Chapter 10. Get a Clear Sense of the Guilt and Danger of Sin

The second particular direction. Get a clear sense of (1) the guilt of the sin perplexing. Considerations for help therein proposed. (2) The danger — manifold: 1. Hardening. 2. Temporal correction. 3. Loss of peace and strength. 4. Eternal destruction. Rules for this management of the consideration. (3) The evil of it: 1. In grieving the Spirit. 2. Wounding the new creature.

The second direction is this: get a clear and abiding sense upon your mind and conscience of the (1) guilt, (2) danger, (3) evil of that sin wherewith you are perplexed.

(1.) Of the guilt of it. It is one of the deceits of a prevailing lust, to extenuate its own guilt. Is it not a little one? When I go and bow myself in the house of Rimmon, God be merciful to me in this thing. Though this be bad, yet it is not so bad as such and such an evil, others of the people of God have had such a frame; what dreadful actual sins have some of them fallen into! Innumerable ways there are whereby sin diverts the mind from a right and due apprehension of its guilt. Its noisome exhalations darken the mind, that it cannot make a right judgment of things; perplexing reasonings, extenuating promises, tumultuating desires, treacherous purposes of relinquishment, hopes of mercy; all have a share in disturbing the mind, in its consideration of the guilt of a prevailing lust. The prophet tells us, that lust will do thus wholly, when it comes to the height (Hosea 4:11): Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart — the heart, that is, the understanding, as it is often used in the scripture. Solomon tells you of him who was enticed by the lewd woman, that he was among the simple ones, he was a young man void of understanding (Proverbs 7:7), and wherein did his folly appear? In verse 23: He knew not that it was for his life; he considered not the guilt of the evil that he was involved in. This is the proper issue of lust in the heart, it darkens the mind that it shall not judge aright of its guilt. Let this then be the first care of him that would mortify sin, to fix a right judgment of its guilt in his mind. To which end take these considerations to your assistance:

1. Though the power of sin be weakened by inherent grace in them that have it, that sin shall not have dominion over them, as it has over others, yet the guilt of sin that does yet abide and remain, is aggravated and heightened by it (Romans 6:1, 2): What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? How shall we do it, who have received grace from Christ to the contrary? We doubtless are more evil than any, if we do it. There is inconceivably more evil and guilt in the evil of your heart, that does remain, than there would be in so much sin, if you had no grace at all.

2. That as God sees abundance of beauty and excellency in the desires of the hearts of his servants, more than in any the most glorious works of other men; so God sees a great deal of evil in the working of lust in their hearts, more than in the open notorious acts of wicked men, or in many outward sins whereinto the saints may fall; seeing against them there is more opposition made, and more humiliation generally follows them. Thus Christ, dealing with his decaying children, goes to the root with them; lays aside their profession (Revelation 3:15): I know you, you are quite another thing than you profess, and this makes you abominable.

So then; let these things and the like considerations lead you to a clear sense of the guilt of your indwelling lust, that there may be no room in your heart for extenuating or excusing thoughts, whereby sin insensibly will get strength and prevail.

(2.) Consider the danger of it, which is manifold:

1. Of being hardened by its deceitfulness: this the Apostle solemnly charges on the Hebrews (Hebrews 3:12-13): Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God: but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Take heed (said he) use all means, consider your temptations, watch diligently, there is a treachery, a deceit in sin, that tends to the hardening of your hearts from the fear of God. The hardening here mentioned is to the utmost; utter obduracy; sin tends to it, and every distemper and lust will make at least some progress towards it. You that were tender, and used to melt under the word, under afflictions, will grow (as some have profanely spoken) sermon-proof, and sickness-proof; you that trembled at the presence of God, thoughts of death, and appearance before him, when you had more assurance of his love than now you have, shall have a stoutness upon your spirit, not to be moved by these things. Your soul and your sin shall be spoken of, and spoken to, and you shall not be at all concerned; but shall be able to pass over duties, praying, hearing, reading, and your heart not in the least affected. Sin will grow a light thing to you; you will pass by it as a thing of nothing; this it will grow to, and what will be the end of such a condition? Can a sadder thing befall you? Is it not enough to make any heart to tremble, to think of being brought into that estate, in which he should have slight thoughts of sin; slight thoughts of grace, of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of the law, heaven and hell, come all in at the same season? Take heed, this is that your lust is working towards; the hardening of the heart, searing of conscience, blinding of the mind, stupefying of the affections, and deceiving of the whole soul.

2. The danger of some great temporal correction, which the scripture calls vengeance, judgment, and punishment (Psalm 89:30-33). Though God should not utterly cast you off for this abomination that lies in your heart, yet he will visit with the rod; though he pardon and forgive, he will take vengeance of your inventions. Remember David and all his troubles; look on him flying into the wilderness, and consider the hand of God upon him. Is it nothing to you, that God should kill your child in anger, ruin your estate in anger, break your bones in anger, suffer you to be a scandal and reproach in anger, kill you, destroy you, make you lie down in darkness in anger? Is it nothing that he should punish, ruin, and undo others for your sake? Let me not be mistaken, I do not mean, that God does send all these things always on his in anger; God forbid. But this I say, that when he does so deal with you, and your conscience bears witness with him, what your provocations have been, you will find his dealings full of bitterness to your soul. If you fear not these things, I fear you are under hardness.

3. Loss of peace and strength all a man's days. To have peace with God, to have strength to walk before God, is the sum of the great promises of the covenant of grace. In these things is the life of our souls. Without them in some comfortable measure, to live is to die. What good will our lives do us, if we see not the face of God sometimes in peace? If we have not some strength to walk with him? Now both these will an unmortified lust certainly deprive the souls of men of. This case is so evident in David, as that nothing can be more clear. How often does he complain that his bones were broken, his soul disquieted, his wounds grievous on this account? Take other instances (Isaiah 57:18): For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth, and hid myself. What peace is there to a soul while God hides himself? Or strength while he smites? (Hosea 5:15): I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. I will leave them, hide my face, and what will become of their peace and strength? If ever you have enjoyed peace with God, if ever his terrors have made you afraid, if ever you have had strength to walk with him, or ever have mourned in your prayer, and been troubled because of your weakness, think of this danger that hangs over your head. It is perhaps but a little while and you shall see the face of God in peace no more: perhaps by tomorrow you shall not be able to pray, read, hear, or perform any duties with the least cheerfulness, life or vigor; and possibly you may never see a quiet hour while you live. That you may carry about you broken bones full of pain and terror all the days of your life; indeed perhaps God will shoot his arrows at you, and fill you with anguish and disquietness, with fears and perplexities, make you a terror and an astonishment to yourself and others, show you hell and wrath every moment; frighten and scare you with sad apprehensions of his hatred, so that your sore shall run in the night season, and your soul shall refuse comfort; so that you shall wish death rather than life, indeed your soul may choose strangling. Consider this a little, though God should not utterly destroy you, yet he might cast you into this condition, in which you shall have quick and living apprehensions of your destruction. Accustom your heart to thoughts of this; let it know what is likely to be the outcome of its state, leave not this consideration until you have made your soul to tremble within you.

4. There is the danger of eternal destruction. For the due management of this consideration, observe:

1. That there is such a connection between a continuance in sin and eternal destruction, that though God resolves to deliver some from a continuance in sin, that they may not be destroyed, yet he will deliver none from destruction that continue in sin. So that while any one lies under an abiding power of sin, the threats of destruction and everlasting separation from God are to be held out to him (Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 10:38). This is the rule of God's proceeding: if any man departs from him, draws back through unbelief, God's soul has no pleasure in him; that is, his indignation shall pursue him to destruction (Galatians 6:8).

II. That he who is so entangled (as above described) under the power of any corruption, can have at that present no clear prevailing evidence of his interest in the covenant, by the efficacy whereof he may be delivered from fear of destruction. So that destruction from the Lord may justly be a terror to him; and he may, he ought to look upon it, as that which will be the end of his course and ways. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). True! but who shall have the comfort of this assertion? Who may assume it to himself? They that walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh. But you will say, Is not this to persuade men to unbelief? I answer, No; there is a twofold judgment that a man may make of himself: (1) of his person, and (2) of his ways. It is the judgment of his ways, not his person that I speak of; let a man get the best evidence for his person that he can, yet to judge that an evil way will end in destruction, is his duty; not to do it, is atheism. I do not say, that in such a condition a man ought to throw away the evidences of his personal interest in Christ; but I say, he cannot keep them. There is a twofold condemnation of a man's self:

First, in respect of desert, when the soul concludes, that it deserves to be cast out of the presence of God; and this is so far from a business of unbelief, that it is an effect of faith.

Secondly, with respect to the issue and event; when the soul concludes it shall be damned. I do not say this is the duty of any one, nor do I call them to it. But this I say, that the end of the way wherein a man is, ought by him to be concluded to be death, that he may be provoked to fly from it; and this is another consideration, that ought to dwell upon such a soul, if it desire to be freed from the entanglement of its lusts.

(3) Consider the evils of it — its present evils. Danger respects what is to come; evil what is present: some of the many evils that attend an unmortified lust may be mentioned.

1. It grieves the Holy and Blessed Spirit, which is given to believers to dwell in them and abide with them. So the Apostle, dehorting them from many lusts and sins, gives this as the great motive of it (Ephesians 4:30): Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption. Grieve not that Spirit of God (said he) whereby you receive so many and so great benefits; of which he instances in one signal and comprehensive one, sealing to the day of redemption. He is grieved by it, as a tender and loving friend is grieved at the unkindness of his friend, of whom he has well deserved; so is it with this tender and loving Spirit, who has chosen our hearts for a habitation to dwell in, and there to do for us all that our souls desire. He is grieved by our harboring his enemies, and those whom he is to destroy in our hearts with him. He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve us (Lamentations 3:33); and shall we daily grieve him? Now if there be any thing of gracious ingenuity left in the soul, if it be not utterly hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, this consideration will certainly affect it. Consider who and what you are, who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he has done for you, what he comes to your soul about, what he has already done in you; and be ashamed. Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness, than this — that the blessed Spirit who has undertaken to dwell in them as temples of God, and to preserve them meet for him who so dwells in them, is continually considering what they give entertainment in their hearts unto; and rejoices when his temple is kept undefiled. That was a high aggravation of the sin of Zimri, that he brought his adulteress into the congregation in the sight of Moses, and the rest, who were weeping for the sins of the people (Numbers 25:6); and is it not a high aggravation of the countenancing a lust, or suffering it to abide in the heart, when it is (as it must be, if we are believers) entertained under the peculiar eye and view of the Holy Spirit, taking care to preserve his tabernacle pure and holy?

2. The Lord Jesus is wounded afresh by it; his new creature in the heart is wounded. His love is foiled, his adversary gratified. As a total relinquishment of him by the deceitfulness of sin, is the crucifying him afresh, and the putting of him to open shame, so every harboring of sin that he came to destroy, wounds and grieves him.

3. It will take away a man's usefulness in his generation. His works, his endeavors, his labors seldom receive blessing from God. If he be a preacher, God commonly blows upon his ministry, that he shall labor in the fire, and not be honored with any success, or doing any work for God; and the like may be spoken of other conditions. The world is at this day full of poor withering professors; how few are there that walk in any beauty, or glory; how barren, how useless are they for the most part. Among the many reasons that may be assigned of this sad estate, it may justly be feared that this is none of the least effectual; many men harbor spirit-devouring lusts in their bosoms, that lie as worms at the root of their obedience, and corrode and weaken it day by day. All graces, all the ways and means whereby any graces may be exercised and improved, are prejudiced by this means; and as to any success, God blasts such men's undertakings.

This then is the second direction, and it regards the opposition that is to be made to lust, in respect of its habitual residence in the soul; keep alive upon your heart these or the like considerations, of its guilt, danger and evil; be much in the meditation of these things; cause your heart to dwell and abide upon them. Engage your thoughts into these considerations; let them not go off, nor wander from them, until they begin to have a powerful influence upon your soul; until they make it to tremble.

Specific directions relating to the case stated above are now proposed. First, consider the dangerous symptoms of any lust: 1. Long-standing persistence. 2. Peace obtained despite it — the various ways this is done. 3. Frequency of success in its seductions. 4. The soul fighting against it with arguments drawn only from consequences. 5. Its being accompanied by judicial hardening. 6. Its withstanding specific dealings from God. The condition of persons in whom these things are found.

With the previous general rules in place, specific directions to the soul for its guidance under the pressure of a troubling lust or disorder — which is the main thing I am aiming at — now come next. Some of these directions are preparatory, and in others the actual work of mortification is contained.

First, consider what dangerous symptoms your lust has accompanying it. Look whether it carries any deadly marks or not. If it does, extraordinary remedies are required; an ordinary course of mortification will not be enough.

What are these dangerous marks and symptoms — these severe warnings accompanying an indwelling lust? I will name several.

(1) Long standing. If the lust has been corrupting in your heart for a long time — if you have allowed it to remain in power and dominance without vigorously attempting to kill it and heal the wounds it has given you — your disorder is dangerous. Have you allowed worldliness, ambition, or an all-consuming drive for study to crowd out other duties — particularly those in which you should hold constant communion with God — for a long season? Or have you allowed impurity to defile your heart with vain, foolish, and wicked imaginations for many days? Your lust has a dangerous symptom. So it was with David (Psalm 38:5): 'My wounds are foul and festering because of my folly.' When a lust has lain long in the heart — corrupting, festering, eating away — it brings the soul into a wretched condition. In such a case, ordinary humiliation will not do the work. Whatever the lust is, it will have by this time worked itself more or less into all the faculties of the soul, and made the affections at home with it. It grows familiar to the mind and conscience so that they are no longer startled by it as something strange, but are comfortable with it as something they are used to. Unless some extraordinary course is taken, such a person has no grounds in the world to expect that his end will be peaceful.

First, how will he be able to distinguish between a long-standing unmortified lust and the outright dominion of sin — which cannot happen to a regenerate person? Second, how can he promise himself that things will ever be different, or that his lust will ever stop stirring and seducing, when he sees it fixed and entrenched — having been so for many days and having remained through many different circumstances in his life? Perhaps it has been tested by both mercies and afflictions — some of them so remarkable that the soul could not help but take special notice of them. Will it be easy to dislodge a tenant who can claim the right of long possession? Old, neglected wounds are often fatal and always dangerous. An indwelling disorder grows stubborn when allowed to sit undisturbed for a long time. Lust is the kind of tenant who, when it can claim time and something like prescription, will not easily be evicted. As it never dies on its own, so if it is not daily killed, it will always gather strength.

(2) Secret reasoning in the heart to reassure itself and maintain its peace, despite the ongoing presence of a lust and the absence of a vigorous Gospel effort to mortify it — this is another dangerous symptom of a deadly disorder. There are several ways this can happen, and I will name some of them.

1. When a person, instead of applying himself to the destruction of a troubling sin, searches his heart to find evidences of a good standing with God despite that sin — so that he can assure himself all is well.

For a person to gather up his experiences of God — to call them to mind, take stock of them, reflect on them, test them, and build on them — is an excellent thing, a duty practiced by all the saints and commended in both the Old and New Testaments. This was David's work when he communed with his own heart and called to remembrance the former lovingkindness of the Lord (Psalm 77:6-9). It is also the duty Paul sets before us (2 Corinthians 13:5). But to do it for the purpose of quieting a conscience that is crying out for something entirely different — this is a desperate device of a heart that is in love with sin. When a person's conscience deals with him — when God rebukes him for the sinful disorder of his heart — and instead of applying himself to get that sin pardoned in the blood of Christ and mortified by His Spirit, he soothes himself with other evidences he has or thinks he has, and so slips out from under the yoke God was placing on his neck — his condition is very dangerous and his wound is hardly curable. This is what the Jews did under the pricks of their own consciences and the convicting preaching of our Savior: they bolstered themselves with the claim that they were Abraham's children and therefore accepted by God, and so excused every abominable wickedness right up to their complete ruin.

This is, in some degree, calling down a blessing on oneself and saying that one way or another there will be peace — even while adding the thirst for sin to the drinking of it. Love of sin, a low regard for peace, and a low regard for every taste of love from God are all wrapped up in such a frame of heart. Such a person plainly shows that, as long as he can keep hope of escaping wrath alive, he is perfectly content to be fruitless in the world and to live at any distance from God that falls short of final separation. What can be expected from such a heart?

2. Applying grace and mercy to an unmortified sin — or one not genuinely being mortified — is how this deception is maintained. It is a sign of a heart deeply entangled in love with sin. When a man harbors secret thoughts not unlike Naaman's about worshipping in the house of Rimmon — 'In everything else I will walk with God, but in this matter, God be merciful to me' — his condition is serious. It is true that a settled resolution to indulge in any sin on the grounds of mercy seems wholly inconsistent with Christian sincerity, and is a mark of a hypocrite — it is turning the grace of God into license (Jude 4). Yet I have no doubt that through Satan's craftiness and their own remaining unbelief, the children of God may themselves sometimes be trapped by this deceit of sin — otherwise Paul would never have cautioned them against it so earnestly (Romans 6:1-2). Nothing is more natural than for fleshly reasoning to grow strong and bold on this ground. The flesh craves indulgence on the basis of grace. Every word spoken about mercy, it stands ready to seize and twist to its own corrupt purposes. To apply mercy to a sin that is not being vigorously mortified is to make the flesh achieve its goal through the Gospel.

By these and many other devices and tricks, a deceitful heart will sometimes excuse and support itself in its corruption. When a man is in this condition with his sin — when there is a secret fondness for it prevailing in his heart, so that though his will is not fully set on it, he has an imperfect desire for it, and would practice it if not for certain consequences — and when he therefore finds relief in something other than mortification and pardon through the blood of Christ, that man's wounds are festering and corrupt. Without swift deliverance, he is at death's door.

(3) Frequency of success in sin's seduction — winning the will's consenting agreement — is another dangerous symptom. Here is what I mean: when the sin in question obtains the will's consent with some degree of pleasure, even if the sin is not outwardly committed, it has achieved success. A person may not be able for outward reasons to go all the way with sin — to what James calls the completing of it (James 1:14-15), the outward act — and yet the will to sin may actually be obtained. That is success. When any lust prevails to this extent in a person's soul, his condition may possibly be very bad and he may be unregenerate; it certainly cannot be very good — it is dangerous. And it makes no real difference whether this happens by deliberate choice or by inadvertence, since that inadvertence is itself in a sense chosen. When we are inattentive and careless in areas where we are bound to be watchful and careful, that inattentiveness does not remove the voluntary character of what we do as a result. Although a person does not choose and decide to be inattentive, if he chooses the things that produce inattentiveness, he is in effect choosing inattentiveness itself — a thing can be chosen in its cause.

Let no one think the evil of their heart is lessened because they appear to have been surprised into the consent they give it. It is their negligence in the duty of watching over their heart that betrayed them into that surprise.

(4) When a person fights against his sin using only arguments drawn from the consequences — the punishment it will bring — this is a sign that sin has taken great possession of his will and that his heart overflows with corruption. Such a person has nothing to oppose the seduction of sin in his heart except the fear of shame among people or the fear of hell from God. He is sufficiently determined to commit the sin if no punishment were attached to it. Those who belong to Christ and who act in their obedience on the basis of Gospel principles have the death of Christ, the love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, and a deep-rooted hatred of sin as sin — to set against any seduction, against every working, striving, and fighting of lust in their hearts. So it was with Joseph: 'How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?' — his good and gracious God. And Paul: 'The love of Christ constrains us' (2 Corinthians 5:14). And: 'Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God' (2 Corinthians 7:1). But when a man is so much under the power of his lust that he has nothing but the law to oppose it with — when he cannot fight it with Gospel weapons but deals with it entirely through threats of hell and judgment, which are the proper weapons of the law — it is plainly evident that sin has taken possession of his will and affections to a great and prevailing degree.

Such a person has cast off (with respect to this particular sin) the guidance of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only by restraining grace. To that extent he has fallen from grace and returned under the power of the law. And can it be thought that it is anything less than a serious provocation to Christ, that people should throw off His easy and gentle yoke and rule, casting themselves under the iron yoke of the law — purely out of indulgence to their lusts?

Test yourself here as well. When sin drives you to a standstill where you must either serve it — rushing headlong at its command into folly, like a horse charging into battle — or stand against it and suppress it, what do you say to your soul? What do you wrestle with yourself about? Is this all: 'Hell will be the end of this course; judgment will find me out. It is time to get serious; evil is at the door'? Paul's main argument for why sin shall not have dominion over believers is that they are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14). If all your contending against sin is on legal grounds — from legal principles and legal motives — what confidence can you have that sin will not have dominion over you, which would be your ruin?

Know this: that last line of defense will not hold for long. If your lust has already driven you from the stronger Gospel fortifications, it will quickly overpower this one too. Do not suppose that such considerations will deliver you when you have voluntarily surrendered to your enemy the far more powerful helps and safeguards that could have protected you a thousand times over. Be assured of this: unless you recover yourself from this condition quickly, the very thing you fear will come upon you. What Gospel principles cannot do, legal threats cannot do either.

(5) When there is reason to think that there may be something of judicial hardening — or at least of chastening punishment — in your lust as it troubles you, this is another dangerous symptom. I have no doubt that God sometimes leaves even His own people under the perplexing power of some lust or sin, at least in part, to correct them for past sins, negligence, and carelessness. Hence the church's complaint: 'Why, O Lord, do You cause us to stray from Your ways and harden our heart from fearing You?' (Isaiah 63:17). But how can a person know whether God's chastening hand is in his being left to the distress of his disorder?

Examine your heart and your ways. What was the condition of your soul before you became entangled in the sin you are now complaining about? Had you been negligent in your duties? Had you been living in a self-indulgent, self-centered way? Is there the guilt of any great sin lying upon you that you have never repented of? A new sin may be permitted — just as a new affliction may be sent — to bring an old sin to remembrance.

Have you received some notable mercy, protection, or deliverance that you did not use rightly and were not thankful for? Have you been under some affliction without pressing toward the purpose God intended for it? Have you failed to use the opportunities God graciously gave you to glorify Him in your generation? Have you conformed yourself to the world and to the people of the world, swept along by the overwhelming temptations of the times you live in?

If you find this has been your condition, wake up and call upon God. You are fast asleep in the middle of a storm of anger raging around you.

(6) When your lust has already resisted specific dealings that God has directed against it, this is another dangerous symptom. This condition is described in Isaiah 57:17: 'Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, and he went on turning away in the way of his heart.' God had dealt with them about their dominating lust — in multiple ways, through affliction and withdrawal. But they held out against everything. This is a desperate condition that nothing but pure sovereign grace (as God expresses it in the next verse) can relieve. God often meets with a person in His providential dealings and speaks directly to the evil of his heart. This causes the person to reflect on his sin and judge himself specifically for it. Sometimes in reading the word, God causes a person to fix on something that cuts him to the heart and shakes him about his present condition. More frequently, in the hearing of the word preached — God's great appointed means for conviction, conversion, and growth — He meets with people. God often carves people by the sword of His word in that setting, striking directly at their heart's most beloved sin. He startles the sinner, makes him resolve to mortify and give up the evil of his heart. Now if his lust has such a grip on him that it forces him to break these bonds of the Lord and throw off these cords — if it overcomes these convictions and returns to its old posture — if it can heal the wounds it receives and reassert itself, that soul is in a desperate condition.

The evils attending such a state of heart are beyond reckoning. Every specific warning given to a person in this condition is an incalculable mercy. How much does he despise God by resisting these warnings? And what infinite patience it is in God that He does not cast such a person off and swear in His wrath that he will never enter into His rest.

These and many other signs mark a lust that is dangerous, if not deadly. As our Savior said of a particular evil spirit, 'This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting' — so I say of lusts of this kind: an ordinary course of mortification will not do it. Extraordinary measures must be adopted.

This is the first specific direction: examine whether the lust or sin you are contending with has any of these dangerous symptoms.

Before I proceed, I must give one caution, lest anyone be misled by what has been said. When I say that the things and evils described above may befall true believers, let no one conclude from finding these things in himself that he is therefore a true believer. These are evils that believers may fall into and be ensnared by — they are not the things that make a person a believer. A person might as well conclude he is a believer because he is an adulterer (since David, who was a believer, fell into adultery) as conclude it from these symptoms above, which are the effects of sin and Satan operating in the hearts of believers. Romans 7 contains a description of a regenerate person. Anyone who reads what is said there about his dark side — about his unregenerate part, the indwelling power and violence of remaining sin — and concludes that he must be a regenerate person simply because he finds the same things in himself, will be badly mistaken. If you want evidence that you are a believer, it must come from the things that constitute a person a believer. The one who finds these symptoms in himself may safely conclude, 'If I am a believer, I am a most miserable one' — but as for whether he is one at all, he must look for other evidence if he is to have peace.