Two men, a foreman and one of his carpenters, were standing on the deck of a steamship then being built in a shipyard.
"Well," said the foreman, "I have been anxious to talk with you. I'm told you are one of those people who say they know for certain that they are saved. Is that true?”
"Yes," said Scott, "quite true. Thank God, I know I'm saved! In fact there is nothing I am more sure of than that I'm saved. And I am certain I will be in heaven.”
"Well, now," said the foreman, "that is something I cannot see. How can any man say that he is saved as long as he is in this world? I think it is rather presumptuous for anyone to say so.”
"Well," said Scott, "Whatever you may say about presumption, there is reality in being saved, in being a child of God, and in knowing it. What is the breadth of this waterway?”
The foreman, astonished at the apparently irrelevant and sudden change in the conversation, said, "Why, fourteen inches all round, to be sure. What makes you ask that when you know?”
"But are you quite sure that it is fourteen inches?" said Scott.
"Certainly.”
"But what makes you so sure?" asked Scott.
"Why, I'm going by the book," said the foreman as he pulled a book out of his pocket. In it were marked the sizes and positions of the various things on the deck. "I'm sure it is fourteen inches, for it is here in the book, and I got the book from headquarters.”
"Oh, I see," said Scott. "Now look here; that is exactly how I know I'm saved. I'm just going by the book. It came from headquarters—it is God's own Word. In it I found that I was a lost, condemned sinner, worthy of nothing but the lake of fire; but I also found that 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
"I took God at His Word, and I'm saved!”
"You too, may be saved, friend, for all eternity.
As a lost, condemned sinner, accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Then you can say without presumption, 'I know I'm saved, for I'm going by the Book.”
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).