Question and Answer Program No. 83

The battle of Christianity as it relates to assurance is a battle of the mind.

That's why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5, In other words, taking every thought and capturing it so that it matches up with the knowledge of God that we know in Scripture. Thank you so much for joining us on this Friday broadcast of Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen is interrupting his current series so that he can spend some time answering questions that have come in from listeners. We have several questions and here's our first one. Taliesha, thank you so much for calling in with your question. Stephen, can a person be saved if they don't feel close to God? Well, Scott, I sure hope so, because there are times when I feel very close to the Lord and I praise him for my salvation, and there are times when I think, Lord, there is absolutely no way I could ever belong to you.

I'm so grateful that you asked that question, Taliesha. And let me remind you, and everybody else listening, and I believe every honest Christian listening to me can identify with your question, our nature is fallen. We're sinners. Keep in mind that that also means that your feelings are fallen.

They're inconsistent. And that's why the battle of Christianity, as it relates to assurance, is a battle of the mind. That's what Satan will attack. That's why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5, he's writing to believers, and he says, "'Cast down imaginations and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.'" In other words, taking every thought and capturing it, corralling it, so that it matches up with the knowledge of God that we know in Scripture. Is there anything that you need to do to be saved beyond placing your faith in Jesus Christ?

Well, I hope not, because if there is, we've just created a works salvation. It's no longer faith alone, it is faith plus works alone. Listen to these verses.

You might want to write down the texts. John 20, verses 30 and 31. Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these, these signs, have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Here's another verse, Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. So what do you have to do beyond believing the gospel and acknowledging it to be true?

Nothing. Every day you fail. Every day you sin. So if our salvation is based on how good a day we had, every night you and I are going to need to get saved all over again. And that's why the last verse I want to give you is over in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7.

Let me read it to you. 1 John 1 7, the last part, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin, verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, that is, if we say we're not sinning, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I love the tense of the verb there back in verse 7, the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. It means it is continually cleansing you from all sin. When you came to faith in Jesus, we tend to think of the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us permanently, and it does.

But guess what? It is ongoing and it's cleansing, and it needs to be, because your sin and mine continually cloud the day. So keep this in mind. I'm not suggesting that you can sin and you don't need to worry about it, or if you're troubled with your sin that you need to get over it. No, we grieve when we sin against the Lord. Let's just make sure that we're not basing our salvation on how good a week we had. Hey, I didn't miss my devotion three days in a row, so I'm saved.

Or I haven't missed church in a month, so I'm probably part of the family. Well, our assurance of salvation does tend to increase by means of consistency, but let's make sure that our assurance of salvation isn't based on how we feel or that consistency, but it's based on the gospel of Christ. Oswald Chambers is a wonderful devotional writer, and here's something that he said that I think is worth repeating.

Let me read you this paragraph, Scott, and then we'll go on to another question. He writes, We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountaintop, when we've seen things from God's perspective, and we've wanted to stay there. God never seems to allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to come down from that mountain. We weren't made for the mountaintop, for sunrises, for all those beautiful attractions in life. Those are intended to be moments of inspiration that help us look forward to heaven. We're actually made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, that is, the ordinary experiences, the difficulties and challenges.

And it's down there in the valley where we prove stamina and strength. But just remember, Talisha, that proving stamina and strength as you walk with God through the challenges is a different subject from proving that you're saved. I like to think of the fact that we are limping our way to heaven, weak, inconsistent, daily in need of God's grace. So when you're discouraged, take it to the Lord. Take those thoughts captive. Ground your faith in what Jesus says, what his word says, and not how you feel. The moment you give in to how you feel, the enemy just isn't going to let up.

He loves to kick people when they're down. So ground, stabilize, root your faith in God's word, not your emotion. I hope that helps you. Just know, by the way, you are in good company, because I'm right there with you.

That's right. Thank you so much, Talisha, for calling in. And if you're listening today, I hope you are. I want to make you aware of a resource that I think will help you. Stephen has written a short, easy-to-read booklet entitled Blessed Assurance. It's a great resource that helps you understand how you can know for certain that you are truly saved. And it's a booklet that brings comfort to your soul. Talisha, if you're listening today, I want you to call because we want to send you a complimentary copy of this booklet. But to all of our listeners, this is a resource that's available in our online store.

You can visit us online at wisdomonline.org. And when you navigate to the store, you'll find this booklet, Blessed Assurance. And if you're a first-time caller and you've never contacted our ministry before, we'd like to send you a copy of this booklet as well.

It's just our way of thanking you for taking the time to introduce yourself to us. So call us today at 866-48-BIBLE. That's 866-482-4253 and ask how you can get a copy of Blessed Assurance. Now the number that Talisha used to call in and record her question for Stephen is different from our office number. We have a Bible question line and a prayer line that's set up for you to call in any time, 24 hours a day. You can leave a question for Stephen to answer on a future broadcast or leave a prayer request for our weekly staff prayer time. That number is 910-808-9384. And that's the number this caller used.

Hi, my name is Angie and I'm in Clearwater, Florida. When someone, a loved one dies and you don't know if they were saved or you're pretty sure they were not, how can a believer rejoice and have peace, which the Bible so clearly describes? The scripture says, rejoice always and let the peace of God rule in your heart.

So if you can help me with that, that would be great. Thank you for your ministry. Angie, what a great question that is. Stephen, I don't think we've ever been asked that before. I don't think so either, Scott.

And Angie, I'm so glad you called in. This may be very close to your own heart, having experienced the death of a family member who is an unbeliever. We're never quite sure, especially in a culture like ours where people hear the gospel so often, what exactly happened at that last moment of conscious thought. And I know that I hold out hope for a number of people that gave no evidence of salvation but remained unconscious for some time before they died, there in those moments, they were like the dying thief who reached out in belief. We don't know, though, and especially if someone is obviously an unbeliever, they rejected Christ. How do you rejoice?

Great question. Well, first of all, let me just say this. You need to understand that rejoice isn't necessarily the same thing as being happy, okay? Rejoicing is more of an inward state of contentment based on what you know about the Lord, that He is good, that He's right, that He's just. The command from Philippians 4, verse 4, that you quoted, rejoice evermore, this is rejoicing in the Lord in contrast to being afraid or anxious, because later on He says, be anxious for nothing. So within this context, He's wanting us to trust the Lord, which gives us a spirit of joy.

It's really more understood in this text as confidence, comfort, and assurance, along with thanksgiving. Also, I want you to keep in mind, Angie, that this command to rejoice doesn't exclude moments and times of mourning and weeping and grieving. In fact, we're commanded in Romans 12, aren't we, in verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep? The church in Corinth was told by the apostle Paul that they'd become arrogant in their unwillingness to discipline from their membership an unrepentant, sinning believer, and he says, you should be mourning, grieving instead. So he's exhorting the whole church to grieve. In 2 Corinthians 12, he says, I'm afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, that I may mourn over many of those who sinned in the past and have not repented. So obviously, Paul is mourning and grieving over unrepentant unbelievers or even unrepentant believers.

How about our own personal lives? Here's a text to write down and consider in the future. James 4, verses 8 to 10, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded.

He's writing to Christians here. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. So yes, mourn the death of an unbeliever. How do you have peace about their death? Well, understand that God is just, that he provided more opportunities for that individual to repent and believe than you'll ever know. God isn't forcing anybody into hell without good reason.

He'll always do what's right. It is sad. It is worth weeping when an unbeliever dies. Frankly, even though you don't know what they did in the last moments of their conscious life, you still grieve that they wasted their lives, right? You still grieve over the fact that you never had the fellowship with them that you wanted to have and you longed for.

But our comfort and our assurance, which is, by the way, the same thing as rejoicing, depending on the context, our comfort and our assurance and our contentment is in knowing that God is just, God does what's right, and God has provided opportunity for those to believe in him and to call upon him to be saved. Well, I hope that helps you, Angie. Such a great question to ask. I know many listeners out there are listening on the edge of their seats because they've struggled with the same question.

So thank you so much. Thank you, Stephen, and thank you, Angie. Stephen, here's our next question for today.

My name is Stanley, and I'm calling from Virginia Beach, Virginia. My question is how Rahab the harlot could be engrafted into the lineage of the Messiah. By what process? I have been searching for answers to this question for over 20 years. Thank you. Well, Stanley, your 20-year search for the answer to that question ends right now, Stephen. Did I set you up? Is that too much?

The pressure's on. Yeah, it is. It is a great question, though, Stanley. How in the world could Rahab be in Jesus' lineage?

Yes. You go to Matthew chapter 1, and there are several names that jump off the page that would raise questions. One would be a Hittite woman by the name of Bathsheba. It's mentioned as the wife of Uriah. How does a Hittite woman get in there? But to his question, Stanley, there are two ways of looking at this and two ways of approaching the answer. First of all, on a physical level, and second of all, on a spiritual level.

Now, let's answer the physical level. It's simply a matter of God orchestrating the fact that she would marry someone from the tribe of Judah. Judah was the royal tribe. He was one of the sons of Jacob, and it's through Judah that the Messiah will come. That's already prophesied in Genesis chapter 49.

And here's Rahab living in Jericho. The people of Israel are coming into the land, and this is the first fortified city that they're going to conquer as they possess the promised land. And God tells the Israelites something that's actually often overlooked, by the way. In Deuteronomy 21, here's what the Lord commands. When you, the Israelites, when you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you take them away captive, and you see among them a beautiful woman, have a desire for her to take her as a wife.

He says, now bring her into your home, and she goes through all these protocols of cleansing. And then they can marry a woman who obviously then converts to Judaism. And I bring that out because I want you to know it's not a violation of God's law for a Gentile to be married to an Israelite.

Now obviously this is going to imply that there's conversion involved, so that would be the next level, and that's the spiritual level. Was Rahab a convert to Judaism? She's a Gentile, she's a Canaanite, she deserves death, according to Deuteronomy 20 in judgment.

But did she trust God? Well, go to Joshua 2, and let me read you verses 8-13. Rahab said to these men, you know, she's got the brothel there on the wall, you remember Stanley?

And these men come and hide out in that brothel, that's a great place, by the way, where people won't ask your name, that's why they probably navigate to her brothel, they're going to hide out, and hopefully their lives will be saved. Well, she says to the men this amazing testimony, and I'm going to quote her, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og whom you destroyed, and when we heard it, our hearts melted, and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you. Now get this, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

Wow, that's a testimony, by the way. She's not believing in the veracity of her idol, she's believing in the reality of the God of Israel being the God of heaven and earth. She believes God, rejects her own people, by the way, in saving these spies, and becomes identified with God's people. Now if you just scoot ahead to Joshua chapter 6 and verse 25, here's what it says, However Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had Joshua spared, and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Now Stanley, you mentioned how surprising it is to have her mentioned in Matthew chapter 1, and she is for two reasons. Physically, she becomes the wife of Salman, who is from the tribe of Judah, and that introduces her into the physical line of the coming Messiah, because Jesus the Messiah descends from the line or tribe of Judah. But there's another passage you might want to mark in your Bible, and that's Hebrews chapter 11, and this tells us a little bit more about what was going on.

Verse 30 says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they'd been encircled for seven days. Verse 31, And by faith Rahab the harlot did not perish, along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Why was she rescued? Because she had faith in the God of Israel. She was converted to the God of Israel.

By the way, one of the wonderful elements of her story is the grace of God. Think about it. You know, Scott, you and I were talking earlier. She's tagged with this title.

It's always... The prostitute, Rahab the harlot, yeah. Rahab the harlot. You know, why isn't it, like you said, David the murderer?

It's Rahab the harlot. And I think this is God's way of reminding us that in the family tree of Jesus are converted sinners. And you know why that's good news? Because I am a converted sinner. Oh, by the way, I'm a Gentile as well. But I'm allowed to be a descendant, as it were. Yes, Stephen, as you were saying that, it just dawned on me that if we were to try to pull all of the sinners out of Jesus' lineage, he would never have been born, right? Because every single one of them had a history and a past.

That's right. And one more little addendum here, and that's the fact that Rahab has a son by Salman, and her son grows up, and he also marries a converted idolater, a Moabitess, a Gentile woman who also leaves her family and her former idols, and Boaz is his name, and he marries a woman named Ruth. So there you have another name entered into the genealogy of Jesus, who was a foreign woman, a Gentile, who converts to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and she becomes, by the way, the great-grandmother of King David. All right, we better stop with that. Thank you, Stephen, and thank you so much, Stanley, for calling in with your question. Stephen, I think we have time for at least one more.

Hello, my name is Edna. I'm calling from North Central Florida, and our Sunday School class would like to know the correct definition for Matthew 13.33. We want to make sure we understand it correctly, can't live without understanding. Thank you. Bye. Edna, thank you so much for calling in on behalf of your class, and Stephen, I don't know when this question came in, but I'm glad we got to it today, because her class has been waiting. Hopefully they found the answer prior to us, but Stephen, here's the verse that Edna referenced in her question. It's Matthew 13.33. It says this, He spoke another parable to them, The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened. Great question.

Thank you for calling in. The Lord is speaking in parables, and as you notice, the context, which is very critical to understanding any parable, by this time the people have rejected the Lord, they've rejected his offer of the kingdom, and now he shifts into giving parables. These are difficult stories. Each story has one primary meaning. You have to be careful that you don't make everything in a parable mean something. A parable simply has one primary meaning. And he explains them, then, later on to his disciples so that they understand the intention. This one he doesn't.

Some of them he does. The elements in this parable are, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, and a woman hides the leaven, or she takes that leaven and she puts it in three pecks of flour. That's half a bushel. So she's got a bushel and a half a flour, and she's putting leaven in there until all of the flour is, of course, affected or leavened. So how is that leavened dough like a believer, like a follower of the kingdom, a follower of Christ? I think the reason it's confusing, Edna, and probably your class struggle with this, is that normally in Scripture leaven is a negative element. It represents sin. We're to remove the leaven, it's illustrated in the Passover, to eat unleavened bread. It isn't tainted, as it were. Now, in this parable, leaven is actually positive.

It's a good thing. This leaven refers to the work in the heart of the disciple, down where it's hidden in their heart. There is this leavening process, this influence. This would obviously be God's Word, God's Spirit through His Word, at work in the hidden part of the believer. And every aspect of the believer, then, is affected. This is what we call sanctification. This is a transforming life in every area of life, as the work of God, the Word of God, by means of the Spirit of God, does a work hidden away in our hearts. So I think the confusing part is more than likely because it's a negative in other passages of Scripture. Here, it's positive.

Leaven is that influencing work of God through His Word and the Spirit that changes our lives. Thank you, Steven, and thank you so much, Edna, and all of you who called in with questions this week. We were so glad to hear from you. I'll give you that number one more time.

It's 910-808-9384. That's our Bible question line. Monday is Labor Day. We will be back with a broadcast that day, so be sure and tune in for that. However, our office will be closed as our staff team enjoys some extra time with their family and friends on that day. Have a great weekend. Be sure and join us next time for more wisdom for the heart.