Evidence, evidence, evidence, will be the one thing wanted when the great white throne is set, when the books are opened, when the graves give up their tenants, when the dead are arraigned before the bar of God. Without some evidence that our faith in Christ was real and genuine, we shall only rise again to be condemned. I can find no evidence that will be admitted in that day, except sanctification. The question will not be how we talked and what we professed, but how we lived and what we did. Let no man deceive himself on this point. If anything is certain about the future, it is certain that there will be a judgment; and if anything is certain about judgment, it is certain that men’s “works” and “doings” will be considered and examined in it (Jn. 5:29; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:13). He that supposes works are of no importance, because they cannot justify us, is a very ignorant Christian. Unless he opens his eyes, he will find to his cost that if he comes to the bar of God without some evidence of grace, he had better never have been born.
Taken from Holiness by J.C. Ryle, Moody Publishers, copyright 2010, p. 58.
Does God want you to fret and squirm your way through life, bearing crushing burden, carrying enormous guilt and confusion, wondering if you were “good enough,” wondering if He’s your Father, wondering where you’ll spend eternity once you die? What does the Scripture say? “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:13).
Sermon, That I May Know Christ, Philippians 3:4-11, January 8, 2023.
If any man is not sure that he is in Christ, he ought not to be easy one moment until he is sure. Dear friend, without the fullest confidence as to your saved condition, you have no right to be at ease, and I pray you may never be so. This is a matter too important to be left undecided.
Is there anyone among you who truly thinks their salvation hangs suspended on the thin thread of your own will-power and commitment to righteousness? I know my own soul all too well. Were it not for God’s preserving grace I would have lost my salvation the day after I was born again. “If ever it should come to pass, that sheep of Christ might fall away, my fickle, feeble soul, alas! would fall a thousand times a day!” If you do not believe in the security of your soul in Christ, tomorrow should hold little but fear and misery and perhaps despair for you. For it may well be the day you commit that sin that will forever sever you from the Savior’s love. I can face tomorrow and the day after and the day after that with confidence, because I know that He “will never leave me nor forsake me” (Heb. 13:5).
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If you have assurance, be careful you do not lose it; keep it, for it is your life… Keep assurance. First, by prayer, Ps. 36:10, “O continue Thy lovingkindness.” Lord, continue assurance; do not take away this privy seal from me. Secondly, keep assurance by humility. Pride estrangeth God from the soul; when you are high in assurance, be low in humility. St. Paul had assurance, and he baptizeth himself with this name, “Chief of sinners,” 1 Tim. 1:15. The jewel of assurance is best kept in the cabinet of a humble heart.
A Body of Practical Divinity.
