Transcript

ANNOUNCER: How do we know that we’re doing enough for God? If a believer is not convicted of sin, should they question their salvation? Couple of questions we will be dealing with today, and we’re glad you’re with us, friend, for Grace in Focus. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Lots to learn about us at faithalone.org. We hope you’ll go there, find out about our online free seminary and our annual national conference. Coming up May 18th through 21st, come and share three days with us around the topics “Believe in Jesus for Life” and Discipleship. All the registration and other details are found at faithalone.org/events. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: Bob, we’ve got two really good questions and they’re related so I think we can do them together. First question is from Simon. He is asking, basically, if a believer doesn’t feel convicted of sin, do they need to question whether they’re really a believer or not? He brings this up because he’s heard other people say this, if you’re not convicted, if you don’t feel sorry for your sin, that’s probably because you weren’t saved in the first place. And then the second question is from Nick and he asks, are there consequences for being idle or for not doing enough for God? Basically, how do you know if you’re doing enough for God? And that would be a question for believers, of course. 

BOB: Okay, so let’s begin with Simon’s question. First of all, it’s not a matter of how sorry we need to be for sin. It’s a matter of simply, according to 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession is not sorrow, confession is admitting that we have sinned. So when the Holy Spirit reveals to us some sin, we acknowledge that sin and then we’re cleansed from all the sins we didn’t acknowledge because we only are aware of the tip of the iceberg. We’re not aware of most of our sins because the Holy Spirit doesn’t drop it all on us at once or else we’d probably have nervous breakdowns if we knew all the sins that we have. So the Holy Spirit changes us incrementally as we’re walking in the light, 1 John 1:7, and as we acknowledge our sins, 1 John 1:9. But Simon’s question is broader than that and that is if we’re not convicted of our sins, does that mean we’re not born again, right? Wasn’t that what he was asking? 

SAM: Yeah, if I’m a believer, I’ve been born again, but I just don’t feel bad about sinning or I don’t feel convicted, then does that mean I wasn’t born again in the first place? 

BOB: The answer would be no, we don’t base our assurance on our confession of sins, we don’t base our assurance on our works, we base our assurance solely on the promise of God. That’s what 1 John 5:9-13 says. We believe the testimony of God and then we have assurance of our eternal destiny. And as long as we continue to believe the testimony of God concerning His Son, we continue to be sure of our eternal destiny. That’s the message of John 3:16, whoever believes in Him and has nothing to do with whoever is contrite, whoever is confessing, whoever is convicted, none of that. 

Now, if you were to ask, however, what if someone has been a believer for let’s say a few years, like your illustration, and they’re walking in the darkness, they’re not going to church, they’re not someone who’s seeking to please God, which is moving into the second question, the one by Nick, should that person doubt their eternal destiny? The answer would be no, what they should be fearful of is losing their life. Because if we are walking in the darkness, then we’re going to stumble and when we stumble, we hurt ourselves and that can snowball to where small things become bigger discipline from God and ultimately He can take us home prematurely. 

I have a quick example for you early on in Grace Evangelical Society. I started this in 1986, 40 years ago, and around 1990, I had a friend who was helping me with the mailing list and this guy died in a motorcycle accident and I remember talking to his pastor and he said he was convinced that this was the sin unto death. That’s 1 John chapter 5, it’s also James 5:19-20. And he said he was convinced that this person died under God’s hand of discipline because unbeknownst to me, he had some secret sins that evidently the pastor had been counseling him about and he had not repented of and so he died, and the pastor was convinced he was now with the Lord, he’s still born again, still has everlasting life, but he lost his physical life. 

So I would say to Simon, what the person should fear is not that they’re not born again, they should fear that God is going to discipline them and they should also fear they’re going to not only miss out on his blessings in this life, but they’re going to miss out on eternal rewards they could have had. 

SAM: And the response shouldn’t be feel sorry for yourself, get scared, get afraid, it should be read your Bible, go to church, be around like-minded believers, pray thoughtfully because you have the assurance, I’m secure, there’s nothing I can do, there’s nothing anyone else can do to snatch me out of the palm of God’s hand. But that doesn’t mean you can’t wind up like the prodigal son. 

BOB: I love Luke 15, all three parables give that message, the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, and in all three cases when they return, they’re returning to the place of blessing.

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BOB: And in terms of Nick’s question, Nick’s asking what about consequences for being idle and for not doing all that we can. And what was the other part of it? How do we know we’re doing enough? My answer would be we don’t. Paul says. “I don’t judge myself before the time,” 1 Corinthians chapter four and the time refers to the Judgment Seat of Christ. So all that we can do, is the best we can do using the mind God has given us and the abilities God has given us and leave the results up to God. In other words, I can’t say, you know what, I’m sure that every decision I make is the best decision. There’s no guarantee that if I’m trying to please God, all my decisions are going to be the best. I may make decisions that don’t work out so well and I have done that. And we’ve all done that. 

The question is not, have I done enough? The question should be, am I doing my best? I don’t go back and say—remember Paul says, “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” I don’t rest on my past accomplishments, nor do I get blown away by past failures. Both of those I put aside and I say, “I’m pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the call of God in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 3:14. We’re pressing ahead. I’m not worried about have I’ve done enough in the past. I’m not even worried if I’m doing enough now. What I’m concerned about is, am I pleasing God? 

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 says, “For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” And verse 9 says that we are seeking to please Him because we’re all going to appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. So our aim in life is to please Him. 

I would say we can’t really quantify our works for Christ. I think there was a time early on when I came to believe in the doctrine of rewards that I thought it would be kind of cool to write down some of my accomplishments and say, well, I think I’m going to be eternally rewarded for this and I think I’m going to be eternally rewarded for that. I didn’t do that for very long before I realized that’s not the right thing to do. I am not to catalog the things I do and somehow say, well, you know, I’m going to get rewarded for that. I’m going to get rewarded for that which I’ve done. Nick and Simon will get rewarded for that which they’ve done as long as our motives are correct. 

A lot of the stuff we do is going to burn, right? 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. The things we’ve done that don’t have eternal value are going to burn. Like, for example, I like to watch some football. I don’t think that’s going to give me eternal rewards. I think that’s going to burn up, but it’s kind of recreation for me. I like to do race walking and power walking and I’ve done 12 marathons and I’ve done a number of half marathons and things. And I think that helps me physically and I think that maybe extends my longevity at being able to do this, but I don’t think that somehow I’m laying up eternal rewards by doing marathons. 

There’s lots of things we do in life that are more recreation and we need a certain amount of recreation. I would argue, Nick, if all you do is work some job, let’s say eight hours a day and then you’re serving the Lord the rest of the time and you have as little sleep as possible. Eventually, you’re going to burn out. You need some time to be with your spouse. You need time to be with your kids. You need time for recreation. You need time for vacation. Pastors need time for sabbaticals. Time out to kind of get yourself back on track. 

And so I would say, Nick, let’s do the best we can for Christ with the minds he’s given us, with the abilities he’s given us, the spiritual gifts he’s given us. Just do the best we can, but we leave the results to God. We don’t say, I’m the arbiter. No, Jesus is the one that’s going to judge us. All we can do is do our best. 

And by the way, we can get some help there by seeking counsel, right? You can talk to your pastor. We can talk to our spouse. We can talk to our friends and say, where do you see my giftedness? What can I be doing that might be more effective for Christ? Your pastor can help you with that. Your friends can help you with that, your spouse can help you with that. But at the end of the day, you’re still just doing the best you can. 

SAM: And to answer, Nick, the first part of his question, what’s the consequence of being idle? Everything you just said, if you’re idle, that’s the consequences. You don’t benefit from any of that. If you’re not seeking the counsel, if you’re not striving forward, you’re not running the race. If you’re idle, then none of that benefits you. So it’s not necessarily that you’re living in active rebellion or sin or you’ve strayed, but if you’re idle, then you’re going to miss opportunities. You’re going to miss all those things. And that could lead to what Simon was talking about, could lead to a point where you start feeling less convicted for your sin. 

BOB: Absolutely. Let me throw one other thing out. As you were talking about that, I was thinking about the fact that we’re only able to do the best we can because of the Holy Spirit empowers us. I think of Galatians 2:20 where Paul says, “I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.” So the Holy Spirit empowers us as we walk by faith in Christ. But ultimately, what we accomplish is going to be related to our submission to the Lord and to our submission to His Word. We need to hear His Word being taught. And that has a transformative impact on us, Romans 12:2. We need God to change us through His Word. And as He does, we change. We become more productive throughout time. 

But we’re out of time and I hope that helps. And Sam, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: what is the only thing that keeps one from eternal life? Please join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.