DIE!

Free Grace To You

I just had to post this, I couldn't help myself!

There's some great news concerning http://www.gty.org, at least some of us find this great news. It seems that the ministry of John MacArthur (GRACE TO YOU) is releasing their entire mp3 audio archives of pastor MacArthur for FREE starting next Wednesday, November 5 (the day after the election), Grace to You is to announce a new policy concerning their audio downloads. That's nearly 40 years of preaching and somewhere around 3500 sermons for free. Thank you John MacArthur and Grace To You!

I think I may need a bigger iPod?

(Hat Tip) Between Two Worlds

A Grain of Grace

"Hast thou, my brother, ever learned to distinguish between grace and gifts? For know that they are marvellously dissimilar. A man may be saved who has not a grain of gifts; but no man can be saved who hath no grace... for one grain of grace outweighs a pound of gifts;" —C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Quote of the Day

"To deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a path which, if followed to its logical terminus, is to arrive at blank atheism." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Fully and Beautifully

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." (Hebrews 2:10)

"The text fully and beautifully implies the absolute sovereignty of God. His name is not mentioned, but he is described as one for whom all things exist and by whom all things came into being. He is the origin and the end of all things. This thought is concentrated into the statement, that in accomplishing the salvation of sinners he is the supreme actor, and that the sovereign act of salvation is brought to its accomplishment by the provision of a perfect Saviour. Not the free will of man, not even the voluntary self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ, can conflict with, much less overthrow, the supreme fact that the salvation of men is a sovereign action of God." —E. C. Dargan (1852-1913)

Gifts Without Grace

"Spiritual gifts are for the confirmation of the gospel and the spiritual edification of the church. But gifts do not bring salvation and can be given to those who know nothing of grace in their hearts. So it is incumbent on all who have received spiritual gifts not to look to them as evidences of being truly regenerated, but to spiritual graces. Some have been deceived into thinking they have grace when they only have gifts. So the presence of spiritual gifts can mislead us into thinking that all is well when great apostasy is taking place.

Gifts, without grace, have no influence on the soul and they work only at special times and on special occasions. But grace affects the whole person at all times and in all duties. Grace works holy obedience in the soul. Gifts do not. Gifts are not, and can never be, the measure of our growth in grace..." —John Owen (1616-1683)

Quote taken from "Apostasy from the Gospel" by John Owen, The Banner of Truth Trust; 1992 p. 160

Unfair Grace?

"The overwhelming majority of professing Christians grants that God is sovereign over nature and that He is sovereign over human behavior. The affirmation of divine sovereignty starts to disappear, however, when Christians begin to struggle over the third area in which the Scriptures affirm God's sovereignty--His grace. Somehow the idea that God reserves to Himself eternally and absolutely the right to manifest His saving mercy on some individuals and to withhold it from others is an act we adjudge to be unfair. The apostle Paul anticipated this human reaction to divine sovereignty in salvation when he raised the rhetorical question, "Is there injustice on God's part?" (Rom. 9:14b). Such a question has never been raised about Arminian or semi-Pelagian schemes of salvation. The suggestion of unrighteousness in God comes only in response to the affirmation of the absolute sovereignty of God in His saving choice to elect some and not others."--R.C. Sproul

Are You Experienced?

Over at Extreme Theology Chris Rosebrough is live bloging the Reveal Conference at Willow Creek and has expressed his experience during day two of the worship time, boy this brings back Memories.

"I experienced ear splitting sissy girly oprahfied 7/11 songs and the complete anger that is stirred up whenever a pastor treats worship time as a group therapy session. I experienced the righteous anger that is kindled whenever I hear someone claim that God is speaking to them and they 'share' what God told them as if that is on par with the word of God.

I experienced the sheer frustration and the all engulfing feeling that I am going to crawl out of my skin if I have to listen to another minute of a pastor speaking in sappy therapeutic tones while the keyboardist plays softly in the background." (Read More+)

Quote of the Day

"God does not allow any man to be the absoluite sovereign judge of himself, which would usurp his divine prerogative and put the sinner in the place of God himself." —John Owen (1616-1683)

Horrifying Error

"A great sickness has developed in contemporary evangelical Christianity that is built around self. The emphasis on self image, self esteem, and self worth is nothing more than humanistic worldliness. Selfism has twisted evangelicalism from a God-centered to a man-centered perspective. Salvation is now seen from the viewpoint of what can it do for us? That is a horrifying error." —John MacArthur

Steps of Atheism

"There can be no grace when there is no sovereignty. Deny God's right to choose whom He will and you deny His right to save whom He will. Deny His right to save whom He will, and you deny that salvation is of grace. If salvation is made to hinge on any desert or fitness in man, seen or foreseen, grace is at an end.

One of the controversies of the present day is respecting the will of God as to whether His will or man's is the regulating power in the universe, and the procuring cause of salvation to souls. The supremacy of God's will over individual persons and events is questioned. Things are made to turn on man's will, not on God's. Conversion is made to turn on man's will, not on God's. Man's will, not God's, is to decide what individuals are to enter heaven. Man's pen, and not God's, is to write the names of the saved ones in the Lamb's Book of Life! Much zeal is shown for the freedom of man's will, little jealousy seems to be left for the freedom of God's will. Men insist that it is unjust and tyrannical in God to control their wills, yet see nothing unjust, nothing proud, nothing Satanic in attempting to fetter and direct the will of God. Man, it seems, cannot have his own foolish will gratified, unless the all-wise God will consent to relinquish His!

Such are some of the steps in the march of Atheism. Such are the preparations making in these last days by the wily usurper for dethroning the Eternal Jehovah.

Men may call these speculations. They may condemn them as unprofitable. To the law and to the testimony! Of such speculations, the Bible is full. There man is a helpless worm, and salvation from first to last, is of the Lord. God's will, and not man's, is the law of the universe. If we are to maintain the gospel if we are to hold fast grace if we are to preserve Jehovah's honour we must grasp these truths with no feeble hand. For if there be no such a Being as a Supreme predetermining Jehovah, then the universe will soon be chaos; and if there be no such thing as free electing love. Every minister of Christ may close his lips, and every sinner upon earth sit down in mute despair." —Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

Excerpt taken from "Grace Reigning In Election" by Horatius Bonar

What's Your Name?

By no means would I want to turn this blog into a political blog, but I read an article that was quite interesting on the faith of our candidates for the upcoming election. Obama claims to have "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and to believe in his "redemptive death and resurrection." Despite such affirmations, Obama admits to doubts and uncertainties, discomfort with some aspects of Christianity, and a belief that there are many paths to God and salvation.

It is not my intent to attack the man but the idea or ideals supported by many in this country. First of all, you are not a Christian if you believe in any other way but through Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Lord and of Him alone. You are not a Christian because you were born in the United States of America. You are not a Christian because you were baptized as a child. You are not a Christian because your parents were professing Christians. You are not a Christian because you are a member of a local church, teach Sunday school, or even preach from the pulpit.

If you claim the name Christian, you are professing faith in Jesus Christ. Not of yourself or your choice, but because God did a supernatural work within you. He regenerated you so that you would have faith in Him. So do yourself a favor and don't claim to be a Christian if you don't believe He is the only way to the Father. Simply put, if you claim to be a Christian you are taking the name of Christ and all that encompasses; the Bible is the inspired word of God (God-breathed), we have all sinned and fall short of the Glory of God, Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that none come to the Son lest the Father draw them.

You may say that I can't see your heart, but as Bro. Paul Washer says "I don't have to, I see it in your actions and words."

John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the, truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day."