The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge -proverbs 1:7

The Way of the Master Minute

2010-01-23T03:47:00.000-08:00

The Way of the Master Minute

To Open Air Preachers

2010-01-19T01:26:00.001-08:00

Decisional Regeneration: Paul Washer Interview

2010-01-13T22:16:00.001-08:00

John Piper Q&A at Angola Prison

2010-01-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

Hell's Best Kept Secret by Way of the Master

2010-01-13T22:13:00.001-08:00

Hell's Best Kept Secret

Way of the Master (Fan Page) | MySpace Video

2009-12-02T20:03:00.001-08:00

So you can sing along:

Monkey Scheme
by http://www.apologetix.com/

Here they come -- talkin' down at me -- I get the funniest looks ‘cause -- I said I don't believe / They say we were monkeys -- They think they're sayin' something profound / But where's their missing link at? There weren't any bodies found / They built a man from a hog's tooth -- They called a lie the truth / And any time they get busted -- They sell you something new / They say we were monkeys -- I think that they've been monkeyin' around / Cause they're too busy changin' their books and their studies 'round / They're just tryin' to defend it -- they got a lot to re-explain / Where they've done excavation -- they keep uncoverin' mistakes / Any time -- or anywhere -- Just look over the boulders -- You'll see that man's been there / They say we were monkeys -- I think their heads are stuck in the ground / Cause they're too busy diggin' and putting the Bible down

SPOKEN:
Java Man was the skull of a gibbon; Nebraska Man was the tooth of a pig and / The Piltdown Man was a lowdown sham; They built that man from an organutan / Ramapithicus wasn't complete; He's a fragment of jaw and a couple of teeth / Addition skeletons show us today that he isn't our relative -- only an ape / Australapithicus alias Lucy, The fossil of this is just vague and confusing / The wonderful knee bone they're proud to possess was 200 feet deeper -- a mile from the rest / Neanderthal Man was prob'ly deficient in Vitamin D or it might've been rickets / But he had religion and musical instruments, fire and tools and from you he's no different

They say we were monkeys but people came from dust in the ground / But they're too busy thinkin’ to look into what we've found / They're just kinda pretending, but I know why they seem afraid / If we come from creation, you need God’s son to be saved / They say we were monkeys but there was no evidence found / Still you'd better get ready -- They'll make it up anyhow...

That's Not My God by Paul Washer

2009-11-25T20:02:00.001-08:00

Luke Warm & Loving It

2009-11-25T19:58:00.001-08:00

Agony by Leonard Ravenhill

2009-11-25T19:55:00.002-08:00

Burdened Prayer by Leonard Ravenhill

2009-11-25T19:55:00.001-08:00

The Gospel in 6 Minutes

2009-11-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

2009-08-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

2009-03-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

Me Witnessing 2

2009-03-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

Win a Calfskin Version of the ESV Study Bible!

Click link below for more info!

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=55016638457&h=Bx3DL&u=ogdXy

Dr. Morey analyzes the folly of Bill Maher's film "Religulous."

2009-03-05T00:40:00.000-08:00

Personal Work

2009-03-05T00:35:00.000-08:00

Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel

2009-02-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

"Suppose that we do not preach the gospel, and warn the wicked man, so that he turn not from his iniquity, what then? Hear this voice: “He shall perish, but his blood will I require at thine hand.” What will my Lord say to me if I am unfaithful to you? “Where is the blood of those people who gathered at Newington Butts? Where is the blood of that crowd which came together to hear you speak, and you did not preach the gospel to them?” Oh, it were better for me that I had never been born than that I should not preach the gospel! “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel” of Christ, for men perish where there is not the Word of God!"

– C.H. Spurgeon

Opened Eyes

2009-01-20T18:59:00.001-08:00

Acts 26:18
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (KJV)

The blind man, Bartimaeus, threw off his cloak and ran trembling to Jesus. And Jesus said, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." In that moment as he said, "Lord," his spiritual eyes were opened. And Jesus said, "Your faith has made you whole." Notice - not your intellectual understanding, not your money, not your works - but your faith. Faith! Thats all it takes! Immediately Bartimaeus, who had been blind all his life, began to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the face of Jesus. What a experience - to open one's eyes and look straight into the strong, tender face of Jesus! Bartimaeus met Jesus and the record says he "followed Jesus in the way." You don't go back to your business, or your home, or your neighborhood, or your friends, or your school, alone. Christ goes with YOU.

Isaiah 35:4-5
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. (KJV

The Slavery that FREES

2009-01-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

Ephesians 1:7
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace

Freedom is a precious thing. People throughout history have prayed, fought, and even died for it. Our declaration of independence upholds it as one of our inalienable rights.

But the truth is, no matter what one's political situation might be, everyone is a slave-either to sin or God. Jesus said " everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). Paul added that all of creation is in slavery to corruption (Rom 8:21). However, believers have "been freed from sin and enslaved to God" (Rom 6:22).

The Roman Empire had as many as twenty million slaves; slave trade was a major industry. For a slave to gain his or her freedom, a redemption price had to be paid. The Greek word for such a transaction is lutroo, which Paul uses in Ephesians 1:7 to speak of our "redemption" from sin's bondage.

Slavery to sin is bondage; slavery to God is freedom. That sounds paradoxical, but God is a Sovereign King, and true freedom means having the ability to bend your will to His and thereby becoming all He created you to be. Even though you will fail at times, your greatest desire and highest pursuit as a believer is to be like Christ (1 John 2:5-6) Those enslaved to sin cannot do that, nor do they want to.

Today you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your submission to Christ. Let your attitude and actions speak clearly of your love for the Master.

Thank the Lord that He is faithful and just Master who always does what is best for His servants. Ask the Lord to guard you from thoughts and actions that are contrary to His will.

For further study:

What key characteristic is required of a servant of Christ? (1 Corinthians 4:1-2)

How does Jesus describe a wise servant? (Matthew 24:42-51)

How did Jesus demonstrate the heart of a servant? (Phillippians 2:5-11)

What implications does His example have for your life?

2009-01-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

He is an atheist and yet he is right on point when it comes to evangelism.

In this 5:11 video, he tells the story of a man who gave him a Gideon\'s New Testament. Although he is an atheist, Penn is very respectful of this man\'s witness of Christ. He calls it \"wonderful\"!

Now here is the reason we are sharing this with you as an encouragement to share your faith with everyone...

Penn makes a very strong statement about those who claim to be Christians but do NOT talk openly with others about getting right with God through faith in Christ (here he uses the term \"proselytizing\", but not in a negative sense). He is talking about evangelism.

He specifically refers to the fact that all Christians should indeed be warning about Hell, which we know is the eternal fate of those who die in their sins, without putting your faith in Christ who died for the sins of man, according to the Bible. Some Christians shy away from mentioning this biblical truth and inevitable end for many for fear of \"offending\". Penn identifies this as not wanting to appear \"socially awkward\".

Here is the part to remember...***He asks the question, \"How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?\" Good question.***

This video clip, by itself, ought to motivate ALL Christians to embrace the idea of sharing their faith openly and upfront. This is what some may call\"confrontational\" evangelism.

Please pray for Penn that he may be born-again.

If you want to better understand why faith in Jesus saves from Hell, please visit this website and it will walk you through. I pray you are as open to listen as Penn was. http://www.needgod.com

Thanks to Tiffany Gelpi and CCN for sending this to me. :)

Despise God's Word and find yourself in trouble

2009-01-12T19:36:00.001-08:00

Proverbs 13:13
Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself,
but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. (ESV)

Numbers 15:31
Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him. (ESV)

As Christians, we have the Spirit of God in us. But ours is the responsibility to keep sin out of our lives so that the Spirit can produce His fruit in us. Become grounded in the Bible. As Christians, we have only one authority, one compass: The Word of God. Abraham Lincoln in a letter to a friend said, "I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance upon faith. You will live and die a better man. " Begin the day with the Bible; and as the day comes to a close, let the Word speak its wisdom to your soul. Let it be the firm foundation upon which your hope is built. Let it be the Staff of Life upon which your spirit is nourished. Let it be the Sword of the Spirit which cuts away the evil of your life and fashions you in His image and likeness.

Romans 8:29
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (ESV)

Glory in my infirmities

2009-01-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (KJV)

God is especially close to us when we are lying on a sickbed. God will make the bed soft and will freshen it with His presence and with His tender care. He makes the bed comfortable and wipes away our tears. He ministers to us with special tenderness at such a time and reveals His great love for us. Tell me why the gardener trims and prunes his rosebushes, sometimes cutting away productive branches, and I will tell youwhy God's people are afflicted. God's hand never slips. He never makes a mistake. His every move is for our own good and for our own ultimate good. Oftentimes He must deform us and mutilate our own image. Deformity precedes conformity.

Romans 5:3
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience (KJV)

1 Peter 4:12-19

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.

Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. (KJV)

The True Gospel

2009-01-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

The Purpose of Marriage

2008-09-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

The Cost of Discipleship by Leonard Ravenhill

2008-07-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

The Cost of Discipleship by Leonard Ravenhill

The Gospel According To Jesus

2008-07-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

By Grace Through Faith

Salvation is solely by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). That truth is the biblical watershed for all we teach. But it means nothing if we begin with a misunderstanding of grace or faulty definition of faith.

God's grace is not a static attribute whereby He passively accepts hardened, unrepentant sinners. Grace does not change a person's standing before God yet leave his character untouched. Real grace is not,as Chafer wrote, "the Christian's liberty to do precisely as he chooses." True grace, according to the scripture, teaches us "to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:12). Grace is the power of God to fulfill our New Covenant duties (1 Corinthians 7:19), however inconsistently we obey at times. Clearly, grace does not grant permission to live in the flesh; it supplies power to live in the spirit.

Faith, like grace, is not static. Saving faith is more than just understanding the facts and mentally acquiescing. It is inseparable from repentance, surrender, and a supernatural eagerness to obey. The biblical concept of saving faith includes all those elements. None of them can be classified exclusively as human work, any more than believing itself is solely a human effort.

Misunderstanding on that key point is at the heart of error of those who reject lordship salvation. They assume that because Scripture contrasts faith and works, faith may be devoid of works. They set up a concept of faith that eliminates submission, yieldness, or turning from sin, and they categorize all the practical elements of salvation as human works. They stumble over the twin truths of that salvation is a gift, yet it cost everything.

Those ideas are paradoxical, but they are not mutually exclusive. The same dissonance is seen in Jesus' own words, "I will give you rest," followed by "take My yoke upon you" (Matthew 11:28-29). The rest we enter by faith is not a rest of inactivity.

Salvation is a gift, but it is appropriated only through a faith that goes beyond merely understanding and assenting to the truth. Demons have that kind of "faith" (James 2:19). True believers, on the other hand, are characterized by faith that is as repulsed by the life of sin as it is attracted to the mercy of the Savior. Drawn to Christ, they are drawn away from everything else. Jesus described genuine believers as "poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). They are like the repentant tax-gatherer, so broken he could not even look heavenward. He could only beat his breast and plead, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" (Luke 18:13).

That man's desperate prayer, which Jesus said resulted in his salvation (.14), is one of the clearest picture of genuine, God-wrought repentance in all of Scripture. His plea was not in any sense a human work or an attempt at earning righteousness. On the contrary, it represented his total abandonment of confidence in the merit of religious works; as if to prove it he stood "some distance away" from the praying Pharisee. He understood that the only way he could ever be saved was by God's merciful grace. On that basis, having first come to the end of himself, he received salvation as a gift.

Kinda Cute

2008-07-23T00:27:00.001-07:00

sobering

2008-06-20T04:38:00.001-07:00

John MacArthur On “Judge Not”

2008-06-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Kirk Cameron & John MacArthur on Salvation

2008-06-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

So Easy A Caveman Could Could Get It!

2008-05-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

FOR PARDON OF SIN

2008-05-23T03:04:00.000-07:00

"For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity; for it is great."—Psalm 25:11

O God, I bless You that You have permitted me to lie down in sleep, and to awake this morning in safety. You have dispersed the darkness of another night—may no shadow of sin obscure the sunshine of Your favor and love. May the returning light of day be to me the type and emblem of that better radiance with which you visit the souls of Your people, when they are enabled, in Jesus, to behold a pardoning God seated on a throne of reconciliation and grace.

I come to You, acknowledging my transgressions in all their heinousness. I have nothing to plead in extenuation. Warnings have been abused, providences slighted, grace resisted, Your Spirit grieved. It is of the Lord's mercies I am not consumed—that You have not long before now consigned me, with all this load of unpardoned guilt, to that place where pardon is unknown.

But I do rejoice to know that "there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared"—that I can bring my great sins to a great Savior. May I be enabled to feel that this all-glorious name of a reconciled God in Christ is "a strong tower," into which I may "run, and be safe." Give me grace, in self-renouncing lowliness, to disown every other ground of confidence or hope of mercy, and to cast myself, a broken-hearted, humbled penitent, at the feet of Him on whom was laid the burden of all my transgressions. May mine henceforth be the blessedness of those "whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." May life's joys be sweetened, and life's sorrows sanctified, and life's terminating hour gladdened, with the assurance, "I am at peace with my God." May Your favor brighten every scene, and the sweet sense of Your reconciling love be interfused with all my occupations. If sorrow should cloud or darken, may I be brought to feel that there can be no true sorrow or disquietude to the soul which has found its rest in the finished work of Jesus, and which has attained that blessed peace here which is the prelude of glory hereafter.

Give me grace to walk more closely with You in the time to come. Being forgiven much, may I love You all the more. May my life be one habitual effort of self-crucifixion and sin-crucifixion, seeking to consecrate my soul's best energies to Him who is willing to "blot out as a thick cloud" all my transgressions. Overrule the discipline of Your providence for promoting within me this death of sin, and this life of righteousness. Amid earth's many disquietudes, its crosses and its losses, enable me with joy to look forward to that blessed hour when there shall be no more sin, and therefore no more sorrow—when every tear shall be wiped from every eye, and when I shall be permitted to know all that is comprehended in the holy beatitude, how "blessed" indeed are "the pure in heart," who are to "see God."

Direct, control, suggest, this day, all my designs and thoughts and actions, that every power of my body, and every faculty of my mind, may unite in devotedness to Your sole service and glory. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

A Lesson From The Moment of Truth

2008-05-23T01:13:00.001-07:00

"Only be thou strong and very courageous."—Joshua 1:7

2008-05-11T23:08:00.001-07:00

Our God's tender love for His servants makes Him concerned for the state of their inward feelings. He desires them to be of good courage. Some esteem it a small thing for a believer to be vexed with doubts and fears, but God thinks not so. From this text it is plain that our Master would not have us entangled with fears. He would have us without carefulness, without doubt, without cowardice. Our Master does not think so lightly of our unbelief as we do. When we are desponding we are subject to a grievous malady, not to be trifled with, but to be carried at once to the beloved Physician. Our Lord loveth not to see our countenance sad. It was a law of Ahasuerus that no one should come into the king's court dressed in mourning: this is not the law of the King of kings, for we may come mourning as we are; but still He would have us put off the spirit of heaviness, and put on the garment of praise, for there is much reason to rejoice. The Christian man ought to be of a courageous spirit, in order that he may glorify the Lord by enduring trials in an heroic manner. If he be fearful and fainthearted, it will dishonour his God. Besides, what a bad example it is. This disease of doubtfulness and discouragement is an epidemic which soon spreads amongst the Lord's flock. One downcast believer makes twenty souls sad. Moreover, unless your courage is kept up Satan will be too much for you. Let your spirit be joyful in God your Saviour, the joy of the Lord shall be your strength, and no fiend of hell shall make headway against you: but cowardice throws down the banner. Moreover, labour is light to a man of cheerful spirit; and success waits upon cheerfulness. The man who toils, rejoicing in his God, believing with all his heart, has success guaranteed. He who sows in hope shall reap in joy; therefore, dear reader, "be thou strong, and very courageous."

~C. H. Spurgeon

A Husband’s Dream

2008-05-11T01:10:00.000-07:00

The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves…dreams of her in the night, hath her in his eye and apprehension when he awakes, museth on her as he sits at the table, walks with her when he travels… She lies in his bosom, and his heart trusts in her, which forceth all to confess that the stream of his affection, like a mighty current, runs with full tide and strength.
~Thomas Hooker

Gospel Preaching Commanded

2008-04-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

There are those who misrepresent the doctrine of election in this way. Here I am sitting down at my table tonight with my family to tea. It is a cold winter’s night, and outside on the street are some hungry starving tramps and children, and they come and knock on my door and they say, "We are so hungry, Sir, Oh, we are so hungry and cold, and we are starving: won’t you give us something to eat?"

Give you something to eat? No, you do not belong here, get off with you." Now people say that is what election means, that God has spread the gospel feast and some poor sinners conscious of their deep need come to the Lord and say, "Have mercy upon me, and the Lord says, "No, you are not among My elect." Now, my friends, that is not the teaching of this Book, nor anything like that. That is absolutely a false representation of God’s truth. I do not believe anything like that, my friends, and I would not insult you by asking you to come here night by night and listen to anything like that.

1. Compel them to come in

Now then, here is the truth. God has spread the feast but the fact is that nobody is hungry. and nobody wants to come to the feast, and everybody makes an excuse to keep away from the feast. and when they are bidden to come they say, "No, we do not want to, or We are not ready yet." Now God knew that from the beginning, and if God had done nothing more than spread the feast every seat at His table would have been vacant for all eternity! I have no hesitation in saying there is not one man or woman in this church tonight, but who made excuses time after time before you first came to Christ. You are just like the rest. You made excuses. so did I, and if God had done nothing more than just spread the feast every chair would have been vacant, therefore what do you read in that parable in Luke 14? Because the feast was not furnished with guests God sent forth His "servants". Oh, put your glasses on. It does not say "servants", it says God sent forth His "servant" and told Him to "compel" them to come in that His feast might be furnished with guests. And there is not a man or a woman In this church tonight or in any other church that would ever sit down at the marriage-supper of the Lamb unless you had been compelled to come in, and compelled by God.

Well, you say, what do you mean by "compelled?" I mean this, that God had to overcome the resistance of your will, God had to overcome the reluctance of your heart, God had to overcome your loving of pleasure more than loving of God, your love of the things of this world more than Christ. I mean that God had to put forth His power and draw you, and if any of you know anything of the Greek or have a Strong’s Concordance, look up that Greek verb for "draw" in John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" —It means "use violence". It means to drag by force. There is not a Greek scholar on earth that can challenge that statement—I mean—and back it up with proof. It’s the same Greek word that is used in John 21 when they drew the net to the land full of fishes. They had to pull with all their might for it was full of fishes. They had to drag it, Yes, my friend, and that is how you were brought to Christ. You may not have been conscious of it. you may not have known inside yourself what was taking place, but every last one of us was a rebel against God, fighting against Christ, resisting His Holy Spirit, and God had to put forth almighty power and overcome that resistance and bring us to our knees, and if any of you object to that strong language, then I am here to tell you, you do not believe in the teaching of this Book on the absolute depravity of man.

Man is lost, and man is dead in trespasses and sins by nature. Listen, it is not simply that man is sick and needs a little medicine: it is not simply that man is ignorant and needs a little teaching: it is not simply that man is weak and needs a little hope: man is dead, dead in trespasses and sins, and only almighty power from heaven can ever resurrect him and bring him from death unto life. That is the gospel I believe in and I do not preach the gospel because I believe the sinner has power in himself to respond to it. Well, you say, then what is the use of preaching the gospel if men are dead? What is the use of preaching it? I will tell you. Listen! Here was a man with a withered hand, paralyzed, and Christ says. "Stretch forth thine hand"; It was the one thing that he could not do! Christ told him to do a thing that was impossible in himself. Well then you say why did Christ tell him to stretch forth his hand? Because Divine power went with the very word that commanded him to do it! Divine power enabled him to. The man could not do it of himself. If you think that he could you are ready for the lunatic asylum, I don’t not care who you are. Any man or woman here who thinks that that man was able to stretch forth his paralyzed arm by an effort of his own will is ready for the lunatic asylum! How can paralysis move?

Well, I will give you something stronger than that. You need something strong today, you need something more than skim-milk, you need strong meat if ever you are going to be built up and grow and become strong in the Lord and the power of His might—Here is a man who is dead and buried and his body has already begun to corrupt so that it stank. There he was in the grave and someone came to that graveside and said, "Lazarus. come forth", and if that someone had been anyone else than God Himself manifest in flesh. he might have stood there till now calling, "Come forth". What on earth was the use of telling a dead man to come forth? None at all, unless the One Who spoke that word had the power to make that word good.

Now then my friends, I preach the gospel to sinners, not because I believe the sinner has any power at all in himself to respond to it: I do not believe that any sinner has any capacity in himself whatever. But Christ said, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life", and by God’s grace I go forth preaching this Word because it is a word of power, a word of spirit, a word of life. The power is not in the sinner, it is in the Word when God the Holy Spirit is pleased to use it. And my friends, I say in all reverence; if God told me in this Book to go out and preach to the trees. I would go! Yes sir. God once told one of His servants to go and preach to bones and he went. I wonder if you should have gone! Yes, that has a local application as well as a future interpretation prophetically:

2. Preach the Gospel to Every Creature

Now the question arises again, why are we to preach the gospel to every creature?—if God has only elected a certain number to be saved? The reason is, because God commands us to do so. Well, but, you say, it does not seem reasonable to me That has got nothing to do with it; your business is to obey God and not to argue with Him. God commands us to preach the gospel to every creature and it means what it says—every creature and it is solemn thing. Every Christian in this room tonight has yet to answer to Christ why he has not done everything in his power to send that gospel to every creature! Yes, I believe in missions—probably stronger than most of you do, and if I preached to you on missions perhaps I would hit you harder than you have been hit yet. The great majority of Gods people who profess to believe in missions, are just playing at them—I make so bold as to say of our evangelical denominations today that we are just playing at missions and that is all. Why my friends. there is almost half of the human race—think of it—in this 20th century—travel so easy and cheap. Bibles printed in almost every language under heaven, and as we sit here tonight there is almost half of the human race that never yet heard of Christ, and we have got to answer to Christ for that yet! You have and I have, Oh. yes, I believe in man’s responsibility. I do not believe in man’s "freedom" but I do in man’s responsibility, and I believe in the Christian’s responsibility in a double way, and everyone of us here tonight has yet got to face Christ and look into those eyes as a flame of fire, and He is going to say to us, I entrusted to you My gospel. It was committed as a "trust" to you, (See 1 Thess. 2:4) It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

Oh, my friends, we are playing at things. We have not begun to take religion seriously, any of us. We profess to believe in the coming of Christ, and we profess to believe that the one reason why Christ has not come back yet is because His Church, His Body, is not yet complete. We believe that when His body is complete He will come back. And my friends, His "body" never, never, will be complete until the last of His elect people will be called out, and His elect people are called out under the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, and if you are really anxious for Christ to come back soon, then you had better be more wide awake to your responsibility in connection with taking or sending the gospel to the heathen!

Christ’s word, and it is Christ’s word to us, is "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel", He does not say "Send ye", He says "Go ye", and you have to answer to Christ yet because you have not gone! Well, you say, do you mean by that that everyone of us here tonight ought to go out to the mission field? I have not said that, I am not any man’s judge, Many of you here tonight have a good reason which will satisfy Christ why you have not gone. He gave you work to do here. He put you in a position here. He has given you responsibilities to discharge here, but every Christian who is free to go, and does not go, has got to answer to Christ for it yet.

"Go ye into all the world." Well then you say, Where am I to go? Oh, that is very easy. You say, easy? Yes, I mean it: it is very easy. There is nothing easier in the world than to know where you ought to begin missionary work. You have it in the first chapter of Acts and the eighth verse: "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem (that is the city in which they were) and in all Judea (that is the State in which their city was), and in Samaria (that is the adjoining State), and unto the uttermost part of the earth", If you want to begin missionary work, you have to begin it in your home-town, and my friends if you are not interested in the salvation of the Chinese in Sydney, then you are not really interested in the salvation of the Chinese in China, and you are only fooling yourselves if you think you are! Oh, I am calling a spade a spade tonight. If you are anxious about the souls of the Chinese in China, then you will be equally anxious about the souls of the Chinese here in Sydney, and I wonder how many in this building tonight have ever made any serious effort to reach the Chinese in Sydney with the gospel! I wonder? I wonder how many here tonight have been round to the Bible House in Sydney and have said to the Manager there, "Do you have any New Testaments in the Chinese language, or do you have any Gospels of John in the Chinese language? How much are they per hundred? or per dozen?" And I wonder how many of you have bought a thousand or a hundred, and then have gone round to the houses in the Chinese quarter and have said, "My friend, this is a little gift that will do your soul good if you will read it."

Ah, my friends, we are playing at missions, it is just a farce, that is all! "Go ye" is the first command. Go where? Those around me first. Go what with? The gospel! Well, you say, "Why should I go?" Because God has commanded you to! Well, you say, "What is the use of doing it if He has just elected certain ones?" Because that gospel is the means that God uses to call out His own elect, that is why! You do not know, and I do not know, and nobody here on earth knows, who are God’s elect and who are not. They are scattered over the world, and therefore we are to preach the gospel to every creature, that it may reach the ones that God has marked out among those creatures.
~Arthur W. Pink

The Pholosophy of Evangelism by Paris Reidhead

2008-04-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

What is Apologetics?

2008-04-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

Fishers of Men

2008-04-13T00:27:00.000-07:00

"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

When Christ calls us by his grace we ought not only to remember what we are, but we ought also to think of what he can make us. It is, "Follow me, and I will make you." We should repent of what we have been, but rejoice in what we may be. It is not "Follow me, because of what you are already." It is not "Follow me, because you may make something of yourselves;" but, "Follow me, because of what I will make you." Verily, I might say of each one of us as soon as we are converted, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." It did not seem a likely thing that lowly fishermen would develop into apostles; that men so handy with the net would be quite as much at home in preaching sermons and in instructing converts. One would have said, "How can these things be? You cannot make founders of churches out of peasants of Galilee." That is exactly what Christ did; and when we are brought low in the sight of God by a sense of our own unworthiness, we may feel encouraged to follow Jesus because of what he can make us. What said the woman of a sorrowful spirit when she lifted up her song? "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes." We cannot tell what God may make of us in the new creation, since it would have been quite impossible to have foretold what he made of chaos in the old creation. Who could have imagined all the beautiful things that came forth from darkness and disorder by that one fiat, "Let there be light?" And who can tell what lovely displays of everything that is divinely fair I lay yet appear in a man’s formerly dark life, when God’s grace has said to him, "Let there be light?" O you who see in yourselves at present nothing that is desirable, come you and follow Christ for the sake of what he can make out of you. Do you not hear his sweet voice calling to you, and saying, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men?"

Note, next, that we are not made all that we shall be, nor all that we ought to desire to be, when we are ourselves fished for and caught. This is what the grace of God does for us at first; but it is not all. We are like the fishes, making sin to be our element; and the good Lord comes, and with the gospel net he takes us, and he delivers us from the life and love of sin. But he has not wrought for us all that he can do, nor all that we should wish him to do, when he has done this; for it is another and a higher miracle to make us who were fish to become fishers—to make the saved ones saviours—to make the convert into a converter—the receiver of the gospel into an imparter of that same gospel to other people. I think I may say to every person whom I am addressing—If you are saved yourself, the work is but half done until you are employed to bring others to Christ. You are as yet but half formed in the image of your Lord. You have not attained to the full development of the Christ-life in you unless you have commenced in some feeble way to tell to others of the grace of God: and I trust that you will find no rest to the sole of your foot till you have been the means of leading many to that blessed Savior who is your confidence and your hope. His word is—Follow me, not merely that you may be saved, nor even that you may be sanctified; but, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Be following Christ with that intent and aim; and fear that you are not perfectly following him unless in some degree he is making use of you to be fishers of men. The fact is, that every one of us must take to the business of a mancatcher. If Christ has caught us, we must catch others. If we have been apprehended of him, we must be his constables, to apprehend rebels for him. Let us ask him to give us grace to go a-fishing, and so to cast our nets that we may take a great multitude of fishes. Oh that the Holy Ghost may raise up from among us some master-fishers, who shall sail their boats in many a sea, and surround great shoals of fish!

by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)

Propitiation: (n) \prō-pi-shē-ˈā-shən\ ἱλαστήριον

2008-04-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

If Jesus is Not Risen, Our Faith is Worthless.

2008-04-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

Prophecy, Anyone?

2008-04-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sin and the sinner

2008-04-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

“God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself. Some persons have been labored hard to set up this ridiculous and absurd abstraction, and would fain make it appear that God is angry at sin, yet not at the sinner. He hates the theft, but the loves the thief. “He abhors adultery, but is pleased with the adulterer.” Now this is supreme nonsense.

The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. The act is nothing apart from the actor. The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event - the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases Him that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and the only object of His anger.

So the Bible shows. God is angry with the wicked, not with the abstract sin. If the wicked turn not, God will whet His sword–He hath bent His bow and made it ready–not to shoot at the sin, but the sinner–the wicked man who has done the abominable thing. This is the only doctrine of either the Bible or of common sense on this subject”
- Charles Finney

If Open Air Preachers were Doctors

2008-04-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

What would happen if Doctors were treated as Open
Air Preachers?

Does God Love Everyone?

2008-04-02T04:21:00.001-07:00

12 true signs of gracious affections

2008-04-02T04:19:00.001-07:00

Resulting from true and genuine conversions:

# A new birth, or regeneration

# A new transcendental perspective in daily life that focuses on God’s glory.

# A love for the loveliness of divine things.

# A "new taste" that combines "heat with light"; understanding is essential but insufficient by itself.

# A deep conviction of an immediate sense of divinity and total control of self by the truths of the gospel.

# An evangelical rather than legal illumination.

A radical change of nature that results in conversion.

# A genuine love for and meekness towards others.

# A Christian tenderness towards others.

# A kind of symmetry or proportion of all the foregoing affections.

# A desire for a growing relationship with God.

# A gracious love that manifests itself in behaviour. [Jonathan Edwards]

Did you get one of these?

2008-04-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

If you are visiting because someone handed you a million dollar bill and said "Did you get one of these," Read on for some important information.
Chances are, you had a pretty interesting conversation with me or someone else who cares about you. If so, it's our hope that the message you received was clear and revealing to your conscience. If you have repented and trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, please take a look at this link for some practical steps that will help you grow.
If you got a million dollar bill as you past by me and your here out of curiosity, please click here for an honest self-examination of your standing before a righteous and holy God.

Are you as bold as this elderly lady?

2008-04-01T00:48:00.000-07:00

The Way of Salvation

2008-04-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

The reason why men do not embrace the way of salvation tendered in the gospel, is because they do not see nor understand how full it is of divine glory, how it becomes God, is worthy of him, and answers all the perfections of his nature. Their minds are blinded, that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, does not shine unto them, 2 Corinthians 4:4. And so they deal with this way of God as if it were weakness and folly. [John Owen]

From:Complete Works of John Owen, 16 Volume Set

God's Eternal Call

2008-04-01T00:32:00.001-07:00

When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favourites, and afterwards throw them into prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded upon His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed.God blots out His people's sins, but not their names. [Thomas Watson]

Great Things for Who?

2008-03-26T23:28:00.001-07:00

The world says, “Show me a person with high self-esteem, and I’ll show you someone who will accomplish great things for the world.” God says, “Show me a person who does not esteem himself at all, and I”ll show you someone who will do great things for me.”

- Victor Kuligin, Ten Things I Wish Jesus Never Said

Glorious Gospel

2008-03-26T23:26:00.001-07:00

“Man never could or would have invented a gospel which would lay him low,
and give to the Lord God all the glory and praise.”

- Charles Spurgeon

Why Do You Follow Jesus?

2008-03-26T23:22:00.001-07:00

Jesus has always many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who bear his cross.

He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial.

He finds many to share his table, but few to take part in his fasting.

All desire to be happy with him; few wish to suffer anything for him.

Many follow him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of his passion.

Many revere his miracles; few approach the shame of the cross.

Many love him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless him as long as they receive some comfort from him.

- Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

How Scholarship Protects us from the Bible

2008-03-26T23:19:00.000-07:00

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly.

“Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship.

“Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close.

“Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

- Soren Kierkegaard

Jeremiah 1:5-10

2008-02-19T23:26:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah 1:5-10

1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
We, too, have been formed (created by God), known (known of God), sanctified (by the blood of the Savior) and ordained (given the Great Commission (Mark 16:15; Galatians 1:15)

1:6-7 "Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak."

Matthew Henry said, " Thou hast God's precept, and let not thy being young hinder thee from obeying it. 'Go to all to whom I shall send thee and speak whatsoever I command thee." Note, though a sense of our own weakness and insufficiency should make us go humbly about our work, yet it should not make us draw back from it when God calls us to do it. God was angry with Moses even for his modest excuses" (Exodus 4:14)

1:8 "Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD."

I thought it was amazing that God chooses those who feel they cannot speak to be His spokes men. Moses said the same thing in (Exodus 4:10) But we have "God's precepts" His law to be a weapon to give us courage. v.8 And we have the promise that God Himself will be there with us. If we truly believe God we will do those things He has asked of us.

Verses 9-10 "Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."

Notice the order. Jeremiah is to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, then build and plant. Before we can build the Kingdom of God by planting the seed of God's Word, we must prepare the ground. It is the funtion of the moral Law in the hand of the Holy Spirit to root out sin, pull down strongholds and destroy the sinner's self-righteousness so that he understands his need to throw himself on the mercy of God.

Isaiah 66:1-2

2008-02-18T23:18:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 66:1-2
Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Sacred nourishment

2008-02-18T21:45:00.001-08:00

What profit is it, to have the Bible in our heads, but
not in our hearts? It is better to practice one truth,
than to know all truths.

The Lord gives us His precepts, as a physician gives
the patient his prescriptions—to take and apply. This
is the end are all God's institutes—that we may, by
practice, apply them for the purging out of sin and
bringing the soul into a more holy temper.

God gives us His Word as the mother gives the child
the breast—not only to look upon, but to draw from.
Many have gone to hell with the breast in their mouths,
because they have not drawn it, and turned the milk of
the Word into sacred nourishment.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
(Thomas Watson, "Comfort for the Church")

Obedient Heart

2008-02-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

"But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." - Matthew 10.33

"The man that believes will obey; failure to obey is convincing proof that there is no true faith present. To attempt the impossible God must give faith or there will be none, and He gives faith to the obedient heart only" - A. W. Tozer

Rid of It

2008-02-14T23:20:00.000-08:00

"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." - Matthew 5.29

"Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and can't really get rid of it." - C. S. Lewis

Evangelism - Our Most Sobering Task

2008-02-11T23:54:00.000-08:00

This article by Ray Comfort is taken from chapter three of “Save Yourself Some Pain” found at the LivingWaters website.

It was late in December, 1996. A large family gathered in Los Angeles for the joyous occasion of wrapping Christmas presents. It was a big family because it was the product of two marriages. There were so many gathered that night, five of the children slept in the garage. It was a converted structure, kept warm during the cold night by an electric heater which sat by the door.

During the early hours of the morning, the heater suddenly burst into flames, blocking the doorway. In seconds the room became a blazing inferno. The frantic 911 call revealed the unspeakable terror of the moment. One of the children could be heard screaming, “I’m on fire!” The distraught father vainly rushed into the flames to try and save his beloved children. He received burns to 50f his body. Tragically, all five of the children burned to death. They died because steel bars on the windows of the garage thwarted their escape. There was only one door, and that was stopped by the flames.

You are back in time. It’s minutes before the heater burst into flames. You peer through the darkness at the peaceful sight of five sleeping youngsters. You know that at any moment the room is going to erupt into an inferno and burn the flesh of horrified children. Can you in good conscience walk away? No! You must awaken them, and warn them to run from that death trap!

The world sleeps peacefully in the darkness of ignorance. There is only one Door by which they may escape death. The steel bars of sin prevent their salvation, and at the same time call for the flames of Eternal Justice. What a fearful thing Judgment Day will be! The fires of the wrath of Almighty God will burn for eternity. The Church has been entrusted with the task of awakening them before it’s too late. We cannot turn our backs and walk away in complacency. Think of how the father ran into the flames. His love knew no bounds, and our devotion to the sober task that God has given us will be in direct proportion to our love for the lost. There are only a few who run headlong into the flames to warn them to flee (Luke 10:2). Please be one of them. We really have no choice. The Apostle Paul said, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16).

It was the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon, who said the words, “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.” A Christian cannot be apathetic about the salvation of the world. The love of God in him will motivate him to seek and save that which is lost.

You probably have a limited amount of time after your conversion to impact your unsaved friends and family with the Gospel. After the initial shock of your conversion, they will put you in a neat little ribbon-tied box, and keep you at arm’s length. So it’s important that you take advantage of the short time you have while you still have their ears.

Here’s some advice that will save you a great deal of grief. As a new Christian, a friend of mine did almost irreparable damage by acting like a wild bull in a crystal showroom. He bullied his mom, his dad, and many of his friends into making a “decision for Christ”. He was sincere, zealous, loving, kind, and stupid. He didn’t understand that salvation doesn’t come through making a “decision,” but through repentance, and repentance is God-given (see 2 Timothy 2:25). The Bible teaches that no one can come to the Son unless God “draws” him. If you are able to get a decision but they have no conviction of sin, you will almost certainly end up with a still-born on your hands.

In his”zeal without knowledge” he actually inoculated the very ones he was so desperately trying to reach. There is nothing more important to you than the salvation of your loved ones, and you don’t want to blow it. If you do, you may find that you don’t have a second chance. Fervently pray for them, thanking God for their salvation. Let them see your faith. Let them feel your kindness, your genuine love, and your gentleness. Buy gifts for no reason. Do chores when you are not asked to. Go the extra mile. Put yourself in their position. You know that you have found everlasting life. Death has lost its sting! Your joy is unspeakable — but as far as they are concerned, you have been brain-washed. You have become part of a weird sect. So your loving actions will speak more loudly than ten thousand eloquent sermons.

It is because of these thoughts that you should hold back from verbal confrontation until you have knowledge that will guide your zeal. Pray for wisdom and for a sensitivity to God’s timing. You may have only one shot, so make it count. Keep your cool. If you don’t, you may end up with a lifetime of regret. Believe me. It is better to hear a loved one or a close friend say, “Tell me about your faith in Jesus Christ,” rather than you saying, “Sit down. I want to talk to you.”

It is important to realize that we should share our faith with others whenever we can. The Bible says that there are only two times we should do this — “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). The Apostle Paul pleaded for prayer for his own personal witness. He said, “. . . that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak,” (Ephesians 6:19-20).

Remember that you have the sobering responsibility of speaking to other peoples’ loved ones. Many times when you open your mouth for the Gospel, you may be the answer to the earnest prayer of another Christian. Perhaps he has cried out to God that He would use a faithful witness to speak to his beloved mom or dad, and you are that answer to prayer. You are that true and faithful witness that God wants to use.

Never lose sight of the world and all its pains. Keep the fate of the ungodly before your eyes. Too many of us settle down on a padded pew and become introverted. Our world becomes a monastery without walls. Our friends are confined solely to those within the Church, when Jesus was the “friend of sinners.” So take the time to deliberately befriend them for the sake of their salvation. Remember that each and every person who dies in their sins has an appointment with the Judge of the Universe. Hell opens wide its terrible jaws. There is no more sobering task than to be entrusted with the Gospel of Salvation — working with God for the eternal well-being of dying humanity.

No Offense

2008-02-11T23:32:00.001-08:00

"It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher"
~George whitefield

God Loves Everybody?

2008-02-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

In Chapter One we have affirmed that God is Sovereign in the exercise of His love, and in saying this we are fully aware that many will strongly resent the statement and that, furthermore, what we have now to say will probably meet with more criticism than anything else advanced in this book. Nevertheless, we must be true to our convictions of what we believe to be the teaching of Holy Scripture, and we can only ask our readers to examine diligently in the light of God’s Word what we here submit to their attention.

One of the most popular beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody, and the very fact that it is so popular with all classes ought to be enough to arouse the suspicions of those who are subject to the Word of Truth. God’s Love toward all His creatures is the fundamental and favorite tenet of Universalists, Unitarians, Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, Russellites, etc. No matter how a man may live-in open defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatever for his soul’s eternal interests, still less for God’s glory, dying, perhaps with an oath on his lips-notwithstanding, God loves him, we are told. So widely has this dogma been proclaimed, and so comforting is it to the heart which is at enmity with God we have little hope of convincing many of their error. That God loves everybody, is, we may say, quite a modern belief. The writings of the church fathers, the Reformers or the Puritans will (we believe) be searched in vain for any such concept. Perhaps the late D. L. Moody-captivated by Drummond’s “The Greatest Thing in the World”-did more than anyone else in the last century to popularize this concept.

It has been customary to say God loves the sinner though He hates his sin.* But that is a meaningless distinction. What is there in a sinner but sin? Is it not true that his “whole head is sick” and his “whole heart faint,” and that “from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness” in him? (Isa. 1:5, 6). Is it true that God loves the one who is despising and rejecting His blessed Son? God is Light as well as Love, and therefore His love must be a holy love. To tell the Christ-rejecter that God loves him is to cauterize his conscience as well as to afford him a sense of security in his sins. The fact is, the love of God is a truth for the saints only, and to present it to the enemies of God is to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs. With the exception of John 3:16, not once in the four Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus, the perfect Teacher, telling sinners that God loved them! In the book of Acts, which records the evangelistic labors and messages of the Apostles, God’s love is never referred to at all! But when we come to the Epistles, which are addressed to the saints, we have a full presentation of this precious truth-God’s love for His own. Let us seek to rightly divide the Word of God and then we shall not be found taking truths which are addressed to believers and mis-applying them to unbelievers. That which sinners need to have brought before them is the ineffable holiness, the exacting righteousness, the inflexible justice and the terrible wrath of God. Risking the danger of being misunderstood let us say-and we wish we could say it to every evangelist and preacher in the country-there is far too much presenting of Christ to sinners today (by those sound in the faith), and far too little showing sinners their need of Christ, i.e., their absolutely ruined and lost condition, their imminent and awful danger of suffering the wrath to come, the fearful guilt resting upon them in the sight of God: to present Christ to those who have never been shown their need of Him, seems to us to be guilty of casting pearls before swine.*

*Romans 5:8 is addressed to saints, and the “we” are the same ones as those spoken of in 8:29, 30.

*Concerning the rich young ruler of whom it is said Christ “loved him” (Mark 10:21), we fully believe that he was one of God’s elect, and was “saved” sometime after his interview with our Lord. Should it be said this is an arbitrary assumption and assertion which lacks anything in the Gospel record to substantiate it, we reply, It is written, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,” and this man certainly did “come” to Him. Compare the case of Nicodemus. He, too, came to Christ, yet there is nothing in John 3 which intimates he was a saved man when the interview closed; nevertheless, we know from his later life that he was not “cast out.”

If it be true that God loves every member of the human family then why did our Lord tell His disciples “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father… If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him” (John 14:21, 23)? Why say “he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father” if the Father loves everybody? The same limitation is found in Proverbs 8:17: “I love them that love Me.” Again; we read, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity”-not merely the works of iniquity. Here then is a flat repudiation of present teaching that, God hates sin but loves the sinner; Scripture says, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psa. 5:5)! “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psa. 7:11). “He that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him”-not “shall abide,” but even now-”abideth on him” (John 3:36). Can God “love” the one on whom His “wrath” abides? Again; is it not evident that the words “The love of God which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:39) marks a limitation, both in the sphere and objects of His love? Again; is it not plain from the words “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom. 9:13) that God does not love everybody? Again; it is written, “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Heb. 12:6). Does not this verse teach that God’s love is restricted to the members of His own family? If He loves all men without exception then the distinction and limitation here mentioned is quite meaningless. Finally, we would ask, Is it conceivable that God will love the damned in the Lake of Fire? Yet, if He loves them now He will do so then, seeing that His love knows no change-He is “without variableness or shadow of turning”!

Turning now to John 3:16, it should be evident from the passages just quoted that this verse will not bear the construction usually put upon it. “God so loved the world.” Many suppose that this means, The entire human race. But “the entire human race” includes all mankind from Adam till the close of earth’s history: it reaches backward as well as forward! Consider, then, the history of mankind before Christ was born. Unnumbered millions lived and died before the Saviour came to the earth, lived here “having no hope and without God in the world,” and therefore passed out into an eternity of woe. If God “loved” them, where is the slightest proof thereof? Scripture declares “Who (God) in times past (from the tower of Babel till after Pentecost) suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16). Scripture declares that “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom. 1:28). To Israel God said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). In view of these plain passages who will be so foolish as to insist that God in the past loved all mankind! The same applies with equal force to the future. Read through the book of Revelation, noting especially chapters 8 to 19, where we have described the judgments which will be poured out from Heaven on this earth. Read of the fearful woes, the frightful plagues, the vials of God’s wrath, which shall be emptied on the wicked. Finally, read the twentieth chapter of the Revelation, the great white throne judgment, and see if you can discover there the slightest trace of love.

But the objector comes back to John 3:16 and says, “World means world.” True, but we have shown that “the world” does not mean the whole human family. The fact is that “the world” is used in a general way. When the brethren of Christ said “Show Thyself to the world” (John 7:4), did they mean “shew Thyself to all mankind”? When the Pharisees said “Behold, the world is gone after Him” (John 12:19) did they mean that “all the human family” were flocking after Him? When the Apostle wrote “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8), did he mean that the faith of the saints at Rome was the subject of conversation by every man, woman, and child on earth? When Revelation 13:3 informs us that “all the world wondered after the beast,” are we to understand that there will be no exceptions? These, and other passages which might be quoted, show that the term “the world” often has a relative rather than an absolute force.

Now the first thing to note in connection with John 3:16 is that our Lord was there speaking to Nicodemus, a man who believed that God’s mercies were confined to his own nation. Christ there announced that God’s love in giving His Son had a larger object in view, that it flowed beyond the boundary of Palestine, reaching out to “regions beyond.” In other words, this was Christ’s announcement that God had a purpose of grace toward Gentiles as well as Jews. “God so loved the world,” then, signifies, God’s love is international in its scope. But does this mean that God loves every individual among the Gentiles? Not necessarily, for as we have seen, the term “world” is general rather than specific, relative rather than absolute. The term “world” in itself is not conclusive. To ascertain who are the objects of God’s love other passages where His love is mentioned must be consulted.

In 2 Peter 2:5 we read of “the world of the ungodly.” If then, there is a world of the ungodly there must also be a world of the godly. It is the latter who are in view in the passages we shall now briefly consider. “For the bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:33). Now mark it well, Christ did not say, “offereth life unto the world,” but “giveth.” What is the difference between the two terms? This: a thing which is “offered” may be refused, but a thing “given,” necessarily implies its acceptance. If it is not accepted it is not “given,” it is simply proffered. Here, then, is a Scripture that positively states Christ giveth life (spiritual, eternal life) “unto the world.” Now He does not give eternal life to the “world of the ungodly” for they will not have it, they do not want it. Hence, we are obliged to understand the reference in John 6:33 as being to “the world of the godly,” i.e., God’s own people.

One more: in 2 Corinthians 5:19 we read “To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” What is meant by this is clearly defined in the words immediately following, “not imputing their trespasses unto them.” Here again “the world” cannot mean “the world of the ungodly,” for their “trespasses are imputed” to them, as the judgment of the Great White Throne will yet show. But 2 Corinthians 5:19 plainly teaches there is a “world” which are “reconciled,” reconciled unto God because their trespasses are not reckoned to their account, having been borne by their Substitute. Who then are they? Only one answer is fairly possible-the world of God’s people!

In like manner, the “world” in John 3:16 must, in the final analysis, refer to the world of God’s people. Must we say, for there is no other alternative solution. It cannot mean the whole human race, for one half of the race was already in hell when Christ came to earth. It is unfair to insist that it means every human being now living, for every other passage in the New Testament where God’s love is mentioned limits it to His own people-search and see! The objects of God’s love in John 3:16 are precisely the same as the objects of Christ’s love in John 13:1: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” We may admit that our interpretation of John 3:16 is no novel one invented by us, but one almost uniformly given by the Reformers and Puritans, and many others since then.
- A.W. Pink, “The Sovereignty of God”

Why Jesus?

2008-02-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

What must I do to be saved? Click on.....Why Jesus?

The Glory of God - In Moral, by Paul Washer

2008-02-11T22:18:00.001-08:00

“I am not antinomian, by any means. As a matter of fact, when Jesus says, ‘depart from me, I never knew you. You workers of iniquity’, it’s ‘workers of lawlessness’. And what he’s truly saying, ‘depart from me, every one of you, who claimed to be my disciples but you lived as though I never gave you a law to obey. If you’ve ever heard my preaching you would know, for sure, that I’ve been called a legalist more often than an antinomian. But I’ll tell you this, and I mean no disrespect, but it’s a lot easier to learn principles, than it is to tarry with the Christ. I know so many little preacher boys, and some of them are seventy years old, but their whole life is nothing but little doctrines and principles, but they have never tarried before the Lord. They have spent no closet time, their knees are not bare. They know nothing of going out into the woods for, seven, eight days, and screaming at the gates of Heaven. They’d honor the pilgrims and the puritans all day long, but they know nothing. They know nothing of their zeal, and nothing of their passion. It is so easy to learn principles about holiness. It is so easy learn attributes of God, as they’re set forth in statements. But how many men are so sick and tired of not being in the presence of God that they are willing to depart from absolutely everything, and if it means running like a wild man through the woods for a week, throwing rocks at Heaven, they will not rest until the presence of God is real in their life?” - Paul Washer

Bagshot Row

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Bagshot Row is an artistic community which seeks to apply the values and lessons of true, good, and beautiful art to both the spiritual and practical elements of life. Originating in Dubuque, IA and founded by Graeme Pitman, David Kern, Tyler Smith, Justin Phelan, and Riley Miller, Bagshot Row is a mixture of faith, literature, word (both in essay/blog/musing and poetry), photography, prayer, design, music all bound up in the belief that our very lives can be worship. We meet infrequently on Thursday nights at 9pm to discuss things we have written or read or sometimes just to hang out in an attic. We'd love for you to come. If you believe, like we do, that art has power to change lives and hearts, please be our friend.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2369821155

http://www.myspace.com/bagshotrow2

Recently, in dubuque Riley, Graeme, and I have been doing more of a theological out look and have taken a dive into some serious study on scripture using Matthew Henry's commentary among other commentaries. We as well have been memorizing and sharpening each other. Here are a couple verses we have been discussing. (John 3:5, Psalm 19:7-11, Galatians 3:23-25, James 2:10, 1 Timothy 1:8-10, Romans 2:15-16, Romans 7:7, 2 Corinthians 10: 3-5, Proverbs 17:15. There is just a few but if you have a commentary you have been studying out of we would love to hear feed back on any of these verses listed. ~Jordan

2008-02-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

(Thomas Watson, "The Beatitudes" 1660)

"The Father of mercies and the God of all comfort."
2 Corinthians 1:3

Christians should look upon God under this notion—the
Father of all mercy, sitting upon a throne of grace. We
should run to this heavenly Father in all conditions!

We should run to our Father with our sins, as that sick
child who, as soon as he found himself ill—he ran to his
father to help him, "My head! My head!" 2 Kings 4:19
So in case of sin—run to God and say: "My heart! My
heart! O this dead heart—Father, quicken it! This hard
heart—Father, soften it! Father, my heart, my heart!"

We should run to our Father with our temptations.
A child, when another strikes him, runs to his father.
So when the devil strikes us with his temptations, let
us run to our Father: "Father, Satan assaults and hurls
in his fiery darts at me! Father, it is Your child who is
assaulted by this red dragon! Father, take off the
tempter!"

"Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares about
you!" 1 Peter 5:7. What a sweet privilege is this! When
any burden lies upon our hearts—we may go to our
Father and unload all our cares and griefs into His
loving bosom! "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He
will support you; He will never allow the righteous to
be shaken!" Psalm 55:22

Only two families inhabit earth

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(Henry Law, "Deuteronomy" 1858)

Only two families inhabit earth.

In principle,
in taste,
in habit,
in desire—
they are as separate as . . .
light from darkness,
cold from heat,
life from death.

There is the serpent's seed.
There is the heaven-born race.

There is the world.
There is the little flock of grace.

There is the broad road.
There is the narrow way.

There are the sheep.
There are the goats.

Hence the importance of the question—
"Have you escaped from nature's thraldom?
Do your feet tread the upward path of holiness?
Do you belong to Satan—or to Christ?"

Spurgeon and Surgeons

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A man once took the Apostle Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt."(Acts 21:11) It was appropriate that he used a belt because he was to be persecuted for preaching uncompromising truth. The Bible speaks of the belt of truth, and Paul refused to compromise the fact that a man is justified only by faith in Jesus Christ. When we are girded about with truth, the world will hate us. If we would just say that Jesus isn't the only way to God, or that you can live a life of sin and still love God, then we would have the world's approval. Matthew Henry said, "The frowns of the world would not disquiet us, if we did not foolishly flatter ourselves with the hopes of its smiles, and court and covet them."

"Ho, ho, sir surgeon, you are too delicate to tell the man that he is ill! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. You therefore flatter them;and what happens? They laugh at you; they dance upon their own graves. At last they die! Your delicacy is cruelty; your flatteries are poisons; you are a murderer. Shall we keep men in a fool's paradise? Shall we lull them into soft slumbers from which they will awake in hell? Are we to become helpers of their damnation by our smooth speeches? In the name of God we will not."
- Charles Spurgeon

1 Thessalonians 2:4-5
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:

(Proverbs 29:5, Proverbs 28:23, Proverbs 26:28)

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“People all over America today are sitting in churches and they are committing idolatry, because they are not singing to the God of the Bible, they are singing to a god they made with their own minds that looks more like Santa Claus, than he does Yahweh!”
- Paul Washer

Accept Christ

2008-02-10T04:31:00.000-08:00

“The formula ‘Accept Christ’ has become a panacea of universal application, and I believe it has been fatal to many…

The trouble is that the whole ‘Accept Christ’ attitude is likely to be wrong. It shows Christ [appealing] to us rather than us to Him. It makes Him stand hat-in-hand awaiting our verdict on Him, instead of our kneeling with troubled hearts awaiting His verdict on us. It may even permit us to accept Christ as an impulse of mind or emotions, painlessly, at no loss to our ego and no inconvenience to our usual way of life.

For this ineffectual manner of dealing with a vital matter we might imagine some parallels; as if, for instance, Israel in Egypt had ‘accepted’ the blood of the passover but continued to live in bondage, or the prodigal son had ‘accepted’ his father’s forgiveness and stayed on among the swine in the far country. Is it not plain that if accepting Christ is to mean anything there must be a moral action that accords with it?”
- A.W. Tozer

A word from Spurgeon on how to be wise

2008-02-10T03:30:00.001-08:00

"It seemed to me, for a time, that all was well; and, perhaps, I am addressing someone else who says, "Well, if I am not right, I wonder who is; and if I have gone wrong, where must my neighbors be going?" Ah, that is often the way we talk! As long as we are blind, we can see no faults in ourselves; but when the Spirit of God comes to us, and reveals to us the law of God, then we perceive that we have broken the whole of the ten commandments, in the spirit, if not in letter of them. Even the chastest of men may well tremble when they remember that searching word of Christ, "Whoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." When you understand that the commandments of God not only forbid wrong actions, but also the desires, and imaginations, and thoughts of the heart, and that, consequently, a man may commit murder while he lies in his bed-may rob his neighbor without touching a penny of his money or any of his goods-may blaspheme God though he never uttered an oath, and may break all the commands of the law, from the first to the last, before he has put on his garments in the morning;-when you come to examine your life in that light, you will see that you are in a very different condition than you thought you were in."
-Charles H. Spurgeon- "Sermons which have won souls"

Why title it "A word from Spurgeon on how to be wise" ?

One of the first verses I memorized as a Christian was...

Psalm 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

And Spurgeon starts out with this verse in the beginning of this chapter on conversion. Saying that the moral law is necessary in a persons conversion. And so scripture confirms it by saying that it is "perfect, converting the soul".

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We have been handed a weapon direct from God himself that hits home in the sinners conscience. Are we to ride on are foolish pride and say that our method is better than the one God provided? We have ten great cannons that according to scripture will pull down the strong holds within a sinner.

Jesus used it.(John 4:7–26,Luke 18:18–21,Luke 10:25-37)

Paul used it.(Acts 24:25 says "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.". Paul used the law to reason with Felix. How do I know that? God's law is the standard of "righteousness" he expects. He spoke also of "temperance" which as well comes of the law. And "judgment"...the law works wrath. It shows how angry God is at sin. It says felix trembled. Like david sending the stone directly into the forhead of goliath so we must send the stone of the two tablets of God's law straight for the sinner's conscience causing them to "tremble" as they see the law coming after their self-righteousness. And after they are struck by the stone they too like goliath will fall flat on their faces dead to sin.

And here Spurgeon used it. What ever way you present the gospel make sure to use the law first to bring the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19,20,Romans 7:7,Galatians 3:23-25). This will break the hard heart and then the good news of the gospel will mend it ready for God to work within the person.

Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.