The Worst Sinner You Know

Are you the worst sinner you know? How you answer that question says a lot about your theology as well as the condition of your soul. Some Christians find this questions to be difficult, if not inappropriate. So let me tell you up front that I am convinced the answer to this question, when posed to a Christian, ought to always be, "Yes. I am the worst sinner I know."  Many balk at this idea--pointing to people who are constantly overwhelmed by guilt and find no relief. Such theology can seem cruel. Yet when properly understood this leads to deliverance rather than to despair. Knowing ourselves and knowing our Savior highlights our transgressions and Christ's glories in such a way that we are both humbled and made happy by the grace of God in Christ.

The Apostle Paul wrote of himself in a way that demonstrates what he believed about himself. First he said he was "least of the Apostles" (1 Cor. 15:9), then "least of all the saints" (Eph. 3:8), and, at the end of his life, he saw himself as the "foremost" of sinners (1 Tim 1:15). This, combined with Paul's ongoing struggle with sin described in Romans 7:13-25, gives a picture of the Apostle's self-image. Though now a saint he remained, in his own eyes, the worst sinner he knew due to his wicked past and even his present corruption. Note what the Second London Confession has to say about the sin nature in believers:   Continue at Joe Thorn

A Blow at the Root of Antinomianism

THE design of the following sheets, cast in as a Mantissa to the foregoing discourse of Errors, is principally to discharge and free the free grace of God from those dangerous errors, which fight against it under its own colours; partly to prevent the seduction of some that stagger; and, lastly, (though least of all) to vindicate my own doctrine, the scope and current whereof hath always been, and shall ever be, to exalt the free grace of God in Christ, to draw the vilest of sinners to him, and relieve the distressed consciences of sin-burthened Christians.

But, notwithstanding my utmost care and caution, some have been apt to censure it, as if in some things it had a tang of Antinomianism: But if my public or private discourses be the faithful messengers of my judgment and heart, (as I hope they are) nothing can be found in any of them casting a friendly aspect upon any of their principles, which I here justly censure as erroneous.

Three things I principally aim at in this short Appendix.

1. To give the reader the most probable rise of Antinomianism.

2. An account of the principal errors of that sect.

3. To confirm and establish Christians against them by sound reasons, backed with scripture-authority.  And,

I. Of the rise of Antinomianism.

The scriptures foreseeing there would arise such a sort of men in the church, as would wax wanton against Christ, and turn his grace into lasciviousness; hath not only precautioned us in general to beware of such opinions as corrupt the doctrine of free-grace, Rom. 6.1,2. "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? "God forbid:" But hath particularly indigitated and marked those very opinions by which it would be abused, and made abundant provision against them; as namely,

1. All slighting and vilifying opinions or expressions of the holy law of God, Rom. 7.7,12.

2. All opinions and principles inclining men to a careless disregard and neglect of the duties of obedience, under pretence of free grace, and liberty by Christ, James 2. Matth. 25.

3. All opinions neglecting or slighting sanctification, as the evidence {552} of our justification, and rendering it needless or sinful to try the state of our souls, by the graces of the Spirit wrought in us, which is the principal scope of the first epistle of John.

Notwithstanding, such is the wickedness of some, and the weakness of others, that in all ages (especially the last past, and present) men have audaciously broken in upon the doctrine of free grace, and notoriously violated and corrupted it, to the great reproach of Christ, scandal of the world, and hardening of the enemies of reformation. 'Behold,' (saith Contzen the Jesuit, on Matth. 24,) 'the fruit of Protestantism, and their gospel-preaching.' Keep Reading >>>

Christ the Desire of All Nations by John Flavel (1628-1691)

“And the desire of all nations shall come.” Haggai 2:7.

The first chapter of Haggai is mainly spent in reproving the negligence of the Jews, who, being discouraged from time to time, had delayed the rebuilding of the temple. In the meantime they employed their care and cost in building and adorning their own houses: but, at last, being persuaded to set about the work, they met with this discouragement, that such was the poverty of the present time, that the second structure would not match the magnificence and splendor of the first. In Solomon’s days the nation was wealthy, but now it was drained; so that there would be no comparison between the second and the first. To this great discouragement the prophet applies this relief: that whatsoever should be lacking in external pomp and glory, should be more than recompensed by the presence of Jesus Christ in this second temple. For Christ, “the desire of all nations,” he says, shall come into it. Which, by the way, may give us this useful note: The presence of Jesus Christ gives a more real and excellent glory to the places of his worship, than any external beauty or outward ornaments whatsoever can bestow upon them. Our eyes, like the disciples, are apt to be dazzled with the sparkling stones of the temple, and, in the meantime, to neglect and overlook that which gives it the greatest honour and beauty.

But to return. In these words we have both the description of Christ, and an arrow pointing at the time of his incarnation: he is called “the desire of all nations,” and the time of his coming in the flesh is clearly implied to be during the time of the second temple. Where, by the way, we find a valid reason to stand amazed at and bemoan the blindness of the Jews. They admit the truth of this prophecy and are not able to deny the destruction of the second temple, many hundred years past, yet will not be brought to acknowledge the incarnation of the true Messiah.  Keep Reading >>>

Keeping the Heart

“KEEP THY HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE, FOR OUT OF IT
ARE THE ISSUES OF LIFE.”—Proverbs 4:23.

THE heart of man is his worst part before it is regenerated, and the best afterward; it is the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it.

The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate of heaven a strait gate. Direction and help in this great work are the scope of the text: wherein we have,

I. An exhortation, “Keep thy heart with all diligence.”

II. The reason or motive enforcing it, “For out of it are the issues of life.”

In the exhortation I shall consider,

First, The matter of the duty.
Secondly, The manner of performing it.

I. The matter of the duty: Keep thy heart. Heart is not here taken properly for the noble part of the body, which philosophers call “the first that lives and the last that dies ;“ but by heart, in a metaphor, the Scripture sometimes represents some particular noble faculty of the soul. In Rom. 1:21, it is put for the understanding; their foolish heart, that is, their foolish understanding was darkened. Psalm 119:11, it is put for the memory; “Thy word have I hid in my heart ;“ and 1 John 3:10, it is put for the conscience, which includes both the light of the understanding and the recognitions of the memory; if our heart condemn us, that is, if our conscience, whose proper office it is to condemn.

But in the text we are to take it more generally, for the whole soul, or inner man. What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart, that holiness is to the soul. The state of the whole body depends upon the soundness and vigor of the heart, and the everlasting state of the whole man upon the good or ill condition of the soul.   Keep Reading >>>

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On Keeping The Heart