Short Answer
Struggling with sin and feeling conviction does not mean you are lost—it can actually be evidence of a genuine, regenerate heart. True believers often battle sin and feel troubled by it, while those who are truly hardened do not care about their sin. The key is your inner desire: if you genuinely want to please God, that points toward real faith.
The Overview
Many Christians go through seasons of doubt, especially when they struggle with repeated sin. This can lead to fears about salvation, comparisons with figures like Judas, or concern about passages like Hebrews 6. However, an important biblical principle is how a person responds to sin. True believers do not feel comfortable in sin—they are troubled by it, convicted, and desire to change.
The Bible explains that believers still have an ongoing battle between the flesh and the spirit. Even though they have been changed internally, they still live in a fallen body with sinful desires. This creates a real struggle, where a person may fall into sin but continues to fight against it. The presence of this struggle—and the desire to do what is right—is actually a sign of spiritual life, not spiritual death.
In contrast, those who are truly lost or hardened in sin typically do not care deeply about their disobedience. Judas, for example, felt remorse but did not turn in genuine repentance. His sorrow led to despair, not restoration. True repentance, on the other hand, leads a person back to God with a desire to be restored and changed.
Feelings of distance from God can also be part of the Christian experience, especially over time. The emotional intensity of early faith may fade, but that does not mean faith itself is gone. Growth in the Christian life often involves learning to pursue God faithfully even without strong emotions, while continuing in prayer, Scripture, fellowship, and repentance.
Key Takeaways
- Struggle with Sin Is Normal for Believers
Christians still battle sinful desires even after salvation. - Conviction Is a Sign of Spiritual Life
Feeling troubled by sin indicates a heart that desires God. - Judas’ Remorse Was Not True Repentance
True repentance leads back to God, not away from Him. - Hardened Hearts Do Not Care About Sin
Lack of concern is more dangerous than struggling with guilt. - Spiritual Growth Requires Discipline
Prayer, Scripture, and fellowship strengthen the fight against sin.
Read Full Raw Transcript
00:00:00
Hi, Mike. I was actually catching the tail end of uh what you were discussing with Sarah and my question is pretty similar um and and I will say just really briefly um I’ve definitely accepted the Lord at a younger age in my life. Um let’s just say that through the process of my life, it it’s never been perfect obviously, but I do understand the scripture. I do understand what God’s command is towards us. But one of the the questions that I’ve had lately in life as I’ve struggled and I’ve made
00:00:35
choices where I would even say um they’re definitely iniquities. You know, they’re purposeful sins and I know that they’re wrong. Um and as I’ve gotten older, I found myself in that same uh situation of committing those same sins. Um, but at the same time, you know, I’ve tried to do right by the Lord and honor his word. And I can’t help but think of Judas. I can’t help but think of somebody who was selected. And then at some point, obviously, um, because of his remorse and
00:01:09
everything that happened, he committed suicide. Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but I just want to better understand how can I know that I’m in good standing with the Lord? And I asked that because I feel very troubled that there’s distance and I’m very unsure that I even have a place before the Lord. And I also too to add to that feel very unworthy, you know, to be able to come to him and and ask him. And of course, I don’t want to go to hell. That’s never a place that I’d want to
00:01:43
go. But I do understand as Hebrews uh talks about for those who have tasted, you know, that there is no more uh room for forgiveness if you trample over the blood of Christ. So when and how can I be sure that that hasn’t caught up to me or I’m in that place? >> John, uh excellent questions. And the boundaries of this discussion are well defined. I mean, you’re quoting scripture, Hebrews chapter 6. Uh, you’re quoting the texts that really matter in this discussion, but let me add a layer
00:02:21
to what I think you have to consider in all of this, and that is your response uh to sin and and even how you get into sin. James chapter 1 uh talks about the temptation of being lured and enticed by your own desire. And and I think every Christian has that experience. It’s not as though real Christians get up in the morning and say, “Well, today I’m going to pull off a big sin. Today I’m going to make sure I fall into sin. I want to sin today.” The cord of being in this world in an
00:02:55
unredeemed body. We got desires that sometimes are going to overpower our valition. And we’re going to give in. We’re not going to remain steadfast under the testing. We’re going to give in. And that’s as James chapter 3 verse 2 says many we we all stumble in many ways. So even the word stumble scandalon in the New Testament it it it involves that concept at least in that context in James 3 of getting back up right we stumble in many ways but we keep running back to our advocate as James 2 reminds
00:03:25
us one who pleads before the father for sinners like us. So if your desire, your core desire, now I know we all have desires that are contrary to God’s word, but if your core desire is, yes, the inner person of who John is wants to please the Lord, then I think what you’ve got to say is there’s been regeneration in the depths of your heart. Non-Christians, they want to do whatever they want to do and whatever they can get away with. And they’d like everyone to pat them on the back,
00:03:52
including God. But they don’t have that core desire that really says, “I want to I want to love God. I want to serve God. I want to obey God’s word. Now, you if you have that, you you can’t be thrown off by the guilt or the frustration you feel with recurring sin. What you need to say is, “I know that I’m a Christian. I have the core desire. One of the reasons it bothers me so much that I’ve been led into sin and sometimes big sin is because I can’t stand that I’m
00:04:22
sinning when I want so badly to do what’s right on the interior of my life.” And and that’s why the Bible keeps calling us to fight this good fight that the flesh sends its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And that’s going to be a battle that goes on until we’re dead, until we’re done with this earthly sin laden body that has more than just cells in it. It’s got a a sinful pattern and and yearning and a hankering to do wrong. So you need to say, okay, what I
00:04:53
want is to have the inner man grow stronger so that I can, as Romans 6 says, marshall the members or parts of my body to do what is right. And as James 3 says, this is why James starts by talking about how we all sin is because the hardest thing, the hardest member, the hardest part of our body to control uh is is our mouth. I mean, we sin with our words almost every single hour. We do we say something we shouldn’t. We complain when we shouldn’t. We we gossip when we shouldn’t. We we’re critical when we
00:05:21
shouldn’t. And so we struggle with our mouths because it’s so easy to flap our tongue around. And and we need to say, “Okay, God, I need to be much more sensitive about my sin.” And and that sounds like it’s already in place in your heart, and I want to be much more strong in my spirit so that I can continue to to conquer this. I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to marshall, that’s a good word. I’m going to strongly direct my my body, my my desires of my flesh that wage war
00:05:51
against my soul, as Peter said, I I want to I want to I want to tell it to do what’s right. This is a battle. Here’s the thing about some Christians who struggle with sin and temptation. And they fall and they say, “I can’t believe I did that. I can’t be a Christian.” And and they look at, you know, Hebrews 6, they say, “There’s a place, can’t it be?” Like Sarah might have been asking, “Can I I’ve sinned past this point of of no return?” The people that have sinned
00:06:14
past the point of no return really don’t care about sinning past the point of no return. Those are people that are just they’re fairweathered friends. They’re the wheat and not the they’re the weeds and not the wheat. They’re the they’re the goats and not the sheep. They’re they’re just along for the ride. Judas was along for the ride. His inner desire was what can I get out of this? That’s why he was John 12. He was pilfering the the money out of the treasury and that’s
00:06:38
why he sold Christ out for 30 pieces of he felt bad, right? He was guilty and he did hang himself. He committed suicide because he he felt bad. But according to 2 Corinthians 7, it’s a feeling bad that didn’t lead him to real repentance because God said he’s the son of predition, the son of destruction. So I I don’t think you should rush right away to maybe I’m Judas and maybe I’m Hebrews 6. Although I think those passages are there so that we can ask ourselves, is that the case? But I want to as a
00:07:07
brother in Christ say to you, uh, it sounds like your core desire is to please the Lord. That’s evidence of a regenerate heart, a born again heart. And if that’s what’s going on, then what we need is to get to the spiritual gym and work the muscles out in our spirit so that we can start to say no to our words or our our glands or, you know, whatever it is that’s driving us into sin, right? Think about all the things that draw us into temptation and sin. And that’s where we want you to be a
00:07:36
stronger Christian. And the way to do that, of course, are all the staples of the Christian life. We got to spend more time in the word. We’ve got to pray more ardently. We got to fellowship with righteous people who are going to help us make us stronger, sharpen us, and spur us on to love and good deeds. And we need to continue to to be on our knees before God, confessing sin when we do sin. And and so two books I want you to read. Again, I know you’ve read them, but James and First John, that those two
00:08:03
books, I think both help us in the New Testament to put the mirror of God’s word up to say, “Where am I really standing in the inner person of who I am?” Both of them will tell us. We’re all going to sin. If we say we’re without sin, we’re lying. But how how is that sin working its way out? Am am I am I just feeling like I’m embattled or am I just I want to get away with as much as I can? So I I I would say John, based on what you’ve said, I don’t think you’re Judas because you have a concern
00:08:31
about the question. Not a lot of Judas’s call into the program and care about their sin. That’s for sure. So go home. >> I do I have another another little followup. Uh Pastor Mike, if if I can, please. And I guess the only reason why I have this confusion is because at times I think you know how you build habits and habits over time just become natural and that’s just what you feel. How can I separate understanding that this is not just a habit but it’s really truly something within me caused and
00:09:05
stirred by the spirit of God to either one convict me or is it just the remorse that Judas had felt uh understanding that just like Judas I’m betraying Jesus and so that is the remorse and what I have known all my life is have understood is that there’s fear the fear of going to hell the fear of spending eternity separated from God you know and I do feel like at some point you know because of the disconnection from the Lord that there’s not as much of that spiritual emotion and I hear everything you’re sharing
00:09:47
seems very accurate on working it out exercising those things and getting back to that place but it almost feels like how can I get back there, you know, cuz it feels like what once I maybe had felt a little bit more strongly seems like it’s it’s so much more less now understanding that this has been the, you know, cycle of what I’ve fallen into. >> Okay. Well, two things. Number one, I think most Christians uh are not completely honest with their Christian experience. Most people struggle a lot
00:10:20
more than they’ll admit in their small groups at church. So, you’re in a camp that’s very normal. This is where a lot of people are living. And I would say someone’s got to know, some brother in Christ in your sphere that you’re going to see every day. It’s got your phone number. You text back and forth. They got to know your struggles enough for you to be honest when you’re fighting the battle and when you’re failing in the battle. And and then knowing that that feeling of fear, right? it. First
00:10:50
Peter chapter 1 makes it clear. It should be a fear that we have when we call on a father who judges impartially each one’s work. Then you should conduct yourself with fear. Not fear that you’re going to be going to hell. We need to get you out of that category, but fear that you’re not living up to the name that you bear, right? You you should be holy as he is holy. Why? Because he’s calling you his child. So you may feel like you’re not being a good child of God. And I do want you to fear that
00:11:16
because God’s discipline will come. And that would be something if I had more time I would ask you about, have you seen God’s discipline in your life? And and that’s a that’s an encouraging thing according to Hebrews 12. It’s supposed to remind you that I am a Christian. God cares about my actions. And here’s how I’m being disciplined when I when I do fall into this this sin. Here’s what God is doing to make me miserable. Here’s what God is doing to cause some pain in
00:11:38
my life because he wants me to not do it. It’s it’s a lot like a baby even in uterro. They if they if they bite their tongue or they stick their finger in their eye, they learn real quick, I shouldn’t be doing that. And and I mean real quick, sometimes it takes a few pokes in the eye or a few bites on the tongue for them to go, I I shouldn’t do this. Well, they can bite their tongue, but they don’t because they learn it hurts. And I would want to see how God is causing pain in your life as a good,
00:12:06
faithful, disciplinarian father by by saying, “Hey, John, you can’t live that way. You can’t do that.” And that’s a good thing, too. That reminds you what you should fear is his discipline. You shouldn’t fear being cast into the lake of fire. Unless of course your gospel is defective. And that’s where I’d say go back to the gospel and make sure you understand what it is to put your trust fully in what Christ has done to repent of your sins which says I no longer want
00:12:30
to live for myself. 2 Corinthians 5:15. But I want to live for him who died for me and rose again. Which sounds like all that’s in place. And you know that your trust is in the one and only son of God who lived in our place, died in our place, and rose to prove that I’m not going to be tossed into the lake of fire. I’m going to be accepted before him, and I’m trusting fully in him. If those things are in place, then I’m going to say you just need to know some of your feelings are more normal than
00:12:54
you think, but you need to re you need to shift the focus of your fear. It’s okay for you to live fearful when we do wrong. I I just was rereading um this this scene there in Exodus where this group of people were scared of seeing all that was going on on on Mount Si and they didn’t want to go close, right? And and Moses goes, “Well, listen all he says, don’t fear. God put all this out here and he’s given you all these commands so that you’d learn to fear him.” It’s kind of a weird statement.
00:13:24
Don’t be afraid, but be afraid. Well, don’t be afraid that the mountain’s going to consume you. But be afraid that if you do wrong, there’ll be consequences. And that’s where you’re going to have to shift from God’s going to kill me, right, cuz I’m not righteous to I’m not being a good child of God, God’s going to discipline me. And I’d hope you have some record of that that you can see how God has disciplined you. And if that’s the case, then take heart.
00:13:47
That’s supposed to be an an encouragement to us. It’s a word of encouragement that he addresses to us as sons that he he cha chastises every child he receives. So, I I I would think if I were to guess, and this is only something you and God can figure out, but it sounds like you’re a born-again regenerate Christian who just is going through a lot of feelings that I think most Christians go through after some of the newness of and the excitement of of new Christianity starts to wear off,
00:14:16
which it will because the Holy Spirit’s not going to pat you on the head every time you read your Bible like he did at the beginning, right? He expects us to grow up in in faith and do things because it’s right, not just because he gives us a nice hug every time we do it. And I think all of this is going to lead you to say, “Okay, I get it.” And I’m going to start to live in a way and have all the elements in place. And I would start to look in your life. There’s probably some elements missing. I don’t
00:14:40
know if you’re serving the Lord in in some ministry post. I don’t know if you’re really involved in fellowship, not just in chairs side by side in preaching events, but you really have a small group that you’re a part of that knows you. They know your life. They know your job. They know your family. They know your birth date. You’ve got to have those kinds of connections in the church. And all of that is probably going to take you out of this lull that you’re in thinking you’re qualifying for
00:15:04
Judas or Hebrews 6, which I don’t think you are based on what you’re telling me. Does any of that help, John? That does I mean it does clarify a lot. I just like I said I’ve been going through it for quite some time now and I know it’s been a choices of my own but I feel like this has been a long time coming and I wanted to speak to somebody who who does have some deeper insight and and does understand the scripture and I do want to believe that. But most importantly, I just I want to be able to
00:15:35
have peace between I and the Lord within myself, right? >> Knowing that I am in right standing because I know that nothing else could be more important. >> Well, if you can if you can afford $7.24 and $2 in shipping, I would go to Amazon or any place you can buy this book. It’s going to go deep, although it’s very readable. It’s by a guy named David Needam. It’s an old book, but it really helped me when I first experienced a lot of the feelings you’re feeling. It’s
00:16:04
called Alive for the First Time. Alive for the First Time. And it’s one of the few books, NEM is his name, Need Dh. He writes this book about the miracle of regeneration and what it feels like to be a new person living in our old flesh. And I just think it’s a helpful book. And I think if you read it, because I can tell you’re a deep thinker and you you you feel things, you know, powerfully, I think this book’s going to help you because David Needm is that kind of man. And uh, you know, I don’t
00:16:37
know him personally, but this book helped me years ago when it came out. And uh, I would just say this would be a book that’s worth, you know, 10 bucks. What’s that? Two coffees at Starbucks or whatever. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. And I think it would be a great read. Okay, John. Thanks for the call. Yep. Call me Call me back. Keep me posted.
