Brooks on assurance: “True grace will enable a man to step over the world’s crown, to take up Christ’s cross; to prefer the cross of Christ above the glory of this world.”
Last week we looked at a couple of things. We looked at just a definition of assurance, and we saw that assurance is different than justification. Justification is God’s declaration of you, based on faith in Christ, that you are not guilty of all your sins. It’s full forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ. It’s something that happens in the heavenly realms. And once it happens in the heavenlys, it can never be revoked. You can’t lose your justification. It’s impossible. The thing is what happens in the heavenlies doesn’t always necessarily connect immediately to the earthly realm. You could be justified. This is basically Brooks’ point. You could be justified and not have a strong and solid healthy assurance of your justification. The two are somewhat independent. And whereas your justification is a steady state kind of binary, yes, no, either you’re justified, or you’re not justified. You can’t be a little more justified.
You can’t grow in justification. You can’t be more justified today than what you were last week. These things are impossible. You either are or you are not justified, but assurance really does wax and wane. It really does increase and decrease. Your sense of your state with God can get stronger, and it can get weaker. And whereas justification absolutely is not in any way connected to your good works, must not be connected to your good works. It’s an insult to think that you can use your good works to pay for your sins, impossible. And so, we are not in any way justified by works, but simply by faith in Christ. On the other hand, assurance is very much connected to your works, very much connected to how you’re doing, your performance, connected to how you’re doing in putting sin to death. It’s connected, all these things.
And so, as you are doing these things, as you’re walking in obedience in the power of the Spirit, your assurance will go up, and it will get stronger. And as on the other hand, you are yielding to sin and to temptation and drifting, and not being faithful in the ordinances, going to church, reading the Bible, the other things that God’s given, your assurance will decrease. It will wax and it will wane depending on how you’re doing. And so that’s the point. And so, the issue here and the whole book is the nature of assurance. What makes it grow stronger? What makes it grow weaker? How can we have a healthy assurance? And then he gave us some weighty propositions on assurance, and we worked through those last time. One of the ones that we kind of skirted over toward the end is that assurance is not for Arminians.
Now what do we mean by that? By Arminians we mean those that are focusing on free will, on human free will, on human decisions, alright? It’s kind of the opposite of what we call the doctrines of grace or the sovereignty of God in salvation. This approach to salvation says that it really depends on you, and that you must be faithful, and you must continue in your obedience and all that. You can see that Arminians therefore can really have no assurance of salvation. It’s not for them. It’s impossible. You can’t have assurance of salvation in the Arminian system, and they’ll say that. It’s not part of their scheme. Rather, you need to keep cranking it out. Now you can see why assurance of salvation will be very, very important even in your service to God. Suppose you have no solid assurance of your salvation, and yet you’re doing good works.
What’s the problem there? What confusion could come to you on that issue? You don’t know whether you’re going to heaven or hell, but you’re doing all these religious activities, you’re doing all these good works. What could the problem be? Doing these things in your own strength. How about in your understanding of salvation? What could the problem be there? Absolutely. You might actually, practically, and effectively come to deny justification by faith alone apart from works because you don’t know whether you’re going to heaven or hell. And you need to keep working, keep doing these things, keep fasting more, keep praying. And you’re constantly concerned about your state with God. And so all of your good works really come into suspicion, don’t they? On the other hand, how beautiful and how sweet and how lovely are good works done by a fully assured Christian. You see, they’re not doing it in any way to prove or to accomplish their own salvation, but just as a natural flowering of their salvation, just out of love for God and out of love for neighbor, they’re doing these things you see.
And so, assurance really affects everything in so many ways. And this is this book, Heaven on Earth, one of the great treatises on Christian assurance. That’s just kind of a summary of the things that we talked about last time. Now today we’re going to look across the top of the book kind of in a general sense. Then we’re going to dig in. There are a number of headings. The first is, hindrances to assurance and how they may be overcome. So, Brooks is going to talk to us about what hinders your assurance. What hinders you? What holds you back from a full assurance of faith in Christ? And how can we overcome them? He’s going to talk about nine hindrances to assurance, and how they may be overcome. I wonder this about these Puritans, how they crank out these endless lists. It’s incredible because each one of these has eight sub-points.
This is why I have a 14-page outline and didn’t feel that I did a good job on it. I mean they just go on and on. They’re very good at breaking things up into component parts. So, he’s dealing first with this issue of hindrances to assurance. The next thing he’s going to look at, major heading, is “motives to provoke Christians to be restless until they have obtained a well-grounded assurance of their eternal blessedness.” In other words, he wants to provoke you to work on this issue of assurance. He wants you to be stimulated to make your calling and election sure. He wants you to work at it, and he gives you motives why you should work on this issue of assurance. So, we’re going to talk about that, 11 motives. We’re not going to talk about all 11, but that’s what he does, and he gives 11 motives or reasons.
Then next we’re going to look at ways and means practically how you can gain assurance of salvation. What do you do? How can we go about this? How can we grow and strengthen ourselves in assurance of salvation? Also, nine ways and means that he says of gaining a well-grounded assurance. And then the sixth chapter, he gives us the differences between a true and counterfeit assurance. Between sound assurance, a healthy assurance and what you could call presumption. Presumption. So, he’s distinguishing between what’s true and what is counterfeit. And then he answers questions on assurance. That’s the whole book. Do you see it? Just in big picture? He’s dealing with how assurance is hindered basically. First of all, he gives us a definition and then he talks about assurance in a general way. Then he starts digging in and says, what holds us back from assurance? What hinders us?
How can we overcome them? Then he tries to stimulate you to kind of be at this, be working at this matter of assurance of salvation. And then tells you very practically how you can gain assurance and then how you can distinguish between true assurance and presumption. Okay, do you see the big picture?
Alright, well let’s dig into some of the details. Let’s talk about this issue of hindrances to assurance and how they may be overcome. On the first page of your outline, the first hindrance that he talks about is despair. Despair. The despairing of obtaining mercy. Now, I believe that despair is a very powerful weapon of the devil. I believe anytime that you’re feeling despair, you can be sure that the devil is behind it, that Satan is behind it. Satan wants you to feel despair. What is despair? It’s a lack of hope, a lack of hope. A hopelessness, depression, is related to this, a sense of discouragement and despair. I think the devil very much works this way.
And I talked about this in my abortion sermon in January that the devil must do this because he can’t win if we go out and take the field. You see that not just on the issue of abortion, but on any kind of Christian endeavor. If you go out and take the field against him, he will lose. And he knows it because you have the Christian armor. You have the full armor, and he can’t penetrate it. So, you are defensively, you’re set. He can’t hurt you. Furthermore, he can’t withstand your offensive weapons. 2 Corinthians 10 says they’re powerful for the demolishing of strongholds. So, his arguments, his strongholds can’t stand up against your offensive weaponry. So, his best bet is to intimidate you from taking the field at all.
You see that, don’t you? And so, he’s going to be working discouragement, despair, and to make you feel weak and listless in your Christian life, make you feel despair. Well, this is all the more true in the issue of assurance. You can see that despair is the exact dead opposite of assurance, isn’t it? I mean, they’re exactly opposite things. So, if he can work despair, it’s a great hindrance to assurance because they’re polar opposites. Now what does Brooks do? Well, the first thing he does is show you what a terrible state of the soul despair is. And he kind of rebukes you out of it. He says, this is a great dishonor to God. It’s great dishonor to God.
This is what he says, “Despairing thoughts make a man fight against God with his own weapons. They make a man cast out all the cordials of the Spirit against the wall, as if they’re things of no value. They make a man suck poison out of the sweetest promises.” That’s a terrible state to be in. “Despair makes every sweet bitter, and every bitter exceeding bitter. It puts gall and wormwood into the sweetest wine.” Despair is a terrible mental state to be in. And so, he’s working very strongly on this. He reasons hard with despairing people. He calls it a great sin. He says, “Is not despair an exceeding vile and contemptible sin? Is it not a dishonor to God or reproach to Christ and a murderer of souls? It does without a doubt proclaim the devil a conqueror and lifts him above Christ himself. And so somehow the devil were more powerful than Christ. Despair is an evil that flows from the greatest evil in the world.” It flows from unbelief, doesn’t it? There’s a direct connection between unbelief and despair. It flows also from ignorance and from misapprehensions of God and his grace.
So, despair is therefore the special work of the devil. As we’ve been saying it flows from Satan, who forever being cast out of paradise, labors with all his art and might to work poor souls to despair of ever entering paradise. This is what he does. He says that despair was Judas’ damning sin. He talks about how even Manasseh, who was a monster, God was gracious to him when he repented and turned. And God heard his prayer and restored him to his throne. So even a monster like this who is still remembered generations later for his wickedness. Jeremiah the prophet, said because of what Manasseh did, I will not hear prayer concerning Jerusalem. And he was dead and gone by then. So, the things he did were terrible, terrible sins. And yet he obtained mercy from God. But Judas, filled with despair, perished and was lost and despair, overwhelmed his soul.
Consider, he says, all the vile sinners who’ve been saved like Saul, the persecutor. He reasons with us. He says, consider also the freeness of God’s grace given the sinners apart from what they deserve. Consider the perfection of God’s love totally grounded in himself, not in the sinner, and consider the primacy of God’s mercy. So, what is he doing to overcome despair? He’s working on your thinking, isn’t he? He’s trying to show you these doctrines, the truth on which your soul can be grounded. He’s driving out despair with the truth of the word of God. God’s mercies are above all his works, above all ours too. Isn’t that wonderful? God’s mercy is above everything we do. It is higher than all of that. His mercy is without measures and rules. All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy. Despair is therefore a great insult to the precious blood of Christ, isn’t it?
All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy. Despair is therefore a great insult to the precious blood of Christ, isn’t it?
Listen to what Brooks says, “Again, tell me, O despairing souls. Do you not do infinite wrong to the precious blood of the Lord Jesus? Does not your despair proclaim to all the world that there is no such worth and virtue, no such power and efficacy in the blood of Christ as indeed there is? Oh, how will you answer this to Christ in that day wherein his blood shall speak.” Don’t insult the blood of Christ by your despair. That’s what he’s saying. And then consider also that God has brought others out of the gulf of despair. Others have been down there. Asaph in Psalm 77, “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever?” These are the questions of a despairing heart, aren’t they? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? And Psalm 77 answers no, but in the end, God will be merciful again to his people.
And then there’s Jonah, right? What a character he was. But Jonah got thrown overboard and started to sink. And he says in Jonah 2:4, “I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” So, he was feeling that despair of being banished from God because of his rebellion. And yet in faith inside the fish, he looked again spiritually toward God’s holy temple. Brooks says this, “Oh, despairing souls, despairing souls. You see that others whose conditions have been as bad, if not worse than yours, have obtained mercy. God has turned their hell into heaven. He has remembered them in their low state. He has pacified their raging consciences and quieted their distracted souls. He has wiped all tears from their eyes and has been a wellspring of life to their hearts. Therefore, remember who is your rest, and kick no more by despair against the wooings of divine love.” Isn’t that wonderful? When I read this, I don’t just minister to myself, because actually I’m very rarely in a state of despair. It’s not a common thing for me. But as a pastor, I may actually face people who are in this state and not only therefore do I learn how I might comfort myself, but how I could as a pastor minister to others who are feeling this. What approach does he take to minister to the soul? And so, you should learn not only for yourself, but also that you might take this and benefit somebody else. Who knows, but maybe in the next month or two you’d be dealing with somebody who’s got a very dark view of their own soul, in the state of their soul, and you feel that you could minister in this way.
There’s a lot to learn this way. A second hindrance that he talks about is the disputing about things that are too high for our thoughts. Now, what does he mean by that? Well, two things in particular, specifically disputing with Satan about the eternal decrees and counsel of God. Am I predestined before the foundation of the world or not? Predestination is a biblical doctrine, but it’s really very difficult to be ruminating over these things that are too high for us. I can’t resolve it. I can’t figure it out. How could everything be predestined before the foundation of the world? These secret counsels of God, and you’re getting yourself all worked up, getting yourself all worked up. This is not going to minister assurance to your souls. Not at all. Now the doctrine of predestination can, no doubt about that. But wondering how the decrees of God fit together, “the secret things belong to the Lord” the scripture says.
And secondly, it says, just disputing with Satan at all is a great hindrance to assurance. He’s a great arguer. Have you never read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress? He always has a rejoinder. Doesn’t he always has something he can answer back? But the Archangel Michael didn’t dispute with the devil. He just said, “the Lord rebuke you,” and did his business and was on. Don’t engage. It bothers me when I hear people, pastors and others talking to the devil in prayer and all this kind of thing. This is not for us to do. He’s too smart for us. He’s too tricky, too powerful. He wants to engage us into a debate. Archangel Michael said, “The Lord rebuke you,” and that was it. Alright, well if the Archangel Michael does that, then I think we should do no more than that. So, disputing with the devil about anything can lead you into discouragement rather than assurance.
That’s a hindrance to assurance. Now this one is I think very important, and it’s kind of an interesting one on the heels of our study from John Owen, John Owen, a mortification of sin. You’re looking inward to find sin. Search me, O God, and know me. See if there’s any sin inside me, right? Well here what Brooks says is that the failure to, the lack of self-examination can be a hindrance to assurance. In this case then it’s opposite from what Owen was doing. Here we’re looking inward for things that God did, works of grace in the heart. Now you need to know what they are, but here’s how it works. If you have an accurate assessment of the native state of the human heart, what the human heart is naturally capable of doing, and what it is not naturally capable of doing, right? And you also have a list therefore from scripture of those things that grace alone can work in the heart, right?
If you could find from scripture those things that God alone can put into a heart and then you look inward and see those things in your heart, that’s a great form of assurance, isn’t it? And if you were to look inward and say, well, I see these things, but that’s natural to the human heart. No, it isn’t. Such as a hungry and thirsting after righteousness, and a yearning for personal holiness, and all of these other things that we’ll talk about. But if you look inward and you see those things there. And you know that only God can work that in a heart, that’s a great form of assurance, isn’t it? But what if you never do that? What if you never take the time to assess yourself, to look inward, to see what God has done, not just outside of you in the world, but in you.
What has God done in me? And so, he cites here 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you’re in the faith.” Test yourselves. Now, when you read that, what do you think? Well, give me the test questions, God, I need to know how I can test myself. Well, that’s part of what we’re going to seek to do tonight. That yellow sheet I think will give you some indications of what God does in a heart when he does this work of regeneration. But in 2 Corinthians 13:5, he says, “Test yourself. Don’t you know that Christ is in you, that Christ Jesus is in you. Unless of course you fail the test.” Well doesn’t that leave you, at least me at least, saying what’s the test? Tell me what it is. I want to know how I can test my heart to know whether Christ is in me or not.
And I think that’s what the Puritans did probably better than any movement in history is to give us what that test is, what we call these marks of regeneration. What are the things that God does in a heart when they’re truly saved? Alright? Now, in some cases, self-examination, what you could call morbid introspection, can hinder assurance. That is true, but that’s not what Brooks is talking about here. In some cases, self-examination can be a great cause of assurance when we see all that God has done in us by grace. The key then is learning to identify what could only have been done by God. And then when you see it in your souls, you rejoice. You can rejoice, is what it should say. “Oh, you staggering, wavering souls, you tossed and disquieted souls, know for a certain that you’ll never come to experience the sweetness of assurance till your eyes be turned inward, till you live more at home than abroad, till you come to discern between a work of nature and a work of grace.”
Underline that. That’s it. That’s the key. You’ve got to be able to discern between what is natural and what could only have been done by God. And when you can discern that from scripture, then you are ready. You’re prime for assurance. Do you see how it works? Let’s find out what those things are. But he says you’ve got to learn to discern the difference between nature and grace. “So, you put a difference between the precious and the vile, between God’s work and Satan’s work. When this is done, you’ll find the clouds to scatter, and the son of righteousness has shine upon you, and the day star of assurance to rise in you.” Isn’t that wonderful? I think this has been a kind of a journey for this church. To move away from a kind of a simplistic acceptance of every sinner’s prayer and every baptism and every card sign and every simplistic external mark. And say, these are no sure and certain signs of regeneration. Regular church attendance and membership, no sure and certain sign, being active in committees, no sure and certain sign of regeneration.
Well then, it’s left us asking, then, what are the sure uncertain signs of regeneration? And that’s what we’re working on here in this book. Now, this self-examination is not a quick or light searching, but a thorough probing of the heart with the Holy Spirit’s help. It is not every spiritual movement of the soul that is a true work of grace, but some are. And we want to find out what they are. So, we’re going to discern those. Alright, the fourth hindrance that he gives us here is the entertaining of mistaken views about God’s work of grace. “The way to remove this impediment is wisely and seriously to distinguish between renewing grace and restraining grace, between common grace and special grace, between temporary grace and sanctifying grace.” Now what do we mean by temporary grace? Well, understand in one way of thinking, any good thing that God does for a sinner is grace. You understand that don’t you? It’s what we could call common grace.
“He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). We got a lot of that today, didn’t we? And now we’re getting the sun. So, God has been doubly blessing us today. We get both the sunshine, and we get the rain. Is that grace or not? Of course it’s grace. We didn’t get what we truly deserved. We deserved fire and brimstone. Instead, we got rain, we got life-giving water from heaven. And so that is grace, but is that regenerating grace? No, I wouldn’t think so. Christ’s statement makes it plain. He sends it on both the wicked and the good. So, it’s not regenerating grace to have raindrops falling on your head. That is not going to save your soul. And there are actually many of those types of common grace blessings, which are no sure and certain sign that you’re going to heaven.
We deserved fire and brimstone. Instead, we got rain, we got life-giving water from heaven.
What we have to do is find out what are. And so, I actually went, it alludes in the book here to the nature of true grace from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, another book that he wrote. So, I took the time to type it out for you, and it’s also on your yellow sheet. Let’s take a minute and go through them. He gives us 10 here. The nature of true grace as distinguished from common grace, or those things that do not convert. You understand what we’re talking about here. So, this made it to your marks of regeneration sheet. Number 1, true grace transforms the whole person, making them entirely new inside and out. That’s what grace does. It changes you radically inside and out. It changes everything. Isn’t that what 2 Corinthians 5:17 says? “If anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. The old is gone, everything is new.”
You’re transformed, you are a new creature, okay? True grace does that. “True grace enables a person to be conversant about the highest and best objects, the most precious objects of our faith, not merely the low objects that are within easy reach of reason.” We’re talking about the best of the best. Grace works that in your heart. We’re talking about heaven; we’re talking about face-to-face fellowship with God. We’re talking about perfection and holiness and regenerated bodies, the resurrection body. These things are not too high for somebody who’s been transformed by grace. This is where they live. This is what they love. They’re conversant about these things, and they’re attracted to them. And they know them and all the more as they grow. But this is what grace does. Thirdly, true grace enables a Christian when he is himself, you can circle that, true grace enables a Christian when he is himself to do spiritual actions with real pleasure and delight, not as a grievous burden under which he chafes.
Do you see that? Now why did he add, “when he is himself?” When are you not yourself? When sin has the upper hand, right? When you’re behaving like a pagan, when you’re behaving like sin is your master. Well, then are your spiritual burdens a joy and delight? No, they’re not. But when you are yourself, namely who you really are, and you could say, is this valid language? Oh, absolutely. If you look in Romans 7, he says, as it is, it is no longer I who do it (sin), but it is sin living in me that does it. Well, that’s kind of strange. What is he a dual personality kind of guy? Well, yeah, in a manner speaking, and you know what I’m talking about. There’s this vile thing in us called sin, and sin has no interest in submitting to Christ’s gentle yoke, none. And so, it is like you’re dragging this kicking and screaming spoiled brat along with you the whole way, the whole journey of sanctification.
I don’t want to pray; I don’t want to go to church. I don’t want to read the Bible. That’s the way it is. That’s sin, right? But that regenerated new nature within you is delighted to do those things. It’s not a burden. And when you are walking in the power of the Spirit, that new nature has without a doubt the upper hand. It’s who you really are. And in the end that old nature will be utterly done away with. We will be perfect in spirit and body. That’s wonderful. It’s not yet, but it’s wonderful. But when you are yourself, you do spiritual actions with real pleasure and delight. They’re not a grievous burden under which you chafe. Do you see how this weeds out the wheat from the chaff? See a non-Christian that’s just going through the motions, those motions are a burden to them, aren’t they?
It’s hard for them to pray. It’s hard for them to sit and listen to a Bible study. It’s hard for them to be at worship. These things are a burden for them. They do them, but they’re a burden. Number 4, true grace makes a man most careful and most fearful about his own heart, constantly examining it concerning its progress. I mean, we are concerned about what’s going on in our hearts, aren’t we? We’re concerned about the progress of our internal spiritual nature, about our hearts. What are we taking in? What are we doing? What is our behavior pattern? How is it going? Are we starting to sin? Are we yielding to temptations? We’re watching over it. True grace makes you careful about these things. Somebody who hasn’t received true grace is not concerned about these things, the matters of the heart. Fifthly, true grace will work a man’s heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God for their purity and sanctity in the face of all dangers and hardships.
True grace will work a man’s heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God for their purity and sanctity in the face of all dangers and hardships.
You could just write on number 5, this is holiness. Holiness, true grace works holiness in you even if it’s difficult, even if it’s hard, even if it costs you a lot. It’s what you want, isn’t it? And that’s what grace works in you. Number 6, true grace will enable a man to step over the world’s crown, to take up Christ’s cross. You’d rather have Christ’s cross than the world’s crown, wouldn’t you? If you’re truly born again, it’s like give me Christ, give me death, give me suffering. Give me being with Jesus, Philippians 3, rather than all of the accolades the world can give. I have no interest in them. Just like Daniel said to Belshazzar, keep your purple robe and your gold chain for yourself. I have zero interest in them, none (Daniel 5:17). But he would rather suffer with God’s people. And so, number 6, that’s what grace does. Number 7, true grace, what he calls sanctifying or renewing grace, puts the soul upon spiritual duties from spiritual and intrinsic motives, not from earthly, external earthly motives.
See you later, Pharisees. They make long prayers so that they can be seen by men. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you have received your award in full” (Matthew 6:5, paraphrase). Paid in full. Nothing on Judgment Day for you or your prayers. Same thing with fasting. Same thing with all of your spiritual duties. Why? Because they’re done for external reasons, that people might see you, and you might gain some kind of praise or benefit in this world from them. But the truly born-again person isn’t doing them for those reasons. They’re doing them from internal spiritual reasons, intrinsic to themselves. You see that it’s an internal thing. Number 9, true grace leads the soul to rest upon Christ as his highest good, his ultimate aim, and goal. Christ is delightful to the soul of a truly born-again person. Can’t talk enough about Christ, can’t think enough about Christ, yearning to see him, want him. He’s your treasure. He’s your pleasure. He’s what you want. He is the focus of your heart and your soul.
You’re excited to hear more about Christ. You want to hear more about his miracles, about his great teachings. You want to hear more about his blood and his resurrection, his triumph over the grave. These things are not a burden to you. They’re the delight of your soul. Not bored with Jesus, but you love and are delighted in talking about Jesus. And number 10, true grace will enable a soul to sit down, satisfied with the naked enjoyment of Christ. Christ without honor, Christ without riches, Christ without health, Christ without success. Christ alone is enough for you. And we can see that in Paul and Silas. It’s enough for them just singing in prison, getting beaten for Jesus. That’s enough for them. They’re totally satisfied, happiest people in the whole city of Philippi.
All right. Christ is enough, sufficient. But for a hypocrite or a non-truly born-again person, Christ is not enough. Not in any way, shape or form. These other things are very much the point, the health and the wealth and the honors and the accolades and the earthly benefits. That come in some cases, even from religion like the Pharisees. That’s the list that he gives us. Now that’s from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. But if you have wrong views of grace, it will hinder you in assurance. If on the other hand you see these 10 things, and then you look inward and you find them in your heart, that’s a doorway to assurance, isn’t it? And it’s a great assurance and great encouragement. Any questions about this list before we go on? Take a minute. As you look over, anything you don’t understand. (audience)
Well, I would think a godly sorrow would be very much God-focused. Because of you, God, and because of my relationship with you and what you’ve done, I’m very grieved that I’ve done this and very sad about it. Despair is not God focused at all. It’s turning away from God. It’s just the sinner and his sin without any hope, without any Christ really, without any blood, without any resurrection. Just the sinner in his sin, marinating in his sin. And that’s despair, and that’s very dishonoring to God. In a way saying that the blood of Christ is not enough for your sin. I think that’s the difference. The Godly sorrow is very much God-focused and saying, really, it’s exactly because of you. That’s why I’m sad that I did this. I would think that’s a difference. Any other questions about this? Well that’s what Brooks said, but I think what it means is, it’s the one that finished him off. You can put it that way because the fact of the matter is there was a record of all other different kinds of sinners being saved.
I mean Saul of Tarsus, a blasphemer and a persecutor. David, an adulterer. All the other sins you could imagine have a record of somebody finding salvation despite them. You see what I’m saying? But when he killed himself, it’s over. There’s nothing left. Now, I think there’s more going on than that. I think Judas was, as Jesus said, a devil through and through. So, there’s more here than meets the eye in Judas, but I think that’s what he means. It’s the one that just finished him off. There’s nothing left. And basically, that sin of despair led to a suicide and right into the presence of a condemning judge. And we do know he was lost. And as a matter of fact, I think he’s the only human being we know is in hell by name. Only one, which I think is interesting. It’s the only one.
Any other questions? Yeah, I think maybe it’s a matter of degrees, but there is such a thing as spiritual depression. “Why are you downcast, O my soul, why so disturbed within me? Put your trust in God” (Psalm 42:11). I think that would be depression or discouragement like that. Despair seems again to be almost of a different nature, and it kind of cut from a different cloth. Although it’s similar, it’s very godless, despair. But discouragement may be actually very God-saturated, but you’re just not cutting the mustard, you’re not doing well. And so, like we’re talking about godly sorrow, there’s a lot in the Bible about spiritual depression. Actually. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a book on spiritual depression, and Psalm 42 is big. Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Lloyd-Jones says that a lot of the Christian life is preaching to yourself. Talk to your soul.
Isn’t that what the psalmist is doing there? Come on, soul. What’s the matter with you? Get up. Come on now. God’s still the same as he was last time you felt good about God. He hasn’t changed any. Come on, move out now. Let’s go. So, he’s kind of preaching to himself, you see? So, I think that would be it. Maybe. I think intrinsically despair and discouragement may in the end be different, although they act a lot the same. One of them godless and faithless. (audience) Yeah, a lot of things can come in, that’s for sure. And William Cooper, another good example of somebody who even to the point of flirting with suicide, thoughts of suicide and that can happen. Alright, let’s keep going.
The grieving of the Holy Spirit by the believer is clearly a great hindrance to assurance. Is it not? The Spirit that ministers assurance to us. Don’t grieve him.
He’s the one who’s going to minister assurance to you. Why in the world would you treat him poorly? The grieving by not hearkening to his voice, by refusing his counsel, by stopping the ear, by throwing water upon the fire he kindles in their souls, by falsely attributing to the Spirit what is to be attributed to men’s own passions and distempers?
Oh boy, that one slipped by. What do we mean by that? There are times when you have an inclination to do something, and you may say, oh, it’s the Spirit that’s leading me to do it. No, it’s not. It’s your own lust and passions. And then you go ahead and give into it. And then you ascribe to the Spirit the thing that came from your own, your own passion and desire. True assurance, therefore, very much comes from Galatians 5:25, “Keeping in step with the Spirit.”
And he gives us a quote here. I’m noting that it’s 7:10 pm, and we’re only on page three of a 14-page outline. So, we’re going to keep moving. The judging of spiritual matters by mere feelings or human reason. “Are your feelings and your reason sufficient accurately to judge your spiritual state?” Oh, you know they’re not. How many times have your feelings been out of step? How many times have they been? As one person said, “Like rebellious children, feelings are frequently out of step with reality.” And so, your all things he says on page four, “all differences and controversies that arise in your heart should be ended by the word. If you’re resolved to make sense and feeling the judge of your condition, you must resolve to live in fears and lie down in tears.” I like that. So basically, when you make your own opinion of yourself and your feelings and your own reason, the basis for assurance, you’re going to have problems.
Now, this one is very strong. “The indulging of laziness and carelessness in the Christian life is a great hindrance to assurance. Men are so active in pursuing after the world. But how lifeless in pursuing exercises of grace. Promises of assurance and comfort are not made to lazy people.” What does that mean? Well, I’m not having my quiet time, not really going to church much these days. Well, what do you think your assurance is going to look like? It’s going to be terrible. It’s going to be terrible. When you get lazy in your Christian life and stop doing the things you need to do, you can guarantee your assurance is going to go down, down, down, down. He says, “Remember this, that the promise of assurance and comfort is made over not to lazy, but to laborious Christians, not to idle, but active Christians. Not to negligent, but diligent Christians. Lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.” Alright? He also says, our service to Christ should be hot with passion and zeal, not lifeless and listlessness. “Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Now notice this is a subpoint under the heading, dealing with laziness. How is a lack of zeal in Christian service a form of laziness? What’s the connection there? (audience) That’s right. That’s right to me. You just don’t want to stir yourself up. I think that there’s a lot of lazy worship that happens. People just come in, and they’re not ready to worship. Imagine what our singing would be like if everyone came in filled with the Spirit and eager to sing whatever hymn, even if it’s not your favorite, sing it to God and to his glory. What would our worship sound like?
I have been in the presence of people like that before. They weren’t perfect people, but at the Bethlehem Conference for pastors at John Piper’s church, we sang A Mighty Fortress is our God, brought tears to my eyes. I’d sung it hundreds of times before that, but never like that. Never like that. And a lot of the guys around me were singing off key, alright? I was probably singing off key, but there was a power to that singing. They were singing with zeal, with heat, with fervency. But conversely, if you’re not serving God that way, your assurance won’t be strong. So that again comes back to that psalm. Stir yourself up. Speak to your soul. Why are you so lifeless, Soul? Get up and get moving. Praise God. Move. Come on, sing. Get up, stir yourself up. He talks about heat. He says, be fervent or seething hot in spirit.
Seething hot serving the Lord. That’s zeal, right? Oh, there’s so many good quotes in here, and I’ve typed them all out, but I’m not even going to get a chance to read them. So, you read them when you get home. Or even better read the whole book. The next one, H, is the neglect of duties ordained by God such as prayer, confession of sin, Bible intake, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, the hearing of the preached word. These are ordinances of God whereby he blesses your soul. If you neglect them, it’s like neglecting food for your body. Don’t surprised if you’re weak and listless and having problems and getting sick. When you’re not taking in the things that God has ordained. The Lord’s Supper, the hearing of the word, worship, fellowship, Bible intake, in your private prayer closet. These things are meant to strengthen your soul. If you don’t do them, you’re going to have problems.
And the love of the world is a great hindrance to assurance. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). So, love of the world is a great hindrance and burden to the spiritual health. Top of page five, he says, “Solomon got more hurt by his wealth than he got good by his wisdom.” Isn’t that true? I think when I think of Solomon, I think first and foremost, I think of son of David. And I think that he was also wise and built the temple, but he really just starts to think about his life. There are two words in Chronicles that come across to me. “Solomon accumulated.” That’s it. That sums up his life. He was an accumulator, he was a collector, chariots and horses and wives and gold and silver and thrones and clothes and stuff.
And I think in the end it led his heart astray. I think his heart was being led astray even before he had foreign wives who worshiped other gods. I think there was just a problem there. And so, I like this analogy:
Sicily is so full of sweet flowers that dogs cannot hunt there. The scent of the sweet flowers diverts their smell. And ah, what do all the sweet delights and contents of this world do, but make men lose the scent of heaven, but divert men from hunting after assurance and from running after Christ in the sweetness of his ointments.
We get satisfied. Our nostrils are filled with the scent of the world, and we have no interest in following after Christ. That’s a big problem. Alright, and then finally the cherishing of secret sins. Obviously, this is a big issue, and this connects back to Owen. If you’ve got some kind of a secret sin, what he says,
The secret cherishing and running out of their hearts to some bosom darling sin. How many be there that dally and play with sin even after they have put up many prayers and complaints against sin? And after they have lamented and bitterly mourned over their sins, many there be that complain of their deadness, barrenness, forwardness, conceitedness, censoriousness, and other forms of baseness, and yet are ready at every turn to gratify, if not to justify those very sins they complain against.
No wonder that such people lack assurance. There could be something that’s burning in your heart right now, some kind of sin, and you’re not putting it to death. And your assurance will not be healthy and strong until you do. It just makes sense, doesn’t it? You can’t nurse that sin and expect any good thing from God. And so, if you don’t have assurance, look to your heart and see if there’s some secret sin. Now the next thing he does in chapter 4 is give us motives to provoke Christians to be restless until they have obtained a well-grounded assurance of their salvation, of their eternal happiness and blessedness.
He gives 11 motives. Let’s just look through them quickly. First of all, many have been lost who thought they were saved? Ouch. I actually think one of the most terrifying things in all the Bible is, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers” (Matthew 7:23). Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, lord, lord. And he’s going to say, I don’t know who you are. I never knew you. Now, I think self-deception in the matter of salvation is a devastating concept, isn’t it? That it would even be possible to deceive yourself concerning your own salvation. Is that possible? Is it possible that you could be self-deceived concerning your salvation? Do you think there are any self-deceived people in America today? I don’t know what the stats are, we up to 90% born-again in our country? I have no idea. I mean it’s incredible.
I think there must be self-deceived people, even in churches. Especially in churches perhaps. So, if the fact is that is possible to be that, be a great motive, to kind of get busy on this matter of assurance. That you would know what are true and certain grounds of assurance and not false or presumptions, I would think that would get you busy. It would get you moved, moving. And so, he gives us as a motive the world also is full of deceivers. There are teachers who will tell you you’re fine when you’re not. They will flatter you. They’ll tickle your ears and make you feel good about yourself when you’re not converted. And because of that, another reason to be moving out in the matter of assurance. Also, assurance delivers from the burdens of cares, fears and doubts. That’s a motivation. Think of the sweetness that would come from just knowing for sure that you’re going to heaven.
Satan labors to keep Christians from assurance. So that’s a good reason. Just anything he hates, do it. That’s a very good motivation. Satan, what do you want me to do today? Okay, I just want to do the opposite, whatever it is. So, he’s trying to keep you away from assurance. That’s a good reason to go for it. A well-grounded assurance, number five, is of great value to the believer, bringing great joy and delight. Number six, worldlings labor hard to secure the things of this life. Saints should show equal ardor for better things. I like this quote:
What riding, running, plotting, lying, swearing, stabbing and poisoning is used by men of this world to make sure of the poor things of this world, that are about shadows and dreams and nothings. O then be ashamed, Christians, that worldlings are more studious and industrious to make sure of pebbles than you are to make sure of pearls. To make sure of those things that at last will be their burden, their bane, their plague, their hell, then you are to make sure of those things that would be your joy and crown in life, in death, and in the day of your account.
Why do they work so hard for all those nothings? And we do so little in the matter of assurance. And that’s what he’s reasoning in that way, kind of provoking us. Saying, hey, they get up and go to work at six o’clock, they’re working at it, and it’s going to lead them to nothing. Maybe you could get up and work a little harder in your Christian life. That’s kind of what he’s getting at. Number seven, assurance renders burdens light. This is so true. Alright, well what burdens? Any burdens. Look at the apostle Paul. I mean, have you suffered like him? Answer? No. Okay. It’s simple. Some things are simple. That one’s simple. No, you have not suffered like Paul. This guy led a life of suffering, didn’t he?
A tough, tough life. Every single day getting up to preach the gospel, wondering if he was going to get stoned to death. I mean, amazing courage. Brooks puts it this way:
The apostles went through many weaknesses, sicknesses, wants, and deaths. They had nothing and yet possessed all things. They had burden upon burden cast upon them by the churches, by false apostles, by an uncharitable world. And yet they cheerfully bore all burdens without them being a burden through the power of well-grounded assurance.
2 Corinthians 5:1, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” And then 2 Corinthians 6:8-10, “Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report, genuine yet regarded as imposters known and yet regarded as unknown, dying. And yet we live on beaten and yet not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor, yet making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing everything.”
What a great way to go through life. I mean, what a great way to go through health problems. What a great way to go through unemployment. What a great way to go through other physical problems you may have in your life or even relational problems. To go through fully assured of your own salvation, sweetens and lightens every burden. So, it’s well worth it, don’t you think? To have a strong assurance lightens every burden. Number eight, God urges Christians to get assurance. So just like number four when Satan doesn’t want you to have it, so go for it. Anything God commands you that you should have and pushes you towards, you should do it. So, God urges you to have assurance. And then 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Hebrews 6:11 are evidence of this, Christians are seriously injured by lack of assurance, by living without assurance.
“You lay yourselves open to all of Satan’s snares and temptations. Yea, you do instigate and provoke Satan to tempt you to the greatest neglect, to tempt you to the strangest shifts and to reduce you to the saddest straits.” You lose the following by lack of assurance. You lose comfort and joy, peace and contentment, boldness and confidence in service if you don’t have assurance. And then he gives us 10 advantages which accompany assurance. Assurance produces heaven on earth. Hence the title of the book, Heaven on Earth. And he doesn’t mean it actually brings heaven to earth, but in effect, your heart is living in heaven while you are on earth. And very much like Colossians 3:1, “Set your hearts on things above.” So, your mind is filled with heaven. It brings heaven down into your hearts when you have assurance.
Assurance also sweetens life’s changes. Do you get bothered sometimes by how much life changes? I mean, I look even at this church, and do you realize how much turnover there’s been since I’ve been here? It’s incredible. And I don’t know how many of you will be here five years from now. I don’t know if I’ll be here in five years. I don’t know if it’ll be alive. This is a changeful world we live in, isn’t it? Is there anything you can look at with your eyes and say, now that right there, now that is permanent. I mean that. Now that’s one thing I know will never go. Can you say that? Certainly not after 9/11. There’s nothing like that. You can look at it and say now he, now she, now that it’s permanent, it’s going to be here. That’s a burden, isn’t it? That’s a trouble because everything’s changeful in this world. Well, somebody filled with assurance can handle that because their hearts are set on something that doesn’t change.
“A city with foundations whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). And so, he talks about that, a good quote in there, but we won’t take time to read it. Assurance also keeps the heart from desiring the world. Galatians 6:14 is a great verse, “May I never boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” May I never boast, “except,” sorry, “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” That’s a phenomenal verse. Basically, I’m dead to the world and the world is dead to me. When the world looks at me, my life makes no sense. I’m living a foolish life, says Paul. So, I’m dead to them. They just think of me as some kind of a condemned criminal or something. Well, guess what the world looks like to me. It looks dead to me.
Assurance also keeps the heart from desiring the world.
I have no interest in it. And that’s what assurance does. It gives you a sense of deadness to it. Assurance sweetens your communion with God. Assurance preserves from backsliding. Now, how does this work? Backsliding is a kind of a domino effect in the Christian life, right? You start to sin, and then the next day you don’t check it and go immediately back to walking healthy with God. So, you follow one bad day with another bad day, you follow one rebellion with another one. How does assurance stop that process? Well, the thing that caused you to continue straying is thinking God won’t welcome you back. You stay away from God. And Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). So, you’re even more and more and more vulnerable to temptation. And so, you just start to accelerate in drifting away from God. I’ve seen it happen before. But somebody with a healthy assurance is not a perfect person.
Assurance is made for people here on earth. People in heaven don’t need assurance. They’re looking at Jesus face to face. There’s no assurance needed there. Who needs hope? Who needs faith in heaven? You don’t need these things, but you need assurance here on earth. And therefore, assurance is for sinners, not perfect people. So, sinners sin. Doesn’t that make sense? Okay, you get that right? Sinners sin. That’s why they’re called sinners. And so when you sin, and yet you have a healthy and strong assurance, what are you going to do? You’re going to immediately confess your sin, come to the throne of grace, mercy and grace to help in time of need. You’re going to immediately be restored on a healthy walk with God. And you’re going to continue in your Christian life. But if you don’t have a strong assurance, you’re going to add sin to sin, and you’re going to start to drift. Does that make sense? So good strong assurance is a great protection from backsliding.
Assurance also produces holy boldness with God. It makes you familiar and comfortable with God at the mercy seat. Assurance prepares a man for death. It’s so grievous to me when people who have been in the church all their lives are not ready for death. That bothers me. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why churched people die so poorly, and I’ve seen it happen. And it’s been a great grief to my soul. No assurance, no Christ it seems, no thinking about resurrection or the blood. I mean none of that. Just they die like pagans. And it bothers me. They don’t talk much about Jesus. They say, well, I’ve had a good run. I don’t understand that. It bothers me when I think about that. Well, we’ve had some good things. We had some good vacations and enjoyed things.
And so, what about Christ? I mean, he’s your only hope. Talk to me about Jesus. I never really knew that much about all that. Oh, my goodness. I think that we should die well. I think that we should be, I like this, look at this bottom of page seven. “Assurance will make a man sick of his absence from Christ.” Did you see that? I’m tired of being away from Jesus. I want to be with him. It’s better for me by far to depart this world and see Christ. Isn’t that wonderful? That’s Paul’s attitude in Philippians 1. Better by far to die. Better by far. But for you, better for you if I stay, because God’s using me to do good ministry in your life. And so, for me, though I’d rather go, I’m willing to stay. Now, that’s incredible. What a Christ-like attitude. But he, is he afraid of death? No, he’s welcoming it. Bring it on. So, assurance helps you die well.
“Assurance makes mercies taste like mercies.” Read about that in the book. I’m not going to talk about it. “Assurance gives vigor and energy in the Christian service.” That makes sense. “Assurance leads to the soul’s enjoyment of Christ.” And then finally, 11th point, “A well-grounded assurance will keep a Christian from being deceived by counterfeits.” Now, I’ll tell you what, let’s take a minute and look at the sheet, the yellow sheet so that we can know what we mean by counterfeits. Okay? What are marks of regeneration? How can I know if I’m saved? Brooks gives us six differences between true Christians and hypocrites. Number one, true Christians labor in all duties to be approved and accepted by God, caring very little about human opinion. Paul even says that in Corinthians, says, “I care very little if I’m judged by you or by any human court. I don’t even judge myself” (1 Corinthians 4:3). I don’t care about what I think about me. I care very much what God thinks about me. And so, a true Christian is going to labor very much to be assured and blessed by God. That’s what matters. Approved and accepted by God.
Secondly, true Christians labor to get to the very top of holiness, they labor to live up to their own principles. What do we mean by this? A true Christian is never going to say, hey, I’m kind of where I want to be on that whole holiness thing. I’m there, I’m really satisfied. The view is good from here. It’s a good place to rest, and I’m content with my holiness. A true Christian is never going to say that. And you know why? Because the true Christian knows who the standard is, and the standard is Jesus. And the true Christians never satisfied until they’re dead. And then when they die, they’re instantly transformed to be like Jesus. And then they’re satisfied. But a true Christian says, get up. I’m still alive. I’m still moving. Let’s go. Let’s still work on holiness. Let’s still work on putting sin to death. Let’s still work on being like Jesus. Every day a true Christian always upward, always pressing on. Paul says, I forget what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead. I’m moving. I’m going. That’s a true Christian’s way. He thinks thirdly, and then he just starts to address this directly. So, I put it in this true Christian speaking to you now. Is not your greatest desire and endeavor that your sin may be cured rather than covered? Don’t you want it out? I mean, gone forever. That’s what a true Christian, that the way he thinks. I don’t just want a fix here. I want, I want the thing to be removed forever.
I want it resolved, not just covered. Now, don’t misunderstand the word covered because in one sense I think that’s exactly what God does, is cover your sin. Blessed is a man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. I think that’s what he does. Yom Kippur is the day of covering, but that’s not what Brooks means here. What he means is kind of papered over, whitewashed. You know how he talks about whitewashed tomb? He says, A true Christian is not interested in whitewash. They want the genuine thing. They want sin really dealt with. Fourth, true Christian, is not your soul taken with Christ? Aren’t you just taken with Christ as the Chief above 10,000? As altogether lovely and desirable? We already touched on this earlier, a true Christian’s enraptured with Jesus. Jesus, he’s your hope. He’s your righteousness, he’s your sanctification. He’s everything to you.
True Christian can’t talk enough about Jesus. There’s no “too much” about him. Christians can get together and just talk about Jesus for hours. They really can do that. They can do that. That’s what I think of when I think of fellowship. It’s not talking about the ballgame. Now, I don’t mind talking about ballgames, alright? But that to me isn’t fellowship with a capital F. To me, it’s let’s talk about Jesus. Let’s talk about what he did. Let’s talk about his parables. Let’s talk about his miracles. Let’s talk about the time he talked to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him. Let’s talk about when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Let’s talk about Revelation 1 and the vision of glory. And when his head and hair were white like wool, and his feet were like burnished bronze, and his voice was with the sound of many waters.
Let’s talk about when he comes back on that great white horse with hordes of armies behind him, and he crushes all evil. I could go on. Let’s just talk about Jesus. And a true Christian’s going to be, yeah, let’s do it. Let’s do it. Let’s talk. Can’t get enough. Number five, “True Christian, are not your greatest and hottest conflicts against your inward pollutions, against those secret sins that are only obvious to the eye of God and to your own souls.” Isn’t that where it’s at? Isn’t that your war? Isn’t that what you’re fighting? Isn’t that the thing you’d like dealt with the most? Yes, it is. Even if no one ever finds out, God sees it, and you know it, and you want it done. You want holiness, and then, true Christian, are you not subject to Christ as your head willingly? Gladly, not like the devils reluctantly and chafing and kicking, but willingly, gladly, sweetly, subject to Christ as your head, universally subject to him.
I’m not talking about perfection, but saying whatever you want, Jesus, in my life, that’s what I want done. I’m not holding anything back. You’re my head. I’ll follow you whatever you want. That’s what I want. He is your head. Gladly, happily, sweetly submitting, constantly and unweariedly. It’s not a burden to you to walk with Jesus. It’s not a burden to you every day to lower your neck and have him put his yoke on you because his burden is easy, and his yoke is light. And so, it’s a delight to you. Those six things are not true of non-Christians. Do you see that? And when you look in and you say, yes, that’s me, that’s me, that’s who I am. And you must say that, it’s actually a dishonor to God if he’s done this in your life for you to say, well shucks, that means you’re taking credit for it.
It’s nothing you did. These are things he’s worked in you. Give him the honor and the glory, and you get the joy. That’s a good deal, don’t you think? He gets the glory in doing these six things in you. And you get to feast on the sweetness. He said, actually, it’s your duty to suck honey from this honeycomb. It’s your duty to be happy about this, that God’s done this work in your soul. Alright, let’s look at the backside. We already looked at the bottom 10 nature of true grace. Eight differences between the prayers of the godly and the ungodly. What might they be? Number one, true Christians trade and deal with God. I like that, “in prayer only upon the account and credit of Christ.” You realize you don’t have 10 cents to deal with God. Okay? You’re there on borrowed money on Christ, alright, on his account.
You’re there, and you don’t deserve to be there except from Jesus. But that’s enough. You have welcome. Number two, true Christians pray more to get off their sins than they do to get out of earthly troubles. They’re not looking, get me out of this. Get me out of that. They’re saying, God, get me out of sin. I mean, I want purity. I want holiness in my life. Number three, true Christians pray in a constant stream after spiritual and heavenly things. They’re hungry for heavenly things. That’s what they’re looking for. Not, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz. That’s not it. Number four, true Christians look more upon God in prayer than they trust in the act of praying itself. Muslims trust in the act of praying. They talk a lot about their prayer lives. They pray more than we do. I guarantee they do. Five times a day, they do those rote prayers.
True Christians usually come out of prayer with hearts more disengaged from sin, more vehemently set against sin.
Have you seen them on tv? They pray more than you, okay? But they’re trusting in the act of prayer. We’re trusting in the God to whom we’re praying. There’s a difference. There’s a difference. Number five, true Christians do not give up easily or ever give up praying altogether if they’re disappointed and don’t get what they want. We are never going to give up prayer. Prayer is our language. It’s the language of our soul. So, we’re never going to say, boy, I haven’t done that prayer thing. True Christians, we’re never say that. Now, maybe you didn’t get what you wanted, and sometimes we’re put off in prayer, but we never give it up. Number six, true Christians pray fervently from the heart. Prayer is a heart work for them. It’s not an outward show. Number seven, true Christians usually come out of prayer with hearts more disengaged from sin, more vehemently set against sin. And number eight, true Christians do more “I” and observe how their own hearts are affected by prayer than how other hearts are affected. So, you’re seeing what God is doing in your own life through prayer. That’s the difference between the prayers of true Christians and the false sham prayers of hypocrites. We are out of time. (prays)
III. Hindrances to Assurance, and How They May Be Overcome
A. The despairing of obtaining mercy
1. BUT despair is a terrible state to be in
“Despairing thoughts make a man fight against God with his own weapons; they make a man cast all the cordials of the Spirit against the wall, as things of no value; they make a man suck poison out of the sweetest promises…”
“Despair makes every sweet bitter, and every bitter exceeding bitter; it puts gall and wormwood into the sweetest wine.”
2. Brooks reasons hard with despairing people: despair is a GREAT sin
“Is not despair an exceeding vile and contemptible sin? Is it not a dishonor to God, a reproach to Christ, and a murderer of souls? … It does without a doubt proclaim the devil a conqueror, and lifts him above Christ himself. Despair is an evil that flows from the greatest evil in the world; it flows from unbelief, from ignorance, from misapprehensions of God and His grace…”
3. Despair is the special work of the devil
“[Despair] flows from Satan, who, being forever cast out of paradise, labors with all his art and might to work poor souls to despair of ever entering paradise.”
4. Despair was Judas’s damning sin
Manasseh, a monster, was forgiven… but Judas, filled with despair perished and was lost
5. Consider all the vile sinners who have been saved (like Saul, the persecutor)
6. Consider the freeness of God’s grace… given to sinners apart from what they deserve
7. Consider the perfection of God’s love… totally grounded in Himself, not in the sinner
8. Consider the primacy of God’s mercy
“God’s mercies are above all His works, and above all ours too. His mercy is without measures and rules. All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy.”
9. Despair is a great insult to the precious blood of Christ
“Again, tell me, O despairing souls, do you not do infinite wrong to the precious blood of the Lord Jesus?… Does not your despair proclaim to all the world that there is no such worth and virtue, no such power and efficacy in the blood of Christ, as indeed there is? Oh! How will you answer this to Christ in that day wherein His blood shall speak…?”
10. Consider also that God has brought others out of the gulf of despair
[Asaph] Psalm 77:7-9 “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? 8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”
[Jonah] Jonah 2:4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
“O despairing souls, despairing souls, you see that others, whose conditions have been as bad, if not worse than yours, have obtained mercy. God has turned their hell into heaven; He has remembered them in their low state; He has pacified their raging consciences, and quieted their distracted souls; he has wiped all tears from their eyes, and has been a well-spring of life to their hearts…. Therefore, remember who is your rest, and kick no more, by despair, against the wooings of divine love.”
B. The disputing about things too high for our thoughts
1. Specifically, disputing with Satan about the eternal decrees and counsel of God
2. Also disputing with the devil directly
C. The lack of self-examination
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you– unless, of course, you fail the test?
1. In some cases self-examination (“morbid introspection”) can hinder assurance
2. But in some cases self-examination can be a great cause of assurance, when we see all that God has done in us by grace
3. The key is in learning to identify what could only have been done by God, and then when you see it in your souls, you can rejoice!!
“O you staggering, wavering souls, you tossed and disquieted souls, know for a certain that you will never come to experience the sweetness of assurance, till your eyes be turned inward, till you live more at home than abroad, till you come to discern between a work of nature and a work of grace, till you put a difference between the precious and the vile, between God’s work and Satan’s work. When this is done, you will find the clouds to scatter, and the Sun of righteousness to shine upon you and the daystar of assurance to rise in you.”
4. This is not a quick, light searching… but a thorough probing of the heart
5. Not every “spiritual movement of the soul” is truly a work of grace… but some are!!
D. The entertaining of mistaken views about God’s work of grace
“The way to remove this impediment is wisely and seriously to distinguish between renewing grace and restraining grace, between common grace and special grace, between temporary grace and sanctifying grace.”
The Nature of True Grace [from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, p. 155ff]
1) True grace transforms the whole person, making them entirely new inside and out
2) True grace enables a person to be conversant about the highest and best objects, the most precious objects of our faith… not merely the low objects that are within easy reach of reason.
3) True grace enables a Christian, when he is himself, to do spiritual actions with real pleasure and delight, not as a grievous burden under which he chafes.
4) True grace makes a man most careful and most fearful about his own heart, constantly examining it concerning its progress.
5) True grace will work a man’s heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God, for their purity and sanctity, in the face of all dangers and hardships.
6) True grace will enable a man to step over the world’s crown, to take up Christ’s cross; to prefer the cross of Christ above the glory of this world.
7) True grace (sanctifying, renewing grace) puts the soul upon spiritual duties from spiritual and intrinsic motives, not from external earthly motives.
8) True grace (sanctifying, renewing grace) will cause a man to follow the Lord fully in the desertion of all sin, and in the observation of all God’s precepts… to the hatred of all sin and to the true love of all righteousness.
9) True grace leads the soul to rest upon Christ as his highest good, his ultimate aim and goal.
10) True grace will enable a soul to sit down satisfied with the naked enjoyment of Christ… Christ without honor, Christ without riches, Christ without health, Christ without success… Christ alone is enough.
E. The grieving of the Holy Spirit by the believer
1. By not hearkening to His voice, by refusing His counsel, by stopping the ear, by throwing water upon the fire He kindles in their souls, and by falsely attributing to the Spirit what is to be attributed to men’s own passions and distempers (and those of the devil)
2. True assurance very much comes from “keeping in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:26)
“Ah, doubting souls! If you would ever have assurance, you must observe the motions of the Spirit, and give up yourselves to His guidance; you must live by His laws, and tread in His steps; you must live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit; you must let Him be chief in your souls.”
F. The judging of spiritual matters by mere feelings or by human reason
“Reason’s arm is too short to reach this jewel of assurance. This pearl of price is put in no hand but that hand of faith that reaches from earth to heaven…. To make sense and feeling the judges of our spiritual conditions, what is it but to make ourselves happy and miserable, righteous and unrighteous, saved and damned in one day, ay, in one hour, when sense and reason sit as judges on the bench?”
“…Let all differences and controversies that arise in your hearts be ended by the Word… If you are resolved to make sense and feeling the judge of your condition, you must resolve to live in fears and lie down in tears.”
G. The indulging of laziness and carelessness
1. Men are so active in pursuing after the world! But how lifeless in pursuing exercises of grace
2. Promises of assurance and comfort are not made to lazy people:
“Remember this, that the promise of assurance and comfort is made over, not to lazy but to laborious
Christians; not to idle but to active Christians; not to negligent but to diligent Christians.”
“The lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.”
3. ALSO our service to Christ should be hot with passion and zeal, not lifeless and listless Romans 12:11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
“Be fervent (or seething hot) in spirit, serving the Lord. That service that has not heavenly heat, that has not divine fire in it, is not service, it is lost service. A lazy spirit is always a losing spirit. Remember that he that will find rich minerals must dig deep, he that will be rich must sweat for it, he that will taste the kernel must crack the shall, he that will have the marrow must break the bone, he that will wear the garland must run the race, he that will ride in triumph must get the victory. So (therefore) he that would get assurance must be active and lively in duty.”
“My advice to you, lazy Christians, is this: cease complaining of the lack of assurance, and be no more formal, slight, and superficial in religious services, but stir up yourselves, and put out all your might and strength in holy actions, and you shall experimentally find that it will not be long before you shall have such good news from heaven, as will fill you with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
H. The neglect of duties ordained by God
1. Such as prayer, confession of sin, Bible intake, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, the hearing of the preached word, etc.
2. These ordinances are great means of grace for assurance… the neglect of them results in loss of assurance
I. The love of the world
1. Earthly riches are a great burden to spiritual growth… hard to bear successfully
2. So also the pleasures and enjoyments of this world
“Solomon got more hurt by his wealth than he got good by his wisdom. Such a fire rose out of his worldly enjoyments, as did even consume and burn up his choicest spirits and noblest virtues; under all his royal robes, he had but a thread-bare soul.”
“Sicily is so full of sweet flowers that dogs cannot hunt there, the scent of the sweet flowers diverts their smell. And ah! what do all the sweet delights and contents of this world, but make men lose the scent of heaven, but divert men from hunting after assurance, and from running after Christ, in the sweetness of His ointments.”
“Worldly Christians, remember this: you and the world must part, or else assurance and your souls will never meet. God will not give the sweetness of heaven to those that are gorged and surfeited with the delicacies of the earth.”
J. The cherishing of secret sins
“The secret cherishing and running out of their hearts to some bosom, darling sin…”
“Ah! how many be there that dally and play with sin, even after they have put up many prayers and complaints against sin, and after they have lamented and bitterly mourned over their sins. Many there be that complain of their deadness, barrenness, forwardness, conceitedness, censoriousness, and other forms of baseness; and yet are ready at every turn to gratify, if not to justify, those very sins that they complain against. No wonder that such people lack assurance!”
IV. Motives to Provoke Christians to be Restless till they have Obtained a Well-grounded Assurance of their Eternal Happiness and Blessedness
Eleven motives why Christians should earnestly seek after a well-grounded assurance:
1. Many have been lost who thought they were saved
“Many are now dropped into hell that have formerly presumed of their going to heaven.”
2. The world is full of deceivers
“There be a great many soul-flatterers, soul-deceivers, and soul-cheaters in the world. The devil has put his angelical robes upon many of his chief agents, that they may the more easily and the more effectually deceive and delude the souls of men.”
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
3. Assurance delivers from the burden of cares, fears, and doubts
4. Satan labors to keep Christians from assurance
5. A well-grounded assurance is of great value to a believer… bringing great joy and delight
6. Worldlings labor hard to secure the things of this life; saints should show equal ardor for better things
“What riding, running, plotting, lying, swearing, stabbing, and poisoning is used by men of this world, to make sure of the poor things of this world, that are but shadows and dreams and nothings! … Oh then be ashamed Christians, that worldlings are more studious and industrious to make sure of pebbles, than you are to make sure of pearls; to make sure of those things that at last will be their burden, their bane, their plague, their hell, than you are to make sure of those things that would be your joy and crown in life, in death, and in the day of your account.”
7. Assurance renders burdens light
“The apostles went through many weaknesses, sicknesses, wants and deaths; they had nothing and yet possessed all things; they had burden upon burden cast upon them by the churches, by false apostles, and by an uncharitable world, and yet they cheerfully bore all burdens without them being a burden, through the power of a well-grounded assurance.”
2 Corinthians 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
2 Corinthians 6:8-10 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
8. God urges Christians to get assurance
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you– unless, of course, you fail the test?
NASB Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
9. Christians are seriously injured by the lack of assurance
“By living without assurance, you lay yourselves open to all Satan’s snares and temptations; yea, you do instigate and provoke Satan to tempt you to the greatest neglects, to tempt you to the strangest shifts, and to reduce you to the saddest straits.”
You lose the following by lack of assurance: comfort and joy, peace and contentment, boldness and confidence in service
10. Ten advantages which accompany assurance:
a. assurance produces heaven on earth (within your hearts)
“An assured soul lives in paradise and walks in paradise and works in paradise and rests in paradise; he has heaven within him.”
b. assurance sweetens life’s changes
“While a man lives in the sense of unchangeable love, no outward changes can make any considerable change in his spirit. Let times change, let men change, let powers change, let nations change, yet a man under the power of assurance will not change his countenance, nor change his master, nor change his work, nor change his hope. Though others under changes turn, like the chameleon, into all colors to save their little all, yet the assured soul under all changes is always the same.”
c. assurance keeps the heart from desiring the world
Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
d. assurance sweetens communion with God
“Assurance of a man’s interest (inheritance) in God sweetens every thought of God, every sight of God, every taste of God, and every good word of God. God is as sweet to the assured soul when He has a sword in His hand as when He has a scepter…”
e. assurance preserves from backsliding
2 Peter 1:10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall
Assurance cuts off backsliding before it really begins… as soon as one sin occurs, the assured believer comes boldly to God for forgiveness and restoration, certain of welcome and forgiveness; backsliding is cut off
f. assurance produces holy boldness with God
“It will make a man divinely familiar with God; it will make a man knock boldly at the door of free grace; it will make a man come boldly before the mercy-seat; it will make a man enter boldly within the holy of holies.”
g. assurance prepares a man for death
“Assurance will make a man sick of his absence from Christ. It made the martyrs to brave it out with lions, to dare and tire their persecutors, to kiss the stake, to sing and clap their hands in the flames, to tread upon hot burning coals as upon a bed of roses.”
“The assured soul knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins and sorrows, of all afflictions and temptations, of all desertions and oppositions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of his joys…”
h. assurance make mercies taste like mercies
i. assurance gives vigor in Christian service
“Assurance will make a man fervent, constant, and abundant in the work of the Lord, as you may see in Paul. The assured Christian is more motion than notion, more work than word, more life than lip, more hand than tongue. When he has done one work, he is a-calling out for another. ‘What is the next, Lord’ says the assured soul, ‘What is the next?’”
j. assurance leads to the soul’s enjoyment of Christ
11. A well-grounded assurance will keep a Christian from being deceived by counterfeits
“There is a great deal of counterfeit knowledge, counterfeit faith, counterfeit love, counterfeit repentance in the world, so there is also a great deal of counterfeit assurance in the world.”
“Many there be that talk high, and look big, and bear it out bravely that they are thus and thus, and that they have such and such glorious assurance, whereas, when their assurance comes to be weighed in at the balance of the sanctuary, it is found too light; and when it comes to withstand temptations, it is found too weak, and when it should put the soul upon divine action, it is found to be but lazy presumption.”
V. Ways and Means of Gaining a Well-grounded Assurance
A. Be active in exercising grace
“If ever you would have assurance, stir up the grace of God that is in you; blow up that heavenly fire; raise up those noble spirits; never cease believing nor repenting, until it be clearly given into your bosoms that you are as sure that you do believe, and that you do repent, as you are sure that you live.”
B. Assurance is obtained by obedience
“Assurance is heavenly wages that Christ gives, not to loiterers but to holy laborers. Though no man merits assurance by his obedience, yet God usually crowns obedience with assurance.”
John 14:21-23 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
C. Follow diligently the instructions of the Holy Spirit
“To gain assurance, the Christian must be kind to the Spirit, hear His voice, follow His counsel, live up to His laws.”
“As ever you would have assurance, beware of Him and obey His voice, provoke Him not; for if you do so by willful transgressions, He will neither comfort you nor counsel you; He will neither be a sealing nor a witnessing Spirit to you; nay, He will raise storms and tempests in your souls; He will present to you the Father frowning, and your Savior bleeding, and Himself as grieving. And these sights will certainly rack and torture your doubting souls. The Spirit of the Lord is a delicate thing, a holy thing, a blessed guest, that makes every soul happy where He lodges. ‘Therefore grieve not the Holy Spirit of God’ (Ephesians 4:30)”
D. Be diligent in attendance upon ordinances
E. Pay particular attention to the scope of God’s promises of mercy
1. Absolute promises do not describe to whom salvation and all eternal blessings are going
2. SO labor to see those particular things within you that are gifts of God’s grace
a. faith: your sincere willingness to believe is your faith, and this gift brings you within the compass of the promise of eternal happiness and blessedness
b. waiting patiently on God: the ability to wait patiently on God for His promises is a direct gift to your soul
c. hungering and thirsting after righteousness: a constant yearning for righteousness is not natural to the soul and is a great evidence of God’s work in you
i) earnest and vehement hungering and thirsting ii) arising from spiritual and heavenly considerations
iii) resulting in the soul becoming lively after righteousness (it makes you active)
Isaiah 26:9 My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.
“A thirsty man will not only long for a drink but endeavor with all his might to get one!” iv) satisfied only by spiritual things
F. Six matters in which Christ’s true followers are distinguished from all others
1. True Christians labor in all duties to be approved and accepted by God, caring very little about human opinion
2. True Christians labor to get up to the very top of holiness; they labor to live up to their own principles
3. True Christian: Is not your greatest desire and endeavor that your sin may be cured rather than covered?
4. True Christian: Is not your soul taken with Christ as chief above ten thousand, as altogether lovely and desirable?
5. True Christian: Are not your greatest and hottest conflicts against your inward pollutions, against those secret sins that are only obvious to the eye of God and your own souls?
6. True Christian: Are you not subject to Christ as your Head?
a. willingly, gladly, sweetly subject to Christ as Head
b. universally subject in all His commands, not just occasionally or partially
c. constantly and unweariedly
TEST YOURSELF BY THIS LIST!! DO YOU DO THESE THINGS???
If you can say… “Yes! We do these things; we should belie the grace of God should we say otherwise. These things the Lord has worked in us and for us!!”, then know
1) Your estate is good; you certainly have a blessed interest (inheritance) in Christ; for none can do these things but those in union with Christ
2) It is no iniquity but your duty to suck sweetness out of these honeycombs, and to look upon these things as infallible pledges and evidences of your everlasting happiness and blessedness. G. Seek to grow in grace
2 Peter 1:5-8 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
These qualities are to be linked together and all of them growing… if so, you will have a strong assurance
H. Seek assurance when the soul is in its best frames
1. When your soul is in its best and most spiritual frame God-wards, heavenwards, holinesswards
2. Times of temptation and desertion are praying times, hearing times, mourning times, and believing times… but not seasonable times for seeking assurance immediately
I. Ascertain whether you have the things that accompany salvation: notably Knowledge, Faith, Repentance, Obedience, Love, Prayer, Perseverance, and Hope
Hebrews 6:9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case– things that accompany salvation.
1. The things that accompany salvation: Knowledge
a. It is operative: it acts powerfully on both the heart and the head
b. It is transforming: it transforms the soul “from glory into glory”
c. It is experimental: it gives an active taste and sense of heavenly things
d. It is heart-affecting: see above
e. It is world-despising: it causes the heart to despise the world by comparison
f. It is soul-humbling: it makes a man very low and little in his own eyes
g. It is appropriating: it says of spiritual things, this is mine
h. Knowledge has attendant graces: thirsting for more, desire to teach, zeal for God
2. The things that accompany salvation: Faith
a. The objects of Faith:
i) The person of Christ ii) The righteousness of Christ iii) The promises of God iv) The future glory
b. The properties of Faith:
i) It promotes vitality: it gets a man active and energetic in things of God
ii) It grows: it has a dynamic and increasing nature iii) It belittles the glories of the world: it makes us seem like strangers on earth iv) It purifies the heart: it has a cleansing quality, purging us of sin
v) It melts the soul: it makes us yield gladly and softly to God, to weep for sin vi) It overcomes the world: it conquers the traps the world sets
c. Strong Faith and Weak Faith
3. The things that accompany salvation: Repentance:
a. Repentance: its properties
i) It effects a change in every part of a man ii) It is a turning from all sin iii) It is a turning to God iv) It strikes particularly at the sins to which a man was formerly most prone
v) It is comprehensive in its scope vi) It has appropriate attendants vii) It is a continued act
4. The things that accompany salvation: Obedience
a. It is hearty
b. It seeks to perform all God’s will
c. It flows from faith
d. It is ready, free, willing and cheerful
e. It is resolute
f. Its aim is the divine glory
g. It is constant
h. It is passive as well as active
5. The things that accompany salvation: Love
a. The qualities of Love
i) It is superlative ii) It is obedient iii) It is sincere iv) It is vehement
v) It is permanent vi) It is abounding vii) It cannot be hid
iix) It delights to see the divine image in fellow-believers ix) It enables the soul to receive Christ’s rebukes x) It laments over dishonours done to Christ xi) It keeps the heart for Christ alone xii) It delights in secret communion with Christ xiii) It longs for the full assurance of Christ’s love xiv) It enables the believer to commit his all to Christ
6. The things that accompany salvation: Prayer
a. The requisites of prayer as a form of divine worship
b. Prayer betters the whole man
c. Eight differences between the prayers of the godly and those of the ungodly
7. The things that accompany salvation: Perseverance
a. The properties of Perseverance
i) Perseverance appertains to a holy profession ii) It appertains to holy and spiritual principles iii) It is an abiding in the doctrine of Christ iv) It is a continuance in gracious action
8. The things that accompany salvation: Hope
a. The nature of Hope
b. Hope expects and waits patiently for promised good
c. The properties of Hope:
i) It raises the heart to live above
ii) It strengthens the soul against afflictions and temptations
iii) It makes the soul lively and active iv) It gives the believer great quietness
v) It causes the soul to wait patiently for delayed mercy vi) It purifies the soul vii) It never dies
VI. The Differences between a True and Counterfeit Assurance, between Sound Assurance and Presumption
A. A well-grounded assurance bears these following marks:
1. It is attended by a deep admiration of God’s love and favour in Christ
2. It causes the soul ever to seek a fuller enjoyment of God and Christ
3. It is usually strongly assaulted by Satan
4. It makes a believer bold
5. It makes a believer seek the happiness of other men
6. It strengthens a believer against all sin
7. It is attended by love, humility, and joy
8. It springs from the witness of the Holy Spirit B. The characteristics of the Holy Spirit’s witness:
1. It is inward and secret
2. It is gained in holy ways
3. It is clear, full, and satisfying
4. It is not operative in all believers
5. It is a sure testimony
6. It is always accompanied by the testimony of our own spirit
7. It is always according to Scripture
8. It is holy
9. It is only bestowed on renewed hearts
VII. Answers to Several Special Questions about Assurance
A. Nine methods whereby assurance may be strengthened and maintained
B. Six methods whereby souls which have lost assurance may be kept from fainting
C. Five methods whereby souls which have lost assurance may recover it
D. Conclusion
Last week we looked at a couple of things. We looked at just a definition of assurance, and we saw that assurance is different than justification. Justification is God’s declaration of you, based on faith in Christ, that you are not guilty of all your sins. It’s full forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ. It’s something that happens in the heavenly realms. And once it happens in the heavenlys, it can never be revoked. You can’t lose your justification. It’s impossible. The thing is what happens in the heavenlies doesn’t always necessarily connect immediately to the earthly realm. You could be justified. This is basically Brooks’ point. You could be justified and not have a strong and solid healthy assurance of your justification. The two are somewhat independent. And whereas your justification is a steady state kind of binary, yes, no, either you’re justified, or you’re not justified. You can’t be a little more justified.
You can’t grow in justification. You can’t be more justified today than what you were last week. These things are impossible. You either are or you are not justified, but assurance really does wax and wane. It really does increase and decrease. Your sense of your state with God can get stronger, and it can get weaker. And whereas justification absolutely is not in any way connected to your good works, must not be connected to your good works. It’s an insult to think that you can use your good works to pay for your sins, impossible. And so, we are not in any way justified by works, but simply by faith in Christ. On the other hand, assurance is very much connected to your works, very much connected to how you’re doing, your performance, connected to how you’re doing in putting sin to death. It’s connected, all these things.
And so, as you are doing these things, as you’re walking in obedience in the power of the Spirit, your assurance will go up, and it will get stronger. And as on the other hand, you are yielding to sin and to temptation and drifting, and not being faithful in the ordinances, going to church, reading the Bible, the other things that God’s given, your assurance will decrease. It will wax and it will wane depending on how you’re doing. And so that’s the point. And so, the issue here and the whole book is the nature of assurance. What makes it grow stronger? What makes it grow weaker? How can we have a healthy assurance? And then he gave us some weighty propositions on assurance, and we worked through those last time. One of the ones that we kind of skirted over toward the end is that assurance is not for Arminians.
Now what do we mean by that? By Arminians we mean those that are focusing on free will, on human free will, on human decisions, alright? It’s kind of the opposite of what we call the doctrines of grace or the sovereignty of God in salvation. This approach to salvation says that it really depends on you, and that you must be faithful, and you must continue in your obedience and all that. You can see that Arminians therefore can really have no assurance of salvation. It’s not for them. It’s impossible. You can’t have assurance of salvation in the Arminian system, and they’ll say that. It’s not part of their scheme. Rather, you need to keep cranking it out. Now you can see why assurance of salvation will be very, very important even in your service to God. Suppose you have no solid assurance of your salvation, and yet you’re doing good works.
What’s the problem there? What confusion could come to you on that issue? You don’t know whether you’re going to heaven or hell, but you’re doing all these religious activities, you’re doing all these good works. What could the problem be? Doing these things in your own strength. How about in your understanding of salvation? What could the problem be there? Absolutely. You might actually, practically, and effectively come to deny justification by faith alone apart from works because you don’t know whether you’re going to heaven or hell. And you need to keep working, keep doing these things, keep fasting more, keep praying. And you’re constantly concerned about your state with God. And so all of your good works really come into suspicion, don’t they? On the other hand, how beautiful and how sweet and how lovely are good works done by a fully assured Christian. You see, they’re not doing it in any way to prove or to accomplish their own salvation, but just as a natural flowering of their salvation, just out of love for God and out of love for neighbor, they’re doing these things you see.
And so, assurance really affects everything in so many ways. And this is this book, Heaven on Earth, one of the great treatises on Christian assurance. That’s just kind of a summary of the things that we talked about last time. Now today we’re going to look across the top of the book kind of in a general sense. Then we’re going to dig in. There are a number of headings. The first is, hindrances to assurance and how they may be overcome. So, Brooks is going to talk to us about what hinders your assurance. What hinders you? What holds you back from a full assurance of faith in Christ? And how can we overcome them? He’s going to talk about nine hindrances to assurance, and how they may be overcome. I wonder this about these Puritans, how they crank out these endless lists. It’s incredible because each one of these has eight sub-points.
This is why I have a 14-page outline and didn’t feel that I did a good job on it. I mean they just go on and on. They’re very good at breaking things up into component parts. So, he’s dealing first with this issue of hindrances to assurance. The next thing he’s going to look at, major heading, is “motives to provoke Christians to be restless until they have obtained a well-grounded assurance of their eternal blessedness.” In other words, he wants to provoke you to work on this issue of assurance. He wants you to be stimulated to make your calling and election sure. He wants you to work at it, and he gives you motives why you should work on this issue of assurance. So, we’re going to talk about that, 11 motives. We’re not going to talk about all 11, but that’s what he does, and he gives 11 motives or reasons.
Then next we’re going to look at ways and means practically how you can gain assurance of salvation. What do you do? How can we go about this? How can we grow and strengthen ourselves in assurance of salvation? Also, nine ways and means that he says of gaining a well-grounded assurance. And then the sixth chapter, he gives us the differences between a true and counterfeit assurance. Between sound assurance, a healthy assurance and what you could call presumption. Presumption. So, he’s distinguishing between what’s true and what is counterfeit. And then he answers questions on assurance. That’s the whole book. Do you see it? Just in big picture? He’s dealing with how assurance is hindered basically. First of all, he gives us a definition and then he talks about assurance in a general way. Then he starts digging in and says, what holds us back from assurance? What hinders us?
How can we overcome them? Then he tries to stimulate you to kind of be at this, be working at this matter of assurance of salvation. And then tells you very practically how you can gain assurance and then how you can distinguish between true assurance and presumption. Okay, do you see the big picture?
Alright, well let’s dig into some of the details. Let’s talk about this issue of hindrances to assurance and how they may be overcome. On the first page of your outline, the first hindrance that he talks about is despair. Despair. The despairing of obtaining mercy. Now, I believe that despair is a very powerful weapon of the devil. I believe anytime that you’re feeling despair, you can be sure that the devil is behind it, that Satan is behind it. Satan wants you to feel despair. What is despair? It’s a lack of hope, a lack of hope. A hopelessness, depression, is related to this, a sense of discouragement and despair. I think the devil very much works this way.
And I talked about this in my abortion sermon in January that the devil must do this because he can’t win if we go out and take the field. You see that not just on the issue of abortion, but on any kind of Christian endeavor. If you go out and take the field against him, he will lose. And he knows it because you have the Christian armor. You have the full armor, and he can’t penetrate it. So, you are defensively, you’re set. He can’t hurt you. Furthermore, he can’t withstand your offensive weapons. 2 Corinthians 10 says they’re powerful for the demolishing of strongholds. So, his arguments, his strongholds can’t stand up against your offensive weaponry. So, his best bet is to intimidate you from taking the field at all.
You see that, don’t you? And so, he’s going to be working discouragement, despair, and to make you feel weak and listless in your Christian life, make you feel despair. Well, this is all the more true in the issue of assurance. You can see that despair is the exact dead opposite of assurance, isn’t it? I mean, they’re exactly opposite things. So, if he can work despair, it’s a great hindrance to assurance because they’re polar opposites. Now what does Brooks do? Well, the first thing he does is show you what a terrible state of the soul despair is. And he kind of rebukes you out of it. He says, this is a great dishonor to God. It’s great dishonor to God.
This is what he says, “Despairing thoughts make a man fight against God with his own weapons. They make a man cast out all the cordials of the Spirit against the wall, as if they’re things of no value. They make a man suck poison out of the sweetest promises.” That’s a terrible state to be in. “Despair makes every sweet bitter, and every bitter exceeding bitter. It puts gall and wormwood into the sweetest wine.” Despair is a terrible mental state to be in. And so, he’s working very strongly on this. He reasons hard with despairing people. He calls it a great sin. He says, “Is not despair an exceeding vile and contemptible sin? Is it not a dishonor to God or reproach to Christ and a murderer of souls? It does without a doubt proclaim the devil a conqueror and lifts him above Christ himself. And so somehow the devil were more powerful than Christ. Despair is an evil that flows from the greatest evil in the world.” It flows from unbelief, doesn’t it? There’s a direct connection between unbelief and despair. It flows also from ignorance and from misapprehensions of God and his grace.
So, despair is therefore the special work of the devil. As we’ve been saying it flows from Satan, who forever being cast out of paradise, labors with all his art and might to work poor souls to despair of ever entering paradise. This is what he does. He says that despair was Judas’ damning sin. He talks about how even Manasseh, who was a monster, God was gracious to him when he repented and turned. And God heard his prayer and restored him to his throne. So even a monster like this who is still remembered generations later for his wickedness. Jeremiah the prophet, said because of what Manasseh did, I will not hear prayer concerning Jerusalem. And he was dead and gone by then. So, the things he did were terrible, terrible sins. And yet he obtained mercy from God. But Judas, filled with despair, perished and was lost and despair, overwhelmed his soul.
Consider, he says, all the vile sinners who’ve been saved like Saul, the persecutor. He reasons with us. He says, consider also the freeness of God’s grace given the sinners apart from what they deserve. Consider the perfection of God’s love totally grounded in himself, not in the sinner, and consider the primacy of God’s mercy. So, what is he doing to overcome despair? He’s working on your thinking, isn’t he? He’s trying to show you these doctrines, the truth on which your soul can be grounded. He’s driving out despair with the truth of the word of God. God’s mercies are above all his works, above all ours too. Isn’t that wonderful? God’s mercy is above everything we do. It is higher than all of that. His mercy is without measures and rules. All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy. Despair is therefore a great insult to the precious blood of Christ, isn’t it?
All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy. Despair is therefore a great insult to the precious blood of Christ, isn’t it?
Listen to what Brooks says, “Again, tell me, O despairing souls. Do you not do infinite wrong to the precious blood of the Lord Jesus? Does not your despair proclaim to all the world that there is no such worth and virtue, no such power and efficacy in the blood of Christ as indeed there is? Oh, how will you answer this to Christ in that day wherein his blood shall speak.” Don’t insult the blood of Christ by your despair. That’s what he’s saying. And then consider also that God has brought others out of the gulf of despair. Others have been down there. Asaph in Psalm 77, “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever?” These are the questions of a despairing heart, aren’t they? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? And Psalm 77 answers no, but in the end, God will be merciful again to his people.
And then there’s Jonah, right? What a character he was. But Jonah got thrown overboard and started to sink. And he says in Jonah 2:4, “I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” So, he was feeling that despair of being banished from God because of his rebellion. And yet in faith inside the fish, he looked again spiritually toward God’s holy temple. Brooks says this, “Oh, despairing souls, despairing souls. You see that others whose conditions have been as bad, if not worse than yours, have obtained mercy. God has turned their hell into heaven. He has remembered them in their low state. He has pacified their raging consciences and quieted their distracted souls. He has wiped all tears from their eyes and has been a wellspring of life to their hearts. Therefore, remember who is your rest, and kick no more by despair against the wooings of divine love.” Isn’t that wonderful? When I read this, I don’t just minister to myself, because actually I’m very rarely in a state of despair. It’s not a common thing for me. But as a pastor, I may actually face people who are in this state and not only therefore do I learn how I might comfort myself, but how I could as a pastor minister to others who are feeling this. What approach does he take to minister to the soul? And so, you should learn not only for yourself, but also that you might take this and benefit somebody else. Who knows, but maybe in the next month or two you’d be dealing with somebody who’s got a very dark view of their own soul, in the state of their soul, and you feel that you could minister in this way.
There’s a lot to learn this way. A second hindrance that he talks about is the disputing about things that are too high for our thoughts. Now, what does he mean by that? Well, two things in particular, specifically disputing with Satan about the eternal decrees and counsel of God. Am I predestined before the foundation of the world or not? Predestination is a biblical doctrine, but it’s really very difficult to be ruminating over these things that are too high for us. I can’t resolve it. I can’t figure it out. How could everything be predestined before the foundation of the world? These secret counsels of God, and you’re getting yourself all worked up, getting yourself all worked up. This is not going to minister assurance to your souls. Not at all. Now the doctrine of predestination can, no doubt about that. But wondering how the decrees of God fit together, “the secret things belong to the Lord” the scripture says.
And secondly, it says, just disputing with Satan at all is a great hindrance to assurance. He’s a great arguer. Have you never read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress? He always has a rejoinder. Doesn’t he always has something he can answer back? But the Archangel Michael didn’t dispute with the devil. He just said, “the Lord rebuke you,” and did his business and was on. Don’t engage. It bothers me when I hear people, pastors and others talking to the devil in prayer and all this kind of thing. This is not for us to do. He’s too smart for us. He’s too tricky, too powerful. He wants to engage us into a debate. Archangel Michael said, “The Lord rebuke you,” and that was it. Alright, well if the Archangel Michael does that, then I think we should do no more than that. So, disputing with the devil about anything can lead you into discouragement rather than assurance.
That’s a hindrance to assurance. Now this one is I think very important, and it’s kind of an interesting one on the heels of our study from John Owen, John Owen, a mortification of sin. You’re looking inward to find sin. Search me, O God, and know me. See if there’s any sin inside me, right? Well here what Brooks says is that the failure to, the lack of self-examination can be a hindrance to assurance. In this case then it’s opposite from what Owen was doing. Here we’re looking inward for things that God did, works of grace in the heart. Now you need to know what they are, but here’s how it works. If you have an accurate assessment of the native state of the human heart, what the human heart is naturally capable of doing, and what it is not naturally capable of doing, right? And you also have a list therefore from scripture of those things that grace alone can work in the heart, right?
If you could find from scripture those things that God alone can put into a heart and then you look inward and see those things in your heart, that’s a great form of assurance, isn’t it? And if you were to look inward and say, well, I see these things, but that’s natural to the human heart. No, it isn’t. Such as a hungry and thirsting after righteousness, and a yearning for personal holiness, and all of these other things that we’ll talk about. But if you look inward and you see those things there. And you know that only God can work that in a heart, that’s a great form of assurance, isn’t it? But what if you never do that? What if you never take the time to assess yourself, to look inward, to see what God has done, not just outside of you in the world, but in you.
What has God done in me? And so, he cites here 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you’re in the faith.” Test yourselves. Now, when you read that, what do you think? Well, give me the test questions, God, I need to know how I can test myself. Well, that’s part of what we’re going to seek to do tonight. That yellow sheet I think will give you some indications of what God does in a heart when he does this work of regeneration. But in 2 Corinthians 13:5, he says, “Test yourself. Don’t you know that Christ is in you, that Christ Jesus is in you. Unless of course you fail the test.” Well doesn’t that leave you, at least me at least, saying what’s the test? Tell me what it is. I want to know how I can test my heart to know whether Christ is in me or not.
And I think that’s what the Puritans did probably better than any movement in history is to give us what that test is, what we call these marks of regeneration. What are the things that God does in a heart when they’re truly saved? Alright? Now, in some cases, self-examination, what you could call morbid introspection, can hinder assurance. That is true, but that’s not what Brooks is talking about here. In some cases, self-examination can be a great cause of assurance when we see all that God has done in us by grace. The key then is learning to identify what could only have been done by God. And then when you see it in your souls, you rejoice. You can rejoice, is what it should say. “Oh, you staggering, wavering souls, you tossed and disquieted souls, know for a certain that you’ll never come to experience the sweetness of assurance till your eyes be turned inward, till you live more at home than abroad, till you come to discern between a work of nature and a work of grace.”
Underline that. That’s it. That’s the key. You’ve got to be able to discern between what is natural and what could only have been done by God. And when you can discern that from scripture, then you are ready. You’re prime for assurance. Do you see how it works? Let’s find out what those things are. But he says you’ve got to learn to discern the difference between nature and grace. “So, you put a difference between the precious and the vile, between God’s work and Satan’s work. When this is done, you’ll find the clouds to scatter, and the son of righteousness has shine upon you, and the day star of assurance to rise in you.” Isn’t that wonderful? I think this has been a kind of a journey for this church. To move away from a kind of a simplistic acceptance of every sinner’s prayer and every baptism and every card sign and every simplistic external mark. And say, these are no sure and certain signs of regeneration. Regular church attendance and membership, no sure and certain sign, being active in committees, no sure and certain sign of regeneration.
Well then, it’s left us asking, then, what are the sure uncertain signs of regeneration? And that’s what we’re working on here in this book. Now, this self-examination is not a quick or light searching, but a thorough probing of the heart with the Holy Spirit’s help. It is not every spiritual movement of the soul that is a true work of grace, but some are. And we want to find out what they are. So, we’re going to discern those. Alright, the fourth hindrance that he gives us here is the entertaining of mistaken views about God’s work of grace. “The way to remove this impediment is wisely and seriously to distinguish between renewing grace and restraining grace, between common grace and special grace, between temporary grace and sanctifying grace.” Now what do we mean by temporary grace? Well, understand in one way of thinking, any good thing that God does for a sinner is grace. You understand that don’t you? It’s what we could call common grace.
“He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). We got a lot of that today, didn’t we? And now we’re getting the sun. So, God has been doubly blessing us today. We get both the sunshine, and we get the rain. Is that grace or not? Of course it’s grace. We didn’t get what we truly deserved. We deserved fire and brimstone. Instead, we got rain, we got life-giving water from heaven. And so that is grace, but is that regenerating grace? No, I wouldn’t think so. Christ’s statement makes it plain. He sends it on both the wicked and the good. So, it’s not regenerating grace to have raindrops falling on your head. That is not going to save your soul. And there are actually many of those types of common grace blessings, which are no sure and certain sign that you’re going to heaven.
We deserved fire and brimstone. Instead, we got rain, we got life-giving water from heaven.
What we have to do is find out what are. And so, I actually went, it alludes in the book here to the nature of true grace from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, another book that he wrote. So, I took the time to type it out for you, and it’s also on your yellow sheet. Let’s take a minute and go through them. He gives us 10 here. The nature of true grace as distinguished from common grace, or those things that do not convert. You understand what we’re talking about here. So, this made it to your marks of regeneration sheet. Number 1, true grace transforms the whole person, making them entirely new inside and out. That’s what grace does. It changes you radically inside and out. It changes everything. Isn’t that what 2 Corinthians 5:17 says? “If anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. The old is gone, everything is new.”
You’re transformed, you are a new creature, okay? True grace does that. “True grace enables a person to be conversant about the highest and best objects, the most precious objects of our faith, not merely the low objects that are within easy reach of reason.” We’re talking about the best of the best. Grace works that in your heart. We’re talking about heaven; we’re talking about face-to-face fellowship with God. We’re talking about perfection and holiness and regenerated bodies, the resurrection body. These things are not too high for somebody who’s been transformed by grace. This is where they live. This is what they love. They’re conversant about these things, and they’re attracted to them. And they know them and all the more as they grow. But this is what grace does. Thirdly, true grace enables a Christian when he is himself, you can circle that, true grace enables a Christian when he is himself to do spiritual actions with real pleasure and delight, not as a grievous burden under which he chafes.
Do you see that? Now why did he add, “when he is himself?” When are you not yourself? When sin has the upper hand, right? When you’re behaving like a pagan, when you’re behaving like sin is your master. Well, then are your spiritual burdens a joy and delight? No, they’re not. But when you are yourself, namely who you really are, and you could say, is this valid language? Oh, absolutely. If you look in Romans 7, he says, as it is, it is no longer I who do it (sin), but it is sin living in me that does it. Well, that’s kind of strange. What is he a dual personality kind of guy? Well, yeah, in a manner speaking, and you know what I’m talking about. There’s this vile thing in us called sin, and sin has no interest in submitting to Christ’s gentle yoke, none. And so, it is like you’re dragging this kicking and screaming spoiled brat along with you the whole way, the whole journey of sanctification.
I don’t want to pray; I don’t want to go to church. I don’t want to read the Bible. That’s the way it is. That’s sin, right? But that regenerated new nature within you is delighted to do those things. It’s not a burden. And when you are walking in the power of the Spirit, that new nature has without a doubt the upper hand. It’s who you really are. And in the end that old nature will be utterly done away with. We will be perfect in spirit and body. That’s wonderful. It’s not yet, but it’s wonderful. But when you are yourself, you do spiritual actions with real pleasure and delight. They’re not a grievous burden under which you chafe. Do you see how this weeds out the wheat from the chaff? See a non-Christian that’s just going through the motions, those motions are a burden to them, aren’t they?
It’s hard for them to pray. It’s hard for them to sit and listen to a Bible study. It’s hard for them to be at worship. These things are a burden for them. They do them, but they’re a burden. Number 4, true grace makes a man most careful and most fearful about his own heart, constantly examining it concerning its progress. I mean, we are concerned about what’s going on in our hearts, aren’t we? We’re concerned about the progress of our internal spiritual nature, about our hearts. What are we taking in? What are we doing? What is our behavior pattern? How is it going? Are we starting to sin? Are we yielding to temptations? We’re watching over it. True grace makes you careful about these things. Somebody who hasn’t received true grace is not concerned about these things, the matters of the heart. Fifthly, true grace will work a man’s heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God for their purity and sanctity in the face of all dangers and hardships.
True grace will work a man’s heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God for their purity and sanctity in the face of all dangers and hardships.
You could just write on number 5, this is holiness. Holiness, true grace works holiness in you even if it’s difficult, even if it’s hard, even if it costs you a lot. It’s what you want, isn’t it? And that’s what grace works in you. Number 6, true grace will enable a man to step over the world’s crown, to take up Christ’s cross. You’d rather have Christ’s cross than the world’s crown, wouldn’t you? If you’re truly born again, it’s like give me Christ, give me death, give me suffering. Give me being with Jesus, Philippians 3, rather than all of the accolades the world can give. I have no interest in them. Just like Daniel said to Belshazzar, keep your purple robe and your gold chain for yourself. I have zero interest in them, none (Daniel 5:17). But he would rather suffer with God’s people. And so, number 6, that’s what grace does. Number 7, true grace, what he calls sanctifying or renewing grace, puts the soul upon spiritual duties from spiritual and intrinsic motives, not from earthly, external earthly motives.
See you later, Pharisees. They make long prayers so that they can be seen by men. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you have received your award in full” (Matthew 6:5, paraphrase). Paid in full. Nothing on Judgment Day for you or your prayers. Same thing with fasting. Same thing with all of your spiritual duties. Why? Because they’re done for external reasons, that people might see you, and you might gain some kind of praise or benefit in this world from them. But the truly born-again person isn’t doing them for those reasons. They’re doing them from internal spiritual reasons, intrinsic to themselves. You see that it’s an internal thing. Number 9, true grace leads the soul to rest upon Christ as his highest good, his ultimate aim, and goal. Christ is delightful to the soul of a truly born-again person. Can’t talk enough about Christ, can’t think enough about Christ, yearning to see him, want him. He’s your treasure. He’s your pleasure. He’s what you want. He is the focus of your heart and your soul.
You’re excited to hear more about Christ. You want to hear more about his miracles, about his great teachings. You want to hear more about his blood and his resurrection, his triumph over the grave. These things are not a burden to you. They’re the delight of your soul. Not bored with Jesus, but you love and are delighted in talking about Jesus. And number 10, true grace will enable a soul to sit down, satisfied with the naked enjoyment of Christ. Christ without honor, Christ without riches, Christ without health, Christ without success. Christ alone is enough for you. And we can see that in Paul and Silas. It’s enough for them just singing in prison, getting beaten for Jesus. That’s enough for them. They’re totally satisfied, happiest people in the whole city of Philippi.
All right. Christ is enough, sufficient. But for a hypocrite or a non-truly born-again person, Christ is not enough. Not in any way, shape or form. These other things are very much the point, the health and the wealth and the honors and the accolades and the earthly benefits. That come in some cases, even from religion like the Pharisees. That’s the list that he gives us. Now that’s from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. But if you have wrong views of grace, it will hinder you in assurance. If on the other hand you see these 10 things, and then you look inward and you find them in your heart, that’s a doorway to assurance, isn’t it? And it’s a great assurance and great encouragement. Any questions about this list before we go on? Take a minute. As you look over, anything you don’t understand. (audience)
Well, I would think a godly sorrow would be very much God-focused. Because of you, God, and because of my relationship with you and what you’ve done, I’m very grieved that I’ve done this and very sad about it. Despair is not God focused at all. It’s turning away from God. It’s just the sinner and his sin without any hope, without any Christ really, without any blood, without any resurrection. Just the sinner in his sin, marinating in his sin. And that’s despair, and that’s very dishonoring to God. In a way saying that the blood of Christ is not enough for your sin. I think that’s the difference. The Godly sorrow is very much God-focused and saying, really, it’s exactly because of you. That’s why I’m sad that I did this. I would think that’s a difference. Any other questions about this? Well that’s what Brooks said, but I think what it means is, it’s the one that finished him off. You can put it that way because the fact of the matter is there was a record of all other different kinds of sinners being saved.
I mean Saul of Tarsus, a blasphemer and a persecutor. David, an adulterer. All the other sins you could imagine have a record of somebody finding salvation despite them. You see what I’m saying? But when he killed himself, it’s over. There’s nothing left. Now, I think there’s more going on than that. I think Judas was, as Jesus said, a devil through and through. So, there’s more here than meets the eye in Judas, but I think that’s what he means. It’s the one that just finished him off. There’s nothing left. And basically, that sin of despair led to a suicide and right into the presence of a condemning judge. And we do know he was lost. And as a matter of fact, I think he’s the only human being we know is in hell by name. Only one, which I think is interesting. It’s the only one.
Any other questions? Yeah, I think maybe it’s a matter of degrees, but there is such a thing as spiritual depression. “Why are you downcast, O my soul, why so disturbed within me? Put your trust in God” (Psalm 42:11). I think that would be depression or discouragement like that. Despair seems again to be almost of a different nature, and it kind of cut from a different cloth. Although it’s similar, it’s very godless, despair. But discouragement may be actually very God-saturated, but you’re just not cutting the mustard, you’re not doing well. And so, like we’re talking about godly sorrow, there’s a lot in the Bible about spiritual depression. Actually. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a book on spiritual depression, and Psalm 42 is big. Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Lloyd-Jones says that a lot of the Christian life is preaching to yourself. Talk to your soul.
Isn’t that what the psalmist is doing there? Come on, soul. What’s the matter with you? Get up. Come on now. God’s still the same as he was last time you felt good about God. He hasn’t changed any. Come on, move out now. Let’s go. So, he’s kind of preaching to himself, you see? So, I think that would be it. Maybe. I think intrinsically despair and discouragement may in the end be different, although they act a lot the same. One of them godless and faithless. (audience) Yeah, a lot of things can come in, that’s for sure. And William Cooper, another good example of somebody who even to the point of flirting with suicide, thoughts of suicide and that can happen. Alright, let’s keep going.
The grieving of the Holy Spirit by the believer is clearly a great hindrance to assurance. Is it not? The Spirit that ministers assurance to us. Don’t grieve him.
He’s the one who’s going to minister assurance to you. Why in the world would you treat him poorly? The grieving by not hearkening to his voice, by refusing his counsel, by stopping the ear, by throwing water upon the fire he kindles in their souls, by falsely attributing to the Spirit what is to be attributed to men’s own passions and distempers?
Oh boy, that one slipped by. What do we mean by that? There are times when you have an inclination to do something, and you may say, oh, it’s the Spirit that’s leading me to do it. No, it’s not. It’s your own lust and passions. And then you go ahead and give into it. And then you ascribe to the Spirit the thing that came from your own, your own passion and desire. True assurance, therefore, very much comes from Galatians 5:25, “Keeping in step with the Spirit.”
And he gives us a quote here. I’m noting that it’s 7:10 pm, and we’re only on page three of a 14-page outline. So, we’re going to keep moving. The judging of spiritual matters by mere feelings or human reason. “Are your feelings and your reason sufficient accurately to judge your spiritual state?” Oh, you know they’re not. How many times have your feelings been out of step? How many times have they been? As one person said, “Like rebellious children, feelings are frequently out of step with reality.” And so, your all things he says on page four, “all differences and controversies that arise in your heart should be ended by the word. If you’re resolved to make sense and feeling the judge of your condition, you must resolve to live in fears and lie down in tears.” I like that. So basically, when you make your own opinion of yourself and your feelings and your own reason, the basis for assurance, you’re going to have problems.
Now, this one is very strong. “The indulging of laziness and carelessness in the Christian life is a great hindrance to assurance. Men are so active in pursuing after the world. But how lifeless in pursuing exercises of grace. Promises of assurance and comfort are not made to lazy people.” What does that mean? Well, I’m not having my quiet time, not really going to church much these days. Well, what do you think your assurance is going to look like? It’s going to be terrible. It’s going to be terrible. When you get lazy in your Christian life and stop doing the things you need to do, you can guarantee your assurance is going to go down, down, down, down. He says, “Remember this, that the promise of assurance and comfort is made over not to lazy, but to laborious Christians, not to idle, but active Christians. Not to negligent, but diligent Christians. Lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.” Alright? He also says, our service to Christ should be hot with passion and zeal, not lifeless and listlessness. “Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Now notice this is a subpoint under the heading, dealing with laziness. How is a lack of zeal in Christian service a form of laziness? What’s the connection there? (audience) That’s right. That’s right to me. You just don’t want to stir yourself up. I think that there’s a lot of lazy worship that happens. People just come in, and they’re not ready to worship. Imagine what our singing would be like if everyone came in filled with the Spirit and eager to sing whatever hymn, even if it’s not your favorite, sing it to God and to his glory. What would our worship sound like?
I have been in the presence of people like that before. They weren’t perfect people, but at the Bethlehem Conference for pastors at John Piper’s church, we sang A Mighty Fortress is our God, brought tears to my eyes. I’d sung it hundreds of times before that, but never like that. Never like that. And a lot of the guys around me were singing off key, alright? I was probably singing off key, but there was a power to that singing. They were singing with zeal, with heat, with fervency. But conversely, if you’re not serving God that way, your assurance won’t be strong. So that again comes back to that psalm. Stir yourself up. Speak to your soul. Why are you so lifeless, Soul? Get up and get moving. Praise God. Move. Come on, sing. Get up, stir yourself up. He talks about heat. He says, be fervent or seething hot in spirit.
Seething hot serving the Lord. That’s zeal, right? Oh, there’s so many good quotes in here, and I’ve typed them all out, but I’m not even going to get a chance to read them. So, you read them when you get home. Or even better read the whole book. The next one, H, is the neglect of duties ordained by God such as prayer, confession of sin, Bible intake, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, the hearing of the preached word. These are ordinances of God whereby he blesses your soul. If you neglect them, it’s like neglecting food for your body. Don’t surprised if you’re weak and listless and having problems and getting sick. When you’re not taking in the things that God has ordained. The Lord’s Supper, the hearing of the word, worship, fellowship, Bible intake, in your private prayer closet. These things are meant to strengthen your soul. If you don’t do them, you’re going to have problems.
And the love of the world is a great hindrance to assurance. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). So, love of the world is a great hindrance and burden to the spiritual health. Top of page five, he says, “Solomon got more hurt by his wealth than he got good by his wisdom.” Isn’t that true? I think when I think of Solomon, I think first and foremost, I think of son of David. And I think that he was also wise and built the temple, but he really just starts to think about his life. There are two words in Chronicles that come across to me. “Solomon accumulated.” That’s it. That sums up his life. He was an accumulator, he was a collector, chariots and horses and wives and gold and silver and thrones and clothes and stuff.
And I think in the end it led his heart astray. I think his heart was being led astray even before he had foreign wives who worshiped other gods. I think there was just a problem there. And so, I like this analogy:
Sicily is so full of sweet flowers that dogs cannot hunt there. The scent of the sweet flowers diverts their smell. And ah, what do all the sweet delights and contents of this world do, but make men lose the scent of heaven, but divert men from hunting after assurance and from running after Christ in the sweetness of his ointments.
We get satisfied. Our nostrils are filled with the scent of the world, and we have no interest in following after Christ. That’s a big problem. Alright, and then finally the cherishing of secret sins. Obviously, this is a big issue, and this connects back to Owen. If you’ve got some kind of a secret sin, what he says,
The secret cherishing and running out of their hearts to some bosom darling sin. How many be there that dally and play with sin even after they have put up many prayers and complaints against sin? And after they have lamented and bitterly mourned over their sins, many there be that complain of their deadness, barrenness, forwardness, conceitedness, censoriousness, and other forms of baseness, and yet are ready at every turn to gratify, if not to justify those very sins they complain against.
No wonder that such people lack assurance. There could be something that’s burning in your heart right now, some kind of sin, and you’re not putting it to death. And your assurance will not be healthy and strong until you do. It just makes sense, doesn’t it? You can’t nurse that sin and expect any good thing from God. And so, if you don’t have assurance, look to your heart and see if there’s some secret sin. Now the next thing he does in chapter 4 is give us motives to provoke Christians to be restless until they have obtained a well-grounded assurance of their salvation, of their eternal happiness and blessedness.
He gives 11 motives. Let’s just look through them quickly. First of all, many have been lost who thought they were saved? Ouch. I actually think one of the most terrifying things in all the Bible is, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers” (Matthew 7:23). Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, lord, lord. And he’s going to say, I don’t know who you are. I never knew you. Now, I think self-deception in the matter of salvation is a devastating concept, isn’t it? That it would even be possible to deceive yourself concerning your own salvation. Is that possible? Is it possible that you could be self-deceived concerning your salvation? Do you think there are any self-deceived people in America today? I don’t know what the stats are, we up to 90% born-again in our country? I have no idea. I mean it’s incredible.
I think there must be self-deceived people, even in churches. Especially in churches perhaps. So, if the fact is that is possible to be that, be a great motive, to kind of get busy on this matter of assurance. That you would know what are true and certain grounds of assurance and not false or presumptions, I would think that would get you busy. It would get you moved, moving. And so, he gives us as a motive the world also is full of deceivers. There are teachers who will tell you you’re fine when you’re not. They will flatter you. They’ll tickle your ears and make you feel good about yourself when you’re not converted. And because of that, another reason to be moving out in the matter of assurance. Also, assurance delivers from the burdens of cares, fears and doubts. That’s a motivation. Think of the sweetness that would come from just knowing for sure that you’re going to heaven.
Satan labors to keep Christians from assurance. So that’s a good reason. Just anything he hates, do it. That’s a very good motivation. Satan, what do you want me to do today? Okay, I just want to do the opposite, whatever it is. So, he’s trying to keep you away from assurance. That’s a good reason to go for it. A well-grounded assurance, number five, is of great value to the believer, bringing great joy and delight. Number six, worldlings labor hard to secure the things of this life. Saints should show equal ardor for better things. I like this quote:
What riding, running, plotting, lying, swearing, stabbing and poisoning is used by men of this world to make sure of the poor things of this world, that are about shadows and dreams and nothings. O then be ashamed, Christians, that worldlings are more studious and industrious to make sure of pebbles than you are to make sure of pearls. To make sure of those things that at last will be their burden, their bane, their plague, their hell, then you are to make sure of those things that would be your joy and crown in life, in death, and in the day of your account.
Why do they work so hard for all those nothings? And we do so little in the matter of assurance. And that’s what he’s reasoning in that way, kind of provoking us. Saying, hey, they get up and go to work at six o’clock, they’re working at it, and it’s going to lead them to nothing. Maybe you could get up and work a little harder in your Christian life. That’s kind of what he’s getting at. Number seven, assurance renders burdens light. This is so true. Alright, well what burdens? Any burdens. Look at the apostle Paul. I mean, have you suffered like him? Answer? No. Okay. It’s simple. Some things are simple. That one’s simple. No, you have not suffered like Paul. This guy led a life of suffering, didn’t he?
A tough, tough life. Every single day getting up to preach the gospel, wondering if he was going to get stoned to death. I mean, amazing courage. Brooks puts it this way:
The apostles went through many weaknesses, sicknesses, wants, and deaths. They had nothing and yet possessed all things. They had burden upon burden cast upon them by the churches, by false apostles, by an uncharitable world. And yet they cheerfully bore all burdens without them being a burden through the power of well-grounded assurance.
2 Corinthians 5:1, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” And then 2 Corinthians 6:8-10, “Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report, genuine yet regarded as imposters known and yet regarded as unknown, dying. And yet we live on beaten and yet not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor, yet making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing everything.”
What a great way to go through life. I mean, what a great way to go through health problems. What a great way to go through unemployment. What a great way to go through other physical problems you may have in your life or even relational problems. To go through fully assured of your own salvation, sweetens and lightens every burden. So, it’s well worth it, don’t you think? To have a strong assurance lightens every burden. Number eight, God urges Christians to get assurance. So just like number four when Satan doesn’t want you to have it, so go for it. Anything God commands you that you should have and pushes you towards, you should do it. So, God urges you to have assurance. And then 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Hebrews 6:11 are evidence of this, Christians are seriously injured by lack of assurance, by living without assurance.
“You lay yourselves open to all of Satan’s snares and temptations. Yea, you do instigate and provoke Satan to tempt you to the greatest neglect, to tempt you to the strangest shifts and to reduce you to the saddest straits.” You lose the following by lack of assurance. You lose comfort and joy, peace and contentment, boldness and confidence in service if you don’t have assurance. And then he gives us 10 advantages which accompany assurance. Assurance produces heaven on earth. Hence the title of the book, Heaven on Earth. And he doesn’t mean it actually brings heaven to earth, but in effect, your heart is living in heaven while you are on earth. And very much like Colossians 3:1, “Set your hearts on things above.” So, your mind is filled with heaven. It brings heaven down into your hearts when you have assurance.
Assurance also sweetens life’s changes. Do you get bothered sometimes by how much life changes? I mean, I look even at this church, and do you realize how much turnover there’s been since I’ve been here? It’s incredible. And I don’t know how many of you will be here five years from now. I don’t know if I’ll be here in five years. I don’t know if it’ll be alive. This is a changeful world we live in, isn’t it? Is there anything you can look at with your eyes and say, now that right there, now that is permanent. I mean that. Now that’s one thing I know will never go. Can you say that? Certainly not after 9/11. There’s nothing like that. You can look at it and say now he, now she, now that it’s permanent, it’s going to be here. That’s a burden, isn’t it? That’s a trouble because everything’s changeful in this world. Well, somebody filled with assurance can handle that because their hearts are set on something that doesn’t change.
“A city with foundations whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). And so, he talks about that, a good quote in there, but we won’t take time to read it. Assurance also keeps the heart from desiring the world. Galatians 6:14 is a great verse, “May I never boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” May I never boast, “except,” sorry, “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” That’s a phenomenal verse. Basically, I’m dead to the world and the world is dead to me. When the world looks at me, my life makes no sense. I’m living a foolish life, says Paul. So, I’m dead to them. They just think of me as some kind of a condemned criminal or something. Well, guess what the world looks like to me. It looks dead to me.
Assurance also keeps the heart from desiring the world.
I have no interest in it. And that’s what assurance does. It gives you a sense of deadness to it. Assurance sweetens your communion with God. Assurance preserves from backsliding. Now, how does this work? Backsliding is a kind of a domino effect in the Christian life, right? You start to sin, and then the next day you don’t check it and go immediately back to walking healthy with God. So, you follow one bad day with another bad day, you follow one rebellion with another one. How does assurance stop that process? Well, the thing that caused you to continue straying is thinking God won’t welcome you back. You stay away from God. And Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). So, you’re even more and more and more vulnerable to temptation. And so, you just start to accelerate in drifting away from God. I’ve seen it happen before. But somebody with a healthy assurance is not a perfect person.
Assurance is made for people here on earth. People in heaven don’t need assurance. They’re looking at Jesus face to face. There’s no assurance needed there. Who needs hope? Who needs faith in heaven? You don’t need these things, but you need assurance here on earth. And therefore, assurance is for sinners, not perfect people. So, sinners sin. Doesn’t that make sense? Okay, you get that right? Sinners sin. That’s why they’re called sinners. And so when you sin, and yet you have a healthy and strong assurance, what are you going to do? You’re going to immediately confess your sin, come to the throne of grace, mercy and grace to help in time of need. You’re going to immediately be restored on a healthy walk with God. And you’re going to continue in your Christian life. But if you don’t have a strong assurance, you’re going to add sin to sin, and you’re going to start to drift. Does that make sense? So good strong assurance is a great protection from backsliding.
Assurance also produces holy boldness with God. It makes you familiar and comfortable with God at the mercy seat. Assurance prepares a man for death. It’s so grievous to me when people who have been in the church all their lives are not ready for death. That bothers me. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why churched people die so poorly, and I’ve seen it happen. And it’s been a great grief to my soul. No assurance, no Christ it seems, no thinking about resurrection or the blood. I mean none of that. Just they die like pagans. And it bothers me. They don’t talk much about Jesus. They say, well, I’ve had a good run. I don’t understand that. It bothers me when I think about that. Well, we’ve had some good things. We had some good vacations and enjoyed things.
And so, what about Christ? I mean, he’s your only hope. Talk to me about Jesus. I never really knew that much about all that. Oh, my goodness. I think that we should die well. I think that we should be, I like this, look at this bottom of page seven. “Assurance will make a man sick of his absence from Christ.” Did you see that? I’m tired of being away from Jesus. I want to be with him. It’s better for me by far to depart this world and see Christ. Isn’t that wonderful? That’s Paul’s attitude in Philippians 1. Better by far to die. Better by far. But for you, better for you if I stay, because God’s using me to do good ministry in your life. And so, for me, though I’d rather go, I’m willing to stay. Now, that’s incredible. What a Christ-like attitude. But he, is he afraid of death? No, he’s welcoming it. Bring it on. So, assurance helps you die well.
“Assurance makes mercies taste like mercies.” Read about that in the book. I’m not going to talk about it. “Assurance gives vigor and energy in the Christian service.” That makes sense. “Assurance leads to the soul’s enjoyment of Christ.” And then finally, 11th point, “A well-grounded assurance will keep a Christian from being deceived by counterfeits.” Now, I’ll tell you what, let’s take a minute and look at the sheet, the yellow sheet so that we can know what we mean by counterfeits. Okay? What are marks of regeneration? How can I know if I’m saved? Brooks gives us six differences between true Christians and hypocrites. Number one, true Christians labor in all duties to be approved and accepted by God, caring very little about human opinion. Paul even says that in Corinthians, says, “I care very little if I’m judged by you or by any human court. I don’t even judge myself” (1 Corinthians 4:3). I don’t care about what I think about me. I care very much what God thinks about me. And so, a true Christian is going to labor very much to be assured and blessed by God. That’s what matters. Approved and accepted by God.
Secondly, true Christians labor to get to the very top of holiness, they labor to live up to their own principles. What do we mean by this? A true Christian is never going to say, hey, I’m kind of where I want to be on that whole holiness thing. I’m there, I’m really satisfied. The view is good from here. It’s a good place to rest, and I’m content with my holiness. A true Christian is never going to say that. And you know why? Because the true Christian knows who the standard is, and the standard is Jesus. And the true Christians never satisfied until they’re dead. And then when they die, they’re instantly transformed to be like Jesus. And then they’re satisfied. But a true Christian says, get up. I’m still alive. I’m still moving. Let’s go. Let’s still work on holiness. Let’s still work on putting sin to death. Let’s still work on being like Jesus. Every day a true Christian always upward, always pressing on. Paul says, I forget what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead. I’m moving. I’m going. That’s a true Christian’s way. He thinks thirdly, and then he just starts to address this directly. So, I put it in this true Christian speaking to you now. Is not your greatest desire and endeavor that your sin may be cured rather than covered? Don’t you want it out? I mean, gone forever. That’s what a true Christian, that the way he thinks. I don’t just want a fix here. I want, I want the thing to be removed forever.
I want it resolved, not just covered. Now, don’t misunderstand the word covered because in one sense I think that’s exactly what God does, is cover your sin. Blessed is a man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. I think that’s what he does. Yom Kippur is the day of covering, but that’s not what Brooks means here. What he means is kind of papered over, whitewashed. You know how he talks about whitewashed tomb? He says, A true Christian is not interested in whitewash. They want the genuine thing. They want sin really dealt with. Fourth, true Christian, is not your soul taken with Christ? Aren’t you just taken with Christ as the Chief above 10,000? As altogether lovely and desirable? We already touched on this earlier, a true Christian’s enraptured with Jesus. Jesus, he’s your hope. He’s your righteousness, he’s your sanctification. He’s everything to you.
True Christian can’t talk enough about Jesus. There’s no “too much” about him. Christians can get together and just talk about Jesus for hours. They really can do that. They can do that. That’s what I think of when I think of fellowship. It’s not talking about the ballgame. Now, I don’t mind talking about ballgames, alright? But that to me isn’t fellowship with a capital F. To me, it’s let’s talk about Jesus. Let’s talk about what he did. Let’s talk about his parables. Let’s talk about his miracles. Let’s talk about the time he talked to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him. Let’s talk about when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Let’s talk about Revelation 1 and the vision of glory. And when his head and hair were white like wool, and his feet were like burnished bronze, and his voice was with the sound of many waters.
Let’s talk about when he comes back on that great white horse with hordes of armies behind him, and he crushes all evil. I could go on. Let’s just talk about Jesus. And a true Christian’s going to be, yeah, let’s do it. Let’s do it. Let’s talk. Can’t get enough. Number five, “True Christian, are not your greatest and hottest conflicts against your inward pollutions, against those secret sins that are only obvious to the eye of God and to your own souls.” Isn’t that where it’s at? Isn’t that your war? Isn’t that what you’re fighting? Isn’t that the thing you’d like dealt with the most? Yes, it is. Even if no one ever finds out, God sees it, and you know it, and you want it done. You want holiness, and then, true Christian, are you not subject to Christ as your head willingly? Gladly, not like the devils reluctantly and chafing and kicking, but willingly, gladly, sweetly, subject to Christ as your head, universally subject to him.
I’m not talking about perfection, but saying whatever you want, Jesus, in my life, that’s what I want done. I’m not holding anything back. You’re my head. I’ll follow you whatever you want. That’s what I want. He is your head. Gladly, happily, sweetly submitting, constantly and unweariedly. It’s not a burden to you to walk with Jesus. It’s not a burden to you every day to lower your neck and have him put his yoke on you because his burden is easy, and his yoke is light. And so, it’s a delight to you. Those six things are not true of non-Christians. Do you see that? And when you look in and you say, yes, that’s me, that’s me, that’s who I am. And you must say that, it’s actually a dishonor to God if he’s done this in your life for you to say, well shucks, that means you’re taking credit for it.
It’s nothing you did. These are things he’s worked in you. Give him the honor and the glory, and you get the joy. That’s a good deal, don’t you think? He gets the glory in doing these six things in you. And you get to feast on the sweetness. He said, actually, it’s your duty to suck honey from this honeycomb. It’s your duty to be happy about this, that God’s done this work in your soul. Alright, let’s look at the backside. We already looked at the bottom 10 nature of true grace. Eight differences between the prayers of the godly and the ungodly. What might they be? Number one, true Christians trade and deal with God. I like that, “in prayer only upon the account and credit of Christ.” You realize you don’t have 10 cents to deal with God. Okay? You’re there on borrowed money on Christ, alright, on his account.
You’re there, and you don’t deserve to be there except from Jesus. But that’s enough. You have welcome. Number two, true Christians pray more to get off their sins than they do to get out of earthly troubles. They’re not looking, get me out of this. Get me out of that. They’re saying, God, get me out of sin. I mean, I want purity. I want holiness in my life. Number three, true Christians pray in a constant stream after spiritual and heavenly things. They’re hungry for heavenly things. That’s what they’re looking for. Not, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz. That’s not it. Number four, true Christians look more upon God in prayer than they trust in the act of praying itself. Muslims trust in the act of praying. They talk a lot about their prayer lives. They pray more than we do. I guarantee they do. Five times a day, they do those rote prayers.
True Christians usually come out of prayer with hearts more disengaged from sin, more vehemently set against sin.
Have you seen them on tv? They pray more than you, okay? But they’re trusting in the act of prayer. We’re trusting in the God to whom we’re praying. There’s a difference. There’s a difference. Number five, true Christians do not give up easily or ever give up praying altogether if they’re disappointed and don’t get what they want. We are never going to give up prayer. Prayer is our language. It’s the language of our soul. So, we’re never going to say, boy, I haven’t done that prayer thing. True Christians, we’re never say that. Now, maybe you didn’t get what you wanted, and sometimes we’re put off in prayer, but we never give it up. Number six, true Christians pray fervently from the heart. Prayer is a heart work for them. It’s not an outward show. Number seven, true Christians usually come out of prayer with hearts more disengaged from sin, more vehemently set against sin. And number eight, true Christians do more “I” and observe how their own hearts are affected by prayer than how other hearts are affected. So, you’re seeing what God is doing in your own life through prayer. That’s the difference between the prayers of true Christians and the false sham prayers of hypocrites. We are out of time. (prays)
