Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke
Tandy,
When I was saved, it was also by Jack Chick's tract "This was your life". I've never responded to an altar call for salvation. You'll notice if you read the thread that I was in disagreement with the OP about Jack Chick teaching lordship salvation.
Having said that though, despite being convicted of sin, I still sin. In fact, I struggle with sin habitually.
So when someone comes along saying that simple faith in Christ won't cut the mustard, and that one must turn from sins to be saved, I, a poor struggler, get very upset at the hopeless situation I appear to be in.
On the one hand, I cry out to God for deliverance from sin daily. And yet I still commit it. According to popular preachers today (Washer, Comfort & MacArthur), the evidence is against me. According to them, I am not in obedient submission to God's laws.
Now, someone like you might say that I am not saved. But what would I have to do to be saved in your books.. stop sinning? that's make my salvation based on works. Would I have to be convicted of sin? Well, I already am, and I hate it. So I am stuck in this middle ground where I believe on Christ, but I struggle with sin, want to stop sinning, and doubt my salvation. I never prayed any "prayer of salvation". I never answered an altar call. As a young anglican man of 19, I read a gospel tract that showed me my real condition and believed on Jesus Christ.
And now, I don't even know if I am saved anymore (I don't mean I lost it. I mean I don't KNOW anymore. I did know at one stage. I thought I did anyway). Not because of you. But because the simple belief I thought was enough is not enough anymore according to half of Christianity... I don't know if I am saved and have God's grace to continue to overcome sin. So how can I do it? Pray for repentance? I've prayed and prayed and prayed that God would repent me. That God would turn my heart to him from sin. I've prayed and prayed for assurance and got none. I've prayed to know whether I am saved or not and got no answer.
All I can do is believe, but apparently that's not even enough anymore.
I can't see myself as lost, because I believe on Jesus Christ as Saviour. I can't see myself as saved, because there is sin in my life that I want to quit, but struggle with. So what do I do? I'm either lost or saved.. I'm not in the middle, I know that.
And then I see you tandy, coming along, using a heap of terms I am familiar with... mental assent, head knowledge, using the word reprobates in the way you have, saying that God "grants" repentance unto life (I know it's in the Bible, but the verse you used was referring to the gentiles as a whole. Not all of them repented. He also gave the jews repentance (Acts 5:31). I've seen your type before. Other men's experiences don't match yours so you doubt their salvation like you doubted your own..
I am upset, concerned over my condition, and I am sorry if I am responding poorly to you.
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My dear brother I don't doubt your salvation one bit. That is between you and the Lord. It isn't unusual to struggle over sin.
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Look what the apostle Paul said.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but
what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me;
but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Listen to what
George Whitefield said:
"After we are renewed, yet we are renewed but in part, indwelling sin continues in us, there is a mixture of corruption in every one of our duties; so that after we are converted, were Jesus Christ only to accept us according to our work, our works would damn us, for we cannot put up a prayer but it is far from perfection which the moral Law requireth I do not know what you may think, but I can say that I cannot pray but I sin; I cannot preach to you others but I sin; I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresseth it,my repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer."
I don't base someone else salvation on my personal experience. All I know is that the night I called out to God to forgive me and save me for Jesus sake the doubts vanished and the Holy Spirit bore witness that I was a child of God. I have struggles with sin just like you do but God changed my heart that night and gave me new desires that I can't explain. If you have a desire to live for the Lord I see no reason for your doubts. You have probably read the following illustration but it is true.
There once was a man who was traveling on foot through a snowstorm in a strange country. He had to get to a certain town by nightfall and was somewhat perturbed when he came to an ice-covered river. How thick was the ice? Could he trust it to hold him? He began crawling on the ice on his stomach, inch-by-inch, tapping with his fingers. Sweat poured from his forehead. He was filled with the fear that at any moment he could plunge to an icy death.
An hour later, he had progressed only about 40 feet. He suddenly stopped crawling. He could hear singing! He turned his head to see a horse and cart, laden with people. The driver was singing at the top of his voice as he drove his cart across the ice. The driver knew that lake was solid ice and his faith was such that he had total confidence, with not an ounce of fear. Such are the solid promises of God.