Latest / Taboo Questions With Pastor Mike Novotny / Are You 100% Sure You're Going to Heaven?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Are you a 100% sure that you're going to heaven? That's a question a teenager recently asked me, and it's a question I could so personally relate to. The teenager asked, Pastor Mike, how do I know? How can I be a 100% sure that I'm gonna be with God when I die? I was raised in the Christian church by a Christian mom.
- 0:24I knew about the forgiveness of Jesus, but starting in my, like, middle school and high school years, I struggled deeply and desperately with an addiction to pornography. And that messed with me in a a whole lot of ways, but the the deepest way it messed with me was making me question my salvation. After I would sin, and I'd say I'm sorry, and then I would sin again, and I would say I'm sorry, and a 100 times I'd sin and relapse and run back to God and say that I was sorry, eventually I started to think if I was actually sorry, if I really had faith, if I genuinely was following Jesus, why would I go back to these same old sins? I start to wonder, am I actually going to be saved? I don't know if you've wrestled with that question.
- 1:10Maybe you're an anxious person who just instinctively thinks of what might go wrong. Maybe you're kind of a perfectionist who always focuses on the 2% you got wrong in the test instead of the 98 that you got right. Maybe like me, you've struggled with an addiction or a pattern of sin, and you start to think, man, God must be so exhausted with me. He must be done with my repetitive behavior and my apologies that don't seem to change things. How do you know if you're saved?
- 1:40Well, the Bible gives three answers to that question, and they're all three valid, but the third is more sure than the second, and the second is more sure than the first. Are you ready for it? One of the ways that you can know that you are saved as a true Christian is by the good works that you do. It says in the book of James in the Bible that faith without works is dead, and therefore the opposite, faith with works is alive. So if I'm doing these good works because I love God, that's kind of the fruit that proves I have the roots in Jesus.
- 2:16If I'm going to church because I love God and his word, if I'm making decisions with my body or my money because I'm following the path of Jesus, that's good proof that I'm not just anyone, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, the Jesus who gets me to heaven. So good works can be evidence and proof that you're actually saved, but maybe already in your brain you're thinking, well, yeah, but sometimes I do the good thing, but other times I don't. Sometimes I'm really fruitful, I'm gentle and patient and humble and kind, but just last night I lost my patience and I wasn't so kind and I got lost in my phone and I forgot about my neighbor. So good works can be proved, but they're not really reliable proof. Which is why I wanna take you to proof number two, and it's faith.
- 3:03Do you believe in Jesus? It says that we are saved by grace and through faith, so those who believe and are baptized will be saved, Mark 16. John three sixteen says, God so loved the world, he gave his one only son that believes in him. So if I would ask, do you believe in Jesus? You you'd say, yeah.
- 3:21I'm I'm not an atheist. I'm not a Buddhist. I'm a Christian. Do you believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem? I do.
- 3:28Do you believe he lived a perfect life? I do. Do you believe he died on the cross? I do. Do you believe he rose from the dead and that Easter is true?
- 3:33You'd say, do, and I say, okay, well, well, have faith. Non Christians don't say such things, only those who follow Jesus. Faith is a great proof of your salvation. But then you might push back and say, oh, but my faith is so weak. Sometimes I trust in God and sometimes I don't.
- 3:53Sometimes I have this peace and sometimes I panic and get anxious and so afraid. If I'm looking in the mirror saying, do you have faith? There's always something about my faith that doesn't feel strong enough, which is why we need to move to the third proof. The good works that you do as a Christian might be proof, the faith that you have might be proof, but at the very heart of our confidence is not you and it's not me, it's just Jesus. It's the objective fact that Jesus died for the sins of the world.
- 4:24That the blood he shed, it wasn't just for some people, it was for all people. How about this verse, first John chapter two? It says, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. His sacrifice was not just for a few people or some people, but for all the people.
- 4:50God so loved the world he gave his only Son, and Jesus that Son so loved the whole world he gave his life. Where is my ultimate confidence from? It's from the promise that God has made about the forgiveness of sins. This is what fuels my faith and motivates me to do good works. I wish I could go back to that addicted version of Mike who questioned his own salvation, and I wish I could tell him, yeah, your works are far from perfect, and your faith could be stronger, but there's Jesus who did it all.
- 5:22And he said, it's finished on the cross. And through him, you could be a thousand percent sure that God is smiling upon you from heaven and that you have a place with him there. Friends, pray that your life is bursting with the fruit that comes from a good Jesus fruit. I I pray that your faith is fixed on the cross and so strong. But more than anything, I just pray that you remember at the end of the day, it's Jesus.
- 5:46Remember him, the objective heart of your salvation, and your assurance will grow day by day. Can you be sure you're going to heaven? You you can. And his name is Jesus. Hey.
- 5:58Thanks for listening to Taboo Questions with me, Pastor Mike Novotny. You can find even more questions on timeofgrace.org/tabooquestions and in my book entitled Topics Christians Should Be Talking About But Don't. Just look for the link in the episode notes.