In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: You certainly cannot go to heaven without Jesus Christ being your savior. So we're talking about fact, truth versus feeling. We're talking about truth versus what I believe about my relationship. My relationship is absolutely intact. My relationship is absolutely sealed. It is not sealed by my conduct, not sealed by my behavior. It is not sealed by my feelings. It is sealed by the precious work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. When I trusted him as my savior, the spirit of God sealed me.

Guest (Male): When you receive Jesus Christ as savior, you're adopted into God's family. Regardless of how you feel, and no matter what your circumstances may look like, that relationship is secure forever. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we'll learn how to correct the common misunderstandings that can sometimes leave us in doubt about our salvation. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: If you were to die today, are you sure you have eternal life? Does that question disturb you a little bit? Does it make you feel sort of restless, maybe a little insecure, uncertain, maybe a little doubtful, maybe a little fearful, maybe even a little defensive or just plain angry?

Why would that question bother you? Because you see, if you're really clear in your mind that you have the gift of eternal life, that if you were to die today that you'd go to heaven, then that question should not bother you at all. But it just may be the fact that it bothers you is because you're not sure. You are uncertain. You are a little restless about the whole idea.

Well, if you are, it just may be that you need to make sure. And if you're interested in making sure about where you're going to spend eternity, then I've got good news for you. That's what I want to talk about in this message because I want to talk about eternal life and the very fact that you can be sure that you have the gift of eternal life.

I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 John chapter 5. In this fifth chapter of 1 John, he has been talking about the very idea of assurance. John has been saying this very clearly, that if you have the son of God, who is Jesus, then you have eternal life, and if you don't have him, you don't have the life. He makes it very clear.

Then he ends by saying in verse 13, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life." Not that you may hope so, not maybe, not possibly, but that you can absolutely know that you possess the gift of eternal life, which simply means that you and God have had a transaction, that you have had a personal experience with him whereby he has given to you this life.

Now what is this eternal life? It is an endless duration. It is a life of endless duration in the presence of and with fellowship with God, which begins at a moment of time in this life and lasts forever. Well, I want us to think for just a moment because you see, it is just what we said. It is the gift of eternal life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You cannot have the gift of eternal life apart from Christ. It is irreversibly linked to a personal relationship with Jesus. So when somebody says, "Well, I know I'm going to heaven when I die, but I don't believe in this Jesus business," no, then you don't have assurance. That may be something you think, but you'll not find anywhere in the bible that that's true.

What you're going to find is that the bible says if you have the son Jesus, you have eternal life. If you don't have him, you don't have eternal life. Now listen to what he says in this 13th verse again. "These things, all this he's been writing about, I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God in order that you may know, listen, that you may know that you have eternal life."

So the question is this: does God really and truly want us to be absolutely sure about eternal life? Yes, he does. And you see, our salvation is not based upon our works but upon the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. When I place my trust in him and what he has done, I become eternally secure because the focus of eternal security is on the work of God.

My assurance of what he has done is something inside of me. It is a confident conviction that I have. It is a confident realization that what God has promised is now real in my life. Listen carefully now. You can go to heaven without being assured of your eternal security, without being assured of having eternal life, and without being assured that you're saved.

But you cannot go to heaven without salvation. You certainly cannot go to heaven without Jesus Christ being your savior. So we're talking about fact, truth versus feeling. We're talking about truth versus what I believe about my relationship. My relationship is absolutely intact. My relationship is absolutely sealed.

It is not sealed by my conduct, not sealed by my behavior. It is not sealed by my feelings. It is sealed by the precious work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. When I trusted him as my savior, the spirit of God sealed me. The spirit of God sealed you. We do not seal ourselves. We are sealed unto the day of redemption whether I feel it or not, whether I feel secure in it or not, whether I have any assurance at all or not.

When God seals you, you are sealed. The tragedy is you will go through life tormented with doubts and fears and anxieties. Now 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 a 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, which is what God gives us when we are saved, is because they don't have it. That's the reason they doubt it, because they've never been saved.

And you know what they've done? They've deceived themselves. And so here's what they've done. When they say, "Well yes, I know that I'm going to heaven, I do have the gift of eternal life," and when they don't, the spirit of God convicts them and they just shove it down. The spirit of God convicts them and they cram it down. The spirit of God convicts them and they squeeze it again. The spirit of God convicts them and they repress it and they depress it and they repress it until finally, here's what's happening.

They don't feel like that's a problem anymore because they've sort of reasoned themselves out of that. It has nothing to do with that, it's something else. Here's what happens. They will be unsure about life. There'll be other areas of uncertainty in their life. And what they won't realize and what they won't face up to is they've never been saved. They say, "Well you know, everybody's got doubts, everybody's got fears."

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.

But there's a second reason. A second reason people do not have this assurance is because of sin in their life. Because here's what sin does. Sin is a violation of the law of God. Sin short-circuits our assurance, and here's how it happens. When a person chooses to sin against God, what happens? They feel some sense of estrangement. They don't feel as close to God. They may even feel rejected. They don't sense God's love for them. They don't feel worthy of God loving them.

And so what happens is, as a result of sin in a person's life, that short-circuits their assurance. And so people who once were sure and they began to disobey God and rebel against him and get into sin, and you ask them are you sure you're saved, "Well, I used to be." You lost your assurance. You did not lose your eternal security.

Because God the Father has so arranged his whole redemption plan that once you've trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you're forever a child of God. Jesus is the living eternal advocate sitting at the father's right hand, proof to us, assurance to us, we are still the sons of God. And so therefore when a person says, "Well, I think I don't have an assurance because I've sinned against God and therefore," well, if there was nothing in the bible about forgiveness, nothing in here about Jesus being our advocate, then you may have some reason.

But you see, God has taken care of the sin problem at the cross. Now what happens is, when you and I sin against God and the chastising hand of God comes down on us and we begin to feel the pain and feel the pruning knife a little bit, we think, "Oh, I must be lost. If I weren't lost, God wouldn't do this." No, listen, it's because you aren't lost that God does that.

The bible says so in the 12th chapter of Hebrews. He says, for example, verse 7, "It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." So you say, "Well, you mean to tell me that I'm to be happy when God puts the pruning knife on me?" Yes, you are.

Why should I be happy about that? Because listen, it is painful proof that you're a child of God. And so sin, it will short-circuit your assurance, but it doesn't mean that you're not saved. There is a third reason and that is false doctrine. When people, for example, when they're taught that you can be saved and then you can be lost, or oftentimes a very heavy emphasis on doing and performing and living up to rules and living by the commandments and all these things.

Now I'm not dispelling the commandments. I'm simply saying that oftentimes people have the feeling if I don't do certain things then I'm not saved. Well, how did you get saved? Did you get saved by doing things? No, you did not. Now watch this. When a person is taught that you can be saved and be lost, and they're taught that from childhood like I and many other people have been, it takes a long time to get over that.

And you know what? A person can hear the gospel, hear the gospel, hear the truth, and hear the truth, and hear the truth. It is oftentimes so ingrained in them. They want to believe what you're saying. They desire to believe what you're saying, but somehow they just can't believe what you're saying. Well listen carefully. When you're taught error, it's difficult to get rid of it. I understand that.

But here's what you have to decide. Do I want to know the truth or do I not? Am I going to hold on to tradition? Am I going to hold on to what somebody else believes because I don't want to hurt their feelings? Or do I want to know the truth of the living God so I can live by this truth and live successfully and victoriously and triumphantly by it?

And besides that, I want to live joyfully and confidently and assuredly that no matter what happens, I'm heaven-bound. That's the way I want to live. Now if it hurts their feelings, they'll get over it at some point. If they don't get over it in this life, when you get to heaven say, "Told you so. I told you so. Look now, I told you so." You see?

And sometimes it's not a matter of false doctrine but just not being taught at all. That's what happens. Not being taught at all. And so people go to church and they hear all kind of things. They go to bible studies and they hear all kind of things. And then you know, they've never been taught the truth of scripture.

And so that leads me to another reason that people oftentimes doubt their eternal security, they doubt their salvation, doubt that they have the gift of eternal life, which is what God gives us when we are saved. They doubt it because of an overemphasis on emotionalism. But here's what I want you to remember. When your emphasis is more on emotion than truth, here's what's going to happen.

You're going to be governed by your emotions. Your emotions are going to dictate to you. Your emotions are going to overpower and overwhelm the truth that you know. You see, here's what happens. The reason people get off base spiritually and their emotionalism takes over and then they lose their sense of assurance is because they are so into this emotional thing rather than getting into the truth of the word of God.

What does the bible teach? What does it say? Does it say we're to praise him? Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But if you want your praise and your emotionalism, which we all enjoy, if you want it to be right and really glorifying to God, and just not something you just want to make yourself feel good so you can feel better and better and better because you don't want to come down off of that, listen, if praise is really genuine, you should be able to come down and hit the solid rock of the living eternal unchangeable immutable word of God and be absolutely confident.

You see, emotionalism is fine as long as, listen, as long as that emotionalism is saturated with the truth of the living God. When it is not, you're going to lose something. It won't be your salvation, you'll lose your assurance. There's another reason that people lose their assurance and that is because they do not believe the teaching of the word of God.

Now I want to give you an example of something. I'll tell you something. I'll say to somebody who doubts their salvation, let me tell you what, here's what God says, here's what he says right here. He says, "These things have I written to you that believe in the name of the son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life." Do you believe in Jesus? "Yes sir." Tell me about your salvation experience.

So they tell me how they got saved, same way I got saved, just different age and different circumstances, but the same thing. All right, now do you believe that you can know? "Well, I'm sure you can." Well, do you have assurance? "No, I don't." Well, let's see what it says. And so here's what the bible says. For by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Do you believe that? "Yes, I do."

The bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe that? "Yes, I do." All right, and you've placed your trust in him? "Yes." Well, are you sure? "Well, you know, I just I..." and on and on they go. Now this is a real burden to me. I mean this really struck my heart this morning. I thought, to be able to hear the truth and to hear it and then to say, "No, I just don't know."

Now here's what I want you to remember. It's just this crystal clear in the mind of God. Listen, if God says something is true, it's either true or God's a liar. It's either true or he's trying to deceive me. It's either true or he's not who he says he is. So when I come to a verse of scripture and he says, "These things have I written to you that you may know that you have eternal life," and you tell me no, you can't know that, you can't be assured of that, what you're saying is God lied.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse from all unrighteousness, and I've confessed my sin, then I doubt he's forgiven me, then what I'm saying is God, you lied. Now here's what I want to show you. Here's what happens in the train of thought. Do you believe the bible? "Yes." Do you believe every word of it? "Yes, I do." Have you asked God to forgive you? "Yes, I have." Do you believe he'll keep his word? "Yes, he will." Has he forgiven you of your sin? "Yes, he has." Are you assured of your eternal life, your salvation?

"Well, I don't know now about that part." And you see, instead of taking the last step and saying, "Yes, I've trusted Jesus Christ as my savior, I believe in the atoning death of Christ, yes, and I absolutely am assured." And they'll get right to the edge and say, "Yes, but no, I don't feel sure." Now here's what I want you to see. Now listen to this, if you listen say amen.

Either you've got to believe what God says or you've got to accuse him of lying. We'll go down the line. We'll say okay, is God a liar? "Oh no, God's not lying." Okay, wait a minute now. Is that what God said? "Yes, that's what he said." Is it the truth? "Yes, it's truth." Did God lie? "No, no, God didn't lie." If God is telling the truth and this word is the truth, then I've got to believe what he says.

And what he says is this: if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Yes or no? Is that what you did? "Yes, that's what I did." Are you saved? "Well, I don't know whether I am or not." Why not? Either God deceived you or lied to you or you won't accept the truth.

And so nobody wants to hear you say you don't believe the bible. "Oh, I believe it from cover to cover." Okay, if you believe it from cover to cover, you've done what you said, then you're saved. "Well now you just can't be sure about that." Went to dinner with a family, invited me to their dinner, and a real fine family. This was a long time ago so you could never guess who they were, and besides they don't belong to this church.

So sat down to this wonderful meal, they got to talk about the Lord, and it's wonderful, it's a wonderful time. And so they got to talking about salvation somehow and I said, well I would just be interested in how you all got saved, what the circumstances were. And so got to talk about it, so dad gives his testimony and I said, well it's fantastic or something like that that you can be sure of salvation. He said, "Oh, no, you can't be sure."

Wife nodded her head. Couple of kids sort of, you know, they're looking, I don't know whether they're nodding or not, but I mean mom and dad were really nodding. "No, you can't really be sure." Well there was a wonderful meal up to this point. And then all of a sudden, in a very easygoing soft way, they began to preach to me that, "You know, it's just prideful pastor, to think that you can be absolutely sure."

Well what do you do when you sit at their table? I can say no, it's not pride, it's just biblical truth. What I want you to see is this: you can't have it halfway. Either God is a liar, God is untruthful, or what he says is true. And if what he says is true, then I can have absolute assurance of my salvation. Listen to this. It's not a matter of pride and arrogance because I'm not basing that salvation on anything within me or about me. I'm basing it on what Jesus Christ did at the cross 2000 years ago and he paid my sin debt in full and he said, "As many as received him to them gave he the right, the authority, the power to become the sons of God to be eternally secure." That's what it's all about.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The moment you accept Christ as savior, you're sealed by the Holy Spirit and your salvation is protected by the unshakable power of our loving God. His faithfulness provides you with the confidence to know that an eternal home in heaven is waiting for you.

To learn more about being a Christian, stop by our website, intouch.org, or you can also listen again to this by clicking to the link on "Today on Radio" that's at intouch.org. There you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, "Eternal Life: You Can Be Sure." Visit our online bookstore for that, and this message is also included in the two-part sermon teaching set called "Eternal Life."

Again you'll find these resources at intouch.org. Or call or text us. The number is 1-800-INTOUCH. And to write to us, you can address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Learn how to help your children overcome their fears just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley.

You don't need to be perfect to be a man of God. But with just a little encouragement and some time and attention, you can be a patient example, a generous leader, a joyful provider. In his book, "Man of God," Dr. Charles Stanley looks at what it takes to grow into a man after God's own heart. Order your copy at intouch.org or 1-800-INTOUCH.

Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus as we all want to do. So are you ready for the next step in your journey? It begins at the Charles Stanley Institute. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org.

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Dr. Charles Stanley: And I remember I had to acknowledge that I was afraid of the dark as a kid growing up. In fact what got me over it was when I had a newspaper route and I had to get up about 5:30 in the morning and deliver newspapers and it's pitch black dark in the winter. Well, what it did, I'd start praying as soon as I left my house.

Because I was afraid. Because of things where I lived, for example, things that had happened around there caused me fear. And I'd just start praying and I'd pray for God to help me and to protect me and so forth, and in all those years he did. But I had to acknowledge that I was afraid. And that's the best way to deal with it. I acknowledge, "Yes, I'm afraid of this." Therefore God, in light of that, how do you want me to look at this? How do you want me to deal with this?

Here's what you tell them. Jesus is here. It's dark, but remember what Jesus said: the light and the darkness are the same to him. So while you don't see him, he's here. And as long as he's here, and you know how many parents could say the same thing, times when it's been dark and your son or daughter say, "Well, just stay with me while it's dark. Just stay with me as long as I know you're here," and they can touch you. Just as dark as it's going to be, oh what's going to happen? You're there still just as dark, but they know you're there.

And if you can convey to them Jesus is here. He said he'll never leave you nor forsake you. And remember he said the darkness and the light are the same to him. So while it's dark to you, it's just light to him and he sees you. And while you don't see him, that's why you have to learn faith, that he's looking at you and watching over you and caring for you. If they can see that light, darkness are the same with him, they say, "Oh, now I see what's going to happen."

Guest (Male): At intouch.org you'll find resources to navigate the dark with the light of God's truth. And if this program challenged you to grow in your faith, tell us what you learned. Upcoming on In Touch, if you're a Christian, have you ever doubted your salvation? Calm your fears with solid evidence to trust your eternal future is secure. I hope you'll join us for more on 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.