Grace of God Series (Part 9)
"What If I Don’t Feel Saved?"
 

What if I don’t feel saved?...it is my experience that many of my
brothers and sisters in Christ want to feel assured, have every right to
be confident, but for some reason don’t have this assurance in their
life.

This question often manifests itself in other ways: there are other ways
to say essentially the same thing:
· Why don’t I feel forgiven?
· Why am I so afraid of death?
· Why am I so afraid of judgment?

The reason Christians don’t feel forgiven and say such things is the
result of one of two things:
1. Not believing what God says
2. Still seeing myself as the person who did the sin

* Story of a man who came into the minister’s office and expressed a
great deal of guilt in his life....15 years earlier he’d been unfaithful
and forsaken the assembly for many months...had asked God to forgive him
but couldn’t forgive himself.....(didn’t believe what God says)...relate
to story of man who asked teenage son to feed the dogs...who forgot...and
let it affect him many years later even though his dad had forgiven
him!).

1 John 1:8-10: "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. {9} If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. {10} If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a
liar, and His word is not in us."

I am going to assume today (for sake of time) that we do believe our
Father...that we know He forgives us when we confess sins as Christians
and treats those sins as if they never occurred and removes them from us
as far as "the east is from the west."

Going to spend our time today dealing with point two: how we see ourself.

1. There is no sin too awful for God to forgive.
1 Corinthians 6:9-1: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, {10} nor
thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers,
shall inherit the kingdom of God. {11} And such were some of you; but you
were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God."

This is a list that even the world considers to be horrible. This kind of
sin will keep one from heaven. But Paul gives hope because some of the
Christians there had been those things and done those things but now they
were looked at differently by God...and Paul!

The washing made them holy (sanctified) and they were not justified
(without the guilt of those sins).

We might think that we have done something that is much worse than the
sins listed above.....we might be harder on ourselves due to something in
our past or in our present:

1 Corinthians 5:1-10: "It is actually reported that there is immorality
among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the
Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. {2} And you have become
arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had
done this deed might be removed from your midst. {3} For I, on my part,
though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who
has so committed this, as though I were present. {4} In the name of our
Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the
power of our Lord Jesus, {5} I have decided to deliver such a one to
Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus. {6} Your boasting is not good. Do you not know
that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? {7} Clean out the
old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact
unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. {8} Let us
therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven
of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth. {9} I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
{10} I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with
the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to
go out of the world."

2 Corinthians 2:5-10: "But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow
not to me, but in some degree-- in order not to say too much-- to all of
you. {6} Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted
by the majority, {7} so that on the contrary you should rather forgive
and comfort him, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive
sorrow. {8} Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. {9} For
to this end also I wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you
are obedient in all things. {10} But whom you forgive anything, I forgive
also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did
it for your sakes in the presence of Christ,"

There is no sin too big for God to forgive! And there is no sin too big
for God’s people to forgive!

If I had committed the sin of incest with my stepmother, I can’t imagine
that I’d ever want to be seen around Christians who knew about it
again...I’d feel so ashamed and would think they couldn’t look me in the
eye again...

....but here we have the case of a person who is told to feel forgiven and
feel comforted because God's people are told to offer that forgiveness
and comfort! This is the way Christian relationships are supposed to be!

These verses teach us to look more to what a person is not what they
were!

2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

Romans 5:20: "And the Law came in that the transgression might increase;
but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more..."

God’s grace is bigger than any sin I can commit!

We’ve dealt with verses which ought to take care of the two causes for
our not feeling saved:

1. We need to believe what God says.
2. We need to stop seeing ourselves as the one who did the sin.

Hebrews 6:18-19: "in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it
is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who
have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. {19} This
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and
one which enters within the veil,"

When we deal with these two things, the only thing left is the response
given by many: I don't think I can do enough for God.

James 4:17: "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does
not do it, to him it is sin."

That verse should not be quoted in order to terrify people of their
loving God...because there are a number of times when we feel so inadequate
because there are always things we can do for the Lord! (The "spirituality
movement" among us in the past 15 years would say we should sleep less
and spend less time with our family in order to do more).

Ephesians 2:8-10: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; {9} not as a result of
works, that no one should boast. {10} For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them."

We must now deal with a very simple statement which can set our heart
once for all at rest:

It begins with a well-known teaching of Jesus
Matthew 22:34-39: "But when the Pharisees heard that He had put the
Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together. {35} And one of
them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, {36} "Teacher, which
is the great commandment in the Law?" {37} And He said to him, "'YOU
SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL,
AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' {38} "This is the great and foremost
commandment. {39} "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
AS YOURSELF.'"

Application of Paul
Romans 13:8-10: "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for
he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. {9} For this, "YOU SHALL
NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU
SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up
in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." {10} Love
does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the
law."

Application of John
1 John 3:19-24: "We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and
shall assure our heart before Him, {20} in whatever our heart condemns
us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. {21}
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
{22} and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His
commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. {23} And
this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus
Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. {24} And the one
who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by
this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us."

This is not a new problem which only we face today...it was a problem
Jesus, Paul and John had to deal with many years ago!

Some final comments as we leave this series

Results or work of grace
Assures us of the promises of God
Rom. 4:16: "For this reason it is by faith, that it might be in
accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain to all
the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those
who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all...."

Makes us sufficient for all things
2 Cor. 9:8: "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that
always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance
for every good deed..."

Strengthens us through all infirmities and weaknesses
2 Cor. 12:9-10: "And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will
rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in
me. {10} Therefore I am well content with weak-nesses, with insults, with
distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for
when I am weak, then I am strong."

Last modified: April 18, 2006