Are you saved? P.S.: Baptism

On baptism...This is in response to a comment from a reader.  I must be slipping in my old age.  Baptism can be a tricky subject depending on the doctrines you were raised with, so this next bit is going to be my opinion supported by various scriptures. 

First, baptism as I read it in the scripture is done by immersion.  It's a picture of burial and resurrection. Jesus was baptized by John, his cousin to fulfill scripture and to please the Father.
   
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"  But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus commanded that baptism be performed by His followers for new believers.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20

Baptism is a sign of repentance, as indicated in Acts chapter 2 but it is not just water baptism that is spoken of. The water immersion is a symbol of our baptism into the Holy Spirit.  We must separate the two, lest we wander into a legalistic view, seeing water immersion as necessary to enter Heaven.  When a person experiences salvation, they receive the Spirit. Jesus spoke of this, as did John the Baptizer. Peter said it this way to a crowd in Judea.

    John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."
Luke 3:16,17

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning.  Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'  If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?"
Acts 11:15-17

These converts had received the Holy Spirit. They had been baptized in the fire of the Spirit. They would be immersed in water later.  So, the two things are separate. 

Now, that being said, are we then able to ignore the act of water immersion?  To paraphrase Paul, Heaven forbid!  Baptism is the public symbol of what has happened in the new believer's soul. Jesus set the example and the practice was done as soon as possible for all new converts in the first century church.  Immersion is the picture of our death to sin and the resurrection into a new life as a new creature in Christ.  It is, I believe, the first most important step of obedience a new Christian takes part of.  If a person refuses to be baptized, I would wonder about their will to obey Christ and by extension their claim to be saved.  When Philip met the eunuch and witnessed to him, he was converted and as soon as they came to a body of water, he wanted to be baptized.

Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"  Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
Acts 8:36-38

So, we get saved, immersed in the Holy Spirit then we follow in obedience and follow the example set by Christ and His disciples by being water immersed before the church body.  As I said, you may have different doctrinal teachings and we could get way off into the weeds. Arguments arise from smaller subjects. I'll leave it at this.  Keep seeking out the Word of God and keep praying! 

Goodbye, Stranger!

According to some estimates, up to 80% of professed "Christians" are what Jesus called "Workers of Lawlessness" 
"Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.  On that Day, many will say to me, `Lord, Lord! Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we expel demons in your name? Didn't we perform many miracles in your name?' Then I will tell them to their faces, `I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!"  Matthew 7:21-23 CJB

Notice that Jesus didn't say that He previously knew them, then forgot them. He will say to those false believers, "I never knew you." Powerful words, and certainly something we don't want to hear on the other side of this life.  So, if you say you're saved, how do you know?  Is salvation secure or is it like loose change in a threadbare pocket; subject to slip away if we're not careful? The Bible is clear on two things:
1: Salvation, if we truly experience it, is a once and for all deal.
2: The door to Life is narrow and few find it.  Many fake it even without knowing it.   

Ok, so if it's such a rare thing to be truly saved, why are there churches filled with people, Bible teachers, Sunday School directors, elders, deacons, preachers?  Let's think on this question: Why did Jesus have so many followers?  There are many places in the Gospels that tell us that Jesus had to get away from the crowds, and on two occasions He preached into the evening and then fed huge crowds numbering in the thousands.  Were these throngs of people all true believers in Messiah? The Gospel of John, chapter six records Jesus' words to the crowds who followed Him around the lake after He fed them.   

When Jesus tells the parable of the sower, He illustrates four kinds of people who hear the Gospel. Only one of the four is fruitful and useful to the Kingdom. One hears, but the message doesn't take root at all.  One converts quickly but takes no deep root in the Word or in the church. He quickly burns out. One takes root and tries for a while but the everyday worries of life crush his efforts to grow.  In many parables, He speaks of true and false converts: sheep and goats; wise virgins and foolish virgins; wheat and tares; good and bad fish. 

All these parables speak of people in the same group, but when Judgment day comes, the false hearts and motives are found out and those people are cast away into punishment.  They all looked like believers.  In the parable of the wheat and tares, the workers ask if the newly planted tares may be pulled before the harvest.  They are told to wait, lest the wheat is pulled up too.  God's timing will reveal the fakers. It's not for us to try to point them out. 
Nowhere in scripture do we see the true convert losing eternal life. 

"My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father's hands. I and the Father are one."             John 10:27-30

We see that they can fall into sin and self-righteous defense of that sin and be cast out of fellowship, handed over to the chastisement of the world. (Matthew 18:15-17)  This was spoken of as a last resort to shake up the believer who is spinning his wheels. The parable of the prodigal son was the story of a believer who fell into sin and had to be knocked down to a low place before repentance kicked in and he came back to fellowship. He was never disowned  by the father, but his pride led him to lose the joy of being an heir. 

A true convert may, for a season, fall into sin but the Spirit is always trying to prick us into repentance. If a person is sinning and they have no sense of conviction at all, then the problem may  very well be that they were never truly saved in the first place. Paul spoke of quenching and grieving the Spirit through sin, but we cannot force Him out once He has entered.  If we're walking in Light, then we will be full of truth and darkness will be far from us. 

1 John, chapter 3 teaches that if we're saved; that is, if we belong to God, we will not keep on sinning, or follow a pattern of sin.  Those who claim to be believers and still continue a sinful life were never believers in the first place. They belong to Satan, not God.  There aren't people who get saved, start falling away and get unsaved. There are true converts who, when they sin feel the sting of conviction and repent and  there are the ones who lie to others and themselves, claiming to belong to God but who still walk in darkness. 

These words of John reflect the words of Jesus, that we're either saved or we're strangers to the Lord.  Only God can see with certainty, so we can only really examine our own lives.  When we sin, does it grieve us or is the grief delayed a bit or muted? If that's the case, we have some confession time ahead of us, a sit down with Jesus to clear away the mess and let Him soften our hearts again.  If you are doing what you've learned to be wrong but just keep doing it without any feeling of remorse or conviction, be aware that this is not the mark of a convert.  You can continue lying to yourself "I can follow God and still...(enter your pet sin here) but you cannot get past God on Judgment Day. Please, don't be one of the souls who is told "I never knew you" despite your grand claims of service to The Lord.