Discernment, Sovereignty, and Assurance in Faith

"I think Jesus does it regularly with the Pharisees when they come with their questions that are not honest questions, but are meant to trap Him. And you know, when they came to Jesus and they said, 'By what authority do You cleanse the temple?' And Jesus says, 'Well, I'll tell you by what authority I cleanse the temple if you tell me whether John the Baptist was sent by heaven or by man.' So, He's refused to answer their question. He has refused to throw pearls to swine." [00:00:37]

"And, I think, similarly with us, the Spirit will fill us to overflowing, gift us, enable us to do God's perfect will in the new heavens and new earth." [00:02:11]

"So, whilst the evidence was conducive to trinitarianism, (of course, God who essentially exists us triune would reveal Himself in ways that are conducive to trinitarianism) none of them expounded a doctrine of the Trinity until the New Testament. And so, what was latent in the Old, as Augustine said, is patent in the New. So, there are adumbrations of trinitarianism in the Old Testament." [00:04:04]

"God is sovereign over all, yet He has ordained human responsibility as part of His divine plan. This understanding helps us navigate our faith without falling into the trap of blaming God for our sins." [00:14:14]

"Yet He also tells us that He is neither the author nor the approver of sin. It tells us that God is over all and almighty over all and sovereign over all, yet it also tells us that God doesn't tempt us. And so, we have to understand that at least at the outset that God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are not apparent contradictions." [00:14:35]

"Now, some might say, 'Well, that sounds simplistic.' Well, I think, quite frankly, God makes it as simple as we could possibly need to hear it. It's not that complicated, but I had to work through for many years this whole idea, 'Well, this is just a contradiction in Scripture or at least an apparent contradiction or antinomy in Scripture' when I don't believe that's how God gives it to us." [00:15:02]

"And so, there is a whole variety of reasons why people may experience doubt, but the experience of doubt in and of itself is not evidence that we are not converted. What it demonstrates is that we need to run to Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to grant us that assurance that we once had." [00:28:19]

"Feelings within our hearts, they can deceive us, they can lie to us. Feelings are real. Feelings are genuine. God gives us feelings. The Spirit gives us feelings. We shouldn't ignore our feelings, but we shouldn't listen to them when they're lying to us against what we know to be true." [00:30:22]

"Because true repentance means not only being broken over it, not only being contrite over it, being humbled by that sin, but also confessing that sin. And also, it means sort of striving to live in a different way, to consecrate ourselves to a different way of living, a different pattern. That's true repentance." [00:31:23]

"I think we do need to be very careful that we do not limit what the Holy Spirit can do when God doesn't give us those very particular limits. You know, there's so much in Acts where, you know, 'You don't need to worry about what you say; the Holy Spirit is going provide it to you.'" [00:38:06]

"Well, again, that's apostolic time, but there are amazing testimonies of what the Spirit has done throughout history and how He has illumined people through the truth of His Word, grounded in His Word, never contrary to His Word. I think that's the most important thing that the Spirit would never guide us in anything, illumine us in any way to believe or think on something or do something that would be contrary to His specially revealed Word." [00:38:58]

"So, He is alive and working through the Holy Spirit and that's important to remember." [00:39:47]