“How Do I Know I Am A Christian?”

If you have a Bible with you this morning I'd like to invite you to take it and turn to Romans Chapter 3 if you would.  We're going to read there in just a moment.  What an exciting morning it is, baptism, tonight we gather to celebrate the Lord's supper, we look forward to that as we worship together. 

Relax, I'm grabbing Warren's music because I want to read some words out of it, not sing them.   Somebody said, "Praise God," I think that was Bess.  You sang them this morning.

In Christ alone my hope is found, he is my light, my strength, my song. 
This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love!  What depths of peace!  When fears are stilled, when strivings cease.
My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones he came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.
For every sin on him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live.

No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.
From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand.
Till he returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand."

Lots of people think they're going to heaven.  Lots of people think that they are a Christian.  Lots of people who are Christian have huge doubts if they are or not.  That's what I'd like to address this morning.

My parents are visiting with me and my mother brought me an AARP magazine, I'm still trying to figure out why!  [Laughter]  Actually she brought it to me for this article, "Life After Death." If life is a journey, what is the destination?  We, [that is the AARP magazine] asked people over 50 to share their most deeply held beliefs.  The result is an illuminating glimpse into America's spiritual core. Is it?  Is it an illuminating glimpse into anything? 

·                     86% of those in our country 50 and over believe in heaven.

·                     94% believe in God.

·                     70% believe in hell.

Have you ever known God to take a poll, an opinion poll of whether or not he really is here?  Now, have you ever really known God to take an opinion poll on what he said?  But polls are more important to us than anything, ask those running for office. You know, if you read a poll rightly, most people running for office will even change their position or their running partner depending on what the polls say.  I don't think Moses took polls in the wilderness.  I don't think Jesus solicited opinions from his disciples. 

I did tell the Life at LaGrange class (what we used to call the New Members Class) this morning, this:  When it comes to our thoughts about going to heaven, we are all male, meaning we never bother to stop  and ask for directions.  Okay, just wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't making some insulting sexist remark.  I think maybe the most astounding statistic, 70% of people that they interviewed, 70% say "they are not frightened by thoughts of what happens after death."  They ain't never been by somebody's death bed.  I've seen some of God finest saints face fears at the time of death.  Have you ever been there when somebody's going into surgery knowing they have been told they have a 75% chance they are going to die?  I don't want an opinion poll at that time.  I want to know, I want to know ….. can we know?

That is really not the subject of today, but it does shed light on today's subject, that is "Can you know if you're going to heaven? Can you know if you are a Christian?" I want to talk with you for just this few minutes about doubts and assurance. 

First we must explain the directions.  Romans Chapter 3 Verse 21.  I'm sorry I didn't get the page number on the pew Bibles this morning so you can listen closely or look along with someone beside you there.  I'm interrupting a great argument of the Apostle Paul who is explaining the gospel to Christians of the first century who lived in Rome.  He's not explaining it to lost people per se, it is specifically to the church at Rome.  They've got misunderstandings; there are some who mix the law with the gospel and want to perform to be saved.  There are others, evidently, who needed some grounding, maybe they were faced with false teachers as other people in other locations at that time were.  But Paul writes:

Romans 3:21 -22

    [21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law; [he's simply saying that God has demonstrated his righteousness aside from the Old Testament writings]

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it; [they tell us about it but they don't contain it]

 [22] Even the righteousness of God [that they talk about] is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe:

[Jesus said when he was on earth, 'Be you therefore perfect even as your father who is in heaven is perfect.'  People who go to heaven are righteous, they are perfect.  That is God's requirement to get into his house.  Can anybody walk up to your house and go in it that wants to?  No, they have to be invited in, and you are the lord of that house and they don't come in unless you invite them.  Why would we think God's house is any other way?  Heaven is where Jesus has gone to prepare a place for all who believe in him.  And, by the way, of the multitudes who believed in heaven, only half of them believed heaven was a place.  Well, my question is how do you get there then?  Do you want to go to heaven?  Where is it? I don't know, it's not a place.  Can you figure that one out?  Some of you probably think that  - don't you live in a body? Do you know any other existence, do you know any other existence than flesh and blood, than stuff that has matter?  We don't!  And frankly we never will because Heaven is a real place with real streets and real trees and real food and real rivers and real people and a real God and the one sitting on that throne at the right hand of God has human flesh on him and his name is Jesus.  Heaven is a place because there is a real person there.  It's not make believe, it's not Hannah Barbera.  Oh, wait a minute , that's way too old for you who watch cartoons now, I'm so sorry.  [Laughter]

Let's read on….

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. 

This righteousness is not gotten through man, it's not gotten through the law, it's gotten through Jesus Christ by believing in him and what he does. 

For there is no distinction:[No distinction between any humans by race, social status, anything]

 [23] For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

None of us are righteousness.  But for those who believe in Christ, is what verse 24 is talking about, all who have sinned and believe in Christ and….

[24] Are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [25] Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

That is the densest presentation of the gospel in the Bible, I think.  I can't explain it all, but I simply want to show you three words.  We have to have a foundation or we can't get the application.  The foundation comes from the state that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God is glorious, he is righteous, he is perfect.  We can't get there unless we are righteous and perfect and we're not because we have all sinned.  But, if we have faith in Christ, God's manifestation of righteousness, Verse 24 because true; we are justified by his grace as a gift.  That word, justified, is the same word as made righteous.  We have to watch our words here, we are declared righteous in Christ.  We aren't made totally righteous until we get to heaven.  But when you place your faith in Christ, what happens is you are justified, in the sight of God because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for you when you place your faith in him, his righteousness is placed on you and by God as if in a court of law, you are declared righteous, justified.  That is the state of every Christian ever immediately at conversion, and it never, never, never changes. 

There is another word we need to see.  We are justified by his grace as a gift, you don't earn it, it's a gift and that's why it is received through faith, but it comes, this justification comes at the cost of, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  Now, that's a word that speaks of purchasing a slave, redeeming a slave or someone from bondage. So you are justified because Christ redeemed you out of the bondage of sin.  Anyone who is justified, has been redeemed permanently, perfectly, forever.  That's the state of every Christian.

There's one other word:  The next word, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in the person and work of Christ Jesus, whom God has put forward as a propitiation.  Now, that's a big word, we don't know much of what it means, but simply put in this context, the weight of the Bible tells us that word means it is a satisfaction.  God needed to be satisfied about something and what God needed to be satisfied about came from his justice or his righteousness.  Remember he said, "Be you therefore perfect, even as your father who is in heaven is perfect."  God could not just sweep sin under the rug and let people come into heaven.  He would only let sinless people come into heaven, perfect people.  Because God, being holy and always doing what is right, must punish sin.  Now, you as a parent should understand that.  When you are rearing your children and you have laid down very clear instructions and your child disobeys that, it's kind of like this.  When I was a teenager, my parents left to go out of town somewhere, and I've told you this before, and at this time we had moved to a place where we had a swimming pool in the backyard, and I had this really creative idea that I thought I could ride my bicycle off the diving board into the swimming pool.  Well my dad had seen me do that once before and he said, "While we're gone, do not be riding that bicycle off the diving board."  [Laughter]   It was so fun to do that!  And what would it hurt?  My neighbor saw me and had the gall to tell on me! [Laughter]   I got in trouble. Now, suppose I got caught and was told any my parents did nothing about that?  What kind of parents would they be?  When your children disobey, don't you punish them?  Discipline them?  Sure you do!  That's what love does.  Discipline is one of the most difficult parts of being a loving parent. 

God, being perfect, always punishes sin, and if our sins are not paid for, we can't go to heaven.  Heaven is a real place with a real God, so what God did is Jesus took our place, he gave us his righteousness and he took our sin on himself and in him.  That's why he was crucified.  God's wrath was expended on Jesus on the cross so our sins would be justly paid for; he was our substitute, he took our place, now we can enter heaven, not by works but by grace through faith in Christ.  That, my friend, is the foundation.

However, I have learned through pastoral experience, through reading Christian history, through personal experience, that many of us sometimes go through severe periods of doubt after we have placed our faith in Christ.  We wonder, Am I really a Christian?  Are my sins forgiven? Am I going to heaven?

I want to list some practical reasons, some biblical reasons why that happens and then I want to talk to us about how true assurance comes.  Why, then do people doubt?  Now, please don't misunderstand me, because I am for, you know that, I am for strong, truthful preaching.  But there is a way in which the strength of personality and an over applied sense of the law and always doing right and always being sure that the preacher preaches his people into uncertainty.  He's always hammering on them, hammering on them, hammering on them, and forgets grace, and, too strong a preaching can push us a little bit to the edge of doubt.  Do we measure up to his standard?  You never measure up to a preacher's standard; he has to measure up to the same one you do, and the standard God has set we can't measure up to, so we have to place our faith in the one who did.

Second, the Bible addresses this in the Book of Jude, verse 22, the Bible tells us "to be merciful to those who doubt."  I love that statement because sometimes in doubting, we are not very merciful to those.  They were particularly were doubting in this time in Jude's address because of false teaching.  False teaching causes us to doubt; when somebody connects works with your salvation; if you need to do this to be saved, if you need to do this to go to heaven.  I'm a legalist by nature.  I was explaining this in the class this morning.  If you show me the ropes, man, I can go through them.  I can still do it, about a third of the speed I did when I was in college, but I can still do it!  That's the way I lived my Christianity:  God, how fast do you want me to run?  How high do you want me to jump?  Do you want me to catch the ball?  What do you want me to do?  And when I felt like I failed, I felt like I disappointed God, that he didn't like me as much as when I felt like I did right.  Some Christians are tormented by false teaching combined with legalism thinking they've got to measure up to God's standard in order to make it to heaven.  Yes, we do good works, but it is because Christ is in us!  God doesn’t like me better because I was a good boy this week, he loves in me in Christ, and Christ is perfect, he's not just good, he's perfect. 

Ignorance sometimes leads us to doubts as well as laziness. Some of you who are quick in the Bible, turn to the Book of Second Peter, please.  I have much more that I can cover, but I want to show you this. This comes into play at the end and it's very important.  We have to recognize that the Bible does admit to and address the issue of doubt.  We have to recognize that the one that Jesus said was the greatest among children born to women, John the Baptist, he, himself doubted and he had specific Old Testament prophecy about his role being the one who goes before God's Messiah.  So we do doubt and sometimes it is out of ignorance or spiritual laziness. 

In 2 Peter Chapter 1, Verse 5, we read these words:

2 Peter 1:5

    For this very reason, make every effort to supplement or add to your faith with virtue; and virtue with  knowledge; and knowledge with self control, and self control  with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly kindness and brotherly affection with love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How do you know you are saved?  By proper knowledge of Christ in the gospel and resting in what he has done based on what you know.  According to this then there are things we need to do, so that in that knowledge, we'll neither be ineffective or unfruitful, and if we don't do them here's the result.

2 Peter 1:9-10

   For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure.

Calling and electing are God's part of salvation.  We can't do anything to get those, but, so that we can know that we are saved by God, that he sought us out and called us, that he has chosen to save us from the foundation of the world, our actions, our fruit proves that to be true in our lives. 

2 Peter 1:10-11

   Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure: for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall: for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 A real kingdom, a real place, a real planned entrance by Christ himself.

Ignorance, laziness, uncertainty of our conversion experience.

I'm going to read you something and then I want to tell you wrote it for it may help you. Some of you don't have a distinct time when you can remember being converted, and that has haunted you because you have grown up in a decisionalistic environment where you knew if you made a decision today there you were saved and you based your salvation on the clarity and remembrance of that decision.  That is a faulty teaching.  This man wrote:

          "Some Christians lack assurance because they don't know the exact time of their salvation.  They can't remember when they believed; some can't remember not believing.  Because they can't pinpoint the exact moment, they doubt whether the moment actually occurred.  But, if you don't know the date of your birth, you wouldn't wonder whether or not you were alive, would you?  Far too much has been made of isolating the moment by some formula whether it be praying a prayer, signing a card, raising your hand or walking down an aisle.  Many Christians, especially those raised in a Christian environment, can't identify the exact moment they were saved.  The author says, I can't, I don't know when I passed from death to life, but I know that I did.  There were times as a little child when I prayed special prayers.  I specifically remember praying with my father on the steps of a church in Indiana when he was holding a revival meeting.  His sermon convicted me because I had done some bad things that week, like trashing the school room of the church.  I remember as a 14-year-old going forward at a camp and throwing a pinecone in the fire, teary-eyed and wanting to make my life right with God.  I was in a serious auto accident when I was a freshman in college that vividly reinforced God's claim on my life, but I can't say for sure that was the time of my salvation.  He goes on… I don't look for a past event to make my salvation real to me.  I look at the present pattern of my life.  Some people have a false assurance because they can remember a past event, but their present life doesn’t follow a righteous pattern.  So, don't worry if you can't relate a specific time or event to the moment of your salvation, focus on your lifestyle and attitudes instead."

The author:  Pastor John McArthur; one of the best students of the scriptures contemporarily as an active pastor.  He's not saying that point in time doesn’t matter.  He's not saying it isn't crucial that we repent of our sins and trust Christ.  What he's saying is, it doesn’t matter if you can remember the words you said, or how you prayed or even when that exactly occurred, because your faith does not rest in that experience of salvation.  Your faith rests 2000 years ago on the work of God in Christ on the cross.

Now, think with me about this.  You hear the gospel message that Jesus came to earth for the sins of man, he died on the cross for the sins of all who would believe in him, he was buried, he was raised again to prove he could give eternal life to any who would trust in him.  You are living in 2007, somebody preaches the gospel.  You hear the story of Christ, of his shed blood, of his righteousness being assaulted by man.  You are convicted deeply of sin in your heart.  You recognize you need God.  You know you are not going to heaven when you die.  You've heard of hell; you are scared to death you are going to go there when you die.  You have this free offer of salvation.  You're moved terrifically.  Someone sits with you after a service, and then they ask you to pray and receive Christ by faith.  You have a great subjective experience of salvation that day. You may have shed tears.  You may have had fears.  You may feel as if a burden was lifted.  It's a wonderful, magnificent thing. 

Someone else sat in the same service.  They've heard the gospel several times.  They said, "Well, I need to get serious.  I believe this stuff is true.  They talk to their buddy in the church after church, saying "I need to get saved.  I'm trusting Christ."  That's all there was to it.  Is one of them a Christian and one of them not?  No!  This subjective experience of that is not what you rest on. The objective work of God in the cross, historically documented now seen throughout the ages of still working salvation in the hearts of people, like Mike this morning, this objective thing, it doesn’t matter how I feel about it at the moment.  You will feel about it, it does matter, but that's not what you rest on.  You rest on the objective work of God.  You sit there.

Other causes of doubt:  Sin in the life of the believer, Satan, morbid  introspection by those who are melancholy and given to doubt everything.  Have you ever locked the door of your house, go all the way to your car and think, "I wonder if I locked that door."  And you go back and you lock it again, and you go back to the car and you think, "I'm not certain I locked that right. I've got to go back and check that again."  And you go back and check it, and you get in the car and you get ready to start it and you think, "I wonder if I locked that door."  And then the third time you say, "You idiot!  You've locked it three times."  Some people go further.  They get to where they can't even leave their house because they don't even know if they have locked their door or not.  That's a work in the brain that is a malfunction and when that turns religious, it is really hard to deal with those who doubt in that manner because they doubt everything in their lives.

The remedy is one who will have mercy on those who doubt and you still take them to the objective work of Christ and say, "It's all outside of you."  You do not look inside to find assurance; you look outside to find assurance.  You look to something totally separate from you to rest on. You don't do something rightly to get your assurance. 

I was taught years ago when I was in seminary by someone outside the seminary that man if you doubt your salvation, but you know for certain you want to be saved today, what you need to do is you need to go out somewhere, get in a private spot, you kneel down right there and you pray and ask Jesus into your heart and there is your stake in the ground, and anytime from there forward that you ever have a doubt, you go back to that spot and you'll know you're saved.  OOPS!  That means my eternal salvation is resting on some make believe stake I've driven in the ground.  It's okay to do that and pray for your assurance, but when you pray that prayer, settle it that you have rested on what happened not 2 weeks ago, but 2000 years ago, that you can do nothing for yourself, but his work was so full of grace and so great, you rest in him.  You don't try to believe that you can believe.  Wanting to believe in that aspect is believing.   You don't try to believe  that you were saved.  You believe in Jesus Christ.  Believing that you believe is no faith at all.  You can't have faith in faith.  You have to have faith in Christ.  You believe what Jesus said and did and rest on him.

There is so much more to say, but I want to draw you to a point, to a conclusion.  What do you do if you're a doubter?  A couple of different remedies, and then two main ones. 

You're a Christian, you remember what it is, the gospel, you have fruit in your past, but presently you're living in sin, you have no assurance.  You would like your assurance to return? Repent. It really is that simple.  It's the Holy Spirit that brings us to this assurance of our salvation through the scriptures and even internally he witnesses to our heart.  But how can the one who is to affirm you and seal you and assure you give you assurance if you are spiting him every step of the way?  It ain't gonna happen!  And if you're living in sin and you know you are living in sin, and you have an assurance of salvation, you probably need to get saved; you don't need assurance; you're fooling yourself.

The two big points are these: Two words:  Grace and Growth.  You need to understand grace.  I don't know any way to explain it humanly to where you can feel it, to where you can see it, to where you can taste it, to where you intellectually understand it because Isaiah said, "The ways of God are above ours, as high as the heavens are above the earth."  But let me tell you what grace is, just in its simplest form.

Ephesians Chapter 2 says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."

This work that God did in Christ, he did not do it because he looked from heaven and said, "I think I like you."  This work God did he did because he is a God of justice and love.  And he looked at his fallen, broken creation and he did have love for his world.  It wasn't a love for you because he saw that you were lovely.  It was a love for you because God is love.  If it weren't for the mercy and grace of God we would be hopeless and helpless and without God in the world.  For Tony Rose, he planted me in a Christian family.  My parents shared with me the gospel.  I heard the gospel at church.  I did all kinds of things I should have never done, that I knew better then because I was a sinner. It's just my natural tendency to do those things, even though I had been taught differently.  God was relentless in his pursuit.  He chased me through childhood, he chased me through high school, he chased me into college.  He sent specific people into my path.  It was like the hound of heaven, as he's been described by older folks.  He would let me alone.  It's grace that chased me down and found me.  I was in no condition to be saved when I was saved, except for the fact I was in the kind of condition that only people that get saved can be in, I was a lost sinner.  He came with this incredible offer called the gospel.  That Jesus died in my place.  I was a sinner separated from God, there was not a thing I could do about it, but that if I would trust him, he could save me because God took my sin off of me and placed in on Christ, and through his death he took his righteousness off Christ and placed it on me.  And he called that his free gift of eternal life.  That's amazing!  That's why John Newton wrote:  Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."  That's good news.

You need to think about the fact that it's not because you were good that God came to save you or is keeping you saved.  It's because he is good and he can keep.  You need to think about grace and it bigness, and its greatness, that on that cross this God who detests and punishes and hates sin, punished your sin in Christ, completely, totally, he will never, ever bring it up to you again.  And if you will place your faith in Christ, rest on him alone, you have eternal life.  That's grace.  You need to read the Bible.  You need to get that in your soul, because your soul doesn’t normally think that way.  You need to get it in your head, you need to get it through the Word, you need to get it through promises, you need to get it through resting in grace and you need to rest in Christ alone because faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word concerning Christ. 

The first word is grace; the second word is growth.  You don't know you're saved by your feelings.  You know you're saved by your fruit.  Some of you have spent years examining your state.  Am I saved? Am I not saved?  I did this, I did that, am I saved?  Am I not saved?  The old puritans would say "Get up off your seat and get out and do your duty.  Stop  trying your state and go do your duty."  You want to know how to get assured?  You read 2 Peter Chapter 1 and you add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, your self-control brotherly kindness, your brotherly kindness love, and as you do that and fruit grows and you look at you own life and you say, "Wow, look at what God's done in me!"  So you walk, you practice, you run, you take the Word in, you walk with God.  You hear the promises of God, you practice that truth.  You rest in the gospel, you run in life.  Grace  - Growth.