Are You a Christian? 7 Tests to Know For Sure

These are hard words that we're going to be going over this morning. And they're the words of Scripture, they're not my words.

They're the words of John the Apostle. So I would encourage you this morning, please, for the sake of your own soul, listen to what the

Spirit of God is telling you, because there's nothing more important than your salvation. So, with that, we're going to go to the

Lord in prayer, and then we'll get started. Lord, I pray to you now, and I pray to you hard,

Father, that you would do a work in all who hear this message of yours this morning. Lord, I am but a vehicle of the truth, and a broken one at that, but you,

O Lord, are mighty, and your word will not come back void. I plead with you, Father, on behalf of those listening, that you would stir their hearts.

Let them see clearly whether they are in the faith, and let them not leave here without encountering your

Spirit in some way. In Jesus' name, amen. I trust that everyone has a finger right now in the book of 1

John. If you have another finger, turn with me, if you will, to the book of Matthew, in Matthew 7.

Matthew 7, verse 21. And this is, according to my father at least, the most scary verse in all of Scripture.

I'm going to read it for you, and these are the words of Jesus. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me,

Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my

Father who is in heaven will enter. Saints, not everyone is going to heaven.

Not everyone in this room is going to heaven. You say, John, how can you say that?

You don't know my heart. You don't know what I'm thinking on the inside. And you're right, I don't completely.

I can see your actions, but I don't know exactly what's underneath it. But the Lord does, and He sees the secret in you.

He sees what you are under all your Christian makeup. Some of you kids in this room, you have your parents so fooled, it's incredible.

Let's go on to the next verse, verse 22. He says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

There are tears among the wheat. This is the teaching. This is the doctrine of Jesus.

This is our Lord speaking here when He says this. And these are powerful, these are shocking to some of us, these are harsh, but these are realities.

And if we're going to call ourselves Christians, we have to abide by them. We have to take them to heart and really understand what they mean, and then apply what they mean.

There is absolutely nothing more important than your eternal salvation. Nothing. What would profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?

He who has ears to hear, let him hear the word of God in 2 Corinthians 13 .4, and I'm going to read that for you.

It says, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourselves?

That Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test. So you want to know if you're in Him.

You want to know if you're truly a Christian. It says there's a test. Now, there's some of you out there that have bated breath right now.

You're waiting. You want to know what this test says, because you want to make your calling and election sure. And I've hoped for you.

There's many true Christians out there who are waiting anxiously. They want to know, am I truly a

Christian? Can I have that assurance? That's one group, and that's one reaction.

There's another group in here, and you don't have any anxiety to hear those words.

It doesn't really mean anything to you. It doesn't matter. And for you, I'm very concerned right now.

You have 168 hours in your week, and for some of you I know that only one of those hours is going to be spent in serious consideration of what the

Bible has to say. I'd ask you this morning, let that hour count for something, something eternal. So we've learned two things this morning, so far.

We've learned, number one, not everyone, in this room even, who says they're a Christian is a

Christian. Number two, we've learned that there's a test, and that test is found in the book of 1

John. So how do we know if we are truly saved? 1 John 5, verse 13, says this,

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John is writing to Christians to give them encouragement so that they know they have eternal life. But let me tell you something.

This book has implications for those who are not saved, who are faking it, who are sitting here, and maybe you come here year after year, but you're not truly saved on the inside.

Maybe a pastor or a well -intentioned parent or a Sunday school teacher or a friend has given you the false hope that you're saved because somewhere along the line you made a decision to follow

Christ. Or maybe you're good works. You think, because I live a decent life,

I will go to heaven. Or because I was born into a Christian family, I've always been a Christian. I don't know how many times I've heard that one.

Those are all great things, but none of those are a place to put your assurance. If that's the only place that you have your assurance, is in a decision you made or a lifestyle that you live, then you are not saved.

I know that sounds harsh, but that's the truth of Scripture. And that's what John is writing to correct.

Now, there are seven basic tests for us to look at this morning. So, without further ado, let's let the

Word of God speak for itself on this subject. Let's go to 1 John 1 for the first test.

1 John 1, and we're going to be looking at verses 5 through 7. It says this,

This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Brothers and sisters, there is no darkness in God at all. That's why sin offends

Him so much. He's not tempted in the least by sin. We can't even fathom that.

That's why when Jesus was on the cross, and He had the sins of the world, your sins, on Himself, dying in your place,

God couldn't even look at His own Son. The most valuable, the most precious, the greatest thing this universe has ever known, the thing that God values the most,

His Son, He couldn't even look at Him, because there was sin. There was sin, our sin, on Him.

God is completely holy. He's set apart. He's different than we are, and in Him there is no darkness.

Now, I'd like to just say, I think for a lot of people, I'd say the majority of people in America that call themselves

Christians, they get this wrong right off the bat. This is the God of the American politician, the

God that we all kind of know. He loves us, and we're all His children, but we can't define

Him. We don't know what He thinks about sin. That's a comfortable God, isn't it? Because then you can go do whatever you want, and He loves you anyways.

But that is a lie from the pit of hell. That is not the God of Scripture, or the God of reality.

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. Those who say they have fellowship with God, those who say they love

God, will walk with Him. Let me break this down for you. John is making a logical argument here.

He's saying, if you're walking with God, you won't walk in places He wouldn't go, because how can you? This is kind of a weak analogy, but I think it kind of gets the point across.

When I was younger, and I would go to people's houses, friends' houses or whatever, to play, there was one friend in particular I'm thinking of, who it seemed like every time

I went to his house, he couldn't go outside and play. He was grounded for something. And he loved to go outside, so his parents figured, we just take that privilege away, he has to stay inside.

So it was kind of a bummer for me, right? Because I wanted to go outside and play basketball or whatever, and I had to stay inside with him.

Well, I had an option, right? I could, if I was at his house, I could either go outside and play with his brother, or the neighborhood kids or whatever, or I could stay inside and spend time with him, which is really the reason

I was there to begin with. I couldn't have it both ways, could I? I couldn't be outside and with him.

It's the same thing with walking with God. God's not going to go to those places where there's sin.

He's not with you when you're in the midst of that. So you can't walk in a place where God's not going to go and expect

Him to be there with you. That's the argument John is making here. We have fellowship, it says, with God. The word is koinonia, and it means you have something in common with, an association, joint participation.

In other words, if you say you know God, and yet you participate in the things that He hates, you're a liar.

And not only that, your sin is not paid for. So you say, but it's

God's grace that takes our sin. There's nothing required of us. Have you never read the words of Jesus in Matthew 16 .24?

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Listen, God's gift is absolutely free, but someone who's received that gift will also be absolutely changed.

I'm going to repeat that. God's gift is absolutely free, but someone who's received that gift will be absolutely changed.

They no longer live for themselves. They live to be near God. They hunger for God. They thirst after righteousness.

They love Him, and they just yearn to be with Him all the time. If that doesn't describe you, if your heart does not long for that,

I worry for you. What does your heart long for in the place of God? I want you to notice something else about verse 7.

It doesn't say if we walked in the light as He Himself is in the light. It says walk.

And what's the difference there? It's not a past tense. It's a present tense. What is

John saying? He's saying, listen to it. He's saying, if you're not walking with God now, you never were walking with God.

If He's not doing a work right now in your life, He never did a work in your life. If the only reason you think you're a

Christian is because you can point back to some point in the past when God was doing a work on you, but you can't point to something

He's doing right now, you're not of Him. That's what John is saying. Philippians 1 .6

says this. You may be thinking right now, well, if God does work in my life,

I mess up. How does that work itself out? I sin,

I do all these things, and I prevent Him from working. That's not true. You can't prevent

God from working. That's what Philippians says. It's His work. It's not your work. Listen, if it was your work, we're in trouble because I know what the

Scripture says about our hearts apart from God. The success of your

Christian walk is not dependent on you. It's dependent on God. He is the potter, you are the clay, and if you are not being molded, it's a sign that you're not in the potter's hands.

And I pray to God today you would cry out, plead with Him to save you. So that's test one.

Are you continuing in righteousness? Now then, let's keep reading verses 8 -10.

Verses 8 -10, it says, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Now, it's hard to believe, but there are many

Christian denominations out there, and they're in our area actually, that believe that in this life, you can become perfect if you submit to the leading of the

Holy Spirit. So before heaven, before you die, somehow if you just do the right thing and you submit to the

Holy Spirit's leading, you will be perfect. Sometimes you'll run across people like this. They'll say, I haven't sinned since 1984, you know, or whatever.

And I want to make something very clear this morning. Christians do sin, you know.

Unless you think I'm coming off as really, you know, harsh here and saying, Christians have to be perfect. No, I'm not saying that.

Here's what I'm saying. Many of you may be thinking that, but a

Christian, while he does sin, he hates it. That's the difference. I have a new relationship with God, some people will say.

I've gotten saved. You know how you can tell if you really have a new relationship with God? You're going to have a new relationship with sin.

When you were converted, you went from being a sin lover and a God hater to a sin hater and a

God lover. Do you still sin? Yes, at times. But it's not the pattern of your life.

It's not what you wallow in, what you cherish, what you look forward to, what you dream about, what marks your life. It's what you fall into as an animal caught in a trap.

Verse 9 puts it this way. You confess your sin. You repent of your sin. And the glorious promise is that God forgives you.

I think a good analogy of this relationship is the analogy of a husband and wife. How do you know if a husband truly loves his wife?

Is it that he never disappoints her? No, every husband does that. It's that when he does disappoint her, he regrets it with all his heart and he works to make the relationship right again.

Do you hate your sin and are you quick to confess it before God? That's the second test.

Are you confessing your sin? Let's turn our Bibles to the next chapter of 1 John starting at verse 3.

By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says,

I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. So how do you know if you are a Christian? The Apostle John tells us it's by keeping

God's commandments. In John's Gospel, in John 14 verse 15,

Jesus puts it this way. He says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now we just said a moment ago that in order to have a new relationship with God, you've got to have a new relationship with sin.

There's another new relationship you need to have and that's a new relationship to God's commandments. When you weren't saved, you didn't care about God's commandments.

Or if you did care, they were loopholes. You were trying to find your way around them so that you could still do the things that you wanted to do, just like a

Pharisee. You wanted to keep the letter of the law, which is important by the way, but without the spirit of the law.

So let me tell you what the Christian's relationship is. That was the non -Christian, right? Here's what the Christian's relationship is to the commandments of God.

I'm just going to take a couple of these. They're all over the place, but here's a couple from Psalm 119. Verse 27,

I love your commandments above gold. Verse 47, I shall delight in your commandments, which

I love. Verse 48, I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.

Verse 97, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Listen, it is the heart of the unbeliever that says, oh, how your commands constrain me.

How I can't do what I really want to do. 1 John 5 3 says this,

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

A true Christian does not see God's commands as burdens. He sees them as blessings.

The same way when you're driving down the road and you see a sign that says the bridge is out in front of you, you don't see that as such a burden that you can't go around, that you have to take the long way.

You can't go across your favorite bridge or whatever. You see that as a blessing. It's warning you of danger, and that's how a

Christian sees the commandments of God. They're blessings. Do you keep his commandments?

Now, I want to be clear on something here. We just talked about how Christians do sin, right?

But how they hate it and confess it when they do. This means that there are times, as a

Christian, you will break God's commands. So what is John saying here? He's saying this.

If you love God, you will have a life pattern that you will walk in of obedience to him.

All of these tests are life patterns. When your friends look at your life, do they see a man or a woman who keeps

God's commandments, or do they see a hypocrite who walks in on Sunday morning a different man than when he went to bed on Saturday night?

Think about the real you. This is where it gets real personal. Think about the real you, the person you are when no one is watching.

Does that person, not the person your pastor thinks you are, not the person your parents think you are, not the person your friends think you are, the real you, does that person love

God's commandments and strive to keep them? That's the third test.

Let's move on to the fourth test. It's found in the next verse. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.

It's talking about Jesus here. Do you walk like Jesus? Do you walk like our

Lord? Now, a lot of the things that we've been talking about, keeping

God's commandments, walking in the line, these are all, they could be at least outward things that you do.

This is the inward motivation. The reason that you try to do these things is because you want to be like Jesus. If you're trying to outwardly conform to the standard, but you don't have the heart of,

I want to be like Jesus, you're not a Christian. A Christian walks in the same way that Jesus walked.

Now you say, John, how can I possibly walk like Jesus walked? I mean, he was perfect, wasn't he?

I'm definitely not. Let me give you an analogy. I actually kind of stole this analogy from a pastor named

Paul Washer, but it really actually, I relate to it so much because I have a shared experience here.

When I was younger and there was a snowfall, just like we had earlier this week, I'd say about,

I don't know, seven or eight years old, my father and I, and I guess my brothers, would go over to the school right over here.

There's a big hill there and we used to sled. It was big when I was little. And my father had, he actually still has a bigger foot than me, but back then it was quite a bit different.

My foot was really tiny compared to his, and he would make tracks in the snow. And especially if it was six inches or more, as I'm walking to the school with him,

I'm trying to put my foot in his foothold, where he had previously walked.

Now, the reason for that is, well, I'm trying to stay out of the snow. And there's another reason, though, for it, and I think my mom probably would recognize this.

Anyone who would be watching me would recognize this. I want to be like my dad. It's the same reason when he was out mowing the lawn,

I would get my little plastic lawn mower. I'm not doing anything really, but I'm just trying to be like dad. So, I know everyone's envisioning that right now.

Get that out of your head. So, I'm about to put it in your head again, though, because this is what I was doing. I was walking, kind of like a bionic man, like a robot or something, trying to put my foot where his foot was, and his strides were longer than mine.

Now, I looked foolish, probably, right? To someone on the outside, especially a grown man doing that.

But to the people who really knew what was going on, they knew all I was trying to do was be like dad. So, I might fall at times,

I might stumble, and I might look stupid. But deep down, I was really trying to be like my father.

And I think it's the same way with walking with Christ. You are going to stumble. You are going to fall at times.

But there's no doubt in the mind of everyone who watches you that that's what your purpose is, that's what your goal is.

You're walking on the footsteps of God. And you may look foolish to the world. In fact, the world's going to think you're foolish.

You look awkward. You're awkward. Get over it. Try to walk in a way that Christ has called you to walk.

So, I hope that analogy helped. But that's our fourth test.

Are you conforming to Christ? Are you walking in the life pattern that Christ has set for the right motivation?

Now, let's go to verse 9. The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

This is what he's saying. You know how you can tell if someone's a believer? They love other believers, and they love to be with them.

I remember once when I was in my early teens, my family took a trip out west, and we were at the

Sequoia National Park. And I think, as I recall, I think we were going up to the General Grant Tree or Sherman.

It was one of those big, big ones. And as we're going up, our van, our minivan breaks down.

And we're on this mountain road in the middle of nowhere, and we were stuck.

And my father, I remember, he hitchhiked his way. He started walking, and I guess he found someone who gave him a ride to the bottom of the hill.

And he hitchhiked his way into town. He needed to get some motor oil. I don't remember what the repair required, but he needed to get to a hardware store.

It was a little town down there. And he, I don't know how this exactly came about. I don't know, maybe

Dad or you remember, but somehow he wound up at a church. And I guess he figured he could get some help there.

And he walked in, and I don't remember if it was the pastor or just a Christian who was there at the time, but this Christian brought him to the hardware store, paid for the oil himself, invited my family for dinner, and I'm sure he would have put us up for the night if we needed that.

And we didn't go to his house for dinner or anything, but my dad did accept the oil, and he came back up, and we were able to get out of the mess we were in.

The point, though, is that that made an impression on me when I was in my early teens. And I know since then, and maybe you guys have had shared experiences, when

I go into a place in which I am not familiar, and there is a Christian there, and you know that this is a

Christian, I'd give my life for him. That's what John is saying. He's saying, the word love here, it's self -sacrificial.

You would sacrifice yourself for another fellow believer if you don't know anything else about that fellow believer. Does that mark your life?

Would you lay down your life, risk your life, for your fellow believer? You know what, so often we won't even fill their basic needs.

So John is really making a tough standard here for us all to reflect on.

Do you love other Christians? Now, some of you might come to me and say, John, I come to church,

I come every Sunday, I'll even go to Bible study sometimes, but I have these other friends that I, yeah,

I know what you're talking about, you're lost. I know that sounds harsh, but that's the reality. If you enjoy hanging out with the world, if the world is your primary influence, if they're your confidants, the ones you get advice from, the ones you share your intimate feelings with, then you're not saved, because you know what?

Christians are going to be the ones that you love. Those are the people that you're going to share those thoughts with.

Not that you can't have non -saved friends. You should have non -Christian friends. You should be in the world.

You should be interacting with them. But they are not going to be your close friends. Does that make sense?

Are you continuing in sound doctrine?

That's the final test. So I ask you this morning, are you continuing in righteousness?

Are you confessing your sin? Are you keeping His commandments? Are you conforming to Jesus? Are you caring for Christians?

Are you casting off the world, and are you carrying on the faith? And before we close today,

I want to say a couple of things. First, I know there are many true Christians in this room right now whose hearts may be troubled.

And to you, I want to say something very important, so please listen. Everything we just spoke about is a life pattern.

You will not achieve perfection in this lifetime. Paul didn't achieve perfection. He still had sin.

If I can sum it up, I would say this. A true Christian practices what he listens to being preached.

He has a desire to follow God, and he will never be truly content until he is completely sanctified.

So if you are walking in the Spirit, if sin grieves you, if you are keeping

God's commandments, following hard after Christ, you love Christ, you have cause this morning to be assured. That's why

John was written, so you could be sure that you are of God. What you're looking for is a changed life, a life that the

Spirit of God controls ever more each day, and a life that you know you can never have lived on your own. Now, there's another group of people present this morning.

You've been faking it. You claim to be a Christian, but it's all an act. You can conform your behavior to a standard, but you do not love

Christ. To you, I have this to say. Repent. Repent. There's no reason today cannot be the day of salvation.

You do not want to be standing in eternity and have God say to you, I never knew you.

Do not let your heart turn away from the truth being conveyed this morning. Salvation is a work of God.

Let me just explain something very quickly. This is the Gospel. You're a sinner, opposed to the law of God, in rebellion against God, a

God -hater, as the Scripture describes you, and God demands justice of you. If he didn't demand justice, he wouldn't be a good

God. He would be letting criminals into heaven. God's justice is called hell, and it's where all lawbreakers rightfully should go.

However, God in his mercy has made a way for you to be forgiven. He has sent his Son, the most prized and valuable person in the entire universe.

That's how he could pay for your sins. There's a lot of us in this room, right? Christ can pay for all those sins because he is of infinite value, so he can take on infinite sin.

Jesus, 2 ,000 years ago, took your sin, your hatred, your pornography, your lying, your evil, upon himself and was punished in your place.

God calls you this morning to turn from your sin and place your faith in Christ. You can't get there on your own.

You need Christ as your sacrifice, and this should break your heart, honestly. Those who are true

Christians know what I'm talking about. What your sin has done, how merciful

God has been. After it breaks your heart, it should give you joy, that God would be willing to forgive you, a lawbreaker.

I encourage you, talk to someone here. Talk to myself, talk to any of the deacons. Talk to someone here who knows

Christ before you leave because you don't know. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. You don't know when you're going to leave this place and stand before God, and you want to hear him say,