Church Signs

"To tell the Christ-rejector that God loves him is to cauterize his conscience, as well as to afford him a sense of security in his sins. The fact is, that the love of God, is a truth for the saints only, and to present it to the enemies of God is to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952

Habitual Tardiness

A longtime pet peeve of mine has been the lack of appreciation regarding punctuality, especially as it relates to arriving on time for church services. I'm not talking about the occasional lateness due to some unforeseen circumstance but the habitual practice of being late due to a complete lack of concern for arriving on time to worship with the saints. A lack of punctuality is a clear lack of respect for others, first it does not give "honor" or "preference to one another" (Romans 12:10) and it neither "esteem others better than himself." (Philippians 2:3) including our Lord Jesus Christ, Who promises to honor us with His presence when "two or three are gathered together" (Matthew 18:20 I know it's out of context but you get the point) in His name. But I wonder how many of us who practice such sluggishness on the Lord's Day are always prompt to their jobs or a doctor's appointment and still think they are putting Christ first?

The habitual practice of tardiness often robs us of opportunities because it does not communicate faithfulness or trustworthiness. Consider the missed opportunity to visit with the brethren before the service or class and share in prayer request or the first hymn sung to our Lord, and not to mention the more obvious when visitors arrive who often are never late and the impression it must leave on them when the class or congregation is distracted with a late arrival. For how can one expect to be seen “faithful in much” when they can’t even be “faithful in a very little”? (Luke 16:10) And how can one expect to be trusted if they are seen as unfaithful?

Arriving late is also frustrating, imagine the amount of time the Sunday School teacher or Pastor spends preparing all week to feed the sheep with the Word of God and then one comes in late without even an apology can be very frustrating not only for the Pastor/Teacher but the class/congregation and may prompt resentment towards the offending party who is clearly not communicating a “good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21) attitude in serving the Lord with the brethren and reeks of selfishness and pride.

To continue in a pattern of tardiness is sinful because it expresses a lack of love for others and is just plain rude, and “love is not rude” (1 Corinthians 13:5). If others perceive that we are unloving or rude then our reputation as a Christian will suffer. "A good name is better than precious ointment" (Ecclesiastes 7:1). Our lack of punctuality is neither making a good name for ourselves or a good reputation as a Christian. Now I have heard those who say well “better late than never”; and that may suffice for worldlings, but “better never late” should be the Christian mindset. As Christian we should not be known for always being late; it’s a bad testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ, and it does not honor Him or glorify Him. Punctuality should always characterize the servant of Christ.

What Christians Taught Me On FaceBook

Today the Christian landscape can be very confusing especially if your on facebook, just this week alone I have been taught that I can "give God control", but the Bible says "He does according to His will in the Host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, "What hast Thou done" (Daniel 4:35). I've also been taught that I need to "trust myself", but the Bible says to "lean not unto thine own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5) because my "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:8-10). It also seems that being "happy" is now the greatest virtue a Christian can obtain, but the Bible says "Be ye holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16) I know it's hard to believe but apparently there is "no absolute truth", wait a minute that's an absolute statement. Some Christians are teaching that we are "all children of God" but Jesus said "Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). I've noticed that cussing and drinking have become very popular within some Christian circles but the Bible says "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so" (James 3:10) and that "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1). Christians also seem to think we are all good people, but the Bible says "none is good" (Luke 18:19) and Jesus called us "evil" (Matthew 7:11). Success and self-esteem are popular topics among Christians today as well but the success they speak of is a path to a worldly success not the Joshua 1:8 path and self-esteem is not the solution it's the problem for it is the very essence of unbelief and pride. And the number one thing that Christians promote on facebook more than any other is "judge not" (John 7:1) but the Bible also says to "judge righteous judgment." (John 7:24). So the message I hear coming from Christians today is that "I'm in control, I can do it, do what ever makes me happy, I'm a good person, trust myself and I'll have success and feel good about myself, never make judgments and God will be pleased with me." Folks that's the same message of the world and Christians are now so drunk with this false gospel that they actually hate messages like this one that expose it's lies. "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light" (John 3:20).

Discerning Contemporary Church Slang

1. Wear What You Want / Be Comfortable
What if I feel comfortable in a thong? This kind of talk is usually a dead giveaway for an easy believism gospel, but not always. Actually addressing what one should or shouldn't wear speaks louder than if they had just not mentioned it all. (Matthew 6:31) "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" If Christ doesn't make clothing an issue why are contemporary preachers’s doing it? Also the words "casual" and "Christianity" just seems like an oxymoron to me.

2. Unchurchy Church

Really, an unchurchy church? Going to an unchurchy church is equal to going to an unhospital hospital and getting treatment for an unbroken broke arm. While you’re at the unchurchy church maybe you can get unsaved saved or unbaptized baptized, though it is likely that you will hear the unword word at the unchurchy church. Wake up people for "The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going" (Proverbs 14:15). Is not this kind of language the very thing Paul warns Timothy about in 1 Timothy 3:8 that deacons be "not doubletongued"? So just be warned "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers," (Titus 1:10).

3. We Design Our Worship Services / Practical Dynamic Worship Experience
Oh, your church service isn't designed by God? Be sure that if they are taking credit for it then God's not in it. Any so called church that promotes its music worship service over everything else is a clear sign that it is an emotionally driven church that has elevated their experience over the Word of God. "And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed" (2 Peter 1:18-19). What does practical worship look like as opposed to unpractical worship? How about true worship vs. false worship, or maybe that's too divisive. That's the whole point; they want to make you think that the church down the road just doesn't worship as dynamically as they do, in a word it's nothing short of marketing the church to draw in the most consumers. It's the same thing the retail stores do to get your money, if that doesn't raise any suspicions then you’re just not thinking discriminately. I am always skeptical of church's that only describe worship as the music event, this is dangerously close to what the Jews had done by saying "Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship" rather than in "spirit and in truth", all of life is to be worship of Christ not just the musical/praise aspect of a worship service.

4. Your Best Life
If the words "Best Life" appear anywhere in a church advertisement you can be sure it's not a Biblical church even if they say they are, it's a deception, maybe unknowingly but a deception none the less. The Christian life presented in the Bible is one of self-denial and self-crucifixion (Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34), just read the book of Acts or just read the historical tradition of the eleven apostle’s eventful deaths or John Foxe’s “Book of Martyr’s”. “You’re Best Life Now” message doesn’t sell in a third world country for they have experienced the realities of life; it’s only a western cultural phenomenon. What’s ironic is that these same church’s proudly say they are about being real, how far from being real is the message of “Your Best Life Now”.

5. Connect or Plugged In
Well the first thing most contemporary church's want you to connect is your debt card to their automated online giving and isn't going to church and Sunday School connecting with other believers, or could I just friend them on FaceBook and still be connected? I have found that what contemporary church's really want you to plug-in to are the needed places of service regardless if you have the desire or gifts to serve in the area they have placed you in, this is not just a contemporary church problem but I have found it to be rampant within good church’s as well. Too often I have seen new believers get pushed into areas of church service where they are neither called nor lead with little or no training. Too many times I have seen a "novice" put in the place of leadership where chaos soon becomes the norm. Again I believe these terms to be deceptive talk in order to keep people busy in the church, like a form of control rather than shepherding and leading the flock.

6. Traditional and Contemporary Worship Services
Any church that says they offer two services one traditional and one contemporary is a church that is all ready divided, and a "house divided against itself shall not stand:" (Matthew 12:25)

7. Core Values
This is just a postmodern contemporary church term that means we don't have a doctrinal statement! If you are attending a church that does not have a church doctrinal statement then stop attending that church ASAP, because without a doctrinal statement anything goes. (Titus 1:9) "give instruction in sound doctrine".

8. Life Coach
Again, another postmodern term that simply means someone who wants Senior Pastor Pay without Senior Pastor Responsibilities; you know the guy who likes to give out advice but doesn’t want the blame if it goes bad. People don't need a life coach to guide them through the moral choices in order to win at the game of life, for they are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and need to be born again with sound instruction in Biblical truth for the saved and lost alike both need a pastor who will preach the Word of God to them for "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14).

9. Relevant
What they really mean is culturally relevant or better yet what's popular, not what's Biblical which is always relevant. The problem is what maybe culturally relevant to me could be completely irrelevant to the guy sitting next to me, which would actually make their attempt at relevance irrelevant to some. Cultural relevance is not transcendent and does not sound the same wherever you take it, and must be changed depending on its relevance again this is closely related to consumer marketing. Whereas the Word of God cross’s all cultures, races, generations, traditions and never sounds like "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1) for “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: “ (Psalm 19:7).

10. Missional
Being “missional” is just another word for pragmatism, in other words whatever the church needs to do in order to engage the lost community with a view to winning them to Christ, just as long as it works for our predetermined positive outcome then it should be accepted and implemented. The problem I have with this is when it affects the worship service with worldly concepts, for the church is a gathering of believers who's relationship with God is covenantal by nature and unbelievers have no part with that (at least not yet) and we should in no way adjust our worship or discipleship methods in order to please the unbelieving with hopes of drawing them to Christ, that's God's work for "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44). If we make our worship services look more like a rock concert or a comedy club to win people to Christ we only make our efforts less effective and may actually hinder unbelievers coming to true faith in Christ.

Quote of the Day

"It is distrust of God which lies behind the fleshly and worldly devices now so commonly employed in the churches." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Quote of the Day

"It requires more courage to keep to the old paths than it does to follow after novelties." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

The Chief Trouble

"The chief trouble is that so much that passes for faith today is really only maudlin sentimentality. The faith of Christendom in this twentieth century is mere credulity, and the “god” of many of our churches is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but a mere figment of the imagination. Modern theology has invented a “god” which the finite mind can understand, whose ways are pleasing to the natural man, a “god” who is altogether “such a one as” (Psalm 50:21) those who profess to worship him, a “god” concerning whom there is little or no mystery. But how different the God which the Holy Scriptures reveal! Of Him it is said, His ways are “past finding out” (Romans 11:33)." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Faithfully Press

"O that the modern evangelist would faithfully press upon his unsaved hearers their utter powerlessness to turn unto God of themselves, and their inability to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior until a miracle of Divine grace has been wrought in them. The Lord Jesus (our Exemplar) did not hesitate to plainly say to a promiscuous crowd,

“No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him” (John 6:44).

The Father draws to Christ by the operation of the Spirit. It is written,

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

Believing is necessary, indispensably necessary, before any sinner receives Divine forgiveness. But Scripture is very emphatic in declaring that no sinner can savingly believe apart from the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit. A miracle of grace has to be wrought in his heart before he is capacitated to lay hold of Christ. This must be so, for the human heart is fast closed against Him and will not come to Him that it might have life (John 5:40). The eyes of our understanding are blind, so that we see in Christ no beauty that we should desire Him. It is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness (Romans 10:10), and the heart must first be wooed and won by Christ (through the Spirit’s operations) before it will turn to Him." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Satan's Chloroform

"There are multitudes in Christendom to-day deluded with the idea that a mere historical faith in the Gospel ensures their reaching Heaven: who verily suppose they have “received Christ as their personal Savior” simply because they believe that He died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all those who repudiate their own righteousness and trust in Him. They imagine that if under the influence of religious emotion and the pressing appeals of an evangelist, and assured that “John 3:16 means what it says”, they were persuaded to “become Christians”, that therefore all is now well with them: that having obtained a ticket for Glory they may, like passengers on a train, relax and go to sleep, confident that in due time they shall arrive at their desired destination. By such deceptions Satan chloroforms myriads into Hell. So widespread is this deadly delusion that one who undertakes to expose its sophistry is certain to be regarded by many as a heretic." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Quote of the Day

"The new gospel is all about what we need to do for God in order for us to be happy, not what he has done for us so that we can be holy." —Dr. David Harrell

What a Farce

"The vast majority of the churches are in a sorry state. Those that are out-and-out worldly are at their wits' end to invent new devices for drawing a crowd. Others which still preserve an outward form of godliness provide nothing substantial for the soul; there is little ministering of Christ to the heart and little preaching of 'sound doctrine', without which souls cannot be built up and established in the faith. The great majority of the 'pastors' summon to their aid some professional 'evangelist', who, for two to four weeks, puts on a high-pressure campaign and secures sufficient new 'converts' to take the place of those who have 'lapsed' since he was last with them. What a farce it all is!" —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Excerpt taken from "The Life of Arthur W. Pink" by Iain Murry published 1981 The Banner Of Truth Trust.

That's Not Salvation

"Some people, when they use the word "salvation," understand nothing more by it than deliverance from hell and admittance into heaven. Now, that is not salvation: those two things are the effects of salvation. We are redeemed from hell because we are saved, and we enter heaven because we have been saved beforehand. Our everlasting state is the effect of salvation in this life... What a great word that word "salvation" is! It includes the cleansing of our conscience from all past guilt, the delivery of our soul from all those propensities to evil which now so strongly predominate in us; it takes in, in fact, the undoing of all that Adam did. Salvation is the total restoration of man from his fallen estate; and yet it is something more than that, for God's salvation fixes our standing more secure than it was before we fell. It finds us broken in pieces by the sin of our first parent, defiled, stained, accursed: it first heals our wounds, it removes our diseases, it takes away our curse, it puts our feet upon the rock Christ Jesus, and having thus done, at last it lifts our heads far above all principalities. and powers, to be crowned for ever with Jesus Christ, the King of heaven." —C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Excerpts taken from a sermon title "The Way of Salvation" delivered August 15, 1858, by C. H. Spurgeon

Good Gospel Preaching

Worth Nothing!

"If we add to our Churches by becoming worldly, by taking in persons who have never been born again; if we add to our Churches by accommodating the life of the Christian to the life of the worldling, our increase is worth nothing at all; it is a loss rather than a gain! If we add to our Churches by excitement, by making appeals to the passions rather than by explaining the truth of God to the understanding. If we add to our Churches otherwise than by the power of the Spirit of God making men new creatures in Christ Jesus, the increase is of no worth whatever!" —C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Excerpt taken from a sermon titled "Harvest Joy" preached July 6th, 1890 by C. H. Spurgeon

One Grand Misconception

"Worldy people seem to be well aware that it is only in this life that they will be able to get vent to their worldliness. They quite count upon death putting an end to it all; and this is one of the main reasons for their dread of death, and their dislike even of the thoughts of it.

The character as well as the life of these men is undecided and feeble. They are not decided in their worldliness, and they are not decided in their religion. If they were compelled to choose between their two masters, the probability is that they would prefer the world; for their heart is not in their religion, and religion is not in their heart. Religion is irksome to them; it is a yoke, not a pleasant service. Their consciences would not allow them to throw it off; but it occupies a very small part of their thoughts and affections. They are, in fact, worldly men varnished over with religion; that is all. They are made up of two parts, a dead and a living; the living part is the world, the dead is religion.

These are the ambiguous disciples of our age, who belong to Christ but in name. These are the stony-ground or thorny-ground hearers; men who have a place at our communion tables, who figure at religious committees, who make speeches on religious platforms, yet are, after all, “wells without water,” “trees without root,” stars without either heat or light.

The religion of such is but a half-and-half religion; without depth, or decision, or vigour, or self-sacrifice. It is but a picture or a statue, not a living man.

The conversion of such has been but a half-and-half conversion; it has not gone down to the lowest depths of the man’s nature. I do not say it is a pretence or a hypocrisy; but still, I say it is an unreality. It has been a movement, a shaking, a change, but it has not been a being “begotten of God,” a being “born from above.”

Such a man’s whole religious life is one grand misconception; and every step he takes in it is a blunder, and a stumble, and a snare. Let such a man know that, in his present half-worldly, half-religious condition, he has no real religion at all. It is a fiction, a delusion. It will stand no test of law or gospel, of conscience or of discipline, of time or of eternity. It will go to pieces with the first touch. It is all hollow, and must be begun again, from the very first stone of the foundation.

O worldly formalist, thou wouldst make sure thy hope, and obtain a discipleship that will stand all tests, begin this day at the beginning. Count all the past but loss. Fling away thy vain hopes and self-righteous confidences. Give up thy fond idea of securing both earth and heaven. Go straight to Calvary; there be thou crucified to the world, and the world to thee, by the cross of Christ. Go at once to Him who died and rose again, and drink into his love. One draught, nay, one drop of that love will for ever quench your love of sin, and be the death of that worldliness which threatens to be your eternal ruin." —Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

(HT) Horatius Bonar

Edited from the sermon, Christ and the World, Family Sermons, 1863.

Purpose Driven Jihad

Rick Warren should never be called a preacher of the gospel again! As the father of a child who is lost in the cult of Islam this truly disgust me to no end.

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?" II Cor. 6:14-15

Related Post:
Absolutely Exclusive
Give Me a Break
Purpose Driven Articles
Fantasy Gospel

Quote of the Day

"Hard preaching makes soft people. On the other hand, soft preaching makes hard people". —John MacArthur

10 Things That Make a Lay Person Want to Spit!

After seeing the Hoodlum Pastors short list of things that make a pastor want to cuss, I thought I would make a list of my own that truly makes me want to spit!

10 Things that make a lay person want to spit!

01. Preachers who insist on exalting themselves instead of magnifying Christ, they draw men's attention to them or their church instead of pointing to Christ and His cross.

02. Preachers who fail to rightly divide the Word of Truth and attempt to pass off some self-esteem psycho-babble as biblical preaching.

03. Preachers who talk about being a biblical man but have very little warmth in their speech or actions! They are not sensitive nor tender to the flock of God and are callous in their dealings with growing saints and say hateful things on their blog or facebook for the shock effect.

04. Preachers who think they actually need to promote sex within the church.

05. Preachers who are preoccupied with their image and physical appearance and make a point to boast about their Harley Davidson, you know; the cool dude.

06. Preachers who have a disdain for the word "DOCTRINE".

07. Preachers who start every sentence with "I believe", vs "thus saith the Lord" and always makes a point to use the buzz words. (un-churched, Christ-follower you know the words that don't offend lost sinners)

08. Preachers who proudly flaunt how different their church is from what has gone before and treat Christians from the past (and their hymns) with scorn.

09. Preachers who's hero is Rick Warren or Joel Osteen.

10. Preachers who are always promoting some new thing or novelty that will change my life forever.

Puhleeeezzzzeeee!!!

I guess I got one more in me! Oh feel free to add your own list in the comments.

11. Preachers who want to cuss because of weak and shallow Christians who sit under weak and shallow preaching, now that really makes me want to spit!!!

The Divine Lie?

"This is why much of the seeker friendly stuff is an abomination. Christianity has One drawing card: It is Christ. Social events or promising some sort of fellowship or friendship or this or that or any other thing is not Christianity. The fellowship and the friendliness and everything else must come forth out of Christ. It is Christ that brings you into that fellowship, not the fellowship that brings you into Christ so much. When you start your churches, when you plant your churches, when you preach your Gospel, put Christ before men and let them deal with Him. If they reject Christ, allow them to reject your fellowship. Don’t bring them in gradually. Put Christ before them completely, and at first, and along with the demands. Do it lovingly, do it patiently, do it thoroughly.

When I was a young Christian, I heard that many cults practice what’s called the ‘divine lie’, that they will tell you certain lies if necessary in order to gradually bring you in, so that you will accept the greater [teachings], so the end justifies the means. In many ways, that is what church-growth does, the end justifies the means- ’Well we finally got them there to Christ’. No! Remember this, if you use carnal means to bring carnal men into your church, you’ll have a carnal church and you’ll have to constantly use carnal means to keep them. Start off with Christ from the very beginning. The radical claims of Christ and the radical demands of Christ." —Paul Washer

HT Puritan Fellowship

Direct Variance

"Be ye not unequally yoked together." This applies first to our religious or ecclesiastical connections. How many Christians are members of so-called "churches," where much is going on which they know is at direct variance with the Word of God—either the teaching from the pulpit, the worldly attractions used to draw the ungodly, and the worldly methods employed to finance it or the constant receiving into its membership of those who give no evidence of having been born again. Believers in Christ who remain in such "churches" are dishonoring their Lord. Should they answer: "Practically all the churches are the same, and were we to resign, what could we do? We must go somewhere on Sundays," such language would show they are putting their own interests before the glory of Christ. Better to stay at home and read God's Word, than fellowship that which His Word condemns." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Excerpt taken from an article titled "A Call to Separation" by A. W. Pink