Assurance: When and How Are We Sealed By the Spirit?

When and how the believer is sealed with the Spirit is the question. Many of the Puritans and certain of their contemporary disciples, agreeing that sealing is the assuring of the sealed of their salvation, contend that the sealing is a work of the Spirit that follows faith in Christ in time, often after many […]

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Biblical Doctrine: When Are We Sealed By the Holy Spirit?

We learn the truth about assurance especially from three passages, or kinds of passages, of Scripture. The first is those texts that teach the sealing work of the Spirit. Several texts teach that the Spirit seals the believer, including II Corinthians 1:21, 22; Ephesians 1:13, 14; and Ephesians 4:30. Ephesians 1:13, 14 is the most […]

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What Is ‘Joy in the Holy Spirit’?

and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. – Romans 5:5 The Spirit of God does not work ‘in vacuo’. He glorifies Christ. He works through the propitiation, interpreting, revealing and applying it. If we think of […]

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Puritan Assurance: A Cruel Doctrine of Doubt

September 21

The following is an excerpt from a work (available in its entirety online) entitled The Gift of Assurance by Prof. David J. Engelsma. With the rampant spread of puritan mysticism infecting protestant churches crossing all denominational lines, the subject is of the greatest import. I cannot recommend highly enough the reading of this small work. […]

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A Doctrinal Cancer Within the Church

In his book, The Object and Acts of Justifying Faith, puritan Thomas Goodwin acknowledges that many who finally obtain assurance do so only after many years. After many years? Really? After truly believing and trusting in Christ alone, we must wait and toil for something else in addition for real assurance other than knowing that […]

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6 Things You Need to Understand on ‘being led by the Spirit’

You are not one of the Apostles of Scripture. Neither am I. The prophets and apostles were many times led by God by real, dramatic manifestations of Himself, by visions, etc. You and I are not, ever. The complete instructions for the Church – for guidance and growth – God has written down. God speaks […]

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By the Spirit

I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is […]

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The Holy Spirit, the Blessing of Abraham

in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. – Galatians 3:14 The spiritual blessings of God have always, from the beginning, been reserved for the remnant, those chosen to be saved among the mass of religious […]

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No Boundaries

A dictionary defines the word boundaries as the following: The line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something A line determining the limits of an area The greatest possible degree of something Now, consider this: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such […]

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The Law of God is the Christian’s Rule of Life

Historic Christianity had taught that the saints persevere to the end through holiness and sanctification. But not only did Fundamentalism undermine this truth by separating justification (the Christian’s standing before God) from regeneration (his inward state as renewed by the Holy Spirit); it also rejected the law of God as a rule by which holiness […]

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Fully Co-operating with the Holy Spirit

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2 The verb transformed is packed with spiritual truths, particularly when one looks carefully at the original […]

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New Calvinism Hermeneutics

Note carefully the following quote, and note specifically the definition of ‘synergistic’. You want to know what New Calvinism (NC) is all about, and how they interpret scripture? This is it. Following is a quote by NC Terry Rayburn in his post Progressive Sanctification – Are We Sanctified by Works? (which is pretty much a […]

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Infallible Witnesses of Redemption

George Whitefield: Many other marks are scattered up and down the scriptures, whereby we may know whether or not we have received the Holy Ghost: such as, "to be carnally minded, is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "Now the fruits of the Spirit are joy, peace, long-suffering, meekness," with a […]

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Joy in Christ Crucified

  The late Lady Colquhoun was one who knew the preciousness and power of resting on Christ Jesus alone for peace, comfort, and salvation, and from personal experience she was “able to teach others also.” Writing to a young friend, she gave this excellent counsel: “As well in our winters as our summers the foundation […]

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Q&A: Seeking the Power

Q: Where in Scripture are we told to seek the power of the Holy Spirit? A: Nowhere. Nor are we to seek the manifestation of God in any physical sense. John 14:21 promises us that Jesus will manifest Himself to us in obedience to His commands, but that is through His written Word, not by […]

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Nothing but the Blood

September 20

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. – Exodus 12:13 Jesus has delivered the believer from the wrath to come when He will execute judgment upon those who have rejected Him (I Th. 1:10). The […]

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So, You Want to See Revival?

August 30

Ok. Amos 9:13. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. Now, we have a garden in our home, and I can tell you, […]

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Jesus Christ to Be Trusted

  "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” – John 14:18 It was a promise. A promise to disciples who were still not quite certain of what was happening. All this time, they had God in the flesh by their side. They walked, ate and lived with Him for years, […]

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Untold Blessings

1 Simon Peter, abond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3seeing that His divine power […]

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Book of Acts & The Work of the Holy Spirit – the Norm for the Church?

August 04

Is the work of the Spirit of God in the book of Acts the norm for the Church today? No, it isn’t. You’d have to begin with external evidence combined with erroneous presuppositions. To attempt to establish a norm for all Christians in all ages from the book of Acts is not proper. It is […]

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