Can You Be a Christian and Struggle with Addiction?

Can a true Christian struggle with addiction and hide it from others? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We pray you had a wonderful weekend, Fourth of July coming up, and a lot of people looking forward to that three-day weekend. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

Our phone lines will be open for the next 25 minutes or so. So hop on the phone right now to talk to Pastor Adriel, 833-843-2673. By the way, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Selah in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Selah, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Thank you so much for having me on.

I really appreciate it. My main question is, as I've been listening to the radio and these programs, is that I've heard somebody say that, how do you not know when you're born again? If you don't remember your day when you were born again, because I remember my day when I was born again, how do we know when we're born again, like Jesus said, that we're supposed to be born again in the Spirit? I'm not sure if I am, so how do we know that if someone could elaborate?

Yeah, thank you for that question, Selah. I could see why this would be such a big concern, especially if, as an individual, you don't feel like you could pinpoint the day or the moment where you experienced the new birth. I was born again on June 2, 1978.

I think there are some people who can point to moments in time like that, but then there are others who really, they can't. Just to be honest with you, Selah, when I think back to my life, I see ways in which God was working in my life throughout my childhood and into my teens and even as an adult, but I can't point to an exact moment where I can say that was the moment where I for sure experienced the spiritual new birth. Now, in scripture, it's often associated with baptism. Baptism is the sign and seal of our new birth.

God can work in and through these, what we sometimes refer to as means of grace, but just because an individual was baptized doesn't mean that they've experienced the new birth. Of course, that language comes from John 3, where Jesus is speaking with a religious man named Nicodemus about seeing the kingdom of God. Jesus says, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you're born of water and the Spirit. There, Jesus seems to be echoing a promise made way back by the prophet Ezekiel, where God was saying, I'm going to sprinkle my people with clean water. I'm going to write my law upon their hearts. I'm going to wash away all of their sin, all of their idolatry.

So this is really fundamental. We are not Christians apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. To your question more specifically, how can I know I'm born again?

Well, let me just point you to one verse in the book of 1 John, in 1 John 5, verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. That is to say, if you truly confess Jesus as Lord, if you believe that he is the Christ, now, of course, there are all sorts of people who have different beliefs about Jesus out there in the world who don't confess him to be the Christ, the eternal Son of God. I wouldn't say that they're born again just because they have some beliefs about Jesus. A lot of people have false beliefs about Jesus. But if you believe in the true Jesus as he's revealed in Holy Scripture, if you trust in him, well, that's a sign of the fact that you have been born again. And so, Celia, I guess my question to you is, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God?

The Holy Spirit working in me, and God's used me in several ways, in ways I don't even believe. I really do, except that haunted me and horrified me when somebody said that on the radio, and I was like, no, I don't know. I don't know the date. You know what?

And that's okay, because it's not so much about knowing the day. It's realizing that by faith in Jesus, you know you're born again because you believe in Jesus. And as you said there, the Spirit of God is working in you and will continue to work in and through you to produce the fruit of the Spirit, as the Apostle Paul refers to them, love, joy, peace, patience. I want you to have the peace of knowing that because you believe in Jesus, you can say, I am born again. And I'm just echoing what John said there in 1 John 5, verse 1.

Look, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And then he goes on to say in verse 13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That's something that you can know, Celia, and rest in.

And it's Jesus who holds onto you and clings to you. God bless you, sister, and thank you for giving us a call. Celia, thank you so much for listening. We'd love to also send Celia a copy of the book, Core Christianity. If we can have her hang on the line for a second and get her information, we'll send you a copy of that book.

We think it'll be helpful to you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Dave in Springfield, Missouri. Dave, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, sir. My question, Pastor Adriel, has to do with Satan. In Job chapters 1 and 2, we see instances where Satan appeared before the Lord, when the sons of God gathered before the Lord, and the Lord asked him, Where have you been?

He said, I've been roaming around the earth, and he got into the discussion with Job and accused Job. So there we see that Satan was active roaming around the earth, but he also had access to God in heaven because he appeared before him. Now, in the New Testament, my understanding is that Satan still kind of roams around the earth.

It says in 1 Peter 5-8 that he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In Revelation, it also refers to him as the accuser of the brethren, which I picture takes place in heaven. Now, in Revelation 12, 7-9, it talks about a day when Satan will be cast out of heaven, that he and his angels will be cast out of heaven. So my first question was, Satan, am I correct in understanding that Satan does roam around the earth today, but still has access to God's throne in heaven? And my second question is that passage in Revelation where he's cast out of heaven, is that a future event or was that something that happened back before Eden? Because I previously understood that, that's how he ends up in the garden, was he had been cast out of heaven and the rebellion took place before then.

Yeah. Hey, Dave, thank you so much for your questions there. There are a handful of questions there, but I think the heart of the question is really, is Satan still working and accusing the brethren in the exact same way that he was in the Old Testament? You think of Job, has there been a definitive shift in the way in which he is working in the world today? And I would say that the answer to that question is yes, there has been a definitive shift and that shift came about through what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. Paul says in Colossians that the rulers and authorities have been disarmed through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout Jesus' earthly ministry he talked about binding Satan, binding the strong man so that he might plunder his house. And that's what's happening right now through the new covenant. Under the new covenant, the promise of the forgiveness of sins, the advancement of the gospel, the house of Satan, if you will, is being plundered by God's word and spirit and through the work of Jesus Christ. And so Satan does not have the same access that he once had.

In fact, in a real definitive sense, I think we can even say that he has been bound. Now there's a very controversial passage of scripture in Revelation chapter 20 where this is described and there's debate about when this binding took place. It's my position that the binding of Satan took place through the work of Jesus Christ and that now, because Satan has been bound in one sense, he's no longer free to deceive the nations as he once was. Think of under the old covenant, the nations of the world essentially just immersed in idolatry. And you had God's covenant people, the Hebrews, called to be a light to the world, and they too, instead of doing that, they basically embraced the idolatry of the rest of the world. And so Jesus, the true Israelite, comes and accomplishes salvation.

He is the light and is now advancing his gospel throughout the whole world so that the nations are no longer being deceived in the same way that they once were. Revelation chapter 20 verse 1, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. Now there's a purpose clause there that this binding of Satan in Revelation 20 is primarily related to his deception of the nations. And so I would say through the work of the gospel, through the accomplishment of Jesus Christ, Satan is presently bound so that he's not deceiving the nations, the whole world, as he once was. And yet we also know, and you referred to this, you know what Peter says, he goes about still as a roaring lion seeking to devour people.

And so you have this sort of mystery. The evil one has been bound. He's been broken, if you will, by the work of Christ on the cross. He knows that his time is short and he's out about in the world today trying to deceive, trying to take people's eyes off of Jesus. But he doesn't have the same power that he once had because of what Christ has accomplished through his earthly ministry and ultimately through the cross.

And so we have to factor in the redemptive work of Jesus and the implications of that work on the present activity of Satan. Thank you, Dave, for your question, for giving us a call. May the Lord bless you. Great explanation on that complicated issue, Adriel.

Thanks so much for clarifying that for us. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And by the way, if you have a question but can't get to us during the live program, you can always leave a voicemail 24 hours a day at our number 833-THE-CORE. You might want to make a note of that in case, you know, you come across a Bible passage that's confusing to you or you have a conversation with someone and you go, I'm really not sure how to answer that, you can call and leave a voicemail, 833-THE-CORE.

Here's a voicemail we received earlier this week. Hi, I was just wondering, I heard a question answered about losing your salvation and about 2 Peter and the lawlessness and how they didn't know the Lord or ever have an intimate relationship with him so he never knew them, like it says in Matthew. But I was wondering, I know that you cannot lose your salvation, however, can you truly be saved and still struggle with addiction, almost like leading a double life, like still be going to church and Bible study and can you truly be saved if you still struggle with that and put it as an idol in your life?

Well, sister, we can truly be saved and still have struggles, fights, even addictions, I would say. I would want to distinguish between an individual who was, as you said, leading a double life, meaning this is something that they're not confessing and repenting of. Maybe they go to church and they look really good externally, but they have these secrets, these things that they hold on to, these idols that they worship in the dark that they're not willing to confess and maybe they don't even treat them as they don't even think that they're sin. They just say, you know, this is kind of my thing, my pet sin over here, nobody needs to know about it and they're leading this hypocritical double life. I think of the Pharisees, for example. They looked really good externally, but Jesus said they were full of dead men's bones.

He says, you know, clean the inside of the cup. Now, that doesn't mean, again, that genuine believers can't struggle with sin, and the reality is you will. We will. I mean, we are in this real fight. There's this fight between the lusts of the flesh, which we experience, and the spirit and being led by the spirit. Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter 5 or even in Romans chapter 7, this, I think, intense battle that we all experience whereby we're called to day by day put to death. The old word is mortify, the sinful deeds of our bodies, and we can't do that alone or in our own strength. It's only through the grace of the Holy Spirit. It's only by the spirit that that can happen, but that is the real Christian experience.

It's this fight. There isn't one person who does good and doesn't sin in the whole world, but if there's an individual who, as you said, is concealing all that. Maybe, like you said, they go to church, and they look good on the outside, but they are addicted to all these things and sins, and they're not willing to repent of them. They're not confessing them.

Well, I would be really concerned about that. That could be indicative of the fact that maybe this person is just this external show that they're putting on, but they truly don't know Christ or have any desire to even confess their sins. I would maybe distinguish between those two, but if your concern is, can someone really struggle as a Christian and still be saved, I would just say to you, yes, they can. What saves us is not how perfectly we do in that struggle. It's the fact that Jesus holds onto us, and He keeps us, and He forgives us.

Thank you for your question. It's so important for us always to remember the finished work of Jesus on the cross. And it's not our brownie points, our gold stars, the fact that we don't sin because we are going to sin. As Paul says very clearly, we're going to struggle with that throughout our lives until we're glorified. But thank the Lord, there's no condemnation in Jesus Christ.

Absolutely, Bill. I just yesterday preached on Genesis 11, the story of the Tower of Babel, where you have this group of people who essentially want to ascend into heaven through their own works, through their own efforts, through technology, wisdom, so on and so forth, and they're building their way into the sky with mud bricks. Too many times, it is funny, but the reality is, too often, even as Christians, that's precisely what we try to do, what we think we can do. We treat our good works as the things with which we are building our way into the heavens, into God's good graces, but the reality is those bricks are made of mud. They're cracked.

They're broken, and we're broken. That's why our only hope is, as you said, not our brownie points or golden stars, it's the fact that God came down to us in Jesus and forgave our sins, and we were raised up with him by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Summertime is here, so many kids out of school right now, and a lot of parents going, oh, man, how do I keep my kids busy?

Well, here's one idea for you. Just in time for summer, we have a great free resource just for families. Ten verses to memorize as a family this summer. It's a free resource that not only gives your family scriptures to memorize, but it also gives some further explanation, digging into each individual passage of scripture, so it's something where you guys can really grow together in your understanding, of the passages of the verses that you'll be memorizing. One such verse is Psalm 19, verse 1.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Get ahold of this resource, ten verses to memorize as a family this summer, and Bill's going to give you some more information on that. You can find it at our website, which is corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers, and download ten verses to memorize as a family this summer. You know, if you do that as a family, let us know how it goes.

We'd love to get your feedback on that. You can get that resource and any of our resources also by calling us at 833-843-2673. We'll help you get that offer again.

That's 833, the core. Let's go to Kami in Fremont, Nebraska. Kami, welcome to the program.

Hi, thank you. God bless you guys for everything. When I was younger, my mother told me about how our time is different from God's time, and how it's in the Bible saying, like, it's one day to one hour or something. We've been looking for it and trying to find it in the Bible again so I can tell my children about it.

I was wondering if you guys could help us with that. Yeah, there are a couple of verses that you might be referring to. The one that I think of is in the context of Peter talking about the coming of Jesus Christ, the second coming of our Lord to return and judge the earth. He says, look, there are going to be some people who say, where is the promise of his coming? He just hasn't come back yet. Here you guys are, you Christians, waiting around, looking into the skies, living your lives as if Jesus is coming back.

Where is he at? Scoffers will come, Peter said. He says, look, you have to remember this, 2 Peter 3 verse 5, For they, that is, these scoffers that he describes, deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Now Peter's point there is not that God just feels time differently than we do. God is the Lord of creation. He created all things, time included. He's not bound by or limited by time like we are. Peter's point here is we might grow impatient, but God is the God of time.

He created it. One day with him, with the Lord, is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. And so don't think that God is, Christ is, tearing and coming back. Actually what this is supposed to demonstrate to us, the fact that Jesus has not yet returned, is that God is longsuffering to you, that he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Every day we have on earth, God is calling us to himself. God is calling you to himself, to know him, to walk with him, to love him.

And that's Peter's point there. And so what we can say about God, Cami, in terms of, you know, as he relates to time, is that he's not limited by it. And God doesn't run out of time, as it were.

He created it. He's the eternal Lord. Thank you for your question. Thanks, Cami, and thanks for digging into God's word. We really do appreciate our listeners who spend time in the Bible and have these great questions. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And by the way, you can leave a voicemail for us 24 hours a day if you can't call during the regular program. Make sure to just call and leave your name and where you're calling from. 833-THE-CORE is the number.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Here's a voicemail from Will in San Diego. I've had a discussion with my brother. He's an LDS and my brother stated that Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers.

Now, this is nothing new to anybody. My concern is for his soul. He said that he believes in Jesus Christ and that he is his savior.

But there's something wrong and there's something missing. He had this story. It was a made-up thing and he said it was in the Bible and it wasn't in the Bible. Nothing he said he could point to the Bible. Satan was a created being. Christ is God, always was God. He would refute everything. So he just let it go. If Mormons are going to be saved because they believe in Christ, then I should never talk to him about religion again and it's okay.

I'm not saying I'm better than he is. I'm just very frustrated because he is my brother. I'm concerned for his soul.

Anyway, thank you for your time. Let's pray right now for Will's brother because this is a very serious thing. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for Will and for the concern that he has for his brother's soul, that he wants his brother, Lord God, to confess Jesus rightly and to know the true Christ of Holy Scripture. Would you please open his brother's heart to your word? Jesus, would you please be at work in Will's brother? Would you please be drawing him to yourself and delivering him, Lord, from the false doctrines that he's embraced? God, we look to you. We ask for your help in Jesus' name.

Amen. Will, this is a serious thing and I've had many Mormon friends in my life, some of them who eventually, one individual, I think we shared the gospel with him for many years and he eventually did come to faith, others who were really torn and conflicted as we would talk about issues in the LDS church, as we would talk about some of the false theology in the LDS church and they could see that, I think, on the basis of scripture but they had a really hard time leaving because they had connections to the church and so it was this sort of very difficult place for them to be because I think they had these serious doubts about LDS dogma. I mean, stuff like you just said, the teaching that Jesus and Satan were spirit brothers.

I mean, just absolutely out there. It's bogus. It's not what the Bible teaches and yet they had a hard time leaving the LDS church because they were married and had a family and were a part of the temple. Paul says very clearly in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 4, if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted and you put up with it readily enough, indeed I consider, and he goes on to say, I'm not in the least inferior to these super apostles even if I am unskilled in speaking and so on and so forth. He goes on but he says look, people can receive a false Jesus, another spirit and so I would say don't give up on your brother. Continue to talk about God's word with him and to share the truth of Jesus. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, not the spirit brother of Satan and it's only by confessing him rightly that we can experience his grace and salvation. Join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.