to be a pastor’s wife.  And she hadn’t even met the man she was going to marry yet, Buddy Johnson.  And God was calling her to be a pastor’s wife.  God was calling her to be a missionary in old Mexico, to start a school down there now that’s named after her. O, Martha’s in Heaven today, but she came that night and said, “Brother Henry, I don’t know if I’m saved or not.”  And finally, Brother Windal I just said, “let’s settle it. Martha, let’s settle this.  Let’s get over here on our knees and pray.” And they kept singing and Martha and I got on our knees, in the alter, over on Hemphill Street, and I prayed “Lord, settle Martha’s doubts. If she’s not saved, well you save her tonight with an everlasting salvation that she will never forget.”  And then I said, “now Martha, you pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart.”  And Martha sobbed and she cried and she said, “Brother Henry, I’ve already done that!”  And then I said, “well then, quit doubting it. God’s calling you for a special service.  You find out what it is.”  You see, she had misinterpreted God’s dealing with her heart.  God was calling her to be a great missionary and she became one.  But as a teenager she didn’t know what was going on.  She knew God was dealing with her heart.  Some of you boys and girls may be going through that now.  You may be battling with a call of God in your life.  And God, sometimes, will wake you up in the middle of the night and that’s all you can think about.  There will be times that you won’t be able to eat a meal because you just aren’t hungry.  God will disturb you.  He will take you out of your comfort zone.  He will scare you to death sometimes to get your attention.  I’ve been there.  I know what it’s like.  Well, most of us, or a lot of us, knew Martha and the great missionary that she became.  In later years I went down on one of the trips to Mexico and she was in the kitchen cooking.  I slipped back there where she was and I said, “Martha, you remember all the times you came and you doubted whether you were saved?” and she said, “O, yes.”  I said, “you had no way of knowing you were going to marry a Baptist preacher and end up down here in Mexico did you?” and she said, “no, I didn’t know that, but,” she said, “it’s all clear now. I understand.”  The call to service, sometimes can be mistaken for a call to salvation.

When I was saved by God’s grace I was fourteen years of age.  I had known about Jesus Christ since I was a little boy.  Momma and Daddy carried me to church when I was born and we were in church every Sunday that we could get there.  I knew about Jesus and I lived in that security of knowing about him, but when I became a teenager God began to convict me, “you’re not saved.”  You know you can go to church every Sunday, you can study your Sunday school lesson, you can memorize scripture, you can give your offering and be just as lost as you can be.  I had a protected life.  I was a sinner, but I didn’t know about all the sins of the world.  I lived a protected life.  I was shocked later on to find out some of the things that were going on in the world.  But, when I was fourteen years of age God really convicted me and I trembled to know that I was lost and that I would go to Hell the same as anybody else.  I was just as lost as anybody else and I prayed one night in a revival meeting and Jesus to come into my heart and he did.  I have the assurance of that today.

But you know if we doubt our salvation we are filled with misery and fear.  We’re not able to witness, because a witness is one who tells what he knows for sure and if you don’t know for sure you’ve got it you can’t give it to somebody else.  You know, you can’t give somebody the measles unless you’ve got the measles.  And you’re not going to be able to give Jesus to somebody else unless you have him and you know in your heart that you’re saved.  It will result with lost joy.  You remember David in the fifty-first Psalm prayed, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”  David didn’t lose his salvation when he sinned, but he lost the joy of it, and some of you here this morning aren’t happy.  I can go back to a time and place you know you were saved, but you’re not happy.  You have lost the joy.  This morning you would say, “Boy, I would like to have the joy back.  I think of all those times that I was so happy in the Lord and I don’t have that anymore.”  You can have your joy restored.  You see, in Revelation 12:10, the last part of that verse, Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. “[He] is cast down which accused them before our God, day and night.”  Old Satan will come to you and tell you, “You’re not saved. You just thought you were.”  He’ll do everything he can to to mess up your mind, to mess up your plans for God, because he knows that if you don’t have assurance you can’t work for God.  Satan wants you to have doubts, so Satan will accuse you of sin.

God tells us to be sure.  The God of the Universe, the God who made us, wants us to be sure.  Listen to this.  In Second Corinthians thirteen and five Paul was writing and he said, “Examine yourselves,” (Now notice that word “examine.”  You know what that means, check it out.) “whether you be in the faith;” (In other words, examine yourself to see if you are saved.) “prove your own selves.” (That word “prove,” you know what that means.) “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates [or counterfeits]?”  Christ must be in your heart or you’re not saved.  To prove that we have doubts, Paul told every member at Corinth to examine themselves and prove themselves that they were saved, that they were in the faith.  Can we know we are saved?  Why this verse teaches so.  Would the apostle Paul, under divine inspiration, tell God’s people to examine themselves and prove their faith if they couldn’t?  No, God would not command, his people, to do something that’s impossible.  And God’s word commands us to examine ourselves.  In Second Peter one and ten (I read it a while ago.), “Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure.”  Make it sure.  Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, whether you’re a Christian, whether Christ be in your heart.

Well, there are three basic witnesses, the Word, the witness from within and the witness from without.  To make this message simple, remember that little outline.  First of all, the witness from the Word.  It doesn’t matter what I say, if I can’t back it up with the scriptures.  It doesn’t matter what somebody else tells you.  It doesn’t really matter what you think.  We all have our opinions, but that doesn’t count.  You want to know you are saved?  What does the Bible say about salvation?  The Bible gives us assurance.  Christ gave two basic commandments to sinners. Repent, and believe.  Those are his basic commandments to those who are lost.  Repent, and believe.

In Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”  I’ve talked with people who have had doubts and I’ve read them that verse and they say, “well, I believe, in my heart that Jesus died for me on that cross, was buried and rose again.  I know that. I believe that with all of my heart.”  Well, what does the Bible say?  It says that if you will believe that with all of your heart, if you will commit yourself to Christ and believe in him, you “might” be saved?  No, it says, “thou shalt be saved.”  And you can say, with Martha, “I’ve done that! I’ve already done that!”  And you can’t do it again, because…You could pray again. It wouldn’t hurt you to pray it again…but Jesus won’t save you again, because you can only be saved once.  From then on you just need assurance.

In Romans 10:13 (I’ve used this verse so many times.  When I would when a soul to Christ I would use this verse before we prayed.), “for whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  That’s plain, isn’t it?  “For whosoever, [anybody] shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  You get under conviction of your sins and you come wanting to know what I can do to be saved we’ll say, call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved.  It didn’t say fifty percent of the people will be.  It didn’t say ninety-nine percent of the people will be.  It says a hundred percent of the people who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  It’s a promise.  And after people have prayed I read that verse again, because they need assurance.  I’ll say, “according to this verse of scripture, where would you go if you died?” and without fail everyone who has called upon the name of the Lord will say, “I’d go to Heaven!”  And you can see the smile on their face; you can feel relief on their heart for the first time in their lives they have the assurance.  Where did they get it?  From God’s word.  God said it.  I believe it.  Jack Hess sings a song, “I believe what he said.”  Folks, that’s what we need to do.  Just believe what he said. 

The Devil will make us question the Word of God. In First John chapter five verse ten, “He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record: that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.”  In other words, if you have Jesus it says you have life and if you don’t have him, you don’t have it.   That is so simple.  There is nothing else to think about but Jesus Christ.  You either have him in your heart or you don’t.  John says if you have him in your heart you’ve got the witness in yourself.  That’s God’s word on it.

In First John 3:19, “And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”  That word “assure,” means tranquilize.  You know what a tranquilizer is.  This is the greatest tranquilizer in all the world.  Are you stressed out?  Get the Word of God.  Hide it in your heart.  You got troubles?  Get the Word of God and hide it in your heart.  God’s word will give you assurance concerning your salvation.

In John 5:24 (Listen to this simple verse.), “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth My Word and believeth in Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”  You need to memorize that verse of scripture.  First John 5:24 and if the Devil makes you doubt, you read that to the Devil.  That’s what Jesus did in the wilderness.  Every time the Devil made him an offer he just quoted him a verse of scripture.   You just read that verse and hide it in your heart.  Have you believed in Jesus Christ?  Do you believe in God the Father?  The Bible says you are “passed from death unto life,” because you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In I John 2:29, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one who doeth righteousness is born of Him.”  You keep seeing this word “know.”  You can know some things.  You can know because of how people live.  Christ in you will produce a new life.

In I John 4:7 (Let’s read God’s word again.), “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,” (Now listen to this.  This is God speaking.) ”and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.”  Do you have that agape love, the love of God, in your heart?  Do you really love God’s people?  Do you love others?  Do you love God?  Do you love Jesus?  Are there times you wish you could just reach out and hug Jesus because you love him so much?  Are there times when you get to thinking about what he did for you on the cross and tears run down you cheek?  Do you love him?  Can you even pray for those who mistreat you?  What does the Bible say?  “Every one that loveth is bornof God and knoweth God.”  That’s eternal life people.  That’s salvation.  No matter what the Devil says, no matter what a friend says, what does God say?  Go to God’s word.

One night I got on my knees and I read First John, verse by verse, five chapters, and I said, “Lord, I’m not getting off my knees tonight, if it takes all night, until you give me full assurance.”  The Devil was really giving me a hard time and I stayed on my knees a long time beside my cot.  God gave me assurance and finally I thanked him, I prayed for it, I went to bed and had a good night’s sleep.  The word of God is the greatest witness in all the world concerning your salvation.

And then there is a second witness.  God didn’t just give us his word, but he gave us a witness from within.  He saves us from the inside out.  In First John chapter one verses one and two, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life” John said what we’ve seen I want to share with you. “(for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us);”  And John said, I want to share it with you so you can know by personal experience that you have eternal life.

Suppose I asked each one of you, are you married?  I wonder if there would be anybody here that would say, “Well, I’m not sure.”  If you have mental capacity to be here in this service this morning (and evidently you do), you know whether or not you are married.  Being saved is as much a relationship as a marriage relationship.  You have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  And you know.  You talked to him today.  You talked to him yesterday.  You walked with him.  You won a soul to Christ.  You taught a Sunday school class.  You can know whether or not you are saved as well as you can know whether or not you are married.  Some of you would say, “no, I’m not married.”  And somebody else will say, “well, I’ve been married for sixty years.”

“When did it happen?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure.”

Does that sound right?  I believe everyone of you who are married can go back to where you got married and remember part of your vows.  Why? Because you were there.  It happened. It was an experience.  I can go back to where I was saved.  The old church building is still standing.  I could draw you a circle just about where I was standing the night I put my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.  I believe the apostle Paul could go back to the Damascus road where he was saved, the Samaritan woman go back to the  well where she met Jesus, blind Bartimaeus could go back to the roadside where he was standing when he cried out to the Son of David.  Zacchaeus could go back to a tree in Jericho.  There’s a bright spot back there somewhere.  You might have been six years old; you might have been sixty years old.  But it doesn’t matter.  There was a place where you met Jesus.   You confessed your sins.  You cried out to him.  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Brother D. L. Wadley, gone on to be with the Lord, he was one of our great preachers.  He preached many revivals at my home church.  He won me to the Lord.  He was preaching one night and I hadn’t been taught a whole lot about assurance.  I knew I’d been saved, but I needed some assurance.  Most Christians do.  Not everybody, but most Christians do.  Brother Wadley preached that night and he gave his testimony.  He said, “I was a grown man before I got saved.”  He said, “I had seen them bury my Daddy and I stood at his coffin and wept like a baby because I knew I would never see him again.  I wasn’t saved and he wasn’t saved.  Two weeks later,” he said, “I stood at another casket and watched them bury my Momma and I wept like a baby because I wasn’t saved and she wasn’t saved.  I had no hope of ever seeing my mother and daddy again.”  And he said, “after that, and after I heard the funeral services of my mother and daddy I got to thinking about my soul.  And the Lord began to convict me that I needed to get saved and that Jesus Christ was the only one who could save me.”  He said, “I, one morning, got on a street car, in Dallas.”  And he said, “The streetcar was full of people.  I couldn’t find a seat so I stood on the steps and held onto the post by the stairwell.” And he said, “I forgot about the crowd. I forgot about the traffic.” And he said, “I bowed my head and I began to pray. ‘O, God, save a wretch like me.’” And he said, “Right there on that streetcar in downtown Dallas, Texas, God lifted my burden, God saved my soul.” And he said, “I was so happy.”  But he said, “then time passed.  The old Devil came to me and said ‘Luke, you weren’t saved. You just had an emotional experience.’”  He said, “Old Devil, you get behind me. You leave me alone.  I know I received Jesus Christ in downtown Dallas on that streetcar that morning.”  And he said, “The Devil would have to leave.”

Do you have an experience where you met the Lord?  As a teenage boy that really helped me.  I hadn’t been saved long and Brother Luke shared that testimony.  Here was a man of God who could just quote scripture after scripture after scripture and yet he got up and shared how the Devil had hindered him so many times by being an accuser of the brethren and trying to make him think that he needed something more than what he had.

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