Four types of People

In regards to salvation, we are dealing with basically four types of people. They are:

1.     

Those  who are not saved and know they are not saved

2.      

Those who are not saved  but believe they are saved

3.     

Those who are saved, but are not sure they are saved

4.      

Those who are saved and know they are saved

With the first group I recently had the opportunity to preach at a Men’s juvenile detention center. During my discussion I came across a young man who said not only was he going to hell, he wanted to go to hell! Shocking. He had no desire to go heaven. Perhaps because of the state of mind he was in which was obviously hopeless at that point, he may have regarded death as a relief from his current miserable life. He may have had so much self hatred that hell was solace for him and heaven was sheer fantasy. I don’t know. The devil was definitely after him (John 10:9-10). Nevertheless he falls into the unfortunate first category.

Those in the second category are a misled group because these people are deceived. What makes this group believe they are saved? Let’s look at a few reasons:

1.      They go to church – Many believe that church membership is enough to enter the gates of heaven.

2.      Taking Communion – Many believe partaking of the holy sacraments; the bread and the wine is part of the        salvation process.

3.      Water Baptism – Many insist that water baptism actually washes away our sins and cleanses our souls.

4.      Sinner’s prayer – Many churches have people raise their hands during a worship service after an invitation to accept Jesus is extended. They walk down the aisle, and repeat a prayer of repentance after the Pastor.

5.      Philanthropy – There are many that believe if they do “good” things like giving to the poor and visiting the sick this will merit the grace of God. So when they die, God MUST accept them into His heaven.

6.      Universalism – I would say most people believe that all people will be saved when they die. This is also called justification by death.

7.      Circumcision – The Hebrews believed the rite of circumcision of the flesh is what justified a person before God. Circumcision was merely an outward sign of the Abrahamic Covenant not a rite of justification of the soul (Galatians 2:16b).

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should get my point across. Theirs is a works righteousness or what is called legalism. Legalism is the belief that by keeping the deeds of the Mosaic law, one could earn their way into heaven. If legalism is the way to heaven, then Jesus died for nothing; belief in Him would be pointless.

The third group are those that are saved, but lack assurance of their salvation. This is due to their lack of exposure to sound biblical teaching of the word of God and it’s power. The lack of assurance also has to do with the ongoing presence of sin dominating their lives. What they need is a constant deluge of the word of God to develop their faith in it. Being a Christian and living a carnal life will breed a lack of assurance. But here is the reality, if someone has been chosen by God before the foundation of the world, they will in God’s time be saved. No one God has chosen ever fails to enter the kingdom of God – become a member of the invisible Church.

Without assurance, one will not only be ineffective in God’s kingdom, they will be assured they can actually lose their salvation, or become non-elect. The Bible teaches exactly the opposite. 2 Peter 1:1-11 declares the following:

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything (emphasis added) pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that by them you become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self control perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities, is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Peter here is like a professor explaining a difficult math problem to his students. Imagine him at the blackboard writing down the problem and supplying the answer. Afterwards he commands us to do what he just explained (i.e. make your calling and election sure). Notice Peter supplies us with the answer; the tools to be successful, then we are commanded to apply what we have been taught. That is what a good teacher does; he equips his students to do what he already  knows.

So the lack-of-assurance-believer HAS to practice the aforementioned in order to gain assurance of their salvation so they can enter into eternity with fullness of Joy. Assurance will only come by hearing, understanding and applying God’s word. When God saves us, we are eternally secure from the beginning. In order for us to be confident we are secure in our salvation we have to practice the virtues mentioned above along with abandoning sin.

The fourth group are those who know they are saved. Now understand knowing you are saved should not be a badge of arrogance, rather one of humility and gratefulness. They know also to doubt their salvation is to doubt the word of God which is sin. Not only are we to be sure of our election, we are commanded to be sure of our election. We are to know we have eternal life (I John 5:13). Those mature Christians know they are who they are strictly by the grace of God (I Cor 15:10).

They understand divine election and predestination. They understand they were saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9). They are students of the word of God, and practice 2 Peter 1:1-11 daily. They have excellent moral character. They continue to increase in learning, and are eager to teach others. They recognize that they are still sinners steadily under the grace of God. They confess their sins so that they may be cleansed on an ongoing basis. They do not laugh at sin, rather they are grieved by it. They understand sanctification and endeavor to practice it. They also realize because of their bold stand for Christ many, even those in the Church will shun and mock them.

They champion the core doctrines of the faith: The deity of Christ, the Trinity, Justification by Faith, the death, burial and resurrection, ascension, and the bodily return of Jesus Christ, the Millennium and the eternal of state. They believe Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). They teach believers will spend eternity with the Lord, and unbelievers will spend eternity separated from the Lord in the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:15).

They will answer the difficult questions skeptics and critics of the faith will ask; realizing that they must always be ready to give a defense to everyone who ask you to give an account for the hope that is in us with gentleness and reverence (I Peter 3:15). They do this so as to glorify God and hopefully win the lost to Christ.

Mature believers will not shy away from the difficult matters in the Bible that make most people uncomfortable. They realize all of God’s word is relevant, and will joyfully teach the whole counsel of God, and provide biblical answers to hard to answer questions. This challenges them, and compels them to become more formidable in their study of scripture. This glorifies God, and tears away more darkness from Satan’s kingdom. Confident believers recognize this is a spiritual war between light and darkness!

            

           The outcome is assured, we win!

Lastly, those that know they are saved study the history of the Christian Faith, and are developing apologetics and theologians. They realize the rich legacy of the early Church Fathers, the Medieval Church, and the Reformers (Luther, Calvin, Knox) left for us to follow. We’re talking as early as Polycarp and Ignatius, to theologians like St. Augustine, Wycliffe, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon,  C.S. Lewis, Dr. Billy G. Ingram,  John Macarthur, R.C. Sproul, Steve Lawson, Dr. Paul Felix, Pastor Steve Mays, David Jeremiah, and Minister Ricardo Wiggins. They will lovingly debate the reliability of scripture to convince all of its truth and compel them to repent and be saved. They are not interested in debating just to win an argument.

The first three groups need to join the last group. This is possible and it happens by the power of God via the Holy Spirit. Rest assured, the third and fourth group can not join the first two groups because God protects them from doing so. Whom God saves, He preserves forever (John 10:27-30).

Hopefully this short article has helped give some insight into these four types of people.