When exactly is a person saved?

Watch the complete sermon here: https://www.bridges.church/messages/lacking-no-good-thing-psalm-34/

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. You know, this last week we heard from Laura, who shared much of her story of trusting in God and wrestling and losing sight of him and trusting in him again and seeing time and time again how faithful he is. So a question related to her story, but also a question related back to when I shared my story, is, at what point is a person saved? You know, my story had a lot of trusting in God, running from God, wrestling with God, believing his word is true, but I’m not following it.

But coming to a point of surrender, trusting in him again, then needing to trust in him all over again not too far down the road.

And so, at what point along this spectrum is a person actually saved, or you’re not saved to the end? How does it all work? Well, first, very clear from scripture, Romans 10:9, right. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes in the his or her heart, that Jesus was raised from the dead is saved.” That is a one time event.

You confess Jesus as lord, believe he was raised from the dead, you put your trust in him as your savior. You are translated. This is Colossians 1:13. At that moment, you are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son that he loves.

That is forever sealed. You receive the Holy Spirit. You are in God’s kingdom forever. Philippians 1:6 “He will complete the work that he began in you”, 100% guaranteed.

No one can snatch you out of his hand. That is for certain. What we also see in scripture, and this is what can trip people up, is there is a way to think that you have confessed Jesus as Lord, that you really didn’t. Jesus in Matthew 7:21. “Not everyone who calls me lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Right? It’s only him who does the will of the Father. Or in Hebrews, at the end of chapter three, going into chapter four, it kind of is a description of two different groups, both of which had the message preached to them. Some of them combined it with faith and were saved. Some of them did not combine it with faith and were not.

It says, the message was useless to them. And then in Hebrews four, it gives a warning. It says, be sure, be careful that you have not fallen short of it. Right. Don’t be like these people.

Jesus describes in Matthew seven that confessed Jesus as Lord but were not really saved because they did not combine that confession with faith. And so when we’re looking at other people’s lives, it is incredibly hard to ever know, really where they are, what’s going on in their heart. It’s God who is the judge of the heart. It’s nearly impossible for us to look into somebody else’s heart and say, oh, you’re in, or, oh, you’re out. Right?

We can hear what they confessed with their mouth, and that is essential. And we, of course, would celebrate that. Anytime anybody makes a confession of faith, man, we throw a party. We say we get you baptized. By the way, we’re having beach baptism coming up, and so we love for anybody who has not been baptized since they confessed faith in Jesus to be baptized at the beach.

So come on, let’s do it right. We throw a huge party. We’re excited, but we don’t know what’s going on in their heart, right? Only God knows that. Only God knows.

If this confession was combined with faith, which even the Romans ten verse, it says that believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. So looking into our own hearts, as Hebrews warns us, we want to evaluate. Do I really believe that Jesus is Lord? Do I really believe that he rose from the dead? Do I really believe, you know, from one Corinthians 15 that we hang on to what we heard of first importance, that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was raised from the dead on the third day.

Right? Is this what we believe? And so let’s all search our hearts, and let’s all plead to the Lord that we would remain in faith forever and ever as he promised that where he would keep us. Thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.