Beware of presuming you are saved
Beware, I pray thee, of
presuming that thou art saved. If thy heart be renewed,
if thou shalt hate the things that thou didst once love, and
love the things that thou didst once hate; if thou hast really
repented; if there be a thorough change of mind in thee; if thou
be born again, then hast thou reason to rejoice: but if there be
no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be no love to
God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying "I
am saved" is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it
will not deliver thee.
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Printable tracts with
this quote
Acts of grace
cannot be reversed
When God calls a man, He does not repent
of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day,
and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects
favorites, and afterwards throw them into prison. This
is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of
no alteration. God's call is founded upon His decree,
and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be
reversed. God blots out His people's sins, but not their
names.
- Thomas Watson
Genuine assurance will make two
Heavens
Genuine
holiness will yield you a heaven hereafter; but
genuine assurance will
yield you a heaven here. He who has holiness and knows
it, shall have two heavens --a heaven of joy,
comfort, peace, contentment, and assurance here--and a
heaven of happiness and blessedness hereafter.
Genuine assurance
will be a spring of joy and comfort in you. It will make
heavy afflictions light, long afflictions short, and
bitter afflictions sweet. It will make you frequent,
fervent, constant, and abundant in the work of the Lord.
It will strengthen your faith, raise your hope, inflame
your love, increase your patience, and brighten your
zeal. It will make every mercy sweet, every duty sweet,
every ordinance sweet, and every providence sweet. It
will rid you of all your sinful fears and cares. It will
give you ease under every burden, and make death more
desirable than life. It will make you more strong to
resist temptation, more victorious over opposition, and
more silent in every difficult condition.
Genuine assurance
will turn . . .
every winter night into a summer's day,
every cross into a crown, and
every wilderness into a paradise.
Genuine assurance
will be . . .
a sword to defend you,
a staff to support you,
a cordial to strengthen you,
a medicine to heal you, and
a star to lead you.
Well, remember this--next to a
man's being saved, it is the
greatest mercy in this world--to know that he is saved.
Thomas Brooks,
The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness,
1662
False Assurance
"Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in heaven."
Matthew 7:21
The New Testament gives
very high standards for discerning the true Christian life, and
it also issues many warnings to avoid self-deception concerning
salvation (see Matt. 25).
One of the causes of
self-deception is a wrong understanding of the doctrine of
assurance. Many people become
self-deceived by well-meaning Christian witnesses who tell them
that to be saved, they simply have to make a decision for Christ
and then, based on that prayer of decision, never doubt their
salvation again.
Sadly, such evangelistic
workers are attempting to certify someone's salvation apart from
the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and the future evidence
of spiritual fruit accompanied by obedience to the Word
(John8:31). Only God can give a person real assurance of
salvation, by the Spirit working through His Word (see Rom.
8:14-16).
John MacArthur, Truth
for Today, August 22
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"I am the light of the
world" John 8:12
