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The Nature of Faith by Thomas Watson

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of  the Son of God (Gal. 2:20).  The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us.  Christ is the glory, and faith in Christ the comfort, of the gospel.

What are the kinds of faith?

1)     An historical or dogmatic faith, which is believing the truths revealed in the Word, because of divine authority.

2)     There is a temporary faith, which lasts for a time, and then vanishes.  “Yet hath he no root in himself, but endureth for a while.” Matt 13:21.  A temporary faith is like Jonah’s gourd, which came up in a night and withered (Jonah 4).

3)     A miraculous faith granted to the apostles to work miracles for the confirmation of the gospel.  This Judas had—he cast out devils, yet was cast out to the devil.

4)     A true justifying faith, which is called “A faith of the operation of God,” and is a jewel hung only upon the elect (Col. 2:12).

What is justifying faith?

What it is not. It is not a bare acknowledgment that Christ is a Savior.  There must be an acknowledgment, but that is not sufficient to justify.  The devils acknowledged Christ’s Godhead (Matt. 8:29).  There may be an assent to divine truth, and yet no work of grace on the heart.  Many assent in their judgments, that sin is an evil thing, but they go on in sin, whose corruptions are stronger than their convictions; and that Christ is excellent; they cheapen the pearl, but do not buy.

What justifiying faith is. True justifying faith consists in three things:

1)     Self-renunciation. Faith is going out of one’s self, being taken off from our own merits, and seeing we have no righteousness of our own (Phil. 3:9).  Self-righteousness is a broken reed, which the soul dares not lean on.  Repentance and faith are both humbling graces; by repentance a man abhors himself; by faith he goes out of himself.  As Israel in their wilderness march behind them saw Pharaoh and his chariots pursuing before them the Red Sea ready to devour; so the sinner [looks] behind [and] sees God’s justice pursuing him for sin, [looks] before [and sees] hell ready to devour him; and in this forlorn condition, he sees nothing in himself to help, but he must perish unless he can find help in another.

2)     Reliance.  The soul casts itself upon Jesus Christ; faith rests on Christ’s person.  Faith believes the promise; but that which faith rests upon in the promise is the person of Christ: therefore the spouse is said to “lean upon her Beloved” (Song of Solomon 8:5).  Faith is described to be “believing on the name of the Son of God,” 1 John 3:23, viz., on his person.  The promise is but the cabinet, Christ is the jewel in it which faith embraces; the promise is but the dish, Christ is the food in it which faith feeds on.  Faith rests on Christ’s person.  It glories in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14).  To consider Christ crown-ed with all manner of excellencies, stirs up admiration and wonder; but Christ looked upon as bleeding and dying, is the proper object of our faith; it is called therefore “faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:25).

3)     Appropriation, or applying Christ to ourselves.  A medicine, though it be ever so sovereign, if not applied, will do no good; though the plaster be made of Christ’s own blood, it will not heal, unless applied by faith; the blood of God, without faith in God, will not save.  This applying of Christ is called receiving him (John 1:12).  The hand receiving gold, enriches; so the hand of faith, receiving Christ’s golden merits with salvation, enriches us.

How is faith wrought?

By the blessed Spirit is called the “Spirit of grace” because he is the spring of all grace (Zech. 12:10).  Faith is the chief work which the Spirit of God works in a man’s heart.  In making the world God did but speak a word, but in working faith he puts forth his arm (Luke 1:51).  The Spirit’s working faith is called, “The exceeding greatness of God’s power” (Eph. 1:19).  What a power was put forth in raising Christ from the grave when such a tombstone lay upon him as “the sins of all the world!”  Yet he was raised up by the Spirit.  The same power is put forth by the Spirit of God in working faith.  The Spirit irradiates the mind, and subdues the will.  The will is like a garrison, which holds out against God: the Spirit with sweet violence conquers, or rather changes it; making the sinner willing to have Christ upon any terms; to be ruled by him as well as saved by him.

Wherein lies the preciousness of faith?

1)     In its being the chief gospel-grace, the head of the graces.  As gold among the metals, so is faith among the graces.  Clement of Alexandria calls the other graces the daughters of faith.  In heaven, love will be the chief grace; but, while we are here, love must give place to faith.  Love is the crowning grace in heaven, but faith is the conquering grace upon earth.  “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).

2)     In its having influence upon all the graces, and setting them to work: not a grace stirs till faith set it to work.  As the clothier sets the poor to work, sets their wheel going; so faith sets hope to work. The heir must believe his title to an estate in reversion before he can hope for it; faith believes its title to glory, and then hope waits for it.  If faith did not feed the lamp of hope with oil, it would soon die.  Faith sets love to work.  “Faith which worketh ‘by love’” (Gal. 5:6).  Believing the mercy and merit of Christ causes a flame of love to ascend.  Faith sets patience to work.  “Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12).  Faith believes the glorious rewards given to suffering.  This makes the soul patient in suffering.  Thus faith is the master-wheel, it sets all the other graces running.

3)     In its being the grace which God honors to justify and save.  Thus indeed it is “precious faith,” as the apostle calls it (2 Pet 2).  The other graces help to sanctify, but it is faith that justifies—“Being justified by faith” (Rom. 5:1).  Repentance or love do not justify, but faith does.

How does faith justify?

1)     Faith does not justify as it is a work, which would make a Christ of our faith; but faith justifies, as it lays hold of the object, viz. Christ’s merits.  If a man had a precious stone in a ring that healed, we may say the ring heals; but properly it is not the ring, but the precious stone in the ring that heals.  Thus faith saves & justifies, but it is not any inherent virtue in faith, but as it lays hold on Christ it justifies.

2)     Faith does not justify as it exercises grace. It cannot be denied, that faith invigorates all the graces, puts strength and liveliness into them, but it does not justify under this notion.  Faith works by love, but it does not justify as it works by love, but as it applies Christ’s merits.

Why should faith save and justify more than any other grace?

1)     Because of God’s purpose.  He has appointed this grace to be justifying; and he does it, because faith is a grace that takes a man off himself and gives all the honor to Christ and free grace.  “Strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom. 4:20).  Therefore God has put this honor on faith, to make it saving and justifying.  The king’s stamp makes the coin pass for currency; if he would put his stamp upon leather, as well as silver, it would make it currency: so God having put his sanction, the stamp of his authority and institution upon faith, makes it to be justifying and saving.

2)     Because faith makes us one with Christ (Eph. 3:17).  It is the espousing, incorporating grace, it gives us coalition and union with Christ’s person.  Other graces make us like Christ, faith makes us members of Christ.

Use One: Of exhortation.  Let us above all things labor for faith. Fides est sanctissimum humani pectoris bonum.  “Above all, taking the shield of faith” (Eph. 6:16).  Faith will be of more use to us than any grace; as an eye, though dim, was of more use to an Israelite than all the other members of his body, a strong arm, or a nimble foot.  It was his eye looking on the brazen serpent that cured him.  It is not knowledge, though angelic, not repentance, though we could shed rivers of tears, which justify us; only faith, whereby we look on Christ.  “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).  If we do not please him by believing, he will not please us in saving.  Faith is the condition of the covenant of grace; without faith, without covenant; and without covenant, without hope (Eph. 2:12).

Use two: Of trial.  Let us try whether we have faith.  There is something that looks like faith, and is not, as a Bristol-stone looks like a diamond.  Some plants have the same leaf with others, but the herbalist can distinguish them by the root and taste.  Some faith may look like true faith, but it may be distinguished by the fruits.  Let us be serious in the trial of our faith.  Much depends upon our faith; for if our faith be not good, even our duties and graces are adulterated.

How then shall we know a true faith?

By the noble effects.

1)     Faith is a Christ-prizing grace—it puts a high valuation upon Christ.  “To you that believe he is precious” (1 Pet. 2:7).  Paul best knew Christ—“Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” (1 Cor. 9:1).  He saw Christ with his bodily eyes in a vision, when he was caught up into the third heaven; and with the eye of his faith in the Holy Supper; therefore he best knew Christ.  And see how he styles all things in comparison of him. “I count all things but dung, that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:8).  Do we set a high estimate upon Christ?  Could we be willing to part with the wedge of gold for the pearl of price?

2)     Faith is a refining grace—“Mystery of faith in a pure conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9).  Faith is in the soul as fire among metals; it refines and purifies.  Morality may wash the outside, faith washes the inside—“Having purified their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9).  Faith makes the heart a holy of holies.  Faith is a virgin-grace: though it does not take away the life of sin yet it takes away the love of sin.  Examine if your hearts be an unclean fountain, sending out the mud and dirt of pride and envy.  If there be legions of lusts in thy soul, there is no faith.  Faith is a heavenly plant, which will not grow in an impure soil.

3)     Faith is an obedient grace—“The obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26).  Faith melts our will into God’s.  It runs at God’s call.  If God commands duty (though cross to flesh and blood) faith obeys—“By faith Abraham obeyed” (Heb. 11:8).  Faith is not an idle grace.  It not only believes God’s promise, but obeys his command.  It is not having knowledge that will evidence you to be believers; the devil has knowledge, but [lacks] obedience.  The true obedience of faith is a cheerful obedience.  God’s commands do not seem grievous.  Have you obedience, and obey cheerfully?  Do you look upon God’s command as your burden, or privilege; as an iron fetter about your leg, or as a gold chain about your neck.

4)     Faith is an assimilating grace.  It changes the soul into the image of the object; it makes it like Christ.  Never did any look upon Christ with a believing eye, but he was made like Christ.  A deformed person may look on a beautiful object, and not be made beautiful; but faith looking on Christ transforms a man, and turns him into his similitude.  Looking on a bleeding Christ causes a soft bleeding heart; looking on a holy Christ causes sanctity of heart; looking on a humble Christ makes the soul humble.  As the chameleon is changed into the color of that which it looks upon, so faith, looking on Christ, changes the Christian into the similitude of Christ.

5)     True faith grows. All living things grow.  “From faith to faith” (Rom. 1:7).

How may we judge of the growth of faith?

Growth of faith is judged by strength.  We can do that now, which we could not do before.  When one is man-grown, he can do that which he could not do when he was a child; he can carry a heavier burden; so thou can bear crosses with more patience.

Growth of faith is seen by doing duties in a more spiritual manner, with more fervency.  We put coals to the incense, from a principle of love to God.  When an apple has done growing in bigness, it grows in sweetness; so thou performest duties in love and art sweeter, and come off with a better relish.

But I fear I have no faith.

We must distinguish between weakness of faith and no faith.  A weak faith is true.  The bruised reed is but weak, yet it is such as Christ will not break.  Though thy faith be weak, be not discouraged.

1)     A weak faith may receive a strong Christ.  A weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as a strong one; and a weak eye might have seen the brazen serpent.  The woman in the gospel did but touch Christ’s garment, and received virtue from him. It was the touch of faith.

2)     The promise is not made to strong faith, but to true. The promise says not whosoever has a giant-faith, that can remove mountains, that can stop the mouths of lions, shall he saved; but whosoever believes, be his faith ever so small.  Though Christ sometimes chides a weak faith, yet that it may not be discouraged, he makes it a promise. Beati qui esuriunt (Matt. 5:3).

3)     A weak faith may be fruitful. Weakest things multiply most; the vine is a weak plant, but it is fruitful.  Weak Christians may have strong affections.  How strong is the first love, which is after the first planting of faith!

4)     Weak faith may be growing. Seeds spring up by degrees; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.  Therefore, be not discouraged.  God, who would have us receive them that are weak in faith, will not himself refuse them (Rom. 14:1).  A weak believer is a member of Christ; and though Christ will cut off rotten members from his body, he will not cut off weak members.

From A Body of Practical Divinity (1692).

Posted in Thomas Watson | 1 Comment »

Perseverance of the Saints by Jonathan Edwards

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The following are some reasons why grace to persevere is promised in the covenant of grace.

1. God’s Better Covenant

God, when he had laid out himself to glorify his mercy and grace in the redemption of poor fallen men, did not see meet that those who are redeemed by Christ should be redeemed so imperfectly, as still to have the work of perseverance left in their own hands.  They had been found already insufficient for this even in their perfect state, and are now ten times more liable than formerly to fall away and not to persevere, if in their fallen broken state, with their imperfect sanctification, the care of the matter be trusted with them.  Man, though redeemed by Christ so as to have the Holy Spirit of God, and spiritual life again restored in a degree, yet is left a poor, piteous creature, because all is dependent [“suspended,” Edwards’ term throughout] on his perseverance as it was at first.  And the care of that affair is left with him as it was then, and he is ten times more likely to fall away than he was then, if we consider only what he was in himself to preserve him from it.  The poor creature sees his own insufficiency to stand, from what has happened in time past.  His own instability has been his undoing already, and now he is vastly more unstable than before.

The great thing wherein the first covenant was deficient was that the fulfillment of the righteousness of the covenant, and man’s perseverance, was entrusted with man himself, with nothing better to secure it than his own strength.  And therefore, God introduces a better, which should be an everlasting covenant, a new and living way, wherein that which was wanting in the first should be supplied, and a remedy should be provided against that, which under the first covenant proved man’s undoing, viz. man’s own weakness and instability, by a Mediator being given, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever: who cannot fail, who should undertake for his people and take care of them.  He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him, and ever lives to make intercession for them.  God did not see it fit that man should be trusted to stand in his own strength a second time. It is not fit that in a covenant of grace, wherein all is of mere, free, and absolute grace, that the reward of life should be dependent on the perseverance of man, as dependent on the strength and steadfastness of his own will.  It is a covenant of works, and not a covenant of grace that suspends eternal life on what is the fruit of a man’s own strength.

Eternal life was to have been of works in those two respects, viz. as it was to have been for man’s own righteousness, and as it was dependent on the fruit of his own strength.  For though our first parent depended on the grace of God, the influence of his Spirit in his heart, yet that grace was given him already, and dwelt in him constantly, and without interruption, in such a degree as to hold him above any lust or sinful habit or principle.  Eternal life was not merely dependent on that grace that was given him, and dwelt in him, but on his improvement of that grace which he already had.  For in order to [effect] his perseverance, there was nothing further promised beyond his own strength, no extraordinary occasional assistance was promised.  It was not promised but that man should be left to himself as he was.  But the new covenant is of grace, in a manner distinguishing from the old, in both these respects, that the reward of life is dependent neither on his own strength nor worthiness. It provides something above either.  But if eternal life under the new covenant was dependent on man’s own perseverance, or his perseveringly using diligent endeavors to stand without the promise of anything farther to ascertain it than his own strength, it would herein be farther from being worthy to be called a covenant of grace than the first covenant, because man’s strength is exceedingly less than it was then, and he is under far less advantages to persevere.  And if he should obtain eternal life by perseverance in his own strength now, eternal life would, with respect to that, be much more of himself than it would have been by the first covenant, because perseverance now would be a much greater thing than under those circumstances.  And he has but an exceeding small part of that grace dwelling in him, to assist him, than he had then, and that which he has, does not dwell in him in the exercise of it by such a constant law as grace did then, but is put into exercise by the spirit of grace, in a far more arbitrary and sovereign way.

2. Christ’s Finished Work

Again, Christ came into the world to do that in which mere men failed.  He came as a better surety, and that in him those defects might be supplied, which proved to be in our first surety, and that we might have a remedy for the mischief that came by those defects.  But the defect of our first surety was that he did not persevere.  He wanted steadfastness, and therefore God sent us, in the next surety, one that could not fail, but should surely persevere.  But this is no supply of that defect to us, if the reward of life be still dependent on perseverance, which has nothing, as to ourselves, greater to secure it still, than the strength of mere man.  And the perseverance of our second surety is no remedy against the like mischief, which came by failure of our first surety.  But on the contrary, we are much more exposed to the mischief than before.  This perseverance depended indeed on the strength of mere man, but now (on the supposition) it would be dependent on the strength of fallen man.

In that our first surety [Adam] did not persevere, we fell in and with him, for doubtless, if he had stood, we should have stood with him.  And therefore, when God in mercy has given us a better surety to supply the defects of the first, a surety that might stand and persevere, and one that has actually persevered through the greatest imaginable trials, then doubtless we shall stand and persevere in him.  After all this, eternal life will not be dependent on our own poor, feeble, broken strength.

Our first surety, if he had stood, would have been brought to eat of the tree of life, as a seal of a confirmed state of life in persevering and everlasting holiness and happiness, and he would have eaten of this tree of life as a seal of persevering confirmed life, not only for himself, but as our head.  As when he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he tasted as our head, and so brought death on himself and all his posterity.  So if he had persevered and had eaten of the tree of life, he would have tasted of that as our head, and therein life and confirmed holiness would have been sealed to him and all his posterity.

But Christ, the second Adam, acts the same part for us that the first Adam was to have done, but failed.  He has fulfilled the law, and has been admitted to the seals of confirmed and everlasting life.  God, as a testimony and seal of his acceptance of what he had done as the condition of life, raised him from the dead, and exalted him with his own right hand, received him up into glory, and gave all things into his hands.  Thus the second Adam has persevered, not only for himself, but for us, and has been sealed to confirmed and persevering and eternal life, as our head: so that all those that are his, and who are his spiritual posterity, are sealed in him to persevering life.  Here it will be in vain to object that persons’ persevering in faith and holiness is the condition of their being admitted to the state of Christ’s posterity, or to a right in him, and that none are admitted as such till they have first persevered.  For this is as much as to say that Christ has no church in this world, and that there are none on this side the grave admitted as his children or people, because they have not yet actually persevered to the end of life, which is the condition of their being admitted as his children and people, which is contrary to the whole Scripture.

Christ having finished the work of Adam for us, does more than merely to bring us back to the probationary state of Adam, while Adam had yet his work to finish, knowing his eternal life [was] uncertain, because [it was] dependent on his uncertain perseverance.  That alone is inconsistent with Christ’s being a second Adam.  For if Christ, succeeding in Adam’s room, has done and gone through the work that Adam was to have done, and did this as our representative or surety, he has not only thereby set us in Adam’s probationary, uncertain state, but has [also] carried us, who are in him, and are represented by him, through Adam’s working probationary state, unto that confirmed state that Adam should have arrived at, if he had gone through his own work.

3. The Saints’ Completed Salvation

That the saints shall surely persevere, will necessarily follow from this, that they have already performed the obedience which is the righteousness by which they have justification unto life (or it is already performed for them and imputed to them), for that supposes that it is the same thing in the sight of God as if they had performed it.  Now when the creature has once actually performed and finished the righteousness of the law, he is immediately sealed and confirmed to eternal life.  There is nothing to keep him from the tree of life.  But as soon as ever a believer has Christ’s righteousness imputed to him, he has virtually finished the righteousness of the law.

To suppose that a right to life is dependent on our own perseverance, which is uncertain, and has nothing more sure and steadfast to secure it than our own good-wills and resolutions (which way soever we suppose it to be dependent on the strength of our resolutions and wills, either with assistance, or in the improvement of assistance, or in seeking assistance), is exceedingly dissonant to the nature and design of the gospel scheme.  For if it were so, it would unavoidably deprive the believer of the comfort, hope, and joy of salvation: which would be very contrary to God’s design in the scheme of man’s salvation, which is to make the ground of our peace and joy in all respects strong and sure.  Or else, he must depend much on himself, and the ground of his joy and hope must in a great measure be his own strength, and the steadfastness of his own heart, the unchangeableness of his own resolutions, etc., which would be very different from the gospel scheme.

From Miscellany 695. Headers have been added by the editor.

Reasons Assurance Is Not Attained

J. C. Ryle

I come now to the last thing of which I spoke.  I promised to point out to you some probable causes why an assured hope is so seldom attained. I will do it very shortly.

This is a very serious question, and ought to raise in all great searchings of heart.  Few, certainly, of Christ’s people seem to reach up to this blessed spirit of assurance.  Many comparatively believe, but few are persuaded.  Many comparatively have saving faith, but few that glorious confidence which shines forth in the language of St. Paul.  That such is the case, I think we must all allow.

Now, why is this so? —Why is a thing which two Apostles have strongly enjoined us to seek after, a thing of which few believers have any experimental [knowledge by experience] knowledge?  Why is an assured hope so rare?

I desire to offer a few suggestions on this point, with all humility.  I know that many have never attained assurance, at whose feet I would gladly sit both in earth and heaven.  Perhaps the Lord sees something in the natural temperament of some of His children, which makes assurance not good for them.  Perhaps, in order to be kept in spiritual health, they need to be kept very low.  God only knows.  Still, after every allowance, I fear there are many believers without an assured hope, whose case may too often be explained by causes such as these.

1. One most common cause, I suspect, is a defective view of the doctrine of justification.

I am inclined to think that justification and sanctification are insensibly confused together in the minds of many believers.  They receive the Gospel truth, —that there must be something done IN US, as well as something done FOR US, if we are true members of Christ; and so far they are right.  But, then, without being aware of it, perhaps, they seem to imbibe the idea that their justification is, in some degree, affected by something within themselves.  They do not clearly see that Christ’s work, not their own work,—either in whole or in part, either directly or indirectly,—is the alone ground of our acceptance with God; that justification is a thing entirely without us, for which nothing whatever is needful on our part but simple faith,—and that the weakest believer is as fully and completely justified as the strongest.

Many appear to forget that we are saved and justified as sinners, and only sinners; and that we never can attain to anything higher, if we live to the age of Methuselah.  Redeemed sinners, justified sinners, and renewed sinners doubtless we must be, —but sinners, sinners, sinners, always to the very last.  They do not seem to comprehend that there is a wide difference between our justification and our sanctification.  Our justification is a perfect finished work, and admits of no degrees.  Our sanctification is imperfect and incomplete, and will be to the last hour of our life.  They appear to expect that a believer may at some period of his life be in a measure free from corruption, and attain to a kind of inward perfection.  And not finding this angelic state of things in their own hearts, they at once conclude there must be something very wrong in their state.  And so they go mourning all their days, —oppressed with fears that they have no part or lot in Christ, and refusing to be comforted.

Reader, consider this point well.  If any believing soul desires assurance, and has not got it, let him ask himself, first of all, if he is quite sure he is sound in the faith, if his loins are thoroughly “girt about with truth,” and his eyes thoroughly clear in the matter of justification.  He must know what it is simply to believe before he can expect to feel assured.

Believe me, the old Galatian heresy is the most fertile source of error, both in doctrine and in practice.  Seek clearer views of Christ, and what Christ has done for you.  Happy is the man who really understands justification by faith without the deeds of the law.

2. Another common cause of the absence of assurance is, slothfulness about growth in grace.

I suspect many true believers hold dangerous and unscriptural views on this point: I do not of course mean intentionally, but they do hold them.  Many appear to me to think that once converted, they have little more to attend to, and that a state of salvation is a kind of easy chair, in which they may just sit still, lie back, and be happy.  They seem to fancy that grace is given them that they may enjoy it, and they forget that it is given, like a talent, to be used, employed, and improved.  Such persons lose sight of the many direct injunctions “to increase, —to grow, —to abound more and more, —to add to our faith,” and the like; and in this little-doing condition, this sitting-still state of mind, I never marvel that they miss assurance.

I believe it ought to be our continual aim and desire to go forward; and our watchword at the beginning of every year should be, “More and more” (1 Thess. 4:1): more knowledge, —more faith, —more obedience, —more love.  If we have brought forth thirty-fold, we should seek to bring forth sixty, and if we have brought forth sixty, we should strive to bring forth a hundred.  The will of the Lord is our sanctification, and it ought to be our will too.  (Matt. 13:23; 1 Thess. 4:3)

One thing, at all events, we may depend upon, —there is an inseparable connection between diligence and assurance.  “Give diligence,” says Peter, “to make your calling and election sure.”  (2 Peter 1:10)  “We desire,” says Paul, “that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” (Heb. 6:11)  “The soul of the diligent,” says Solomon, “shall be made fat.” (Prov. 13:4)   There is much truth in the old maxim of the Puritans: “Faith of adherence comes by hearing, but faith of assurance comes not without doing.”

Reader, mark my words.  Are you one of those who desires assurance, but have not got it?  You will never get it without diligence, however much you may desire it.  There are no gains without pains in spiritual things, any more than in temporal.  “The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing.”  (Prov. 13:4)

3. Another common cause of a want of assurance is, an inconsistent walk in life.

With grief and sorrow, I feel constrained to say, I fear nothing in this day more frequently prevents men attaining an assured hope than this.  The stream of professing Christianity is far wider than it formerly was, and I am afraid we must admit, at the same time, it is much less deep.

Inconsistency of life is utterly destructive of peace of conscience.  The two things are incompatible.  They cannot and they will not go together.  If you will have your besetting sins, and cannot make up your minds to give them up; if you will shrink from cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye, when occasion requires it, I will engage you will have no assurance.

A vacillating walk, —a backwardness to take a bold and decided line, —a readiness to conform to the world, a hesitating witness for Christ, —a lingering tone of religion,—all these make up a sure receipt for bringing a blight upon the garden of your soul.

It is vain to suppose you will feel assured and persuaded of your own pardon and acceptance with God, unless you count all God’s commandments concerning all things to be right, and hate every sin, whether great or small.  (Psalm 119:128)  One Achan allowed in the camp of your heart will weaken your hands, and lay your consolations low in the dust.  You must be daily sowing to the Spirit, if you are to reap the witness of the Spirit.  You will not find and feel that all the Lord’s ways are ways of pleasantness, unless you labour in all your ways to please the Lord.

I bless God our salvation in no wise depends on our own works.  By grace we are saved, —not by works of righteousness, —through faith, —without the deeds of the law.  But I never would have any believer for a moment forget that our SENSE of salvation depends much on the manner of our living.  Inconsistency will dim your eyes, and bring clouds between you and the sun. The sun is the same behind the clouds, but you will not be able to see its brightness or enjoy its warmth, and your soul will be gloomy and cold.  It is in the path of well doing that the day-spring of assurance will visit you, and shine down upon your heart.

“The secret of the Lord,” says David, “is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” (Psalm 25:4)

“To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.” (Psalm 50:23)

“Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” (Psalm 119:165)

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” (1 John 1:7)

“Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.  And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.” (1 John 3:18, 19.)

“Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John ii. 3.)

Paul was a man who exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man. (Acts 24:16)  He could say with boldness, “I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith.”  I do not wonder that the Lord enabled him to add with confidence, “Henceforth there is a crown laid up for me, and the Lord shall give it me at that day.”

Reader, if any believer in the Lord Jesus desires assurance, and has not got it, let him think over this point also.  Let him look at his own heart, look at his own conscience, look at his own life, look at his own ways, look at his own home.  And perhaps when he has done that, he will be able to say, “There is a cause why I have no assured hope.”

I leave the three matters I have just mentioned to your own private consideration.  I am sure they are worth examining.  May you examine them honestly.   And may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

1.  And now, in closing this important inquiry, let me speak first to those readers who have not given themselves to the Lord, who have not yet come out from the world, chosen the good part, and followed Christ.

I ask you, then, to learn from this subject the privileges and comforts of a true Christian.

I would not have you judge of the Lord Jesus Christ by His people.  The best of servants can give you but a faint idea of that glorious Master.  Neither would I have you judge of the privileges of His kingdom by the measure of comfort to which many of His people attain.  Alas, we are most of us poor creatures!  We come short, very short, of the blessedness we might enjoy.  But, depend upon it, there are glorious things in the city of our God, which they who have an assured hope taste, even in their life-time.  There are lengths and breadths of peace and consolation there, which it has not entered into your heart to conceive.  There is bread enough and to spare in our Father’s house, though many of us certainly eat but little of it, and continue weak.  But the fault must not be laid to our Master’s charge: it is all our own.

And, after all, the weakest child of God has a mine of comforts within him, of which you know nothing.  You see the conflicts and tossings of the surface of his heart, but you see not the pearls of great price which are hidden in the depths below.  The feeblest member of Christ would not change conditions with you.  The believer who possesses the least assurance is far better off than you are.  He has a hope, however faint, but you have none at all.  He has a portion that will never be taken from him, a Saviour that will never forsake him, a treasure that fadeth not away, however little he may realize it all at present.  But, as for you, if you die as you are, your expectations will all perish.  Oh, that you were wise!  Oh, that you understood these things!  Oh, that you would consider your latter end!

I feel deeply for you in these latter days of the world, if I ever did.  I feel deeply for those whose treasure is all on earth, and whose hopes are all on this side the grave.  Yes: when I see old kingdoms and dynasties shaking to the very foundation, —when I see, as we all saw a few years ago, kings, and princes, and rich men, and great men fleeing for their lives, and scarce knowing where to hide their heads, —when I see property dependent on public confidence melting like snow in spring, and public stocks and funds losing their value, —when I see these things I feel deeply for those who have no better portion than this world can give them, and no place in that kingdom that cannot be removed.

Take advice of a minister of Christ this very day.  Seek durable riches, —a treasure that cannot be taken from you, —a city which hath lasting foundations.  Do as the Apostle Paul did.  Give yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and seek that incorruptible crown He is ready to bestow.  Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him.  Come away from a world which will never really satisfy you, and from sin which will bite like a serpent if you cling to it, at last.  Come to the Lord Jesus as lowly sinners, and He will receive you, pardon you, give you His renewing Spirit, fill you with peace.  This shall give you more real comfort than the world has ever done.  There is a gulf in your heart which nothing but the peace of Christ can fill.  Enter in and share our privileges.  Come with us, and sit down by our side.

2. Lastly, let me turn to all believers who read these pages, and speak to them a few words of brotherly counsel.

The main thing that I urge upon you is this, —if you have not got an assured hope of your own acceptance in Christ, resolve this day to seek it. Labour for it.  Strive after it.  Pray for it.  Give the Lord no rest till you “know whom you have believed.”

I feel, indeed, that the small amount of assurance in this day, among those who are reckoned God’s children, is a shame and a reproach.  “It is a thing to be heavily bewailed,” says old Traill, “that many Christians have lived twenty or forty years since Christ called them by His grace, yet doubting in their life.”  Let us call to mind the earnest “desire” Paul expresses, that “every one” of the Hebrews should seek after full assurance and let us endeavour, by God’s blessing, to roll this reproach away.  (Heb. 6:11)

Believing reader, do you really mean to say that you have no desire to exchange hope for confidence, trust for persuasion, uncertainty for knowledge?  Because weak faith will save you, will you therefore rest content with it?  Because assurance is not essential to your entrance into heaven, will you therefore be satisfied without it upon earth?  Alas, this is not a healthy state of soul to be in; this is not the mind of the Apostolic day!  Arise at once, and go forward.  Stick not at the foundations of religion: go on to perfection.  Be not content with a day of small things.  Never despise it in others, but never be content with it yourselves.

Believe me, believe me, assurance is worth the seeking.  You forsake your own mercies when you rest content without it.  The things I speak are for your peace.  If it is good to be sure in earthly things, how much better is it to be sure in heavenly things.  Your salvation is a fixed and certain thing.  God knows it.  Why should not you seek to know it too?  There is nothing unscriptural in this.  Paul never saw the book of life, and yet Paul says, “I know, and am persuaded.”

Make it, then, your daily prayer that you may have an increase of faith.  According to your faith will be your peace.  Cultivate that blessed root more, and sooner or later, by God’s blessing, you may hope to have the flower, You may not, perhaps, attain to full assurance all at once.  It is good sometimes to be kept waiting.  We do not value things which we get without trouble.  But though it tarry, wait for it.  Seek on, and expect to find.

There is one thing, however, of which I would not have you ignorant: —You must not be surprised if you have occasional doubts after you have got assurance.  You must not forget you are on earth, and not yet in heaven.  You are still in the body, and have indwelling sin: the flesh will lust against the spirit to the very end.  The leprosy will never be out of the walls of the old house till death takes it down.  And there is a devil, too, and a strong devil: a devil who tempted the Lord Jesus, and gave Peter a fall; and he will take care you know it.  Some doubts there always will be.  He that never doubts has nothing to lose.  He that never fears possesses nothing truly valuable.  He that is never jealous knows little of deep love.  But be not discouraged: you shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved you.

Finally, do not forget that assurance is a thing that may be lost for a season, even by the brightest Christians, unless they take care.

Assurance is a most delicate plant.  It needs daily, hourly watching, watering, tending, cherishing.  So watch and pray the more when you have got it.  As Rutherford says, “Make much of assurance.”  Be always upon your guard.  When Christian slept, in Pilgrim’s Progress, he lost his certificate.  Keep that in mind.

David lost assurance for many months by falling into transgression.  Peter lost it when he denied his Lord.  Each found it again, undoubtedly, but not till after bitter tears.  Spiritual darkness comes on horseback, and goes away on foot.  It is upon us before we know that it is coming.  It leaves us slowly, gradually, and not till after many days.  It is easy to run down hill.  It is hard work to climb up.  So remember my caution, —when you have the joy of the Lord, watch and pray.

Above all, grieve not the Spirit.  Quench not the Spirit.  Vex not the Spirit.  Drive Him not to a distance, by tampering with small bad habits and little sins.  Little jarrings between husbands and wives make unhappy homes, and petty inconsistencies, known and allowed, will bring in a strangeness between you and the Spirit.

Hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

The man who walks with God in Christ most closely will generally be kept in the greatest peace.

The believer who follows the Lord most fully will ordinarily enjoy the most assured hope, and have the clearest persuasion of his own salvation.

Posted in Jonathan Edwards |

The Final Perseverance of the Saints by C. H. Spurgeon

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“The righteous also shall hold on his way.”- Job 17:9

The man who is righteous before God has a way of his own.  It is not the way of the flesh, nor the way of the world; it is a way marked out for him by the divine command, in which he walks by faith.  It is the King’s highway of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it; only the ransomed of the Lord shall walk there, and these shall find it a path of separation from the world.  Once entered upon the way of life, the pilgrim must persevere in it or perish, for thus saith the Lord, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”  Perseverance in the path of faith and holiness is a necessity of the Christian, for only “he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”  It is in vain to spring up quickly like the seed that was sown upon the rock, and then by-and-by to wither when the sun is up; that would but prove that such a plant has no root in itself, but “the trees of the Lord are full of sap,” and they abide and continue and bring forth fruit, even in old age, to show that the Lord is upright.  There is a great difference between nominal Christianity and real Christianity, and this is generally seen in the failure of the one and the continuance of the other.

Now, the declaration of the text is that the truly righteous man shall hold on his way; he shall not go back, he shall not leap the hedges and wander to the right hand or the left, he shall not lie down in idleness, neither shall he faint and cease to go upon his journey; but he “shall hold on his way.”  It will frequently be very difficult for him to do so, but he will have such resolution, such power of inward grace given him, that he will “hold on his way,” with stern determination, as though he held on by his teeth, resolving never to let go.  Perhaps he may not always travel with equal speed; it is not said that he shall hold on his pace, but he shall hold on his way.  There are times when we run and are not weary, and anon when we walk are thankful that we do not faint; ay, and there are periods when we are glad to go on all fours and creep upward with pain; but still we prove that “the righteous shall hold on his way.”  Under all difficulties, the face of the man whom God has justified is steadfastly set towards Jerusalem; nor will he turn aside till his eyes shall see the King in his beauty.

This is a great wonder.  It is a marvel that any man should be a Christian at all, and a greater wonder that he should continue so.  Consider the weakness of the flesh, the strength of inward corruption, the fury of Satanic temptation, the seductions of wealth and the pride of life, the world and the fashion thereof; all these things are against us, and yet behold, “greater is he that is for us than all they that be against us,” and defying sin, and Satan, and death, and hell, the righteous holds on his way.

I take our text as accurately setting forth the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints.  “The righteous shall hold on his way.”  Years ago, when there was an earnest, and even a bitter controversy between Calvinists and Arminians, it was the habit of each side to caricature the other.  Very much of the argument is not directed against the real sentiment of the opposite party, but against what had been imputed to them.  They made a man of straw, and then they burned him, which is a pretty easy thing to do, but I trust we have left these things behind.  The glorious truth of the final perseverance of the saints has survived controversy, and in some form or other is the cherished belief of the children of God.

Take care, however, to be clear as to what it is.   The Scripture does not teach that a man will reach his journey’s end without continuing to travel along the road; it is not true that one act of faith is all, and that nothing is needed of daily faith, prayer, and watchfulness.  Our doctrine is the very opposite, namely, that the righteous shall hold on his way; or, in other words, shall continue in faith, in repentance, in prayer, and under the influence of the grace of God.  We do not believe in salvation by a physical force which treats a man as a dead log, and carries him whether he will it or not towards heaven.  No, “he holds on,” he is personally active about the matter, and plods on up hill and down dale till he reaches his journey’s end.

We never thought, nor even dreamed, that merely because a man supposes that he once entered on this way he may therefore conclude that he is certain of salvation, even if he leaves the way immediately.  No, but we say that he who truly receives the Holy Ghost, so that he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, shall not go back, but persevere in the way of faith.  It is written, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” and this he cannot be if he were left to go back and delight in sin as he did before; and, therefore, he shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.  Though the believer to his grief will commit many a sin, yet still the tenor of his life will be holiness to the Lord, and he will hold on in the way of obedience.  We detest the doctrine that a man who has once believed in Jesus will be saved even if he altogether forsook the path of obedience.  We deny that such a turning aside is possible to the true believer, and therefore the idea imputed to us is clearly an invention of the adversary.  No, beloved, a man, if he be indeed a believer in Christ, will not live after the will of the flesh.  When he does fall into sin, it will be his grief and misery, and he will never rest till he is cleansed from guilt; but I will say this of the believer, that if he could live as he would like to live he would live a perfect life.   If you ask him if, after believing, he may live as he lists, he will reply, “Would God I could live as I list, for I desire to live altogether without sin.  I would be perfect, even as my Father in heaven is perfect.”  The doctrine is not the licentious idea that a believer may live in sin, but that he cannot and will not do so.  This is the doctrine, and we will first prove it; and, secondly, in the Puritanic sense of the word, we will briefly improve it, by drawing two spiritual lessons therefrom.

I. LET US PROVE THE DOCTRINE.

Please to follow me with your Bibles open.  You, dear friends, have most of you received as a matter of faith the doctrines of grace, and therefore to you the doctrine of final perseverance cannot require any proving, because it follows from all the other doctrines.

We believe that God has an elect people whom he has chosen unto eternal life, and that truth necessarily involves the perseverance in grace.  We believe in special redemption, and this secures the salvation and consequent perseverance of the redeemed.  We believe in effectual calling, which is bound up with justification, a justification which ensures glorification.  The doctrines of grace are like a chain – if you believe in one of them you must believe the next, for each one involves the rest; therefore I say that you who accept any of the doctrines of grace must receive this also, as involved in them.  But I am about to try to prove this to those who do not receive the doctrines of grace; I would not argue in a circle, and prove one thing which you doubt by another thing which you doubt, but “to the law and to the testimony,” to the actual words of Scripture we shall refer the matter.

Before we advance to the argument, it will be well to remark that those who reject the doctrine frequently tell us that there are many cautions in the word of God against apostatizing, and that those cautions can have no meaning if it be true that the righteous shall hold on his way.  But what if those cautions are the means in the hand of God of keeping his people from wandering?   What if they are used to excite a holy fear in the minds of his children, and so become the means of preventing the evil which they denounce?  I would also remind you that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which contains the most solemn warnings against apostasy, the apostle always takes care to add words which show that he did not believe that those whom he warned would actually apostatize.  Turn to Hebrews 6:9.  He has been telling these Hebrews that if those who had been once enlightened should fall away, it would be impossible to renew them again into repentance, and he adds, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.”

In the 10th chapter, he gives an equally earnest warning, declaring that those who should do despite to the spirit of grace are worthy of sorer punishment than those who depised Moses’ law, but he closes the chapter with these words, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”  Thus he shows what the consequences of apostasy would be, but he is convinced that they will not choose to incur such a fearful doom.

Again, objectors sometimes mention instances of apostasy which are mentioned in the word of God, but, on looking into them, it will be discovered that these are cases of persons who did but profess to know Christ, but were not really possessors of the divine life.  John, in his first Epistle, 2:19, fully describes these apostates; “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”  The like is true of that memorable passage in John, where our Savior speaks of branches of the vine which are cut off and cast into the fire; these are described as branches in Christ that bear no fruit.  Are those real Christians?  How can they be so if they bear no fruit?  “By their fruits ye shall know them.”  The branch which bears fruit is purged, but it is never cut off.  Those which bear no fruit are not figures of true Christians, but they fitly represent mere professors.  Our Lord, in Matthew 7:22, tells us concerning many who will say in that day “Lord, Lord,” that he will reply, “I never knew you.”  Not “I have forgotten you,” but “I never knew you”; they were never really his disciples.

But now to the argument itself.  First, we argue the perseverance of the saints, most distinctly from the nature of the life which is imparted at regeneration. What saith Peter concerning this life? (1 Peter 1:23.)  He speaks of the people of God as “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”  The new life which is planted in us when we are born again is not like the fruit of our first birth, for that is subject to mortality, but it is a divine principle, which cannot die nor be corrupt; and, if it be so, then he who possesses it must live for ever, must, indeed, be evermore what the Spirit of God in regeneration has made him.

So in 1 John 3:9, we have the same thought in another form.  “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”  That is to say, the bent of the Christian’s life is not towards sin.  It would not be a fair description of his life that he lives in sin; on the contrary, he fights and contends against sin, because he has an inner principle which cannot sin.  The new life sinneth not; it is born of God, and cannot transgress; and though the old nature warreth against it, yet doth the new life so prevail in the Christian that he is kept from living in sin.  Our Savior, in his simple teaching of the gospel to the Samaritan woman, said to her (John 4:13), “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”  Now, if our Savior taught this to a sinful and ignorant woman, at his first interview with her, I take it that this doctrine is not to be reserved for the inner circle of full-grown saints, but to be preached ordinarily among the common people, and to be held up as a most blessed privilege.  If you receive the grace which Jesus imparts to your souls, it shall be like the good part which Mary chose, it shall not be taken away from you; it shall abide in you, not as the water in a cistern, but as a living fountain springing up unto everlasting life.  We all know that the life given in the new birth is intimately connected with faith.  Now, faith is in itself a conquering principle.  In the First Epistle of John, which is a great treasury of argument (1 John 5:4), we are told, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”  See, then, that which is born of God in us, namely, the new life, is a conquering principle; there is no hint given that it can ever be defeated; and faith, which is its outward sign, is also in itself triumphant evermore.  Therefore of necessity, because God has implanted such a wondrous life in us in bringing us out of darkness into his marvelous light, because he has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, because the eternal and ever blessed Spirit hath come to dwell in us, we conclude that the divine life within us shall never die.  “The righteous shall hold on his way.”

The second argument to which I shall call your attention shall be drawn from our Lord’s own express declarations. Here we shall look to the gospel of John again, and in that blessed third of John, where our Lord was explaining the gospel in the simplest possible style to Nicodemus, we find him laying great stress upon the fact that the life received by faith in himself is eternal.  Look at that precious verse, the fourteenth: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Do men therefore believe in him and yet perish?  Do they believe in him and receive a spiritual life which comes to an end?  It cannot be, for “God gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish;” but he would perish if he did not persevere to the end; and therefore he must persevere to the end.  The believer has eternal life, how then can he die, so as to cease to be a believer?  If he does not abide in Christ, he evidently has not eternal life, therefore he shall abide in Christ, even to the end.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

To this some reply that a man may have everlasting life and lose it.  To which we answer, the words cannot so mean.  Such a statement is a self-evident contradiction.  If the life be lost, the man is dead; how, then, did he have everlasting life?  It is clear that he had a life which lasted only for a while; he certainly had not everlasting life, for if he had it he must live everlastingly.   “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).  The saints in heaven have eternal life, and no one expects them to perish.  Their life is eternal; but eternal life is eternal life, whether the person possessing it dwells on earth or in heaven.

I need not read all the passages in which the same truth is taught; but further on, in John 6:47, our Lord told the Jews, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life;” not temporary life, but “everlasting life.”  And in the 51st verse he said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.”  Then comes that famous declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ, which, if there were no other at all, would be quite sufficient to prove our point.  John 10:28: “And I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any” (the word “man” is not in the original) “pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”  What can he mean but this – that he has grasped his people, and that he means to hold them securely in his mighty hand?

“Where is the power can reach us there,

Or what can pluck us thence?”

Over and above the hand of Jesus which was pierced comes the hand of the omnipotent Father as a sort of second grasp.  “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”  Surely this must show that the saints are secure from anything and everything which would destroy them, and consequently safe from total apostasy.

Another passage speaks to the same effect – it is to be found in Matthew 24:24, where the Lord Jesus has been speaking of the false prophets that should deceive many.  “There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect;” which shows that it is impossible for the elect to be deceived by them.  Of Christ’s sheep, it is said, “A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers,” but, by divine instinct, they know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and they follow him.

Thus has our Savior declared, as plainly as words possibly can express it, that those who are his people possess eternal life within themselves, and shall not perish, but shall enter into everlasting felicity.  “The righteous shall hold on his way.”

A very blessed argument for the safety of the believer is found in our Lord’s intercession.  You need not turn to the passage, for you know it well, which shows the connection between the living intercession of Christ and the perseverance of his people: “Wherefore also he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).  Our Lord Jesus is not dead; he has risen, he has gone up into the glory, and now before the eternal throne he pleads the merit of his perfect work, and as he pleads there for all his people whose names are written on his heart, as the names of Israel were written on the jeweled breastplate of the high priest, his intercession saves his people even to the uttermost.  If you would like an illustration of it, you must turn to the case of Peter which is recorded in Luke 22:31 where our Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”  The intercession of Christ does not save his people from being tried, and tempted, and tossed up and down like wheat in a sieve, it does not save them even from a measure of sin and sorrow, but it does save them from total apostasy.  Peter was kept, and though he denied his Master, yet it was an exception to the great rule of his life.  By grace he did hold on his way, because not only then, but many a time besides, though he sinned, he had an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

If you desire to know how Jesus pleads, read at your leisure at home that wonderful 17th of John – the Lord’s prayer.  What a prayer it is!  “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name; those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”  Judas was lost, but he was only given to Christ as an apostle and not as one of his sheep.  He had a temporary faith, and maintained a temporary profession, but he never had eternal life or he would have lived on.  Those groans and cries of the Savior which accompanied his pleadings in Gethsemane were heard in heaven, and answered.  “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me;” the Lord does keep them by his word and Spirit, and will keep them.  If the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane was answered, how much more that which now goeth up from the eternal throne itself!

“With cries and tears he offered up

His humble suit below;

But with authority he asks,

Enthroned in glory now.

“For all that come to God by him,

Salvation he demands;

Points to their names upon his breast,

And spreads his wounded hands.”

Ah, if my Lord Jesus pleads for me I cannot be afraid of earth or hell; that living, intercessory voice hath power to keep the saints, and so hath the living Lord himself, for he hath said: “Because I live ye shall live also.” (John 14:19.)

Now for a fourth argument.  We gather sure confidence of the perseverance of the saints from the character and work of Christ. I will say little about that, for I trust my Lord is so well known to you that he needeth no word of commendation from me to you; but if you know him you will say what the apostle does in 2 Timothy 1:12: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”  He did not say “I know in whom I have believed,” as most people quote it, but, “I know whom I have believed.”  He knew Jesus, he knew his heart and his faithfulness, he knew his atonement and its power, he knew his intercession and its might; and he committed his soul to Jesus by an act of faith, and he felt secure.  My Lord is so excellent in all things that I need give you but one glimpse of his character and you will see what he was when he dwelt here among men.  At the commencement of John 13, we read, “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”  If he had not loved his disciples to the end when here, we might conclude that he was changeable now as then.  But if he loved his chosen to the end while yet in his humiliation below, it bringeth us the sweet and blessed confidence that now he is in heaven he will love to the end all those who confide in him.

Fifthly, we infer the perseverance of the saints from the tenor of the covenant of grace.  Would you like to read it for yourselves?  If so, turn to the Old Testament, Jeremiah 32, and there you will find the covenant of grace set forth at some length.  We shall only be able to read the fortieth verse: “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”  He will not depart from them, and they shall not depart from him!  What can be a grander assurance of their perseverance even to the end?  Now, that this is the covenant of grace under which we live is clear from the Epistle to the Hebrews, for the apostle in the 8th chapter quotes that passage to this very end.  The question runs thus: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead. them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”  The old covenant had an “if” in it, and so it suffered shipwreck; it was – “If you will be obedient then you shall be blessed;” and hence there came a failure on man’s part, and the whole covenant ended in disaster.  It was the covenant of works, and under it we were in bondage, until we were delivered from it and introduced to the covenant of grace, which has no “if” in it, but runs upon the strain of promise; it is “I will” and “You shall” all the way through.  “I will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”  Glory be to God, this covenant will never pass away, for see how the Lord declares its enduring character in the book of Isaiah (54:10): “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”

And again in Isaiah 55:3: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”  The idea of falling utterly away from grace is a relic of the old legal spirit, it is a going away from grace to come under law again, and I charge you who have once been manumitted slaves, and have had the fetters of legal bondage struck from off your hands, never consent to wear those bonds again.  Christ has saved you, if indeed you are believers in him, and he has not saved you for a week, or a month, or a quarter, or a year, or twenty years, but he has given to you eternal life, and you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of his hands.   Rejoice ye in this blessed covenant of grace.

The sixth most forcible argument is drawn from the faithfulness of God. Look at Romans 11:29.  What saith the apostle there, speaking by the Holy Ghost? “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” which means that he does not give life and pardon to a man and call him by grace and afterwards repent of what he has done, and withdraw the good things which he has bestowed.  “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.”  When he putteth forth his hand to save he doth not withdraw it till the work is accomplished.  His word is, “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).  “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent” (1 Samuel 15:29).  The apostle would have us ground our confidence of perseverance upon the confirmation which divine faithfulness is sure to bestow upon us.

He says in 1 Corinthians 1:8, “Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And again he speaks to the same effect in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”  It was of old the will of God to save the people whom he gave to Jesus, and from this he has never turned, for our Lord said (John 6:39), “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  Thus you see from these passages, and there are numbers of others, that God’s faithfulness secures the preservation of his people, and “the righteous shall hold on his way.”

The seventh and last argument shall be drawn from what has already been done in us. I shall do little more than quote the Scriptures, and leave them to sink into your minds.  A blessed passage is that in Jeremiah 31:3: “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”  If he did not mean that his love should be everlasting he would never have drawn us at all, but because that love is everlasting therefore with lovingkindness has he drawn us.  The apostle argues this in a very elaborate manner in Romans 5:9-10: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”  I cannot stop to show how every word of this passage is emphatic, but so it is; if God reconciled us when we were enemies, he certainly will save us now we are his friends, and if our Lord Jesus has reconciled us by his death, much more will he save us by his life; so that we may be certain he will not leave nor forsake those whom he has called.

Do you need me to bring to your minds that golden chapter, the 8th of Romans, the noblest of all language that was ever written by human pen?  “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.  Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”  There is no break in the chain between justification and glory; and no supposable breakage can occur, for the apostle puts that out of all hazard, by saying, “ Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  It is God that justifieth.  Who is he that condemneth?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”  Then he heaps on all the things that might be supposed to separate, and says, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  In the same manner, the apostle writes in Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  I cannot stay to mention the many other Scriptures in which what has been done is made an argument that the work shall be completed, but it is after the manner of the Lord to go through with whatever he undertakes.  “He will give grace and glory,” and perfect that which concerneth us.

One marvelous privilege which has been bestowed upon us is of peculiar significance; we are one with Christ by close, vital, spiritual union. We are taught of the Spirit that we enjoy a marriage union with Christ Jesus our Lord – shall that union be dissolved?  We are married to him.  Has he ever given a bill of divorce?  There never has been such a case as the heavenly bridegroom divorcing from his heart a chosen soul to whom he has been united in the bonds of grace.  Listen to these words from the prophecy of Hosea 2:19-20. “And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.”

This marvelous union is set forth by the figure of the head and the body; we are members of the body of Christ.  Do the members of his body rot away?  Is Christ amputated?  Is he fitted with new limbs as old ones are lost?  Nay, being members of his body, we shall not be divided from him.  “He that is joined unto the Lord,” says the apostle, “is one spirit,” and if we are made one spirit with Christ, that mysterious union does not allow of the supposition of a separation.

The Lord has wrought another great work upon us, for he has sealed us by the Holy Spirit.  The possession of the Holy Ghost is the divine seal which sooner or later is set upon all the chosen.  There are many passages in which that seal is spoken of, and is described as being an earnest, an earnest of the inheritance.  But how an earnest if after receiving it we do not attain the purchased possession?  Think over the words of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 1:21-22; “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.”  To the same effect the Holy Spirit speaks in Ephesians 1:13-14; “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”  Beloved, we feel certain that if the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead will keep our souls and will also quicken our mortal bodies and present us complete before the glory of his face at the last.

Therefore we sum up the argument with the confident expression of the apostle when he said (2 Timothy 4:18), “The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”

II. Now, how shall we IMPROVE THE DOCTRINE PRACTICALLY?  THE FINAL PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.

The first improvement is for encouragement to the man who is on the road to heaven. “The righteous shall hold on his way.”  If I had to take a very long journey, say from London to John o’ Groats, with my poor tottering limbs to carry me, and such a weight to carry too, I might begin to despair, and, indeed, the very first day’s walking would knock me down; but if I had a divine assurance unmistakably saying, “You will hold on your way, and you will get to your journey’s end,” I feel that I would brace myself up to achieve the task.  One might hardly undertake a difficult journey if he did not believe that he would finish it, but the sweet assurance that we shall reach our home makes us pluck up courage.  The weather is wet, rainy, blusterous, but we must keep on, for the end is sure.  The road is very rough, and runs up hill and down dale; we pant for breath, and our limbs are aching; but as we shall get to our journey’s end we push on.  We are ready to creep into some cottage and lie down to die of weariness, saying, “I shall never accomplish my task;” but the confidence which we have received sets us on our feet, and off we go again.  To the right-hearted man, the assurance of success is the best stimulus for labor.  If it be so, that I shall overcome the world, that I shall conquer sin, that I shall not be an apostate, that I shall not give up my faith, that I shall not fling away my shield, that I shall come home a conqueror, then will I play the man, and fight like a hero.

This is one of the reasons why British troops have so often won the fight, because the drummerboys did not know how to beat a retreat, and the rank and file did not believe in the possibility of defeat.  They were beaten oftentimes by the French, so the French tell us, but they would not believe it, and therefore would not run away.  They felt like winning, and so they stood like solid rocks amidst the dread artillery of the foe till victory declared on their side.  Brethren, we shall do the same if we realize that we are preserved in Christ Jesus, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.  Every true believer shall be a conqueror, and hence the reason for warring a good warfare.  There is laid up for us in heaven a crown of life that fadeth not away.  The crown is laid up for us, and not for chance comers.  The crown reserved for me is such that no one else can wear it; and if it be so, then will I battle and strive to the end, till the last enemy is overcome, and death itself is dead.

Another improvement is this; what an encouragement this is to sinners who desire salvation. It should lead them to come and receive it with grateful delight.  Those who deny this doctrine offer sinners a poor twopenny-halfpenny salvation, not worth having, and it is no marvel that they turn away from it.  As the Pope gave England to the Spanish king – if he could get it – so do they proffer Christ’s salvation if a man will deserve it by his own faithfulness.  According to some, eternal life is given to you, but then it may not be eternal; you may fall from it, it may last only for a time.  When I was but a child I used to trouble myself because I saw some of my young companions, who were a little older than myself, when they became apprentices and came to London, become vicious; I have heard their mothers’s laments, and seen their tears about them; I have heard their fathers expressing bitterest sorrow over the boys whom I knew in my class to be quite as good as ever I had been, and it used to strike me with horror that I perhaps might sin as they had done.  They became Sabbath-breakers; in one case, there was a theft from the till to go into Sunday pleasuring.  I dreaded the very thought; I desired to maintain an unsullied character, and when I heard that if I gave my heart to Christ he would keep me, that was the very thing which won me; it seemed to be a celestial life assurance for my character, that if I would really trust Christ with myself he would save me from the errors of youth, preserve me amid the temptations of manhood, and keep me to the end. I was charmed with the thought that if I was made righteous by believing in Christ Jesus, I should hold on my way by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That which charmed me in my boyhood is even more attractive to me in middle life; I am happy to preach to you a sure and everlasting salvation.  I feel that I have something to bring before you this morning which is worthy of every sinner’s eager acceptance.  I have neither “if” nor “but” with which to dilute the pure gospel of my message.  Here it is; “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

I dropped a piece of ice upon the floor yesterday, and I said to one who was in the room, “Is not that a diamond?”  “Ah,” he said, “you would not leave it on the floor, I warrant you, if it were a diamond of that size.”  Now I have a diamond here – eternal life, everlasting life!  Methinks you will be in haste to take it up at once, to be saved now, to be saved in living, to be saved in dying, to be saved in rising again, for ever and ever, by the eternal power and infinite love of God.  Is not this worth having?  Grasp at it, poor soul; thou mayest have it if thou dost but believe in Jesus Christ, or, in other words, trust thy soul with him.  Deposit thine eternal destiny in this divine bank, then thou canst say, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.”  The Lord bless you, for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

True Faith by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6)—“But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2).  The linking together of these verses shows us the worthlessness of all religious activities where faith is lacking.  The outward exercise may be performed diligently and correctly, but, unless faith is in operation, God is not honored and the soul is not profited.  Faith draws out the heart unto God, and faith it is which receives from God—not a mere intellectual assent to what is revealed in Holy Writ, but a supernatural principle of grace which lives upon the God of Scripture.  This the natural man, no matter how religious or orthodox he be, lacks; and no labors of his, no act of his will, can acquire it.  It is the sovereign gift of God.

Faith must be operative in all the exercises of the Christian if God is to be glorified and the believer is to be edified.  First, in the reading of the Word: “But these are written that ye might believe” (John 20:31).  Second, in listening to the preaching of God’s servants: “The hearing of faith” (Gal. 3:2).  Third, in praying: “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:6).  Fourth, in our daily life: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7); “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).  Fifth, in our exit from this world: “These all died in faith” (Heb. 11:13).  What the breath is to the body, faith is to the soul; for one who is destitute of faith to seek to perform spiritual actions is like putting a spring within a wooden dummy and making it go through mechanical motions.

Now an unregenerate professor may read the Scriptures and yet have no spiritual faith. Just as the devout Hindu peruses the Upanishads and the Mohammedan his Koran, so many in “Christian” countries take up the study of the Bible, and yet have no more of the life of God in their souls than have their heathen brethren.  Thousands in this land read the Bible, believe in its Divine authorship, and become more or less familiar with its contents.  A mere professor may read several chapters every day, and yet never appropriate a single verse.  But faith applies God’s Word: it applies His fearful threats and trembles before them; it applies His solemn warnings, and seeks to heed them; it applies His precepts, and cries unto Him for grace to walk in them.

It is the same in listening to the Word preached.  A carnal professor will boast of having attended this conference and that, of having heard this famous teacher and that renowned preacher, and be no better off in his soul than if he had never heard any of them.  He may listen to two sermons every Sunday, and fifty years hence be as dead spiritually as he is today.  But the regenerated soul appropriates the message and measures himself by what he hears.  He is often convicted of his sins and made to mourn over them.  He tests himself by God’s standard, and feels that he comes so far short of what he ought to be, that he sincerely doubts the honesty of his own profession.  The Word pierces him, like a two-edged sword, and causes him to cry “O wretched man that I am.”

So in prayer—The mere professor often makes the humble Christian feel ashamed of himself.  The carnal religionist who has “the gift of the gab” is never at a loss for words: sentences flow from his lips as readily as do the waters of a babbling brook—verses of Scripture seem to run through his mind as freely as flour passes through a sieve, whereas the poor burdened child of God is often unable to do any more than cry “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  Ah, my friends, we need to distinguish sharply between a natural aptitude for “making” nice prayers and the spirit of true supplication: the one consists merely of words, the other of  “groanings  which  cannot  be uttered”—the one is acquired by religious education, the other is wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit.

Thus it is too in conversing about the things of God.  The frothy professor can talk glibly and often orthodoxy of “doctrines,” yes, and of worldly things, too: according to his mood, or according to his audience, so is his theme.  But the child of God, while being swift to hear that which is unto edification is “slow to speak.”  Ah, my reader, beware of talkative people; a drum makes a lot of noise, but it is hollow inside!  “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness; but a faithful man who can find?” (Prov. 20:6).  When a saint of God does open his lips about spiritual matters, it is to tell of what the Lord, in His infinite mercy, has done for him; but the carnal religionist is anxious for others to know what he is “doing for the Lord.”

The difference is just as real between the genuine Christian and the nominal Christian in connection with their daily lives: while the latter may appear outwardly righteous, yet within they are “full of hypocrisy, and iniquity” (Matt. 23:28).  They will put on the skin of a real sheep, but in reality they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”  But God’s children have the nature of sheep, and learn of Him who is “meek and lowly in heart,” and, as the elect of God, they put on “mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Col. 3:12).  They are in private what they appear in public.  They worship God in spirit and in truth, and have been made to know wisdom in the hidden parts of the heart.

So it is on their passing out of this world.  An empty professor may die as easily and as quietly as he lived—deserted by the Holy Spirit, undisturbed by the Devil; as the Psalmist says, “There are no bands in their death” (73:4).  But this is very different from the end of one whose deeply-plowed and consciously-defiled conscience has been “sprinkled” with the precious blood of Christ—“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psa. 37:37).  Yes, [with] a peace which “passeth all understanding” having lived the life of the righteous, he dies “the death of the righteous” (Num. 23:10).

And what is it which distinguishes the one character from the other—wherein lies the difference between the genuine Christian and he who is one in name only?  This—a God-given, Spirit-wrought faith in the heart.  Not a mere head-knowledge and intellectual assent to the truth, but a living, spiritual, vital principle in the heart—a faith which “purifies the heart” (Acts 15:9), which “worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6), which “overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4).  Yes, [it is] a faith which is Divinely sustained amidst trials within and opposition without; a faith which exclaims “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15).

True, this faith is not always in exercise, nor is it equally strong at all times. The favored possessor of it must be taught by painful experience that as he did not originate it neither can he command it; therefore does he turn unto its Author, and say, “Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.”  And then it is that, when reading the Word he is enabled to lay hold of its precious promises—that when bowing before the Throne of Grace, he is enabled to cast his burden upon the Lord—that when he rises to go about his temporal duties, he is enabled to lean upon the everlasting arms—and that when he is called upon to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, he triumphantly cries, “I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.” “Lord, increase our faith.”

From Studies in the Scriptures, February 1933.

Posted in A. W. Pink | 1 Comment »

Another Conversation on Assurance by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Mr. Humble Heart: “Good morning, Sir.  May I beg the favor of an hour of your valuable time?”

Editor: “Come in, and welcome.  What can I do for you?”

Humble Heart: “I am sore troubled in spirit: I long so much to be able to call God ‘my father,’ but I fear I might be guilty of lying were I to do so.  There are many times when I have a little hope that He has begun a good work within me, but alas, for the most part, I find such a mass of corruption working within, that I feel sure that I have never been made a new creature in Christ.  My heart is so cold and hard toward God, that it seems impossible the Holy Spirit could have shed abroad God’s love in me; unbelief and doubtings so often master me, that it would be presumptuous to think I possess the faith of God’s elect.  Yet I want to love Him, trust Him, serve Him, but it seems I cannot.”

Editor: “I am very glad you called.  It is rare indeed to meet with an honest soul these days.”

Humble Heart: “Excuse me, Sir, but I do not want you to form a wrong impression of me: an honest heart is the very blessing I crave, but I am painfully conscious, from much clear evidence, that I possess it not.  My heart is deceitful above all things, and I am full of hypocrisy.  I have often begged God to make me holy, and right after, my actions proved that I did not mean what I said. I have often thanked God for His mercies, and then have soon fretted and murmured when His providence crossed my will.  I had quite a battle before I came here to see you tonight, as to whether I was really seeking help, or as to whether my secret desire was to win your esteem: and I am not sure now which was my real motive.”

Humble Heart: “To come to the point, Sir, if I am not intruding.  I have read and re-read your articles on “Assurance” which appeared in last year’s magazines.  Some things in those articles seemed to give me a little comfort, but other things almost drove me to despair.  Sometimes your description of a born-again soul agreed with my own experience, but at other times I seemed as far from measuring up to it as the poles are asunder.  So I do not know where I am.  I have sought to heed 2 Corinthians 13:5 and ‘examine’ myself, and when I did so, I could see nothing but a mass of contradictions; or, it would be more accurate to say, for each one thing I found which seemed to show that I was regenerate, I found ten things to prove that I could not be so.  And now, Sir, I’m mourning night and day, for I feel of all men the most miserable.”

Editor: “Hypocrites are not exercised about their motives, nor troubled over the deceitfulness of their hearts!  At any rate, I am thankful to see you are so deeply concerned about your soul’s eternal interests.”

Humble Heart: “Alas, Sir, I am not half as much concerned about them as I ought to be.  That is another thing which occasions me much anguish.  When the Lord Jesus tells us that the human soul is worth more than the whole world put together (Mark 8:36), I feel that I must be thoroughly blinded by Satan and completely under the dominion of sin, seeing that I am so careless.  It is true that at times I am alarmed about my state and fearful that I shall soon be in Hell; at times too, I seem to seek God more earnestly and read His Word more diligently; but alas, my goodness is ‘as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away’ (Hos. 6:4).  The cares of this life so soon crowd out thoughts of the life to come.  O, Sir, I want reality, not pretense; I want to make sure, yet cannot.”

Editor: “That is not so simple a task as many would have us believe.”

Humble Heart: “It certainly is not. I have consulted several Bible teachers, only to find them ‘physicians of no value’ (Job 13:4).  I have also conferred with some who boasted that they never have a doubt, and they quoted to me Acts 16:31, and on telling them I did believe, they cried ‘Peace, peace,’ but there was no peace in my heart.”

Editor: “Ah, dear friend, it is not without reason that God has bidden us ‘give diligence to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10).  And even after we have given diligence, we still need the Holy Spirit to ‘bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God’ (Rom. 8:16).  Moreover, spiritual assurance may easily be lost, or at least be clouded, as is evident from the case of him who wrote the 23rd Psalm, for at a later date he had to cry unto God, ‘Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.’

Editor: “Before proceeding further, had we not better ask the help of the Lord?  His Holy Word says, ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths’ (Prov. 3:6).  And now, dear Brother, for such I am assured you really are, what is it that most causes you to doubt that you have passed from death unto life?”

Humble Heart: “My inward experiences, the wickedness of my heart, the many defeats I encounter daily.”

Editor: “Perhaps you are looking for perfection in the flesh.”

Humble Heart: “No, hardly that, for I know the ‘flesh’ or old nature is still left in the Christian.  But I have met with some who claim to be living ‘the victorious life,’ who say they never have a doubt, never a rising of anger, discontent, or any wicked feelings or desires; that Christ so controls them that unclouded peace and joy are theirs all the time.”

Editor: “Bear with me if I speak plainly, but such people are either hypnotized by the Devil, or they are fearful liars.  God’s Word says, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8).  And again, ‘There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not’ (Eccl. 7:20).  And again, ‘In many things, we offend all’ (James 3:2).  The beloved Apostle Paul when well advanced in the Christian life, declared, ‘I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members’ (Rom. 7:21-23).

Humble Heart: “That relieves my mind somewhat, yet it scarcely reaches the root of my difficulty.  What troubles me so much is this: when God regenerates a man, he becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus: the change wrought in him is so great that it is termed a ‘passing from death unto life.’  It is obvious that if God the Holy Spirit dwells in a person, that there must be a radical difference produced, both inwardly and outwardly, from what he was before.  Now it is this which I fail to find in myself.  Instead of being any better than I was a year ago, I feel I am worse.  Instead of humility filling my heart, so often pride rules it; instead of lying passive like clay in the Potter’s hand to be molded by Him, I am like a wild colt; instead of rejoicing in the Lord always, I am frequently filled with bitterness and repinings.”

Editor: “Such experiences as you describe are very sad and humbling, and need to be mourned over and confessed to God.  They must never be excused nor glossed over.  Nevertheless, they are not incompatible with the Christian state.  Rather they are so many proofs that he who is experimentally [by experience] acquainted with the ‘plague of his own heart’ (1 Kings 8:38) is one in experience with the most eminent of God’s saints.  Abraham acknowledged he was ‘dust and ashes’ (Gen. 18:27).  Job said, ‘I abhor myself’ (42:6).  David prayed ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed’ (Psa. 6:2).  Isaiah exclaimed, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips’ (6:5).  In the anguish of his heart, Jeremiah asked, ‘Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?’ (20:18).  Daniel once owned, ‘There remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption’ (10:8).  Paul cried, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom. 7:24).

“One of the principal things which distinguishes a regenerate person from an unregenerate one may be likened unto two rooms which have been swept but not dusted.  In one, the blinds are raised and the sunlight streams in, exposing the dust still lying on the furniture.  In the other, the blinds are lowered, and one walking through the room would be unable to discern its real condition.  Thus it is in the case of one who has been renewed by the Spirit: his eyes have been opened to see the awful filth which lurks in every corner of his heart.  But in the case of the unregenerate, though they have occasional twinges of conscience when they act wrongly, they are very largely ignorant of the awful fact that they are a complete mass of corruption unto the pure eyes of the thrice holy God.  It is true that an unregenerate person may be instructed in the truth of the total depravity of fallen man, and he may ‘believe’ the same, yet his belief does not humble his heart, fill him with anguish, make him loathe himself, and feel that Hell is the only place which is fit for him to dwell in.  But it is far otherwise with one who sees light in God’s light (Psa. 36:9); he will not so much as lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smites upon his leprous breast, crying, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner’.”

Humble Heart: “Would you kindly turn to the positive side, and give me a brief description of what characterizes a genuine Christian?”

Editor: “Among other gifts, every real Christian has such a knowledge of God in Christ, as works by love, that he is stirred up to earnestly inquire after the will of God, and studies His Word to learn that will, having a sincere desire and making an honest endeavor to live in the faith and practice of it.”

Humble Heart: “I cannot boast of my knowledge of God in Christ, yet by Divine grace this I may say: that I desire no other Heaven on earth than to know and to do God’s will, and be assured that I have His approval.”

Editor: “That is indeed a good sign that your soul has been actually renewed, and doubtless He who has begun a work of grace in your heart, will make the great change manifest in your life and actions.  No matter what he thinks or says, no unregenerate man really desires to live a life which is pleasing to God.”

Humble Heart: “God forbid that I should flatter myself, yet I hope I have often found delight when reading God’s Word or hearing it preached, and I do sincerely meditate upon it, and long that I may ‘grow in grace.’  Yet, at times, I am tempted with vain and vile thoughts, and I strive to banish them, my heart rising up against them; yet sometimes I yield to them.  I loathe lying and cursing, and cannot endure the company of those who hate practical godliness; yet my withdrawal from them seems nothing but pharisaic hypocrisy, for I am such a miserable failure myself.  I pray to God for deliverance from temptation and for grace to resist the Devil, but I fear that I do not have His ear, for more often than not I am defeated by sin and Satan.”

Editor: “When you thus fall in your duty, or fall into sin, what do you think of yourself and your ways?  How are you affected therewith?”

Humble Heart: “When I am in this deplorable condition, my soul is grieved, my joy of heart and peace of conscience gone.  But when I am a little recovered out of this sinful lethargy, my heart is melted with sorrow over my folly, and I address myself to God with great fear and shame, begging Him to forgive me, pleading 1 John 1:9, and humbly imploring Him to ‘renew a right spirit within me’.”

Editor: “And why is it that you are so troubled when sin conquers you?”

Humble Heart: “Because I truly wish to please the Lord, and it is my greatest grief when I realize that I have dishonored and displeased Him. His mercy has kept me, thus far, from breaking out into open and public sins, yet there is very much within which I know He hates.”

Editor: “Well, my dear brother and companion in the path of tribulation, God has ordained that the Lamb shall be eaten with ‘bitter herbs’ (Exo. 12:8).  So it was with the Apostle: ‘As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Cor. 6:10) summed up his dual experience: ‘sorrowful over his sinful failures, both of omission and commission; yet ‘rejoicing’ over the provisions which Divine grace has made for us while we are in this dreary desert – the Mercy Seat ever open to us, whither we may draw near, unburden our heavy hearts, and pour out our tale of woe; the Fountain which has been ‘opened for sin and for uncleanness’ (Zech. 13:1), whither we may repair for cleansing.  I am indeed thankful to learn that your conscience confirms what your tongue has uttered.  You have expressed enough to clearly evidence that the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in your soul.  But I trust you also have faith in the Lord Jesus, the Mediator, by whom alone any sinner can draw near unto God.”

Humble Heart: “By Divine grace, I do desire to acknowledge and embrace the Lord Jesus upon the terms on which He is proclaimed in the Gospel: to believe all His doctrine as my Teacher, to trust in and depend upon the atoning sacrifice which He offered as the great High Priest, and to submit to His rule and government as King. But, alas, in connection with the last, ‘to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not’ (Rom. 7:18).

Editor: “No real Christian ever attains his ideal in this life; he never reaches that perfect standard which God has set before us in His Word, and which was so blessedly exemplified in the life of Christ.  Even the Apostle Paul, near the close of his life, had to say, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:12).  But may I ask if you are sensible of how you arrived at the good desires you mentioned?  Do you suppose that such a disposition is natural to you, or that it has resulted from your own improvement of your faculties?”

Humble Heart: “No, Sir, I dare not ascribe to nature that which is the effect and fruit of Divine grace.  If I have any measure of sanctification (which is what I long to be assured of), then it can only be by the gift and operation of God.  I am too well acquainted with my wretched self: I know too well that by nature I am alive to vanity and sin but dead to God and all real goodness; that folly possesses my soul, darkness shrouds my understanding; that I am utterly unable to will or to do what is pleasing in God’s sight, and that my natural heart is set contrary to the way of salvation proposed in the Gospel, rising up against its flesh-condemning precepts and commandments.  I see, I know, I feel that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.”

Editor: “Then do you realize what must be the outcome if God were to leave you unto yourself?”

Humble Heart: “Yes, indeed.  Without the assistance of His Holy Spirit, I should certainly make shipwreck of the faith.  My daily prayer is ‘Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe’ (Psa. 119:117).  My earnest desire is that I may watch and pray against every temptation.  There is nothing I dread more than apostatizing, relaxing in my duty, returning to wallow in the mire.”

Editor: “These are all plain evidences of the saving grace of God at work within you, which I beseech Him to continue, so that you may be preserved with a tender conscience, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and obtain a full assurance of His love for you.”

Humble Heart: “I thank you kindly, Sir, for your patience and help.  What you have said makes me feel lighter in heart, but I wish to go home and prayerfully ponder the same, for I dare not take any man’s word for it.  I want God Himself ‘to say unto my soul, I am thy salvation’ (Psa. 35:3).  Will you not pray that it may please Him so to do?”

Editor: “You shall certainly have a place in my feeble petitions.  The Lord be very gracious unto you.”

Excerpted and edited from A.W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, October, 1932.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

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