How Secure Are You In Trusting God To Save You?

AI Generated Transcript (I only fixed glaring errors and added some paragraph breaks):

So I'm going to wade into the deep end today.

Sitting here at the clinic where I just had a meeting with a doctor, although I'm not gonna talk about that.

It is a gray, windy, cool spring day here in northern Illinois. There's finally some little bits of hope coming out of the trees as leaves and flowers, and the sun has just erupted just now while I'm talking. The sun has just come out. Oh, there it goes again.

But today I wanted to wade deep in on soteriology, only I'm not going to talk about it like soteriology. Is that even the right word? Salvation. Individual salvation. Now this is where a lot of the controversies are in the church, but I'm not gonna try and solve it from that perspective by persuading people to some theological position.

I just want to share some things I'm thinking about it. You know, because I've known people that have felt like they're afraid they're not saved or they're gonna lose their salvation, and I think, well, why don't I start by just sharing what I think it is. And when I say that, it doesn't matter what I think. What's true is true whether I think it or believe it or not. But this is after being a Christian since I was four and being exposed to a lot of content and my own interactions with God and reading of the Word.

I believe salvation for the individual is an interaction with Jesus that leads to faith and being born again. The very core, on our side of the experience, what we see, what we understand, is that we hear and understand the gospel of Jesus, we believe it, and our hearts now shift towards, I'm going to switch my whole life and follow Him instead of whatever I was doing before. So that's repentance and faith.

I think repentance and faith are kind of the same thing, because the first repentance is to stop believing the lies and start believing what is true. That is the first order of repentance, and this will lead to change in one's life.

Although how that happens seems to vary greatly with different people, but it should lead to change in one's life. But at the core, it's the supernatural encounter with Christ that is, you know, do you get born again and then believe, or do you believe and then get born again? I think they may be kind of simultaneous, but the way we experience it might be, you know, you might experience a change where you're leaning towards and moving towards faith, and eventually you profess your faith to your church and get baptized. At which point did you become born again?

I know many Christian movements really like to have that point, where you pray a prayer, but then there are some people who are raised in the church, and we've probably all known someone who was raised in the church. Maybe they believed in infant baptism, and when they were a baby they were baptized, and you see signs in their life that they're born again, and they are truly pursuing God.

And then you may know someone else with the exact same story where you just don't see any of those signs.

But at the core of it all is faith in Jesus. Faith, actual belief, I believe this.

Like when I had a season where I was really struggling once, and I remember going to see that movie, The Nativity, and I just wept. Not because the movie was so good. I actually can't remember how good it was. I'll have to go watch it again. But the reason I wept is because I realized, I believe this. Like with all my heart, I am all in. I believe this.

Now obviously I know I was looking at a representation of what happened, and not the actual events. It was a telling of the story through visual media. But it impacted me to realize, I believe this. The transforming power of faith is in my life, even when I see external struggling in my life.

Now I have to say, there are times where it doesn't seem like there's a lot of internal struggling, when maybe there should be. Or where it seems like I haven't encountered God for a long time. In other words, a shift in feelings, experience, and encounter. What do you do at those times? Do you still believe? I do.

That's the only, it's the only choice I see. I believe it, because I believe it, because I believe it.

As far as I can tell, God did it. I didn't earn this faith. I could tell my story where it sounds like I chose faith, and I could tell my story where it sounds like I had nothing to do with it. It just kind of was given to me. Both of those stories would be true and honest, because depending on how you're looking at it, it seems like both.

But in the big picture, when I step back, it appears to me to be supernatural. God gave me faith. He sovereignly ordained me to hear the good news about the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus. I was in a place... I didn't choose to be born in the place and time where I would be exposed to those things. And based on things that happened in my mother's life, based on the atmosphere at the Christian school I went to and the church that I went to, I was born again.

It seems when I was four, my mother led me to Christ when I was four, and there are signs that it was real. I did go through an adult stage of choosing God, if that makes sense. I'm grown up now, and I'm figuring out how big of a priority this is in my life, which I decided, based on, I believe, God's sovereign working in my life, that He is not a priority, not something important in my life, but the priority. I believe this is a sign of the Holy Spirit and of my salvation, my being born again.

So what about you? Do you struggle with whether or not you're really saved? I once heard... I remember reading, and it's been years since I read this, so I do not mean to misrepresent the book. I am not telling you what's in the book. I'm telling you what I remember from a long time ago. I think it was called The Life of David Brainerd, or The Life and Something of David Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards.

And I remember, I think it was in that book, reading a testimony of an Indian, as in a Native American woman, who had been struggling with whether or not she could be born again. She was obviously being taught by a very Calvinist preacher, David Brainerd, very high emphasis on the sovereignty of God and predestination and all that. And she was struggling with whether or not she could be saved or was saved. And eventually, an interaction happened between her and God, where she testified that she felt the love of God so sweetly and was so desirous of His glory and His name being lifted up that she basically said, even if He's going to send me to hell, I'm going to worship Him with joy. Again, that's my representation or how I remember it. 

Now, that's kind of crazy. If you think about it, it's kind of crazy. But to me, I'm like, well, that sounds like someone who's been changed. They're more concerned with the glory of God than with themselves, if that's even possible for us fallen humans.

But some will really emphasize standing on that point when you were born again a long time ago, remembering the date, having written it down, okay, maybe that will help. But if you are today wondering, am I saved? Am I born again? Just go back to Jesus in faith. I'm not saying get born again over and over again. That's not my point. But what can you do? What else is there but to throw yourself at His feet? 

Tell Him your struggle. I am struggling with this. I have doubt. I am afraid. Help me, Father. I can't promise you that you will feel a response right away, but what else is there? This is the only way to pursue Him. If He is stirring in you to go after Him, then maybe He's going to restore your sense of confidence, because whether you're born again and written in the Lamb's Book of Life is decided. It's already done. It either did occur or didn't occur. Your feelings at the moment have no bearing on that, but however, that doesn't change that you might have real feelings and real struggles in the moment.

You might undergo distress, or you might not. People are different for different reasons, different demonic attacks in our lives. But I would encourage you, if you are having any doubt or struggle, don't try and be a better person to get saved. Don't try and go to church more. Don't try and pray more in the sense of notching up more prayer hours. Go to Him the best that you can right now. 

If you're just walking...If you weren't born again, maybe you will be now. You probably are though, if you're having that struggle honestly. If you're not, but this...iary this. If you're some random chance... Wouldn't be random would it? You are hearing this and you are not born again but you are drawn. You're drawn to Jesus, you're drawn to God. You want something more in your encounter with God. Cry out to God right now. 

The way God brings transformation into this world is by changing individuals starting with me and you. And you... Put your faith in what Jesus did. There's a lot more to this. I'm not gonna preach the whole gospel right now. Contact me if you want to hear...if you need to talk to someone about this, contact me. And I will give you the raw, authentic, best version and understanding of Jesus that I can give you. Without pressuring you, just telling you the truth. 

But it's when you believe, when you see him with your spiritual eyes, not your physical eyes, and your heart believes... This is when you're born again, and then you by faith confess it with your mouth. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. That Jesus is Lord, that God raised him from the dead. Your life will be changed. 

You may still struggle. I can't promise everything is going to be easy. Especially if you're a first-generation Christian. Sometimes you're a pioneer for the generations that come after. But your life and eternity will be changed. If you are born again, you're gonna live forever. You'll have to cross that river that we call death into your new life. Your new eternal life, but the new eternal life begins now when you're born again because you believe. 

So that's what I'm thinking about today, sitting here in the doctor's parking lot on a gray windy spring day in northern, Illinois. 

Hopefully you get something out of it of value, and if you have questions or disagreements or want to fight about it, send me a message somewhere. You can always go to my podcast at gospelofeverything.com and contact me there. Or if you know me personally or are seeing this on Facebook, just send me a message and I'd be happy to talk.

God bless your socks off. 

Jon Davis signing off.