Paul Washer - The Cross the Modern Preachers Put In The Back

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Part 2

Leonard Ravenhill - The Worst Thing To Ever Happen To A Preacher

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Part 2



Part 3

Christ Commands to Make Disciples, Not Returning Customers

Below are 5 videos. Compare the first video with the remaining four. Is Spurgeon wrong? Are the 4 church videos Biblical? Please share your comments. They both can't be right. So who is?

Jesus Just Wants To Give You A Hug?

Over thirty years ago, the great philosopher Paul McCartney asked, “What’s wrong with silly love songs?” Having given this over three decades of serious consideration (OK, at least several months), I have Sir McCartney’s answer.

It depends.

If you want to fill the world with silly love songs, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to fill the church with them, I say, “Stop it!”

Tune into your “get you through your day” Christian music station and you will hear grown men, whining like love sick puppies, “Nothing else can take your place, or feel the warmth of your embrace.” Who are they singing to? The One who holds the universe together by the power of His word, or a chick?

Take the Quiz

Here are six phrases from six contemporary songs. Can you pick which phrases belong to secular songs and which to the sacred?

1. All I need to do is just be me, being in love with you.
2. My world stops spinning round, without you.
3. I never want to leave; I want to stay in your warm embrace.
4. I’m lost in love.
5. Now and forever, together and all that I feel, here's my love for you.
6. You say you love me just as I am.

The first three are from a popular Christian band called Big Daddy Weave, the second half are from Air Supply.

More and more of our Christian music is sounding one note: Jesus loves you soooooo much. Do I doubt for a second that Jesus loves His children? Nope, but it depends on what your definition of “love” is.

God “agape” loves His children. Agape love is not an emotions based, warm and fuzzy kind of love. Agape love is a self sacrificing, “I will help you despite how I feel” love.

William Tyndale was the first translator to use the word “love” for agape. Prior to the 16th century, the word “charity” best described agape. Leaving that debate aside, since Tyndale’s time, the English definition for love has expanded. Our modern day use of love ranges from a love for an object to physical love/sex (eros love). I love that new car. I love that girl. I love that God. That God loves me.

Not only do we use “love” in romantic ways to sing about God, we have added other romantic phrases to our Christian music repertoire: hold me, embrace me, feel you, need you. This criticism is not new, in fact, it has existed since Godly men began endeavoring to sing anything but the Psalms.

John Wesley considered an “amatory phrase” to be language that was more feelings based love than self-sacrificing agape love. John deleted “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” from one of his brother Charles’ collections because it was too romantic sounding.

Amatory Phrasing
Not only are musicians guilty of writing amatory phrases, but they are singing with amatory phrasing. Christian men sing with such romantic longing and neediness it makes me want to scream, “Man up!”

Christian women are singing with such throaty breathiness you would think they had just run from their home to the studio. To whom exactly are they singing? Brad Pitt or the Savior?

There are two consequences to this “Jesus is my boyfriend/girlfriend” music. Needy, emotional women continue to need more counseling, self help books and conferences where they can spread their wings and soar. Men simply are not showing up for church. It is my belief they simply can’t stand the mood manipulating worship times designed to help them “feel the Lord’s embrace.”

Musical Mermaids
Without theology in music, we are offering fluff that will not comfort when bridges collapse and test reports are negative. Songwriters could provide true hope if they would write about the sovereignty of God rather than crying about “how safe I feel when Jesus is holding me.”

Charles Spurgeon had the same criticism of “Hymns for Heart and Voice” published in 1855. He condemned the hymns as being “little better than mermaids, nice to look at but dangerous because they cannot deliver what they promise.”

Is there anything wrong with being reminded that our God is our help from ages past? Of course not, the Psalms are loaded with promises of God’s comfort. But unlike the Psalms (and theology based hymns), contemporary music is void of the reason why we should not worry. We do not worry because someone purrs that we shouldn’t fret, but because God is our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home. Our comfort comes from knowledge, not caterwauling.

If you enjoy a silly love song now and then, knock yourself out. But leave them where they belong, in the world or in the bedroom, not in the church.

R.C. Sproul - Justification and Imputed Righteousness

John Piper - What Happens In The New Birth?

John 3:1-10

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

We have begun a series of messages on the new birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He was speaking to all of us when he said that. Nicodemus was not a special case. You and I must be born again, or we will not see the kingdom of God. That means we will not be saved; we will not be part of God’s family, and not go to heaven, but instead will go to hell.

Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees, the most religious Jewish leaders. Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:15 and 33, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. . . . You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” So the series we have begun is not marginal. It is central. Eternity hangs in the balance when we are talking about the new birth. “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The New Birth Is Unsettling
In the first message last time we focused on the reasons for this series and the kinds of questions we would be asking. Today’s question is: What happens in the new birth? Before I try to answer that question, let me mention a very earnest concern that I have about the way these messages will be heard. I am aware that this series of messages will be unsettling to many of you—just like the words of Jesus are unsettling to us again and again if we take them seriously. There are at least three reasons for this:

1) Because of Our Hopeless Condition
Jesus’ teaching about the new birth confronts us with our hopeless spiritual and moral and legal condition apart from God’s regenerating grace. Before the new birth happens to us, we are spiritually dead. We are morally selfish and rebellious. And we are legally guilty before God’s law and under his wrath. When Jesus tells us that we must be born again he is telling us that our present condition is hopelessly unresponsive, corrupt, and guilty. Apart from amazing grace in our lives, we don’t like to hear that about ourselves. So it is unsettling when Jesus tells us that we must be born again.

2) Because We Cannot Cause the New Birth
Teaching about the new birth is unsettling because it refers to something that is done to us, not something we do. John 1:13 emphasizes this. It refers to the children of God as those who “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Peter stresses the same thing: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again” (1 Peter 1:3). We do not cause the new birth. God causes the new birth. Any good thing that we do is a result of the new birth, not a cause of the new birth. This means that the new birth is taken out of our hands. It is not in our control. And so it confronts us with our helplessness and our absolute dependence on Someone outside ourselves.

This is unsettling. We are told that we won’t see the kingdom of God if we’re not born again. And we’re told that we can’t make ourselves to be born again. This is unsettling.

3) Because the Absolute Freedom of God Confronts Us
And the third reason Jesus’ teaching about the new birth is unsettling, therefore, is that it confronts us with the absolute freedom of God. Apart from God, we are spiritually dead in our selfishness and rebellion. We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Our rebellion is so deep that we cannot detect or desire the glory of Christ in the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, we if we are going to be born again, it will rely decisively and ultimately on God. His decision to make us alive will not be a response to what we as spiritual corpses do, but what we do will be a response to his making us alive. For most people, at least at first, this is unsettling.

My Hope: Stabilize and Save, Not Just Unsettle
So, as I begin this series, I am aware of how unsettling this teaching on the new birth can be. And O how careful I want to be. I do not want to cause tender souls any unnecessary distress. And I do not want to give false hope to those who have confused morality or religion for spiritual life. Please pray for me. I feel like I am taking eternal souls in my hands in these days. And yet I know that I have no power in myself to give them life. But God does. And I am very hopeful that he will do what he says in Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” God loves to magnify the riches of his life-giving grace where Christ is lifted up in truth. That is my hope: that this series will not just unsettle but stabilize and save.

What Happens in the New Birth?
So let’s turn now to the question: What happens in the new birth? I will try to put the answer in three statements. The first two we will deal with today, and the third we will deal with (Lord willing) next week. 1) What happens in the new birth is not getting new religion but getting new life. 2) What happens in the new birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in yourself. 3) What happens in the new birth is not the improvement of your old human nature but the creation of a new human nature—a nature that is really you, and is forgiven and cleansed; and a nature that is really new, and is being formed by the indwelling Spirit of God. Let’s take those one at a time.

1) New Life, Not New Religion
What happens in the new birth is not getting new religion but getting new life. Read with me the first three verses of John 3: “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’

John makes sure that we know that Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. The Pharisees were the most rigorously religious of all the Jewish groups. To this one, Jesus says (in verse 3), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And even more personally in verse 7: “You must be born again.” So one of John’s points is: All of Nicodemus’ religion, all of his amazing Pharisaic study and discipline and law-keeping, cannot replace the need for the new birth. In fact, they may well make more obvious the need for the new birth.

What Nicodemus needs, and what you and I need, is not religion but life. The point of referring to new birth is that birth brings a new life into the world. In one sense, of course, Nicodemus is alive. He is breathing, thinking, feeling, acting. He is human, created in God’s image. But evidently, Jesus thinks he’s dead. There is no spiritual life in Nicodemus. Spiritually, he is unborn. He needs life, not more religious activities or more religious zeal. He has plenty of that.

You recall what Jesus said in Luke 9:60 to the man who wanted to put off following Jesus so he could bury his father? Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” That means there are physically dead people who need burying. And there are spiritually dead people who can bury them. In other words, Jesus thought in terms of people who walk around with much apparent life, and are dead. In his parable about the prodigal son, the Father says, “This my son was dead, and is alive again.” (Luke 15:24).

Nicodemus did not need religion; he needed life—spiritual life. What happens in the new birth is that life comes into being that was not there before. New life happens at new birth. This is not religious activity or discipline or decision. This is the coming into being of life. That’s the first way of describing what happens in the new birth.

2) Experiencing the Supernatural, Not Just Affirming It
What happens in the new birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in yourself. In verse 2, Nicodemus says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” In other words, Nicodemus sees in Jesus a genuine divine activity. He admits that Jesus is from God. Jesus does the works of God. To this, Jesus does not respond by saying, “I wish everyone in Palestine could see the truth that you see about me.” Instead, he says, “You must be born again or you will never see the kingdom of God.”

Seeing signs and wonders, and being amazed at them, and giving the miracle worker credit for them that he is from God, saves nobody. This is one of the great dangers of signs and wonders: You don’t need a new heart to be amazed at them. The old, fallen human nature is all that’s needed to be amazed at signs and wonders. And the old, fallen human nature is willing to say that the miracle worker is from God. The devil himself knows that Jesus is the Son of God and works miracles (Mark 1:24). No, Nicodemus, seeing me as a miracle worker sent from God is not the key to the kingdom of God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

In other words, what matters is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in yourself. The new birth is supernatural, not natural. It cannot be accounted by things that are already found in this world. Verse 6 emphasizes the supernatural nature of the new birth: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The flesh is what we are naturally. The Spirit of God is the supernatural Person who brings about the new birth. Jesus says this again in verse 8: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The Spirit is not a part of this natural world. He is above nature. He is supernatural. Indeed, he is God. He is the immediate cause of the new birth.

So Nicodemus, Jesus says, what happens in the new birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in me, but experiencing the supernatural in yourself. You must be born again. And not in any metaphorical natural way, but in a supernatural way. God the Holy Spirit must come upon you and bring new life into existence.

We will look next time at the words in verse 5: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” What does water and Spirit refer to here? And how does that help us understand what is happening in the new birth?

Jesus Is the Life
But today I want to close by making a crucial connection between being born again by the Spirit and having eternal life through faith in Jesus. What we have seen so far is that what happens in the new birth is a supernatural work by the Holy Spirit to bring spiritual life into being where it did not exist. Jesus says it again in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

But the Gospel of John makes something else clear as well: Jesus is the life that the Holy Spirit gives. Or we could say: The spiritual life that he gives, he only gives in connection with Jesus. Union with Jesus is where we experience supernatural, spiritual life. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In John 6:35, he said, “I am the bread of life.” And in 20:31, John says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

No Life Apart from Jesus
So there is no spiritual life—no eternal life—apart from connection with Jesus and belief in Jesus. We will have lots more to say about the relationship between the new birth and faith in Jesus. But let’s put it this way for now: In the new birth, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in a living union. Christ is life. Christ is the vine where life flows. We are the branches (John 15:1ff). What happens in the new birth is the supernatural creation of new spiritual life, and it is created through union with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us into vital connection with Christ who is the way, the truth, and life. That is the objective reality of what happens in the new birth.

And from our side—the way we experience this—is that faith in Jesus is awakened in our hearts. Spiritual life and faith in Jesus come into being together. The new life makes the faith possible, and since spiritual life always awakens faith and expresses itself in faith, there is no life without faith in Jesus. Therefore, we should never separate the new birth from faith in Jesus. From God’s side, we are united to Christ in the new birth. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. From our side, we experience this union by faith in Jesus.

Never Separate the New Birth and Faith in Jesus
Listen to how John puts them together in 1 John 5:4: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Born of God—the key to victory. Faith—the key to victory. Because faith is the way we experience being born of God.

Or listen to how John says it in 1 John 5:11-12: “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Therefore, when Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (John 6:63), and when he says, “You must be born of the Spirit” in order to have life, he means: In the new birth, the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith. For Jesus is life.

So never separate these two sayings of Jesus in John 3: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3) and “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (v. 36).

R.C. Sproul - Holiness And Justice

Part 1



Part 2

Do You Value Other Christian's Discernment Or Only Your Own?

Death-Bed Repentance

- Gorham Abbott, 1833

"They shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn." Zechariah 12:10

Repentance is the tear of love, dropping from the eye of faith, when it fixes on Christ crucified.

Repentance begins in the humiliation of the heart, and ends in the reformation of the heart and of the life.

Sincere repentance is never too late, but late repentance is seldom sincere. The thief on the cross repented, and was pardoned in the last hour of his life. We have one such instance in scripture—that none might despair; and only one—that none might presume.

Still, however, the probability that apparent repentance, which comes at a dying hour, will be genuine, is very small. The following fact will furnish an affecting illustration of this sentiment, and a solemn warning against the too common delusion of deferring the work of repentance to a dying bed:

The faithful and laborious clergyman of a very large and populous parish had been accustomed, for a long series of years, to preserve notes of his visits to the afflicted, with remarks on the outcome of their affliction—whether life or death, and of the subsequent conduct of those who recovered. He stated, that, during forty years, he had visited more than two thousand people apparently drawing near to death, and who revealed such signs of penitence as would have led him to indulge a good hope of their eternal safety—if they had died at that moment. When they were restored to life and health—he eagerly looked that they should bring forth fruits fit for repentance. But alas! of the two thousand, only two people manifested an abiding and saving change! The rest, when the terrors of eternity ceased to be in immediate prospect, forgot their pious impressions and their solemn vows—and returned with new avidity to their former worldly mindedness and sinful pursuits, "as the dog returns to its vomit again, and as the sow that was washed to its wallowing in the mire."

C.H. Spurgeon - Idiots Catching Flies

Most people are not seeking to escape from the wrath to come- they are busy in worldly things while hell is near them. They are like idiots catching flies on board a ship which is in the very act of sinking!

We see many people busy about their bodies, decorating themselves, when their soul is in ruin. They are like a man painting the front door, when the house is in flames!

Men are in a restless pursuit after satisfaction in earthly things.

They will hunt the purlieus of wealth, they will travel the pathways of fame, they will dig into the mines of knowledge, they will exhaust themselves in the deceitful delights of sin, and, finding them all to be vanity and emptiness, they will become very perplexed and disappointed.

But they will still continue their fruitless search.

Though wearied, they still stagger forward under the influence of spiritual madness, and though there is no result to be reached except that of everlasting disappointment, yet they press forward with much ardor.

Living for today is enough for them - that they are still alive, that they possess present comforts and present enjoyments, this contents the many.

As for the future, they say, "Let it take care of itself."

As for eternity, they leave others to care for its realities; the present life is enough for them.

Their motto is, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

They have no forethought for their eternal state; the present hour absorbs them.

Carnal minds pursue with all their might earth's vanities, and when they are wearied in their pursuit they but change their direction, and continue the idle chase.

They turn to another and another of earth's broken cisterns, hoping to find water where not a drop was ever discovered yet.

R.C. Sproul - The Holiness Of Christ

For Whom Is Worship?

- By Peter Leithart

For whom is worship? "For God, of course," comes the answer. "Worship is our response to God's grace. In worship, we give God the praise and honor he deserves. True, we may receive something in worship, we may be edified, but that is a very minor and secondary part of worship. Worship is theocentric."

“Truly Reformed” Worship?

Slogans such as these have come to define "Truly Reformed" worship in our day. This emphasis is understandable, since modern worship, infused as it is with the ethos of pop culture, has become deeply narcissistic. In reaction to seeker-sensitive worship, which focuses on the needs of the worshiper, Reformed writers insist that worship is about our giving, not about our receiving. Reformed as it sounds, this perspective is one-sided at best, false at worst, and definitely more Arminian than Reformed.

Well, what's wrong with saying that worship is for God? For starters, it implies that worship is purely our response to God. It presents this picture: Somewhere, outside a worship service, God saved me. Having been saved, I have a duty to gather with God's people to thank him for his mercy and praise him for his greatness. Outside the church door, I sought and found God's grace. Once inside, I am not a seeker after grace, but a giver of praise. It is impossible, however, for any human action to be a response pure and simple. To entertain that possibility is to assume we can be autonomous, independent of God: once God has worked in us, we can respond to him without having to rely on his continual working in us. That, of course, is exactly what Reformed theology denies.

Scripture does not merely say that God works first, and then we respond. It says that our response is yet another work of God. It says that even when we give, we are simultaneously, and primarily, receiving. Thus, it is not as if we are recipients of grace until we walk through the door. We rely on God's work in us in worship as much as anywhere else, and it is only because we are acting by the power of the Spirit that our actions in worship bring honor to God.

Worship, like everything else in the Christian life, is by grace through faith. Stepping through the church door doesn't magically transform Calvinists into Arminians.

The Means of Grace

The second problem with this perspective is that it implicitly denies the Reformed understanding of the means of grace. According to all the Reformed confessions, the Word and sacraments are actual and effective means of grace, by which the Spirit gives the presence and power of the risen Christ to the faithful of God.

"What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption?" asks Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #88. And it answers that "the word, sacraments, and prayer ... are made effective to the elect for salvation." Word and sacrament are the main foci of worship, and both are God's means of "communicating benefits" to us. Worship is thus not mainly about what we do before God's face; it is mainly about what God is doing to and in us.

The service of the Lord's Day is God's action: he calls us into his presence; he declares our sins forgiven; he speaks his word of comfort, rebuke, and encouragement; he feeds us at his table; and he sends us back into the world. Of course, at each point, we also respond: when God invites us in, we enter; when he absolves our sins, we praise his grace in his Son; we tremble at his threats and believe his promises; we eat and drink at his banquet; and when he sends us out, we go. But these are responses and depend on the Spirit's work.

Humanistic Assumptions?

We assemble in the first instance because we believe God has promised to do things for us. This may seem to be a brief for "seeker-sensitive worship," but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the errors of contemporary worship arise from the very assumptions I'm attacking here. Contemporary worship is not grounded in the conviction that Word and sacrament are genuine means of grace. That's why all sorts of things substitute for Word and sacrament—anecdotal pep talks, puppet shows, drama, whatever. Contemporary services do not rest on the assumption that God is acting in the worship service; what's important is what the worship team is doing to gain the attention of the unbelievers in the audience.

Reformed churches that trumpet the idea that the Lord's Day service is for God are simultaneously adopting many of the practices of contemporary worship, and that is no accident. Both arise from the same basic liturgical theology because both deny, at least implicitly, that worship is God's ministry to us. Ultimately, the problem is that this perspective shapes a worship that is not truly theocentric because it is not centered on the true God. It envisions the God we worship as some kind of Oriental potentate, sitting passively enthroned while his people, gathered far, far below, seek desperately to please him. God is indeed an exalted King, but his kingship is not of this world. He is lifted up on a cross, adorned with a crown of thorns. He reveals himself as King not by taking our gifts, but by giving gifts, by giving himself.

Entering his presence to seek his mercy, to receive his gifts, to listen humbly to his Word, and to feed thankfully at his table—that is genuine Christian theocentrism.

Leonard Ravenhill - The Worst Thing To Ever Happen To A Preacher - Part 3

R.C. Sproul - According to His Choice, Not Our Works...

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel, who are of Israel: Neither, because they are the descendants of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall your descendants be called. That is, They who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the descendants. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. For the scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore has he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens. You will say then unto me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of hosts had left us a descendant, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. - Romans 9:1-33

For by grace areyou saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest anyman should boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

Paul Washer - Those Plowed Unto Life, These Flatter Us to Death

But we know that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully; - 1 Timothy 1:8

A lying tongue hates those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth works ruin. - Proverbs 26:28

He that rebukes a man shall find more favor afterwards than he that flatters with the tongue. - Proverbs 28:23

Repost - Paul Washer Interview - WOTMR

Black Friday - Lay Up Treasures In Heaven

By Mike Ratliff

“Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” (Proverbs 23:3-5 KJV)

The god of the natural man is self. Worship of self revolves around self-gratification. This idolatry is enhanced in a consumer driven economy such as in the United States. Today is Thanksgiving Day and tomorrow is called Black Friday because it is supposed to be the heaviest shopping day of the year as people hit the stores to buy Christmas gifts at supposedly lower prices. The day is called Black Friday because it is traditional that most retailer’s ledgers and balance sheets get into the black for the first time in the year. As a result we are inundated with sale papers and ads on TV about sales that begin before the Sun comes up.

This consumerism is the fruit of an economic system that is designed to manipulate people into buying things that they would not ordinarily buy. Christmas has become a commercial holiday that is all about buying gifts and spending money. The holiday was supposed to celebrate the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, however, that meaning has been relegated to the back burner or lost in the shuffle. Now, it is all about buying gifts and receiving gifts. To the retailer, it is a time for making money. No matter from what angle we approach Christmas, it seems that it is all about greed. God’s people are called to be different. Their focus should not be on self at all, but on serving their Lord in obedience and love.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-22 KJV)

When we look to what we possess as our “treasure” then that will be where our hearts are directed. Jesus tells us in this passage to not do this. As we saw in the passage from Proverbs at the top of this post, riches or possessions do not last. They are temporal and cannot be depended upon. However, the admonition from our Lord is to not place our hope in them or our trust. Instead, He tells us to lay up treasure in Heaven. This treasure is eternal, not temporal. Jesus tells us that if we place our hope in Him as our treasure then our hearts will be there instead of here. When that is the case, we will not be enslaved to self-gratification. Who does this? How can we do this? We must become Spirit-filled so that we will be guided and controlled by the Holy Spirit. When we do this, we will not be focused on how much wealth we have on earth, but we will be looking to follow our Lord as we carry our crosses in self-denial.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:22-24 KJV)

This statement by our Lord is an argument from the lesser to the greater. His analogy is very simple. If one’s eye is bad, no light can come in. This leaves him or her in darkness. This is speaking of external perception. However, it is much worse if there is internal corruption within one’s nature. From this corruption, darkness actually emanates from within. This affects that person’s whole being. If a person is in love with money and/or possessions then he or she is driven by self-gratification and is in darkness. Only the Spirit-filled believer is in the light. Only the Spirit-filled believer is genuinely humble. Only the Spirit-filled believer denies and dies to self as he or she follows their Lord in obedience. The self-oriented person is in darkness and serves mammon while the Spirit-filled believer serves God. Mammon refers to earthly, material treasures.

There is nothing wrong with having a job that pays a salary. There is nothing wrong with owning a business. Money is not evil. It is the love of money and things that is the root of all sorts of evil. Why? If our motive is to accumulate or get for self-gratification then we will also do things in an attempt to get more and not lose any in a way that is not ethical or what Christians should be doing. If God blesses us with earnings or gifts or things then we must hold them lightly and focus on Him and His will in how we manage those things.

Let us lay up our treasure in Heaven, not here on earth. If we do that, then our heart will be there. Our motives will be God’s glory, not mammon. This life is short and we have only one time through it to get it right. We must repent of our greed and self-focus and ask that God give us a heart that is filled with His Spirit as we obey Him as He leads and guides. All for His glory!

Be sure to check out Mike's web site, POSSESSING THE TREASURE.

Paul Washer - A Dedication To My Mother, Barbara Washer

This edition of HeartCry is dedicated to my mother Barbara Washer who went home to be with her Lord on the 12th of July, 2007. My mother was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Croatian parents who had come to this country as immigrants through Ellis Island. Though Croatians are strongly Catholic, my grandmother became a believer and attended an evangelical congregation until her death.

My mother was converted in the house of a friend when she was twelve years old. The story goes that she was playing dolls, when she heard the family playing hymns on the piano downstairs. Although she was not paying much attention to the songs, the Holy Spirit rushed upon her with such conviction that she ran into an empty room and fell to the floor in tears. The parents ran upstairs and shared the Gospel with her. It was then that she took Christ as Lord and Savior.

As the years passed, my mother married and had four children. She lost her first son Doug who was struck by a car in front of the house when he was only six years old. She lost her husband and my father when she was fifty-one and never remarried. Finally, she lost her oldest daughter in a car accident in 1992. I have mentioned these things only because they were instrumental in shaping her life and in proving the faithfulness of her God. She strongly believed in the sovereignty of God, and it was this belief that sustained her. After the death of my father, my mother raised her three children alone. Until we left home for college and careers, she made sure that we were in church every Sunday.

Until my conversion at 21 years of age, I was the wildest and most destructive of the three children. I know that my sin brought great sorrow to my mother, but I always knew that she was praying for me. I would often share with her my misery, and she would always reply, “You are miserable, because I gave you to God before you were born, and you will remain miserable until you follow Him!” I remember calling her from the University of Texas on the day that I was converted. She simply said, “I have always told you that you belonged to God. Now you must do whatever He tells you, and I will help you anyway I can.” During my years in Peru, my mother knew of the danger and trials, but she never asked me to come home. On the contrary, she would have been disappointed and even angry if I had not held my ground, or as she used to say, if I had not “stood for the Lord”.

Standing for the Lord was never a problem for my mother. She was one of the boldest and most fearless witnesses I have ever known. She witnessed to everyone, although I must admit that sometimes she was as relentless as a pit bull and as reckless as a bull in a china shop. As she would say, she was not afraid to tell you where you were going if you rejected Jesus! Many years ago I preached in tears to a church about the need on the mission field. After I finished, the pastor stood up and said that I was emotionally distraught and needed counseling. Afterwards, he made the mistake of unknowingly introducing himself to my mother. After he shook her hand, she said to him, “That emotionally distraught boy is my son. He told the truth tonight. If you and your church were not so dead, you would have recognized it!

The one thing I most appreciated about my mother was that she scoffed at any form of self-righteousness and viewed salvation as a work of grace from beginning to end. Before she died, she instructed me to preach the Gospel at her funeral and to make it clear that she was not in heaven because she was a good wife, or a good mother, or a good woman. She was in heaven because God saves sinners and Jesus Christ shed His own blood for her soul!

I have always been fearful of what might happen to HeartCry after my mother’s death only because she was constantly praying for us. I honestly attribute much of what has been done in my life and in this ministry to the prayers of my mother. She was on her knees when HeartCry was only her son working alone in Peru. I only hope and pray that God might raise up others to take her place. She will be missed, but I know that she would not return for any reason under heaven. Several weeks before she died, my mother was asleep in the hospital with my sister Erika at her side. She suddenly woke up, looked at my sister, and sighed with disappointment. When my sister asked her what was wrong, she exclaimed, “I thought for sure that this time when I opened my eyes, I would see the face of my Lord, but it's only you. Nothing personal, I just want to go home and see my Lord.”

I will end this dedication with a word of thanks to my sister Erika who has given a great part of her life to care for our mother. Her faithfulness and sacrifice were a magnificient expression of Christian love. In the last few years, I have preached in several countries on three continents, and HeartCry has grown far beyond my dreams. Much of this was possible for me because of my sister’s abiding ministry to my mother. Although I was there for the last three weeks of my mother’s life and held her as she went home to be with the Lord, it was my sister who deserves all commendation. May God return upon her and her family the blessings she gave to my mother and me.

Your brother,

Paul David Washer

“For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you,
which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your
mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.”- II Timothy 1:5

Alan Cairns - Free Presbyterian Church Of North America

Part 1 - Pastors Who Think They Are Popes



Part 2 - Homosexuals Are The Real Bigots

Leonard Ravenhill - The Worst Thing To Ever Happen To A Preacher - Part 2

Leonard Ravenhill - The Worst Thing To Ever Happen To A Preacher - Part 1

Man-Made Church Growth

Most of you have already seen this short video about man-made church growth but I wanted to post it again for those of you who have not seen it.

Please keep in mind that it's easy to draw a crowd.

"..the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:3

“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them…providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church…the need is for Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men aflame.” - C. H. Spurgeon

I would encourage anyone involved in this man-made, worldly church growth to read John MacArthur's book: "Ashamed of the Gospel"

John Piper Quote

"Now I want to say loud and clear that when the Barna Group uses term “born again” to describe American church-goers whose lives are indistinguishable from the world, and who sin as much as the world, and sacrifice for others as little as the world, and embrace injustice as readily as the world, and covet things as greedily as the world, and enjoy God-ignoring entertainment as enthusiastically as the world—when the term “born again” is used to describe these professing Christians, the Barna Group is making a profound mistake. It is using the biblical term “born again” in a way that would make it unrecognizable by Jesus and the biblical writers." - John Piper

Jeff Noblit - The Bible Driven Church

Paul Washer - True Repentance And Justification

Jay Kaylor - A Dear Friend

My neighbor and dear friend, Jay Kaylor, passed away on Saturday. Jay was a terrific man that always had a smile on his face. Not only was Jay my friend but he also played an integral role in the attainment of my career in education. Throughout my career, Jay was always an encouragement to me for which I am very grateful.

Please pray for his wife, Pam, and their family through this difficult time.

Jay M. Kaylor, 66, entered into heaven on Saturday, November 17, 2007 from his home. He was married to Pamela J. Hershey Kaylor for 31 years.

An educator and a coach, Jay taught fourth grade at the Riverview Elementary School in the Donegal School District for 31 years, retiring in June of 2003. Jay served as the head coach for the Donegal Boys Tennis Team for three years and as the assistant coach for the Donegal Girls Tennis Team for eight years. He also coached the Donegal Junior High Soccer Team.

In 1991 Jay received the Marietta Jaycees Outstanding Educator Award and in 1996 was honored as Educator of the Year, in the Donegal School District. He was a member of the Donegal Education Association, and the Pennsylvania State and National Education Associations.


Jay was also a member of the Mount Joy Church of God. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1963 until 1966 and then the Navy Reserves until 1969. Jay was a 1959 graduate of Donegal High School and a 1971 graduate of Elizabethtown College, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education.

An avid tennis player, he was a member of the Manheim Tennis Club where he participated in many tournaments. Jay also enjoyed riding bike and bowled for over 30 years in several leagues at Clearview Lanes, Mount Joy. He and his beloved wife, Pam enjoyed traveling together, taking special vacations to Alaska, Hawaii, and Wimbledon.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing."

R.C. Sproul, Al Mohler, and Ravi Zacharias Talk Post-Modernism And The Emergent Church

Paul Washer - If Jesus Is Not Risen, Our Faith Is In Vain

I am reposting Part 1 to go along with Part 2 (NEW).

Part 1



Part 2 (NEW)

R.C. Sproul - Why Apologetics?

Charo Washer's Testimony (Paul Washer's Wife)

Yet another example of someone who thought they were saved because the Christian School she attended taught that if she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart, she would be saved...

Part 1



Part 2

Paul Washer On Crosstalk Today

CLICK HERE for a must listen to interview of Paul Washer on today's Crosstalk radio broadcast. I encourage everyone to listen to this interview, especially our Youth Pastors.

Paul Washer - Some Missions Conferences Literally Make Me Sick

Paul Washer shows how much humanism has created a false Jesus as opposed to the real Jesus who is in Heaven now and is revealed in Scripture. He brings to light how much man has deemed himself higher and more important than God and how man must be humbled.

Is Evolution Compatible With Christianity?

Is Being Born Again Up To Us?

It's no more up to us than it was up to my grandson, who was born two days ago, to get out of the womb. In other words, birth is something done to us. It's not something that we do.

It is, however, something that we react to. The first cry of a newborn in Christ is faith. I would never write a book on how to be born again—because that is like writing a book for babies on how to get out of the womb—but I would write a book on how to be saved, because that is about faith in Jesus Christ.

I've never met a believer who, when you ask how they came to Christ, really wants to take credit for it. I've never talked to anybody who wants to say that they we the one who really provided the decisive initiative and the decisive work behind their salvation. Almost every believer, because of the work of God within them, wants to give God the credit for their salvation.

When you have two brothers listening to a sermon together, and one is awakened to see the spiritual beauty of Christ while the other isn't, can this awakening in the one be attributed to any innate wisdom or sensitivity to spiritual things? No! These things are not innate. The Bible says that we are all dead in our trespasses and sins and that it is God who makes us alive together with Christ. God, in his sovereign mercy, is the one who quickens people and causes them to be born again.

The new birth is the prior, miraculous, subconscious work by which people are enabled to see and savor and embrace Jesus Christ. Therefore we must pray accordingly.

I've prayed for my own children, before they were born again, that God would do a decisive, regenerating work in their hearts. I didn't pray that God would keep his distance and leave it up to my son to come to Christ. I prayed, "Break in! Crash in! Take out the heart of stone and give a heart of tenderness!"

We pray for regeneration—we pray for new birth—so that people can believe. They don't believe so that they can be born again. They're born unto a living hope so that they can believe. People don't believe unless God breaks into their lives, raises them from the dead, gives them a new heart, and enables them to see the beauty of Christ.

Do you think we'll ever be able to resolve the tension between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility?

Yes, in heaven. I think it can be resolved to a significant measure here, if you read the very best analyses of it. (Jonathan Edward's book The Freedom of the Will is as good as they get, and I think he comes to a pretty close solution. But practically I find that lay people, by and large, are not going to read such a heavy-duty book).

In the end, however, we have to live with mystery because we are finite. And we must make sure that we draw the line for mystery in the right place. I find that a lot of people agree that there is mystery, but they don't agree on what that mystery is.

The mystery is not between the sovereignty of God that governs all things (including the will of man) and the absolutely self-determining free will of man. That is not the biblical mystery.

The biblical mystery is between God, who is sovereign over all things and governs all things (including the will of man), and our accountability and responsibility to will what we ought to even though we don't have absolute self-determination. That's the mystery. And I'm willing to live with that because the Bible teaches both of those things.

What is the first step in our responsibility?

If we read Jesus in John 3 we see that the new birth is God's work. The wind of God's Spirit blows where he wills. And if was talking to another person who showed some interest in spiritual things, I would say to them, "There is evidence that the wind is blowing here because of your concern, interest, and conviction. Therefore, take this initiative that God has wrought in your life and use it to close with Christ. Come to Christ. Come to the cross, and reach out with the arms of your heart and will, and embrace Christ as Savior and Lord."

Then the person must admit, "I was brought to this point by the Spirit of God. Yet now I must use my will, enabled by God, to embrace him, to receive him" (John 1:12).

So I would plead with people to come to Christ as the fountain of living water and as the bread of heaven (Isaiah 55:1-3). And when people come and embrace Christ with faith they are saved, their sins are forgiven, and they have the hope of eternal life. Then they'll look back some day and say, "I came because he drew me. I came because I was born again. He opened my eyes. He gave me ears to hear. He enabled me to taste and see that the Lord is good."

Paul Washer & John Piper - Three Of My All-Time Favorite Video Clips

Paul Washer - The Cross



John Piper - The Supremacy Of Christ



John Piper - The Prosperity Gospel

John MacArthur Explains Salvation Of Old Testament Saints

The Enormous Ignorance of God

In what follows, when I refer to God's knowing I mean his certain knowing, not his extraordinary ability to deduce probabilities from known facts. In the view that I am concerned to understand, namely, the view of Greg Boyd and others concerning the foreknowledge of God, what is denied is certainty in God concerning future volitions of human beings, and what is affirmed is the human capacity to contradict God's best prognoses, because of the God-given capacity of creative free choice.
For God not to know future volitions of humans is not a small ignorance but a huge one, unimaginably huge. It is, for example, not a periodic ignorance, but a continual one; not a narrow ignorance, but a universally human one; not an insignificant ignorance, but a tremendously significant one; not a confined ignorance, but a diverse one (relating to all things a person can choose).

1. Diverse Ignorance

It is a diverse ignorance. In all my waking moments (and perhaps in my dreams) my will is inclining one way or the other concerning this or that thought to think, this or that emotions or attitude to savor or resist, this or that word to speak, or this or that movement of the body to make. Of all these diverse acts of mind, emotion, and body, God is ignorant up to the actual point of volition that performs or shapes them. So God does not know for sure my thoughts, the full nature of my emotions or attitudes, my words or my bodily acts one second before they come to pass. His ignorance is as diverse as are the aspects of life affected by human volition.

This would also include not only the thoughts, emotions, attitudes, words, and deeds happening in me, but also all the effects that come from all those acts of my will. Thus the diversity of the ignorance expands to the physical effects on my body that actually result from my thoughts and emotions, and the effects of my emotions on all the other people and things in my life. (God can know what effects would come if I release and do not resist anger or joy or gratitude or lust, but he cannot know the actual effects on people or things.) God does not know if my unresisted anger will result in a harsh word or a sneer or a swing of the fist or the pull of a trigger. He does not know if my unresisted discouragement will result in my not going to work or my committing suicide or my walking away from my marriage. He does not know if my chosen word will be one that saves life (as when my wife hollered, "Johnny!" as I started to step into Cambridge traffic a few years ago) or destroys life (as when a gang leader says, "Shoot!"). He does not know if my chosen deeds will make an airplane crash or cause a law to pass.

It also is evident, therefore, that the immense diversity of God's ignorance unleashes an even more immense ignorance of the diversity of effects resulting from each of the unknown thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds. Every volition as it produces or shapes thought, emotion, word, and deeds is like a cue ball that hits a triangle of billiard balls. The path of every one is unknown ahead of time by God. This, I say, is an immense ignorance because most of the events in the emotional, intellectual, verbal, and material world are caused or shaped by acts of human volition directly or indirectly. Of all these countless things God is ignorant until they actually happen.

2. Universally Human Ignorance

Now multiply the immense diversity of God's ignorance of my thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds times all the humans in the world. Not only is there a huge divine ignorance of my diverse life of thought, emotion, attitude, word, and deed, but he is also ignorant of all of that in all people everywhere who have wills. Race or age or intellect or sex or education or tribe does not limit his ignorance. As far as diversity in human nature and culture extend, so far does God's ignorance extend of what thoughts, emotions, attitudes, words, and deeds every person will choose or shape by his or her volition. Everywhere at all times God is ignorant of all volitions and their effects up to the instant that they are performed by our creative wills.

3. Continual Ignorance

I said above that God is ignorant at all times of what volitions are yet future. Let the magnitude of this ignorance sink in. His ignorance of my thoughts, emotions, attitudes, words, and deeds up to the instant they happen is followed by a continual ignorance that very next instant of what thoughts, emotions, attitudes, words, and deeds may be brought to pass or shaped immediately on the heels of the acts just performed. Thus the instant God gains knowledge of my thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds, the extent and durability of what he now knows is unknown since it may be affected this way or that by the next instance's volition. Thus God is not accumulating useful knowledge with each instance's actualized volition, but is rather besieged by a relentless, never-ending, second-by-second onslaught of immense ignorance that actually causes the knowledge he just gained to be of no certain use since its possible effects in the world of ceaseless new volitions are also unknowable to him.

For example, God discovers that a man chooses to swerve his car into the oncoming traffic the instant the choice is made and the car swerves; but this knowledge is of little use because it is possible in the very next fraction of a second the man's free will may prompt him to swerve back so that if God should miraculously push an oncoming car off into the shoulder with a puff of wind, the man may in that very instant will to swerve to the shoulder. And so the second-by-second free acting of the driver's will runs ahead of God's knowledge and keeps him continually off balance and ignorant until the crash happens or doesn't happen. This continual uninterrupted ignorance of God is therefore immense.

4. Tremendously Significant Ignorance

The ignorance of future human volitions is not insignificant ignorance. Aside from purely natural events like wind, rain, lightening, heat of summer, cold of winter, aging, gravity, subatomic motion of electrons, animal behavior, etc., virtually all the significant reality in life and family and society and nations is the fruit of human volition. All technology, family dynamics, church life, legislation, military affairs, telecommunications, media, literature, drama, theater, architecture, transportation, food production, utilities, etc., etc., are created, shaped, sustained, and guided through moment-by-moment human volition. All of which God is ignorant until it comes to pass. Thus the entire fabric of culture in all its immense significance is being woven without God's knowledge of how each moment, hour, day, month, year, and decade will take shape.

5. Closing Question

Is this the God of the Bible? They would say probably that God can indeed plan and govern, because humans also plan and govern even though they are ignorant like this. Only God understands all relevant influences and so is much more knowing of probabilities than man is and so can plan much better than man can. In other words, God has the same kind of knowledge man does only he's better at it. He can make more probable prognoses concerning what man is about to do. But he is likely to be surprised a million times over. That is, the degree to which men really are free and creative and not governed by circumstance or genetics God shares in the immense ignorance spoken of above.

We Need To Watch Our Life And Doctrine Closely

R.C. Sproul - The Seeker-Sensitive Movement

Paul Washer - The Slavery Of Serving Worldly Gain

"Oh that my child be godly. Oh that my child give it all for the sake of Christ. Oh that my child live for Him. Oh that my child not be enslaved to the very things that so enslave me.

Do you realize, now listen to this, there's a balance in everything, there is... but do you realize that if you would just take an agenda/write down a list of how much time you invest in your children in extra curricular activities (versus) how much time you invest in your children with regard to godliness.

We buy things, we fill them full of media, we put them in the world, and we carry them every place on the face of the earth all throughout the week that our lives are so busy and scattered that we can't even sit a meal and what are we doing?! We're making our children enslaved to the very master that enslaves us and ruins our lives instead of teaching our children only one thing is needed: devotion to Christ." - Paul Washer

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." - Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:24-34)

John MacArthur On Larry King Live - What Happens When You Die?

Part 1



Part 2 - Can You Be Assured Of Heaven?



Part 3 - Grace Not Justice



Part 4 - Only One Perfect Person

John Piper - When You Endure With Jesus Through Suffering, He Gets Alot Of Glory

Perry Noble - I Don't Like The Way You Do Business

Over at Old Truth, Jim Bublitz has an excellent article on "businessman", PERRY NOBLE HERE.

In the comments section, my good friend Lane Chaplin had this to say:

"'Attracting new customers is usually a good idea, whether you're a church or a business.'

Notice he didn't say "new believers" although I don't believe the evaluation is novel to him. I think this statement sums up the entire problem. It's the mentality behind it all.

I used to go to Clemson and I attended Mr. Noble's business several times. It's not a church. There are people that will tell you that, but creatures of the day will tell you anything aside from the truth to get what they want. I think that's the problem with this place. It is a business. I went to a "baptism" there and was ready to leave even before I heard the first, "This is awesome, dude." It's the mentality (or lack thereof) behind it all.

Exegesis of Scripture provides a solid rebuke on this place. Sometimes I think that I have been ignorant to expect something wholesome and true to come out of a place where the person who claims to be a pastor "exegetes" Scripture in such subjective ways as, Hosea 3:1 - Man! I sometimes forget how great God is! or Acts 2:41 - See! God IS all about the numbers, man! (These are not direct quotations, but they are in the same jest.)

This business and Scripture are not in agreement. It's simple: it's either one or the other or neither and Scripture is inerrant. An unfaithful person can and will twist Scripture to justify their actions, but solid exegesis is still an open rebuke on this arrogance and selfishness.

Paul Washer has said, "One of the greatest distinguishing marks of a false prophet is that he will always tell you what you want to hear, he will never rain on your parade. He will get you clapping, he will get you jumping, he will make you dizzy, he will keep you entertained and he will present to you a Christianity to you that will make your church look like a Six Flags over Jesus. (He will) keep you so entertained, you are never addressed with great issues such as these: Is God working in my life? Am I growing in holiness? Have I truly been born-again?"

Thank God He preserves the remnant."

Jim's response: "It's always interesting to hear from those like yourself who have attended there, and we've had a number of them post comments here. Often we are told by the 'leaders' of these churches that we are not in a position to judge because we have not actually been there, experienced their worship, gotten to know people, or seen the baptisms in person. I'm not quite sure why any of that is necessary in order to judge a tacky marketing strategy, but that's the kind of thing we end up hearing anyway."

Paul Washer - The Cross the Modern Preachers Put in the Back

A MUST LISTEN TO!

This is what the Christian life is all about!

Paul Washer - The Slavery Of Seeking The Praise Of Men

Paul Washer - Submissive Slavery - Romans 1

Todd Friel Exposits a Paul Washer Clip on WOTMR

Part 1



Part 2

Paul Washer - Total Depravity - We Are All Born Evil

"If you did not, in your unconverted state hate God, then the Bible is not true!"

Gospel 101 - Part 9 of 9 - A Gospel To Be Explained

A Gospel To Be Explained

…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… I Corinthians 15:2

The Gospel is everything in Christianity and the Scriptures, but not everything in Christianity or the Scriptures is the Gospel. Physical healing, a sound marriage, and God’s providential care, although founded upon and flowing from the Gospel, are not the Gospel. The Gospel is a very specific message in the Scriptures, and the above text sets it out for us most clearly and concisely. In these simple phrases is found the salvation of the world.

From our text, we learn that the Gospel of Jesus Christ rests upon two great pillars – His death and resurrection. The reference to his burial is important for two reasons. The first is that it was prophesied and fulfilled. The second is that it validates His death and lays the ground work for His resurrection and ascension. A thorough consideration of these two great truths are beyond the scope of this article. For now, we have only one goal, and that is to demonstrate the great need to not only proclaim these truths, but to explain them.

It is the great task of the Christian evangelist to both proclaim as a herald and expound as a scribe. The Scriptures abound with such examples. Philip pointed the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ through his explanation of Isaiah’s prophecies. Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Paul the Apostle met with the Jews of Thessalonica for three consecutive Sabbaths and reasoned with them from the Scriptures, “explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.” Finally, there is the greatest Expositor of them all, our Lord Jesus Christ, who explained God to man in His incarnation, and explained the Gospel to His bewildered disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

We are not only called to proclaim truth, but to explain it to our hearers. We must tell them they have sinned, but we must also explain to them the evil of it and the dire consequences that follow. We must proclaim Christ’s death, but we must also explain why it was necessary and what it accomplished. We must declare His resurrection and ascension, but we must also explain what they mean for our salvation and the government of the universe. We must tell them what He has done, but we must also explain to them what they must do. Proclamations and the words that form them are important, but only to the degree that they are properly defined and applied. Such is the case of the Gospel.

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Part 8 of 9 - A Gospel Handed Down And Delivered

A Gospel Handed Down And Delivered

For I delivered to you...what I also received. I Corinthians 15:3

In the above text, we learn two important truths about the Gospel - it is handed down, and it is to be delivered. When the Apostle Paul writes that he “received” the Gospel, he is making a claim to special revelation. He did not fabricate this message, nor was it borrowed from others. Rather it came to him through an extraordinary revelation of Jesus Christ. In Galatians 1:11-12, Paul describes this experience in greater detail:

For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

There is only one true Gospel. It was born in the heart of God and handed down to the church through the Apostles. These men, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were quite clear regarding the content of their Gospel and its immutability. It was not to be changed or adapted to please the palate of differing cultures or epochs, but was to be held in the highest regard as absolute truth. We who have become recipients and stewards of this Gospel would do well to listen to their admonitions and handle the Gospel with the greatest caution, even fear. Jude exhorts us to contend earnestly for this faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. Paul admonishes us to guard it as an entrusted treasure, and even goes so far as to pronounce a curse upon any man or angel who would adapt the Gospel message to any preconceived notion of culture or religion:

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Each generation of Christians must realize that an "eternal" Gospel has been handed down to them. As stewards, it is our charge to preserve that Gospel without additions, subtractions, or any sort of modification. To alter the Gospel in any way is to damn our own souls, and to hand down a corrupt Gospel to the following generation. For this reason, the Apostle Paul warned young Timothy to take pains with the truths entrusted to him, and promised him that in doing so he would ensure salvation both for himself and for those who heard him.

We, who have received the Gospel, have a fearful obligation to deliver it. This obligation is not only to God, but also to our own generation and the generations to come. Although the Gospel can be corrupted in an instant, it may take the Church years, even centuries to recover it. If Church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that though heretical movements abound, there are few genuine reformations. There is something worse than holding our silence while the lost world runs headlong into hell. It is the crime of preaching to them a watered down, culturally carved, truncated Gospel that allows them to hold to a form of godliness, while denying its power, to profess to know God, while denying Him with their deeds, and to call Jesus “Lord, Lord”, while not doing the Father’s will. Woe to us if we preach not the Gospel, but even greater woe if we do so incorrectly!

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Part 7 of 9 - A Gospel Of First Importance

A Gospel Of First Importance

…as of first importance... I Corinthians 15:3

There is no word or truth of greater importance than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are full of many messages. The least among them is more valuable than the combined wealth of the world and more important than the greatest thoughts ever formed in the mind of man. If then, the very dust of Scripture is more precious than gold, how can we calculate the worth or importance of the Gospel?

Even within the Scripture itself, the Gospel message has no equal. The story of creation, though lined with splendor, bows before the message of the cross. The Law of Moses and the words of the prophets point away from themselves to this singular message of redemption. Even the Second Coming, though full of wonder, stands in the shadows of this one word. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the one great and essential message, the acropolis of the Christian faith, and the foundation of the believer’s hope. There is nothing more important, nothing more useful, and nothing more necessary for the promotion of the glory and kingdom of God!

This being true, it should be our magnificent obsession to comprehend the Gospel. It is an impossible task, but worth every ounce of effort spent, for all the riches of God and every true joy for the believer are found there. It is worth shutting ourselves away from every lesser endeavor and inferior pleasure so that we might sound the depths of God’s grace revealed in this one message. A beautiful illustration of such a passion is found in Job 28:1-9:

Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where they refine gold. Iron is taken from the dust, and copper is smelted from rock. Man puts an end to darkness, and to the farthest limit, he searches out the rock in gloom and deep shadow. He sinks a shaft far from habitation, forgotten by the foot; they hang and swing to and fro far from men. The earth, from it comes food, and underneath it is turned up as fire. Its rocks are the source of sapphires, and its dust contains gold. The path no bird of prey knows, nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it. The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint; he overturns the mountains at the base.

Even in the ancient world of Job, there were men who were willing to push themselves to the farthest limit, to deprive themselves of surface life, to burrow through solid rock in gloom and deep shadow, to risk life and limb, and to leave no stone unturned in their search for the treasures of this earth. How much more should we who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come, be willing to leave off the things of lesser glory to pursue the glories of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why then, is a true passion for the Gospel so scarce among God’s people? First, it is because the Gospel most often preached today is a terribly reduced or truncated version of the original. The Gospel of God cannot be contained in a tract, or summed up in a few spiritual laws. It is good to understand that God has a plan, that we are sinners, and that Christ died and rose again that we might be saved by faith, but it is only the beginning. It is when we search the Scriptures, and discover the meaning of these things that we realize that we are on a journey that will last beyond our lifetime and into a thousand eternities. With each new truth discovered we are more and more captured by the Glory of the Gospel until it consumes our thoughts and governs our will. This exploration into the Gospel is necessary if we are ever to be passionate about it.

A second reason for a lack of passion is that the Gospel is seen by many to be Christianity 101, or the baby step into the faith that is quickly mastered and left behind for deeper things. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Gospel is the “deep thing” of Christianity! Eschatology and the book of Revelation will be mastered at the second coming, but our pursuit of the knowledge of the Gospel will continue on throughout eternity. The greatest of Christians will never master the Gospel, but every true Christian will be mastered by it!

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Part 6 of 9 - A Gospel To Be Held Fast

A Gospel To Be Held Fast

… if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. I Corinthians 15:2

The doctrine of the “Perseverance of the Saints” is one of the most precious truths to the believer who understands it. It is the greatest comfort and encouragement to know that He who began a good work in us will finish it. However, this doctrine has been grossly perverted and has become the chief instrument of giving false assurance to countless individuals who are yet unconverted and still in their sin.

In the above text, the Apostle Paul writes, “…you are saved, IF you hold fast the word…” The word “if” introduces a conditional clause that we must not ignore and we cannot remove. A person is saved “if” he holds fast to the Gospel, but “if” he does not hold fast, he is not saved. This is not a denial of the doctrine of perseverance, but rather an explanation of it. No one who truly believes unto salvation will ever be lost to eternal destruction. The grace and power of God that saved them will also keep them until that final day, but the evidence that they have truly believed is that they continue in the things of God and do not turn away from Him. Though they will still struggle against the flesh and be subject to many failing, the full course of their life will reveal a definite and notable progress in both faith and godliness. Their perseverance does not save them or make them objects of grace, but reveals that they are objects of grace and truly saved by faith. To put it plainly, the proof or validation of genuine conversion is that the one who professes faith in Christ perseveres in that faith and grows in sanctification throughout the full course of his or her life. If a man professes faith in Christ and yet falls away, or makes no progress in godliness, it does not mean that he has lost his salvation; it simply reveals that he was never converted at all.

This truth has tremendous and far-reaching implications for many who profess faith in Christ. How many on the street and in the pew believe that they are “saved” and thoroughly “Christian” because one time they prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come into their hearts? Their lives have never changed, they show no evidence of the grace of God, and yet they stand assured of their salvation because of one decision in their past and their belief that their prayer was truly sincere. No matter how popular such a belief, there are no biblical grounds for it.

It is true that conversion happens at a specific moment in time when men pass from death to life through faith in Jesus Christ. However, biblical assurance that a person has passed from death to life is not based merely upon an examination of the moment of conversion, but rather upon an examination of one’s life from that moment on. In the midst of much carnality, the Apostle Paul did not ask the Corinthians to reevaluate their conversion experience in the past, but to examine their lives in the present. We would do well to follow Paul’s lead in the counseling of supposed converts. They must know and we must teach them that the evidence of a genuine saving work of God in the past is the continuation of that same work until that final day.

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Part 5 of 9 - A Gospel By Which We Are Saved

A Gospel By Which We Are Saved

…by which also you are saved, I Corinthians 15:2

The greatest promise of the Gospel is salvation. Every other promise and every other benefit derived from them pales in comparison to this one thing – that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, and whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. According to I Peter 1:9, salvation is the very outcome or goal of the believer’s faith. It is the end or purpose behind all that Christ has done. It is the true believer’s great longing, and the end toward which he strives. God can give no greater gift and the believer can have no greater hope or motivation than that of final salvation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gift of salvation is even more greatly magnified when we realize what we were before Christ and what we deserved in that state. We were sinners by nature and deed and were corrupt to the point of depravity. We were lawbreakers and criminals without excuse or plea before the bar of God’s justice. We deserved nothing less than eternal condemnation, but now we are saved through the blood of God’s own Son. While we were helpless sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for the ungodly. Through Him, we who were far off have now been brought near. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of His grace.

We have been saved from our sin, reconciled to God, and brought into fellowship with Him as sons! What more could we desire, or what more do we need? Is not the gift of salvation through the blood of God’s own Son enough to fill our hearts to overflowing for an eternity of eternities? Is it not enough to motivate us to live for Him who died? What need do we have of other promises? Will we live for Him more because He promises us not only salvation, but also healing, ease of life, wealth, and honor? What are any of these things compared to the gift of salvation and of knowing Him? Away with those who would seek to coax us to devotion by promising us things other than Jesus Christ. If everyone we have every loved was taken from us, and our body lay rotting on a dung heap, and our name was slandered by friend and enemy alike, we should still find all the devotion we need to love, praise, and serve Him in this one thing – He shed His own blood for our souls. Pure and undefiled religion is fueled by this one holy passion.

Why is it that the promise of eternal salvation alone no longer seems to have as much power to attract men to Christ? Why is modern man more interested in how the Gospel can help him in this present life? First, it is because preachers are no longer preaching about the certainty of judgment and the dangers of hell. When these things are preached biblically and clearly, men begin to see that their greatest need is to be saved from eternal condemnation, and the “more practical” needs of this present age become trivial in comparison. Secondly, we must understand that the great majority of men, on the street and in the pew, are carnal, and carnally minded men cherish this world above the next. They have little interest in the things of God and eternity. Most would sooner attend a conference on self-esteem and self-improvement than listen to one sermon on sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord.

Although it is true that the Gospel can and often does improve one’s station and condition in life, as stewards of the Gospel, we must shun the temptation to attract hearers and congregants with any promise or prop other than Jesus Christ and eternal life. Although it would be beyond radical in this modern age of evangelism, we would do well to cry out to the masses, “Jesus Christ, promises you two things: an eternal salvation in which to hope and a cross on which to die. The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’.”

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Part 4 of 9 - A Gospel In Which We Stand

A Gospel In Which We Stand

...in which also you stand, I Corinthians 15:1

In our text, the Apostle Paul tell us that the Gospel is not only to be received, but it is also the truth upon which the true believer stands. In fact, standing firm on the truth of the Gospel is the evidence that one has truly received the Gospel. James teaches us that true saving faith produces works. Here, the Apostle Paul teaches us that true saving faith produces conviction that governs the will and determines the behavior. The one that truly receives the Gospel, stands upon it, and lives his life in accordance with its truths. In the words of Jesus Christ, the one who hears and receives the Gospel "may be compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.

The Apostle Paul had great reason to hope that at least some of the individuals in the Church at Corinth were true believers because they were in fact standing firm upon the truths of the Gospel. Others who identified themselves with the same Church brought great concern to Paul and thus he admonished them to test or examine themselves to see whether or not they were in the faith. It is one thing to make a profession of Christianity; it is quite another to validate that profession with one's life. A man may say that he has "received the Gospel", but the question remains, "Does he stand upon the Gospel?" The latter is the evidence of the former.

To argue that the reception of the Gospel produces real Gospel conviction is not saying that new Christians will not be immature or that mature Christians will never struggle. Even the most godly among us fight against sin and are fraught with many failures. However, in the midst of the struggle, it is evident that they possess a deep conviction that the Gospel is true, and they demonstrate a determination to stand upon it. Though at times off balanced and even falling, over the general course of their life we see them standing! They stand because God makes them stand. They have been regenerated by the Spirit of God and that same Spirit dwells within them. Though they battle with sin and their fallen flesh, a true conviction leading to righteousness is evident.

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Part 3 of 9 - A Gospel To Be Received

A Gospel To Be Received

…which also you received, I Corinthians 15:1

For men to be saved, the Gospel must be received. Yet, what does it mean to “receive” the Gospel? There is nothing extraordinary about the word “received” in English or biblical Greek, but in the context of the Gospel, it becomes quite extraordinary, and one of the most radical words in Scripture.

First, when two things are contrary or diametrically opposed to one another, to receive the one is to reject the other. Since there is no affinity or friendship between the Gospel and the world, to “receive” the Gospel is to “reject” the world. In this is demonstrated just how radical the act of receiving the Gospel can be. To receive and follow the Gospel call is to reject all that can be seen with the eye and held in the hand, in exchange for what cannot be seen. It is to reject personal autonomy, the right to self-government, in order to enslave oneself to a “messiah” who died two thousand years ago as an enemy of the state and a blasphemer. It is to reject the majority and its views, in order to join oneself to a berated and seemingly insignificant minority called the Church. It is to risk everything in this one and only life in the belief that this impaled prophet is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Secondly, for a man to “receive the Gospel” is for Him to trust exclusively in the person and work of Jesus Christ as the only way of right standing before God. It is a common maxim that to trust in anything exclusively is dangerous, or at best, a very unwise thing to do. A man is considered careless to not have a backup plan, to not have an alternative escape route, to not diversify his investments, or to put all his eggs in the same basket and burn bridges behind him. Yet, this is the very thing that is done by the man who receives Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is exclusive. To truly receive Christ is to throw off every other hope in every other thing, but Christ alone. It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul declares that the Christian is of all men most to be pitied, if Christ is a hoax. To receive the Gospel is not merely to pray a prayer asking Jesus to come into one’s heart, but it is to put away the world and embrace the fullness of the claims of Christ.

To “receive the Gospel” is to open one’s life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is quite different from the plea of contemporary evangelism that directs men to “make Jesus Lord” of their lives. What we must understand is that Jesus IS the Lord of every man. The Scriptures declare that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. He has installed His King upon His holy mountain and scoffs at those who would rebel against Him. God does not call men to make Jesus Lord, but to live in absolute submission to the Lord He has made.

The man who receives the Gospel, and with it, Jesus as Lord, does a very dangerous and sensible thing. It is dangerous in a Narnian sort of way. After all, He is not a tame Lion, and He is certainly not safe. He has the right to ask anything of those who call Him Lord, but He is good, and worthy of joyful trust. Those who do not understand the danger of the Gospel call have heard it only faintly. The same Jesus, who calls the weary to Himself, may also ask of them everything, and send them forth to lose their lives for His sake in this dark and fallen world.

To receive the Gospel and Jesus as Lord is also a sensible thing to do. What could be more reasonable than to follow the omnipotent Creator and Sustainer of the universe, who has loved His people with an eternal love, redeemed them with His own blood, and demonstrated uncompromising commitment to every promise He has made? Even if He were not this way, and all this goodness was not in Him, it would still be most sensible to follow Him for who can resist His will? It is for these reasons and countless more, the Apostle urges us “to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God”, and calls it our spiritual or “reasonable service of worship”.

To “receive the Gospel” is for the world and self to be dethroned and for Christ to become our new epicenter! He becomes the source, the purpose, the goal, and the motivation of all that we are and do. When a man receives the Gospel, his entire life begins to be lived out in a different context, and that context is Christ. Although the outward signs at the moment of true conversion may be less than dramatic, the gradual effects will be monumental. Like a pebble cast in the center of a lake, the ripple effect of the Gospel will eventually reach the full circumference of the believer’s life and touch every shore.

Finally, to “receive the Gospel” is to take it as the very source and sustenance of one’s life. Christ cannot be received as “a part” of one’s life or as an addition to all the other good things that one already possesses without Him. He is not some minor accessory that dresses up our life and makes it better. In receiving the Gospel, He becomes our life. In John 6:53, Jesus taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” In Psalm 34:8, David cries out, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” What could make it clearer? To receive Christ into our lives is for Him to become for us not only a necessary meal that sustains us, but also an exquisite meal in which we delight.

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Gospel 101 - Parts 1 & 2 of 9 - A Gospel To Be Preached

A Gospel For All

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
I Corinthians 15:1-4

A writer or preacher would be hard pressed to produce a better introduction to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than that which is given here by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. In these few lines, he gives us enough truth to live on for a lifetime and to bring us home to glory. Only the Holy Spirit could enable a man to write so much, so clearly, and in so little space.

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel… I Corinthians 15:1

In this simple phrase, we find a truth that must be rediscovered by all of us. The Gospel is not merely an introductory message to Christianity. It is “the” message of Christianity, and it is not only the means of salvation, but also the means of continued sanctification in the life of the most mature believer.

The Apostle had already preached the Gospel to these people! He was their father in the faith! Yet he sees the greatest need to continue teaching the Gospel to them, not only to remind them of its essential ingredients, but also to expand their knowledge of it. At their conversion, they merely began a journey of discovery that would encompass their entire life and carry on through the endless ages of eternity – the discovery of the glories of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As we look through the annals of Christian history, we see men and women of unusual passion for God and His kingdom. We long to be like them, and we wonder how they came to have such enduring fire. I have studied the lives of quite a few of them, and I find one common denominator among them. They all seem to have caught a glimpse of the glory of the Gospel, and its beauty kindled their passion and drove them on. Genuine and enduring passion comes from an ever-increasing, ever-deepening understanding of what God has done for His people in the person and work of Jesus Christ!

Today, there are so many conferences and such, especially for our youth, which are designed to excite the believer’s passion through fellowship, music, eloquent speakers, emotional stories, and impassioned pleas. Yet, often whatever excitement they create quickly vanishes. In the end, little fires have been built in little hearts that burn out in a few days. We have forgotten that genuine, enduring passion is born out of one’s knowledge of the truth, and specifically the truth of the Gospel. The more one comprehends its beauty, the more one will be apprehended by its power. One glance of the Gospel will move the truly regenerate heart to follow. Every greater glimpse will quicken its pace until it is running recklessly toward the prize. Such beauty, the truly Christian heart cannot resist. This is the great need of the day! It is what we have lost—the preaching of the Gospel.

A Gospel To Be Preached

…which I preached to you, I Corinthians 15:1

It seems that for the most part, impassioned preaching has gone out of style. It has been deemed by many to be lacking the refinement and sophistication that are necessary to be effective in this modern era. The passionate preacher proclaiming truth boldly and unapologetically is now considered an obstacle to the post-modern man who prefers a bit more humility and openness to other points of view. The majority argument is that we simply must change the way we preach because it just looks foolish to the world.

Such an attitude toward preaching is proof that we have lost our bearings in the Evangelical community. It is God who has ordained the “foolishness of preaching” to be the instrument of bringing the saving message of the Gospel to the world. That is not to say that preaching should be foolish, illogical, or outlandish, but the standard by which all preaching should be compared is the Scripture and not the contemporary opinions of a fallen and corrupt culture that is wise in its own eyes.

The theory is often put forth that our present culture cannot tolerate the type of preaching that was so effective during the great awakenings and revivals of the past. The preaching of George Whitefield, John Wesley, and other like-minded preachers would be ridiculed, lampooned and laughed to scorn by modern man. Yet, this theory fails to take into account that these same preachers were ridiculed and lampooned by the men of their own day! True Gospel preaching will always be “foolishness” to every culture. Any attempt to remove the offense and make preaching “appropriate” diminishes the power of the Gospel. It also defeats the purpose for which God chose preaching as the means of saving men – so that men’s hope might not rest in refinement, eloquence, or worldly wisdom, but in the power of God.

We live in a culture that is bound in sin like bands of iron. Moral stories, quaint maxims, and life lessons shared from the heart of a beloved pulpiteer have no real power against such darkness. We need preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who know the Scriptures and are enabled by the grace of God to face any culture and cry out, “Thus saith the Lord!”

- HeartCry Missionary Society, Volume 54

Paul Washer - The True Prosperity Gospel

The Gospel And The Vindication Of God’s Glory

“The foundation of our justification — our acquittal, our forgiveness — is not a flimsy sentimentality in God, nor is it a shallow claim of human worth. It is the massive rock of God’s unswerving commitment to uphold the worth of his own glory, to promote the praise of his holy name and to vindicate his righteousness.

The God-centeredness of God is the foundation of his grace to the ungodly. If God were not committed first to vindicate the worth of his own glory, there would be no gospel and no hope, for their would be no glorious God.”

Paul Washer - View On Joel Osteen, Self Esteem, And 40 Day's Of Purpose

You can watch the ENTIRE SERMON HERE.