Continuing, Pastor Kyle’s second important reason that we need frequent Gospel reminders is (2) that Gospel reminders confirm our faith and they reveal our hearts. The Apostle Paul tells the Christians that “I would remind you of the gospel ... by which you are being saved”. Christians are being transformed by the Gospel; we are saved and being saved in the present and ongoing tense. We think that salvation happens at a moment in time. Some may ask if it is possible to lose your salvation? Scripture tells us that a truly repentant and converted Christian, sealed by the Holy Spirit, cannot lose their eternal salvation. That which is eternal cannot be temporal. Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Then confirms in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
But, there are a lot of people who look like they are saved, or go through the motions of a saved Christians, who actually are not saved; nominal, pseudo, false, counterfeit or spurious Christians. They may not have truly believed in God, may not heard and honestly understood Jesus’ gospel words, may not have sincerely repented of their sins, may not have faithfully believed that Jesus died for their sins, or may not genuinely believe that they need to stop sinning and therefore deceiving themselves. The real question is not can they lose their salvation, but did they ever really truly believe, accept Christ in the first place, and actually converted? They may have a false sense of salvation based upon a false Savior of their construct. Many people desire a savior to forgive their sins so that they don’t spend eternity in Hell, but do not desire a Lord to obey and be accountable to for their thoughts, words and deeds. Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The Apostle Paul speaks of “the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved”, because of the Christian’s ongoing commitment to pick up their Cross and follow Jesus Christ daily is what confirms their sure salvation. When we get to that Great White Throne in Heaven, Jesus is not going to ask if we prayed a “Sinner’s Prayer” one time in our life here on earth, like we just needed to say the magic words and we were good to come on in; nothing else you needed to do to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven for all time. Jesus is going to ask, how we lived our life each day after we prayed that prayer. What we do after that prayer confirms whether we meant that prayer or not. Jesus forgives our sins, if we sincerely repent of our sins, we accept that He was sent from Heaven by God the Father, that His atoning death on the Cross in our place paid for our sins, that He rose from the grave on the three day to conquer sin and death, and that we receive Him as our Savior and Lord now and forever.
We are fallen humanity and will never be perfect; that is why Jesus (the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God) came. But, if all we did was pray a special prayer and never made any substantive changes in our lives as a response to the Gospel and conversion, did we really even mean what we prayed in the first place? You see, the Gospel reveals the quality of our heart. So, I’d like to ask a question: “How do you respond to reminders about things that you already know?” We need that reminder to get back and then stay on track with the Christian life in a very distractive and busy world. How we respond shows if we are staying soft and tenderhearted to the things of God or hardening our hearts in some way.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on Godpel Reminders on the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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