God is not weak

The following was written in response to something I heard on “Christian radio” this morning that really troubled me.  It is written for the benefit of Christians.  I hope it helps somebody.

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Every human being who is saved—who is a believer in Christ, regenerated/born again, made a new creation in Christ, eternally saved from the holy wrath of a just God—is a miracle!  Absolutely no one is saved because they chose to be saved.  No sinner chooses to be saved, because no sinner WANTS to be saved!  “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

And no non-Christian can blame his/her lostness on someone else, saying “I would be a Christian if it weren’t for (fill-in-the-blank).”  Mohandas Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  And, supposedly—or so the story goes—Gandhi rejected Christianity because of the behavior and attitude of Christians.  In other words, it was Christians who kept Gandhi away from Christianity.

Modern Evangelicalism, in large part, is responsible for this mischaracterization of salvation.  It has created a God who is weak, who can only save if given permission, and can only reach sinners if flawed, fallible and sinful Christians don’t get in the way.  (Liberal, apostate “Christianity,” on the other hand, doesn’t believe there is any need for salvation, having eliminated any concepts of God’s wrath, Judgment or hell.)

But this idea of a God who unable to save unless given permission—and, then, only if people don’t get in His way—is totally wrong.  If you are not a Christian—if you are not a follower of Christ, if you are lost—it is because you are a sinner, because your sins have separated you from God, and in your heart you are in a state of rebellion against the Holy One.  “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).  And people don’t come to Christ because, in their lostness, they are blinded by the devil.  “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world [i.e., the devil] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

My point: Stop lying on God, and stop lying to people!  Stop making God impotent and making human “free” will omnipotent.  “Let God be true though every one were a liar” (Romans 3:4).  In other words, stop listening to lost people (Gandhi and others), and start listening to God (if lost people really knew so much and had so much insight, they wouldn’t be lost!).

Salvation is a miracle, only made possible by the supernatural intervention of God.  Human are powerless to save themselves or others.  Therefore being raised in church won’t make anyone a Christian.  Being raised in a Christian home will not guarantee that one will be a Christian.  Taking your kids out of public school and putting them in Christian schools (or homeschooling them) won’t guarantee they’ll grow up to be Christians.  Using certain evangelistic techniques won’t save anyone (nor will failing to use the right technique cause anyone to remain lost).  None of us can raise the dead or give sight to the blind, and that’s exactly the state of every unbeliever—spiritually dead and blind.  We need God!  He must raise the spiritually dead to life, He must give sight to the spiritually blind.  “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9).  If people are to be saved, God must save them.

When we truly believe this—believe what the Bible says about the lost—it will change how we pray, how we preach, how we share the gospel, how we evangelize.  If people are to be saved, GOD must do it.  But, because God is truly omnipotent, everyone He intends to save WILL be saved!  As I heard one preacher say: “If God goes out for you, He’s coming back with you!”  So, Christian, let’s pray for specific people, that God will save them.  And, as God gives opportunity, let’s share the gospel—the good news about Christ Jesus—knowing that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).  The gospel has power because GOD has power.

Is it mid-July already?

It’s hard to believe that 2011 is halfway done already. Right now I’m enduring a hot, humid July evening at home—hot and humid not only because the heat index was around 100 degrees today, but because our air conditioning system decided to quit working this afternoon. I’ll be calling the repairman first thing in the morning.

It has been a while since I’ve blogged, because it’s been a while since I’ve felt like writing. If you think of it, pray for me and my family as we, like a multitude of others, go through financial difficulties (too much month at the end of the money). In spite of the stresses, I’m grateful for every blessing God sends our way, and I WILL rejoice in Him. Although financial situations change, God never changes, and He remains good toward us.

One of God’s blessings to my family this summer was the Annual Bible Conference sponsored by New Life Fellowship Church of Vernon Hills, IL. This year’s conference—“HIM We Proclaim: The Preeminence of Christ in the Book of Colossians”—was a real blessing to all who attended. The speakers, Pastors Thabiti Anyabwile, Anthony Carter and Reddit Andrews, were powerfully used by God as they delivered His word. Honestly, I think some of these messages quite possibly were among the best examples of biblical preaching that I have ever heard anywhere, by anyone—living or deceased—live or recorded. After hearing the preeminence of Christ expounded from Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, Christ seems more awesome and wonderful to me than ever before. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way.

Although it’s not the same as being there in person, you can hear the recordings of these messages online HERE at the website of New Life Fellowship Church. I encourage you to listen. My suggestion would be to block out an hour or so of undistracted time, have a Bible ready, and prayerfully listen to the word of God.

It was also my privilege to once again lead singing for the Conference. My hunch is that there are very few Reformed Bible Conferences found anywhere on this planet where you can have the opportunity to sing good, ol’, down-home songs from the African-American Christian tradition like this:



Or hear soloists like this:

You will only find this kind of music (along with the powerful and rock-solid proclamation of the word of God) at the New Life Bible Conference. I hope this whets your appetite to consider attending NEXT YEAR.

Oh, and by the way: Registration is FREE.

The Lord willing, I’ll see you next June, here in Illinois.

They received the word with joy

This video is simply amazing: The Kimyal Tribe of Papua, Indonesia celebrating the arrival of the New Testament translated for the first time into the Kimyal language.

This video is also convicting, because I don’t love God’s Word as much as I should.

My heart echoes Tim Challies’ prayer.

“Have mercy on me, O God…”

HT: Tim Challies

“My Song Is Love Unknown”

A wonderful hymn about our Savior’s love:

“My Song Is Love Unknown”



My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne,
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But Oh my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way
And His sweet praises sing,
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

—Samuel Crossman (1623-1683), 1664

HT: Ray Ortlund

“He Decided to Die”

(as sung by LaBarbara Whitehead and the Donald Vails Choraleers)



by Margaret Pleasant Douroux

When Jesus hung on Calvary,
People came from miles to see.
They said, “If you be the Christ,
Come down, and save your life!”
But Jesus, He never answered them,
For He knew that Satan was tempting Him.
If He had come down from the cross,
My soul would still be lost.

He would not come down from the cross just to save Himself;
He decided to die just to save me.

Out in the blogosphere

Justin Taylor recently posted a couple articles to aid us in our biblical and theological study:

“A Primer on Limited (or Definite) Atonement”

“Puzzling Pronouns in the Prophets”

He also recently posted a devotional piece, helping us apply the gospel in our day-to-day lives:

“The Gospel at the Grocery Store”

HT: Justin Taylor

T4G 2010

The main session messages from the Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference that recently concluded in Louisville, Kentucky:

T4G 2010 -- Session 1 -- Mark Dever from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 2 -- R.C. Sproul from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 3 -- Al Mohler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 4 -- Thabiti Anyabwile from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 5 -- John MacArthur from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 6 -- John Piper from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 7 -- Ligon Duncan from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Special Session -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

T4G 2010 -- Session 9 -- C.J. Mahaney from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

The Smaller You Get, the Freer You Will Be

Tullian Tchividjian writes:

Interestingly, the world would have us to believe that the bigger we get and the better we feel about ourselves, the freer we become. This is why so many worship services have been reduced to nothing more than motivational, self-help seminars filled with “you can do it” songs and sermons. But what we find in the gospel is just the opposite. The gospel is good news for losers, not winners. It’s for those who long to be freed from the slavery of believing that all of their significance, meaning, purpose, and security depend on their ability to “become a better you.” The gospel tells us that weakness precedes usefulness—that, in fact, the smaller you get, the freer you will be.

Read the entire article here.

Treating symptoms or applying the cure?

The way to cure any sickness is to attack its cause. Treating the symptoms, although necessary, does nothing to rid the person of the disease.

The universal sickness of mankind is sin. In American society alone, we see sin’s symptoms in family strife, discipline problems in our schools, widespread divorce, homosexuality, abortions, illicit drug use, dangerous neighborhoods and crime of all sorts. I could go on, but you get the idea.

The only cure for our societal sickness—the only cure for sin—is the gospel: the message that “Christ…suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). I’m convinced that the only hope for this country is another Great Awakening brought about through the preaching and dissemination of the gospel.

Is it just me, or does anyone else sense that we evangelicals, in general, spend an inordinate amount of time and energy merely treating the symptoms of our societal sickness, compared to the time and effort we spend in applying the cure?

Neither social and political activism nor compassionate deeds of mercy can take the place or do the work of the gospel.

Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry

I was so very happy to learn that my friend from college days, Ed Copeland, would be speaking at The Gospel Coalition Conference that recently concluded outside Chicago. I was not able to attend, but I’m thankful that modern technology has provided a means for those of us who couldn’t attend to listen and view via the Internet. Here is a video of my friend, the Rev. K. Edward Copeland, pastor of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church of Rockford, IL, speaking on “Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry”, from 2 Timothy 3:1-9.

“The remembrance of them is grievous unto us”

The denomination in which I grew up, in which I was ultimately ordained a minister of the gospel—and which my family and I left about eleven years ago—was more liturgical than the average evangelical church. Although the worship services of each local congregation had its own distinct feel, there was a structure and pattern to worship which let you know you were in one of our churches, no matter the part of the country in which you were.

This was especially true when it came to the observation of the sacraments: the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. For the sacraments, there was a set form, with written prayers and set procedures. The ritual for the Lord’s Supper and Baptism were taken from the old Methodist Episcopal Church from which my former denomination broke rank in the late 18th century. The Methodist Episcopal Church, in turn, borrowed their ritual from the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church from which it came.

After all these years, I still know much of the liturgy by heart, especially the order for the Lord’s Supper. After inviting communicants to the altar rail to partake of communion (in my former denomination, we used to kneel to receive the Lord’s Supper), the minister led the congregation in a prayer of general confession:

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men, we acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word and deed, against thy Divine Majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us. Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life, to the honor and glory of thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today, I was thinking about particular sins I’ve committed, and the thought crossed my mind: “the remembrance of them is grievous unto us.” That’s exactly how I feel. I’m grieved by the things I’ve done. Needless to say, I can’t change the past, nevertheless, I still remember. Even knowing God’s forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ, I find that “forgive and forget” is impossible to do. We can forgive others and receive God’s forgiveness, but the mind still retains its memory. It’s when my mind pulls up the memory of my sins that I’m grieved.

Not only does the memory of my sins grieve me, but the memory humbles me. When I want to lash out with condemnation against someone else, it is the memory of my own sin which either stops me completely or tempers my response. It’s the memory of my own sin which helps me understand fellow sinners, even of the grossest sort. I don’t condone their sin, but I understand that, but for God’s grace, I could do the exact same thing. It is the memory of my own sin which helps me to realize that, apart from Christ, I am a vile sinner deserving eternal condemnation.

Obviously, one can take this kind of thing too far. Nevertheless, I think brief remembrances of our own sins can be a useful corrective against self-righteousness and pride. As awful as abortion is, as shameful as homosexuality of any kind is, I just can’t get as worked up over it as some of my fellow conservative evangelicals. Is abortion a sin? Definitely. Abortion is murder. Is homosexuality a sin? Absolutely. It is an abomination in the sight of God. But the remembrance of my own sins reminds me that I’m not far removed from the homosexual or the one who condones abortion. Homosexuality and abortion are symptoms of a fatal affliction that I also have: sin.

The memory of my own sins informs me that the “pro-choice” individual and the homosexual do not need my hatred and condemnation; they need the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin. They need Jesus like I do.

Evangelical Politicking: A futile exercise

Lance Lewis has a thoughtful post regarding abortion and the recent Presidential election. I encourage you to read it and seriously ponder the issues he raises. In response to his post, I submitted the following response (which I’ve slightly edited for posting here):

After this latest Presidential campaign, I've come to the conclusion that Evangelicals have, to a great extent, been duped by the Republican Party. The Republican Party knows they have the Evangelical vote locked up. All they have to do is talk the pro-life talk, and Evangelicals will vote for them, regardless of whether or not they actually do anything that brings about real change. It is exactly the same situation as that which exists between the Democrat Party and the greater part of the Black community. What has Black loyalty to the Democrat Party done for the Black community? Very little, if anything. That's exactly where the Evangelical community is right now with the Republican Party.

I've also become convinced that Evangelicals have been wrong to focus so intensely on abortion. Abortions are not the problem; abortions are but a symptom of the real problem: the spiritual condition of the United States. We Evangelicals work ourselves into a frenzy about Roe v Wade, when the fact of the matter is, if the gospel we proclaimed was really going out with power (see 1 Corinthians 2:4), Roe v Wade would become a moot point. Few would want an abortion. There would be little demand for abortion. Those who support and promote abortion don't need the animosity and hatred of Evangelicals; they need the gospel. Those who are blinded by Satan don't need to be demonized by us; they need the gospel.

The way to end abortion is not through the exercise of political might. The way to end abortion is through the Spirit-empowered propagation of the gospel. The proof: Remember the powerful effect that the gospel had on 18th century society in England and the American Colonies in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys? Cannot God do the same thing today?

In my opinion, the Evangelical politicking of the past 30 years (since the emergence of the "Moral Majority") has simply been a futile exercise in fighting spiritual battles with carnal weapons (see 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

“What Difference Does the Gospel Make?” Online

Check out the audios from last June’s New Life Fellowship Bible Conference, “What Difference Does the Gospel Make?” with speakers Thabiti Anyabwile, Anthony Carter, host Pastor Louis Love and Stephen Love.

HT: ajcarter and FellowElder

Words of eternal life

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

The news about humanity is not good:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

This is the harsh truth about you and me.

Against this bleak backdrop shines the glorious light of the gospel—the “good news” about which Paul wanted to remind believers: “Christ died for our sins…was buried” and “was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Why is this good news? I believe Mark Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, states the case accurately when he says, “The heart of the gospel message, the whole reason the church exists, is that every one of us has sinned and separated ourselves from God. But God, in his tremendous and incredible love, has taken on flesh in Christ, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross in the place of every sinner who turns and trusts in him. And he calls us now to repent and to believe in him” [Mark Dever, The Message of the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Book, 2005), pp 218-219.].

For people enslaved to sin, alienated from God and under an eternal sentence of death—people like you and me—the gospel is a message of liberation, reconciliation and life eternal. The gospel is the message by which we are saved. Good news, indeed!

Notice, the gospel is “according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). It cannot be found anywhere else. Think of it: If God had not given us his word, we would have never known the gospel, and no one would be saved. This is why we must “hold firmly” to God’s word; our lives depend upon it. Within its pages are “words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

God’s unchanging, powerful word

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you (1 Peter 1:23-25).

We live in a world of rapid change; very few things stay the same. However, there is one thing which never changes: the word of God. The sixty-six books which comprise the Bible are not today being added to; there are no new revelations from God. God has spoken! Neither does anyone have the right to remove (or ignore) any part of the Bible which is already there. In fact, God has given stern warnings against adding to or taking away from his word (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18-19).

According to the apostle Peter, the Bible is “imperishable” (you can’t destroy it), “abiding” (it can stand up under any attack) and it “remains forever” (it is immortal). How do we know this is so? Because God’s word is as eternal as God is. The Bible lasts because God lasts. The Bible is forever relevant because God is eternally relevant.

Not only is the Bible unchanging, but it is a living book, alive with God’s power and authority, through the Holy Spirit. How much power? Enough power to raise dead sinners to life.

Without Christ Jesus, every human being is spiritually dead, alienated from God and lost without hope (Luke 15; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12; 4:18; Colossians 1:21; 2:13). Dead people can’t raise themselves. It is only through the word of God that people are born again and given spiritual life. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Without the Bible, absolutely no one can be saved. Through the preaching of the good news about Jesus, dead sinners live!

Dear reader, have you heard and believed the good news about Jesus which the Bible declares? Have you experienced the life-giving power of God’s ever-living word? Do you daily depend upon its relevant and trustworthy guidance?

Are you saved?

Christians should be deeply concerned for the lost—those who are outside of Christ, who have no saving knowledge of him. Often, when we think about the lost, we think of those outside the visible church, those who do not confess Jesus as Lord, those who may be agnostics or atheists, or those who may embrace another religion. When we think of the lost, we think of those who have immersed themselves in a sinful lifestyle: drug addicts, drunkards, prostitutes, gang members, serial rapists and pedophiles.

True enough, the category of “the lost” encompasses all those groups, but do we ever think of “good” people as being lost? Do we ever consider that some who are in the visible church, who have made public profession of the Christian faith, who believe in God and in Jesus Christ, could also possibly be lost?

The fact of the matter is, one can be in a church and active in that church, and still be as lost as can be. You can lead a “clean” life—don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t do drugs, don’t cuss, don’t engage in sex outside of marriage, etc.—and still be eternally lost. A person can believe in God, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, believe that he died on the cross and arose from the dead, and still die in his sins and spend eternity in hell.

How do I know? Because I was just that sort of person.

I was raised in the church. I never knew what it was like to stay home on Sunday morning. Unless I was really sick (you know—couldn’t move, confined-to-bed sick), I was in church on Sunday morning. That was how I was raised.

I not only went to church, I believed everything I was told I should believe. I’ve never struggled with believing the Bible, never had any doubts about it being the word of God. That’s what I was taught. More than that, my great-grandmother—“Grandma”—said the Bible was true, and if Grandma said it was true, that was good enough for me. When it came to accepting Christian doctrine, I’ve never been an unbeliever.

When it came to lifestyle, I grew up in a home where there was no drinking, and so I never picked up a taste for alcohol. To this day, I don’t drink. I never did drugs, I wasn’t sexually promiscuous, I’ve never smoked, I didn’t hang out with the “wild” crowd; I was just a good “church boy.”

But, I wasn’t saved.

Good church boy, but not saved. Didn’t drink, smoke, dip nor chew, but I wasn’t saved, either. I was in church every Sunday—never missed a week—but didn’t know the Savior. I believed the Bible, knew about the Bible and knew about God, but didn’t know God.

And that’s exactly the situation with untold multitudes today.

Some folks may be good people, relatively speaking—that is to say, compared to other people (compared to God no one—absolutely no one—is good, but compared to some others, these people are good)—but they don’t know God. Some folks give to charitable causes, are upstanding citizens in their communities, members of churches, civic leaders and in positions of trust and responsibility, but they are lost. They are lost because they don’t know God through Jesus Christ. They are lost because they are estranged from the household of faith, without Christ and, therefore, without hope. They are lost because they’ve never faced up to the fact of their utter sinfulness and their total helplessness and hopelessness outside of Christ. They’ve never come to realize that “all [their] righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6) in the sight of holy God, that no matter how much charitable work they do, no matter how many hours they give to community service, no matter how many Sundays a year they are in church, they are lost, under an everlasting sentence of condemnation and in desperate need of salvation. Salvation from what? Salvation from the wrath of God that is to come upon this world because of human sin.

I am so grateful—eternally grateful—for God’s sovereign work in bringing sinners to himself. You see, I grew up in a traditional church where the gospel wasn’t preached clearly or consistently. No one in church ever inquired about my soul. No one in church shared the gospel with me. I knew Bible stories and certain facts about the Bible, but had no personal knowledge of the gospel. No one at church ever explained the gospel to me. No one showed me that my soul was in peril. Why? First of all, I’m convinced, because very few people in my church knew the gospel. That’s the great travesty within “mainline” Christianity. But another reason no one showed concern for my soul was because I was a good “church boy.” I wasn’t guilty of any of any so-called “big” sins. I went to church. I stayed out of trouble. At the age of eight, I even joined the church, making a public profession of Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and was baptized. But, if you ask me now, I’ll tell you I wasn’t saved. No change had occurred in my soul. I had no love for Jesus Christ, and no love for God and his word.

I believe I could have comfortably remained in this state for the rest of my life: looking and acting on the outside like a Christian, but inwardly lost, unsaved and devoid of a true knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. The late E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) described this state as being “horizontally converted, but not vertically…outwardly in, but not inwardly in…a cancelled-out person, neither here nor there” (E. Stanley Jones, A Song of Ascents: A Spiritual Autobiography [Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1968], p. 27). But, blessed be God, when I was sixteen years old, God sent his word to me in the form of a gospel booklet. I read it and, for the first time in my life, understood that Jesus Christ, on the cross, took my place, bore my sin, endured the Father’s wrath that I justly deserved so that, through faith in him, I could receive forgiveness of sins and bear his righteousness. “For our sake [the Father] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

What about you, dear reader? Are you saved? Do you know it?

Are you trusting in the finished work of Christ alone for your salvation, or do you think that, somehow, you’re good enough to earn your way to heaven? My friend, you’re not good enough. Not only are immoral sinners in hell, moral sinners are there, too. Not only are low-life sinners in hell, but respectable sinners are there, too. Not only are atheistic sinners in hell, but so are religious sinners. It doesn’t matter: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). That includes me; that even includes you. Because we’ve sinned, we are guilty and under the sentence of eternal death, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20).

There is only one remedy: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Listen to the voice of God—“he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Obey God’s command: “This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ…” (1 John 3:23).

When it comes to your eternal soul, don’t rest complacent. Forget about the approval of men and women. What does God think of you? What about your sin? How does your soul stand with God? Don’t ignore the question, because God won’t ignore your sin. Are you saved? Are you, truly, saved? God says, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22).

Thankfully, God has made saving provision through his Son—the Lord Jesus Christ—available to all who will believe. Will you trust Christ?

Dear reader, the Lord Jesus is everything to me. That’s why I commend my precious Savior to you.

To preachers: Know what you’re preaching about, or sit down

Here’s something for preachers…and any professing Christian who would tell others of Christ. I found it while browsing blogs just a while ago. It is a quote from Charles Spurgeon:

“A man ought to know what he is preaching about, or else let him sit down. If I had any doubt about the matters I preach from this pulpit, I should be ashamed to remain the pastor of this church; but I preach what I do know, and testify what I have seen. If I am mistaken, I am heartily and intensely mistaken; and I risk my soul and all its eternal interests upon the truth of what I preach. If the gospel which I preach does not save me, I shall never be saved, for what I proclaim to others is my own personal ground of trust. I have no private lifeboat; the ark to which I invite others holds myself and all I have.”

—Charles Spurgeon, The Soul Winner, p. 173

(HT: Justin Buzzard)

Piper on “Prosperity Preaching”

Dr. John Piper writes on “Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful and Deadly”. If you’ve been listening to and ingesting “prosperity” teaching, the teaching that God promises material and financial prosperity for those that have “faith” and “sow their seed”, then you need to read this.

The reason I’m especially exercised about “prosperity” teaching and preaching is because I am convinced it is a deadly cancer, a spiritual disease that happens to be growing unchecked within the Black Church. “Prosperity” has virtually overthrown the Gospel in many churches and ministries, so much so that I believe souls are in eternal danger. Remember, someone who is financially broke and sick can still get to heaven; but you won’t get to heaven without the Gospel:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Remember, also, this warning from God through His apostle:

“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:3-10).