Dealing With Doubt

There was something that came up at the end of Matthew that I wanted to take some time and deal with topically, and as you guys who attend Calvary Chapel know, we don't do this very often, and when we do, it's sometimes between book studies, and I want to do that this morning. I want to talk about something that we kind of, we touched on briefly at the end of Matthew, but I want to talk about it a little more thoroughly, so go ahead, go back to Matthew chapter 28. We are really done, I promise. This is just an extra thing. But Matthew chapter 28, there's just this little statement that I, you know, I touched on it ever so lightly last week, and I got to thinking about it, and I thought, you know what, that deserves a little more time, just because I think it's an issue that people deal with. Matthew chapter 28, look at verses 16 and 17 with me, if you would please. It goes like this,

. His last three words, but some doubted. Pray with me. Heavenly Father, use this time, we pray, speak to our hearts. I truly believe, Lord, that there is somebody here or within the sound of my voice that really needs this today, and so I pray that you would impart according to need here, and that you would speak to all of your children, and guide them, Lord, and even speak to those who aren't your children yet, and talk to them about this issue that we're dealing with today, and we ask it, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. The last three words of that verse, but some doubted, have bothered and challenged Christians for a very long time, and I didn't realize just how much it had bothered people until I started looking up these verses and just the comments that men have made on these verses over the years in my myriad of commentaries that I have on my laptop. Anyway, it was just amazing. People have been trying to figure out just what does this mean? Well, again, I only talked about it briefly as we completed our study in Matthew, and I think the only thing I really said about it was, if I was Matthew, I probably wouldn't have included those words in there, only because I think somehow it kind of tends to cast doubt on maybe the validity of the resurrection of Jesus, because remember what's going on there. Jesus said that, you know, he told his disciples, go to Galilee, and I'll meet you there after the resurrection, so he's been crucified, he's been buried, now he's been seen alive, and he says, go to Galilee, and we'll talk there further, and they do, and it says that while they gathered, they came together, and they worshipped him, but some doubted. So here are these words, and they are kind of this raw honesty, you know, in the Bible. You know, when I think about it, last week I said I probably wouldn't have written them in there, but I'm kind of glad that Matthew did, because he's being completely honest. In fact, we read through the Gospels as we've gone through Matthew in the last two and a half years, I mean, how honest has Matthew been about kind of the idiotic sort of things that the disciples would often say, how they were so slow to believe the things that Jesus said and so forth, and he was just very honest with us, even when it came to the resurrection, you know, they didn't expect Jesus to rise from the grave. Even the women who came on resurrection day, remember, came with ointments and things to anoint the body, because they expected to find a dead body, even though Jesus had said to them repeatedly, I will rise from the dead, and so forth. So you know, I want to talk this morning about doubt. Can anybody relate? You don't need to show hands. I thought I should talk about it, because this is an important thing. And reading through the Scriptures, it becomes fairly obvious to us that doubt is not necessarily a good thing. There's a passage where James talks about it, I'll put this up on the screen for you, from James chapter 1, but let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. That's pretty much what the Bible has to say about doubt. So you can imagine, you know, I don't know too many people, and I'm sure you don't either, who would necessarily want to admit to that sort of a thing, because the last thing we want to do is kind of convey an attitude to other believers that we are, that there are holes in our faith, you know, and like, you know, hey, tossed by the wind, that's me, you know, sort of a thing. So most of us will in fact go out of our way to project an appearance of confidence, when in fact we walk around day by day, sometimes, with doubts. And I mean serious doubts about what the Bible says, about what we're going to believe, and so forth. And let's face it, we have all struggled with doubt at one time or another, all right? Now in the passage that we're looking at here in Matthew chapter 28, it simply says, but some doubted. That's really all it tells us. It doesn't go into any other detail here. But I find it interesting that the word that is translated doubt here, when it says, but some doubted, the word that is there is actually only used two times in the entire New Testament. Here, and once earlier in Matthew, where Jesus is walking on the water, the disciples are freaking out of their minds, and finally Peter says, Lord, if it's you, let me come to you walking on the water. And Jesus bids him to come. And so Peter swings his legs over the boat, and he begins to actually walk on the water until, you know the story, he sees the wind and the waves, he becomes frightened by those things, he cries out to the Lord, and Jesus grabs him by the hand, lifts him up and says, remember, oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? Now what's interesting about that is of all the references to doubt, doubting, doubts, doubter, or any other sort of variation you can find on that word doubt, the word that's here in Matthew 28 and the word doubt that I just referenced to you from that one story, those are the only version of that word doubt, that Greek word that are in the entire New Testament. Isn't that crazy? It's given the word doubt for you and I in English, but that word doesn't give us the full sense. It really means to hesitate. In fact, it could in fact be translated, why did you hesitate, oh you of little faith. Or it could literally be said here from Matthew 28, and they worshipped him, but some hesitated. So it doesn't necessarily speak of, oh you of little faith, a full out attitude of unbelief or something like that. It could just refer to a moment's hesitation. It doesn't mean that Peter was an unbeliever. It doesn't mean that he was filled full of doubt at all times. It means that when he got in that situation where he was on the water, walking on the water, and trying to keep his eyes on Jesus, he got his eyes off for a minute and he hesitated in his doubt and he began to sink. Oh you of little faith, why did you hesitate? That's essentially what the word means. So doubt can come in different forms. It can be a momentary hesitation or it can be kind of a lifestyle of unbelief I suppose. I want to share or suggest maybe a radical idea for you this morning. And that is that doubt can actually benefit you. I want you to hear me here, but I want you to follow me. And let me be clear here too. I am not suggesting that doubt is good. Even a moment's hesitation of doubt is something that we ought to resolve, we ought to deal with, and so forth to go on in our walk with the Lord. But the presence of doubt can benefit you in the long run and I want to show you how. So I'm going to give you here this morning four statements about doubt. And I'll put them up on the screen for those of you that are taking notes so it will help you a little bit. So let's start with the first one, okay? And the first, I've already obviously alluded to it, but the first statement that I want to make is that doubt is normal. I bring this up because it's important. Every Christian experiences doubt. It may be very fleeting or it may challenge you for an extended period of time, but we experience this. Real Christians experience doubt. Experience doubt I think one of the reasons we don't want to admit it or we don't sometimes want to deal with our doubts Is because we don't think that real Christians Experience doubt we know that we do but we don't really know about other people because they're not telling and Of course, we're not either and they think the same thing about you. They think your life is essentially without any doubt And so we we kind of go through this this weird sort of a situation where we experience doubts But we don't think anybody else does and we all do But we don't want to appear weak in our faith to others Kind of funny Christians have a tendency to think of themselves as the only person who ever struggles with a particular issue like doubt so Because of that more often than not what we end up doing with our doubts is we just swallow them. Oh Gulp them down. It's kind of what I mean is we ignore them We don't talk about it. We try in fact really not to think about it and We do this sometimes because we're flat-out afraid to confront our doubts What if they end up being true, I mean what if they end up being legit What if they end up being insurmountable It's probably better if I just kind of keep my mouth shut Don't think about it. Don't talk about it and and and just ignore it and maybe it'll go away right on its own Wrong, it's not going to go away. And that's why I want to suggest this morning that confronting your doubts is of critical Importance and I'll tell you why Because life is eventually going to confront them for you And if you're not doing the confronting, let me tell you life will somewhere down the road of your life Your faith is going to be tested some of you many of you have already been tested sorely in your walk with the Lord And something is going to happen to challenge everything that you believe And if you've been ignoring your doubts, which a lot of Christians do You're gonna find that in that time of testing they will surface They will come to the forefront and they will haunt you And that can be devastating. Let me share a quick quote with you That I found that was very interesting on this subject from Timothy Keller. He writes people who blithely Go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do Will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic a Person's faith can collapse almost Overnight if they have failed over the years to listen patiently To their own doubts. What is the author saying here? He's basically saying what I just said Life is eventually going to expose your doubts If you don't if you choose not to deal with them life is going to do it either some tragedy is going to come along to you or to someone whom you love and And that is going to just bring the whole kitten caboodle of doubt back into your face Or you're going to meet up with somebody who's a really smart fool and I mean they're gonna have their argument down pat and they're gonna make you look like an idiot and Then these doubts that have been raging in the background are gonna suddenly find themselves in the forefront And you're gonna begin to think you know what? I don't know what I believe I don't know what I'm talking about and at least this guy who says he doesn't believe at least he's sure About what he believes and I'm not and I have serious doubts about some of the things that I believe It's gonna happen it's gonna happen one way or another Somehow your doubts are going to be challenged if you don't challenge them on your own So To help you address your doubts, I want you to know first of all that you're not a horrible specimen of a Christian Simply because you have them They're normal. We all experience them. So let's get busy dealing with them Statement number two about our doubts We need to learn to question Why? we doubt Doubts have to be ultimately challenged and what I mean by that is we need to we need to look our doubts Straighten the face and have the courage to say why am I? Doubting you know to even say that to even admit that to say I have doubts about my faith Or I have doubts about the Bible or I have doubts about God is a very frightening thing because it's like admitting you have holes You know in your faith, but we forget and and and we think that we don't have faith at all We say well, I don't you know, obviously don't have any faith because I struggle with doubt Do you know what's interesting about doubt? We fail to recognize that there are always reasons for doubt Sometimes we don't think so we're just kind of going along in our life doing what we're doing and we don't realize that the doubt that we're struggling with and Even the reason for our doubt is something that we can we can point to Here's an important question to ask yourself if you're experiencing doubt In fact, let me let me put this on the on the screen The question you need to ask is am I feeding my doubt? I Put a picture there of a dog eating from the bowl called doubt because there's a great story actually that Billy Graham tells about a man who's Supposedly like in Alaska walking down the road with these two beautiful Huskies, you know one in each side one in each hand and And gorgeous dogs and somebody stranger walks up to him and compliments him on these two dogs And he says I have a question for you which one of these is stronger to which the owner of the dog simply replied whichever one I feed and It sounds like kind of a trite answer but the fact of the matter is Christians are walking down the street of their lives with faith in one hand and doubt in the other and the one that they feed is the one that is going to be Strongest and so the question comes here again. Are you feeding your? doubts with information that you're exposing yourself to I Found myself doing this a number of years ago. Not terribly long after the Internet kind of fully bloomed. I Discovered like many of you guys chat rooms and I found this Christian chat room. Well, no, it wasn't a Christian there were Christians in it, but it was it was it was just a debate room where people were Defending their faith a lot of Christians were there defending their faith But in this chat room also were a lot of atheists and they weren't dumb people. They were very very Bright people and they were very good at their arguments and I I considered it a challenge To to to kind of hang out in there and and And explain to them, you know why they were wrong and and so I hung out in this chat room like in the evenings and stuff and Figured that I was probably doing these guys a favor, you know by doing this, but ultimately over a period of weeks and All and after all the arguments and and these guys like I said, we're really good at presenting Arguments of why not to believe I Found something kind of frightening happening. I found that it was actually having an impact on my faith and I was beginning to entertain doubts Because of some of the things that were being said there not that they were even necessarily all that great of arguments But it was just wearing on me over a long period of time And even though I found it exhilarating at first I found that after again a number of weeks I was just Struggling and I and I really was truly frightened by the whole idea that that I and and by the way I was pastoring at the time. I mean you guys who know when the internet kind of came into full flower, you know You know what? That's all about or what the time frame is I was right here at Calvary Chapel, Ontario, and I was struggling I began to struggle with some doubts and and it scared me and I cried out to the Lord about it. What's going on here? God. I I teach your word several times a week. I Can't I can't entertain doubts good grief I went into this chat room to help people resolve their doubts and now I've taken on some of my own What's up with that and I really cried out to the Lord about it and God God gave a scripture to me that I didn't want to hear And it was from our wonderful story study in Matthew, but let me show you this you might remember this actually when we talked through it He writes do not give dogs. What is holy? This is Jesus speaking and do not throw your pearls before pigs Lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you Do you know I always read that that that passage that verse and I thought that it all it really had to say was Just don't cast your pearls before swine and and and that's really the whole point of the thing to me He was, hey, this is a very precious thing that we have, so don't let people run it into the mud. Never even read the last part of the verse and applied it to myself, or they will turn and attack you. Why do you suppose Jesus cared that he would actually, he could have just stopped and said, hey, by the way, don't give what is holy to people who can't appreciate it. They're all they're gonna do is trample it in the mud and they're gonna make it look like a filthy thing. Jesus don't do that. He could have said, all right, next lesson. But he amended it on the very end by saying, and then they'll turn and attack you. So not only had I been doing the first thing and that is causing the word of God to become trampled underfoot, but I was experiencing that trampling of my own heart and soul that goes on at a time like that when I'm focusing my attention on trying to help other people deal with their doubts, but I'm not really feeding my own heart as it relates to being built up in the faith. You see, I was so exhilarated by being in this chat room. I was spending all my time chatting where I should have been building up my own heart in the Lord. I should have been spending time in the word, building up my own strength, but I wasn't. I was giving, giving, giving, and in a very, very foolish forum, and it began to wear me down. And instead of going into the word, the only time I checked the word back then was just to make sure I had my argument down for somebody in the chat room or to put together a teaching for you guys. But you know what, you know what's interesting? When I put together a teaching for you guys, that's not, I mean, it's not that I don't get anything out of it, but I need to have my own quiet time, just like you do. I need to be spending time in the scriptures just like you do, just meditating on the word and allowing God just to bathe my heart in the truth of his word. I wasn't doing that. Because I had things I had to do. I had to save the world, you know. And they turned and they trampled me. And I felt it, and it was very, very devastating. You know, I got permission to share a quick story. I'm not going to do it with his name, but although he gave me permission to do that too, but there's a brother in our fellowship who just a year ago was, who came to me with some just real serious doubts, just really struggling with doubts. And, you know, we talked and we prayed and I just wasn't thinking at the time, I wasn't thinking, well, could this be something that he's doing? I mean, that he's causing this stuff on his own. And so we talked, we prayed, and we spent time in the word together to try to kind of counter what was going on in his own heart. But eventually he came to me and said, well, the Lord really convicted me of something that I was doing in my life, and it's already having an impact. And I said, well, what's that? He said, and again, this might not be an issue for you, you know, but he said, I was listening a lot to AM talk radio. And it's so negative. I don't know if you've listened. It is so incredibly negative, so incredibly full of just problems in the world, that this brother just got weighed down to the point where he was just, he was struggling with all these doubts. And when the Lord finally convicted him of his appetite for this sort of news talk radio, and he shut it off, he began to instantly improve. And then as the Lord began to move him to spend more time in the scripture and just feeding his heart with the word of God, he found his vitality and strength in the Lord coming back. So that's one of the reasons I put that picture of the dog eating out of the bowl of doubt there, because sometimes we can be our own worst enemies in that respect. And we're actually doing this thing on our own. Look at this passage from Matthew chapter six. This is a great passage too. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, Jesus says, the whole body is gonna be full of light. But if your eye is bad, and by the way, that could even be your ear. That's kind of like the eye of the soul. Your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, oh man, how great is that darkness? So what are you eating? What are you putting in your heart? Think about the movies. Think about the books you're reading. Think about the input in your life. If you're struggling with doubt, it could be your fault. And maybe the Lord needs to speak to you today about your diet. And I'm not talking about food. Talking about the input from other sources that affects the heart and the soul so powerfully. We just have to be very careful what we put into our hearts. You know, the world is just bending over backwards to mess up our minds today. Let me move on to the third statement about doubt. First of all, we made the point that doubt is normal. Second of all, we said that you need to begin to question why you doubt. It might be even something going on in your life. And then thirdly, we need to learn to challenge our doubts. We tend to think of doubt as the absence of faith. Hear me now, this is important. We tend to think of doubt as the absence of faith. That is not true. The fact of the matter is, in order to doubt something, you have to believe something else. Hear me now, this is really important. In order to doubt something, you have to believe something else. Consider this statement that I want to put up here on the screen for you. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical, are really just a set of alternate beliefs. What's that saying? You might say, well, I doubt something. I doubt that's true. You know why you're saying that? It's because you believe something else. Let me give you an example. I'm going to put a statement here on the screen that is basically a statement of doubt, all right? And here it is. Here's the statement. I struggle believing that the Bible is really God's word. I have doubts about the legitimacy, the validity, the accuracy, and all the other stuff of the Bible. So let's say somebody says that, okay? Now, what they're really saying is that they believe certain things about the Bible. Let me give you some examples. For example, beliefs that feed this doubt. The first one is that they believe, and this is a possibility, I believe that some things in the Bible are morally questionable. You know, people say that to me all the time. Well, you know, it's not uncommon. Let's put it that way. When you're talking about unbelievers particularly, but even sometimes believers will, you can tell they come and they struggle, and they're like, you know, I was listening to my teacher at school or my professor at college or something like that. And he was talking about how when the Lord, when the people of Israel came into the promised land, and God told them just to wipe out those people, men, women, and children. And here in the United States of America, we would call that murder. And we would say that that's morally wrong. So that my teacher was saying, the Bible is filled full of things that are morally, you know, questionable at the very least, and so forth. And now I'm beginning to wonder if that isn't in fact the case, okay? But you see what happens? In order to doubt the Bible in this case, you have to believe something else. I believe that what is in the Bible is potentially morally questionable. What else? Here's another doubt that might feed this whole thing, or belief rather. I believe the Bible includes man-made myths. Here's something else people love to say, and they love to bring up some of the stories in the Bible and talk about how fanciful they are, how ridiculous it is for you to believe such a thing. And pretty soon that starts to wear on you, and you begin to wonder, well, you know, and then you see Christians starting to kind of waffle a little bit on things. Well, you know, the story of Noah and the Ark, it could be figurative. It sure could be figurative. Yeah, I'll give you that. And they start to waffle on some of these things as if these are myths that someone came up with. You know, I think what's really going on here is God's just trying to tell a story. So he came up with a story about a man and a boat and the animals and the flood. You know, I'm not saying it happened, you know, but it sure makes a great story and it provides a good lesson. Guess what? Boom. Doubts. I'm wondering, you know, if some of these things are really real. Here's another one. I believe that anything as old as the Bible must contain some kind of errors, like copyist errors. Good grief. Something that's potentially, you know, four or 5,000 years old as far as the writing of it goes. And you're telling me that there aren't significant errors in the Bible, in the copying. I mean, they didn't have copy machines back then. It had to be written down by hand. Who's to say? say that some of the people didn't just kind of inject their own little comments in the Bible so that what we have today isn't even a shadow of what it was originally. Have you ever heard that one before? Sure you have. Of course you have. You've probably thought it yourself. But do you understand that to doubt the Bible, you have to believe other things. So doubt is not the absence of faith. Doubt is faith in the wrong things, you see. Let me give you another quick example. Another statement that might be a statement of doubt. I struggle believing that God is one God in three persons. This is essentially doubting the doctrine of the Trinity. By the way, this is not uncommon and a lot of people struggle with it. Well let's look at some of the beliefs that can feed this doubt. First of all, I believe that if it doesn't make sense to me, it can't be true. How's that one sound? Do you know that's one of the biggest objections people have to believing in the Trinity? You talk to them about the Trinity, you show them in the Scripture, and then you know what they finally say? Well, I just don't get that. Do you want to know what my response is? I don't care. That doesn't change anything. This is what the Bible says. But when people doubt things like the Trinity, what they're saying is, I doubt this because I believe something else. And what I believe is, if it doesn't present itself to my reason, boom, I reject it. What they're actually saying is, I have faith in my brain. More faith, in fact, than the Bible. I choose to accept my reason above revelation. You see? So when they say, well, I don't believe in the Trinity, what they're saying is, I just believe in other things that contradict the Trinity. Here's another one. I believe the Bible doesn't even teach the Trinity. You have to believe something to not believe the Trinity. And people who don't believe in the Trinity don't think that's what the Bible really teaches. I've looked at those verses. I don't think that's what they're saying. You see? So they do believe something. You with me? They're putting their faith in things. How about this last one? I believe that those who embrace the Trinity are in error. You have to believe. If you're going to say, I don't believe in the Trinity, you have to believe that those who do believe are wrong. You have to believe that. So you have to, again, in order to doubt something, you have to believe something else. So the best way to challenge your doubts, remember, that's the point that we're making here, challenge your doubts. The best way to challenge your doubts is to test what you do believe, okay? Test what you do believe. For example, concerning the Trinity, is it really true that my personal understanding of things is what defines truth? Is that really true? Ask yourself that question. Is that a smart thing for me to believe that if it doesn't appeal to my brain, it can't possibly be true? Is it really true that the Bible doesn't teach the Trinity? I mean, have I really gone through the scriptures and looked at them one by one and really investigated this thing? And is it really true that those who embrace the Trinity are wrong? Have I gone and talked to them? Have I really investigated? Have I sat down with someone who believes in the doctrine of the Trinity and said, okay, explain to me why you believe that God is one God manifest in three persons? I want to know, because I've got problems with this, so talk to me here. Have I really done that? Or do I just believe it without really ever having investigated it? Or to go back to our original question about doubts about the Bible, are there really things in the Bible that are morally questionable? Does the Bible really contain man-made myths? And then finally, are there really copying errors in the Bible? Is there proof that shows that there are copying errors in the Bible from the process of transmission? So you see, these are the kind of questions that we have to ask, and they're critical. It's critical that we question ourselves in what we believe. We're never going to resolve our doubts if we don't start challenging what we do believe about those things. Let's take a look at the last of the four points that I want to bring up. First of all, we said doubt is normal. And then we said we need to question why we're doubting. It might be something that we're feeding ourselves. Thirdly, we need to challenge our doubts and ask ourselves, why do I believe what I do believe? And then lastly, this is an exhortation really for me, you must reach a conclusion. You must, in fact, reach a conclusion. You cannot let your doubts linger. And I've already made the point why. I said that life for some really, really smart fool is going to come along and have their argument down, and your doubts are going to explode onto the scene. And like that quote said, people's faith can be destroyed in a very short period of time because they have not honestly looked at their doubts and said, why do I believe these things or why am I struggling to believe these things? I want to bring you in this. I'm going to close with this, but I'm going to end with three reasons why you should address your doubt and always reach a conclusion. All right? So three things that I'm going to put up here. First of all, doubt that's left to linger is the devil's playground. This is very important. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11,

. The NIV says schemes. Now, Paul is writing this statement, and the context of his writing is forgiveness. And he says, we need to be careful to forgive. Why? Because we don't want to be outwitted by the devil because we're not unaware of the kind of games he plays. But you know what? This statement applies to anything that we would allow to linger that is ungodly. And doubt is something that we have to be very careful not to allow to linger because the enemy, you've got to know, is going to exploit that in your life. You've got to know the enemy is going to try to magnify that and make it, turn it into this enormous stumbling block for you as a believer. Very, very important. Number two, doubt that is left to linger will ultimately torment you to the point where you don't want anything to do with the Bible or church or praying or anything after that because you are just being hammered by doubt. You know, in the Old Testament, doubt was something that God told them would be a byproduct of their disobedience. He said, you know, and God laid all this out ahead of time, but he told him, he said, listen, first of all, if you keep my law, I'm going to blush your socks off. But if you basically throw my law under the bus and you just decide, you know what, I don't want anything to do with this junk. And he began to outline for them all the things that were going to happen in their lives. But he made a statement that I don't often hear talked about from Deuteronomy that talks about doubt. Look at this. He says, your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. You know, this statement is a statement that God gives to the nation of Israel in the context of their disobedience. But it talks to us, it paints a picture to us of just how tormenting doubt can be. To go through life with no real assurance. You know, one of the beautiful things I love about the Christian faith, it encourages questions. And it isn't afraid to address doubt. You got doubts, bring them on. We're not going to shut anybody up. We're not going to make you feel guilty. We're not going to say, you know what, if you really had faith, you wouldn't have doubts. And you just keep those to yourself. And I don't want you spreading those around anybody else. We're not going to do that. You know why? God has answers. And if we will just be honest and sincere about looking into those answers, God says, you seek with all your heart, you will find. And that's a promise. And I've seen it in my own life that as I begin to just really address myself to those things, God begins to bring the answers to the surface. And I love that. There's no reason that you and I have to live this reality of having these lingering, tormenting thoughts that leave us in this void. of faith in the Word of God and in the plan and the purpose of God, just because we weren't courageous enough to look our doubts in the face and say, why are you there? Have I done something to bring it into my life? Have I not questioned what's really going on here? Just exactly what's happening. And you know, doubts will ultimately shipwreck our faith if we leave them alone. And then the other thing that we have to remember here, and this is the third point about letting doubt linger, you have to understand, people, it could in fact be an excuse on your part. You might say, well, Pastor Paul, an excuse for what? You have to admit, if I refuse to address my doubts, it could be in fact an excuse for my stubborn and unbelieving heart that doesn't want to submit to God's Word. And so I'm just looking for reasons. I'm looking for excuses to be able to say, yeah, well, I have some serious doubts about that. You know, I've talked to people over the years, and I'm sure you have too. You guys are in the workplace, frankly, more than I am. But, you know, people have said to me before, you know, with kind of crossed arms, you know, I have some real intellectual doubts about the Bible, about God, and all that kind of good stuff. And you say, well, no problem, let's talk. Well, you know, I'm busy, but, you know, I'm just here to tell you, I have doubts about this stuff, okay? And, well, why don't you come to church and we'll talk about it. We'll go through the Scriptures together. We'll study it. You know what? I'm not really interested. You know, that's a problem, you guys. That's a problem. You know what? I think somebody's blowing smoke. I think somebody is creating a facade here so that they can live their life the way they want, and they can continue to exist in this gray area of, well, maybe it's true, maybe it's not. Boy, the last thing I want to do is read the Bible and become a radical, as if to accept that, gee, this stuff might actually be true. Then where would I be? I'll be a social outcast. Not going there. Not only that, but if I believe that the Bible is true, then I got to believe that the God of the Bible is true, and then I got to believe that I maybe am really, truly accountable to somebody for the way I've lived my life, and I am not going there. I am going to be a free, moral agent. I'm going to live my life the way I want, and when I'm done with my life, I'll have nobody, you know, to blame but myself. It's the way I wanted to live my life, and let me tell you, no God is going to tell me how to live my life. So I'm just going to just keep deluding myself with the idea that I've got intellectual problems with the Bible. I'm sorry, that's just dishonest. Because the fact of the matter is, God has answers, if you're willing to listen, if you're willing to open your eyes and look. But often people aren't. And when they do open the Bible, and they do come to church, it's only to get ammunition to reinforce their doubts, because they want to doubt. And that's something that we have to deal with. That's something we have to admit to ourselves. In the Gospel of John, chapter 30, verse 20, it says, for everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. And that's just a simple reality. People don't like to come into the light, because they want to keep living in the darkness. And so if I can perpetuate my darkness, and even give myself an excuse for darkness, by saying I have doubts, although I'm really not willing to do anything about them, then more the better. Because now I can feel better, and I can say, well, you know, the reason I'm not a Christian is because there's just too many doubts to that whole thing. And then they'll say things, I'm not into religion anyway. You know, religion never excited me. You know, when people say that to me, I say, hey, listen, you got nothing on me. I have hated religion since I was a little boy, and to this day, I still hate religion. I just happen to love Jesus Christ, and I believe he is who the Bible says he is, and that he died on the cross for my sins. You can take religion and kick it to the curb, but I want Jesus all over. So don't talk to me about religion. I'm not here to defend little men in pointy hats throwing holy water on people. We're here to talk about Jesus Christ and what he did historically, and whether or not you accept that. Let's get down to real life issues here. That's where you're going to find not religion, but reality. And there's plenty of answers if we're just honest enough to look into them and say, I want to know the truth.