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- Don’t stop at simple faith, but add to your faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (2Pe 1:5-7).
- If you do these things your knowledge of Christ will increase, and with it your faith (2Pe 1:8).
- If you don’t do these things, you will forget that you were purged from your old sins and you will begin to doubt your salvation (2Pe 1:9).
- If you do these things you will make your calling and election sure in your own mind and dissolve your doubts (2Pe 1:10-11).
- Read the word of God which admonishes and brings comfort to the soul of a child of God (Psa 19:10-14; Psa 119:9-11; Pro 6:21-23).
- Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mat 6:33).
- Stop living in sin, which destroys assurance of salvation.
- God warned Israel that if they rebelled against Him that He would severely judge them and that they would have no assurance of life (Deu 28:58-68).
- Living in sin brings guilt and causes doubt (Psa 32:1-5; Psa 38:1-8).
- Godly living is indicative of eternal life and sinful living is indicative of eternal damnation (Joh 5:28-29; Rom 2:4-13).
- If you want assurance of eternal life, then live like you have it.
- When you live righteously, you will have peace, quiet, and assurance forever (Isa 32:17).
- When you do sin, confess it to God (1Jo 1:9) and feel sorrow for it.
- Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of (2Co 7:10).
- God is close to a contrite heart (Psa 34:18).
- Contrite – 2. fig. Crushed or broken in spirit by a sense of sin, and so brought to complete penitence.
- God will not despise a broken and contrite heart (Psa 51:17).
- How to deal with those nagging doubts that Satan tempts us with
- It is Satan, not God, who is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10).
- God doesn’t tempt us to doubt our salvation (Jam 1:13).
- Satan tempted Jesus and tried to make Him doubt that He was God’s Son (Mat 4:1-11; Luk 4:1-13).
- Satan does the same thing to God’s children and tries to get them to doubt they are sons and daughters of God.
- When Satan levels this attack, we need to resist him steadfast in the faith (1Pe 5:8-9).
- If Satan tries this tactic on you, know that you are not alone.
- Your brethren endure the same afflictions (1Pe 5:9).
- This temptation, like all others, is common to man (1Co 10:13).
- With every temptation, God makes a way for you to escape (1Co 10:13).
- Jesus was tempted in all points as we are (Heb 4:15-16).
- He will help you (Heb 2:18).
- Ask Jesus to increase your faith (Luk 17:5).
- If we resist the devil, he WILL flee from us (Jam 4:7).
- Jesus showed us how to resist the devil.
- Satan must be resisted with the word of God.
- Satan leveled his attack on Jesus casting doubt on His Sonship saying “If thou be the Son of God…” (Mat 4:3,6).
- Jesus responded by quoting scripture to the devil each time (Mat 4:4,7,10).
- Jesus knew that He was the Son of God because God publicly declared that He was (Mat 3:17), and He therefore could confidently resist the devil’s attacks.
- Jesus rebuked the devil with the word of God, saying “Get the behind me, Satan: for it is written…” (Luk 4:8).
- Jesus as a man was resisting the devil by using scripture.
- When Jesus resolutely resisted the devil multiple times, the devil left tempting Him for a season (Luk 4:13).
- We must resist the devil the same way Jesus did.
- Don’t rail against the devil, resist him with the word of God.
- The devil is more powerful than we are, but not God or His word.
- Even Michael the archangel didn’t rebuke the devil on his own merit, but said “The Lord rebuke thee” (Jud 1:9).
- Just as God told Jesus that He was His beloved Son, God has told us that we are His beloved children (1Jo 3:1-2; 1Jo 5:13).
- The Bible tells us that as believers we are the sons of God (Joh 1:12-13).
- The Bible tells us that as believers we have eternal life (Joh 3:36; Joh 6:47; Joh 5:24).
iii. The Bible tells us that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we are born of God (1Jo 5:1).
- If you believe what the Bible says about Jesus, then believe what it says about you!
- Therefore, when the devil comes to us and says something like:
- “If you were a child of God, God wouldn’t have let that happen to you.”
- “If you were a child of God, you wouldn’t have all the trouble in your life that you do.”
iii. “If you were a child of God, you would understand more of the Bible than you do.”
- “If you were a child of God, you wouldn’t doubt that you are a child of God.”
- “If you were a child of God, you would have stronger faith.”
- “You’re just a pretender…you’re a phony…you’re a hypocrite.”
vii. “If you were a child of God, you wouldn’t have just committed that sin.”
viii.”If you were a child of God, you wouldn’t continually struggle with sin.”
- “If you were a child of God, you would act more like Jesus.”
- “If you were a child of God, you wouldn’t be depressed.”
- “If you were a child of God, you wouldn’t have this persisting temptation.”
- Resist him steadfast in the faith by saying: “Get thee behind me Satan, for it is written: ‘Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God'” (1Jo 5:1).
- If you resist the devil in this way, he WILL flee from you (Jam 4:7).