Turning Doubts into Blessed Assurance - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, October 5th. When was the last time you lost your temper, lied to cover a mistake, or maybe something worse? Today's podcast reminds believers that even on our worst days, our relationship with the Lord is never in jeopardy. Well, all of us fall into one of several categories. Some of us fall into the category of people who have been saved and know we are. Then there are those people who think they're saved, but they're not. Those people who make no profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, of course, there are those people who desire to be saved.

We all fall into one of those four categories. So you ask yourself the question, which one are you in? Are you saved and absolutely know that you are? Well, if someone asked you what is salvation, how would you define that? You say, well, it's receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior, something like that. So let me give you a little definition. Salvation is God's deliverance of the believer from all the effects of sin through Christ, plus all the benefits that He bestows upon us now and forever.

It is God's work in the human heart. Now, there are a lot of things in life I don't have to be absolutely sure about. A lot of things I can just sort of talk about and say, well, I hope so, maybe so. But there's one thing I need to be absolutely certain about, and that's where I'm going to spend eternity. The one thing above all else I need to be absolutely certain about is that I am sure I have been saved by the grace of God, that He's done that work within my life in such a fashion that my relationship to Him is such that if I die immediately, I don't have to worry about where I'm going to spend eternity, absent from the body, present with the Lord.

Do you have that kind of an assurance? Well, what I want to talk about tonight is simply this, turning our doubts into blessed assurance. And I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 John chapter 5. And so often people doubt their salvation and doubt what God is doing in their life. And I'm not certain, I can tell you this, if you're not sure of your salvation, it will affect every single area of your life. It will affect your feelings about God, your understanding of God.

It will affect your relationship to other people. It will certainly affect any idea you have about serving God. And I think one of the reasons many people will not serve Him is because sometimes they don't want to admit the fact they're not sure their salvation will be embarrassed to do that. And yet, if you're not certain of that, you have a very difficult time really and truly putting your life to service for God. So in this particular passage beginning, if you will, in the tenth verse of this fifth chapter of 1 John, listen to what he says as you read. He says, The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. That is, when you and I trust Jesus Christ as our Savior, something on the inside of us bears witness to that. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning the Son. And the witness is this.

What is that? That God has given to us eternal life and this life is to be found in whom? In His Son. He who has the Son has the life and he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

And look at 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. Sometimes people say, well, there's something wrong in my life. Well, what is it?

Do you know what it is? Well, I'm not sure. And after a few moments of talking, finally they will say, I'm just not really sure that I'm saved.

Or they'll come up with something else to say, well, I think this is the problem. But finally get around to the fact, well, you know, back yonder somewhere when I was a kid, I walked down the church aisle. I was in vacation Bible school or my friends came down the aisle doing a revival. I made a decision. But somehow deep down inside, I'm not quite so sure. The one person that I remember above all else was a dear lady. She was in her 70s. Here's what she said. She told me her age.

She was like 72 or 73. And she said, you know, I made a decision for Jesus or something like that. She said, when I was a little girl, 12, 13, 14, somewhere thereabouts, she said, but you know, all these years of my life, I've not ever been quite sure that I was saved. And she said, here I am in my 70s and I'm still struggling with what I was struggling with in my 20s.

Now here's a woman who'd lived her life somehow where back in her mind there's this continuous harassment. Am I sure? Am I not sure? Did I?

Did I not? Did God save me? Did He not save me?

And rather than face it in her 20s, she waited till she was in her 70s to settle the most important decision in life. And the reason it's the most important is this, because it's going to determine where I spend eternity. So some things you can be uncertain about, here's one thing you cannot afford to be uncertain about. And so this is what he says in verse 13. These things I've written unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God. He says, and I've written these things that you may have absolute unquestionable, unalterable, unchanging assurance that you have eternal life. How do you turn these doubts into blessed assurance?

Well, let's ask this question. Why do people doubt their salvation to begin with? Number one, the most evident one, we'll go to the least evident. Number one is sin. When a person is living in sin, when there's a habit of sin in their life of some sort, no matter what it is, when there's a habit of sin, here's what sin does. Sin triggers something on the inside that begins to gnaw away at your faith.

It is difficult to believe God when there's known sin in your life. So what happens is this. It begins to work against your own sense of self-esteem. It begins to work against your own sense of worthiness. And so a person says, well, you know, I may not be saved. Now, even though they are, well, I may not be saved.

Well, I don't feel worthy of it. Well, forget that word because nobody will ever be worthy of salvation. What they're really saying is my sin is gnawing away at my sense of self-esteem. My sin is gnawing away at my sense of worthiness. My sin is gnawing away. My sin is somehow putting static in my relationship to God. Things are just not right. What is not right is this, that sin always triggers something inside of a human being and it works against their faith and against their relationship to God.

A second reason is false teaching. It is amazing that the people who come along and they grow up in churches and some of those churches say to them, first of all, you can't ever know whether you're saved or not. Wouldn't you hate to live your whole life wondering, will I, will I not?

Will he accept me, will he not accept me? What that would do, it would absolutely destroy my understanding of the love of God. I don't believe you can have that kind of teaching and understand anything about the atoning death of Jesus Christ or anything about the grace of God. But to be taught that you cannot ever know or to be taught something almost equal is bad and that is, yes, you can be saved, but you can lose your salvation.

What would cause you to lose it? Sinning against God. If you sin against God after you're saved, you could lose your salvation. How will I ever know or what sin am I going to have to commit? Well, here's what I've discovered.

When you start answering that question, depends on who you ask. One person says, well, if you get drunk, you're going to hell. Somebody else says, well, you've got to go out and steal or commit murder, do something worse than that. But surely if you sin against God after you're saved, you're going to be lost.

Well, then how would I ever know or does that mean gossip or does it mean murder? I mean, I mean, which sin am I going to have to commit? And so, again, it depends on who you ask. And so, false doctrine. And oftentimes people get in the word and they'll find one verse of Scripture or two or three verses of Scripture, isolate them and say, see, the Bible says that you can lose your salvation. To be taught that you, listen, that you can be saved by the grace of God and then lose it by your works is to throw a whole concept into God's redemptive plan that He never intended to be there. That's why He said it is by grace we're saved through faith, not of ourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast. But if a person is taught that they're saved by being good, for example, and this is where most people are. Most people, if you ask them what causes a person to be saved, they will tell you it depends on their conduct and their performance. And so they go through life trying to do what?

Trying to perform better over here and not quite so bad over here, hoping that their good performance over here will outweigh their bad performance over here. And when they stand in the presence of God, He'll look at this and ignore that and they'll be saved. It is works, works, works. If you do these things, then God will save you. There's not one single verse in the Bible that says I have to work to be saved. But there's an enormous amount of false doctrine, erroneous teaching out there that has people confused and frustrated and anxious and they're not sure whether they're saved or not. But that's one of the primary reasons.

A third reason I think that's so evident today is the overemphasis on emotionalism. You ask them, are you saved? Well, I think so. What do you mean you think so?

Why don't you know so? Well, sometimes I feel saved and sometimes I don't. That used to bother me a great deal. So I took my Greek New Testament all the way through the New Testament and looking for every word I could about feeling or feel. And you know what? You won't find that word a single solitary time relating to a person's salvation.

It's not in there. But there's emphasis on feeling. Now, there are groups of people who are extremely emotionally oriented and there's nothing wrong with emotion.

All I'm saying is this. My emotions have absolutely nothing to do with my relationship to God. Because it isn't based on my emotions any more than it's based on my works. Because what happens to emotions?

They go up and down. It depends on what kind of day you have. It depends on what's happening in your life. And so if your salvation is based on your emotions, you will never be sure. Emotionalism oftentimes causes a person not to believe that they're saved.

Then of course, there's something else that I would mention at this point. And that is simply failure to take God at His Word. Now, I've seen this and I've done this with people before and I've said, now look, they doubt their salvation. I bring them over here to First John chapter five and say, now, let's read this verse. What does this say? It says, He who has the Son has the life.

He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Do you believe that? Yes, I believe that. Are you saved? Well, I'm not sure. Let's read it again.

I'll make them read it. It says, He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. Do you believe that? Yes, I do. Are you saved?

Something inside of them, they just can't get it out. They just can't say, yes, I am on the basis of simply the truth of the Word of God. Do you believe the Bible's true? Yes, I do. You believe it from cover to cover? Yes, I do. You believe everything God says is right? Yes, I do. Okay, let's read this verse. He who has the Son has the life and He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. Do you believe that?

Yeah, I believe that. Are you saved? I'm not sure.

Why aren't you sure? Then when they say, I'm not sure, here's what they do. They go back to sin, guilt, feelings, erroneous doctrine. When you are presented with the Word of God, you either believe it and accept it or you turn to some other excuse for not believing it. And so one of the reasons is a failure to believe God's Word. Another reason people are not certain about salvation is they're just ignorant.

That is, they've never been taught. And I can remember a number of people that flashed through my mind when I mentioned those things who have been to church for years and years and years and have heard so many sermons. And you ask them, let's say, they say, well, what do you mean born again?

What do you mean saved? Now these are sincere people who in their heart and mind as best they know how they love God. And they love Him the only way they know to love Him. They just do the things that a person is supposed to do in their minds as a Christian. And if you ask them what is a Christian, they'll say a person who goes to church, reads the Bible, prays and does these things.

That's what a person does. That's not necessarily what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who has received the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, in whom the Holy Spirit is living out and living through them the very life of Christ. That's what a Christian is, someone who's received Him as their Savior. And in him and through that person, he's living out the Christian life. But you ask that person and they genuinely cannot tell you what it means to be saved. And they say, well, I think I am. So be careful not to be critical of that person because they say, well, I think I am. Well, explain to me, what is salvation?

Well, now listen to this. Whenever you hear people talk about salvation, nobody ever mentions a cross, never mentions the blood, never mentions anything about the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Somewhere along the way, that person has not been instructed properly concerning the most important decision in their life, which is their salvation. Because apart from the cross, there is no salvation. But oftentimes people are just honestly, genuinely ignorant of what it means to be saved, what you mean, saved, or saved from what. And that's how ignorant they are.

And so we, rather than being critical, want to give instruction and direction. I think another reason that I have found that people doubt their salvation is they compare themselves with other people and they say, well, I don't think I am because I know so and so and I mean they go to church and I mean they read their Bible and they pray and they do all these things. I'm sure if that's what a Christian is, no, I don't think I am. And so they compare themselves with other people. Well, we shouldn't compare ourselves with anybody if we're going to compare ourselves with somebody. Compare yourself with Jesus. That puts us all in the same category, that none of us can live up to that.

And none of us will ever live up to that in this life. And so they make the mistake of comparing themselves. One of the primary reasons for doubting salvation is satanic attacks.

I've noticed this happens to people sometimes, especially if they're going through a period of physical illness. Satan knows how to get you to feeling and mixing your bodily feelings and your spiritual feelings and your mind and your heart and your spirit and your body all together. And you cannot separate them. Somebody says, well, doesn't the Bible say we are composed of body, soul and spirit right? Well, how do you separate those three?

Well, you cannot really. Oftentimes when Satan, when he sees one of God's children down physically, going through maybe some real turmoil in their physical body and really feeling pain and hurt and feeling a sense of helplessness, he will just absolutely launch a vicious attack upon that person. So what do they begin to think? Well, God, if You love me, why am I in this?

Why am I suffering the way I am? And then so what happens? Eventually it boils down to salvation. Well, I wonder if I've ever been saved. And I've heard people say this whom I knew had trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior, but Satan will take advantage of physical sickness when a person gets down physically to cause them to doubt their salvation. Another reason is trials and tragedies in a person's life. Now, our faith has to be built on the Word of God, not on incidences, not on circumstances, not on trials and tragedies in life because all of us are going to have them.

And so if our redemption, if our salvation, our forgiveness is based on anything but the truth of God's Word and the atoning death of Jesus, we're going to have doubts. And what happens is something triggered that awesome sense of doubt and unbelief. God, if You were God, You would not have taken my son.

You would not have allowed this to happen. Then I saved this one to last for a very simple reason. Sometimes people say, well, yes, I've been saved.

I'm sure I'm saved. And then the more you talk, the more you realize that they're not quite so sure. And then you begin to ponder some questions with them. And here's what I've discovered. A person who made a decision back yonder somewhere and has refused to be baptized is going to doubt their salvation.

You mark it down. You cannot be at peace with God when you deliberately willfully rebel against a very definite command of God. And He says we are to be baptized. That is our public confession of what has happened to us privately. And so when a person says, well, I'm not sure about my salvation, I always ask them, did you make a decision?

Yes. Were you baptized? Well, no, I wasn't. Well, why weren't you?

Well, I just didn't think it was necessary. You mean, well, they don't have any real reason when God makes it so clear. I'm telling you, if you have refused to be baptized, you have refused to be obedient to God in a very specific area that is very important to Him. If it were not important to Jesus Christ, He would not have placed that part in the Great Commission. Listen, He said this is where I want you to spend the rest and invest the rest of your life to those disciples. He said as you go make disciples of all nations, doing what? Baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptizing them.

Why? That public confession of that private relationship to Christ is extremely important in the eyes of God or He would never have placed that in the Great Commission. Why did He include baptism? Because in the mind of Almighty God, His redemptive plan, baptism is not essential to salvation, but it is essential as an obedient follower of Jesus Christ. Show me a person who has not been baptized and I'll show you a person who either doubts their salvation or will doubt it sooner or later.

Because you cannot live in willful disobedience in something so important and continue to have real, genuine assurance of salvation. So, these are just some of the reasons that I've discovered with people over the years who doubt their salvation and they doubt them for all kinds of reasons. So, let me ask you a question. Are you absolutely certain? Do you fall in the category of those who are saved and know that you're saved? Or have you begun to think, well, you know, I'm not exactly all that sure about mine. Now listen, if you're not certain for your sake, for God's sake, make certain tonight.

It's the one thing you desperately need to be sure about. Your relationship to God. Thank you for listening to Turning Our Doubts into Blessed Assurance. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.