[1]

Minister: Rev Marv Vose

Doubt and Assurance
Romans 5:1-11

Some of you are here for the first time today.  And you don't know what to expect from any of us.  When we passed the Friendship Folders, you didn't know whether to write you name and phone number on their or not, because if you did, someone might come by and visit you and you don't know if you want that to happen or not.  Some of you remember your first Sunday here.  It was a quandary, wasn't it?  Sign in or not.  Who know who may call or show up at your door. 
            I understand the situation, because I have lived through it as well.  Some years ago, Caroline and I moved to a new community.  The first Sunday we were in town, we went to a little Baptist church.  It was in our neighborhood and very convenient.  The Wednesday after our first trip to that church, the pastor and a couple of the church members visited us at our home.  They were very polite and cordial.  They were glad that we had come to their church and they welcomed us back again.  But after only one Sunday, we were certain that that was not the church for us.  It was fine for others, but not us.  The next Sunday we went to a large Presbyterian church, but I didn't feel comfortable there.  They had to use a shoehorn to squeeze us into the pew and that was just too tight for me.  Wednesday night came and went and no one showed up.  We were relieved.  The next Sunday, we went to a large United Methodist church.  It was a good Sunday.  We both like that church.  And sure enough on Wednesday evening three people from that church came to visit us.  They were very polite and cordial.  Like the Baptists, but as the evening went on they got a little pushier.  In fact, they got a lot pushier.  Before the evening was over, one of them leaned towards me and intently asked, "If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?"  Well, you know it had been a day or two since anyone had asked me that exact question.  Lots of things went through my head.  I was still practicing law, so I could argue either side of this issue.  And a few other things, but I decided to do it straight and be honest.  So I said that I wasn't sure.  I had just gone through lots of changes in my life.  At one point I thought I was a pretty good person.  I worked hard.  I went to church.  I was a moral person, but some things that had happened to me that made me question my smug certainties.  And if that was the case then, it might also be true now.  Maybe the next day, the world would open us new vistas and I would see myself in an even less charitable light. To make a long story short, I had discovered that I wasn't nearly as good as I thought I was.  And that new information made me a little uncertain about a lot of things.  My claim to heaven was one of those things.  My visitor was obviously unsatisfied with that answer and left disappointed.  We eventually joined that church in spite of those folks.
            But let me hasten to assure our guests that I will NOT show up at your doorstep on Wednesday night.  Wednesdays are very busy around here.  So you don't have to worry about that.  No one will show up unannounced.  You should get a letter from me.  We want to be welcoming, but we don't want to be invasive. 
            But I would be curious as to how you would have answered that visitor at your door.  I'm not talking about answering for anyone else.  I'm just talking about how you would answer for yourself.  We can never be quite sure about others.  They can surprise us and we can surprise others.  In fact a came across a little poem that says it well.  It goes like this:
I dreamt death came the other night and heaven's gates swung wide.
An angel with a Halo bright ushered me inside.
And there!
To my astonishment stood folks I'd judged and labeled as ‘Quite Unfit,' ‘Of Little Worth,' and ‘Spiritually Disabled.'
Indignant words rose to my lips but never were set free. 
For every face showed stunned surprise.
Not one had expected me!!!

            I'm not asking about anyone but you.  How would you answer for yourself?  I thought about it for a minute and I could only come up with three alternatives.  You may have others, but there were only three that I could come up with. 

First, you could say, "I'm certain that I would not go to heaven, if I were to die right at this moment."  That would be one choice.  The folks are really certain they are going the wrong way have varying reactions to the idea, but most of them don't really like it.  A pastor was taking his very first airplane trip and he was extremely nervous.  Since he was wearing one of those clerical collars, the flight attendant guessed he was a pastor.  She noticed his nervousness and said, "Sir, I'm surprised at you.  You are obviously a man of faith.  Why in the world are you nervous?"  He replied, "Young lady, the scriptures say, ‘Lo, I will be with you always.'  The scriptures don't say anything about ‘High!'"  You could be certain your destiny is going to be unpleasant!

Second, you could answer that you are definitely going to heaven.  You are confident.  There is no doubt about it in your mind or heart.  Completely certain.  I went to a tent revival one night.  I had never been to one of those things before.  They had an honest-to-goodness tent with a stage and a choir and a couple of preachers.  I got there while the choir was singing, but before long a rather large lady began to preach.  And when she started to preach, no one went to sleep.  The amplifier on her public address system was very good and before long she got pretty wound up.  (It was at about this point that I was wishing I was in the back pew, so I have lots of sympathy with those of you who like the back pew.  After all you never know what might happen around here!)  Anyway, she started hollering into her microphone something like this.  "I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I have been saved and that I am going to heaven."  She convinced me!  She was pretty certain, wasn't she? And you could be one of those people.  You may not put all of the emotion and volume into that she did, but that is still your choice.

Third choice.  This is one of uncertainty.  You really aren't sure what would happen in you were to die tonight.  Now while I've been talking, you may have been mentally adding up the score.  You said, "Let's see.  I have been pretty good at coming to church lately.  I make sure that the kids get to Sunday school every once in a while.  I haven't kicked the cat for at least a week or two.  We even put something in the collection plate.  Do you suppose that is enough to get me into heaven?"  But you aren't certain. If you have been trying to tally up your score, forget it.  That is NOT what this is all about.  You need to get a copy of last week's sermon. 
            I want you to know that it is alright to have doubts and it is alright to question.  In some churches and some places that is not O.K.  In some places, if you are uncertain or have questions that means you don't trust God or you don't have faith and if you don't have faith, then you have not been put right with God.  It's alright to question and doubt.  It is very Methodist to do that.
            Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst, was a preacher's kid.  He was raised in the home of a minister, but he and his father never agreed very well on religion.  Jung's father always emphasized belief.  You must believe.  That was most important for him.   But the son had an inquiring mind.  And whenever they discussed religion, they ended up in an argument.  The son would have a question and his father would say your question is not important.  The only thing important is to believe!  The son would then say, "then give me some of this belief!"  And the father would storm from the room.  Some people believe it is wrong to doubt or question.  I do not.  But if you do nothing about your doubts or your uncertainties, then I have a problem.  If you do not pursue your doubts, if you simply live with them, then I see a problem. Doubts can be the building blocks of our faith.  They can lead us to that next step. 
            It was doubt that started Methodist.  Does that surprise you?  It is true.  John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement was born into the family of a minister.  He went to school to become a minister himself.  He was ordained.  Then he went to America, the new world, to convert Indians.  But his ministry was a miserable flop.  Not one Indian was converted because of his ministry, but worse than that, he was run out of the country.  He came back to England with his tail between his legs a total and complete failure.  After all of that, he was not even sure he was a Christian. If those three visitors who came to my house had looked up John Wesley, and asked him what would happen to him if he died that night, he would have had to tell them that he didn't know!  Because he didn't know!  But he wanted to know.  He wanted to be certain.  He wanted to have that assurance and so he pursued it.  He read scripture and became convinced that certainty was possible.  He prayed for it.  He talked with friends who had it.  Finally, one evening, May 24, 1738, he went to a meeting of Christians on Aldersgate Street.  Someone was reading from Martin Luther's preface to the book of Romans.  It was talking about how we are made righteous in the eyes of God by trust in what Jesus has done.  And it happened.  The experience.  The certainty.  The assurance.  Wesley wrote in his journey, "I felt my heart strangely warmed.  I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and death."  That didn't mean that Wesley never ever doubted again.  He did have his moments, but what had begun at Aldersgate gradually became an unshakable assurance and confidence in the goodness of God. 
            You don't have to be certain.  It is not a necessity.  It is not the thing that you hang your hat on.  It's a bonus.  It's an extra gift.  It's a plus.  And you can be sure.  It is that next step of grace after being put right with Jesus.  We can be certain!
            Its like someone who is having to fly standby.  Lots of you have done that, haven't you? Have you ever noticed the difference between those people who have confirmed reservations and those who are flying standby?  The ones who have tickets lounge around.  They read books or look at the newspaper.  Maybe they do some people watching.  They yawn a lot.  But the ones who are flying standby are tense.  They listen to all of the announcements.  After all, their name may get called.  They stand around and pace.  They can't afford to read.  They need to pay attention. 
That's the gift that God has for us.  Confidence.  Certainty.  Assurance.  It is the gift that can help us with living and growing and doing the ministry that we need to do.  It is a grand gift.  Certainty.  It takes the pressure off and lets us focus on those other important things. 
            What a gift it is!  Many years ago when our country was involved in the Korean Conflict, a little detachment of Marines faced a hopeless future.  I say "a little detachments of Marines," actually there were 18,000 of them, and yet they were surrounded by over 100,000 North Koreans.  So by comparison, they were indeed a very little detachment.
            It was cold that night, bitterly cold, 42 degrees below zero.  That cold!  And it wouldn't be long until morning would come and the onslaught would begin.  A correspondent was with these Marines, and he noticed a big guy across the way who was eating beans with his knife.  He went over to him and they began talking.  At one point, he asked him a rather philosophical question.  He said, "If I were God and I could grant you anything in the world that you wanted, what would it be?"  And the big Marine looked up from his beans and thought a minute.  And then he responded with a profound reply.  "Anything in the world?  That's easy.  I would want you to give me the gift of tomorrow!"  The gift of tomorrow.  That is what we really want isn't it? 
            Well guess what?  God can grant you what you really long for.  And God longs to let you know that you can have tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow right on through eternity.  That is the gift of God.    All you have to do is ask and seek and you will find.