I don't know when I passed from death unto life. I know I did. But I don't look for a past event to make it real. I look for a present pattern of life. There are some people at this particular point who have a false assurance because they can remember a past event, but the reality of it is there isn't any present righteousness.
Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. In 1897, Mark Twain had a cousin who was ill.
Somehow the facts were confused and news began circulating that Twain himself was the sick one, and not just sick, but dying. You've probably heard the celebrated author's famous and humorous words on the incident. The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Now, you can imagine the trouble you'd have if the word deceased showed up in your file at the Social Security Office, or the place you were born had no record of your birth.
So consider this, since there's no document, no certificate of rebirth to certify when a person is born again in Christ, should you be concerned if you don't know the hour or at least the day that you became a Christian? See why you can put concerns like those to rest as we continue John MacArthur's series called Myths About Salvation. Here's John with the lesson. Let me draw you back to 2 Peter chapter 1. In these first eleven verses, Peter is speaking of the matter of our salvation.
As we come into verses 5 through 11, he is concerned. about making certain about our calling and choosing. And the matter under discussion here is the matter of the assurance of salvation. He is concerned that No one Be blind or short-sighted according to verse 9, having forgotten his purification. He is concerned that we be diligent to make certain about our calling.
And choosing. This is a matter then of assurance. Before we get into the text itself, I wanted to introduce it to you by a consideration of the subject of assurance. from a broader scriptural perspective. As a pastor, I say again to you that it is a heartache.
To realize that so many people lack the assurance of salvation. They lack the assurance that they are really forgiven for their sins. and that they are eternally secured for a place in heaven. Sad as it is, it is a fact. It is one that pastors deal with.
All atone. Many people wonder whether they are really saved. Thomas Brooks wrote in sixteen fifty four these words. You know A wonderful, wonderful book called Heaven on Earth. This is what he said.
Assurance is the believer's ark. where he sits. Like Noah. quiet and still, In the midst of all distractions and destructions, commotions and confusions. End quote.
In that same excellent book, he also wrote, Most Christians live between fears and hopes, and hang, as it were, between heaven and hell.
Sometimes they hope that their state is good, at other times, they fear that their state is bad.
Now they hope that all is well and that it shall go well with them forever. And then they fear that they shall perish by the hand of such a corruption or by the prevalency of such a temptation. And so they are like a ship in a storm tossed here and there. This need not be. But it is the fact.
Some people lack assurance. Because they are under a strong preaching, lifting a high and holy standard, and because there's sin in their life, they feel. That they are not saved or they doubt their salvation. And some people are not enjoying assurance because they can't accept forgiveness. They think themselves to be too bad, and so they crown Satan king rather than Christ.
They can receive condemnation, but not grace. And then some people doubt their salvation, frankly, because they don't understand the saving work of Christ. I'll tell you, the churches of our world are filled with people like that who are insecure about their salvation because they have an insecure salvation to start with. Let me give you a fourth. reason why people lack assurance.
Some lack assurance because they don't know the exact time of their salvation. Does that ring a bell?
Some people lack assurance because they don't know the exact time of their salvation. They can't remember when they believed. They can't remember the moment of their salvation. And because they can't remember when it was, they don't know whether it was. Which is like saying, because I can't remember my birthday, I'm not sure I'm alive.
I see. Because I can't remember when my plane landed, I don't know if I'm here. We have made such a fetish Out of decisionism. We have so isolated and identified this little formula and this little prayer that you pray at some point. As being the moment of salvation, that if you don't have that little moment that you signed a card or raised your hand or walked an aisle or prayed your prayer or did your little formula thing.
You can't identify when it happened, so maybe it never happened. I remember a man saying to me. Last Sunday morning, I settled my salvation. I said, how did you do that? He said, on my way home, I stopped on Roscoe Boulevard.
And I never could remember the moment I was saved, and so I never felt saved. And so I got out of my van, he was in a van, he said. And I went over to the sidewalk, the grass between the curb and the sidewalk, and I took out a piece of wood and I hammered it into the ground. And I drove that stake and I said, This is June something, and this is the day I am committing my life to Jesus Christ. And now I know I'm saved because I know when I did that.
And so I had to Pull up his steak. Metaphorically speaking. But there are some people who have been so overexposed to a decisionistic approach, or what you call decisional regeneration. There's some point in time, some mystical moment when you do your little formula and you're zapped by God.
Now, for some people, there is a moment in time, obviously. For many people, there was a very decisive moment in which they exercised their faith in Jesus Christ. But for many, many people, particularly those raised in a Christian environment, they can't identify that transformation. They can't identify that moment. because they have always believed.
People often ask me, have you been a Christian all your life? My standard answer is, not yet. But That's looking at the future end of it. Going on the other direction of it, I do not know a time when I did not believe. But that does not mean I'm not a Christian.
There are those today who would even teach that the remembrance of such a past event is the real legitimate basis for a believer's assurance. And in fact, if you can't remember that event, You might not be saved. The exact time is not the issue. Not at all. But that will create A lack of assurance.
If people have been exposed to too much focus. On some Event. And that if you can't remember the event, maybe you're not a Christian. One contemporary writer says the only legitimate Point. of assurance for our salvation is the past event.
The exact time is not the issue. I can remember the moment that I was saved. I don't know when I passed from death unto life, but I know I did. I don't know a time when I didn't believe. I never went through a time of rebelling openly and flagrantly against God.
I had a car accident when I was a freshman in college, but I can't say that was the time of my salvation. I remember praying a prayer with my father on the steps of a church in Indiana when he was holding a revival meeting. His sermon convicted me because I had done some things that week that were not right. I don't know whether that's the moment I passed from death unto life. There were times as a little child when I prayed prayers.
There were times as a teenager when I went to camp. I remember as a 14-year-old going forward and throwing a pine cone in the fire, teary-eyed and wanting to make my life right with God. I don't know when I passed from death unto life. I know I did, but I don't look for a past event to make it real. I look for a present pattern of life.
There are some people at this particular point who have a false assurance because they can remember a past event, but the reality of it is there isn't any present. Righteousness. Fifthly, Another reason why some people lack assurances. because they still feel the flesh strongly. and they wonder if they have a new nature.
They they feel so strong the pull Of the unredeemed flesh. You see, we are a new creation incarcerated in unredeemed flesh, unredeemed humanists. We're waiting for the redemption of our bodies at the glorification when Christ comes back and we have what the Bible calls the glorious liberation of the children of God and we get liberated from our unredeemed flesh. But as long as we are fighting the Romans VII battle, And not doing what we want to do and doing what we don't want to do. And as long as we see the flesh in us warring against us.
It is possible for us to wonder if we're possessors of a new nature because we feel so strongly the pull of the flesh. That is Really what I think Peter has in mind here. When he says, if you don't have certain qualities in your life, verse 8. then you're gonna lack the confidence that you have been purified. If sin is overwhelming and overpowering you at any given point, you will lack assurance.
You will struggle with that. And people wonder sometimes, did I repent enough? Am I sorry enough for my sin? Do I have enough faith? What they're doing is focusing on the unredeemed flesh rather than.
the new life. You can read Romans 7. two ways or Three ways, I guess. You can read it in two imbalanced ways and one balanced way. You can read it where all it says is: I don't do what I ought to do.
And I do what I ought not to do. And you can read it, and it says, It is sin that is in me, that is in my flesh. And you can read it, O wretched man that I am, and you can become introspective, and you can just keep looking and looking at the garbage and the sin of the flesh. And you get a warped perspective. And you literally overstate your condition.
You can look at it another imbalanced way. I delight in the law of God after the inward man, and there is a principle in me that desires to delight and to do God's will, and all of that. You can read it the other way and say, Oh, look, all those good things are in me, but you have to read it in balance. And if you see in you the will to do what is right, the love of God, the hatred of sin, the desire to obey, the delight in the word. Even though you see the flesh, the battle is indicative of the new nature warring against the flesh.
But if you become preoccupied with the flesh, And you become victimized by the flesh where sin begins to overpower you. You're going to struggle with that. Focusing on the flesh is not a healthy thing to do. Listen to what Dr. Ironside said.
Now test yourself in this way. You once lived in sin and loved it. Do you now desire deliverance from it? You were once self-confident and trusting in your own fancied goodness. Do you now judge yourself a sinner before God?
You once sought to hide from God and rebelled against his authority. Do you now look up to him desiring to know him and to yield yourself to him? If you can honestly say yes to these questions, you have repented. Your attitude is altogether different. Than what it once was.
You confess you are a sinner and unable to cleanse your own soul, and you're willing to be saved in God's way. That's repentance. And remember, it is not the amount of repentance that counts, it is the fact that you turn from self to God that puts you in the place where His grace avails through Jesus Christ. Strictly speaking, he says, not one of us has ever repented enough. None of us has realized the enormity of our guilt as God sees it, but when we judge ourselves and trust the Savior whom He has provided, we are saved through His merits.
As recipients of his loving kindness, repentance will be deepened and will continue day by day as we learn more and more of his infinite worth and our own unworthiness. End quote. It's very helpful. Just test yourself. Do you have the impulses of the new nature there?
That's indicative. of salvation. You might want to remind someone who Is wondering whether they've really been saved because they see so much sin in their life. of that beautiful old hymn. Written by Horatio Bennar.
I was a wandering sheep, I did not love the fold. I did not love my shepherd's voice, I would not be controlled. I was a wayward child, I did not love my home. I did not love my father's voice, I loved afar to roam. The shepherd sought his sheep, The father sought his child He followed me o'er vale and hill, O'er deserts waste and wild He found me nigh to death, Famished and faint and lone He bound me with the bands of love He saved the wandering one.
Jesus, my shepherd, is Twas He that loved my soul, Twas He that washed me in His blood, Twas He that made me whole, Twas He that sought the lost, That found the wandering sheep, Twas He that brought me to the fold, Tis He that still doth keep I was a wandering sheep, I would not be controlled, but now I love my Savior's voice, I love, I love the fold. I was a wayward child, I once preferred to roam, but now I love my Father's voice, I love, I love his home. That's the difference. The change of attitude gives me heart assurance that I am now the child of God by second birth, and no matter how strong the pull of sin, that is there as well. God's will has become my highest joy, and submission to His Lordship my Greatest delight.
Some lack assurance due to strong conviction. Coming through preaching.
Some lack assurance because of an inability to accept forgiveness.
Some lack assurance because they fail to understand the rich truth of the gospel.
Some lack assurance because of an inability to remember the time of salvation.
Some lack assurance because of the remaining power of their unredeemed flesh. Number six. And this is so very, very important.
Some lack assurance because they don't see the hand of God in all their trials.
Some lack assurance because they don't see the hand of God in all their trials.
Can't tell you how many people I've heard say through my ministry, how could God love me and let me go through this? How could God love me and take my husband? How could God love me and take my wife or my child? How could God love me and not hear my prayer and deliver me? Where is God when I need Him?
How can I be a Christian?
Now listen carefully to this. People who think like that. Not only sentence themselves to a lack of assurance. But they miss The very strongest Source of assurance. You say, what do you mean by that?
Just listen. They miss the very strongest proof of assurance. You say, what is it? Tested faith. Tested faith.
If when I have a trial and trouble, And things don't go the way I want them to go. I question God and question His love and question my salvation and all of that. I not only lose my assurance, but I am failing the test that could for me be the strongest proof of my assurance. In Romans Chapter five. In verse 1, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we've obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in the hope of the glory of God.
And not only this, but we exult in our troubles. Why? Because trouble brings perseverance, perseverance proven character, and proven character produces what? Hoop. And hope translates immediately into assurance.
If I have a solid hope of my eternal inheritance, I have a present assurance. Where do I get that hope? When my faith is tested. And proven. Oh, that's such a great truth.
Such an essential Truth. Consider it all joy, my brethren, says James. When you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I'll tell you, the trials of life should never cause you to doubt God's. Salvation, God's love, God's grace in Christ.
They are simply given to you as tests to prove His love, to prove His power in your behalf. In Hebrews. Chapter six Verse 10. For God is not unjust, so as to forget your work and the love. Which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and still ministering to the saints.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. God is putting us through trials. God is putting us through difficulties. We are to be diligent. We are to endure.
We are to be patient. The result? Full assurance of hope. Trials are the very crucible in which assurance is formed.
Now let me give you the classic illustration. Absolutely magnificent. Romans chapter 8. This is so powerful. Romans chapter 8.
Verse 38. Listen to what Paul says. For I Am convinced. That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now you know they say, oh, that's great. I know that verse.
Now listen to what I say. Paul says, I'm convinced. I am absolutely convinced. That none of these things can separate us. Go back to verse 35.
Who? Shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress Or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long, we were considered as sheep to the slaughter, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us, I am convinced.
Now listen carefully. What convinced Paul of the security of his salvation. What convinced him? And gave him assurance. What did that?
He just told you.
Now listen to this. He had experienced everything he just mentioned. Did you note that? It was his own experience of tribulation. His own experience.
Of distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth. created things, he went through it all, none of it did it. I want to tell you something. Trials become the source of your greatest confidence. I remember going in a room one night.
And a girl was filled with demons. And when I walked in the door, one of them started screaming, Get him out, not him, get him out, not him. And she began to kick my shins until they bled with this strength that she had. It was a most interesting evening. My first reaction was to leave, saying, sure, you don't want me, I'm out of here, I don't need this.
My second reaction was a tremendous sense that here I am in hand-to-hand combat with principalities, with demonic beings, and they know whose side I'm on. It is in the middle of those kinds of things that you have these tremendous testimonies to the reality of your salvation. God affirms that in those times. Paul says, I've been through it all, and I'm convinced. What convinced you?
It isn't just the fact that it's written in the Word, it has been tested. As one walks with God, says Ironside, and learns to suffer and endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Eternal things become more real than the things of time and sense, which are everything to the merely natural man. Thus there comes to the heart a trustful calm, a full assurance based not alone upon the revealed word, but upon a personal knowledge of communion with God, which gives implicit confidence as to this present life and all that lies ahead. End quote.
Well Let's pray. Father, we thank you. That you have given us a secure salvation. that we can be assured. We pray, Lord, for those who are in the faith.
But can't Enjoy the assurance of it. We pray that that they might not Be left. as it were with a lack of assurance. But that they might come to confidence in their faith. Thank you for giving us an eternal salvation.
giving us reason. to be assured in it. and help us to know. That tests and trials Are the greatest source. of the personalized confidence.
that we belong to you. Because we see your hand.
So clearly In the midst I've lost. Thank you for the testimony of Paul who could say, I'm convinced because I've seen it all. and none of it separated him. From the love of his Christ. Show us enough trials.
That we might see your hand. Be forever confident. That we are yours. For the glory of Christ. Amen.
That's John MacArthur, featured Bible teacher on Grace to You. His current series is titled Myths About Salvation.
Now, friend, a question for you in light of to day's lesson. What do you say to someone who loves God, has repented of sin, and has seen a real change in his life, but he still struggles with salvation assurance? How does someone put that kind of doubt behind him? John MacArthur had a lot to say about that issue, and here's one example. It's a heartache.
As a pastor I deal with that all the time. uh people struggling with assurance.
Sometimes it comes because they have a bad theology. They have been taught that you can lose your salvation. Which of course is not true. Salvation is eternal life. Eternal life lasts forever.
They have been taught that if they ascend a certain sin or repeat a certain sin, they lose their salvation, and so there are fears that that happen. But even among people who haven't been taught that, but have been taught that salvation is eternal, they might doubt that they actually have salvation. What produces that doubt?
Well, it usually comes from two possible angles. One, two They um They have a pattern of sin. They have a pattern of sin. They begin to question. their true loves, their true affections, their true convictions.
and they wonder if they have genuine salvation. It's legitimate. because assurance is peace. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. If you're not walking in the Spirit, you're not going to have the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5. If you walk in the Spirit, you have the fruit of the Spirit, you have peace. If you walk in the flesh, you don't have the fruit of the Spirit, you don't have peace, and that means you don't have assurance. The other way that doubt comes is Satan uses it as a temptation. Hammering you with doubt.
And that's when you need to do a double check on the reality of your faith and the genuineness of God's gift of eternal life. Yes, friend, and all that teaching and much more is contained in John's book called Saved Without a Doubt. We'd like to send you a free copy of Saved Without a Doubt if you've never contacted us before, so get in touch today. You can call us at 80055GRACE, or you can email your request to letters at gty.org. Again, Saved Without a Doubt is free if you're calling or writing us for the first time.
Our phone number, again, 80055GRACE. and our email address letters at gty.org. If you have contacted us before, the book costs $10.50 and shipping is free. To order Saved Without a Doubt, call 855 Grace or visit gty.org. Our website also has thousands of other free Bible study tools, including The Grace to You blog.
You can also tap into the multiple daily devotionals that are available at no cost to you. To take advantage of these resources and many more like them, just visit our website, gty.org. and look for the tab marked READ at the top of our home page.
Now, for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to make Grace to U television part of your Sunday. You'll find it on DirecTV Channel 378. And then be here tomorrow as we continue John MacArthur's study. Myths about salvation, showing you the blessings that come from having assurance of your salvation.
It's another half hour of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time. on Grace to You.
