In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: If God says when you place your trust in Him, you're saved through your faith in Christ, Satan comes along and says, "No, you're not." God says, "Yes, you are." When you start doubting your salvation, whom did you choose to believe?

Satan. What does the Bible say about Satan? He's the father of lies. He's the accuser of the brethren. Now, I either am going to believe what God says, or I'm going to believe what the devil says.

Guest (Male): The Bible says that salvation is a free gift from God. Have you ever wondered if maybe it has some hidden exceptions or add-ons? Stay with us for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, to hear a firm biblical affirmation that eternal life is truly a free gift to all who believe. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: What I'd like to do to begin with is to distinguish between the very idea of eternal security and assurance. What I want to talk about primarily is the fact that you and I can have assurance that we have the gift of eternal life, because many people have the gift of eternal life but are not assured of it. They'll go through all of their life sort of partially tormented oftentimes with the idea, "Well, suppose I really don't have it. Suppose I have made this decision, but I really and truly do not have eternal life."

So let's talk about what eternal security is for a moment. Eternal security is that work of God by which He guarantees the gift of eternal life, once received, is forever and can never be lost. It is God's guarantee that the gift of eternal life once received is forever and cannot be lost. That's what eternal security is.

Now, assurance is a confident realization that you possess eternal life. It is an intellectual and a spiritual recognition and confidence that you possess this life that lasts forever. So with that in mind, let's talk about why people doubt the idea that they really and truly have eternal life.

When if you ask them what did you do to receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, here's what they'll tell you. Oftentimes, they will give you the very exact truth that you and I know. They have acknowledged that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They've acknowledged their sinfulness and that their sin is separated them from God. They've acknowledged that if they confess their sins, Jesus will forgive them. They acknowledge that His death at the cross paid their sin debt in full. They acknowledge the fact that if they ask Jesus Christ to save them, He will do it.

They go through all of that. "Are you sure of your salvation?" Well, they hesitate and hem and haw around, "I'm just not absolutely sure." So there are some very specific reasons. Listen carefully. More than likely, if you doubt that you have the gift of eternal life, you doubt that you've been saved, you doubt that you're eternally secured by God, more than likely you're going to find the reason in one of these that I'm going to mention.

So let's begin with the first one and that's this. One of the reasons that people doubt their assurance, they have no assurance, they doubt their eternal security, they doubt their eternal life, is because they don't have it. That's a reason they doubt it. Because they've never been saved.

They had some good feelings. They made some decisions. They decided to change the way they were going to live. They walked down a church aisle and said, "I want to be baptized. I want to join this church. I want to be better. I want to do good. I want this, and I want that, and I want the other," and never trusted Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Never looked to the cross for the forgiveness of their sins.

So one of the primary reasons people have no assurance of salvation is because they've never trusted Jesus Christ personally, deliberately, willfully at a moment in time with their soul, with their spirit, with their whole eternal destiny. That's a primary reason.

Well, another one of those reasons that people doubt their salvation, doubt what God has done in their life, and I think probably a reason that most people will usually deny, and sometimes it's simply this. It's just a satanic attack. Let me ask you a question. If God says when you place your trust in Him, you're saved through your faith in Christ, Satan comes along and says, "No, you're not." God says, "Yes, you are."

When you start doubting your salvation, whom did you choose to believe? Satan. What does the Bible say about Satan? He's the father of lies. He's the accuser of the brethren. Now, I either am going to believe what God says, or I'm going to believe what the devil says.

You see, it is cut and dried. It is black and white. It is very clear. It's not a matter of being dogmatic. It's a matter of facing the truth. And if I face the truth, I've got to believe what God says or I've got to believe what the devil says. So it may be that Satan's just harassing you. Remember what he said to Eve? He said, "Now wait a minute now. Did God really? Is that really what He said?"

Well, one of the primary reasons people doubt their eternal life is because they can't pinpoint the exact time. Now, there are people who say, "Well, I know I got saved back yonder somewhere, but you know what? I'm not sure exactly when it happened. So I don't know whether I'm saved or not." Well, let's talk about it. What did you do?

"Well, I can't exactly remember that." Well, tell me about your attitude now. I mean, wanting to live Godly before Him, trusting Jesus Christ. Listen to their testimony. It'd be as good as any of ours. But they can't tell you the exact time and so what happens? They begin to doubt that they were saved.

Listen, the Bible doesn't say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and don't ever forget when it happened and thou shalt be saved." It doesn't say that because I could name a few very, very, very prominent Christians in this country that none of us would doubt their salvation who tell you, "I can't remember when."

Somebody says, "Well, here's the prayer you pray and you say, 'Well, Lord, I do want to ask You to forgive me of my sins and I'm trusting You as my personal savior.'" In a split second somewhere in that, you become a child of God. Well, I can remember the event, but I can't remember the day. I think it was in the summer. I know how old I was. But if somebody says, "Now tell me exact when," I couldn't tell them that. But I can tell you for sure I know I'm saved.

And there are multitudes of people out there who can't tell you the exact time. So when somebody says, "If you can't remember the event and you can't remember the time, more than likely you've never been saved. Get down here on your knees." Well, you can't justify that and you can't prove that. There's nothing in the Bible that says that's true.

Here's one of the most prominent reasons right here. Listen to this. Person says sometimes I'll read the scripture to them and say, "Now, have you, is that what you've done? You mean to tell me that you read the scripture, you asked Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, you told Him personally, deliberately, willfully that moment in time you were trusting Him as your personal savior?" "Yes, I did." "And you're not sure?" "No, I'm not sure."

After I read that to a person, then I give it to them to let them read it. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." "Is that true?" "Yes." "Have you done that?" "Yes." "Are you sure?" "Not sure."

After I give it to them about three times, and I have had some people read it 10 times. "Now read that to me again. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' You believe?" "Yes, I do." "You understand what believe means to believe?" "Yes, I do." "You're not saved?" "Well, I'm not sure."

Then I know what's wrong. Then I know that something's going on in their life which they either have not dealt with or refuse to deal with, which undercuts their assurance, which we said a few moments in the very beginning about sin. And so it comes up and finally, "Well, I never have been baptized." That's it.

"Well, what's that got to do with my assurance?" It's got everything to do with it and here's the reason. He says as you go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Son of God, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all these things that I've commanded you, and lo, I'll be with you all the way.

My friend, let me tell you something. You can reason all you want to, but if you refuse to be baptized once you're saved, you are deliberately, willfully living in disobedience to the will of God. You are not in the will of God. You're not living in the will of God for the simple reason that you have refused to do what God said do.

"Well, I'm already saved and I don't need to be baptized." You may already be saved, but you need to check your attitude. Because if you refuse to do what God says do, "Well, I don't, you know, that water bothers me." Well, you'll get over it. It doesn't take very long. Dip you down, bring you right back up. That's not the excuse. There's something wrong.

If you're unwilling to be baptized, either you're unsaved or you're living in rebellion. If baptism was good enough for Jesus and the command of Jesus, give me one biblical reason for not being baptized. And if your feeling is argumentative and if your attitude is rebellion, then you need to ask yourself the question, "Have I ever been saved? Why would I resist something so simple but so profound and so meaningful in the eyes of almighty God? Why would I resist that if something in my life was not absolutely, totally out of order with the plan of God?"

Another reason that people doubt their eternal gift of salvation is this. They say, "You know what? I think maybe I may have committed the unpardonable sin. I just have a feeling I have." Well, what did you do to commit that? "Well, I'm not sure, but way back yonder in my life, I feel like I have sinned so much in my life that I must have committed the unpardonable sin." Well, what do you think that is?

Well, they give you all kind of reasons of what they think. Let me tell you something. You listening carefully? You cannot commit the unpardonable sin in this day and time. Listen to what the Bible says. "If we confess our sins," all except the unpardonable. No, that's not what He says. If we confess our sins, listen, God is faithful and He is right in forgiving, cleansing us as the Bible says, forgiving us our sins because that's what Jesus went to the cross for.

Listen, if you die without Christ, there is no forgiveness on the other side. But as long as you have breath in this body of yours and you can ask God to forgive you of your sins, you can be forgiven no matter what. The word of God says if you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive you. The word of God says, "He that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast him out." So when you say, "Well, I'm just afraid I've committed the unpardonable sin," no, you haven't. You die without Christ, there's no pardon on the other side.

So when I think about all these reasons that people give for doubting our Lord, doubting His security, somewhere along the way, more than likely you've heard yours. Now, here's what I want us to think about. Say, "All right, I've heard all that, but now what's the real basis now of my assurance?" The four bases for our absolute, unwavering assurance that we are eternally secure in Him, that we have the gift of eternal life once we trust Christ as our savior.

And the first basis of it is this: the powerful, unchanging promises of almighty God. I want you to turn if you will to start with John 3:16. I'll take you through a few verses here. The powerful, awesome, unchangeable promises of God and here's one of them. Number one, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." That's promise number one.

Chapter number five and listen to this verse. Verse 24, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word," this is the Son of God, "he who hears My word and believes Him," God, "who sent Me, has presently eternal life, does not come into condemnation or judgment, but has already passed out of eternal death into eternal life."

Now, listen to that. He says if we believe, if we hear it and we believe it, we have already passed out of eternal death into eternal life. Look if you will in chapter 10, and this is the last one. Chapter 10, look at this. Verse 27. These are all the promises of God all in just one book of the Bible.

Verse 27, "My sheep hear My voice, I know them and they follow Me. I give unto them," listen to this, "I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of My hand. Period. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all. No one's able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Now, look at that verse. Look if you will in verse 28, "I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of My hand." Who can take you out of God's hand? Nobody. Somebody says, "Well, I can just get out on my own." No, you can't. No, you can't. You say, "Well, He said somebody else snatch you out." Well, listen, nobody can take you out of God's hand. He says, "No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand and I and the Father are one." You know what He says? You can't lose it. So rest in it.

So basis number one, the awesome, irrevocable, unchangeable promises of God. That is the first basis of it. The second basis is this: the unconditional love of God for us. Look if you will in the eighth chapter of Romans and listen to this awesome passage that we know. He says in verse 33, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies."

He says, for example, who can charge any one of us with anything that would cause God to cast us out? No one. Then He says, "Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised and who's at the right hand of God to make intercession for us."

Then He asks this question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?" You may go through all those things, have all kinds of doubts and tribulations and trials. Will that separate you from God?

Just as it is written, "For Thy sake we are all being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things, all this turmoil, tribulation, heartache, we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ who loved us. For I am convinced, persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.

You know what? He said, "What can separate us? Who can separate us? Who can charge anything up to God's elect? Nobody." What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Then listen, if nothing can separate you from the love of God, nobody can charge you legitimately in the eyes of God, then tell me what in the world could cause you to be unsure of a salvation purchased by God through His son Jesus Christ, given to you as a gift, and absolutely promised that it lasts forever. Give me a legitimate biblical reason for doubting your security. Right. There is no legitimate reason.

Basis number three is the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Read you just a couple of verses. Look if you will in Hebrews. Finished work of Jesus on the cross. This is the ultimate basis of it. Look at this. Here's what He says. Let's look first of all in the 11th verse. Jesus is called the high priest, the one who goes in before the Father to make an atonement for us.

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this creation, not through the blood of goats and calves and all of that, but He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."

Now, not only has He obtained it, but listen to what He says. Verse 25 of chapter seven, "Hence also, He is able to save for how long?" What's that next word? "He's able to save for how long? Forever, those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us." The finished work of Jesus on the cross. That's what gives me absolute assurance.

And then one last thing, one last basis. Turn to Romans chapter eight again, and that is the witness of the Holy Spirit to our heart. Listen to what He says in verse 16, chapter eight, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God."

Now listen, how many times have you asked somebody when they got saved and say, "Well, how do you feel? I feel fantastic." Or somebody will say, "Well, I don't have a lot of feelings, but I just know I am." Why do they know they are? Witness of the Holy Spirit. You see, you're sitting here listening and I will say something and you just feel something in your heart. That's the spirit of God witnessing to your spirit you're hearing the truth.

So I have four awesome bases for believing that my salvation is secure forever, that I have the gift of eternal life. Number one, the awesome, irrevocable, faithful promises of God. The unconditional love of God. The finished work of God through His son Jesus Christ on the cross. And then the witness of the Holy Spirit within me that I'm a child of the living God.

Now, here's the big question. All right, I've heard all that, but now what's the real basis now of my assurance? How do I make sure? I believe all this. How do I make sure? You acknowledge that you do believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, as the Bible says He is, and that He went to the cross for your sins. You acknowledge that you have sinned against Him and that your sins have separated you from God. You confess your sinfulness to Him, asking Him to forgive you of your sin.

You accept His forgiveness on the basis that He promised to forgive you. That's all you need. And then you simply say to Him, "Lord Jesus, I do receive You as my personal savior and the Lord of my life." And you know what? Somewhere in the moments of prayer, in a split second somewhere, you're saved.

Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley's message today on In Touch encouraged you to put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and begin a new life in Christ. But maybe you found yourself still wondering about what it means to be a Christian.

If so, please visit our website, intouch.org, or go back over the details of this message at the link to Today on Radio. And find the online bookstore to order a copy of today's complete message, Eternal Life: You Can Be Sure. It's also included in our teaching set, Eternal Life. Again, that's intouch.org. You can also call or text 1-800-INTOUCH. If you prefer to write, our address is In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

The Bible is full of promises God has made to His followers. So why do we question Him? Today's moment with Charles Stanley reminds us where doubt comes from. That's just ahead.

Guest (Male): In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: To have strong convictions based on the word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.

Guest (Male): In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus, streaming free on Local Now.

Guest (Male): What are you living for? What is your goal and objective in life? For 60 years, Dr. Charles Stanley's sermons have blessed us. And today, his teachings continue to enrich our walk with Christ through the new Charles Stanley Institute. It's all built so you can live a more abundant Christian life and it's completely free. Visit us at charlesstanleyinstitute.org. The Charles Stanley Institute: empowering disciples worldwide.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. Satan cannot steal anyone's salvation, but that doesn't stop him from harassing believers. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Well, his goal is to draw us away from God, to draw us to himself. His goal is to create doubt. He uses all kinds of deception. Deception is his major method. Deceives us and he's the impetus of us believing things that are not true.

And so divisiveness, for example, in a church. How does Satan want to destroy a church? Get people fussing at each other, fighting each other, divisiveness, deception, all of these things are just his very subtle ways of dragging us away from God. And if he can just get us to drift, to question.

And because if you'll notice how he dealt with Eve. He said, "Now, did God really say that?" He didn't say He didn't. He didn't say He did. He just put the question here, "Did He really say that?" And so that's all around us, that very subtle, cunning, but very effective. And he hasn't changed his methods because they've been working since the Garden of Eden. Why would he want to change them?

And so he's real. Somebody says, "Well, how can Satan affect me and somebody else at the same time?" Well, he has loads of demons according to scripture. These demons, and you can't look around and say, "Well, there's a demon behind that bush and one over here." It's not of that. It's the spirit. It is the spirit that pervades all of life and it's been going on since the Garden, and it's going on today, and it'll go on until Jesus comes.

Guest (Male): Satan is powerful but no match for the omnipotence of God. Learn more about the Christian life at intouch.org. And if today's program has motivated you to obey God in a new way, we'd like to hear from you.

Coming soon on In Touch, it's impossible to sidestep all temptation, but Dr. Stanley will point out some of the most dangerous traps we need to avoid. Learn how to survive our present culture when you join us again for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.