Midweek Review #2 (Acts 1:9-26)

Keep your eyes on Jesus. He is your only hope. Now the scripture tells us how we can know for sure that we will belong and it's not what most evangelicals in America today say. It is not. Most evangelicals say that if you have walked that aisle at that crusade or at that youth event and you prayed the prayer, you can write it down in your Bible and you know for sure you're going to heaven.

Because if your name is written in that Bible, then it's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That is not what the scriptures teach. The scriptures tell us that our assurance that we can know that we are saved is built on faithfulness until the end.

Assurance of Salvation Through Faithfulness

It does come from the Holy Spirit. He confirms according to Romans 8 that we are children of God. But the faithful Christian who is walking in obedience finds that assurance according to the scripture through faithfulness.

If there is a believer who says I believe in Christ, but is wandering off into sin, the scripture does not offer the comfort of salvation to that person. Now any believer at any point can come back to Christ and turn to him and any sin is forgivable.

Eternal Security, Repentance, and 1 John

And I'm not even saying that you must maintain your salvation and your justification before God. I'm not saying that at all. But read the book of 1st John. According to chapter 5 verse 13, it's written so that we would know that we have eternal life.

And how are we to know these things? There are tests given that cycle through that book over and over again. This is how you know you're a child of God. You walk in the light and you do not make a continual pattern of sin.

You're faithfully obeying what God commands you to do as best you understand it, not perfectly. And if you say you're perfect, you're a liar. According to 1st John 1. But you're walking in obedience. You're faithfully truly a Christian.

And here's how you know. You love your brother. How can you say you love God if you hate your brother? If you're harboring wickedness and hatred towards someone in your heart, if you don't forgive from the heart, why do you think that you're forgiven according to 1st John?

Hebrews 3 and Holding Firm to the Confidence

I like the way the author to Hebrews put it in chapter 3 verse 6. He says you are his house. Referring Christ is the servant over God's house. He's the son and the master of the house. In fact, he's the builder of the house, whereas Moses is only a servant in the house.

Christ is the the builder of the house. And he tells us that we are his house if we hold firmly to the confidence we had at first. You say, wait, what is this if thing? You are belonging to Christ. You are a true and faithful believer in Christ and you belong to him if you hold firmly to the confidence you have at first.

Are means it's finished. You have become a child of God and it can never be lost. The if indicates what proves or shows that to be the case. That you are continuing to hold to the confidence you had at first.

In other words, you didn't just walk an aisle and pray a prayer and write it in your Bible, but to this day you say I believe in Christ and here I stand. I'm a Christian and yes, I fall short. Yes, I'm a sinner.

I repent daily, but I belong to Christ and I believe he's my only hope. You see the difference? It's an abiding faith, a continuing faith that shows that it was true in the first place. We don't have time now to read what Peter wrote on this subject, but in the second epistle that he wrote, 2nd Peter, the first 11 verses, he talks about how you can make your calling and election sure.