Saving Faith

I've been reading a little Arthur Pink. How about this quote:

It is generally recognized that spirituality is at a low ebb in Christendom and not a few perceive that sound doctrine is rapidly on the wane, yet many of the Lord’s people take comfort from supposing that the Gospel is still being widely preached and that large numbers are being saved thereby. Alas, their optimistic supposition is ill-founded and sandy grounded. If the “message” now being delivered in Mission Halls be examined, if the “tracts” which are scattered among the unchurched masses be scrutinized, if the “open-air” speakers be carefully listened to, if the “sermons” or
“addresses” of a “Soul-winning campaign” be analyzed; in short, if modern “Evangelism” be weighed in the balances of Holy Writ, it will be found wanting—lacking that which is vital to a genuine conversion, lacking what is essential if sinners are to be shown their need of a Savior, lacking that which will produce the transfigured lives of new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Like scripture says, many will be surprised at the Judgment. Many will say "Lord, Lord". and Jesus will say "depart from me I never knew you".

How can folks be saved without confronting their Sin? Until a person realizes that they are truly a sinner how can they be ready to receive the Gospel?

Lordship Salvation

I read the original version of The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur right after it came out in paperback (a number of years ago).

I bought the 20th Anniversary version as soon as it came out. I decided to start reading it this week.

As most of you know, over the past couple of years I have read all I could get my hands on, on topics of Reformed Theology and Puritan writings ( I still have plenty to read). :-)

They very idea that people believe that you can be a Christian without Jesus being Lord is quite frankly heresy! The Puritans that I have read would not even remotely entertain the thought of such a thing!!

They even have the audacity to claim that if we support Lordship Salvation we are pushing "Works" Salvation. From all my reading about the Doctrines of Grace that claim is virtually unsupportable!!

It is they who are teaching and supporting a man centered Gospel.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Mt 7:13-14

Church History Rant

The church-at-large to so ignorant of Church History. Many of our christian fore-fathers died to give us access to God's written Word.

We MUST remember that at one time the only permissible church was Rome. Rome did not and does not want the common man to fully understand the word of God. People at that time totally relied on the priests for everything.

Luther and Calvin tirelessly pointed out the problems with Rome.

We are to study God's word like the Bereans. We are to know what we believe and why.
We are not to believe something just because someone gets up in a pulpit and says we should!

Five years ago before I really knew anything specific about Calvinism I tried to read Dave Hunt's book which was a Debate of Calvinism. It's the first book I read that even talked about Calvinism. I couldn't finish it. It was horrible. It was a debate between Dave Hunt and James White. It was VERY obvious to me from my reading that Hunt had not read any Calvin. He only quoted other individuals who had supposedly read Calvin. It was also very clear that Dr. White knew what he was talking about.

That is when my journey started.

We believe WAY too much of what other people tell us. We should investigate and form our own opinions.

Since I started reading through the Institutes in January I can tell you there are plenty of folks out there against Calvinism but they have never read it.

John Calvin lived most of his life in pain and misery. He was preaching a sermon one day and was coughing up blood. John Calvin never desire to be well known. God however had a different plan.
I can only thank God for what He was able to accomplish through John Calvin.

I want to highly recommend two books about John Calvin.

1. The Legacy of John Calvin by David W. Hall (it's a short book).
2. John Calvin A Heart for Devotion Doctrine & Doxology edited by Burk Parsons.

There are four great men from the past that I have the highest admiration for:
John Calvin
John Owen
Jonathan Edwards
Charles Spurgeon

Please don't ignore our past. We do so at our own peril.

Our prayer should be "Lord show us thy truth."
He will show us His truth and it will set us free.

Grace & Peace

The Narrow Way

Here is a verse on an old slab in the cathedral of Lubeck, Germany:

Thus speaketh Christ our Lord unto us,
ye call Me Master and obey Me not,
ye call Me Light and see Me not,
ye call Me Way and walk Me not,
ye call Me Life and desire Me not,
ye call Me Wise and follow Me not,
ye call Me Fair and love Me not,
ye call Me Rich and ask Me not,
ye call Me Eternal and seek Me not,
ye call Me Gracious and trust Me not,
ye call Me Noble and serve Me not,
ye call Me Mighty and honor Me not,
ye call Me Just and fear Me not,
if I condemn you, blame Me not.

Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him," and that means faith in Jesus Christ. You don't get into the kingdom by sincerity, by religiosity, by reformation, by kindness, by service to the church, not even by simply naming the name of Christ; you get there only by personal trust and faith in Christ.

Note: This is from Truth Endures - Commemorating Forty Years of Unleashing God's Truth One Verse at a Time 1969-2009. Landmark Sermons by John MacArthur.
Sermon: How to Play Church - first sermon preached at Grace Church February 9, 1969.

The whole sermon is as good today as it was in 1969!!

Shepherds Conference 2009

I would encourage those of you that would be interested to download and listen to some of the messages at this years conference. The account for the Shepherds Fellowship is free. Just register and you can download and listen to the MP3's for free!! You can purchase the videos for $4 each and download and watch them if you prefer.

Session 5
Dr. Mohler led in a wonderful examination of the authority of preaching from the Sermon on the Mount, focusing specifically on Matthew 7:28–29, where the crowds were amazed by Jesus’ preaching because it had authority (and therefore was a huge contrast to the teaching of the rabbis). He exhorted us to teach the Word of God with authority, and to avoid the liberal tendencies of our postmodern age.

Session 6

Phil Johnson will look at two verses in Titus 2:7–8. Titus was a young pastor who was extremely precious to Paul. And Paul writes to Titus with the instructions found in vv. 7–8.

Phil chose this text because he is concerned about the tendency among some pastors to use vulgar topics, filthy jokes, and the like in ministry today under the guise of cultural contextualization. There are those who claim that this kind of speech is essential in order to be relevant to reach the culture. But the apostle Paul said otherwise.

I have listened to both of these messages and they are excellent! Dr. Mohler's message is the best I have ever heard him preach.

Grace & Peace

Failed Gospel Tract

I don't believe that the current approach to evangelism would work in the environment shown above.

This is not really meant to be humorous. Some folks are so concerned about making the gospel acceptable to everyone.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Mt 7:13-14