God takes away the creature!

  Diogenes noted the folly of the men of his time--that they undervalued the best things--but overvalued the worst things. Ah, that this were not the sin and shame of professors in these days!
God sometimes strips His people of their nearest and dearest earthly mercies--that they may the more prize, and the better taste--of spiritual and heavenly mercies!
  God takes away uncertain riches--that His people may the more prize certain riches!
God takes away natural strength--that His people may the more prize spiritual strength!
  God takes away the creature--that His people may more prize their Saviour.
Spiritual and heavenly things can alone satisfy the soul. The language of a godly man is this, "Ah, Lord! the good earthly things which I have from You, though they may refresh me--yet they cannot satisfy me without Yourself!"

 

(Thomas Brooks, "A Believer's Last Day, His Best Day")

Quote taken from Grace Gems

RC Sproul on the Church

The church is the most important organization in the world. It is the target of every demonic, hostile attack in the universe. Jesus personally guaranteed that the gates of hell will never prevail against the church. He made no guarantee that the gates of hell would not be unleashed against it, however. —RC Sproul

How To Stop Sinning

Sermon by Clint Archer

Title: How To Stop Sinning

Text: Ephesians 4:22-24

Date: 20 June 2010

Download here

Source: baptistchurchhillcrest.com

Theocracy - Absolution Day

Ever heard of this band? Neither had I till a couple of months ago. They have 2 clear things that make me like them.

1. The music, although falling within the metal genre, is both progressive (i.e they play their instruments and experiment with longer songs and jams) and clear (i.e its not just a big noise, you can always hear what the guy is singing) which is brilliant. Speaking as a muso myself this is great.
2. This is more to the point, they are profoundly biblical and gospel centered. As an example to this I invite you to watch and consider the video below:

A transcript of the lyrics can be found here

Here is an extract from part of the song:

No priest can say I'm worthy

No sacraments or holy laws

can take my sin away

No church can wash my spirit clean

For the scarlet stain that paints my soul to sleep

Runs way too deep

No blessed holy water

Can sanctify me in the eyes of God

The great I AM

But He has made provision

To lift me up and wash me in the blood

Of the spotless Lamb

Lovely stuff and very biblical. Now granted most people I know would probably not listen to this type of music, and me neither as a rule. Nevertheless with solid biblical lyrics, its great music and worth listening to.

The band's site can be found here www.theocracymusic.com/

Also check out the wiki page, there are some free (mostly Christmas) music for download wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocracy

HBC Mission's Conference

All you need is in the download link

However the date for the event is the 27th & 28th of November

Click here to download it

God bless

Sin or no Gospel

Some might correctly think that this is a strange title for a blog post, and possibly it is, however is does the job for setting out the topic of this post.

I am sure that almost every westerner who reads this will have heard of the phrase ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’ Romans 3 vs 23. Here is a typical example of what I mean:

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But there is a problem, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So accept Jesus and pray the following prayer…

Ok, while not deconstructing this entire unbiblical presentation, I want you to focus on the ‘for all have sinned’ part.

This is my contention: any Gospel presentation that makes the (biblical) claim that all have sinned without explaining exactly what:

1. sin is
2. why it is so personal
3. Offensive to the Holy God

Is not a true gospel presentation at all. Why? Because the Gospel demands a response. The bible says that sinners must REPENT and put their FAITH in Jesus. Here is the problem, repent of what? We (Christians) have repented of our personal sins against the Holy God of the universe. But just telling sinners that all have sinned leaves the potential convert without the ability to repent, because he or she doesn’t know what to repent of nor why.

THE SOLUTION

Preach the Law (10 Commandments)

1Jn 3:4  Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

This verse tells us exactly what sin is, namely lawlessness, or as another translation puts it, transgression of the Law. So by telling sinners what sin is (breaking God’s Law) we fulfil half our task, the other half is to make it personal. It is effective and biblical to hold up the Law as a mirror, showing sinners just how dirty they are, show them that they have lied, stolen, committed adultery through lust etc. make it personal.

Then they can understand what sin is, repent of it and be saved.

To God alone be the glory

Just a little quote by one Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“Defend the Bible? I would just as soon defend a lion. Just turn the Bible loose. It will defend itself.”