What must I do to stay saved?

So you decided to turn your life over to Jesus! Congratulations friend!!! You repented of your sins, were baptized in the mighty name of Jesus and have received the precious gift of the Holy Ghost...now what? After being born again, the important question is…What must I do to STAY saved?* Well, you must:

1. Walk in the light and become a new creature in Christ. Live Holy each day, read God’s word, attend church services each Sunday, attend Bible study each week, fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ and grow in the grace of Jesus.
   
2. Examine yourself daily
   
3. If you make a mistake:
   1. Repent
      
   2. Confess
   3. Pray for forgiveness

*This process gives constant cleansing, in the blood of Jesus, so that you may know that you are saved and may have eternal life. If you die with any sin in your life, even if you were once saved, you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven or eternal life.

Once Saved-Always Saved? Why not? 

• Eternal life in heaven is conditional upon a Christian’s faithfulness.
  • …be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Revelation 2:10
  • I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8
• It is possible to be lost even after being born again.
  • Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. Galations 5:4
  • Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. Galations 5:7-8
  • For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and, The sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2 Peter 2:20-22
• Christian’s must have a made up mind.
  • Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:10-11
    
  • Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 
    
• Christian’s must examine themselves regularly. If your life lines up with the Word of God then you may know that you will have eternal life; if not, you need to make changes and repent of any sin.
  • Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. 2 Corinthians 13:5
  • These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:13
• What happens after you are baptized and you sin? Do you need to be baptized again?
  • One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Ephesians 4:5
  • If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9

  Self-Examination Test

Have I been keeping the first and greatest commandment?

• Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Matthew 22:37-38
  
• Is the Lord first in every list of my priorities? (i.e., Is the Lord the first person/thing I think about in the morning? Does the Lord come first with my money? Does the Lord come first with my time? Does the Lord come first with my personal devotion?)
  
• He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37-38
  

Have I been keeping the second greatest commandment?

• And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew 22:39
  
• For I was a hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me....And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:35-36, 40
  
• Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
  

Have I been seeking to teach others?

• But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3:15
  

Am I growing as a Christian?

• As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. 1 Peter 2:2
  
• And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8
  

Have I been worshipping in spirit and in truth not forsaking the assembly of the church?

• But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:23-24
  
• Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25
  

Acts of Worship

• Singing (Ephesians 5:19)
  
• Prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
  
• Witnessing (Acts 20:7)
  
• Giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
  
• The Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23)
  
• Personal Devotion (i.e., Prayer, Study of God’s Word, Tarrying)
  

Do I keep myself free from sin? Do I diligently resist the temptation to sin?

• What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Romans 6:1-2
  
• Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7