By Their Fruits Can We Know Who Is Saved and Who Is Lost? by John R. Rice

By Their Fruits Can We Know Who Is Saved and Who Is Lost?

DR. JOHN R. RICE Used by permission — www.swordofthelord.com September 20, 2019

I got a letter from a woman who said, “My husband is not saved. He says he is, butt know he’s not because he smokes cigarettes. The Bible says that ‘ye shall know them by their fruits’ (Matt 7:16).

“Now, was she right or not?

A visiting preacher said at my home church, “Any who stay at home on Thursday night and are not out on visitation, I doubt very much that they are saved. It says in II Corinthians 5:17, ‘if any man be in Christ. he is a new creature.’ He is not a new creature if he doesn’t go to visitation on Thursday nights.”

Now, was he right or not?

Our old, carnal nature is always looking for some way to misunderstand or explain away the Bible. There are certain Scriptures that are so plain that everybody ought to get some things settled forever. In John6:37, Jesus said, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” So all who come to Christ for mercy get it.

Is that right?

James, chapter 4, says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (vs. 8). Any heart that honestly turns to seek the Lord finds Him. Right?

Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall he saved.’ So any who honestly ask for salvation get it. Right or not?

Get some things settled and don’t be twisting the Bible.

Somebody says, “But, oh, you have to get baptized to be saved.” Another answers, “But the Bible says, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved— (Acts 16:31).

“But you don’t really believe in your heart unless you get baptized too.” Now the argument has begun. The old Devil uses all kinds of shenanigans to keep you from believing that people are saved by grace, not by good works. People misunderstand Scriptures. For example, when the lord says we can know them by their fruits, He is talking about false prophets, not about being saved.”

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. “Ye shall know them by their fruits … Matt 7:15, 16.

You can know a false prophet by his fruit.

When a fellow says. “I don’t believe the Bible when it says Jesus was virgin born,” you can know he is not saved, for no one can be saved without trusting Christ as the very Son of God.

But Matthew 7:16 doesn’t say you can tell who is a Christian by his works.

A Christian has two kinds of works. We are two people, the old man and the new man. Galatians 5 says, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (v5.17). Saved people have that fight—the flesh fighting the Spirit.

But doesn’t II Corinthians 5:17 say, “If any man be in Christ, he Is a new creature”? Yes. Now what part of you is in Christ? Did you get a different face? If you didn’t have musical talent, did you suddenly have musical talents when you got saved? No. That is not talking about that end; it is talking about the other end—the new creature inside. The Bible says, “Put on the new man” (Eph.4:24), the entirely new man. Having a changed heart being a child of God, going to Heaven— that is new; but we still have the old man. Paul said, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin’ (Rom.7:25).

You still have a body with its natural hunger, appetite and desire. You still want food, You Still have that pride and haughty spirit. When people get saved, they have a new nature; but they still have the oldnature as well. Oh, but, Brother Rice, won’t a fellow who gets saved always do right? In some things, yes, but not in everything.

Oh, but if a fellow gets saved, surely he wouldn’t get drunk.

Wouldn’t he? Noah got drunk! If a fellow gets saved, he won’t cuss anymore. Will he! Peter did.

Would a saved person commit adultery? David did.

After he is saved, a Christian can still commit any kind of sill except the unpardonable sin.

It is sad that a Christian might keep on smoking or might keep on drinking or might keep on cursing, or he might get mad and kill as Moses did.

That preacher who said that if you stay at home Thursday night and don’t go on visitation, you probably aren’t saved was knocking down salvation by grace. I don’t think he meant to; I think he wanted to scare people into doing right. That is Arminian teaching, but it seems clear to me that it is not in the Bible.

The whole idea is, you might get lost again and go to Hell. The truth is. it is never right to lie in order toscare somebody. It is never right to play down salvation by grace.

Is there any way you can know whether or not people are saved? You need to get settled in your mind this wonderful truth: you are saved by grace, saved forever and saved the very moment you come to Jesus. As soon as you called on Him, as soon as you trusted in Him, you were saved instantly and saved forever.

A man came to me some time ago and said, *Brother Rice, I had no right to be saved. I ought to have gone to Hell. I don’t know why God saved a sinner like me.” All of us ought to feel that way. That it, true about all of us.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”— Eph. 2:8,9

One who honestly trusts in Christ is saved and has a new heart. That doesn’t mean he is instantly perfected so as to be flawless. The reason is that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).

Put off the old man every morning and start out with the new man.

“Used by permission — www.swordofthelord.com” Newspaper September 20,2019

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