I want to speak a little bit about a topic that we already know, and we are familiar with it. Now one of the wonderful things about the Bible is that although we know something, we have to constantly go over it and ask ourselves, “Is this really what the Bible is teaching? Is this really true?” We have to constantly study the Bible. We have to look at these things, especially in our day when we are learning a lot of new things from the Bible. We thought that hell was eternal damnation. We have come to realize it is not, it is not. I believe all of us here believed at one point that hell was eternal damnation where people were going to be roasting in hell forever, and we have come to find out that it is not so. Hell is annihilation, where during the five-month period mankind is going to be tormented, and then on October 21 he is going to be destroyed forever.
So we are constantly learning new things, learning new things from the Bible, and many people are struggling with these things. Are we going to listen to the Bible, or are we going to listen to what we have been taught? The Bible has to be number one. You have to listen to God’s Word the Bible.
I want to look at this issue in the Bible. God tells us that when we truly become a child of God, when we are born from above, then God has given to us His Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit indwells us. How could that be, that God would indwell sinful human beings as we are? And it is a fact that He indwells us. So each one of us ought to examine ourselves because the Bible instructs us to do so, to examine ourselves to see whether we are born again or not. We see the day approaching; judgment day is almost here. So if ever there was a time when we have to honestly look at ourselves, it is today.
A little over two years we have left, a little over two years. It is not a long time. A little over two years and some months, and judgment day is going to be here. So we have to ask ourselves this most important question: “How about me? Am I a child of God? Are you a child of God?” Is that not the most important thing? If we are trusting in any other thing or we are looking at ourselves through our eyes and telling ourselves that we are saved, we could do that because our hearts are deceitful by nature. We do not want to trust our feelings, our emotions; or someone cannot tell you, “You are saved.” God’s Word has to tell us; God has to let me know. He witnesses with our spirit to know that we are His.
Listen to the Bible, and if you have any doubts that you may not be saved, wonderfully we know that today is still the “day of salvation”. God is saving a “great multitude” of people. How do you know that it will not be you? We cannot assume or presume upon God; we should never take that attitude. We should come humbly before God as the people of Nineveh did and beseech God for His mercy. It might be, it might be that He might save me. So as each day goes by, each week, each month, we are getting ever so close to that time. This is very serious, very important, so we have to beseech God and never stop if you know you might not be a child of God.
But before we get into that, we are going to look at unregenerate man, unsaved man. Can he know something about the Bible, the unregenerate heart, the unsaved heart? Yes he can. Unsaved man knows, everyone knows, that there is a God. Everyone does. He might try to deny it, but he knows that there is a God. Does he know wrong from right? Yes. Can he know a lot of truths from the Bible, unsaved man? Yes he can. He could understand a lot; intellectually he can.
Let us look at Romans 2, Romans 2:14-15. Unregenerate man can understand a lot. He can know a lot about the Bible and still not be a child of God. Here we read:
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, …
You can know, unsaved man can know, a great deal about the Bible. Many people who listen to Family Radio and are not saved could know about 2011. He could understand about grace, he could understand a tremendous amount of information, truths from the Bible, and yet he still is not saved, he still is not yet a child of God.
We read in the book of Acts about Cornelius. He was a man that, from all appearances, looked like he was saved; but God revealed to us at one point that he was not until God saved him. So we can understand or know a great deal about the Bible and yet still be on our way to being destroyed on judgment day. We can know these things so we have to be careful, especially those of us who know this who have been listening to Family Radio for quite some time. He knows these things and he is exposed to the truth and he knows all these things. We have to be very careful that maybe this person might not be a child of God.
There is a verse in Psalm 35, let us turn over to Psalm 35:3. Here God says to us that we are to examine ourselves. God says to us:
Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
We want God’s Word to let us know that we are truly saved. As God’s Spirit witnesses with our spirit, we are asking God to say unto our soul, “I am thy salvation.” If we are truly a child of God, God’s Holy Spirit indwells us. As we read the Bible, God is going to let us know, He is going to witness to us. It is not through a voice or some other means—God does not speak to us that way any longer—it is through the “Word of God.” He witnesses with us and He gives us that assurance that we are indeed a child of God. No one can tell you that you are saved; he does not know your heart. God’s Word will do that. He will witness to our spirit that we are indeed a child of God.
So unsaved man, he can know a lot about the Bible and yet he is not saved, he is not saved. But if God’s Holy Spirit indwells a person, God’s Holy Spirit is going to witness to them that they are indeed saved.
Let us turn over to Genesis. Look at the unsaved man, God tells us about unsaved man in Genesis 2:7. He does not have “the Spirit of God” in him but he does have the “breath of life.” In Genesis 2:7:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; …
All of us who are living or have lived, we have “the breath of life” in us. God’s Holy Spirit does not indwell him, he just has “the breath of life.”
Another verse, look over at Genesis 7:17-19. Here God is going to speak about the flood of Noah’s day, and we read:
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Let us read verse 21:
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
Verse 22:
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
So we see that unregenerate man has “the breath of life” in him. He has “the breath of life,” but he does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him; he just has “the breath of life.” So we were made in the image of God and we know wrong from right, we know these things. God’s law is written upon our hearts. We are not animals as some people might think. Many people like to be animals, but we are not; we have “the breath of life” in us.
Look at another verse in John. Look at the Gospel of John chapter 6; it is the same idea there. John 6, we will start reading at verse 52. Here Christ is speaking to the Jews and they are remonstrating with Christ, they are arguing with Christ. John 6:52-53:
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
But He is speaking to people. These people are not physically dead. He was speaking to the Jews, and yet Christ is telling them that they have no life in them. They heard what He said. They had no spiritual life; God’s Holy Spirit is not in them. So here Christ is saying to them, “Ye have no life in you.” “The Spirit of God” is not in them although they have “the breath of life” in them. They did not understand a thing Christ was telling them. So you see, Christ was telling them that they have no life in them. Look at verse 54:
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; …
We have eternal life when God the Holy Spirit indwells us.
… and I will raise him up at the last day.
Let us look at another verse. Turn to Jude; it is the same great truth there. Jude is just before the last book of the Bible, which is Revelation. Jude only has one chapter. Let us read verses 17-19; there we read:
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
There are those who have not the Spirit of Christ. Those are unsaved man; they have not the Spirit of Christ. Now when we become saved, we know that God has given to us of His Spirit, so no matter how someone wants to argue that they are saved, they are not arguing with you, they are arguing with the Bible. “I am saved, I am saved.” I am not going to be a judge of anyone, but God says that He has given to us of the Holy Spirit. If He has given to us, will we not know that?
Can someone know when they are truly saved? Yes, and we are going to look at some verses along those lines later on. Yes, we can know if we are truly saved. How can God be in you and you do not know it? Well, I could understand a child, a baby, but apart from that, if you are truly saved, God tells us that His Spirit is going to be a witness to us that we are a child of God.
So each one of us has to look at our own self. “Am I truly a child of God? Do I have that desire to be obedient?” Now we cannot, when we are apart from the fellowship or apart from our family, live like the devil, so to speak, when we are at work or out in the world; and then come today, we are holier than thou. We are being hypocritical. We are going to live and be obedient to God, if we are truly saved, no matter where we are. If we are at work or at home or wherever we might be, we are going to show forth “the Spirit of God” in us.
Let us go on a little more and look at Romans 8. There in Romans, God speaks a lot about the “Spirit of Christ,” the “Spirit of God.” The “Spirit of Christ” and the “Spirit of God” are the same thing. In Romans 8, we are going to start reading in verse 6. Here we read:
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded …
After we become saved, we become “spiritually minded.” The unsaved man is not spiritually minded at all, he is not, because God’s Holy Spirit does not indwell this person. He is “carnally minded.” And over the ages, the churches have coined this term “carnal Christian.” How the churches have catered to the world, that you can have one foot in the world and one foot in Heaven, so to speak. However, we cannot be that way. We cannot love the world and love God at the same time. God tells us in Matthew 6 that we cannot be a lover of the world: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” We cannot do that. But here in Romans 8:6-9:
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
It cannot be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
So here, God is telling us very plainly that if this person “have not the Spirit of Christ” in them, they are not a child of God. No matter how they want to argue with this verse or say they have been saved for twenty-five years or whatever, God says His Spirit has to indwell that person. God’s Spirit bears witness with our Spirit; He indwells us.
So you can see the importance of us examining ourselves to make sure that indeed we are a child of God. We cannot hide behind our good works; that will never do. That will not save us. We cannot go down a heritage of pastors that was in our family; each one of us stands before God alone. Parents cannot speak for their children and children for the parents. No! God saves each one of us individually. Mom and Dad could be saved and the children are not saved. Some of the children may be saved and Mom and Dad may not be saved. We see that in the Bible. King David had many children and we see the majority of them were not saved. We see Solomon was and that baby that died that he had with Bathsheba, he was saved. As far as I know, there were only two. He had maybe over twelve children, and so far as I know, there were only two of his children that were saved.
We see that throughout the Bible, that many parents who love the Lord had children that were not saved at all, that were not saved at all. So children cannot rest in that, that Mom and Dad love the Lord so that automatically makes me saved. No! It is not like that. Each one of us has to go to God on our own and plead for mercy, plead for mercy, that God might save me.
God tells us that the Holy Spirit indwells that person and they have become a child of God. He tells us if we “have not the Spirit” of God we are “none of his,” no matter what you know, no matter who you are, where you were born, or whatever, you could name it. God gives us His Spirit when we become a child of God. And that is very important, that is very important. Our bodies do not become saved at that point because the body is still under the curse of God. This body eventually, the Lord tarries, is going to die. It is going to be put in the grave, it is going to decay; and then on May 21, it is going to be resurrected a glorified spiritual body. Then completely, 100%, we will be saved. Other than that, we are only saved in our Spirit.
You cannot help but think that that day is fast approaching. So you see how very important it is for me, for us, to look at ourselves honestly. Am I a child of God? It is a very important question. Many people will not do that. They are afraid to look at themselves. What are you afraid of? It is better now to face this issue while God is still saving a “great multitude” and salvation is still possible than not to do it. This is very, very important. A little over two years are left. What about me? What about you? You have to ask the question on your own. Are you born again? Is God’s Holy Spirit indwelling you? Then “the fruit of the Spirit” and all that is going to be a result of that. It is so important to look at ourselves honestly and ask ourselves, “Are we a child of God?”
Let us look in the same chapter, let us look at verse 14 of Romans 8. I know these verses are very familiar, but we have to bring these things back to our remembrance. God tells us in Titus that we are to talk about these things constantly. We have to constantly look at these things; we have to constantly look at our own self—not someone else, but at your own self. Look at verse 14, Romans 8:14:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
So when someone truly becomes a child of God, God’s Holy Spirit indwells them. God calls us that we are “sons of God.” How is that possible that us simple human beings, God calls sons? It is indeed an amazing thing. It goes on in verses 15-16:
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
You see how this ties in with Psalm 35:3:
… say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
God’s Holy Spirit does that; it bears witness to us that we are His. Here in Romans 8:17:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, …
You could be thinking that here is someone, let us say your Mom or Dad is very wealthy, and they left a will and they left millions of dollars in that will. You become an heir to that will; you are the beneficiary of that will. And those millions of dollars do not even begin to compare to what God has given to us, it does not compare, because all that money can do is what? Buy you things of this life, and it is going to be destroyed.
But here God is talking about how we are “joint-heirs with Christ.” We are going to be the inheritors of the New Heaven and New Earth, and the blessing is beyond human comprehension. The promises that God has made to us and all the blessings that we come into, it is beyond human comprehension and we do not deserve it. Someone who has truly become saved cannot say, “I deserved to be saved.” No, we all deserve the same punishment. We all deserve to be destroyed forever, forever more. That is what we deserve. And yet, God tells us that we are inheritors of God’s promises and blessings and, throughout eternity, we will be with Him.
This is a few months away, a few months away. We cannot lose sight of that. And we know that God is still saving a “great multitude.” We cannot lose sight of the fact that God is still saving sinners; He is still making people “sons of God.” People are still entering into this Kingdom, this great blessing, where He says here in verse 17:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, …
Christ has paid for our sins.
… that we may be also glorified together.
Right there we do not know what to say, that God would do that for any one of us. We sing the Hymn “Amazing Grace” and we cannot even begin to appreciate enough what God has done. That is why we are going to be worshiping Him throughout eternity. Eternity, we are going to be worshipping God forevermore.
And if you are not a child of God, then this is not pertaining to you; it is not. This blessing here is only for those who have “the Spirit of God” in them. If this person does not have “the Spirit of God” in them, then for those five months it is not going to be a walk in the park. It is going to be a punishment that, as humanly speaking, we cannot begin to understand. We cannot even begin to understand the horror of those five months, what is going to be going on in this earth. It is going to be a horror story above horror stories. We cannot comprehend it because you are speaking about Almighty God who is punishing unsaved man; God, who is infinite in His wisdom and power and abilities. It will be horrible.
And there are those who would rather be like Esau, the things of this life, the things of this life. And as we know in today’s world, how quickly you could lose all this. How long does it take? Take a look at the stock market. I work at my job; I see the doctors. Every minute, they are looking at the news. Their eyes are fixated on it, the stock market numbers, and you see some of them have their hands on their heads looking at it. The nurses come and they are looking at the news, wow! Unsaved man, he is seeing his life and his fortune, all his things are gone. Mankind is desperately trying to prop it back up but it is dropping.
We are not to put our trust in the things of this life. 1 John 2:15 says:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. …
If you are loving the world, you see how quickly you could lose it. There are people today in a panic. “What about my retirement? What about this? What about that?” And yet, judgment day is a few months away. He does not want to hear about that, neither does he care about it. All he sees is that his whole livelihood is disappearing right in front of him. But if you are a child of God, God’s Holy Spirit indwells you. We the true believers do not have to worry about that, we do not have to worry about that. Our citizenship is in Heaven. We have eternal riches, spiritual riches, which we cannot lose. We can never lose that because it is kept by God and God is our inheritance. So we should not be worried about what we see going on in today’s world; we should not be.
The unsaved man, this is his life and he is going to be worried about this. We have a greater blessing, infinitely greater blessing than the things of this life. If we are saved, we are the inheritors of the New Heaven and the New Earth. So we take it day by day and we are obedient to God’s command of sharing the Gospel; that is what we are saved for. We are not saved to see how much money I can save up for myself or whatever. God tells us in Ephesians that we are saved to the praise and glory of God. We are servants of His and He has given us a command, that whatever blessing God has given to us, we are going to use our time, our money, to get the Gospel out.
That is what we have to be concerned about, not the events of this world, because we know that this world is in the closing moments. God is wrapping things up, and where does that leave me? Am I going to be left here for five months to face the horror and the torment or am I going to be caught up to be with Christ? Is that not the question? It is not my 401K, is it? No. Am I going to be caught up to be with Christ in a few more months.
We do not have a long time left. We do not have the luxury of time; we never did, but particularly in our day as we are headed very quickly towards the end of the world, very quickly. So we have to be examining ourselves. And if you are certain that you are not saved, you have to be beseeching God for His mercy that we may come into this great blessing of salvation.
Let us look at a few more verses. Look at 2 Corinthians 1; these are just a few verses and there are many other verses where God tells us that when we become a child of God, He indwells us. In 2 Corinthians 1:22, He tells us:
Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
He has given us the Spirit. Remember He tells us in Romans that without the “Spirit of God” we are “none of his.” Here, God is driving home the point to us that He has given us the Spirit. He has given it to us, and it is a free gift; salvation is a free gift.
Let us look at another verse. Look at Ephesians 1, and we are going to start reading in verse 11. In the first part of the chapter, God tells how “he hath chosen us.” We are foreordained from “before the foundation of the world;” we were predestinated; we are “without blame;” we are saved to the “pleasure of his will,” when you read from verse 4 down to verse 8. So God is telling us that we are elected, and so forth. But in verses 11-13:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, …
And we know that the inheritance there is the New Heaven and the New Earth, which is really Christ Himself.
… being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
In verse 14:
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
You see there in verse 13, it says:
… ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
We are given the Holy Spirit. You were given it by God. You cannot earn it; you cannot work for it at all. He has given to us of His Holy Spirit. And you see how we have to look at ourselves. “Do I have the Holy Spirit in me?” Because you cannot say you are truly a child of God and God’s Holy Spirit indwells you and yet you are continuing in sin; it cannot be.
Look at Romans 6. We will start reading at Romans 5:21 to pick up the context and we will read through Romans 6:1:
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, …
How can a person say they are truly a child of God, that God’s Holy Spirit indwells them, and yet they are continuing in sin? It cannot be. The potential for a believer to fall into sin is possible. In our bodies we are not perfect. But we are not going to use our bodies as an excuse to sin. No, God tells us to crucify the flesh. And crucify the flesh, we cannot do it of ourselves, either. We have to go to God for help; we have to go to God for help. From the moment you think you could muster up the strength to turn away from that sin, you will fall into it. God has to give us the strength. Romans 6:1-2:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, …
When we become saved we become dead to sin.
… live any longer therein?
We cannot. If you are a drunkard, you are going to stop drinking. If you are living in adultery, you are going to stop. If you are a true child of God because God’s Holy Spirit indwells you now, He is going to convict you of sin. He is going to chastise you; He is going to bring these things into your life to turn you away from these sins.
So we cannot continue in sin if we name the name of Christ. We are going to depart from evil; we are going to depart from sin. God is going to give us a hatred for sin, and when we fall into sin, we are going to be deeply troubled if we are a true believer. You see, King David when he fell into adultery, did he not? He did not continue in that sin; he repented. And so if we fall into a sin, immediately God’s Holy Spirit is going to convict us. He is going to convict us of it. He is going to convict us, or He is going to bring chastisement in our life and we will turn from that sin, repentance. Before you know it, you are going to be crying to God for mercy.
You do not give any excuse. Mankind loves to say, “He made me do it.” However, our sin is our own doing. We cannot blame anyone for it. I committed that sin. I did it. We do not try to cover it up. We go to God and we confess it before Him and we turn away from it.
There is a lot more to go, but I think I had better stop here. My time is about to run out. There are a lot of verses I just do not have the time to get to.
Q&A (paraphrased)
Q. I just wanted to tell everyone and anyone about the Open Forum that will be rebroadcast today at 1:30 on Family Radio. I heard it last evening. It was, I guess, first broadcast on 10/24, which was Friday. I missed that. It is probably the single most influential and nourishing broadcast of Open Forum that I have heard in my years. I recommend it to all highly.
A. I did hear it and it was very good.
Let us pray.