“5 Types of People Who Think They are Saved, (But Aren’t)” Author and Writer Ronald Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Ephesians 2:8-9; "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."

ENCOURAGING WORD:

Imagine for a moment that you are standing in a long line on the day of judgement. You aren’t nervous at all, you’re confident that Gods going to let you into heaven, and you know that you’re going to heaven because you believe you’re a good Christian. You grew up in church, and you prayed often. You maybe even got baptized. You tried to be the most upright and moral person that you know how to be, and so when its your turn, you expect Jesus to say, “Well done, come on in.” But instead, He says “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

The sad reality is, “This isn’t just a possibility, it will be a reality for many. Not for a few, but for many.” With that being said, let me share with you five types of people who think they are saved, but according to Jesus, they are not. Number five is the main one that people do not see coming. Now, before I jump in, I want to make a couple of things clear. First of all, the purpose of this message is not to create fear, but rather, to create assurance within the heart of true believers. Second, I’m not talking about people who were thought they were genuinely saved,  but lost their salvation. Because I do not believe in that doctrine. I stand firm on the doctrine of eternal security. I do not believe that a genuine Christian can lose or forfeit their salvation. I’m talking about people who think they are saved, but they never actually were. As a matter of fact, The Apostle John puts it this way, these people left the church family. 1 John 2:19; “They (The false converts) went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”

Notice, first of all that John says these people that were with them, were a group of people who weren’t actually Christians. The fact that they left proved they were never truly converted. Now, the first type of person who thinks they are saved, but are not is what is called the cultural Christian. This is a person who assumes that because they grew up in a Christian home, maybe they went to church every Sunday, that somehow makes them a Christian. Their parents are Christian, they own a Bible, they went to Sunday School, they maybe even went through a private Christian School. So, they go through life assuming that because they have been immersed into a Christian atmosphere, into a Christian environment, that they are also Christian, but here’s the problem. Notice what Jesus said to a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was deeply religious and knew the scriptures forwards and backwards. We read in the following verse where John records, John 3:3; “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Then again Jesus says in John 3:5; “Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Jesus says, Humans can reproduce but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. John 3:6; 

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

And one more time, Jesus says a third time.  John 3:7; “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,”

Notice, Jesus says three times, “You must be born again.”  Don’t you think we should take this message seriously. Jesus says what He means and means what He says. If you would rather follow the teaching in your sect of Christianity, then be prepared to suffer the consequences when you stand before Him at the “White Throne Judgment.” Keep this is mind, If you are born once, you die twice (which means you suffer the second death which is eternity in the Lake of Burning Fire.) If you are born twice (which means being born again) then you will enter into heaven with Jesus for all eternity. Pretty simple of you ask me, and it is your choice.

Humans can only produce human life; He is essentially saying that your parents can give you their DNA. They can give you their looks, they can give you values, they can give you an inheritance, they can give you their last name, they can evening bring you up in a good Christian upbringing, but one thing they cannot bring you, they cannot pass down to you their salvation. Salvation is not something that we can inherit from our parents. As a matter of fact, John the Baptist was dealing with a generation of people who assumed this very thing. Notice what he says here, don’t just sat to each other, huh, we’re saved. We are descendants of Abraham. John says that means absolutely nothing as we read in;  Matthew 3:9; “and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”

So, many people during the time of Jesus, were leaning on their Jewish heritage, and they assumed that because they were related to Abrham and God’s chosen people, they were saved. Notice God says that means nothing. Think of it like this, you can sit at the dinner table every night of a five-star chef and still never learn to cook one single thing. What’s the point? Being near it isn’t the same as knowing it. Let me put it in a different way. Proximity (Closeness) is not possession. 6 in 10 Americans still call themselves Christians. But when this one major study asked this deeper question, is your hope of heaven on personally trusting Christ? About 1 in 3 replied , ”Yes.” So, growing up in a Christian family is a gift from God, is not the same as you placing your faith in Christ, because as the old saying goes, “God has no Grandchildren.” All right; that’s the first type who think they are going to heaven but aren’t.

Now, the second one is a little sneaky because you did come to Him personally once a long time ago. So, the second type of person who thinks they are saved but are not, we refer to as the aisle walkers. And this goes beyond someone who just grew up in church in a Christian family, but at some point walked down the aisle, said a prayer, and I would go as far as to even say they might have even got baptized. And in that moment you felt something very real. But here is the real question. What happened after that moment? Jesus actually described this kind of person in the parable of the soils. “The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s Word.”

 

Matthew 13:20-21; “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;  yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.” 

Notice, Jesus is describing someone who at some point heard the Word of God, and when they did, they immediately received it with joy. This is not an atheist that we are talking about. This isn’t someone who is cold or uninterested in spiritual things. Notice it says, “Immediately  with joy they received the Word,” But notice something else that Jesus says here. There was one thing that was missing, a root. They may have had an emotional experience, but there was never a root that was planted and for that reason, they fell away from the truth. The emotional experience that you had back at that moment does not mean that you are a Christian. The greatest evidence of genuine conversion is a changed life. When someone is truly regenerated, it will become evident in their life through their works and through the fruit they bare, and I believe scripture confirms this. Jesus says that a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. Matthew 7:17; “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” If there is no spiritual fruit in the life of someone who claims to be saved, then it’s possible that their conversion was in vein. So, ask yourself this question, what does your life look like since you made the choice to be serve Jesus and be saved. You have that moment that you can point to, but if you’re honest, you have no relationship with Jesus. You don’t read your Bible, you don’t pray, you don’t fellowship with likeminded believers. You have nothing to show, no evidence that you are truly saved. You have no true relationship with Jesus at all. Your life does not reflect Christian values, and you don’t share your faith with others. You don’t really do anything that would make anybody else think that you are a Christian. Here is a thought, If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence based on how you live to convict you? Remember the greatest evidence of regeneration is a changed life.

Now, let’s go on to the third type of person who thinks they are saved but are not. This is what we call the moralist. This type is probably the most common of all. This is a person who places their confidence in going to heaven on one simple idea. “I’m a good person.” I try to treat people right. I don’t cheat on my wife, I’m better than most people that I know. So, the assumption is that because I’m a really, really good person, that should make me right with God. You might think so. “But that isn’t true!” “No real Christian that I know believes that they are saved by good works. I mean, the Bible says that none of us are good. “No” not one! Let me share with you a statistic that may shock you. And that’s the reason why I say there’s a lot of people who think they are saved but aren’t! In one national study, researchers asked a simple question, “Can a person be good enough to earn their way into heaven? First, they asked everybody who calls themselves a Christian. I’m talking about a whole broad group, every denomination, every background. If you identify as a Christian, a majority of that group, 52%  to be exact, said yes, you can earn salvation by being a good person. Now, maybe that doesn’t surprise you, but what they did next was they narrowed the scope and they asked only people who Identify themselves as evangelical Christians. You may say, “What’s the difference?” I’m not familiar with that term. These are the ones for all intents and purpose take their faith a little more seriously. These are the ones that will most likely be in church every Sunday. The ones that are a little more committed to doctrine. You would expect this number to go way down. As a matter of fact, we should expect it to go to zero. Well, in that same study conducted by Barna, it came back that 41%  of self-identifying Christians believed that being good enough will get you into heaven. So, now do you understand  why so many people will be surprised on judgement day? Where are they placing their faith? Over 40% of self-identifying evangelical Christians are betting their salvation on the one thing that the Bible says can never save them. What did Jesus say about this? Jesus tells a story about two men, and watch where He aims this story at. It says that Jesus told this story to those who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.

We read this story in: Luke 18:10-12; “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

Then we read in; Luke 18:13; “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

We continue on with; Luke 18;14; “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Jesus says, “I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home, justified before God.”

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled., and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Notice that Jesus took dead aim at the person who said, they had great confidence in their own righteousness. That is the Moralist Christian named by Jesus Christ Himself. And notice who walked away right with God. It wasn’t the person who spent their life trying to be perfect. It wasn’t the person who said; “I don’t cheat, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink or chew or hang out with those who do.” As the old saying goes! No, it was something else. It was the person that knew they had nothing to offer. Notice something else here. This Pharisee said the right things, did the right things, I’m not a cheater, not an adulterer, I fasted and tithed, and prayed. And Jesus, “None of those things was enough.” So, by every visible standard, visible measure, he was a good man. But Jesus took dead aim when He said, he went home lost. Not because he was bad, but because he thought he was good enough to get to heaven on his own merits.  

Picture it this way. Imagine everyone on a beach in California, and the challenge is to swim all the way to Hawaii. And so, first the Olympic swimmer dives and gets a few miles out and drowns. Then the guy who can barely doggy paddle drowns right near the shore. So, who made it? Nobody. Why, because the distance to a perfectly Holy God is not a few miles. Its infinite. The good person gets to drown just a little farther from shore. Good and bad alike don’t need a better swimming stroke. They need a boat. They need someone to come rescue them. Now listen to this because this is the heartbeat of this entire story. I’m not telling you to stop doing good, But what I am telling you is that your good work was never the currency of your salvation.

The Apostle Paul said it this way. Ephesians 2:8-9; “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” 

God saved you by His grace when you believed, and you can’t take credit for this, It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done. So, none of us can boast about it. Notice, it’s not a reward for the good things that you have done. Now, most people stop reading that passage in verse 9. But for the full picture of our salvation, we need to read verse 10.

It says in; Ephesians 2:10; “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Notice something that I’m sure goes right over every bodies head that reads; it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” The thing that God hates the most is pride, if one could earn their way into heaven, they would brag about it, and since God hates pride, He had to make it a gift that we could by no means earn ourselves. Think about it!  

So, works don’t save us. But we are created to do good works. Works are the evidence of our salvation. Let me illustrate it this way. When you purchase something at the mall, in return you get a receipt which acts as proof that the price has been paid. Jesus already paid the price for our sins, your changed life is the receipt, not the payment for your salvation. Now, this raises a question. If being good doesn’t save you…then does just believing the right things save you?

Now, this leads us to the fourth type of person who may think they’re saved, but actually are not. I’m going to call this the intellectual. This one may be the most surprising of all because this is the type of person who has all of the right answers. I mean, they can quote the scriptures, and possibly even win arguments. They may even be able to explain the Trinity or even earn an “A” on their theology exam. They know the facts of Jesus backwards and forwards, but here’s the traps that they may have fallen into. They have quietly assumed that knowing facts about Jesus is the same thing as being saved by Jesus. But watch what the Bible says. It says in; James 2:19; “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! Wow! Notice here that James compares this person to what? (A Demon!) Think about that for a moment. Demons have perfect theology. They have seen Jesus face to face. They know exactly who He is. They’re not atheists because they do know that God exists. After all, they asked Jesus not to send them into the abyss, right? They believe and they tremble, yet they are no saved. Why? This underscores what I mentioned earlier. Notice the next couple of verse.

James 2:20-12; “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

You see, his faith and his actions worked together. James 2:22-23; “Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.” His actions made his faith complete.

Then in; James 2:24; “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”

So, you see, we are shown or proven to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. Now, they may sound like works-based salvation, but it’s really not. Often people who say works-based salvation is basically trying to get people a free card to be saved and not do anything, right? No, he says it proves that your faith is proven by your actions. So, let me say again, works does not save you. Works don’t keep you saved. The works that you do demonstrate that your salvation was genuine. Now, back to the intellectual. Savings faith always has three parts. Part one, you know the facts. Part two, you agree that the facts are true. Now, remember, demons do the first two. But saving faith has a third component. You trust and surrender. This is something that a demon has never done. They never bowed before Jesus. They don’t have a relationship with Jesus even though they know a lot about Him. All right, let me illustrate it this way. Growing up as a child we all looked up to someone they held at a high degree. As you followed such a person, you knew all their stats, and many things about their personal life. We knew a lot about this certain person. But did we ever get the chance to actually meet this person. That person would look at us and immediately think, “Who are you?”  Do we know each other?’ That’s because we knew a lot about our hero, but we didn’t have a relationship with them And honestly, That is the spirit behind what Jesus was saying in;

Matthew 7: 21-23; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Now, the first four types describe people sitting in our own churches. Now, the last one is millions of people, most of whom I might say, are very sincere, devoted and deeply moral people who I may say, are absolutely certain they are following Jesus. The question is this, is it the same Jesus of Christianity? And so, the fifth person that will be shocked on judgment day is what we call counterfeit Christianity. Now, before you assume that this point is all about other people, let me show you another statistic from inside the church that also may shock you. Half of self-identified evangelicals, 47% to be exact, agreed that God accepts the worship of religions. They are essentially saying that they believe, these are Christians, there are different roads to get to God. My Brothers and Sisters, as much as I love people who believe this, this is straight up heresy and a counterfeit Gospel. And it shows up most commonly in two groups particularly. But first, let me show you why this matters so much to God. 

Paul said in Galatians 1: 6-7; “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,  which is not another; but there

are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

Galatians 1:8-9; “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”

Notice here that Paul reserves the strongest language in these letters. Not for the worst sinners, but someone who is following a counterfeit gospel or someone who is promoting a counterfeit gospel. Did you ever notice that his greatest condemnation is reserved for someone promoting a false gospel? Why? Because a counterfeit is more dangerous than an obvious lie. If somebody tried to buy something from you using monopoly money, you would see that a mile away and you wouldn’t be deceived. But what if they used counterfeit dollar bills, that looked so real that you sold all of your property and lost everything. This is sadly what is happening to millions of people who think they’re going to heaven. The real Gospel, the real truth is that Jesus is fully God. He is eternal, He is uncreated. In other words, if you accept a counterfeit gospel, you will lose everything.

John 1:1; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The real Gospel is grace alone through faith alone, not your works added on top of that. Now, here are two groups who claim to be Christian, they use the name of Jesus and teach a different Gospel. The first is Mormonism or the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. I don’t have time in this message to go through all their doctrine, so take some time to study the false doctrine of Mormonism for yourself if you are interested. But essentially, to touch on a couple things, they teach a totally different Jesus. They teach that Jesus is a created exalted being, not the eternal God. They teach that Jesus is our elder brother and spirit brother of Lucifer. In addition, they teach a grace plus works gospel. As a matter of fact, in their own book of Mormon, it says in; 2 Nephi 25:23; “We write diligently to write, to persuade our Children and also our brethren to believe in Christ.”  See, that sounds right. And be reconciled to God., for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. What does that sound like? Grace plus works! Now, modern day LDS readers may try to soften that, but traditional reading is that grace kicks in after we’ve done out part. After you kept the covenants, the ordinances, and be obedience to their doctrine, etc.

Now, the second group is the Jehovah’s Witnesses who also teach a different Jesus. They teach that Jesus is a created being also, They teach He is the Arkangel Michael, not almighty God. And they too teach a works and organization gospel with no real assurance of salvation at all. Now, before we assume that thats what other groups believe, remember the idea that Jesus was a created being? Well, one study by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway research found that in 2022, 73% of self-identified evangelicals agreed that Jesus was the first and greatest created being by God. Can you believe this? What kind of a time are we really living in where Jehovah’s Witness heresy have now become the majority view in our own churches according to this particular study.

Now, I want you to understand, This is not an attack on these groups, or people in these groups, because the reality that many people in these groups are often more committed to what they believe, more devoted, and more moral than evangelical Christians. Lets be honest about that. I deeply admire their discipline, how they live, how committed they are to evangelizing and sharing what they believe is the truth, and I think we, as evangelical Christians can learn a lot from them. My brothers and sisters, you can be sincere and be sincerely wrong. So, this is not about us believing in Jesus. Friends, a lot of people believe in Jesus. This is about what you believe about Jesus and is it consistent with a Christian Biblical view. That’s why when you meet somebody and you and say, “Do you believe in Jesus,? And they say yes, don’t assume they’re a Christian. You have to use the question, “Who is Jesus to you? Do you believe in the same Jesus that I believe in? So, let’s bring this message to an end. The purpose of this message was never to evoke feelings of fear or to get you to doubt your salvation. It was to get us all, to take a deeper look at our lives, Matter of fact, Paul said what?

2 Corinthians 13:5; “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”

And if you believe in Jesus, the way the Bible describes Him, that and He died on the cross for your sins, and there is nothing that you can do or add to your faith that will result in your salvation. You agree Jesus is who He says He is in your life, and your life is being changed by the power of the Gospel, then you can walk in full assurance, knowing that you are saved. You don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to be worried or getting stressed out, questioning your salvation, or fear where you will end up. When you stand before Jesus in judgement, Jesus will welcome you with the words, “Well done good and faithful servant” If you are trusting in anything else, I pray that this message would be a wake-up call to encourage you to take a deeper look at who you are and what you believe so you don’t spend eternity apart from Christ.

Now, let me say, most of this message I took down verbatim, just as I heard is taught. I did add commentary where I felt something need more clarification. This message really explains that there is only one way to God. If you read this message and you don’t agree with what is being taught, then you are most likely not believing in the right Jesus, or you are following a false gospel that you accepted as truth. If you are, you need to turn from the lies that you have been taught, and return to The real Jesus Christ. If you ignore this truth, then when you stand before Jesus Christ, you will not hear the words, “Well-done, good and faithful servant.”  You will hear the worst words you could ever imagine, Matthew 7:23; “ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

It is your choice what you choose to believe! So, please reach out to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide you though all truth. He is waiting to hear from you!