A couple of years after becoming a Christian I was introduced to a dynamic speaker who was passionate and I believe biblically faithful. He was one of those guys who could go into a college and convince about 80% of the students that they weren’t actually saved. He would focus a good deal on the tests of 1 John. And he would preach in such a way that it was assumed only about 5 people present actually knew Christ.

His messages were powerful and they often rocked my soul. It was natural, then, that I’d pick up a few of his quirks and I’d also emphasize the things he was emphasizing. We’d go through 1 John and I’d ask things like, “Are you REALLY saved?” And I would do it in such a way that I thought most should answer, “No, I’m not really saved—but I need to be”.

Now, I’m not saying that this guy is doing it all wrong. Undoubtedly there are those within our congregations who are unconverted still. This man has been used by God to awaken entire campuses to their need for Christ. And for the most part I do not regret most of the sermons I preached early on. We did see many students converted. So I’m not trying to necessarily say, “Don’t preach this way”. Rather I’m trying to say there is another tone you need to add to your preaching repertoire.

You see, I started to discover that something was slightly askew in my preaching. Something was off balance. And I realized this because students who absolutely loved the Lord would still wrestle mightily with assurance. The ones who needed to hear the “are you really saved” wouldn’t and the ones who needed to have their faith nurtured would instead have their faith rocked. Many weren’t able to grow beyond that initial question of whether or not they were actually converted.

How the Puritans Differed

Then I discovered the Puritans. One sentence in Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed rebuked me deeply. Sibbes said this,

“Preachers need to take heed therefore how they deal with young believers. Let them be careful not to pitch matters too high, making things necessary evidences of grace which agree not to the experience of many a good Christian, and laying salvation and damnation upon things that are not fit to bear so great a weight.” (Sibbes, 26)

I had been doing exactly what Sibbes warned against. As I continued studying the Puritans I realized the way they preached on assurance and such was almost the total opposite of the way that I was doing it. Rather than looking for evidences that you are not converted the Puritans would look for sparks of grace and they would work to fan that into flame. Sinclair Ferguson summarizes their position well when he says,”In the case of weak and doubting persons, our response is not a priori to deny that they have real faith but to seek to discern the seed of faith and nourish it according to the principles of Scripture.” (Ferguson, 193)

Not only did I see this in the Puritans but my eyes were opened to the way the writers of Scripture treated weak believers. Consider the Corinthians. These guys were messed up. Preach the 1 John tests to these dudes and most of them are probably going to fail miserably. They aren’t rightly loving their neighbors. They aren’t being very holy. All they really have for them is a little bit of right doctrine. But notice what Paul does. He doesn’t turn them inward to look at themselves and their failings. Instead he thanks God for the sparks of grace that he sees, turns their eyes toward Christ, and nurtures them accordingly.

The same is true of 1 John. He is writing this letter not “so that you may fail” but “so that you might know”. He wants them to see the sparks of grace that they have and for them to hold on to Jesus. I’m convinced the tone of the Scriptures is more like the Puritans on assurance than the way I was formerly doing it.

I’m still growing in this area in my preaching. Much to my shame, I still find myself at times preaching in such a way that could trample weak faith. But I’m growing in looking for weak faith and nurturing it instead of questioning it. There are texts for us to preach whose aim it is to rattle the sleeping. But I’m convinced that what people need to hear more than anything is not ways to question our faith but a million ways to look to Christ and His sufficiency.

Weak faith should be nurtured into growth not shaken down and denied.

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