First John 37 says little Children, let no one deceive you.
He who practiced righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. First John 3 10.
In this, the Children of God and the Children of the devil are manifest.
Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. Now, the word practice means that’s your lifestyle.
That’s what you do. The Bible says that when you confess Jesus Christ as your savior and receive him into your life, something happens to you and you change.
You can’t be the same if you can accept Jesus Christ and and be the same as you were before him.
What do you need him for? Now when he comes to live within you, stuff starts to change.
I mean some people, you know you’ve heard stories but I became a Christian.
I threw all my alcohol away, threw all my cigarettes away, got all my girl magazines and burn them up and I did it that day and I’m never that doesn’t happen for most people.
That’s really unusual. Most people get saved. And what happens when you get saved?
The Holy Spirit sets up shop in your heart, heart and he starts working on you. Little by little.
He cleans this up over here. He changes this over here. He gets this attitude, right?
Makes that relationship better and little by little you notice things are happening in your life.
You’re being changed, you’re being transformed, you’re not being reformed.
If you were being reformed, that would be something from the outside in no transformations from the inside out.
And it’s an inside out job because Jesus Christ now lives within you.
When he comes to live within you, he makes you into a different person.
Introducing Dr David Jeremiah’s newest 365 day devotional every day with Jesus inside this beautiful leather soft volume, you’ll find 365 daily inspirational readings from Dr Jeremiah every day with Jesus is yours in appreciation of your gift of any amount in support of this program.
And when you give a generous gift of $120 or more, Doctor Jeremiah will thank you with four copies of every day with Jesus.

One to keep and three to share with others request yours from turning point today.
How can I be sure of my salvation?
How can I overcome temptation? How can I get victory over worry?
How can I find forgiveness? Is there only one way to God?
Why do Christians have so many problems? Why don’t my prayers get answered?
Is there a sin? God cannot forgive? What is faith?
What is the greatest commandment?
How can I be sure of my salvation?
I’m David Jeremiah. And I’ve been asked that question many, many times through the years.
It’s a fair question when I’m always eager to answer.
In fact, it’s life’s most important question since all eternity hangs in the balance.
It’s one thing to become a Christian and be assured of salvation.
But what happens if I sin again or, or struggle with my faith?
How can I know if I’m still safe? If you have wonder about your own salvation?
You want to join me for today’s edition of turning point.
I’m beginning a series entitled 10 questions Christians are asking and today I’ll answer the most important one of all.
How can I be sure of my salvation? I hope you’ll stay tuned for today’s edition of Turning Point.
Let God turn your question marks into exclamation points with Doctor David Jeremiah’s book 10 questions Christians are asking inside Doctor Jeremiah has gathered 10 spiritual questions he has found weighing on believers hearts and minds during his lifetime of ministry.
Questions that you may have too like, how can I be sure of my salvation?
Is there a sin God cannot forgive?
Why don’t my prayers get answered and more then take your study deeper and reflect on discussion, questions at the back of each chapter on your own or in a group.
10 questions Christians are asking is yours in appreciation when you support this program with a gift of any amount.
And if you give $50 or more, Doctor Jeremiah, send you the 10 questions Christians are asking study set inside, you’ll find Dr Jeremiah’s book and his current teaching series on your Choice of CD or DVD album.
Plus a 10 questions Christians are asking bookmark only available in this study set, replace your doubts with confidence.
Order this book and study set when you support the ministry of turning point today, if you’re not sure of your salvation, it’s hard to pray.
If you’re not sure of your salvation, you would never witness.
Why would you want to have anybody else have all the questions you have.
If you aren’t sure of your salvation, worship is an empty experience and sermons often are more harmful than, than they are helpful to you.
If you don’t have the assurance of salvation, the peace that passes all understanding passes you right by God wants you to have the assurance of your salvation.
God didn’t save you so you could live the rest of your life wondering whether it was real or whether it worked or whether it was for sure.
No. He wants us to know.
In fact, listen to these verses from Hebrews and see if you don’t pick this up.
We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope.
He wants us to have full assurance of hope. Hebrews 10 22.
Let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of our faith. Let me ask you something.
Do you have the full assurance of your faith? Peter wrote these words in 2nd Peter 1 10.
He said, therefore, brethren be even more diligent to make your calling and your election. Sure.
For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
The importance of knowing what you believe and being sure of your relationship with Jesus Christ is dealt with in many places throughout the New Testament.
Almost all of the epistles speak of it here and there.
But John the apostle that Jesus loved wrote about it more than any of the other writers in the scripture.
As you know, the apostle John is the human author of five books. He wrote the Gospel.
He wrote 1st, 2nd and 3rd John and he wrote the book of Revelation. In two of those books.
He devotes the books almost entirely to the issue of salvation in the Gospel of John.
He talks about believing. But in first John, he talks about knowing the first key word of first John 5 13 is no these things.
Speaking of first John, I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
In the gospel of John.
We read for the very first time in the third chapter about somebody being born again, Jesus was talking with Nicodemus the rich man and he said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus said that becoming a Christian is like having a new birth.
It’s like being born the second time born the first time physically born. The second time.
Spiritually, when John gets to his first epistle, he picks up on that concept and over and over again in the chapters of first John, he talks about being born of God, being begotten of God.
And these phrases in first John, give us what we might call the birthmarks of a Christian.
How do you know you’re a Christian? How do you know you’ve been born of God?
John, the apostle tells us about that in his first letter.
And I wanna give you five birthmarks of a Christian today. Five things.
And there probably are more, these are the five main ones, five ways you can know for sure that you have been born again, that you’re a Christian.
The first birth mark is what we might call the birth mark of confession.
In every one of these scriptures, the term born of God will appear and I’ve kind of highlighted it on the screen.
First, John 51 says this, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ who is born of God, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and whoever loves him, who begot also loves him who is begotten of him.
John said, if you want to know for sure that you have been born again, you have to have made this confession that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he’s the savior of the world.
If you’ve been born again, you have come to the Lord some time in your life.
And you’ve said, Lord, I’m a sinner. I know you’re the savior. I believe you’re the Son of God.
And I want you to be my savior. Please come and forgive me of my sin.
You’ve made a confession of faith.
The book of Romans says, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart, then we will be saved.
So the first thing you should ask yourself if you claim to be a Christian.
When did you become a Christian? When did you confess your faith in Jesus? Christ?
Somebody said to me, well, I’m not sure I’m safe because I, I know I made a confession.
But I don’t remember the date. You don’t need to have the date.
You just need to know there was a date, right? You may say, well, I didn’t write it down.
Well, that’s all right, God did. He wrote it down. He keeps records pretty good up there.
But you need to know there was a time.
The reason I say that is you don’t just float into Christianity. Christianity is a decision that you make.
It’s a confession that you say with your mouth.
You say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He is the savior of the world.
And I ask him to be my savior. That’s what Christianity is all about.
That God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
First, John 41 to 3 says, beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits whether they are of God.
Because many false prophets have gone out into the world by this. You know, the spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
John said when he wrote his epistle, look out because people are gonna come and they’re gonna say you don’t have to believe in Jesus.
You don’t have to believe that Jesus is from God. Just believe just have faith.
And some people take Jesus Christ and they put him in a pantheon of other gods as if He is one of many.
No, if you’re gonna be a Christian, you have to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He’s the way the truth and the life and that no man comes to the father except through him.
John 3 36 says it this way.
He who believes in the sun has everlasting life and he who does not believe in the Sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God is upon Him.
So if you believe in the Sun, if you’ve accepted Christ, if there’s been a confession of faith in your life, then the Bible says, you’ve passed the first test, you’ve got the birthmark of confession.
And I think most of us are OK with that one.
We’ve come to the place where we remember that there was a time when we accepted the Lord.
If someone asks you how, you know you’re a Christian, you got two options.
You can say because I or you can say because he, if you say because I, you probably follow it up with all the things you think you’ve done to make you a Christian that won’t work if you’re a Christian.
It’s not because I it’s because he, he’s the one who did it because he died because he paid the penalty because he’s your savior.
So the first birth mark is this the birthmark of confession.
The second one is what we might call the birthmark of change.
First John 2 29 says it this way.
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.
There’s that expression again, born of him.
The Bible says that when you confess Jesus Christ as your savior and receive him into your life, something happens to you and you change.
You can’t be the same if you can accept Jesus Christ and, and be the same as you were before him.
What do you need him for? Now when he comes to live within you, stuff starts to change.
I mean, some people, you know, you’ve heard stories but I became a Christian.
I threw all my alcohol away, threw all my cigarettes away.
I got all my girl magazines and burn them up and I did it that day.
And I’m never that doesn’t happen for most people. That’s really unusual. Most people get saved.
And what happens when you get saved?
The Holy Spirit sets up shop in your heart, heart and he starts working on you. Little by little.
He cleans this up over here. He changes this over here. He gets his attitude right?
Makes that relationship better and little by little you notice things are happening in your life.
You’re being changed, you’re being transformed, you’re not being reformed.
If you were being reformed, that would be something from the outside in no transformations from the inside out.
And it’s an inside out job because Jesus Christ now lives within you.
When he comes to live within you, he makes you into a different person.
The third one is what we might call the birthmark of compassion. Here’s another born of God.
Verse first John 47, beloved, let us love one another.
For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God if you know that you are a Christian by what you believe, you know that you’re a Christian also by how you live.
And now the Bible says, you know, you’re a Christian by who you love.
This is a little more subjective than the first two. But it’s just as important.
This passage says that when you become a Christian, you start to love other Christians.
When you become a Christian, you get God’s DNA and then you look around and you find that there are other people who are in this family and you start want to hang out with them.
You start wanting to be with them because you love them.
You get in a small group with them or you get in a Sunday school class with them or you find a way to be with other Christians wherever we go across the country, we don’t know anybody.
And yet within five minutes, it feels like you just know everybody. You’re part of the family.
There’s something special about being a Christian that makes it possible for you to instantly bond with other Christians wherever you find them.
It’s the most amazing thing. So if you want to know, are you a Christian?
For sure, the birthmark of confession tells you what you have believed.
The birthmark of change says there’s been something changing in your life.
Here’s the birthmark of compassion who do you love.
And then fourth is what we might call the birthmark of conflict.
First, John 54 says, whoever is born of God, there it is.
Again, whoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Now, this is an interesting thought.
John says, if you are born again, you are in a conflict with the world, you could add the flesh and the devil to that list too.
When you become a Christian, you take on some foes you didn’t have before you’ve crossed the line, you’ve joined the other team and the people that were on the team where you were before aren’t gonna take that sitting down.
They’re gonna harass you and give you grief. What’s the matter with you?
You used to do this and you don’t do it. You used to goody two shoes. What’s happened to you?
Oh You got religion now, here’s what John is saying when you become a Christian and you really truly have been saved.
You will find that you’re in conflict and little by little, you will begin to see that God is helping you win some of those battles.
You will become an overcomer, you will no longer be victimized by all of these things.
You’ll become a victor in these things doesn’t mean you win them all. Nobody does.
You lose some here and there. But it seems like the longer you walk with the Lord.
If you stay in fellowship and stay in faith with Him, you start winning more than you lose.
And little by little, you gain the sense that the spirit of God who lives within you is greater than the spirit that is in the world.
And because of that, you can have victory in your life.
If you lose all the battles, if you never win any, if you always are victimized, that’s not a good sign.
And then the final one and I try to save as much time as I can for this because this is the one that really some people really struggle with.
It seems like it disqualifies everybody. Listen to this, the birthmark of conduct.
First John 39, whoever is born of God does not sin for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God.
First John 5 18. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.
Now, if you read these verses straight out of context, what it would seem to say is that if you ever sin, you can’t be a Christian.
Every single one of us in this room is disqualified, especially me, all of us.
What John is saying is this, if you can live your life in willful rebellion against God and his word and believe that you are a Christian.
You are deceiving yourself. The message of first John 39 is very clear.
The word for sin in the passage is in the present act of tense.
And what it means is it describes a continuous action.
If you say that you are a child of God and you continually sin in rebellion against God, you’re deceiving yourself.
Whoever keeps on rebelliously violating God’s law, whoever thinks that because he claims to be a Christian, he can live any way he wants whoever does that.
He is not born again. I hear people sometimes say, well, I prayed the prayer and I went forward and I’ve been baptized and I, I live in the age of grace and I can just do whatever I want.
No, you can’t, you can’t.
If you’ve been born again, the Bible says God’s seed has come to live within you.
His nature is in you and that nature, that seed will not allow you to do that.
And if you do that, what you’re doing is demonstrating that you don’t have that seed within you.
I don’t know if the rest of you know this, but if you’re a Christian, God gives you a special kind of sensitivity to stuff that’s wrong in your life.
Isn’t that true? Whoever is born of God does not keep on sinning, does not keep on doing the same thing over and over again that he knows is a violation of the law of God He doesn’t do it.
John tells us that when we’re born of God, we have God’s seed in us.
Let’s face it. We’re never going to keep all of His commandments.
We’re never gonna lose all the things that we do that are wrong.
We’re never going to love all the people that we should love. We’re never gonna do all the right things.
But let me tell you the fact that these experience have come into our lives and are part of who we are that we even think about them and talk about them and they were absent before we became Christians that gives us assurance that we have something new going on.
And one of the great joys of being the pastor of this church is to watch that happen in so many lives.
People come and they give their heart to Christ and a year later I check on them and it’s like they’re not even the same person.
They’ve just been totally changed and they’re different.
That’s what the business of salvation is, is to change us, amen and make us God’s people.
One of the reasons a lot of people don’t have assurance of salvation is because since they became Christians, they’ve done something and they don’t think God can forgive them.
You know, all of us in our families, in our lives, we have some things that we’re not proud of and they happen.
Life is like that so many people who are Christians don’t understand that the same God who forgave them is willing to forgive them even when they fail after they’ve been saved.
The book of first John also says, if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sin to watch this and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And that was written to Christians not to unsafe people.
Max Lucado tells a story about getting a letter from his insurance company, uh telling him that he was gonna be dropped from coverage because he had too many speeding tickets and one fender bender.
And I thought I had a lot more respect for Max to put that in a book.
I’d never tell anybody that if that were true of me, confess my sin to the Lord, but I’m not telling you all that.
So one day he said he received this letter in the mail and it was informing him to seek coverage elsewhere as he reflected on it, he realized he wasn’t good enough for this insurance company anymore.
And he said the spiritual tie in was just too obvious.
Many people fear receiving such a letter from God and so imagined correspondence from heaven to someone in the situation.
I’ve described straight from the underwriting division of the Pearly Gates.
Here’s the letter dear Mrs Smith.
I am writing in response to this morning’s request for forgiveness.
I am sorry to inform you that you have reached your quota of sins.
Our records show that since employing our services, you have aired seven times in the area of greed and your prayer life of substandard when compared to others of like age and circumstance.
Further review reveals that your understanding of doctrine is in the lower 20%ile and you have excessive tendencies to gossip because of your sins.
You are a high risk candidate for heaven. You understand that grace has its limits.
Jesus sends his regrets and kindest regards and hopes you will find some other form of coverage.
Now, we laugh at that.
Why do we laugh at that? It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? You don’t need any other form of coverage.
You got the best form of coverage there ever was produced and that’s the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and it doesn’t stop working.
Once you become a Christian, amen, when you become a Christian, you will not get from the moment of your conversion to the Pearly Gates without messing up.
Everybody’s gonna mess up somewhere. I wish I could tell you that wasn’t true.
Someone once told me that the best definition of Christianity was falling down and getting up, falling down and getting up, falling down and getting up all the way to heaven, we are going to fail.
And what happens when you fail is this two things the devil will do.
First of all, he will tell you, there’s no way you could ever do whatever and then you’ll do it and then he’ll come in behind you and say, there’s no way you could ever be forgiven for what you did.
He’s wrong on both accounts. So if you have allowed the enemy to rob you from the joy of your salvation because of something you’ve done.
If you’ve confessed it to the Lord and asked for his forgiveness and made it right with whoever has been offended, you need to get on with your life has nothing to do with your eternal destiny.
He didn’t say and I give unto them eternal life.
And if they don’t mess up, they can come to heaven. That’s not what it says. Eternal life.
Listen to me starts the moment you believe not when you die, the moment you accept Jesus Christ, eternal life begins and eternal life cannot be interrupted no matter what you do in my Bible.
There’s a little thing that I put in there. It goes like this.
God said it, I believe it and that settles it.
God said it, I believe it and that settles it. I know I’m a Christian.
I know I’m going to go to heaven.
I know I have been forgiven and I know that my salvation is sure and none of it has anything to do with me.
It has everything to do with him.
Doctor Jeremiah will return in a moment with one more inspirational word to close today’s program right after this.
Let God turn your question marks into exclamation points with Doctor David Jeremiah’s book 10 questions Christians are asking inside Dr Jeremiah has gathered 10 spiritual questions he has found weighing on believers hearts and minds during his lifetime of ministry questions that you may have too like how can I overcome temptation?
Is there only one way to God?
What is faith and more then take your study deeper and reflect on discussion, questions at the back of each chapter on your own or in a group 10 questions Christians are asking is yours in appreciation when you support this program with a gift of any amount.
And if you give $50 or more, Doctor Jeremiah will send you the 10 questions Christians are asking study set inside.
You’ll find Dr Jeremiah’s book and his current teaching series on your Choice of CD or DVD album plus a 10 questions Christians are asking bookmark only available in this study set, replace your doubts with confidence, order this book and study set when you support the ministry of turning point today.
And now with one last word for today’s program, here is Dr Jeremiah.
Sometimes people who ask about being assured of their salvation are really asking a different question.
They’re asking how can I be saved? The truth is we can’t be sure of something we’ve never had.
Fortunately, the Bible is perfectly clear about how to be saved.
Salvation happens when we acknowledge our sin and ask forgiveness from God, we become a child of God as we place our faith in God’s son, Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty for our sins.
If you have further questions about what the Bible says, concerning salvation, I’d like to send you two free gifts that will provide answers and encouragement.
One is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point and the other, our monthly devotional magazine called Turning Points.
We will gladly send both of these gifts to you free of charge.
If you will just contact us here.
At turning point today, David Jeremiah and turning point are making a global impact for the Kingdom of God, but we can’t do it alone.
That’s where Bible strong partners come in Bible, strong partners form the foundation of turning point allowing Doctor Jeremiah to reach the world with the gospel and enabling you to share in the eternal impact of the ministry.
In return, we want to support your faith with special and exclusive resources.
Plus when you join this global community of Bible, strong partners, this year, you will receive a special gift from Dr Jeremiah, the prayer code by Os Hawkins to become a Bible, strong partner, go to David Jeremiah dot org slash Bibles strong today.
Next time on turning point, what the word of God says is that in every temptation, there will always be a way of escape.
When you see it. When you sense it, you better take it, join us next time for Dr Jeremiah’s message how can I overcome temptation here on turning point?