The Christian’s Rear Guard
“Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host…
Tag Assurance
Robbers of Assurance? In Defense of the Puritans
In recent years I have heard and read various criticisms of the Puritans and (rather surprisingly) Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan’s “dream” is certainly not a perfect system of theology by any stretch of the imagination, but if it leaves you cold then…
The Incarnate Confrontation
We’ve all given and received gifts this past year, and I imagine the majority of those gifts were probably intended to be used in some way, not just owned or placed on a shelf unopened. But it’s likely you’ve had…
A Soul-Refreshed Life
On a spring day in 1747, twenty-nine-year-old David Brainerd rode horseback into the yard of a Northampton parsonage. It was the home of eminent New England pastor and theologian, Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah. Edwards and Brainerd, prior to…
More Mercy in Christ than Sin in Us
In his book The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes famously wrote, “We have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” Here is one of those oft repeated statements of Gospel assurance with…
The Three Greatest Reasons Christ Loves You
If a preacher had one sermon to preach to unbelievers he would likely preach something that follows the Apostolic pattern in the book of Acts. But what about when faced with the chance to give just one message to those…
Assurance: How do I know I am a Christian?
How do you know you are a Christian? Beware of easy-to-fix theological answers to complex spiritual problems. Poor theology usually offers quick fixes (i.e., a silver bullet approach). And people love quick fixes, which is why bad theology will always…
Chapter 18.4, part two
iv. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it; by falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience, and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden…
Chapter 18.3
iii.This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the…
Chapter 18.2
ii. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which…