Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from the home of Ryan Swansonーyes, the voice of Thee Generation, as well as our host for Satisfiedーone of the Thee Generation Podcasts. So it’s great to be here in Taylor, South Carolina, and I’m preaching a revival meeting this week at Fellowship Baptist Church, and we’re certainly excited about what the Lord’s already done here, and looking forward to the rest of the week. 

Well, anyway, I’m a few days behind here on getting this podcast out, but I think as I’ve been considering the next few podcasts, I’m going to do some autobio-autobiographicalーI can’t even say it rightーauto…? Well anyway, you know what I’m talking about. If somebody wrote an autobiography, it’d be about themselves. And the reason I’m gonna do it is because there’s certain spiritual lessons that have been impacting in my own life. 

And I wanna share with you my life experience, and then how the truth that I’ve learned by those experiences, and how I’ve been able to use that to help other people. So I’m just gonna do a few on that and just see how long the Lord takes us and how many lessons I feel would be helpful to you. 

So I’m gonna start with the fact that I was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Wayne and Terril Van Gelderen. My dad was a pastor. He was pastoring the Joy Road Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan at the time. And I was actually born in the women’s hospital. So that’s a little bit of an embarrassment, but nonetheless, that’s where it all started. But I didn’t stay long in Michigan, I think it was a few months, I don’t remember obviously a thing. Before my first birthday we moved to Durango, Colorado, where my dad was a pastor there, and several years, the pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Durango, Colorado. 

And so my earliest memories are in Durango, and I remember a baptismal service where people were being baptized, the church was growing by leaps and bounds, and basically it became the largest church on the western slope of Colorado. I think about 250 people, a town of 6,000, so it was exciting days. And I don’t remember a lot about it, I just remember some exciting times, and different things happening, church being full, and beginning to have a little bit of understanding of spiritual things. 

But when I was four years old, we were on vacation, and of course, living in Durango, I can’t remember exactly why we were in Illinois, but I know that we were at Clinton, Illinois, where my aunt and uncle livedーor they lived in Maroa, I think, or somewhere in the area. It may have been Clinton, but they’re kind of closeーand my Uncle Jim Stoutenborough was my mom’s older brother, and we were there in this church in Clinton, Illinois.

And as a four-year-old little boy, I don’t remember a lot of leading up to it, but evidently I really wanted to get saved. It was a night my dad preached. I don’t remember that. I do remember this: that the auditorium had kind-of-a center aisle that was like a windy river. I’ve never been in an auditorium that just has the middle aisle kind of meandered like an Sーa mild Sーand I was sitting in the auditorium, and my dad had preached, and again, I don’t remember that. I don’t remember a lot, but I’m gonna share with you what I remember. 

And Iーcame time for the invitation and I evidently yanked on my mom’s skirt and said, “Mom, I wanna get saved.” And my mom dispatched my older sister, Joyーand she’s with the Lord nowーbut my older sister Joy, she was four years older, so she’d have been eight, and dispatched her to take me down that aisle. And by the way, I’ve asked people since, “Did that church have a meandering center aisle?” And they say, “Yeah, it did.” And so I remember that. It’s funny what you remember at four years old. 

I don’t remember a lot about when I got down the aisle, but evidently my sister said, “He wants to be saved.” And my aunt, my Aunt Joanne, Jim Stoutenborough’s wife, took me into a side room. And I remember that in the side room there were bleachers. It sounds funny, but I wonder how they got those bleachers in the room, because literally they must have built them around or built the bleachers in the room. We went up to the top of those bleachers in this room. I don’t remember a thing my aunt said. I don’t remember praying. All I remember: her with an open Bible talking to me. 

Well, obviously as a result of not remembering everything, when I got a little bit older, I began to wonder, “Am I saved?” And to be honest with you, I really don’t know. You might ask, “Do you think you got saved at four?” I think, and the answer would be, “I may have,” and the answer might be, “I’m not sure. Maybe I didn’t, I don’t know.” I don’t have enough to remember, but I do remember the event. 

Well, I do remember later on in Bible school at the Marquette Manor Baptist Church, when I was six years old, my dad felt led of the Lord to be the pastor of the Marquette Manor Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois. And so I do remember this: I remember flying into Chicago O’Hare and a couple of the deacons meeting us. And I do remember that we got in a car, and we drove for a long time, like 45 minutes. And then when we were done, we were still in Chicago. I just remember thinking, “This place is huge!” And of course, it was way bigger than Durango. 

And I remember it was a Vacation Bible School, and the Gospel’s being presented. And I remember wondering, “Am I really saved?” I almost went forwardーbut the invitation, she shut down the invitation, so I didn’t go forward. And I remember when I was 11, there was another major crisis, and I went to my mother. And it was a two-or-three-day crisis where I just wondered “Am I saved?” And I remember there, nailing it down then, but as a result still, of that four-year-old situation, I still struggled with my assurance. 

And later on, even older, particularly even college, I struggled with it and even had some struggles after college when I was in early ministry. You say, “Why are you saying all this?” Because, I learned something about assurance. Believe me, it was not an easy time to go through, but I learned something about assurance. And that is this: assurance is not past tense; it’s present tense. 

Now obviously there has to be a momentーSalvation’s not a process. It’s not just aー it’s an event. It’s not just an osmosis-type thing. There has to be a moment you’re lost and Hell-bound, and you trust Jesus, and you’re saved. 

But obviously I had several times where I felt I nailed it down, but I couldn’t. I just struggled with assurance. I was very sensitive as a kid, maybe still am in some waysーjust the way God made me. So I do understand sensitivity. But I do remember that what really helped me with assurance is when I realized that the assurance of salvation is not past tense; it’s present tense. 

The way you know you’re saved is not to go back and try to analyze that salvation moment; it’s to look into your heart right now. I think of the passage here in 1 John chapter number 5, verse 13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God;” So these people are saved. I have written unto you, who have believed, “that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” 

Assurance of salvation is really fundamental for greater faith in your Christian life. And so, the book of 1 John was written that “ye might know that you have eternal life.” And bottom line, when it comes right down to it, “How do you know?” And the answer is: “because you’re resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.” In other words,…it’s not about you. It’s about what Jesus did. You’re recognizing your salvation is not dependent on what you say or do. Your dependent isーyour salvation is dependent on the fact of what Jesus has done. He died for you, shed his blood, and rose again. And the way you know you’re saved is that you’re right now believing. 

It’s interesting that many of the words “believe”ーwhen it talks about salvationーare present tense, which means they’re continual. In other words, that’s why we’re called believers. Because right now we’re resting and trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. 

Now I gave you my story, friend, because maybe some of you have doubted, doubted, doubted, doubted… And the key, friends, is like this: is to really realize the fact that you are resting in the fact of what Jesus did. “My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living one, His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.”

Wow, that’s where your resting place isーit’s in Jesus, it’s because of what he’s done. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” 

And I encourage young people that struggle with doubting, and they said, “Well, I’ve asked Jesus to save me a million times.” Well, here’s what I encourage you to do. Start professing your faith. In other words, when you start to doubt, just don’t get saved again. Just profess your faith. Say, “You know, I deserve Hell. I’m a sinner, but I’m trusting in fact Jesus died, shed his blood, and rose again. My only hope is Jesus.” And just declare your faith, confess your faith. And I believe in time you’ll come to assurance, because that’s what it is. 

These are written, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” And, friends, that’s where it is. It’s the fact that Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. 

It’s not the believing that you’re focused on, because you can have faith in the wrong object. It’s the fact that your faith is found in Jesus Christ: that He died for you, shed His blood, rose againーwhat we call the finished work. It’s the focus of your faith. That’s the importance of faith. It’s not faith itself. 

Faith itself is not that big a deal, because you can have faith in Buddhaーit won’t do you a whole lot of good. The issue is the object of your faith. And that’s where assurance comes from, or resting in what Jesus has done. 

So let me encourage you, friend. If that’s your problemーmaybe you’ve had multiple timesーlet me encourage you to rest in what Jesus has done. That’s where confidence comes from. That’s where your assurance comes from. And that’s the beginning of really beginning to have a life of faith: is to first of all, have that faith settled in the fact that Jesus is your Savior. 

So I hope this will encourage you. And just our first of our autobiographical segment. AutobiographicalーI can’t say the word. I guess I’ll have to work on it so the next podcast I’ll say it right. 

But anyway, gang, I trust God will continue to encourage your heart. And again, remember, Thee Generationers. You just remember this, Thee Generationers. Total surrender and to the will of God. Total dependence on God’s grace to live the Christian life.