Who Has Hope? | The Whole Counsel

What Is Informing Our View of Sin and the Gospel?

I think, you know, a really important question for us to ask ourselves is what is informing my opinion on these matters? I mean, it's a simple question, but it may not be as easy to answer as we think to get to the truth of it.

I mean, am I being daily informed regarding the nature of sin and regarding the nature of the gospel? And am I feeling the weight of these matters correctly because I'm being informed by God?

Yeah, and there's probably a temptation on our part to think that we do feel about those things correctly, particularly the Christian, you know, that we are informed. We probably do not recognize the degree to which the world still affects us.

And so there's the temptation to think, well, yeah, I do. But if we're not careful to come back to Scripture and read and see what God says and constantly be informed by that, then we're dealing with vague generalities and not with the truth.

God Has Not Left Us in the Mist

Yeah, and those six applicatory questions at the end, I think that'll help us to kind of get a more honest assessment of ourselves, whether we are being fashioned in our thoughts by what the culture says or by what God says.

And because this is so significant, it is a very encouraging reality to be reminded of that God himself has not left us to kind of vaguely wander in the mist and shadow and to try to arrive at the right understanding.

God has throughout the centuries guided the pens of men to tell us the truth about sin, to remove the false advertising from sin, to tell us the truth about himself, to give us the right measurement of God and of his mercies and not allow us to have our measurements given to us, handed to us by the religious culture or the world.

The Spirit as Our Instructor and the Hope of the Crying Heart

And God has sent his spirit to be our instructor. So no person lost or saved who cries out to the Lord and says, show me the truth for your name's sake. I think no person that does that has a right to despair.