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Saved without a Doubt
Have you ever doubted that you were saved? I mean have you ever thought to yourself, “am I really saved?” Just about everyone here is well versed in what we call eternal security, that is that we cannot lose our salvation. But yet at times we may still have doubts. A lady told an Evangelist, “I have been saved for 25 years and never had a doubt.” He replied “I doubt you have been saved.” That would be like saying you have been married for 25 years and never had a disagreement. The point being that all believers have doubts at some point. For many believers their doubts are in their early years as Christians.
In fact, it may be normal for Christians to have doubts at some point, particularly early on. This is why John wrote 1 John. He said he wrote 1 John so that we may know that we have eternal life. This tells us two things: 1) True believers can have doubts; and (2) God wants us to know for sure that we are saved. Thus, doubt is possible but not profitable. A Christian living a life in doubt is like driving a car with the brakes on. God does not want that. He wants us to have assurance. Someone has said, “If you could have salvation and not know it, then you could lose it and not miss it.” It reminds me of the time I checked to see what was on TV and there was a show entitled “I did not know I was pregnant until I delivered.” How can you not know you are pregnant?
1 John 3:19-21
And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
The word “know” speaks of experiential knowledge. The “by this” points back to what John just said about brotherly love. Remember John’s main purpose in this book is so that true Christians can have assurance of their salvation; and in doing this John’s number one proof is our love for the brethren. Thus, once again he says “by this—our love for the brethren—we know that we are of the truth.” The text literally says, “out of the truth we exist.” That is a wonderful picture. The true Christian is out of God’s truth.
By knowing that we are saved our hearts can be assured before God. The word for “assure” has the idea of being persuaded. So we can know that we are saved and this will give us great confidence. As believers we need to have this assurance. A believer from a different era, Thomas Brooks, wrote in 1654 these words, in a wonderful, wonderful book called Heaven on Earth. This is what he said, "Assurance is the believer's ark where he sits like Noah, quiet and still in the midst of all distractions and destructions, commotions and confusions," Isn’t that so true? If we do not have the assurance of our salvation we can never be at peace.
So then we can have assurance, but some still struggle with doubt about their salvation. Look at what John says next, “For if our heart condemns us.” There has been a great deal of discussion over this particular verse and we don't have time to deal with the technicalities of it. We must remember that the context of this passage is one of encouragement for the believer. So John is not saying to the one who thinks that they are saved that they better beware because God’s witness is greater and you are not saved. That certainly can be a true scenario, but John is speaking to the weak of heart. It is likely that we are to read verse 20, "Whenever our heart condemns us," and take it as the continuation of what has gone before. Also, we must remember that by “heart,” he is speaking of our conscience. John is speaking to that believer who is humble and is given to doubts but yet they are truly saved.
People have different personalities, as we all know. Some people lack any confidence at all. Folks with this type of conscience may be more prone to doubt their salvation. John is speaking to those who are more introspective like that. It is not a bad vs. good thing, it is just a reality. I should say, however, that none of us should have confidence in ourselves, but in God. You know when I would counsel students I used to tell them that they did not need self-esteem, but God esteem! A proper view of ourselves can only come from a proper view of God.
Let us be reminded of what John has just said prior to these verses. He spoke of Christian love. He speaks in 3:14 of passing from life to death and uses brotherly love as the litmus test. We need to talk about this passing from life to death. If we know we have passed from death to life than we can have this assurance that John speaks of. We have to pay close attention to the text to see exactly what John is saying. He says, “He who does not love his brother abides (or remains) in death.” John is hitting on here what we call original sin. The fact that we are born, even conceived, in sin. John is saying that those who are not saved are already spiritually dead and thus they will remain so without Christ. We are not born good or even neutral. For some reason the doctrine of original sin has been largely lost today even among evangelicals. We are born in sin and every part of our being is corrupted. That does not mean that every part of our being is utterly corrupt, but that each part is tainted by sin. Sometimes we call this Total depravity, or better yet thoroughly tainted. If we misunderstand this, then we will not understand salvation at all.
You remember the story of Lazarus? Lazarus had been physically dead for four days when Jesus said, “Lazarus come forth.” Lazarus was physically quickened (or regenerated). Just as Lazarus was 100% dead physically before Jesus quickened him, so is a man’s spirit 100% dead before Jesus quickens (or regenerates) him. Lazarus did not come forth and then be regenerated. He only came forth because he was physically regenerated. In the same way when you come to Christ, it is because He has spiritually regenerated you. And how is a man spiritually regenerated? By the word of God (Romans 10:14), Just as Lazarus was physically regenerated by the words of our Lord.
So John says you know you have passed from life to death if you love the brethren. On the other hand if you hate the brethren you are still in darkness. The question remains, however, if we love other believers as far as we know then why might we still have doubts about our salvation? Why would our conscience condemn us? Let me give you what I am calling “Four Roadblocks to assurance of salvation.”
Four roadblocks to assurance of salvation:
I. Spiritual immaturity
One can be saved for a while and be spiritually immature, but I have the new believer in mind. As a new Christian the Christian life is uncharted territory. They do not know what to expect. When we get saved our bodies are not lifted up into the air and we don’t start doing summer salts! It is an internal working of the Spirit in our hearts. So there is no major outward event which we can point to and say, yes I know I am saved because I was taken up into the clouds and let back down. You don’t lose twenty pounds on the spot when you get saved, or get twenty pounds of extra muscle—wouldn’t that be nice!
This can leave the new believer wondering if they are saved or not. There heart can condemn them as they think about whether anything is really different; since there is nothing immediate that they can put their finger on. They may have a great inner emotional experience, but let’s face it we can’t depend on our emotions. Many times our emotions can lead us astray. So spiritual immaturity, particularly as pertains to the new believer can be a roadblock to assurance of salvation.
II. Scriptural ignorance
Scriptural ignorance is closely aligned spiritual immaturity. But one can be saved for a long time and still be ignorant of what the Bible teaches. For instance, it is almost impossible for anyone to have full assurance of salvation if they do not know how salvation works. This is where we must start. We must understand what God says about salvation. This is why John can say that though our hearts may condemn us, “God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” Remember what I said about Lazarus earlier. God must quicken our spirits. We cannot do this on our own. We know that we cannot work or do anything for our salvation. This can seem too easy for us.
As humans we usually want to do something for ourselves. For instance—and I think many of you can relate to this—when I used to do construction for a living I did not trust everyone else around me. If I was working on electric and someone said that they turned off the breaker, I still had to go check for myself. The only one I trusted was my dad. Other than that, I had to see for myself. I had to do something to assure my heart. Now that is a pretty good practice. (story of Angela turning wrong breaker off)
But my point is that since salvation is all of God, we cannot point to something that we did and say there that is proof that I am saved. What’s worse is that some think that they did something to get saved. They will tell you that you are not saved by works, but they will say that you still must come forward or do this or that. Now that is normal for a new believer. But once one gets grounded in God’s word, they should get beyond the milk of Scripture and into the meat. The new believer sees Lazarus walk out of the tomb and says Lazarus was physically regenerated because he walked out of the tomb. The new believer sees someone walk the isle at a church and says that person is spiritually regenerated because they walked the isle. The grounded believer says Lazarus came out of the tomb as a result of being physically regenerated. The grounded believer says the person who walked the isle is walking the isle because God has spiritually regenerated that person.
Scriptural ignorance leads to a belief that one can lose salvation. See, if one believes that they came to Christ on their own volition, then they naturally may think that they can walk away from Him at will. I have never met anyone who truly understood how salvation worked and yet believed that you could lose salvation.
Remember that John wrote 1 John as a sequel to the gospel of John. He already taught these believers how salvation worked in his gospel. Listen to what John said:
1 John 1:13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
We are spiritually reborn by God’s will, not ours. You see you desired Christ, but it is because God worked His will into your will to give you that desire.
1 John 6:44
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
1 John 6:37
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
Just as Lazarus came forth because of God’s will, so we came to Christ because of God’s working in our hearts. And Jesus promises never to cast us out. We can’t lose salvation.
1 John 10:27-30
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. "I and the Father are one."
The Father and Son are one—that is they are in agreement that no one can remove us as children of God. Still someone’s heart will say, well, maybe I can leave on my own. No, did you not see what God’s word has already said? God saved you. You did not walk into the family of God you were picked up and placed there by God. (cf. 1 Pet. 1:5 = “We are kept by the power of God”)
1 John 17:11
"I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
This is Jesus’ famous High Priestly Prayer. What is He praying for? That God would keep us. If we can lose our salvation then Jesus’ prayer was not answered, and if His prayers are not answered then we can forget about ours ever being answered.
So we must understand that as John teaches these believers he assumes that they already know these great truths. I pray that you do. This may be the first time some of you have gotten these great truths. See when it comes to our salvation we must be mature believers. We must know the word of God. A storm blows up and tree branch falls and that young child says, “look that branch fell from the tree.” The older more mature child knows that the wind caused the branch to fall. So many Christians only know what they see visibly and do not know what God did to cause these things. We must know. You see Satan does not want a believer to have this security. A secure Christian is a productive Christian for God’s kingdom. When we are confident of the future, we can concentrate on the present. When we are not secure we are not productive. In 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge was being built in San Francisco. Workman who were hundreds of feet above the cold waters in constant strong winds were afraid. In fact, twenty-three people fell to their death as they were working on the bridge. The production of the other workers was very low because they were understandably more concerned about falling then finishing the job. Management spent some $100,000 to put a safety net under the workers. With the workers now secure in their safety the work went about 25% faster, thus saving the company money. Only ten workers fell from then on and they were saved by the net. Listen Christian, you need to be productive for God. Sure you may fall, but God will catch you. You can’t fall out of God’s hand!
We must not be ignorant when it comes to Scripture.
III. Sin indulgence
Many believers doubt their salvation as a result of sin in their lives. When a believer is dealing with sin their conscience—their hearts—causes them to doubt. In this case, doubt can be a good thing. Assurance is reserved for the obedient. A disobedient believer is not entitled to this assurance. Assurance is a blessing for the obedient. See Satan uses our sin against our consciences. He wants us to have thoughts about our unworthiness. Let me give you an example. Do you remember the story of Peter denying Christ three times? Peter, in his zeal and love for Christ had declared that he would never deny him. But deny Him he did. Christ came to Peter and tried to encourage Him and give him assurance. He kept asking Peter if He loved him. Peter had an uneasy conscience because of his sin. Even when he repented with great anguish, his conscience kept telling him that he must not be a disciple of Christ, for he had sinned. Perhaps this is how you feel. You must confess your sin and repent of it.
IV. Satanic influence
This kind of encompasses all of these roadblocks. The last thing Satan wants is a Christian who knows where they stand in Christ and as a result is confident to do Christ’s work. Again John says, “God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” God knows all of our sin. God knows our sin before we even commit it.
Satan wants us to be so guilt ridden with our sin that we are rendered useless for God. God says confess your sin and get back to serving me immediately. Satan, using our conscience, says no you are too bad for Christ to save you. Or you are too bad to serve in the church.
As Christians we must know that we are in a spiritual war. In 1 Thessalonians 5:8 Paul says, "Put on the helmet of the hope of salvation." This is what we need to win the spiritual war.
Now let me say this. Please hear this. An evangelist once said this in dealing with people who doubt their salvation. He said “it has been my experience that people who doubt their salvation and are really not saved have doubts centering on God; while those who have doubts but are saved have doubts centering on themselves.”
In other words if your doubt includes things like: is Christ really God?; Did Christ really die on the cross?; Did Christ really rise from the dead? Those are doubts that would indicate someone who is not saved. On the other hand if the doubts are more like: I’m not worthy of being saved; have I really believed in Christ with all my heart; if I am saved why do I still sin . . . etc. These are indicative of someone who is truly saved. Look at Peter he did not question Christ, but himself. For the most part someone who is not saved is not very concerned about it. They are not likely to doubt their salvation. The question is not can you name a definite time and place when you were saved—when you first trusted in Jesus. The question is whether or not you are trusting in Him now. If you are trusting in Him now, then it is because you did trust Him as your Lord and Savior at some point. It is kind of like a story about Will Rogers. He went to get a passport and official said, “We need your birth certificate.” He said, “What for?” They said, “For proof of your birth.” He said, “Well I’m here ain’t I?” I like old Will’s reasoning!
Conclusion:
1 John 3:22-24
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
John closes by giving the great blessing which flows from being saved. When we pray according to God’s will God will grant our requests. For believers, are obedient and thus please Him.
John says we should believe “the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” The word “on” is not in the original. He is speaking to those who are already saved and to believe Christ’s name is to believe all great doctrinal truths in Scripture.
John closes by saying that we can know we are saved by the fact that we have the Holy Spirit’s witness within our heart. We will talk more about this in future weeks.
