Key Life Network

Narrator: How can I be sure that I'm one of the elect? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Narrator: Welcome to Key Life. Our host and teacher is Steve Brown. He's nobody's guru, but he does have honest answers to hard questions about the Bible. God's grace changes everything: how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize and worship. Now, here's Steve and Pete Alwinson from Forge Truth with street smart Bible teaching for real life.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Hey, happy Friday.

Steve Brown: I'm sure about me. I'm just not sure about you.

Pete Alwinson: God bless you too.

Steve Brown: Pete Alwinson, as you know, comes in on on Fridays and we spend the entire broadcast answering questions.

By the way, check out ForgeTruth.com. The podcast there is absolutely wonderful. And there's so much good material. If you're a guy, it was designed for you. If you're a lady and want to know what your husband or your boyfriend is thinking or ought to be thinking, you ought to go to ForgeTruth.com too.

By the way, we do love your questions. You can ask your question whenever you want by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. Or you can drop us a note to Key Life Network, Post Office Box 5000, Maitland, Florida, 32794.

In Canada, it's Post Office Box 2060, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. Or you can email us at steve@keylife.org. And if you can help us financially, we'll rise up and call you blessed because when you do that, you help so many who can't help us financially. We're a member of ECFA in in the states and For C's in Canada. And those organizations oversee the books to make sure that we're faithful with your gifts. Now, we were faithful before those organizations were ever formed, but it's nice to have them say so.

Steve Brown: Pete, lead us in prayer and then we'll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson: You got it.

Steve Brown: All right, let's pray together.

Pete Alwinson: Our Heavenly Father, we do come to you today and we thank you that at the end of this week, we can say that you are our Heavenly Father, our our God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And that we are close to you and can be close to you because of all that Jesus has done for us on the cross. And by living a perfect life and taking the curse of our sin in his body and nailing it to the tree.

And Holy Spirit, we honor you for being the one that that has taken the work of Christ and and brought it to our hearts, we're yours. And Lord, at the end of this week, sometimes we're so tired, we forget how good it is to be your children. So we pray that you would remind us.

And Lord, that you would help us to rest in Christ's finished work, even though we fail. And Lord, we do confess our sins to you right now. We we we know that we need your grace in our life in every way, shape and form. This weekend even as we meet with your people in worship, we don't go over there perfect, Lord. We we go we go perfect in Christ and accepted in Christ and forgiven and adopted.

How thankful we are that we're yours. So we pray for our leaders. May they do everything that is necessary to be protected from the evil one and to be ready to lead us into your presence. So we pray for them. Thanks for Key Life, Steve, and all of the voices and all that's going on behind the scenes. We ask now that you would bring clarity to our minds as we answer these questions. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve Brown: Amen.

Steve Brown: All right, Pete, let's go to our phone lines.

Guest (Female): According to predestination in Romans 9, how can you be absolutely sure that you're one of the chosen and that you are in God's family?

Steve Brown: Good question.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah.

Steve Brown: You can't be sure, so God wants to keep you scared.

Pete Alwinson: There are people that believe that.

Pete Alwinson: Some pastors that love to keep their people insecure.

Steve Brown: I know, that's really true. You know, Spurgeon answered this. He said, "Because you ask the question, you're a part of the elect."

Steve Brown: Because if you weren't, you wouldn't care. You would never wonder. You would never in any way even question it.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: It's something to be said about that. And that and that really is a perfect response across theological discussions whether you're reformed or Arminian. I mean exactly. An Arminian would say, "Yeah, that's true. If you're born again, you you care about that."

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: Even though they differ with that whole point. But still, no, you're you're absolutely right.

Pete Alwinson: And you know, I think if if you're concerned about sin. If you confess your sin.

Steve Brown: Absolutely.

Pete Alwinson: I mean, because most people aren't. Do you feel guilty ever for sin? Do you feel guilty for little things that other people don't feel guilty for, that you know you the Holy Spirit is prompting you to confess?

Steve Brown: That's true. In fact, I think in its very essence, this is the question we get a lot: How can I know I'm saved?

Steve Brown: And I think the way you know is that you want to be better, that you you want to please Christ.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: And when you and every Christian I know feels that way.

Steve Brown: I mean, they they may really mess it up bad. They may sin a lot. They may have addictions they can't get rid of, but they want to be better for the sake of Jesus.

Pete Alwinson: They do. They do and and and they are getting better.

Steve Brown: Oh yeah.

Pete Alwinson: You know, I think I think progress. I mean, hey, listen, both of us are better than we used to be. And and that's that's a part of the grace of God at work in our lives.

Pete Alwinson: So, are we getting better? Can we look at that? Some some Christians are so critical of themselves that they can't say, "Hey, you know, God did this in my life." I'm better.

Steve Brown: I'm better.

Steve Brown: Hey, listen, let me give you some good advice. Pray say, "God, I'm not really sure I'm that hot shakes, but I know because you've told me that you're working in my life. Would you show it to me?"

Steve Brown: And I don't think God gives you too much of that because we have a tendency to self-righteousness, but he answers that prayer.

Steve Brown: I've been able to see things in my life that are obviously him, that have changed, that have become better.

Steve Brown: So that's a process that's and don't worry so much about it. You're going to get better. You can't help it.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: That's what God does.

Pete Alwinson: New Testament says the spirit of God bears witness with our spirits that we're children of God.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: He confirms that.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: He wants us to know that we're his.

Steve Brown: Okay, this is an email. What does the Bible stand on war?

Pete Alwinson: It's for it.

Steve Brown: All right, I'll go to the next question.

Pete Alwinson: Well, it really is, you know, you're making a joke and it's a funny one, but as a matter of fact, it's hard to believe the Bible and at the same time to be a pacifist.

Steve Brown: It really is.

Steve Brown: I have I, you know, I would like to be a pacifist. You don't have to serve in the armed forces. You don't ever have to, but you got to be a total pacifist or you're going you got to eliminate the police, eliminate the military, eliminate defending your children or your wife. And the Bible doesn't eliminate those things at all.

Pete Alwinson: It really doesn't. It really doesn't.

Pete Alwinson: You know, at one level what the Bible's position about all this is that it does say that God's intention is to eliminate all war.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: So it's he's not pro-war for war's sake.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: But and so he's going to he's going to outlaw it. But there is evil in this world and evil has to be stopped. And sometimes that's a personal confrontation of evil and sometimes it's a national confrontation of evil.

Steve Brown: Absolutely.

Pete Alwinson: And uh so you you you really have to take it case by case. I do believe that often times there are political parties that want war because that fuels.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: It fuels the economy. It fuels power. And uh yeah, we could we could go off on this and we won't. But um I think I am I am I I want to support those leaders who are who are loathe to go to war because so often what they do is they sacrifice our young our young as cannon fodder to gain their interests.

Steve Brown: That's true.

Steve Brown: You know, this that was the issue that Bonhoeffer dealt with. You can read a lot about that. You can read Eric Metaxas' book on Bonhoeffer, which was very good.

Pete Alwinson: Yep.

Steve Brown: But you begin to realize that he really struggled at this point.

Pete Alwinson: Mm-hmm.

Steve Brown: And I think all Christians struggle at this point.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: But you can't be a pacifist and believe the Bible. You just can't go there.

Pete Alwinson: It's too simplistic an approach.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Steve Brown: You have to be baptized in order to be saved.

Pete Alwinson: Well, it depends on how you're baptized, you know, I mean.

Steve Brown: Oh yeah, I see it. You don't do it. If you don't do it right, it won't count.

Pete Alwinson: It won't count. It won't count. We've gotten that a lot, so we're getting sarcastic in our day.

Pete Alwinson: Baptism is is a part of the Great Commission, you know, Jesus says, bring them to faith and then baptize them.

Pete Alwinson: However, the outward right is is illustrative of what is going on in the heart of that connection with with Christ. And so the outward right, if if it can't be done, it can't be done. And that's not going to keep you out of heaven.

Steve Brown: Yeah, that's absolutely true. And it's a it's kind of like a sign of something that's happened.

Steve Brown: And and infant baptism is that too, we're claiming the covenant promises. Adult baptism is where somebody We had baptism Sunday last Sunday at our church.

Steve Brown: And I love that. And a lot of adults got baptized and they came out of the water and you could see the glory on them. And everybody applauded and whispered and whistled, I'm sorry, and it was an exciting time. You know why? Because they were witnessing to a reality that already happened to them.

Pete Alwinson: Baptism is a sermon in that sense. There are some evangelicals who and others who are not evangelicals who do believe that the actual application of the water has its power within itself to actually transform at the at the moment. That's not our our view.

Steve Brown: No, it's not and our do we believe that that's a biblical view.

Pete Alwinson: No, we don't.

Steve Brown: Baptismal salvation just is not taught in scripture.

Pete Alwinson: No. No.

Steve Brown: But do it anyway. If Jesus said do it, even if you don't understand it, go do it anyway. You'll feel better about your self and you'll sleep better at night.

Steve Brown: Were you baptized as a child, an infant or as adult?

Pete Alwinson: I was baptized as an eight-year-old boy. I was brought to Christ at eight, and my parents were not a part of a tradition that baptized infants.

Pete Alwinson: So I was immersed in nice warm water in a Baptist church in Southern California. How about you?

Steve Brown: Well, both. I, you know, when I when I found when Christ found me, I went to my pastor and said, "You got to baptize me." And he said, "No, I'm not doing that." But I knew some dirt on him, so he did.

Pete Alwinson: All right.

Steve Brown: We got to go. Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.