Saved Or Self-Deceived? Series

“Saved or Self Deceived?”

Introduction:

Are you saved? If you were to die today would you know without a doubt that you would go to heaven? I want to ask you that as I bring this message for you to search yourself and ask yourself if you are really saved, or have you been deceived. I believe that there are many people in the world who honestly feel saved, but they will be disappointed on judgment day. There are many sincere people in the world who are deceived about their salvation. Satan’s ultimate weapon is to make us think we are saved. I do not know of many people that would admit or say that they are not saved; everybody wants to be saved, so people convince themselves that they are. Imagine the power that Satan has over an individual who feels saved, but is not really saved. Many people are simply deceived because they have not obeyed the gospel the way in which we are commanded to obey it. There are many people who go to church regularly, but they are not saved because they are deceived.

The good news, friends, is that we do not have to be deceived. The Truth cannot be kept from us and we each have the ability to search into God’s Word to see if we are saved. Satan has a lot of power over us, but he should not have the power to deceive us into making us think we are saved when we are not because God’s Word speaks clearly on how not to be deceived about your salvation.

There is nothing wrong with “feeling saved”, I do feel saved. I feel like if I was to die today I would go to Heaven, and I hope that we all feel saved. The sad truth though is that sometimes our feelings deceive us, don’t they? Sometimes our feelings are just flat out wrong. Feeling saved does not equal being saved; our salvation is based on objective facts. If we simply trust in our feelings about our salvation then we will easily be deceived.

Jacob’s favorite son was Joseph. Jacob’s other sons were jealous of their brother, in fact they hated him because they knew their father loved him most. One day when the brothers were working in the field, Joseph came out to check on them and told them that one day they would serve him. All his brothers got mad, so they thought they would kill him. After putting him into a pit they decided not to kill him, but to sell him and get some money out of him. So they sold their own brother as a slave to some slave traders passing by. The brothers took Joseph’s coat and covered it in goat’s blood and brought it to their father, and his father assumed he was devoured by some great animal.

Jacob felt sad, he mourned, and he felt that his favorite so was dead, but was he really dead? No. He was alive and his feelings had deceived him.

Perhaps today you feel that you are saved, you feel that you are right in the eyes of God, but perhaps your feelings have deceived you.

We as humans do not like to think of anyone as lost. That is why so many people believe whatever feels good must be right. That is why so many people believe that if you are simply a good person you will be saved. Many people are deceived. Many people do not want to think objectively about their salvation.

We learn from the words of Jesus that first of all more people are lost than are saved, that is a message that the church needs to be reminded of. We need to wake up and realize that narrow is the way and more people are lost than are saved. We learn from Jesus that many people who thought they were saved were surprised on judgment day. I wonder if any of us will fit into that category. Many people on judgment are going to be surprised, are you going to stand amazed at judgment. Let us look into God’s Word and examine our hearts to see if we are really saved or if we are self deceived. No matter whom you are or how long you have been a Christian it would not hurt to examine to see if you are saved. If you really are saved then this message will reaffirm your hope, but perhaps you will come to the realization that for many years you have been deceived. Examine yourself honestly, so that you are not surprised before Jesus.

Text: Matthew 7:13-29

I. Narrow is the way

We live in a world in which it is not politically correct to say that a person is lost. Many people who claim to be Christians are now saying that Jesus is just one of many ways to God. Christians are embracing the Jews and Muslims and their brothers in the faith. Many preachers seem to believe that you really have to be bad to be lost. I remember before I was a Christian I thought that Hell was reserved only for the really wicked people and not many people would be there, but that is not what Jesus taught us about the way into Heaven. Jesus said about the gate to Heaven…