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TEXT: James 1:5-8 FBI
TOPIC: Dealing with Doubt 5/18/97
Today’s sermon is a message born out of necessity.
The issue of doubt has risen within the ranks of our membership like a hot-air balloon on a summer day.
Since our revival I have been bombarded by many who are seriously struggling with the issue of doubt.
So I’ve decided to try to answer many of the questions and doubts that are surfacing.
Do Christians doubt?
Of course we do.
In fact, it is not unusual for a Christian to doubt his salvation.
Yet doubt can be debilitating.
Hesitation and uncertainty are characteristic of the doubter.
Read with me today what James has to say concerning those who are chronic doubters.
(Read James 1:5-8)
James pictures those who doubt as waves which are tossed about by the wind and the sea.
A wave has no foundation, no moorings.
It is not grounded or fastened in anything that is stable.
As a result it is left helpless and completely dependent on the direction of the wind and the current of the seas.
It no sooner forms its shape before it dissolves into nothingness, taking on the shape and likeness of the sea around it.
Sounds like a description of some of you today doesn’t it?
“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Verse 8.
Why do we doubt our salvation?
Why do some doubt the truthfulness of the Bible?
Some may even doubt the reality of God.
Billy Graham once said, “Probably everyone has had doubts and uncertainties at times in his religious experience.
When Moses went up on Mt.
Sinai to receive the tablets of the Law from the hand of God, and had been a long time out of the sight of the people who stood anxiously awaiting his return, they became doubtful of his return.
“And they erected a golden calf to worship.”
Their actions of apostasy were the result of doubting and uncertainty.”
I’m going to attempt to deal with the issue of doubt today.
I’m going to try to answer the question as to why, as Christian, we may doubt.
First let’s look at the CAUSES OF DOUBT IN A CHRISTIAN’S LIFE
1. SATAN CAUSES THE CHRISTIAN TO DOUBT
Satan can and will cause a Christian to doubt many things about their faith and their relationship to God.
Although Satan is not the only cause of our doubts, he does delight in causing Christians to remain confused, uncertain and unstable.
Satan is called the “Accuser of the brethren,” (Rev.
12:10) and he takes great satisfaction in causing God’s children great grief and despair.
Satan is also called by Jesus, “a liar and the father of all lies.”
(John 8:44)
He is a deceiver and the enemy of all of God’s children.
Satan caused Eve to doubt by asking, “Yea, hath God said,” (Genesis 3:1)
One of Satan’s favorite tools is doubt.
He snickers in exhilarating pleasure when he can cause even one Christian to doubt the truthfulness of the Bible as the Word of God.
Why would Satan want you to doubt God’s word?
He knows that if he can cause you to doubt God and His word then you have lost your moorings, your foundation.
If you doubt the truthfulness of the word of God then you have no basis or foundation for security.
He knows he can then render you ineffective for God.
Your witness, your zeal for service will be awash like the wave that has washed out on the sea.
Your motivation for Godly living is gone.
Your desire for service in the church is non-existent.
Would Satan cause you to doubt your salvation?
He would like nothing better.
2. SIN CAUSES THE CHRISTIAN TO DOUBT
Sin is the great disrupter of our faith.
Please learn I John 1:5-10.
(Read the text)
Read first two verses of chapter 2. Look also at I John 3:9.
Sin disconnects our fellowship with God and God’s people.
When unconfessed sin builds up in our lives we sometimes question the possibility that we were ever saved.
ILLUSTRATION: Unconfessed sin in a Christian’s life is like people who never bath, brush their teeth or comb their hair.
I’m a clean person and one thing that really bothers me is to be around someone who doesn’t understand why God created soap and water…
Confessing our sins to God and our faults to one another, (James 5:16) is like taking a spiritual bath.
(Read the illustration about F.E. Marsh, “Restitution”)
Sin in the believer’s life will leave you feeling dirty and distant from God.
It will separate you from the joy and peace of his abiding presence.
Sin in the Christian’s life will certainly cause you to doubt your security and salvation.
3. SUFFERING CAUSES THE CHRISTIAN TO DOUBT
Suffering, sickness, disappointments and difficulties can cause a child of God to doubt.
Divorce, a death in the family, a wayward son or daughter, unanswered prayer, can all create doubt in the heart of a Christian.
(The primary reason why this is true is because we fail, at least temporarily to trust God and His word regarding our salvation, and we trust in something we should never trust, our feelings).
Do you remember the time that John the Baptist doubted Jesus?
He did.
The man chosen of God and sent to prepare the way for the coming of Christ, doubted.
The man who actually was boyhood friends with Jesus and a close relative, doubted.
The man who stood in the face of religious hypocrites of his day, calling them snakes and vipers, doubted his own relationship to Jesus.
Matthew 11:2-3
2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
(KJV)
Did you notice where John was at when he began to question whether Jesus really was the Messiah?
In prison.
Yet Jesus said of John, “Matthew 11:11
11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
(KJV)
II.
GENUINE DOUBT FOR THE LOST LEADS TO SALVATION
There is a time when genuine doubt is healthy.
In the life of the lost person, doubt can lead to salvation.
The Bible says we can know that we are saved.
(I John 5:11-15).
If we must err, let’s err on the side of salvation.
The fact is that for some of you there’s no doubt at all.
You know you have never been saved.
You haven’t trusted Christ.
You haven’t received Him.
I do believe that when God saves you He changes you! (II Corinthians 5:17)
Invitation:
Speak first to those who are lost and they know it.
Speak to those who are doubt their salvation because they really are lost.
Ask any who would like to come to Christ to raise their hand, then stand, then come and stand forward so I can pray with them.
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