Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, June 25th. When you accept Christ, you're God's child forever. The Holy Spirit guarantees your salvation. Today, Dr. Stanley clears up common doubts and shows you God's faithfulness.
If you were to die today, Are you sure you have eternal life? Does that question disturb you a little bit? Does it make you feel sort of restless? Maybe a little insecure. Uncertain.
Maybe a little doubtful. Maybe a little fearful. Maybe even a little defensive. or just plain angry. Why would that question bother you?
Because you see, if you're really clear in your mind that you have the gift of eternal life. That if you were to die today, that you'd go to heaven. then that question should not bother you at all. But it just may be the fact that it bothers you. Is because you are not sure, you are uncertain, you are a little restless about the whole idea.
Well, if you are It just may be that you need to make sure. And if you're interested in making sure about where you're going to spend eternity, then I've got good news for you. And that's what I want to talk about in this message, because I want to talk about eternal life. And the very fact that you can be sure that you have the gift of eternal life. And I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 John chapter 5.
In this fifth chapter of 1 John, he has been talking about. the very idea of assurance. And John has been saying This is very clearly: that if you have the Son of God who is Jesus, then you have eternal life, and if you don't have Him, you don't have the life. And he makes it very clear. And then he ends by saying in verse 13, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life.
Not that you may hope so. not maybe, not possibly, but that you can absolutely know that you possess the gift of eternal life, which simply means that you and God have had a transaction. that you have had a personal experience with him whereby he has given to you this life.
Now what is this eternal life? It is of endless duration. It is a life of endless duration. in the presence of And with fellowship, with God, which begins at a moment of time in this life. and last forever.
Well I want us to think for just a moment because you see, It is just what we said. It is the gift of eternal life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And you cannot have the gift of eternal life apart from Christ. It is irreversibly linked.
To a personal relationship with Jesus.
So, when somebody says, Well, no, I'm going to heaven when I die, but I don't believe in this Jesus business. No, then you don't have any assurance. That may be something you think, but you'll not find anywhere in the Bible that that's true. What you're going to find is that the Bible says If you have the Son Jesus, you have eternal life. If you don't have Him, you don't have eternal life.
Now listen to what he says in this 13th verse again. These things, all this he's been writing about, I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know, listen, that you may know that you have eternal life.
So the question is: this: Does God really and truly want us to be absolutely sure about eternal life? Yes, He does. And you see, our salvation is not based upon our works, but upon the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. And when I place my trust in him and what he has done, I become eternally secure because, listen, The focus of eternal security. is on the work of God.
My assurance of what he has done. is something inside of me. It is a confident conviction that I have. It is a confident realization that what God has promised is now real in my life. Listen to carefully now.
You can go to heaven without being Assured. of your eternal security. without being assured. of having eternal life. and without being assured that you're saved.
But you cannot go to heaven without salvation. You certainly cannot go to heaven without Jesus Christ being your Savior.
So we're talking about fact, truth, versus feeling. We're talking about truth versus what I believe about my relationship. My relationship is absolutely intact. My relationship is absolutely sealed. It is not sealed by my conduct, not sealed by my behavior.
It is not sealed by my feelings. It is sealed by the precious work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. When I trusted Him as my Savior, the Spirit of God sealed me. The Spirit of God sealed you. We do not seal ourselves.
We are seal unto the day of redemption whether I Feel it or not? Whether I feel secure in the lot. Whether I have any assurance at all or not, when God seals you, you are sealed. The tragedy is, you will go through life. tormented with doubts and fears and anxieties now.
More than likely. If you doubt, that you have the gift of eternal life. You doubt that you've been saved, you doubt that you're eternally secured by God, more than likely you're going to find the reason in one of these that I'm going to mention.
So let's begin with the first one, and that's this. One of the reasons that people doubt They're assurant, they have no assurance, they doubt. Their eternal security, they doubt their eternal life, is because they don't have it. That's the reason they doubt it. because they've never been saved.
And you know what they've done? They've deceived themselves. And so here's what they've done. When they say, Well, yes, I know that I'm going to heaven, I do have the gift of eternal life. And when they don't, the Spirit of God convicts them, they just shove it down.
And the Spirit of God convicts them and they cram it down. The Spirit of God convicts them and they squeeze it again. The Spirit of God convicts them and they repress it and they depress it and they repress it until finally, guess what's happening? They don't feel like that's a problem anymore because they sort of reason themselves out of that. It has nothing to do with that.
You know, there's something else. Here's what happens: they will be unsure about life. There'll be other areas of uncertainty in their life, and what they won't realize, what they won't face up to, is they've never been saved. They say, well, you know, everybody's got doubts, everybody's got fears. One of the primary reasons people have no assurance of salvation is because they've never trusted Jesus Christ personally, deliberately, willfully, at a moment in time with their soul, with their spirit, with their whole eternal destiny.
That's the primary reason. But there's a second reason. A second reason people do not uh Have his assurance is because of sin in their life. Because here's what sin does. Sin is a violation of the law of God.
Sin Short circuits are assurance, and here's how it happens. When a person chooses to sin against God, what happens? They feel some sense of estrangement, they don't feel as close to God. They may even feel rejected. They don't sense God's love for them.
They don't feel worthy of God loving them. And so, what happens is, as a result of sin in a person's life, That short circuits their assurance, and so people who once were sure. And they begin to disobey God and rebel against Him and get into sin. And you ask Him, Are you sure you're saved?
Well, I used to be. You lost your assurance. You did not lose your eternal security because God the Father has so arranged his whole redemption plan that once you've trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, forever a child of God, and Jesus is the living eternal advocate sitting at the Father's right hand, proof to us, assurance to us, we are still the sons of God. And so, therefore, when a person says, Well, I think I don't have an insurance because I've sinned against God, and therefore, well, If there was nothing in the Bible about forgiveness, Nothing in here about Jesus being our advocate, then you may have some reason. But you see, God has taken care of the sin problem at the cross.
Now, what happens is when you and I sin against God and the chastising hand of God comes down on us and we begin to feel the pain and feel the pruning knife a little bit. We go, oh, I must be lost. If I weren't lost, God wouldn't do this. No, listen, it's because you aren't lost that God does that. The Bible says in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, he says, for example, Verse 7.
He says, it is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
So you say, well, you mean to tell me that I'm to be happy when God puts the pruning knife on me? Yes, you are.
Well, why should I be happy about that? Because listen. It is painful proof that you're a child of God. And so sin, it will short-circuit your assurance, but it doesn't mean that you're not saved. There is a third reason, and that is false doctrine.
When people, for example, when they're taught that you can be saved and then you can be lost, or oftentimes a very heavy emphasis on doing. and uh performing. and living up to rules and living by the commandments and all these things.
Now, I'm not dispelling the commandments. I'm simply saying that oftentimes people have the feeling: if I don't do certain things, then I'm not saved.
Well, how did you get saved? Did you get saved by doing things? No, you did not.
Now watch this. When a person is taught that you can be saved and be lost. And they're taught that from childhood, like I and many other people have been. It takes a long time to get over that. And you know what?
A person can hear the gospel, hear the gospel, hear the truth, and hear the truth and hear the truth. It is oftentimes so ingrained in them, they want to believe what you're saying. They desire to believe what you're saying, but somehow they just can't believe what you're saying.
Well, listen carefully. When you're taught error, it's difficult to get rid of it. I understand that, but here's what you have to decide. Do I want to know the truth or do I not? Am I going to hold on to tradition?
Am I going to hold on to what somebody else believes because I don't want to hurt their feelings? Or do I want to know the truth of the living God so I can live by this truth and live successfully and victoriously and triumphantly by it? And besides that, I want to live joyfully and confidently and assuredly that no matter what happens, I'm heaven bound. That's the way I want to live.
Now if it hurts their feelings, they'll get over it. At some point, if they don't get over this life and you get to heaven, say, Told you so. I told you so. Look now, I told you so. You see?
And sometimes it's not a matter of false doctrine, but just not being taught at all. That's what happens, not being taught at all. And so people go to church and they hear all kinds of things. They go to Bible studies and they hear all kinds of things. And then You know?
They've never been taught the truth of Scripture. And so that leads me to another reason that people oftentimes doubt their eternal security, doubt their salvation, doubt that they have the gift of eternal life, which is what God gives us when we're saved. They doubt it because of an overemphasis on emotionalism. But here's what I want you to remember. When your emphasis is more on emotion than truth, Here's what's going to happen.
You're going to be governed by your emotions. Your emotions are going to dictate to you. Your emotions are going to overpower and overwhelm the truth that you know. You see, here's what happens. The reason people get off base spiritually And their emotionalism takes over, and then they lose their sense of assurances because they are so into this emotional thing.
Rather than getting into the truth of the word of God, What does the Bible teach? What does it say? And since I would appraise him, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But if you want your praise and your emotionalism, which we all enjoy, If you want it to be right and really glorifying to God, and just not something you just want to make yourself feel good so you can feel better and better and better because you don't want to come down off of that, listen.
If praise is really genuine, you should be able to come down and hit the solid rock of the living, eternal, unchangeable, immutable word of God and be absolutely confident. You see, emotionalism is fine. As long as Listen, as long as that emotionalism is saturated with the truth of the living God. When it is not You're going to lose something. It won't be your salvation.
You lose your assurance. There's another reason that people lose their assurance. And that is because they do not believe the teaching of the Word of God.
Now, I want to give you an example of something. I'm going to tell you something. I'll say to somebody, Who doubt in their salvation? Let me tell you what. Here's what God says.
Here's what He says right here: He says, These things have I written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes, sir. Tell me about your salvation experience.
So they tell me how they got saved. Same way I got saved, just different age and different circumstances, but same thing. All right, now, do you believe that you can know?
Well, I'm sure you can.
Well, do you have assurance? No, I don't.
Well, let's see what it says. And so here's what the Bible says: For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You believe that? Yes, I do. The Bible says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
You believe that? Yes, I do. All right, and you place your trust in him, yes.
Well, are you sure?
Well, you know, I just, and on they go.
Now, here's a real burden to me. I mean, it's really struck my heart this morning. I thought To be able to hear the truth. and to hear it. And then to say, no, I just don't know.
Now, here's what I want you to remember. It's just this crystal clear in the mind of God. Listen. If God says something is true, It's either true or God's a liar. It's either true or he's trying to deceive me.
It's either true or he's not who he says he is.
So when I come to a verse of scripture and he says, These things have I written to you, that you may know that you have eternal life. And you tell me, no, you can't know that. You can't be assured of that. What you're saying is God lied. If we confess our sins and He's faithful and justify, forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness and I've confessed my sin, then I doubt He's forgiven me.
Then, what I'm saying is, God, you lied.
Now, here's what I want to show you: here's what happens. In the train of thought, you believe the Bible? Yes. Do you believe every word of it? Yes, I do.
Have you asked the Lord to forgive you? Yes, I have. Do you believe he'll keep his word? Yes, he will. Has he forgiven you of your sin?
Yes, he has. Are you assured of your Eternal life, your salvation.
Well, I don't know now about that part. And you see, instead of taking the last step and saying, Yes, I've trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I believe in the atoning death of Christ, yes, and I absolutely assure it. And they'll get right to the edge and say, Yes, but. No, I don't feel sure.
Now, here's what I want you to see.
Now listeners, if you listen, say amen. Either you've got to believe what God says or you've got to accuse Him of lying. We'll go down the line. We'll say, okay, is God a lie? Oh, no, God's not lying.
Okay, wait a minute now. Is that what God said? Yes, that's what He said. Is it the truth? Yes, it's true.
Did God lie? No, God didn't lie. If God is telling the truth, and this word is the truth, then I've got to believe what he says. And what he says is this. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart, God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Yes and no. Is that what you did? Yes, that's what I did. Are you saved?
Well, I don't know whether I'm not. Why not? Either God deceived you or lied to you, or you won't accept the truth. And so now nobody wants to hear you say, you don't believe the Bible, oh, I believe it from cover to cover.
Okay, if you believe it from cover to cover, you've done what you said, then you'll say, well, now you can't be sure about that. One day, dinner with a family, invited me to their dinner, and a real fine family, this is a long time ago, so you couldn't ever guess who they were, and besides, they don't belong to this church.
So we sat down to this wonderful meal, and they got to talk about the Lord. And it's a wonderful time. And so they got to talk about salvation.
Something I said, well, I would just be interested in how you all got saved, what these circumstances were. Got told me, so dad gives his testimony, and I said, Well, it's fantastic of something like that, that you can be sure of salvation. He said, No, you can't be sure. Wife nodding her head, couple of kids sort of, you know, they're looking. I don't know whether they're nodding or not, but I mean, mom and dad were really nodding that.
No, you can't really be sure.
Well, there was a wonderful meal up to this point. And then all of a sudden In a very um Easy going.
soft way uh they began to preach to me that uh You know, it's just prodful, Pastor. to think that you can be absolutely sure.
Well, what are you doing? You're sitting at their table. Um I'll tell you what I did. I can said, no, it's not pride. It's just biblical.
Truth. What I want you to say is this. You can't have it halfway. Either God is a liar God is untruthful. Or what he says is true, and if what he says is true, then I can have absolute assurance of my salvation.
Listen to this. It's not a matter of pride and arrogance because I'm not basing that salvation on anything within me or about me. I'm basing it on what Jesus Christ did at the cross 2,000 years ago, and He paid my sin debt in full, and He said, as many as received Him to them gave He the right, the authority, the power to become the sons of God. to be eternally secure. That's what it's all about.
Thank you for listening to Eternal Life. You can be sure. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by in touch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InPetge Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
