PREACHED: OL,1-07-07,PM

“SALVATION…BY FAITH OR FEELING?”

INTRODUCTION:

I. R.C. SPROUL, KNOWING SCRIPTURE:

A. “The sensuous Christian doesn’t need to study the Word of God because he already knows the will of God by his ‘feelings.’ He doesn’t want to know God, he wants to experience Him. He usually ends up embracing a kind of ‘relational theology’ (that most dreadful curse of modern Christianity) where personal relationships and experience take precedence over the Word of God. If the scripture calls us to action that may jeopardize a personal relationship, then the scriptures must be compromised. They highest law of the sensuous Christian is that bad feelings must be avoided at all cost.”

II. SADLY WE HAVE WITNESSED THE PASSING OF THE AGE OF REASON INTO THE AGE OF “FEEL GOODISM.”

A. And certainly, debating any issue is absolutely revolting to modern man!!

1. And yet note what God said through Isaiah:

a. Isa 1:18-20. “Come now, let us reason (dispute) together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

III. THE BIBLE IS A BOOK THAT DEMANDS LOGICAL, NOT EXISTENTIAL THOUGHT!

A. John 8:32; John 17:11; 2 Tim 2:15; 3:16, 17

B. The Lord said that the laws of God begin in the mind and affect the heart!!

1. Heb 8:10 speaks of the New Covenant of Christ:

a. “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

C. Strong and positive “feelings” can result from hearing and believing a lie that appeals to our own desires!!

1. That’s why existentialism is so appealing because its premise is, “If it’s true in your experiences, it’s your truth, and someone else may have a different truth based on their own feelings and experiences.”

2. James 4:3. “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

a. These people were praying, but not according to truth, but according to their passions!!

IV. BUT WHAT ABOUT SALVATION? IS ITS EVIDENCE A MATTER OF FAITH OR FEELING?

A. Let’s examine what Scripture has to say about the matter?

DISCUSSION:

¶ç First of all, consider THE UNCERTAINTY OF FEELINGS.

A. The truth of the matter is that, people who rely on feelings or experience to determine whether or not they are saved must sway with the fickle nature of what you experience or what you feel.

1. You may “feel” good one day, and not the next; you may “experience” doubts one day and conviction the next.

a. For example, I read in a denominational publication an account of coach who responded to an “altar” call:

1) “I don’t know whether I’m saved or not; I don’t think I have ever had an experience Christ. I have been very disagreeable and mean to my wife and family. I have been attending only by mechanics.”

a) And, yet, we ask: Are those biblical standards by which to determine whether one is saved or not.

b) James says about CHRISTIANS, “For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” (James 3:2)

c) My practice in how I treat my wife and family, and the consistent lack of fervor of my in my attitude in worship certainly may be indicative of spiritual weakness and need for growth, but they are not signs that I have not ever come to the Lord for salvation!!

d) 1 John 1:8, 9. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

B. Several years ago, I preached in a gospel meeting in Alex, OK.

1. The young preacher there at the time told me about his religious history -

a. Raised in a charismatic background, and was constantly plagued with fear about whether he had had an experience and whether or not he was saved.

b. He said, “When I head the truth, and obeyed the gospel, I knew I was right with God because I had obeyed by faith what the Lord told me to do to be saved! I didn’t have to rely on my feelings—I now knew by faith!!”

II. Well, what was the relationship between faith, feeling and salvation in the N.T. ACCOUNTS OF SALVATION?

A. PENTECOST

1. From Acts 2:29-36, we have the record of Peter and the eleven preaching to lost souls about their sin and God’s provision through Jesus, whom they had crucified!!

2. They responded emotionally to the message:

a. V 37. “Now when they heard this they ere cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’”

3. But their emotional response did not, in and of itself produce forgiveness and, thus, salvation from sin!!

a. Notice what Peter did not say to them:

1) “Oh, there is nothing more for you to do, you have godly sorrow and that experience saved you.”

b. Notice what Peter did say to them:

1) Acts 2:38

c. Notice what Jesus said to all of us:

1) Mark 16:15, 16

d. Notice what those on Pentecost did and the result:

1) Acts 2:41, 47

B. SAUL OF TARSUS

1. After his conversion—Paul the apostle

2. Conversion recorded in Acts 9:

a. His earlier actions spurred by feeling and not by truth faith-

1) Acts 9:1, 2. “But Saul, still breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem…”

a) Acts 26:9-11. “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”

b. His “experience” with Jesus -

1) Vs 3-6. “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’”

2) V 18. “…he arose and was baptized…”

a) Why??! Because that’s what he was told to do!!

b) Recounting his conversion, he said that Ananias, the evangelist, told him, “And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and washing away your sins, calling on his name!” (Acts 22:26)

c. Note: His sins were not forgiven at the time of his experience, nor merely by his acknowledgment of faith in Jesus, but only when he had been baptized!!

1) He was not saved by feeling or experience, but by faithful obedience to the gospel preached to him!

2) He knew that his sins had been forgiven, because he had obeyed by faith, the commandment of Jesus that resulted in his forgiveness!!

CONCLUSION:

I. You may be saying right now, “But, preacher, I feel in my heart that I’m saved!”

A. Remember! It is not what you feel that saves you, but what the Lord says saves you!!

1. Paul warns that we can be deluded into believing what is false—what we want to believe—and it will result in condemnation, because we don’t want to believe the truth, 2 Thess 2:11, 12!!

a. He also warns that the devil can blind us to the truth so as to blind us to the light of the truth of the gospel!