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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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Hi guys, welcome to a new week of the Daily Blade. So on my last batch I took you, fellas, on a journey to the wonderful world of Christian metal by introducing you guys to a song by the band Beloved, and I spent that week showing you guys that we were born for battle. And let's just say I'm feeling musical again. So buckle up, because out of all the genres of Christian worship music out there, metal's definitely my favorite. But my second favorite has got to be hymns. So I didn't grow up in church, as I've said a lot before, so I didn't memorize all the first, second and fourth verses of all these songs. But since I became a Christian as a teenager, there have been a bunch of different hymns that have left really an indelible impact on me and have helped me internalize godly truth in my daily walk. So this week on the Daily Blade we're going to be looking at five of my favorite hymns of all time and we're going to dig into the lyrics and look at the biblical truths therein. Also, I'm going to be giving you my picks for the best versions of each of those songs. So today we're looking at the hymn Blessed Assurance. So this hymn was written by Fanny J Crosby in 1873. She's actually one of the most prolific hymn writers of all time and her friend Phoebe Knapp was the composer for the hymn. So it's actually a cool story. Crosby was blind. She went over to Knapp's house one day and Knapp played a new tune on the piano for Crosby and, as the story goes, knapp asked Crosby what does that melody say to you? And Crosby's response was blessed assurance Jesus is mine. So Crosby began almost immediately dictating the lyrics for the song. She wrote three stanzas and the refrain and the two women completed this legendary hymn all in that same afternoon. And my favorite version of this hymn is actually an obscure one, but it's by Shane and Shane featuring the Peace All Sisters, and it was released on their Bluegrass sampler back in 2006. And I'm pretty sure that no one ever heard it. So when I had the Shane's on the show, I asked him like why haven't we gotten a full bluegrass album? And they were like, because, kyle, you were one of like four people that actually liked it. But anyway, I'm going to read the lyrics to the hymn now Blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory, divine heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of the Spirit washed in His blood. This is my story. This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story. This is my story. This is my song praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I and my Savior am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story. This is my song praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song praising my Savior all the day long.

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Now it's kind of hard to read that and not actually sing it, but I'm saving you guys, so don't worry. So the lyrics of this hymn actually reflect Crosby's personal testimony about her faith in Jesus, and this is with the culminating truth coming out of Hebrews 10, verse 22. So I'm going to read Hebrews 10, starting in verse 19. The ESV actually titles this section the Full Assurance of Faith. So the writer of Hebrews, probably Paul, says this.

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Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through the flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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So our assurance of salvation is certainly blessed because it comes from our heavenly father. And perhaps the sweetest reality of the assurance that we have in our salvation is that it is not dependent on our works. I mean, guys, since the inception of Christianity, people, including the apostle Peter, have tried to add to the gospel Okay, they've tried to add works like baptism, like sacraments, like you know, white knuckled goodness to the finished work of Christ. But the reality is that we cannot strive hard enough to gain salvation and we can never be good enough to earn it either. Our blessed assurance comes from God. It is a righteousness that is imputed to us and that is worth praising our savior all the day long.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.