The Acid Test Of True Salvation

Pleasant Hill Baptist Church of Quitman MS

Pastor Michael DePhillips

www.forministry.com/39355PHBC

“The Acid test of Salvation”

Matthew 7:20-23

Want to bring to remembrance the time in the early part of the 80’s that gold prices went so high that people started bringing in their gold to sell it. Do you remember when that happened? Almost overnight these stores came up that would buy your gold and they were so busy that you had to stand in line. I had been given a gold ring by one of my aunts and I was really struggling financially so I decided to sell it to buy food. Went down there and found my place in line. Watched as some people came out happy with a fistful of money in their hands and others came out sad. Finally made my way inside and sat down with one of the people testing the gold we supposedly had. The first test they did was what they called the scratch test. They would take a sharp instrument and scratch the gold to make sure it wasn’t just some other metal. Most of the items could pass the scratch test but there was another test you had to sign a release for them to perform. It was called the acid test! They would take a drop of acid that would penetrate lesser metals but if the item you had was gold, it would merely dance on the top of the surface of the gold. I remember how confident I was when my ring passed the scratch test and they wanted to put it through the acid test. I signed my release and they took it in the back to give the test for safety reasons I suppose. My joy was short lived when the man came back and said I’m sorry but we can’t purchase this item. I asked him if it had some gold in it and he said yes but that it was only mixed into the ring. The process of extracting the gold was too expensive for them to purchase my ring.

1 Peter 1:7, “That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Beloved can I tell you there are multitudes in the church who will draw their last breath on earth expecting to go to heaven when they die and open their eyes in hell. Can’t think of anything sadder than to spend my time, my talent and my money building the kingdom of God and Jesus never know me. Beloved it doesn’t say they tried to prophesy but that they did prophesy in Jesus name! It doesn’t say they tried to cast out demons and devils but that they cast them out in Jesus name! It doesn’t say they thought about doing many wonderful works but that they did many wonderful works in Jesus name but the acid test of salvation revealed that they had never been born into the family of God! These verses in Matthew should scare us to death because Jesus said not a few but MANY! Many shall come to me on that day and will be told, I NEVER KNEW YOU!

Many years ago there was a masterpiece of human ingenuity built in Italy that has marble and granite walls more than seven feet thick in some places. We know it today as the leaning tower of Pisa and for all it’s beauty and craftsmanship it leans today more than 17 feet off center because it’s foundation isn’t able to support the weight of the structure. (IF WE WERE TO SOMEHOW…)

Find it interesting that Jesus closed the teaching in Matthew 7 with an illustration of two houses, believe in my heart that on the outside they identical in beauty, but the each were built on different foundations.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 that there is only one foundation on which the Christian life can be built to defeat the power of sin and it’s the precious cornerstone the builders rejected, the Lord Jesus Christ!

No one is going to heaven except through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said I AM THE WAY not a way among many but the only way! He said I AM THE TRUTH not a portion of the truth and I AM THE LIFE not religion and traditionalism but LIFE AND THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY! No man comes to the Father except through me! Glory to the Lamb of God!

Wouldn’t it pay for us to acquaint ourselves with his instructions on how we get to heaven? Listen to me my friend if you’ve ever struggled or been tormented at night when you lay down to sleep of what may happen to you when you die, you can leave here tonight with no doubt in your mind and something which no demon in hell can ever take from you!