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Ask Pastor John

How Can I Know the Gospel Is True?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2014

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We can know the gospel is true because the God who authored it wants us to know, and gives the gift of eyes to see, believe, keep seeing, and keep believing.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Alissa writes and asks, this Pastor John, I grew up in a wonderful Christian home where

0:10.0

the gospel was lived out before me every day, and I trusted Christ as my Savior in my

0:13.5

youth. However, around the age of 14, I began to wrestle with many questions about the

0:18.2

Christian faith. Over the seven years since, I have spent countless hours studying the

0:22.6

Christian worldview and apologetics as well as other worldviews. I see no lack of evidence

0:27.5

for the Christian faith, but my mind always comes up with more questions that don't seem

0:31.8

to have satisfactory answers in order for me to feel honest about believing the things

0:36.2

in God's word. At the end of the day, I don't understand how I can ever know any truth

0:40.6

for sure, since I will never be able to collect all the facts about anything. How can we as

0:45.7

finite humans be certain that we have found the truth when we are limited by our own humanity?

0:50.8

That is so good. The issues of knowing and certainty and assurance are so, so relevant.

1:02.9

Everybody, everybody deals with these things at some point. So as I understand it, here's

1:09.5

the key final decisive question. How can we, as finite humans, be certain that we have found

1:19.4

the truth when we are limited in our own humanity? We're finite, but we want certainty and

1:28.5

that they don't seem to go together. So before I answer the question, which I will, I'll give

1:34.2

an answer that I think is biblical. Let me put some biblical truth in front of us here. The first

1:42.4

is to be sure that we're aware God really does want us to have full assurance of his reality and

1:52.9

the truth of the gospel, full assurance, certainty, deep, strong, unshakable conviction. He did not

2:02.2

design a world where that's impossible for fallen finite people. First, John 5, I write these

2:11.4

things to you who believe in the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. John 7,

2:18.5

17, if anyone's will this to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God.

2:25.8

Hebrews 6, 11, we desire each of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance

...

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