has angered many of the older people. It has angered

many of the youth. Many of the youth that I've preached this to have become fiercely

angry, but the people that have become most angry at

hearing this message have been the parents of youth.

I have found that there is something quite amazing among parents that, if they can get

some sort of a claim out of their children that they

profess faith in Jesus Christ, they seem to hold onto that

and it gives them assurance and joy, and it seems that they're bothered any time someone

would come and question that claim. It seems we would rather hold onto a false

hope than to hear the truth.

There are many people who do not want to hear the truth because it will shake up the false

hope they have that they're going to heaven when,

indeed, they are not. There are so many people in

Christianity—American Christianity—that believe themselves right with God, that believe

themselves saved because they were told that by a preacher who should have spent more time

studying the Bible and less time preaching. I hear people all over the world—and especially

in this country—tell me that they're saved, and I

ask them how do they know that they're saved. Well, because they believe. And no one asked

them the second question: How do you know that you believe?

If we were to dismiss this congregation tonight and send everyone out to every part of this

city, we would find out that the great majority

of the people in this city believe that they believe. And

we know that's not true. If we were to go to taverns and crack houses tonight, if we

were to go to casinos anywhere in this world, we would

find people who believe that they believe. And the

question is—how can we be sure that we believe when so many people say they believe and we

know they don't. In America, we have combined two doctrines,

and we have lost both of them. There are two very important doctrines in the Christian

faith. The first one is commonly called—a name I do

not like but I will use here tonight—the security of the believer, that every person

who has truly believed in Jesus Christ is born again and

they are secure. The very God who saved them will

keep them saved----security of the believer. But there's another doctrine which we do

not hear much about. It's not just the doctrine of

security, but the doctrine of assurance. It is true that every true believer is kept by

the power of God. That's the doctrine of security, but

the doctrine of assurance is this: How can you be

assured that you're a true believer? How can you know that you are a true believer?2

I've had people tell me, "Well, I just know that I know." I tell them there's

a way that seems right unto men. It leads to death.

I've had people tell me, "Well, I know in my heart of hearts that I am saved."

The Bible says that the heart is deceitfully wicked. It goes

beyond knowledge in its wickedness. So, do you

really want to trust a mind that is faulty? Do you really want to trust a heart that can

be wicked? I've even had people tell me, "Well, I

know I'm saved because the preacher told me I'm saved."

Since when did men have such authority? And, then, the worst of all—"I know I'm saved

because I have walked with God." My dear friends, let me tell you this, if you are

not walking with God now, you can have no assurance that

you have ever been saved. We're not teaching here tonight that, if

you walk with God and you're saved and then you stop

walking with God, you lose your salvation. What we're telling you is this—we have

assurance that we have come to know Him not just because

one time we repented, but we are continuing to

repent today. It is not just that at one time we believed, but that we are continuing to

believe today. It is not just that one time we walked

with Him; we continue to walk with Him today because He who began a good work will finish

it. It says in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 13, verse

5, Paul had come to a church, many of them professing Christ, many of them walking in

carnality, and he doesn't ask them—he doesn't say

to them, "Let me ask you something. When was the time that you first asked Jesus Christ

into your heart?" He didn't even refer to their

conversion experience. He goes right to present tense

and he says this: Test yourselves—in verse 5—to see if you are in the faith. Examine

yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves,

that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail

the test. If I see someone who, let's say, for three

or four years seems to have walked with God, loved the

saints, endeavored to pray, to know the Word, to congregate with other believers, and all

of such, and then they begin to fall away gradually.

They begin to walk away. They begin to allow the

world and sin and other things into their life. They begin to enjoy the fellowship of

the wicked. I don't go to them and tell them, "You

know you're a Christian and you need to avoid

backsliding." I go to them and say, "You have made the

good profession. You have declared among many that

you are a believer, but now you are beginning to live like an unbeliever. It is very, very

possible you never knew Him, that up until this point,

it has all been a very deceiving work of the flesh,

because, if a work of God does not continue, it never was a work of God.

Now what does Paul say to this person? He says, Test yourselves. Test yourselves. Take

a test. Let me tell you something, my dear friends.

Heaven and hell, eternity and death may not be very

much a reality to you, but it most certainly is to this preacher. I could care less whether

or not your bank account is balanced or you have

self-esteem. My only thing----the only thing that

might keep me up this evening and steal sleep from my eyes is the fact that many of you

will die and go to hell.3

Test yourself! This is not just some whimsical thing. This is not just something to worry

about for a day. We're talking about eternity.

Is it well with your soul? If you test yourselves in the

light of Scripture, will you be found whole and complete, born again, kept by the power

of God? It's time to take a test and stop relying

on your emotions and stop relying on what everyone is

telling you and stop comparing yourself to other people who call themselves Christians,

because the great majority of people in America who

call themselves Christians are lost. Some leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention

have said this: If we take seriously what the

Bible says about Christianity, we would have to say that less than 10 to 15 percent of

all our membership is even saved. And don't think

that just applies to Southern Baptists. It applies to

you all. He said test yourself. Examine yourself. Not

just some light examination. Not just hear the

words of this preacher and walk out there and allow Satan to steal the Word of God from

your heart. While you're here and while Christ

is present and while the Word is preached, examine

yourself. It is a deadly thing. Sin waits outside this door. It is crouching and its

desire is to have you. While you are here and Christ is present,

examine yourself. So many times in South America, working in

the Andes Mountains, I would have to cross footbridges----gorges that you almost couldn't

see to the bottom. Test the ropes. Test the wood.

Is this a sound bridge? Examine it carefully. Why? You get out in the middle of that thing,

it breaks, you're dead. In the same way, that

salvation that you hold onto, that you trust in, it might

be like a horse's hair. When you swing out into eternity, many of you are going to swing

out on nothing stronger than a horse's hair and

when the fires of hell blast up, you'll wither and you'll

fall. Examine yourself. Take the Word of God and

what the Word of God says about a true Christian, and examine yourself in light of it. And if

you fall short of the test, repent and believe. Throw

yourself upon the mercy of God. Cry out to Him until a work is done. And that's another

thing, isn't it? A whole other sermon. Until a

work is done. This silly Christianity in America. "Repeat

these words after me." No, you might have to wait

upon God. You might have to cry out to Him until the work is done—a true work, a finished

work, a complete work. How can we take a test? How can we test our

life? How can you test yourself tonight to see

whether or not you truly are a Christian? We just have to go to the Word of God to do

that. Go to 1st John chapter 5.

First John chapter 5, verse 13. John gives us the reason in his Gospel. In John chapter

20, verse 31, he tells us why he writes his Gospel.

He writes his Gospel so that men might believe that

Jesus is the Son of God, that He's the Christ, that they might have eternal life. Why does

he write his epistle? He tells us here in 1st

John chapter 5, verse 13: These things----this epistle----I

have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God----those of you who profess

Christ----why?----that you may know that you have eternal life.4

You want to know whether or not you're born again? Read the book of 1st John, because

the book of 1st John is made up of a series of

tests, and we're going to take those tests this evening.

And I pray to God that God gives you ears to hear.

And I want to tell you something and I want to make it very, very clear. Do not listen

to your heart. Listen to the Word of God. Do not listen

to what your daddy says about your salvation. Do not listen to what your mother says about

your salvation. Listen to the Word of God. Compare what you know about your secret life.

Now, what did I say that for? So many of you young people, you have your parents so deceived

it's unbelievable, because externally you conform to their law, but it's not your

law. It's not in your heart. And in the secret place, you know

who you are. And then some of you who are not

children, but adults, teenagers that are older that are out in the world, you go out there.

You know who you are. Your mom and dad, they do

not know. Some of you adults, church members do not know, but when you are out

there by yourself, that's the person I want you to

compare to the Word of God tonight. Not the one in here that looks pretty, not the one

in here that's got religious makeup on. No. The

one out there when no one is looking. You take that

person and compare him tonight to the Word of God and see if he stands. See if he stands.

You say, "Brother Paul, you seem quite intense tonight." How would you expect me to be

if a train----a slow-moving train was going across

our path and to see my little boy just inches from

the wheel. Would you expect for me to whisper in his ear, "Back up, boy." Would you

expect for me just to not even make a commotion,

but kind of motion with my hand? Or would you

expect me to scream out, "No-o-o-o-o-o!" How would you expect me to preach about these

things? Let's take that secret life of yours and compare it to the Word of God.

First John chapter 1, verse 5. This is the message we have heard from Him and announce

to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no

darkness at all. What does that mean? As in all the writings

of John, he leaves things open. He leaves things

open. I believe that, as you look through this text, you will find out that there are

two things John is saying. First of all, whenever we're

talking about light, and we see this in John chapter

3, we're talking about holiness, righteousness. God is a holy God. He is a righteous God,

has no sin, no flaw, no shadow, no speck of immorality

in Him. God cannot be tempted. You can be tempted because there's still an element

of evil in you that is drawn to evil. God has no evil in

Him. Evil cannot draw Him. He disdains it. He despises it. He's holy.

But that's not, I think, John's primary meaning here. John is dealing with a group

of false teachers who basically are telling everybody

that God is a very dark and shadowy and hidden figure, and that knowledge about God is esoteric.

It is hidden and dark and only some people know it. And I believe that John is contradicting

these false prophets and he is saying this, and

you listen very carefully. This is what he is saying. He's saying God is Light. And

he means this: God has revealed to us who He is and

He has revealed to us His will. He has made it very

clear.5 Now, let me just say something about how that

would change everything in America if the media

truly believed that. What kind of God do we have in America? What is the god of the politician