Sep 19
2
All the religions of this world focus on preparing people to
live in this world. The gospel of Christ focuses on preparing people to live in
the world to come.
-pastor Don Fortner
A TRUE HEART
There are several things I constantly beg from God for this congregation and
for myself. One of them is a true heart. I don’t want to just know some things
about Christ. I want to KNOW Christ. I want to know Christ so that I truly love
Him and trust my soul to Him. I don’t want to just know some good religious
jargon to use in public so people will be impressed with me. I want to be able
to speak from the heart in genuine love for God and love for people. I don’t
want to just know some verses of scripture that I can twist to use for my own
purposes. I want to know how Christ is the true meaning of those verses so that
I see more of Him. I don’t want to just change my behavior so I act more
religious before men. I want God to give me a new heart that believes Christ,
that loves God, and that worships God in Spirit and in truth. I want God to
give you and me a new heart that God loves and that God accepts.
Pastor Frank Tate
Believing On the Lord Jesus
This is what I am hearing. Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, but nowhere in
the New Testament do we find any apostle, prophet, or preacher ever telling a
sinner to accept Jesus as his personal Savior. What we hear them saying is
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The command to sinners was bow and be subject
to the Lordship of Christ. That is, lay down your weapons, surrender, worship,
and adore Him. You come to Him in your true character as a beggar; a lost
undone sinner or you don’t come at all.
Scott Richardson
Welcome — Ambassadors of God!
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
Gospel preachers are God’s ambassadors to you. That is how God the Holy Spirit describes them. It has been our great privilege to hear six faithful ambassadors of God deliver God’s message to us this weekend. Today, we will hear two more.
Divine Authority
The call of the gospel is given by divine authority. That man who is sent of God to preach the gospel is sent with a God given, divine authority, a divine authority which cannot be obtained by any means except the call and gift of God. It is an authority that cannot be obtained from any source other than God himself. That man who is sent of God to preach the gospel stands before his hearers as God’s servant, God’s messenger, with God’s message. Such a man carries “the burden of the Word of the Lord” and speaks to those who hear him in God’s stead, by the power of his Spirit(Matthew 10:40). When God speaks by that man, he strives with men (Genesis 6:3). When men resist the message delivered to them by a man who speaks in the power of God, they resist God the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51-52).
Urgent Responsibility
This divine authority makes the preaching of the gospel a matter of urgent responsibility (Proverbs 1:23-31). Gospel preaching leaves sinners without excuse. If you would obey the gospel call, if you would trust the Lord Jesus Christ, he would save you. That is exactly what we are told in Proverbs chapter one. The true, faithful preaching of the gospel is, therefore, always “a sweet savor of Christ.” To those who believe not it is “a savor of death unto death”. To God’s elect it is “a savor of life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). In either case, the Word of God, sent by God the Holy Ghost through the lips of his servant, never returns void. It always accomplishes the exact purpose for which God sent it (Isaiah 55:11). The labor of the gospel preacher is never labor spent in vain.
A Sincere Call
The call issued to sinners in the preaching of the gospel is a sincere call as well as an authoritative call. Those who despise the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ often attempt to discredit our message by asserting that it is impossible to preach unconditional, electing love and particular redemption and, at the same time, sincerely call all who hear the gospel to repentance and faith in Christ. Nothing is further from the truth. Like Paul of old, God’s servants sincerely call sinners to repentance (Romans 10:1-4). We know that none shall ever come to Christ except the elect. Yet, we also know that all who will come may come, and that all who do come to the Son of God are saved by his grace (Romans 10:9-13).
To those who say, “The doctrines of predestination, election, and limited atonement will dry up a church’s missionary zeal and fervency,” I say, “Come, and see.” There are no people in the world more generous, zealous, and fervent in evangelistic, missionary enterprises than those who love Christ and the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in him.
John Gill described the call, which goes forth in the preaching of the gospel, this way. —- “Christ stands in the gospel-ministry, at the door of men’s hearts, and knocks and calls. Having the key of the house of David, he opens the heart by the power of his grace, and lets himself in. In this way, and by this means, the Spirit and his graces are received. Men are called both to grace and glory by the gospel.”
Eight Stubborn Statements
Here are eight, stubborn, irrefutable statements. They go right to the heart of true Christianity. You will either accept or reject these eight statements. There is no middle ground; and you will find it impossible to be indifferent regarding them. There is no room for compromise on any of these eight points.
1. Either the Bible is in its entirety the holy, inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, or it is in its entirety a lie, by which the souls of men are eternally deceived and damned. If the Bible is not the Word of God, throw it away. But if it is, as it claims to be, God’s Holy Word, we will be wise to pay attention to it. It claims, as such, a total sway over our lives. It must be our only rule of faith and practice.
2. Either God almighty is absolutely sovereign, in total control of all things, at all times, or there is no God. Again, there is no middle ground between these two poles, between God’s absolute, total sovereignty and absolute, total atheism. To speak of a god who is not totally sovereign is utter nonsense. Atheism is far more sensible than Arminianism. If God is, he is sovereign!
3. Either man is totally depraved, utterly dead in trespasses and in sins, or there is nothing wrong with him, and he needs no Saviour. There is no such thing as partial depravity or partial goodness before God. Either we are totally sinful and depraved, or we are totally righteous and good. There is no middle ground.
4. Either God chose to save some of Adam’s fallen race to salvation and eternal life in Christ before the world began, as the Bible says he did, or no salvation is possible for any man. Salvation is God’s prerogative, not man’s. Grace is God’s gift, not man’s choice. If God does not choose to save and choose whom he will save, no sinner can ever be saved.
5. Either the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is altogether and alone the effectual Redeemer and Saviour of his people, or he is a fraud and a failure. Again, there is no middle ground, no room for compromise. Either Christ did what he came to do, or he is a failure. If he is a failure, he is not God, and we have no Saviour.
6. Either we are regenerated and called to life and faith in Christ by the irresistible power and omnipotent grace of God the Holy Ghost, or there is no such thing as salvation. The only hope for a dead sinner is free and sovereign grace, grace that asks for nothing and gives everything, grace that waits for nothing and does everything.
7. Either God’s people are entirely free from the law, as the Scriptures declare us to be, or we are yet under the bondage of the law and entirely obligated to keep it perfectly. There is no such thing as being partially under the law and partially free from it, not in biblical terms. The only way sinners can satisfy, fulfil, and establish the law is by faith in Christ (Romans 3:31).
8. Either every saved sinner shall persevere to the end, being preserved and kept by God’s infallible, immutable grace, or none shall. The perseverance of the saints is demanded by the purpose of God, the purchase of Christ, and the power of the Spirit.
Betrayed with a Kiss
Judas betrayed his Master with A KISS! He came to the Lord with evil in his heart, the price of a compromise in his hand, religious devils at his side, and said, “Hail Master”, as he planted A KISS on the Lord’s cheek!
This is how most apostates and compromisers operate; they betray the Son of God and the Gospel of grace WITH A KISS. They talk of love, humility, morality, and sugar and spice while they sell out to the religious world and betray the sovereign Son of God. And men watch their pretended affection and hear their words, “Hail, Master”, spoken so softly, smoothly, humbly, and sweetly, and they say, “Can such devout people be ENEMIES of the Lord?”
Do not be deceived; sometimes the most devout looking, religious people can be the most hypocritical in the world. Do not be deceived by their kisses. LISTEN TO THEIR GOSPEL! Peter, bearing the sword, had more grace than Judas, who came with a kiss.
Pastor Henry Mahan
Law manifests what is in men–sin!
Grace manifests what is in God–love!
Law demands righteousness from men!
Grace brings righteousness to men!
Law sentences men to death!
Grace brings dead men to life!
Law speaks of what I must do!
Grace tells what Christ has done!
Law gives a knowledge of sin!
Grace puts away sin!
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be.”
Henry Mahan, Pastor
I Will and They Shall
God’s word is full of; “I Will and They Shall”. The man of sin who has proudly set himself on the throne of God reverses the order. Man says, “I will have faith, and God shall save me”. God says, “I will save you, and you shall have faith”. Man says, “I will repent, and God shall forgive me”. God says, “I will forgive you, and you shall repent”. Man says, “I will serve God, and He shall bless me”. God says, “I will bless you, and you shall serve me”. God’s “I WILLS” is His purpose, and God’s “THEY SHALLS” is His performance. What He has purposed, He shall also perform. ~Greg
THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST
Paul said in II Corinthians 10:5 that every thought is to be brought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ. After death, when we no longer have a sin
nature, every thought will be brought into captivity to obedience to Christ.
But that is not what the text says! Every thought is to be brought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ. Any thought I have that runs contrary to
the obedience of Christ being my only righteousness before God is a wrong
thought that is opposed to the Gospel of Christ.
Pastor Todd Nibert
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
It sometimes shocks me how much the world has changed since I was a boy. Our
country has departed from many of the values that used to be the bedrock of
society. Some of those changes have been good but many have not.
However, there are some things that have not changed and never will change. Men
still refuse to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because men still think they
can be good enough to please God. Men still think they know a better way of salvation than God has set forth in His
Word. Men still think they know a better way of worship than God has set forth
in His Word. Men still think they know a better way to govern their lives and
govern society than God has set forth in His Word. “Professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools.” (Rom 1:22) Men are as lost and dead in sin as ever.
It is obvious to me that man’s greatest need
hasn’t changed either. It is of the utmost importance that the church be
focused on preaching Christ. We cannot believe on Christ until we have heard of
Him. (Rom 10:14) We cannot see Christ until He is revealed through preaching.
We cannot follow Christ until He calls us to Himself.
The world certainly has changed but the truth
that Christ is our greatest need has never, and will never change. “The thing
that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which
shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:9)
Pastor Frank Tate