Sword & Trowel 2017: Issue 1
The Junior and Infant departments’ Prizegiving service held on Sunday 5th November 2017. A total of 760 children and teenagers attended across the Tabernacle Sunday School branches, and many parents also.
and even torments his conscience, and this is what makes him feel he is unsaved. He is now the most uncom- fortable, uneasy, unhappy person in the world because he has offended the Lord. That is the effect sin has on him. In that sense, he cannot sin eas- ily or happily.
He cannot sin without repercus- sions because he has the precious seed of life in his soul and his con- science jars within him and cries out. If we cannot sin comfortably, there is probably life in us, or a work of grace is in train. That is the message of John.
4 THE FAMILY BOND
Another comfort in times of doubt- ing salvation is implied in 1 John 2.9: ‘He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.’ This is echoed in 1 John 3.14 by the words, ‘We know that we
have passed from death unto life, be- cause we love the brethren.’ This great comfort we comment on only in passing, as there are pow- erful but little-known evidences of salvation yet to cover. The words tell us that a child of God has a spiritual- family instinct placed within him at conversion, a bond with others who are the Lord’s. It is a new regard for fellow-believers, and a deep sense of closeness. If Satan should tempt us to doubt our salvation, there re- mains within us a strong realisation that believers are those with whom we belong. It is a great instinct and the apostle holds it up as a mark of grace.
5 SEEING THROUGH THE WORLD Our next strong evidence is that
of 1 John 2.15: ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
The Dissolving of Doubts page 11
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