Hearing God's Gospel Gives Peace, Not Lack of Assurance

If a man is not a believer and hears preaching that makes him see that he is not a believer - that is a good thing.  It is only then that a man will cry for mercy.  This is what God will use to drive him from his false refuges and look to Christ alone!   

But if a man is a believer and hears preaching that makes him fear that he is not a believer because he does not measure up to what the preacher says a believer should be, he is quite simply not hearing the Gospel preached at that time.  He is hearing a message that calls upon men to look within for evidence of salvation. 

Hearing the Gospel gives peace, not lack of assurance!  Hearing the Gospel is really believing that Christ is All, and assurance arises from that. There has never been a sinner who asked for mercy who was denied.  I have had many people over the years tell me that they have asked for mercy and their prayer went unheard.  The reason their prayer was not heard was they were not really asking for mercy.


When a sinner asks for mercy, two things are crystal clear in his heart.  First, his sin is all his fault. He cannot blame God’s sovereignty, his circumstances, or someone else.  If I do not take complete responsibility for my sin, it is impossible to ask for mercy.  Mercy is needed only when my sin is all my fault.    

 

Secondly, mercy is God’s to give or withhold. Any objection to God being sovereign in giving His mercy to whom He will is leaving the ground of mercy and entering the ground of entitlement.  If I fail to see my sin is all my fault and that mercy is God’s to give or withhold, I have never really asked for mercy.  But if I confess before God my sin is all my fault, and acknowledge His sovereign mercy is His to give or withhold and cry out, “God be merciful to me the sinner,” I will have mercy.  There has never been a sinner who sought mercy who was denied.  

 

-copied 

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