ASSURANCES

YEAR-ENDING POST

Have you read all these “Assurance” posts and verified in your heart a “yes” answer though your actions sometimes don’t live up to your heart? “Failings, with conflict, in sanctification should not weaken the peace of our justification and assurance of salvation” Richard Sibbes (ref#311, p96).

Be encouraged for once GOD has chosen you you will not fall back into an unredeemed condition. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29 ESV).

“…we learn to stand by falls, and get strength by weakness discovered…We take deeper root by shaking….And…torches flame brighter by moving…When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again” Richard Sibbes (ref#311, p95).

“So let us never give up, but, in our thoughts, knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies….Christ, who, as he is the author, so will he be the finisher, of our faith (Heb 12:2)” Richard Sibbes (ref#311, p96).

NOTE: I will probably continue “Assurance” posts into the start of next year because it hit home so much with me. Us moral people—pew-sitters from infancy, need to beware! Because we are respectable, moral, and basically good (humanity at its best), we can get along without peace and pardon that comes from the regeneration of GOD.

Blatant sinners and immoral ones who feel they are wretches know for certain when regeneration occurs, for GOD’s peace and pardon flood over them. They musthave GOD! Long-time pew-sitters are all too content with being respectable and workers of human-generated good. (ideas from “God’s Way of Holiness, by Horatius Bonar, ref#326, p33).

May GOD grant the regenerated, growth into His holiness in 2020.

ASSURANCES

Posted by bonniefaurote

JOY

“We may know, and should know, that we are in a relationship to God and that we possess His life…We must not rest until we have full and certain assurance, confidence, and jubilation.…” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Nov 17^th).

“Jubilation”—this is what gives us Christians away—we are distinct because of our joy. It stands above all the other questions to which we have answered “yes” over these past two years on this blog site.

On May 23, 2018 I posted this question: “Do I experience a fullness of joy in GOD’s presence” (Ps 16:11)? Tim McGee, a good blogging friend commented: “Today’s question about joy in GOD’s presence is all-encompassing of the others, I think. If not experiencing that joy, have I truly put myself in the presence of God?”

FATHER, this joy is my most precious commodity. It is my goal, and I need Your help to attain it. Oh, may I strive to experience it in all circumstances—ALL! I know in my head that this joy is an inner joy—one that is eternal and has no ending to it for it is completely of You. It does not depend on earthly circumstances; instead, it looks to You in hope. Please, LORD, motivate my heart to find joy in everything that comes my way.

Isaiah the prophet revealed JESUS’ hope in You: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied…” (Isa 53:11 ESV).

“…Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” (Heb 12:2 ESV).

I remind all my blogging friends in closing out these two years of “Assurances” blogs:

“…neither…things present nor things to come…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 ESV). Does that not bring us constant, inexpressible joy?

ASSURANCES

Posted by bonniefaurote

A CHRISTIAN IN IGNORANCE

I know after two years of blogging on the subject of “Assurances,” that there are some readers that still only “think” GOD has redeemed them. It is so easy to do godly things. As law-abiding humans we are inclined to pursue morality and distance ourselves from the immoral. The looming problem is that we have the ability within ourselves to be outstanding model citizens, keeping ourselves from indulging in obvious sins and being proud and content with it.

I can’t stop thinking about the Sermon on the Mount. If one reads those few chapters in one sitting and tests their performance in keeping the commands they would conclude the impossibility to accomplish such tasks—especially when they get to the end of Matthew, chapter five.

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48 ESV).

All my “Assurance” posts read in one sitting indeed would convince a person that they need someone better than themselves to help them. But, read one verse a day like I post, and it’s easy to “like” that one post and pass over posts less likable.

This subject has come down hard on me today as I read, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” “Ignorance” is a guy that believes he’s a Christian (p130-133). He has all the signs of a Christian—loves good works, loves the whole Christian environment, etc. He sees himself more righteous than most people so his heart and conscience are at peace.

The whole crux of the matter is that Christians need CHRIST. Until GOD draws us to tour our personal sin we never see our need, so the best question to ask is “How do I regard my sin?” Does my sin bother me?

If we think we’re not a constant sinner, we only “think” we’re a Christian. We have to know how despicable we are before we’re willing to lean on CHRIST for salvation and grow into His likeness.

ASSURANCES

Posted by bonniefaurote

INTOLERABLE SIN

“…anyone who lives in willful sin…has none of the marks of God’s elect” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p257). “He that minds first the things of the flesh, has no saving faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p188).

“The believer who abides in Him [CHRIST] hath a divine assurance for the fulfillment of every promise the covenant ever gave” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p196, brackets mine).

“There is a spiritual treasure-house in the Word…There you will see…the everlasting election of the saints in Christ,—the special love wherewith God loved them before the foundation of the world,—their mystical union with their risen Head in heaven, and His consequent sympathy with them,—their interest in the perpetual intercession of Jesus, their High Priest,—their liberty of daily communion with the Father and the Son,—their full assurance of hope,—their perseverance to the end” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p249).

“The redemption which he enjoys is eternal. The sense and comfort of it he may lose by his own carelessness. But the thingitself, after once believing, is his for evermore….Thy faith shall never be allowed entirely to fail” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p279).

“A day must come, if you are ever to be God’s child, when you will cease to trifle with your soul’s interests. An hour must come when at last you will bend your knee in real earnestness, and pour out your heart before God in real prayer. A time must come when the burden of your sins will at last feel intolerable, and when you will feel you must have rest in Christ or perish” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p286).

FATHER, I’m sure everyone reading this post has felt “intolerable sin” or soon will feel “intolerable sin.” To be humbled, then loved by the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe is our greatest joy. Thank You, FATHER.

ASSURANCES

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FIRE INSURANCE

“True belief in Christ is the unreserved trust of a heart convinced of sin, in Christ, as an all-sufficient Saviour. It is the combined act of the whole man’s head, conscience, heart, and will” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p183).

“Solemn is it to realize that there are now in Hell multitudes of men and women who on earth were visited with deep conviction of sin, whose awakened conscience made them conscious of their rebellion against their Maker, who were made to feel something of the reality of the everlasting burnings, and the justice of God meting out such punishment to those who spurn His authority and trample His laws beneath their feet. How solemn to realize that many of those who experienced such convictions were aroused to flee from the wrath to come, and became very zealous and diligent in seeking to escape the torments of Hell, and who under the instinct of self-preservation took up with ‘religion’ as offering the desired means of escape. And how unspeakably solemn to realize that many of those poor souls fell victim to men who spoke ‘smooth things,’ assuring them that they were the objects of God’s love, and that nothing more was needed than to ‘receive Christ as your personal Savior.’ How unspeakably solemn, we say, that such souls look to Christ merely as a fire-escape,who never—from a supernatural work of the Spirit in their hearts—surrendered to Christ as Lord.” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p72-73).

“Believing on Christ, again, is not mere feelingsomething about Christ. This is often no more than temporary excitement…We may be pricked in conscience, and feel drawings toward the Gospel…We may even tremble and weep, and show much affection for the truth and those that profess it. And yet all this time our hearts and wills may remain utterly unchanged, and secretly chained down to the world. Doubtless there is no saving faith where there is no feeling. But feeling alone is not faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p 182-183).

“Believing in Christ is no mere intellectual assent….Doubtless there must be some knowledge before we can believe. There is no true religion in ignorance. But knowledge alone is not saving faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p182).