Dealing with Doubt

Intro

A pastor was visiting a lady who was in the hospital and about to die. Her family was all around and as he had conversation with them, he realized that she was not a Christian. She did not have any assurance that her sins had been forgiven or that Christ was in her heart. So he asked permission to share how she could know that Christ was in her heart and experience the wonder and fulfillment of having Jesus Christ in her heart and know her sins were forgiven. She said yes please.

So he opened the Bible and shared with her the Gospel message, and then he lead her in a prayer of salvation. She prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into her heart. He then looked at her family and said isn’t it great that she now knows that she is saved. One of them said, no one can know that they are saved. He told the family that she had just prayed to receive Jesus in her heart and the bible said in Romans 10:13 “13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” But he insisted that no one can know. We can’ know until we stand in front of God at the judgement.

I believe that some of you might just struggle with those same feelings. Christians in the first century did Look at 1 John 5:13

1 John 5:13 NLT

13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

John didn’t say hope, wish, or even believe that you have eternal life. He said that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the same John that wrote 1,2,3 John, Revelation and the Gospel of John. This epistle was written to build up the Believers. He wrote the Gospel of John so that we would believe in Jesus. John 20:31

John 20:31 NLT

31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

The Gospel was evangelistic and designed to show people that Jesus really was who he siad he was. So he is coming back in 1 John and saying, I wrote about the miracles so that you would believe in Jesus. Now he says, BTW, if you know Jesus, you have eternal life… Know it.

Now the fact that he wrote this says you can be saved but have doubts. Doubts are not good, but there is a bright side to them. Doubt to your spirit is like pain to your body. If you are feeling pain right now, you are not dead, you are alive. Pain is a signal in your body that something is wrong.

Doubt in your spirit is like pain to your body. It’s a warning sign that you need to deal with. So today we will learn how to deal with doubt. And it’s possible to be saved and still have doubts.

A woman once told evangelist, DL Moody that she had been saved for 25 years and never had a single doubt. He replied, Madame, I doubt that you have been saved. Her saying that is like someone saying they had been married 50 years and never had an argument. Anyone who say that hasn’t been married. Arguments are not good just like doubts are not good. But they both are facts of life.

John wrote this book so that we can know we are saved. In this book to believers, John is tying to clear up those doubts.

After saying that he wrote this book so that we can know we are saved… not wish, think or hope, but know that we are saved, he gives us three tests. John gives us thre major tests that we might know we have eternal life.

1. The Commandment test.

1 John 2:3–4 NLT

3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

John is saying to those who would say they are Christians but live like the devil… you are a liar. He says that if you claim to know him but do not obey him, you are a liar. John didn’t beat around the bush here.

1 John 2:5–6 NLT

5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

John’s logic is perfect here. He says

if I am in Christ and Christ is in me, I should be living like Christ, not the devil.

Jesus keeps the commands of God. So if we say we are saved, but we do not obey what Jesus through his word is telling us to do, John says we are not saved. It doesn’t matter how many verses we know… if we have been baptized… if we teach a class… John says if we are not living different that lost people, we are not saved.

Let me ask, How many of you since you have been saved have kept all the commands of God in His Word? None of us have. Does that mean we are not saved? Well? John did say that if we love him, we will obey his commandments didn’t he?

In the NKJV it reads,

1 John 2:5 NKJV

5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

Obey and keep are the same word in the Greek and it’s a Mariners term. Back in the day when men would sail, they kept their bearings by focusing on the stars. They would keep their eyes or their focus on the stars.

Just like the stars were the standard by which sailors sailed,

The Word Of God is the standard by which we live our lives.

Now, just like the sailor on the ocean could be blown off course, by keeping his focus on the stars, he could get back on course. His goal was to stay the course.

It’s the same with us. John is not talking about sinless perfection. The Bible doesn’t teach sinless perfection, but it does teach that we have no right to call ourselves children of God if we are not doing our best to live according to the WOG.

Just because someone prays a prayer doesn’t mean they are saved if there no change in their life.

You cannot say you are saved and continue to live a sinful lifestyle.

Your faith has to change your life. If it doesn’t, your faith is in the wrong thing. Paul said we become new creations in 2 CO 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

I am not talking about sinless perfection, but I am saying that the goal of your life has to change when you are saved. Your aim will be to follow Christ as best you can.

That’s the way he says it positively. He says it negatively in 1 John 3:8-9

1 John 3:8–9 NLT

8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

Practice of sinning refers to a lifestyle of sin. This is the same John that wrote 1 John 1:8-10

1 John 1:8–10 NLT

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

Notice John included himself in this verse. He said we not you.

He is talking about a lifestyle of sin here. There are people who lead a lifestyle of sin and hope that they will make it into heaven. Don’t be foolish. John said in plainly in 1 John 2:3 “3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.”

We are not saved because we keep his commandments. We keep his commandments because we are saved. Salvation is by Grace, not by keeping commands. But we sho we are saved by keeping His commands.

2. The Companion test

Look at 1 John 3:14

1 John 3:14 NLT

14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.

Here is another instance of John telling us how we can know we are saved. If we don’t love people, we are still dead spiritually.

1 John 3:15 NLT

15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

So if you can’t get along with other Christians, John doesn’t call you a Christian, he cals you are murderer at heart.

Now look at 1 John 4:20-21

1 John 4:20–21 NLT

20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

Here he says it again. We can’t say we love God but not love our fellow believers. IOW, John is telling us to get along with each other.

If we don’t love fellow believers, John says we are dead, we are murderers, and we are liars.

Now look at 1 John 5:1

1 John 5:1 NLT

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.

These verses make it clear that a birthmark of believers is loving each other. We know we belong to Jesus because we love each other.

When I am saved, I will want to be right with other Believers.

Have you ever heard anyone say, You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian? You can. But the Bible says in Heb 10:25

Hebrews 10:25 NLT

25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

The WOG says that meeting together in church in fellowship is important. I appreciate that you may like some of the things we do like the Fall Festival… but the foundation is being in church, worshipping together, building relationships together and hearing the WOG.

Look at what Jesus said in Matt 18:20

Matthew 18:20 NLT

20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

I know we can pray by ourselves, but there is something special that happens when Believers get together and worship. In the NT, the word Saint is never used individually. It’s always plural.

Jesus, when he was teaching us how to pray even said, Our Father… not my father.

The companion test says that if you love God, you have to love His Church.

1 John 4:7–8 NLT

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

If you want to know what God is like, here it is, God is love. When we are born of God… born again… we receive the nature of God and the nature of God is to love others. Now if we have the nature of God and the nature of God is to love others, then I will love others. If I don’t have love in me, I don’t have the nature of God in me. John is saying that the reason we love others is because we are a Christian.

The Bible calls the church the Body of Christ. Jesus and the body are not the same. He is the head and we are the rest of it. If I try to say, I like Jesus but not Christians, that is like me saying I like Robert Storey, I just don’t like his body. I just love my head… And the Bible says that no man hates his own body…

We are all members of the same body, the church. When Saul was persecuting Christians and he was on the Road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him and said Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul replied saying I’m not, I am persecuting the church. However Jesus straightened him out saying that persecuting the church was equal to persecuting him.

So when we act up or show judgement and anger toward the church… when we neglect the church… we do the same to Jesus.

The church is also referred to as the Bride of Christ. If you want to get me real angry, mess with my bride. I’ll bet Jesus is the same way with his Bride… the church.

Now listen, I know that not everyone who is in the family are particularly lovely… some of them can make you down rite mad. But we work through it. We still love them… why? because they are family.

So one of the ways we know we are saved is that we love God and we love others.

3. The Commitment test.

Commandment… Companion test and now the commitment test. Look at

1 John 5:10–13 NLT

10 All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son. 11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. 13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

Look at it… so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Look at the word “Believe.” In the greek, it’s stronger than our word believe.

For instance, I believe that George Washington was a historical character and is known as the father of our country. I believe in George Washington, but I don’t trust him for anything. I am not committed to George Washington.

Wen you believe in Jesus, it refers more to trusting him. So when I say that I believe in Jesus, I really mean that I trust him and am committed to him.

The Bible word for believe means commitment.

Now here is the question? Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

Look back at this verse. John said I have written this to you who believe… That’s present tense. No where in the Bible does it tell you to look back… or to refer back to a point in time when you got saved. John says if you believe right now you are saved.

I have run into people who are living like the devil, but when you start asking if they wanted to receive Jesus, they go… hold o a minute. I was saved when I was 6 and baptized.

Listen to me. Nowhere in the Bible does it refer to this as proof that you are saved. John is saying, Are you saved now… He is talking present tense.

John is saying the same thing about commandment keeping. It says in 1 John 2:3 “3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.” That’s present tense.

Look at 1 John 3:14 “14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.” It says that we we love our brothers and sisters… not loved…

John is asking, Do you have that faith in your heart today? The witness in 1 John 5:10 “10 All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son.”

I have heard people say, if you can’t name the day, date, time and place when received Jesus, you are not saved. Have you heard that? Most of us have. I have heard it but I have never read it in the bible and neither have you. If you know all that… good.

But the proof is now. Do you believe?

Did you know that there are people who don’t know when they were born because there is no record of their birth? Will Rogers was a person like that. He went to apply for a passport ad when they asked him for his birth certificate, he asked why do you need that? The reply was to prove you were born. Will Rogers then said, “I’m here aint I?”

The person sitting here today is the best proof that you are saved or lost. Is the person sitting in your seat committed to living for Jesus according to the WOG? Is the person sitting in your seat a person who loves others? Is the person sitting in your seat now a confident person who knows they are saved? That’s the person John says can say, I am saved!

Thank God for the past. Thank God for those who can remember when they were lost and when they were found. Thank God for those who can name the date, the day, the time, the place where they were saved. But listen to me. The statement and the question John says here is in the present tense.

He who now believes on the Son of God has the right to say they have eternal life.

Wrap

We are doing the series What Every Christian Should Know to lay a solid foundation and this message serves two purposes.

It is going to help some of you with your doubts.

I don’t want anyone to have a false assurance that they are saved because they got baptized and put on a church roll years ago.

One of the devil’s favorite tricks is to get your name on a church roll without you ever having been born again.

If you are here tonight and you have strong serious doubts, don’t resist the Holy Spirit. Don’t pretend you are saved when you are not. This is important. It involves your eternal destiny and your abundant life here on earth.

So if you do not have a strong reason to know that you are saved… that you are a born again believer, I am going to lead you in a prayer that as the bible says, if you believe it and confess it, you are saved.

Prayer of Salvation

Now listen, we (none of us) obey the WOG to get saved. We now obey the WOG because we are saved.