Pathway to Victory

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Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress.

And right now your generous gift will have twice the impact thanks to the Now Is the Time Matching Challenge, active now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm.

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Glad to study Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.

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On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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God wants you to be certain that you are saved. How can you have that assurance? Well, that's what the book of First John is all about. And we're going to look at one John and what the Apostle says about how to be eternally secure.

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Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. When a high-profile Christian publicly renounces his faith, or maybe a stalwart believer in your local church is exposed for leading a life of sin, you can't help but wonder: is it possible to lose your salvation?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains how you can know if you're really saved. But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

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Thanks David, and Happy New Year's Eve from all of your friends at Pathway to Victory. Before we get started, I'll remind you that time has nearly run out to take advantage of the Now Is the Time Matching Challenge. This effort concludes tonight. Until midnight tonight, every dollar that's given to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory will be matched until we reach the goal of $1.7 million. No gift is too small. Your generous gift of $50 becomes $100. Your gift of $500 becomes $1,000. Some are able to give $5,000 and more. These funds will be used for the sole purpose of reaching more people in our country and around the world with the hope of the Gospel. The harvest is ripe and now's the time to respond.

We rarely ask for your financial support without offering a ministry tool that feeds your soul. And right now, I'm pleased to send you the exclusive Pathway daily devotional for 2026. It's thoughtfully written so that you and I can walk together through every season in 2026—winter, spring, summer, and fall—addressing life-giving issues that will nourish your heart and soul.

In his brief letter of First John, the Apostle gave a reason for his letter. He said, "These things I have written to you so that you may know that you have eternal life." You see, in the first century and even today, people wrestle with a nagging feeling that perhaps they're not qualified to enter the kingdom of God. And in today's message, we'll offer the biblical facts so that you can know with confidence that you are eternally secure.

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So how can you know whether you're a genuine believer? Here is the single greatest verse in the Bible to know whether or not you are truly saved. John said, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know you have eternal life." My friend Steve Lawson wrote a little book called *Absolutely Sure*. In one of the chapters of that book, he talked about the five words or phrases in this verse that are key to the assurance of salvation.

The first critical word in this verse is the word "know": "These things I have written to you that you may know you have eternal life." The second key word in this passage is the word "written": "These things I have written to you." You know, our faith doesn't rest on changing feelings. Our faith rests on the written word of God that never changes. And that leads to the third word, the word "believe": "These things I have written to you who believe."

Now, what does it mean to believe? Listen, belief is not intellectual assent to a certain set of facts about Jesus. Let me remind you of something. Did you know some of the greatest professions of faith in history have been made by demons? In Matthew 8:29, the demons at Gadarenes said, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus, the Son of God?" Demons know the right truth about who Jesus is. But does anybody here today believe demons are going to be in heaven? No, it's not believing the right things about Jesus. The word "believe" means to trust in, to cling to, to put your whole faith and trust in.

The best illustration I know of what the word "believe" means is found in John chapter three, when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus. Remember, Nicodemus wanted to know how he could know that he had eternal life. And Jesus talked about the importance of being born again by believing in the Son of God. Nicodemus didn't understand that, so Jesus used an illustration that Nicodemus, as a Jew, was familiar with. He said in John 3:14-16, "For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of God be lifted up, that whoever believes in him might have eternal life."

Nicodemus recognized the story immediately. It came from Numbers 21. Remember how the children of Israel, because they were being disobedient to God, were bitten by the fiery serpents that God sent? And those fiery serpents, the bite, the venom was killing the children of Israel. So they went to Moses and they said, "Moses, have mercy on us. Intercede with God. Save us." And so Moses went to God, and God said, "All right, this is the way of salvation. You make a bronze serpent, put it on the end of a pole, hold the pole and the serpent up in the air, and tell the people this: If they will look at the serpent, they will be healed."

"Look and live" was the message of healing. All those Israelites had to do was to acknowledge that they were ill and dying, and by faith, look at God's provision that had been lifted up, and immediately they would experience healing. Now, that's the illustration that Jesus used of what it means to believe. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes, whoever in an instant recognizes his need for salvation and trusts in Jesus to provide that salvation, shall have eternal life."

Do you know what the next verse is? Verse 16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life." These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And that leads to the fourth phrase in this verse: "the Son of God." How are we saved forever? It's not just by faith in general. It's not belief in general, that somehow, some way, everything is going to turn out okay. Faith always requires an object.

And that's why John specifies the object of belief: those who believe in the name of the Son of God. Our faith is in Jesus Christ. The fact is, our faith is only as reliable as the object of our faith. And it's true in our salvation. Our salvation doesn't depend on how much or how little faith we have; it depends upon the object of our faith. Our faith is only as effective as the object of our faith.

Let me illustrate that for you if I could, for just a moment, because this will help you understand this very misunderstood concept of belief and how it relates to salvation. You know, I've got this chair here, and I could look at this chair and I could make all kinds of professions of faith about the durability of this chair. I could say, "I think this chair is well built." I could say, "I think it's capable of supporting me." I could say all of that without this chair actually supporting me. As much as I profess faith in this chair to be able to hold me up, is it supporting me right now? No.

For me to really believe that this chair can support me, I have to put my whole weight in this chair. It is only when I sit down and rest completely in this chair that this chair, rather than my own effort, is supporting me. That's the same way with salvation. To believe in Jesus for salvation means to put your whole weight on, to trust completely in Jesus and not yourself for your salvation.

One time I was using this illustration in my first church in Eastland, and on our platform, we had those old big pulpit chairs like we used to have in our old sanctuary. You know, those big, huge wooden chairs. So I was making the point that faith is only reliable as reliable as the object of our faith. And so I began to sit down in one of those pulpit chairs. As soon as I sat down, I started hearing this cracking and creaking. In about 15 seconds, the entire chair collapsed. I was there in a very unpastoral position on the ground before the congregation. Trust me, they never forgot that illustration.

Our faith is only as reliable as the object of our faith. And that's what he's saying here. We have to believe in an object. That object is a person, the name of the Son of God. And by the way, will you notice the emphasis on the word, the name of the Son of God? "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God."

I was talking to a seminary student. He had just graduated. He was Muslim, and he had converted to Christianity. He felt like his mission in life was to go back to the followers of Islam and to tell them the truth of the gospel. Then he made this comment to me. He said, "You know, Pastor, one of the greatest hindrances to witnessing to Muslims is our unwillingness to refer to God as Allah. If we would simply use the term Allah in our witnessing to Muslims, we could win many of them to Christ."

And I said, "Sir, you are mistaken. God and Allah are not the same. Names mean something. God is not whoever we think he is. God has a name, and God's Son has a name, and his name is Jesus Christ." You know, there are people who say, "Oh, you know, there are going to be all these people in heaven we never expected to be there. People we never believed would be there because they've not particularly believed in the name of Jesus. They believed in God; they just called him by some other name."

Have you ever heard that before? And they say, "You know, a name isn't that important?" Really think about how ludicrous that is. Names aren't important? The name of a person represents the essence of that person. Let's just suppose, for example, that all this week we'd been advertising that our preacher this Sunday is going to be Dr. David Jeremiah. Dr. David Jeremiah is coming to preach.

So you sit down and you look at the program, and there's the message titled, "Eternally Secure." Dr. David Jeremiah. When the sermon time comes, I step up in the pulpit and begin to preach. After the sermon, you come up and you're trying to be polite and not show your disappointment. So you say, "Well, Pastor, we saw Dr. Jeremiah was going to be here. Is something wrong?"

"Oh no," I say, "David Jeremiah is just another name that I go by sometimes. Sometimes I go by David Jeremiah, sometimes Chuck Swindoll, sometimes Joel Osteen, sometimes even Al Sharpton. I mean, I use a different variety of names, but we're all the same people." That's ridiculous. Names mean something. They represent the essence. Our Savior has a name. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the God-man who came and died and rose again that we should have eternal life. And there is no salvation apart from belief in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now let me show you something I found this week. I was actually working on another series of messages for next year, but I'm going to give you an advanced preview. Look at this. In Acts chapter 4, verses 8 to 12, remember, it's the story of Peter and the apostles who were healing people in the name of Jesus Christ. The Jewish authorities were furious, and they arrested them and said, "You've got to quit speaking that name of Jesus. That name of Jesus is very offensive to us. You can heal if you want to; just don't use the name of Jesus."

How many people today do you hear say, "Oh, you can pray. Just don't pray in Jesus' name. That is very, very offensive." Notice what happened, verse 8: "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, 'Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health.'"

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He.

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The name is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which has become the very cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved except the name of Jesus. Do you hear that? Over and over and over again? It is through the name of Jesus Christ.

Now listen to me. There is no indication in Scripture, there is no allowance in Scripture that there will be anyone in heaven who has not trusted in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, will you let me climb up on my soapbox for 30 seconds longer here? The next time I hear a staff member or a deacon stand up in this pulpit and pray a prayer that ends this way: "And we pray this in your name, oh God," I'm gonna throw up. That is a weak, weaselly, wimpy way to pray. God has a name. It is through the name Jesus Christ that we have confident access to God through the Father. Don't be a wimp. Don't wimp out. Don't be politically correct. You tell people the name by which they can come to God through it is the name of Jesus Christ.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And that leads to the last phrase. These things I have written to you that you may know you have what? Eternal life. Isn't it interesting? He doesn't say that you may know you are saved. He said, these things I've written to you that you may know you have eternal life. In the verse right before that, 1 John 5:12, he says, "He who has the Son has the life." He who does not have the Son does not have the life.

So in other words, the way to know if you're eternally secure, if you're saved, is to ask yourself: do you have eternal life or not? Well, you say, "I don't know that until I die and find out where I wake up. Am I in heaven or hell? Then I'll know whether I have eternal life." No, no, no, no, no. That's too late. That's too late. Eternal life does not refer to a quantity of life. That's what most people think. They think, "Oh, having eternal life means you're going to live forever." No, the fact is everybody's going to live forever. It doesn't matter what you believe. It doesn't matter whether you're a Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Hindu, Mormon, or atheist. Everybody's going to live forever. The Bible says we're eternal beings. It's the location of our eternity that makes the difference. Some will spend eternity in heaven with God. Some will spend eternity in hell with Satan. But everybody's going to live forever.

Eternal life does not refer to a quantity of life. It refers to a quality of life. It's the quality of life that Jesus was talking about in John 10:10 when he said, "The thief, Satan, comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." When Jesus and John talk about eternal life, they're talking about this abundant life. A life that is filled with joy and contentment. A life that is marked by obedience to God. A life filled with a desire to know God better. A life that demonstrates self-control. A life that is marked by love, not hatred, toward other people. A life that forgives rather than engages in bitterness. That's the eternal life he's talking about.

And John is saying, the best way to know whether you're eternally secure or not is to ask yourself: do I have that life? It's not something you get when you die. It's something you're supposed to be having right now. Again, 1 John 5:12: "He who has the Son has this life, this kind of experience. He who doesn't doesn't have the life."

Now you may be thinking, "Well, Pastor, you're contradicting yourself. You just said a few moments ago our salvation doesn't depend upon experience." I'm talking about feeling when I talk about experience there. No, John's saying here, the proof of your salvation is not your feeling; it's tangible fruit in your life. That's a great way to know whether or not you're saved. Is there tangible fruit like love, joy, peace, obedience, and a desire to know God? Is that fruit being produced in your life? That's evidence that you have the life-giving Spirit of God inside of you. If there is no fruit, there's no Spirit. You don't have the Son of God residing in you.

That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "You want to know whether you're saved or not? Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless you indeed fail the test." Jesus said you can perform a self-exam to see if you're really a Christian. Test yourself right now to see if you're in the faith. What does he mean, test yourself?

He's not talking about giving yourself a theological test. Don't get out a piece of paper or a blue book and say, "Okay, can I list 10 reasons for the virgin birth of Christ, or can I distinguish between the terms premillennial, post-millennial, and amillennial?" He's not talking about a theological exam. He's talking about testing your obedience to God. How do I know that's what he's talking about? That's the whole purpose of 2 Corinthians. Paul was concerned that these Corinthian Christians were living in such a way that didn't match up to their profession of faith.

And that's why he said in 2 Corinthians 12:20, "For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you not to be what I wish, and may be found to you by to be not what you wish, that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, anger, tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, and disturbances." That's why James said, "You better test yourself to see if you're in the faith." Paul was just echoing what James said in James 2:14-17: "What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but he has no works? Can that kind of faith save him? Absolutely not." He says in verse 17, "Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself."

The Bible is clear. Faith without any fruit is a dead, non-existent faith. The way to know whether you're truly eternally secure is: do you have evidence of that eternal life right now in your life? Test yourself to see if you're in the faith.

Some years ago, Northwest Airlines had a special promotion. They called it a mystery fare. You could pay $59 and receive a ticket to a mystery destination. You wouldn't find out where you were going until the day you got to the airport. Kind of an interesting concept, isn't it? Thousands of people took advantage of the mystery fare, and most of them were happy with their destination. Everybody except one customer who was wanting to go to New Orleans but ended up with a fare to Minneapolis in the wintertime. A reporter said he was going through the airport waving his ticket, saying, "I've got one ticket to the Mall of America that I'll trade for anywhere."

You know, mystery fares are fun for a weekend vacation, but there is one day in your life you don't want to be holding a mystery fare ticket, and that's the day of your death. To close your eyes for the last time here on earth without an absolute assurance of your eternal destination—that's a risk no sane person would want to take. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life. Do you know?

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Are you absolutely sure? It gives me great satisfaction to know that the Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of men and women all around the world at this very moment, bringing them into the kingdom with a confidence that cannot be shaken. Because Jesus Christ made a way for us, our eternal destiny is absolutely secure. This is the mission of Pathway to Victory. We're committed to sharing the hope of the Gospel until the day of His return.

And we can do so because we have an audience of generous givers who share this passion to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word. Remember, there's still a few more hours remaining in the Now Is the Time Matching Challenge. The clock is ticking, so be sure to leverage your gift to Pathway to Victory by giving before midnight tonight. As you do, your generous gift will be automatically matched dollar for dollar until we reach the goal of $1.7 million.

I'm sensing an openness to the gospel rarely witnessed in our country. Now's the time to turn up the volume on the good news of Jesus Christ and His plan to secure the eternity of those who place their trust in Him. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to say thanks for your gift to the Matching Challenge by sending you the brand new Pathway to Victory daily devotional for 2026, a resource that will strengthen your walk with Christ every single day in the New Year. Supplies are limited, so if you'd like a copy, please reach out today before they're gone.

Isaiah clearly explained that the government will rest on Messiah's shoulders, so let's proclaim His name far and wide through Pathway to Victory while there's still time. Because of the Matching Challenge, every dollar you're able to give is automatically multiplied by having twice the impact. Here's David with all the details.

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Today, when you give a generous year-end gift toward our Now Is the Time Matching Challenge, we're going to say thanks by sending you the brand new 2026 Pathway to Victory Daily Devotional. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or go online. Simply visit ptv.org, and when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also include the teaching series Celebrate the Savior on DVD, video, and MP3 format audio discs.

Remember, right now, because of our Now Is the Time Matching Challenge, your gift will be doubled in impact by another generous donor. But the deadline is just hours away, and this opportunity ends tonight, December 31st, at midnight. So if you've been meaning to get in touch, please don't put it off any longer. Call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. If you'd prefer to write, jot down this mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins, wishing you a Happy New Year. Then join us again Thursday for a message titled Finding Your One Thing in Life right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your special year-end gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact, thanks to the Now Is the Time Matching Challenge.

Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on December 31st. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.