God's Sovereign Grace

I've recently been reading John MacArthur's book, "The Gospel According To The Apostles" and came across a great section on Irresistible Grace that I thought I'd share with you. Pastor MacArthur does a great job of breaking down and showing how salvation is through God alone and we can effect none of it. He states:

"Don't misunderstand; we are not idle in the process. Nor does saving grace force people to believe against their will. That is not what irresistible grace means. Grace is not coercion. But by transforming the heart, grace makes the believer wholly willing to trust and obey.

Scripture makes clear that every aspect of grace is God's sovereign work. He foreknows and foreordains the elect (Rom. 8:29), calls the sinner to Himself (Rom. 8:30), draws the soul to Christ (John 6:44), accomplishes the new birth (John 1:13; James 1:18), grants repentance (Acts 11:18), and faith (Rom. 12:3; Acts 18:27), justifies the believer (Rom. 3:24, 8:30), makes the redeemed holy (Eph. 2:10), and finally glorifies them (Rom. 8:30). In no stage of the process is grace thwarted by human failure, dependent on human merit, or subjugated to human effort. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:30-32). That's Grace.

Many people struggle with the concept of sovereign grace, but if God is not sovereign in the exercise of His grace, then it is not grace at all. If God's purposes were dependent on some self-generated response of faith or on human merit, then God Himself would not be sovereign, and salvation would not be wholly His work. If that were the case, the redeemed would have something to boast about, and grace wouldn't be grace (Rom. 3:27; Eph. 2:9)."

Speaking about being saved by grace, MacArthur continues by looking at God's actions in Ephesians 1: "Paul's central point was God's sovereignty in graciously saving the elect. He wrote that God chose us (v.4), predestined us (v.5), guaranteed our adoption (v.5), bestowed on us His grace (v.6), redeemed us (v.7), forgave us (v.7), lavished riches of grace on us (v.8), made known to us His will (v.9), obtained an inheritance for us (v.11), guaranteed that we would glorify Him (vv.11-12), saved us (v.13), and sealed us with the Spirit (vv.13-14). In short, He "has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (v.3). All of this was the work of His sovereign grace, performed not because of any good in us, but simply "according to the kind intention of His will" (v.5,cf. v.9) and "according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (v.11)."

Wow! What an amazing God we serve. God bless.

Scriptural Response To False Teachers

I've been reading Walter Martins book, "Kingdom of the Occult." It is absolutely amazing to me how many cults have used the name of Jesus but twisted it to fit their own ideologies. There have been so many of these cults throughout the centuries its no wonder so many people are confused as to what to believe. Here are just a few of them:

• The Ancient Magick Jesus


• The Mystical Kabbalist Jesus


• The Jupiter and Mars Jesus


• The Full Moon Jesus


• The Masonic Jesus


• The Great White Brotherhood Jesus


• The Sleeping Prophet Jesus

And there are dozens more. I'm not going to get into them now or what they all believed. Just suffice it to say that the Jesus they believed in was not at all the Jesus of the Bible.

We as a church need to do a much better job at teaching the truth of God's word to people so they know who the real Jesus Christ is and why He came. So what should our response be when we come across the doctrines of false teachers or false religions?

Our response should be Scriptural.

Jesus Christ, in the true essence of His being, cannot be changed by man's whimsical or capricious desires. The doctrine of Christ's immutability, which refutes all of man's changes to his nature, is clearly laid out in Hebrews 1:8-12

But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

10 And,

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”

God, the Father, addressed these statements to Jesus Christ, His Son. He quoted Psalm 102:25-27 directly applying these words to His Son. He was saying that Jesus created the heavens and the earth, He remains, He is the same and He will never fail. These facts, coupled with Hebrews 12:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever," give ample support to the immutability of Christ's nature.

When those within the cults, the occult or any false religion reinterpret Jesus, they directly contradict Scripture.

"A Christian who understands Christology, as grounded in the new Testament texts, should have no difficulty exposing the errors of man's twisted Jesus. There is only one true Jesus, so any "other Jesus" must be labeled false. (Galatians 1:6-9). In crafting their corrupted image of Him, these false teachers betray themselves and reveal that they know nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ." - Walter Martin

Although Christians differ on many lesser doctrines there are a few core doctrines that one must absolutely believe if he considers himself to be a follower of Jesus Christ:

1. There is only one God who exists and there are no others.


2. Jesus Christ has always existed from eternity past and always will exist.


3. Jesus Christ is God. He is the second person of the Trinity, wholly co-equal, co-substantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit


4. He became God incarnate on Earth through the miraculous conception of the virgin Mary and was declared Lord and Christ at His birth.


5. Jesus is the Christ, and no others can be "a Christ." He lived a sinless life. He vicariously atoned for our sins through His death upon the Cross. He rose from the dead in the same body as was crucified, yet it rose as a glorified immortal body. He ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the glory of God. He will personally return for His Church in the same manner in which He left.

The Bible explicitly teaches that no gods exist except the true and living God. Deuteronomy 6:4 states, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the LORD is one!" Isaiah added that no God existed before or after Him, "Before Me there was not God formed, nor shall there be after Me." (43:10). The psalmist expressed the same doctrine in Psalm 86:10, "You alone are God." Since occultists and false teachers often portray Jesus as one among many gods, then we can rest assured in the biblical testimony that there is only one God.

(Taken from Walter Martin's book, Kingdom of the Occult)

What is True Saving Faith

So you want to be a Christian? Maybe you feel you'd just like to give this Jesus thing a try and see if its for you. After all these "christians" seem to be having all kinds of fun in their big churches and their sure does seem to be a lot of money floating around. So, you think, maybe this Christianity stuff won't be to bad. It looks easy and even fun. Right? Wrong.

If you want to be a Christian. A true Christian. Not like the false teachers you see no TV. I'm talking about a real true born again believer, you must:
"Transfer the ownership of all that you are and all that you have to all that He is." - Steve Lawson

What does this mean?

It means, "your life is no longer your life, it is His life. Your time is no longer your time, it is His time. Your possessions are no longer your possessions they are His possessions. Your future is no longer your future, it is His future for you. Your treasure is no longer your treasure, it is His treasure."

You cannot buy these terms of peace with your money because you don't have enough money. Instead, it is purchased with the total complete surrender of your life to Christ." -- Steve Lawson

This is what true Christianity is all about. Are you ready?

Why Abortion Is Always The Wrong Choice!

Here is a great testimony from Rebecca Kiessling a woman conceived in rape. But praise God her birth mother was unable to get an abortion and so now Rebecca is able to be an advocate for Pro-Life and the saving of the unborn. See the video below as she gives a great and moving testimony.

NOTE: If you receive an error message while trying to view the video, double click on it and you can watch it from YouTube.

The Bible - The Mind of God

If you've never read the Bible, you really need to. Did you ever wonder what's in the Bible. If you'd like to know, just read it. The video below gives a great 2 minute briefing as to what is contained in the Bible.

The Sufficiency of Christ

TurningPoint Community Church

BFG Lesson

Colossians 2:8-15
6/20/2010

Prepared by Robert Moritz

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.


v.8 - "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."

I like the way this verse reads in the New King James version as it says, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men..."

Paul starts off this section of Scripture with a warning – the word BEWARE.

The word “beware” means to “Look out for” or to “be on guard against.” But what is Paul warning the Colossians to guard themselves against? “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit…”

Now that leads us to ask, What does he mean by “cheat?” The word cheat here means to take something from someone while they are unaware.

In other words they have trusted you with their life, their possessions, their reputation, whatever, and you go behind their back and take it for yourself or deliberately ruin their reputation.

Maybe they trust you with their money and then you tell them it is safe and properly invested. Then you turn around and take a vacation with their savings – can anyone say Bernie Madoff?? He cheated people out of billions of dollars.

Unfortunately, this happens all too often under the guise of Christianity too. This past week a friend of mine posted a video on FB, which I reposted, showing some false teachers from the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel fleecing their gullible parishioners out of all their hard earned money.

Now you may ask, “well why is that wrong? Aren’t we supposed to give cheerfully to the Lord’s work?” And of course the answer is yes sure we are.

But the problem here is motive. Remember, God looks at the motive of our hearts before He takes into account our actions. These people were not giving to help the poor or to further Gods kingdom work here on earth, they were giving expecting to received greater financial gain through their good deeds. Do you think God will bless this? Not likely.

These people were being fleeced out of their money to make these false teachers rich. Two very sad things about this:

1) These people actually think this is what God wants, that He will bless this and that they will go to Heaven when they die. Unfortunately these poor deceived people are being led down the broad path to destruction.
2) Is the damage this kind of foolishness does to the name of Christ. The lost world watches this stuff and wrongly concludes that this is what Christianity is all about and they decide they want no part of that nonsense. And who could blame them? Then when they do hear the real Gospel truth they just reject it out of hand believing they have seen that Jesus thing and it’s a bunch of wacko’s giving all their money to a couple of rich preachers.

Well, moving on in v.8, Paul also tells the Colossians to beware of philosophies of the world that are according to the traditions of men and the basic principles of this world and not according to Christ. (NKJ)

If you recall in our introductory lesson I mentioned that not only was Colossea influenced by the Gnostics who taught an empty philosophy of having a supposed “higher” knowledge to attain salvation, but hey also had quite a large Jewish population and their Christian faith was becoming intertwined with Rabbinical law.

John MacArthur says, “Far from being advanced profound knowledge, the false teachers beliefs were simplistic and immature like all the rest of the speculations, ideologies, philosophies and psychology the fallen satanic and human system invents.”

But Paul is saying to the Colossians that they don't need any of this external stuff. That they don't need any of these Jewish ceremonies or rituals. He's saying that Christ is sufficient!

v.9 – “For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (ESV)

Basically here Paul just reiterates what he stated back in Chap 1:19 where he said, “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

Isn’t it neat how Paul constantly brings his readers back to Christ? By this one verse alone there’s no mistaking that Jesus is God.

Look at what its saying here – ‘In Christ the “whole Fullness” of deity’ – You can’t get much more 100% than that.
- Does what? Dwells – Dwells how? Bodily – Meaning in the very body, the very person of Christ. Jesus Is God!!! That’s the message Paul is trying to convey here.

This is a very effective answer to the various forms of Gnosticism that were developing in Paul’s day that denied the Lordship of Jesus.

Its also an effective answer to the many cults of our day that also deny the deity of Christ – (the JW, Mormons, Christian Science) just to name a few.

One writer states, “This verse contains 2 distinct assertions: 1) That the fullness of the Godhead eternally dwells in Christ and 2) That the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, bodily; In the flesh.

Some of the cults I just mentioned will even admit that some form of divinity did dwell in Jesus. Or that He was a lesser type of God. But with this one verse Paul completely and utterly destroys that argument. This verse is identifying all the fullness of the Godhead as being in Christ, in his manhood, in His person.

V. 10 – "And you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority."

So here we see Paul changing course a little bit – from God to man. He goes from talking about the Godhead dwelling fully in Christ proving that Christ is God, to showing how believers are filled in Him and how he is the Head over all rule and authority.

What Paul is doing here is trying to impress upon his readers that all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as the perfect standing they have in him.

Of course this does not mean that we as believers are indwelt by all the fullness of the Godhead. The only one for whom that will ever be true is Christ alone.

It also does not mean that just because we are filled in Him that we will never sin again. Unfortunately in this world the old sin nature is alive and well.

What this verse does teach though is that the believer has in Christ all that is needed for life and Godliness.

Spurgeon gives a good definition of our completeness in Christ. He says we are:

1) Complete without the aid of Jewish ceremony
2) Complete without the help of philosophy
3) Complete without the inventions of superstitions
4) Complete without human merit.

Paul then goes on to mention that this ONE in whom we are complete is also the Head of all principality and power.

Remember back when we were studying 1John and I discussed at length what Gnosticism was? I said that they believed you had to attain a higher form of consciousness in order to be saved. And how they denied the humanity of Jesus because they believed and were teaching that all flesh was evil, therefore God could never take on human form?

Well another thing the Gnostics were caught up in was the subject of angels. Paul mentions this later in this chapter in v. 18. Now Dustin is going to be teaching on this section next week and I don’t want to steal his thunder but I just want to take a look at this one verse for a minute.

So looking at verse 18 Paul says, “Let no one keep defrauding you...” See, people want to attack the truth, the simplicity in Christ. They want to attack it with philosophy. They want to attack it with legalism. And they want to attack it with mysticism.

And there are those who get involved in worshiping angels. This stuff goes on even today. Roman Catholicism has been involved in that, in fact there is a whole section in their theology on the veneration of angels. Somehow you can transcend this life and touch the throne of God by connecting with angels.

John MacArthur speaks of a Charismatic woman who said that their plane was wobbling coming into Chicago one night and she looked out the window and there was a big angel holding up one wing. And so this makes her somehow transcendent. This is a woman who’s got a mystical experience. This stuff can be very intimidating to us poor people who are counting on nothing but Christ. He mentions another woman who once said to him, "I don’t really care what the Bible says, I just know what Jesus told me.” Boy, that’s a bizarre statement. You don’t care what the Bible says, you know what Jesus told you? The whole Bible is about nothing else. It lives and breaths Christ!

Evangelicalism is filled with people being defrauded by false visions. Also he says in verse 18, “these people become puffed up without reason by their sensuous mind.” You get proud. And if you ever watch these Charismatic preachers on TV its hard to miss their pride. I mean they are just bubbling over with it. They are full of self importance. They would have to think that they are important if God is speaking to them every day and Jesus stops in and says hello all the time.

I think in some ways, and I’m not trying to pick on people, but I watch these televangelists and I think if there’s anything about them that is hard for me to accept, it is their pride. It’s just over the top sense of importance, self-importance. I mean, you must think you’re pretty important if God talks to you just about every day. Gives you visions, revelations, sends angels to do all these things. All of a sudden Christ isn’t the issue anymore, you are, with all your visions and all your mystical experiences. You cannot exalt Christ and you at the same time, it doesn’t work.

So watch those who want to exalt mystical supposed supernatural experiences that are nothing more than the imaginations of their own mind, designed in many cases to manipulate people into thinking they are some great ones from God and thereby making them, in many cases, wealthy.

We must remember that Christ is head over all the angelic beings, and it would be ridiculous to be occupied with angels when we can have the Creator of angels as the object of our affections and enjoy communion with Him.

v.11 - "In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,"

Here Paul talks about circumcision which the Judaizers were trying to say had to be done, physically, in order for you to be accepted by Christ. In other words they were adding to salvation by grace alone. Paul however, is talking about a spiritual circumcision. One made without hands.

Spiritually, it signified death to the flesh, or a putting aside of the evil, corrupt unregenerate nature of man. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, new things have come." This is the kind of circumcision Paul is referring to.

If you are a true believer in Christ you have been circumcised spiritually, you have been made a new creation and this is true of everyone who has put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.

When Paul mentions "the circumcision of Christ" he is referring to His death on the cross of Calvary. That when Jesus died, we as believers also died - to sin, to the law and to self.

v.12 – "Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

Paul now turns from circumcision to baptism. Just as circumcision speaks of death to the flesh, baptism speaks of the burial of the old self. Being buried with Christ in His death. This of course happens spiritually when we are first saved. But we then express it publicly by going into the baptismal waters.

Baptism represents the burial of all that we were as children of Adam. In baptism we are acknowledging that nothing in ourselves could ever please God, and so we are putting the flesh out of God's sight forever. But it doesn't end there. The great news is that we have also risen with Him to walk in newness of life.

V.13 - "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,"

Here Paul is telling the Colossians pretty much the same thing he told the Ephesians that you were dead in your trespasses. Turn to Eph 2 - Read 1-3 Of course the death Paul is talking about here is not physical death but spiritual death. Spurgeon puts it this way:

"The kind of death here spoken of is spiritual death,—death as to higher things than can be grasped by the hand, or seen with the eye, or comprehended by the natural mind. Only the spiritual man knows what spiritual things are, for they have to be spiritually discerned. We cannot teach spiritual things to our fellow-men, because, until they are born again, born from above, they do not possess the faculty with which they can grasp spiritual things. Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"—and therefore can only lay hold of the things that are fleshly;—"and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and until a man is born of the Spirit, he is without the faculty of understanding and enjoying spiritual things. As far as spiritual things are concerned, man's understanding is dead. He can comprehend the highest and most wonderful of sciences, but he cannot,—or, what is tantamount to it, he will not—understand the things of God."

So we as believers were all once spiritually dead and all once walked according to the flesh but now, as we saw earlier we have all, as believers, but on a new self and put off the old. We have become new creatures in Christ.

But Paul tells the Colossians as well at the Ephesians that before we were saved and made alive in Christ, we were all dead in our trespasses and sins. This means that because of their sins, they were spiritually dead toward God. It does not mean that their spirits were dead, but simply that there was no motion in their spirits toward God and there was nothing they could do to win God's favor.

v.14 - "by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."

In v. 14 Paul then tells the Colossians that God cancelled the record of our debt by nailing it to the cross. Meaning that when He nailed His son to the cross, the believers sin debt was paid in full.

The legal demands mentioned here refers to not only the 10 commandments but also all the Jewish ceremonial laws given to Israel. In the ceremonial law, there were all kinds of commandments with regard to holy days, foods, and other religious rituals. These were all a part of the prescribed religion of the Jews. They pointed forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. They were shadows of His Person and His work.

In His death on the cross, He took all this out of the way, nailing it to the cross and canceling it as a bill is canceled when the debt is paid. As one theologian put it, “By the death of Christ on the cross, the law which condemned men lost its penal authority, inasmuch as Christ by His death endured for man the curse of the law and became the end of the law.”

“The law is not dead, but we have died to the law.”

V. 15 – "He disarmed the rulers and authorities [2] and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."

This verse talks about Jesus’ death being, not defeat, but victory and in so being He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame.

Just think what that must have been like. Here Satan and his demons think they have humiliated and killed the Son of God. And then all of a sudden He arises from the dead and ascends into heaven and all authority is given to Him.

His death, burial and resurrection and ascension were a glorious triumph over all the hosts of hell and of Satan. As He passed up through the atmosphere on His way back to Heaven, He passed right through the very domain of the one who is the prince of the power of the air.

Conclusion

Without a doubt the Gospel is woven all throughout this epistle. And what is the Christian Gospel? Listen to the words of John MacArthur as he beautifully captures the essence of this letter to the Colossians.

“The Christian Gospel is simply this: All the answers you need for time and eternity are in Christ. All the answers for your soul, all the answers for your sin, all the answers for your hope for the life to come, they're all in Christ and only in Christ. There is no other authority in the Bible, there is no other Savior than Jesus Christ and you will find everything you could ever desire or need in Him. That's why, again going back to Colossians 2 and verse 10, "In Him you have been made complete."

We often think today that Christ is a part of our lives. He's maybe an important part but not all. We need Christ plus philosophy...we need Christ plus psychology...we need Christ plus ritual...Christ plus ceremony...Christ plus some miraculous experience or Christ plus some mystical intuition...or Christ plus some bodily self-denial or immolation. We need to do something to hurt ourselves in order to gain merit with God, or we need to do something to transcend this world to have some kind of mystical experience to really know God, or something like that. Or somehow we need to have an angelic visitation, or somehow we need to live a life of conformity to certain ceremonies and certain rituals. But the Bible says its all in Christ and its all in knowing Christ.

This whole epistle, really focuses on Him because if you go back to chapter 1 verse 13 it says, “He delivered us from the domain of darkness,” that is, God did, “and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved son.” Everybody lives in a kingdom. Everybody has a king. There are two possible kingdoms, two possible kings. You can live under king Satan, or King God. You can live in the kingdom of darkness, or you can live in the Kingdom of light. You can live in the kingdom of evil, or the kingdom of righteousness. God by His grace delivers us from the kingdom of darkness, the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

And when you come into the knowledge of Christ and he becomes your King, that’s how you enter His kingdom and immediately the Bible says you have redemption, you are brought back from judgment. You are bought back from punishment. You are bought back from hell because Christ paid the price. You have the forgiveness of sins, all the sins you have ever or will ever commit are forgiven because their penalty was paid by the death of Christ. Everything comes down to Christ, everything! It was through him that sinners are reconciled to God. It was through Him that we are transformed and converted and regenerated and born again. Everything comes through Him.

By His stripes we are healed.

God bless

A Spurgeon Devotional - June 18, 2010

Vile Ingratitude


"Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations." Ezekiel 16:1-2


God gives His people riches, and they offer them before the shrine of their covetousness. He give them talent, and they prostitute it to the service of their ambition. He give them judgement, and they pander to their own advancement, and seek not the interest of His kingdom. He give them influence; that influence they use for their own aggrandisement, and not for His honor.

This is like taking His gold, and His jewels, and hanging them upon the neck of the god Ashtaroth. Ah! Let us take care when we think of our sins, that we set them in this light. It is taking God's mercies to lavish them upon his enemies.

Now, if you were to make me a present of some token of your regard, I think it would be the meanest and most ungracious thing in the world I could do to take it over to your enemy and say, "There, I come to pay my respects." To pay my respects to your foe with that which had been the token of your favor.

There are two kings at enmity with one another - two powers that have been at battle, and one of them has a rebellious subject, who is caught in the very act of treason, and condemned to die. The king very graciously pardons him, and then munificently endows him. "There," says he, "I give you a thousand crown-pieces;" and that man takes the bounty, and devotes it to increasing the resources of the king's enemies.

Now, that were a treason and baseness too vile to be committed by worldly men. Alas then! That is what you have done. You have bestowed on God's enemies what God gave to you as a love-token. Oh, men and brethren, let us bow ourselves in dust and ashes before God.

For Meditation: Is a readiness to use God's gifts selfishly the reason why He appears to say "No" to so many of your prayer-requests? (James 4:3-4)

Memorial Day 2010 - A Tribute

Just a humble thank you to all our brave men and women who have served our great country and continue to serve, and to all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Also to the families who have selflessly given their loved ones in the defense of freedom.

THANK YOU!!!

Its because of all of you that we can all sleep peaceably at night and have the freedoms to live our lives free from tyranny.

May God bless you all, and may God bless America!!!

Although this last video was made for Veterans Day, I believe it certainly speaks for Memorial Day as well.

A Spurgeon Devotional - May 28, 2010

The Teaching of the Holy Spirit

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your rememberance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26

The Holy Spirit specially teaches to us Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who manifests the Savior to us in the glory of His person; the complex character of His manhood and of His deity; it is He who tells us of the love of His heart, of the power of His arm, of the clearness of His eye, the preciousness of His blood, and of the prevalence of His plea.

To know that Christ is my Redeemer, is to know more than Plato could have taught me. To know that I am a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones; that my name is on His breast, and engraved on the palms of His hands, is to know more than the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge could teach to all their scholars.

Not at the feet of Gamaliel did Paul learn to say - "He loved me, and gave himself for me." Not in the midst of the rabbis, or at the feet of the members of the Sanhedrin, did Paul learn to cry - "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." No this must have been taught as he himself confesses - not of flesh and blood, but of the Holy Spirit.

I need only hint that it is also the Spirit who teaches us our adoption. Indeed, all the privileges of the new covenant, beginning from regeneration, running through redemption, justification, pardon, sanctification, adoption, preservation, continual safety, and unto abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - all is the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

For Meditation: The Holy Spirit exercises a perfect teaching ministry (1 John 2:27); how good a pupil (disciple) are you?

Rob

The Preeminence of Christ

Turning Point Community Church

BFG Lesson

5/23/2010

Colossians 1:15-20

“The Preeminence of Christ”

Verse 15

In this incredible section of Scripture, Paul set forth the absolute supremacy and Lordship of the Second Person of the Trinity. Previously (vv. 13-14) the apostle had announced that, through this One (Jesus), God the Father had rescued believers from the “domain of darkness” and fully redeemed and forgiven them according to His great mercy. Here in these verses the nature and identity of this Savior and Lord are more fully revealed. Paul employed two major claims regarding Jesus:

First that Jesus is the “Image of the invisible God.” And second that He is the “first born of all creation.”

• First, Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”—The use of the word “image” conveys the truth that Jesus is the only perfect representation and revelation of God to men. This is the same idea that is expressed in other passages such as Hebrews 1:3—“He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.” To say such a thing about Jesus was to claim nothing less than His full divinity and unique role as the visible expression of God. The words of the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) are especially clear on this same point, declaring Jesus to be “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

• Secondly, Paul stated that Jesus is the “first-born of all creation”—This phrase is speaking of the preeminence of Jesus over all of creation. The use of the term “first-born” expresses the special place of priority occupied by Jesus, somewhat like the status enjoyed by the first-born sons in Jewish families. However, the difference here is that the Son, being co-eternal with the Father, had no beginning and, therefore, His status and place of privilege is infinitely greater. Scripture teaches us that Christ was eternally begotten of the Father and not created. That He is the “first-born” manifests the truth that He is the Lord and King of “all creation.”

Now, some false teachers, as you can imagine, will take this verse completely out of context and suggest that the Lord Jesus is Himself a created being and therefore in no way could He be God.

Although, false teachers use verse 15, (especially in the KJV) to teach that Jesus was a created being, error can usually be refuted from the very passage of Scripture which the cultists use. That is certainly the case here.

Verse 16

Verse 16 clearly states that the Lord Jesus is not a creature, but the very Creator.
This passage teaches us that Christ created all things.

Pastor Roy at Riverbend Community Chruch, preaching on this very passage states, “That the word “created” comes from a Greek term, and the Greek term that is used here speaks of Direct Creation, producing something out of nothing. The Latin uses this word Xlahlo to speak of this as well.

Christ did not invent something that had already existed in its parts. He created something that was not in existence. And He did this by the word of His mouth. This is the mighty power of Christ.

In fact the whole Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were engaged in creation. We know this because the book of Genesis says, ‘let Us make man in our image.’ So we see the whole Godhead involved in this creation. So the word ‘created’ here means to create out of nothing, to make something that did not previously exist.

This is unlike scientists today who run around saying, “I created this,” or “we created that.” The truth is they created nothing. Because, they started with something, a material element of some kind. Its like the story of God and the scientist.

‘There was a group of scientists, and they were all sitting around discussing which one of them was going to go to God and tell him that they didn’t need him anymore.

‘One of the scientists volunteered and went to tell God he was no longer needed. The scientist says to God: “God, you know, a bunch of us have been talking, and we’ve come to realize that we don’t need you anymore.

I mean, we’ve been coming up with great theories and ideas, we’ve cloned sheep, and we’re on the verge of cloning humans. So as you can see, we really don’t need you.”

‘God nods understandingly and says, “I see. Well ok, but
before you go, let’s have a contest. What do you think?”
‘The scientist says, “Sure. What kind of contest?”
‘God replies, “A human-making contest where we make a human being.” ‘The scientist quickly agrees, “Sure! No problem.”
‘The scientist bends down and picks up a handful of dirt and says, “Okay, I’m ready!” ‘God shakes His divine head and says, “No, no, no…you go get your own dirt.”’ (Rev. Henry Stone)

You see, everything we have, from our bodies, to our clothes, to the food we eat – comes from God. Homes to hobbies, cars to kids, everything we have, every breath we take, comes from God. The truth is, we never had our own dirt.

We hear it at the beginning of Psalm 24.1-2: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” Hard to miss that phrase, isn’t it: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof – meaning, “everything in it.” God owns it all.

In verse 16, we learn that all things – the whole universe – was created not only by Him but through Him and for Him. Each of these prepositions conveys a different thought.

First of all we read that “by Him all things were created.” Here the thought is that the power to create is in His being. He was the Architect. Later in the verse we learn that all things were created through Him. This speaks of Him as the Agent in creation. He is the Person of the Godhead through whom the creative act was performed.

Also, all things were created for Him. He is the One for whom all things were created, the very goal of creation. So Paul stresses here that the creation exists for the glory and sovereign purposes of Christ. Meaning, Jesus is the very goal of creation. “Everything exists with a view to His glory, and so is subservient to His eternal purpose”. A similar point is made by Paul in Romans 11:36—“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”


The Gnostics taught that there were various ranks and classes of spirit beings between God and matter, and that Christ belonged to one of these classes. In our day the Spiritists claim that Jesus Christ is an advanced spirit of the sixth sphere. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that before our Lord came into the world, He was a created angels and none other than the Archangel Michael!

Here Paul vigorously refutes such absurd notions by stating in the clearest possible terms that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of angels – in fact of all beings whether visible or invisible.

John MacArthur states: “He is the precise copy, reproduction, and replica of God, He is the very substance and essence of God, He is the radiance of God's shining glory in human form. That's why He could say in John 14:9, "If you've seen Me you've seen the Father."

This means that Jesus was the originator, designer, and agent of creation. This verse stresses the fact that “Jesus conceived of creation and its complexities. Creation was His idea”. Paul made it clear for his readers that the creation in its totality, including the “heavens”—the invisible world of spiritual beings—and the “earth”—the visible, physical world—were brought into existence by Christ, through Christ and for Christ.

Verse 17

In verse 17 Paul tells us that Christ is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” An interesting thing to note here is that Paul states, He is before all things,” not He was before all things.”

The present tense is often used in the Bible to describe the timelessness of Deity. The Lord Jesus said for instance: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” This of course is speaking in the present tense – He still IS. He didn’t say, “before Abraham was, I was.”

Not only did the Lord Jesus exist before there was any creation, but also “in Him all things consist.” Or “hold together.” This means, not only did He create the universe and everything in it but He is also the Sustainer of the universe. He controls the stars, the sun and the moon.

The Universe

The whole universe, the whole kosmos, was made by Jesus Christ. I mean, just think about that for a minute. Its mind boggling. The sun is inconceivably massive. The sun is 93 million miles away. If you could bore a hole in the sun and start dumping a bunch of earths into it, you could put 1,200,000 earths in it and still have room for 4,300,000 moons. And, get this, the nearest star, Alpha Centuri, is five times bigger than our sun.

Beetljuice, no not the movie. Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis) is the second-brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the sky. It is a supergiant star, reddish in color, and over 600 million miles in diameter (almost 1,000 times bigger than the sun). If Betelgeuse were at the center of our Solar System, it would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It is 520 light-years from Earth. Its actually a distance that is measured in quad-drillions miles away. I have no idea how far that is but I’m guessing its pretty far. Its further than California. Now that is a big star!

Now consider this. Even while Jesus was here on earth, in human form, He was still holding the universe together in the palm of His hand. He was still the one who was controlling the laws by which our universe functions in an orderly manner. That is just a mind blowing thought.

Verse 18

Paul now changes focus a little bit here in verse 18. He goes from Christ the Creator of all things to Christ the Head of the body the church.

As we know, the head is the part of the body that controls all things. Its where our thoughts and knowledge and wisdom lie. The church is like a body and Christ is its head.

Certainly all the thought processes are contained in our heads, in our minds and those thought processes are what give us direction to all that we think, say and do. And that simply illustrates the fact that Christ is the source of all truth, all knowledge, all wisdom, all growth and all guidance in His church. He is the head of the church.

Secondly, he says He is the beginning. He is the beginning of the church. The church is the creation of Christ. He is the source of its existence.

In addition to being head of the body, Paul declared that Jesus is “the beginning, the first-born from the dead.” Having been raised from the dead never to die again, Christ enjoys the supreme position as Lord over life and death itself. With this announcement, Paul made it clear that “Jesus entered the world of sinners, endured their punishment, and rose victorious. Thus, in Christ, there is a new order of existence. It is a resurrection existence.”

Now, we must be careful here to emphasize that this does not mean that the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. There were cases of resurrection in the OT as well as in the NT. But the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead with a glorified body. And he rose as the Head of a new creation – the church.

The purpose of the resurrection—“that in everything he might be preeminent.”—was to make it explicitly clear that Jesus was and is exactly whom He claimed to be. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:4, the resurrection was the mechanism by which Jesus was declared “with power” to be the eternal “Son of God” and King of the universe.

All this to show that the Lord Jesus has a double preeminence – first in creation, and then in the church. God has decreed that in all things HE may have the preeminence. What an answer this is to those who, in Paul’s day, and in ours as well, would seek to rob Christ of his deity, and to make of Him only a created being.

As we read, “that in all things He may have the preeminence,” it is only proper that we ask ourselves, “Does He have the preeminence in my life??”

Verse 19

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”

Here Paul continues to declare the identity of Jesus and, in particular, His work of redemption and reconciliation. Before speaking of His ministry to those alienated from God by sin, the apostle once more expresses Christ’s deity as the Son of God. Here Paul spoke of Jesus as the One in whom “all the fullness” of deity resides.

And, that this was due to the “Father’s good pleasure,” meaning that in eternity past, the Triune God determined that “the human Jesus would be God, sharing all the properties, characteristics, and prerogatives of God himself.” Thus, the One who, according to Philippians 2:8 was “found in appearance as a man,” was not one “merely endued in a special way with the Holy Spirit, but is rather the dwelling place of the very essence of God”

These ridiculous Gnostics were pumping out this stuff that God kept reproducing these emanations out of Himself one after another in an infinite long line. They were teaching that Christ was a kind of halfway point to God, a necessary link in the chain. But there were other, better links on ahead.

Paul says, NO! Christ is Himself the complete fullness of deity and at the Father’s good pleasure. In Him all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.

All the powers of deity, all the attributes of deity, verse 3 of chapter 2 says, "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," verse 9 says, "All the fullness of deity." He is the fullness of God's essence, God's glory. And it's in Him and Him alone. And that is to say if somebody comes along after this and says, "I'm God," don't believe it. He needs no supplement. He has no rivals. There are no more revelations. It's in Him and Him alone that God has put all the fullness of His own deity because it pleased Him to do that.

Verse 20

In verse 20 we see that the One who took on human flesh is the One who came to “reconcile all things to Himself” by means of His very “blood” which was spilled on “His cross.” This highlights the fact that human sin has resulted in cosmic effects, not only alienating men from their creator, but also bringing the created order under the divine curse (cf. Rom. 8:20-22). Yet, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross decisively put an end to the power and destructive effects of human rebellion. By means of His violent death and bodily resurrection, Jesus “made peace” between God and men.

But why? Why did Christ come into the world? - To save sinners. To go to a cross, to shed His blood through death, to pay the price for sin in order that He might present you to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. He came to gather a redeemed humanity to take back to God. He came to reconcile men and the whole universe to make peace where there was animosity between man and God. He came into the world to save sinners.

That's why He was to be called Jesus. He came to bring reconciliation between sinners and a holy God. He came to remove the curse of the universe and to reconcile the universe to its original intended created purpose. He came so that He might gather together men and women like you and like me and present them to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. He came to save us from sin and bring us to God, to reconcile the lost. He took our flesh in Him that we might become holy as He is holy.

Although Christ’s reconciling work is sufficient for all mankind, it is only effective for those who avail themselves of it. Eventually all things will be reconciled, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

This refers to the animal creation, and to inanimate things that have been defiled by sin. However, it does not refer to Satan, to other fallen angels, or to unbelieving humans. Their eternal doom is clearly pronounced in the Scriptures.

Reconciliation is not said to extend to “things under the earth.” There is a difference between reconciliation and subjugation. The latter is described in Philippians 2:10, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.”

All created beings, even fallen angels will eventually be compelled to bow to the Lord Jesus, but this does not mean they will be reconciled.

Unfortunately there is a false teaching out there that teaches a Universal salvation. Namely, that Satan himself, fallen angels, and unbelieving men will all be reconciled to God eventually. Verse 20 here in Colossians limits the extent of reconciliation by the phrase, “things on earth or things in heaven.” Things under the earth are not included.

Conclusion

One thing I want you to remember about this passage of Scripture and we’ll close with this – is a quote from John MacArthur that I think beautifully sums up this entire passage. He says:

Every one of those statements that is made from verse 15 through verse 20 is absolutely exclusive. They are true of Him (Christ) and nobody else. And the sum of them all is at the end of verse 18 where it says that He is to have the first-place in everything. No one else is the image of the invisible God, No one else can be the first-born of all creation. No one else can be the creator of things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible. No one else sits over the thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities. No one else is before all things and holds all things together. No one else is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the first born. No one else has all the fullness of deity dwelling in Him to the pleasure of the Father. Those are all absolutely exclusive statements. And what they tell us is that Jesus Christ is utterly unique. There is no one like Him. He is beyond everyone else. He is infinitely beyond everyone else.”

So as we go about our daily lives this week lets remember to ponder the question: “Is Christ preeminent in my life today??”

God bless

Rob

A Spurgeon Devotional - May 14, 2010

Thoughts On The Last Battle

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 15:56-57

While the Bible is one of the most poetical of books, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a truth.

However dark may be the subject, while it lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter of Paul's epistle, so justly celebrated as a masterpiece of language, you will find him speaking of that which is to come after death with such exaltation and glory, that you feel, "If this be to die, then it were well to depart at once."

Who has not rejoiced, and whose heart has not been lifted up, or filled with a holy fire, while he has read such sentences as these: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Yet with all that majestic language, with all that bold flight of eloquence, he does not deny that death is a gloomy thing. Even his very figures imply it. He does not laugh at it; he does not say, "Oh, it is nothing to die;" he describes death as a monster; he speaks of it as having a sting; he tells us wherein the strength of that sting lies; and even in the exclamation of triumph he imputes that victory not to unaided flesh, but he says, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

C.H. Spurgeon

For further Meditation: Death is no laughing matter, but for the Christian it need not be a crying matter either. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)

A Spurgeon Devotional

A Psalm of Remembrance


"So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us." 1 John 4:16a

"Have you considered my servant Job?" "Ah," says Satan, "he serves you now, but you have set a hedge about him and blessed him, let me but touch him." Now he has come down to you, and he has afflicted you in your estate, afflicted you in your family, and at last he has afflicted you in your body. Shall Satan be the conqueror? Shall grace give way? O my dear brother, stand up now and say once more, once for all, "I tell you, Satan, the grace of God is more than a match for you; He is with me, and in all this I will not utter one word against the Lord my God.

He does all things well - well, even now, and I do rejoice in Him." The Lord is always pleased with His children when they can stand up for Him when circumstances seem to belie Him. Here come the witnesses into court. The devil says, "Soul, God has forgotten you, I will bring in my witness." First he summons your debts - a long bill of losses. "There," says he, "Would God suffer you to fall thus, if He loved you?" Then he brings in your children - either their death, or their disobedience, or something worse, and says, "Would the Lord suffer these things to come upon you, if He loved you?" At last he brings in your poor tottering body, and all your doubts and fears, and the hidings of Jehovah's face. "Ah," says the devil, "Do you believe that God loves you now?"

Oh, it is noble, if you are able to stand forth and say to all these witnesses, "I hear what you have to say, let God be true, and every man and everything be a liar. I believe none of you. You all say, God does not love me; but He does, and if the witnesses against His love were multiplied a hundredfold, yet still would I say, "I know whom I have believed."

C.H. Spurgeon - Sermon #253

Why Witchcraft?, Why Goddess Worship? A Scriptural Response

I am currently reading "Kingdom of the Occult" by Dr. Walter Martin. A good portion of the book deals with Satanism and Witchcraft. Without a doubt there is a prolific increase in the acceptance of Neopaganism in our society today. But why is this? What is the lure that Witchcraft offers that so many are being drawn to this evil religion?

I'd like to share an excerpt with you from Walter Martin's book that attempts to explain why this is.

Rejection of the Church

"There is a rejection of a church divided between orthodoxy and anarchy, a church that wants only part of the substance and part of the form of the Gospel, with no real commitment to the authority of either. Contemplative prayer - with its New Age technique of emptying the mind - labyrinth walking, goddess worship, and countless other forms of mysticism have invaded the church in the twenty-first century as they did in the first. Deserting the defense of the faith in deference to a "seeker-sensitive" mentality has resulted in a church divided, with a "live and let live" worldview that opens the door to the invasion of God as "mother" theology - a legacy of Sophia. This is anarchy."

"There is also a desperate need for purpose, meaning and order in a mechanistic and technocratic world where the individual has been largely forgotten, and where corporate structure and thinking has degraded the value of an individual soul. Why are people turning to Witchcraft? They are drawn to it because it offers the freedom of individuality and the power to change the world around them. As Witches, they do not feel as if they are beating their heads and their hands bloody against power structures that appear to care very little about anything, except perpetuating themselves in power. This need for purpose, meaning and order in a mechanistic and technocratic society is certainly one of the primary reasons for a turn toward Witchcraft."

"Also, people are fascinated by the unknown and challenged by any attempt to know the future. This is why they study tarot cards; this is why they visit palm readers; and this is why astrology often gains a foothold in their lives. The power of Witchcraft fascinates because through it, people can reach out and know something about themselves, the person next to them and about their neighbors. They can exert authority and power over other people with this knowledge, and that is what Witchcraft offers to those who come looking for it."

What should the Christian attitude be?

So should we sit on the sidelines wringing our hands, quietly quoting Bible verses? Or do we learn the Biblical position and then take definitive action? It is this last response that must be our choice." We know what God's attitude toward mediums, psychics and all occultist's is. Moses details the warning of God in Deuteronomy 18:9-14

"When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a wizard or a necromancer, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this."

Another example of God's attitude toward Witchcraft is found in Acts 13:5-12 when the Apostle Paul encountered a male Witch.

"When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, 'You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.' Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord."

Witchcraft will always stand against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as a friendly Witch when talking about the only path to salvation. Some Witches may be willing to talk about Christianity and Witchcraft from the perspective that modern Christians have wronged the Witches (as did the Old Testament prophets and the early church), but it is amazing how they suddenly become angry when it gets right down to the nitty-gritty of who Jesus Christ is and what the Christian Gospel is all about. Christ stands in judgment over them. He is no medium. He is no Witch. He is Sovereign Lord of all and they must obey Him - but they refuse to do so, for the source of their power is not Jesus Christ; the source of their power is the prince of darkness. That is why Witches will always oppose the Son of God.

Christ's Gospel is not negotiable

When this Witch withstood the Gospel, Paul did not negotiate on the defense of the faith. He did not say, 'I suggest we sit down and have a theological orientation on this subject...' No, the Apostles did not waste their time with the nonsense that ties up the church today. They knew precisely what to do when they were confronted with evil. they never found Jesus Christ's Gospel negotiable. NEVER!

When the Holy Spirit encounters Witches, there is only one outcome: The Witches come out on the short end of the broomstick. This happens every time, and the Christian must realize the power that is at our disposal; we must recognize the authority that has been conferred upon us as the children of God.

"Beloved, now we are children of god; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1John 3:2

In Galatians 5:20, the Apostle Paul listed Witchcraft as one of the works of the flesh and warned the church not to practice it. It is no accident that God chooses to remind us that Witchcraft is forbidden. the people who play with Ouija boards and occult games and spells should take care. Witchcraft is one of the works of the flesh, listed among those things condemned by God, and those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

But the good news in all this is that there is power in the blood of Christ. There is power in the Gospel. there is power in the Spirit that lives within the temple of the believer - power to touch the lives of the Witches and of all Neopagans - the kind of power that they fear, their masters fear, and from which Satan himself will flee. No force of evil in the universe is equal to that of a Christian on his or her knees.

"You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." 1John 4:4-5

The church of Jesus Christ has the priceless privilege of exposure to the message of God's grace and we are committed to the ministry of reconciliation. May the Lord give us the wisdom and the grace to realize that the Witches, and those who are dominated by Satan, are also souls who need to be saved from sin. Only Jesus Christ can bring them out of the authority of darkness and into His beloved kingdom. This is the true God. This is life eternal.

Paul Washer - Teaching On The Deity Of Christ

Below is a short video series of Paul Washer, founder of Heart Cry Missionary Society, teaching a group of men entering into the ministry about the deity of Christ. A very good study. Enjoy.

Good Friday

It is truly amazing what Jesus went through for us. That He would leave His throne and humble Himself and come down here to earth, live a perfect life in our place, something we could never do, fulfilling the law of God and then take upon Himself, willingly the incredible torture of wicked humanity and then the very wrath of God the Father upon the cross. All meant for us yet all placed upon Jesus. How can anyone say no to so great a salvation.

For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2Corinthians 5:21

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53:3-7

I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. Isaiah 50:6

All this was predicted about Christ hundreds of years before it even happened.

Below I've included a few videos of the beatings He took for us as well as being nailed to the cross. These video's are from the Passion of the Christ so they are very graphic. And as horrible as these videos portray Christ's beatings, Scripture tells us, (predicted), that He was beaten beyond recognition.

As many were astonished at you — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. Isaiah 52:14

WARNING: These scenes are from the movie "Passion of the Christ" and are very graphic. Please use discernment with young children.














Even as He's being nailed to the cross, Jesus cries out for the Father to forgive them. How much more should we forgive those who persecute us.






Isn't it awesome to know that in the end the enemy has been defeated. Jesus our Lord, has the last laugh. Tomorrow's post will be much more glorious. For HE IS RISEN!!

God bless

Rob

Does Every Religion Lead To Heaven?

I was working out at the gym the other day when I struck up a conversation with one of the trainers who works there. He claimed he was a Christian and I thought how neat it would be to have fellowship with a fellow brother in Christ at the gym.

However, as we talked it became clear to me that he has actually bought into the prevailing lie taught in the many liberal churches in America today. He stated that he believes in Jesus but that he doesn't push his "religion" on anyone. If they are Jews, or Buddhists, or Hindu's or even Jehovah's Witnesses, everyone eventually finds their own way.

As these words were coming out of his mouth, I felt my heart begin to sink as I realized we did not worship the same Jesus. The Jesus I admire and love is the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus he professes to love is one of his imagination. As he continued talking my mind was screaming, "Don't you know what Jesus said?? That He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him??" "How can you call yourself a Christian and believe there are multiple ways to God?" "Don't you know that Scripture says, there is only one name under Heaven, given among men by which we must be saved?"

I know what you're thinking, didn't you say any of this to him? My answer is no; because he was talking about 100 words per second and was running to meet his next appt. So we shook hands and went our separate ways.

Then yesterday morning, I'm at the gym again and working out when one of the guys starts talking to me. I don't remember how it started but he mentioned something about God so I asked him what church he goes too. He goes to the Catholic church here in town. He then proceeded to tell me how he wished all Christians would just unite and not be so narrow minded and hung up on their doctrine.

After further dialog his main premise was that he just wanted everybody to get together, hold hands and sing kum ba ya. But at what cost? As I left the gym that day I couldn't help thinking about these two guys who think they are Christians but their faith is in the wrong place.

Satan has so effectively blinded the eyes and minds of people by counterfeiting God's truth with multiple false religions and cults that the undiscerning mind is unable to determine what is right and what is wrong.

In his book "The Kingdom of the Cults," Walter Martin states, "As the American Christian church enters the end of this century, ecumenicism has become a deadly cancer, destroying what use to be healthy Christian churches and replacing them with mutant fellowships of "new spirituality" that embrace pantheism, polytheism, goddess worship, new ageism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and agnosticism. The only "faith" not acceptable in our liberal churches today is Biblical faith that dares to make exclusive claims about Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the Bible and salvation! The 1993 Parliament of World Religions, held in Chicago, exemplified this quasi-Christianity, "Christian" spokespeople from various liberal churches embraced the faiths of the world as simply alternate ways to experience God, and both liberal Christians and non-Christians united in their condemnation of what they termed narrow-minded, fundamentalist religious bigots. When Christianity denies the biblical faith it ceases to be Christianity at all."

These are the kind of things, I fear, that my new "friends" believe. But anyone who says 'all roads lead to God' needs to be very careful because that is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus did not say, 'I am one of many equally good ways' or 'I am a better way than the others.' Instead, His claim was absolute and allegiance to Him as the Lord and Savior of the world, was to take precedence over all the claims of men and religions. Jesus says in John 8:24b, "...for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." It just doesn't get much clearer than that.

Jesus never claimed to be a good way to Heaven. He said He is the only way. And if you think about it, it makes sense. Why would God send His only Son to this Earth to live a perfect life for us, something we can never do, and then have His Son take untold beatings and mocking at the hands of puny men and then have His Son allow Himself to be nailed to a cross while God pours out His wrath upon Him, if their are other ways to Heaven?? It just would make no sense.

I believe that is why judgement will be so severe for people who reject the Savior. God suffered on that cross mercilessly at the hands of sinners to pay our sin debt so that we might receive eternal life as a free gift. And then we're going to make up all these other religions, in essence, telling God, "I'll do it my way?"

We must remain focused on the God of the Bible and remember Jesus' words, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

There aren't many ways to Heaven, only one. Man in his pride wants to make his own way so in his pride he creates his own ways and tells God, 'my road is really the same as yours.' Nothing could be further from the truth. I know the world hates Christians with a growing hatred every year, but what I've written here are not my words but what God has told us in His word.

Repent of your sins today and turn to Jesus, He is the only way.

God bless

Rob

The Heresy of the Prosperity Gospel.

Without a doubt, one of the worst things on television is the many programs posing as "Christian". They preach a gospel that is no gospel at all. Instead it is a bunch of Godless people praying on the emotions of the poor and the sick who really think that if they send these charlitans their money they will get healed or that God will drop thousands of dollars in their laps.

This kind of teaching has brought more harm to the church and the name of Christ than any athiest who runs around shouting from the roof tops that there is no God. Why? Because it is so deceptive and plays on people's emotions. These health, wealth and prosperity teachers are the wolves in sheeps clothing Jesus mentioned in Matthew 7:15:

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."

They spew forth lies and sprinkle it with some truth, but a glass of pure water with just one drop of poison will still kill you. But people tend to flock to these TV preachers because they are desperate. Perhaps they've just been told that they have cancer or that their house is about to be foreclosed on. They're flipping through the channels and land on a "christian" broadcasting channel and the hear some guy who looks and acts like a preacher and is supposed to be a "man of God" tell them to send money and he'll guarentee that God will bless their lives.

Of course the next month their house gets forclosed on anyway, their out the money they sent the preacher, and at the same time they helped to support his lavish lifestyle, and they now consider Christianity a joke.

Unfortunately, these poor deceived people think they are hearing the true Gospel when in reality they are receiving a counterfeit. And who is the one who tries to counterfeit everything God does? Satan! That's why true Christians must be very careful in decerning the one true Gospel, from all the counterfeit's out there. Remember Jesus' words;

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Heresy Is Nothing New

False teachings began creeping into the church almost immediately and we see a number of the New Testament writers addressing the problems of heresey in the churches even back then. For example take a look at Jude. He wanted so much to write to his brothers about the great salvation that we all share but because of the false teachings creeping into the church, he felt it necessary to turn and, urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."

Just like today's televangelists who lead people astray and are in it only for the money, the same was true even back in the first century. Jude goes on to say, "Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm - shepherds who feed only themselves...", "These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage." Jude 11-12a, 16

Aren't these words true today of the health, wealth and prosperity crowd today? Everything they do is for profit and to be on TV, seen by men. They are shepherds who feed themselves with other people's money. And how do they get other people's money? By flattering them with words of how good they are and how great they can be if they will just look inside themselves. These people are told they can 'have their best life now.' This is a message straight from the depths of hell. We should never look for answers from within ourselves. We are totally depraved, wicked to the core and sinful. How is looking at that going to help us?

Peter also speaks of people who are in ministry for personal gain when he says, "With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they suduce the unstable; they are experts in greed - an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and have wondered off to followthe way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 2 Peter 2:14-15

And isn't this what marks most of these TV preachers today? Insatiable greed? Without a doubt, it is the worst kind of materialism and it prostitutes the real intent of the true Gospel.

Peter continues by saying, These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boasful words and by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaved to depravity - for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 2 Peter 2:17-19

So as you can see, these greedy false teachers had already been infiltrating the church even back in the first century. But the New Testament writers were quick to deal with it and rebuke it, exposing it for what is was, a fraudulent gospel.

What about today though? Its actually much worse today, because once this false teaching had been accepted as being Christian, it deceives the masses who no longer study God's Word to hold these leaders accountable.

The Charlitans Of Today

Unfortunately, today's health, wealth and prosperity teachers are actually much worse than the fraud found on Wall Street a few years ago with Bernie Madoff. At least the money Bernie Madoff took was from people who had money in the first place. John MacArthur puts it this way, "I think it’s far worse than Bernie Madoff, what a perfect name, Bernie Made off with everybody’s money. But, you know, those people had a lot of money and they had enough money to give to Bernie. What’s worse about the other thing...I think there’s more money involved in the fraud on Christian television than even Madoff if you added it all up through the years. But what makes this so much worse is, Bernie Madoff played on the rich. These guys play on the poor and the sick and the destitute and the desperate."

One of the big problems today though is that all this errant teaching on the airwaves is never critiqued. And why do you suppose that is? Well, if you think about it, it all boils down to money and greed. If you're a TV station owner and you're broadcasting someone like Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen and they are brining in millions of dollars to your station, are you going to call them out on their unbiblical teachings. I don't think so. If you send them a disk that exposes the truth of Benny Hinn, do you think it will ever see the light of day at that station. No way!

But any true Christian who knows anything about Scripture, about the Bible, knows deep down in their heart that the Charasmatic movement is not Biblical. This health, wealth and prosperity stuff, espoused mostly by the Charasmatic movement is completely unbiblical. Instead of being based on solid doctrine and theology it is instead based on feelings and emotion which is so easy for Satan to manipulate and lead people astray.

Once evangelicalism opened itself up and embraced this stuff, doctrine was out the window. And where do we get doctrine? The Bible. In his book, Charasmatic Chaos, John MacArthur gives a perfect example of what is happening today as people in evangelicalism replace good solid Bible study with emotiional experiences:

A woman wrote to me seething with anger; this is what she said in her letter,

"You resort to Greek translations and fancy words to explain away what the Holy Spirit is doing in the Church today. Let me give you a piece of advice that might just save you from the wrath of the Almighty God. Put away your Bible and your books and stop studying. Ask the Holy Ghost to come upon you and give you the gift of tongues. You have no right to question something you've never experienced."

Would Scripture ever tell us to put away Scripture?? What does the Bible say?

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

One thing that non-Christians think is that if you become a Christian you must leave your brain at the door. But nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible teaches the exact opposite.

But people today are lazy, they want wealth, health and prosperity but they don't want to have to work for these things. Why study God's word? That takes work. Instead I'll just let some preacher tell me how to turn God on when I need some money and then I can turn Him off again after that. After all I'm a Christian and God is obligated to do my bidding. Notice how it puts man on the throne and makes the Lord subservient to man. completley unbiblical.

And what do people want? Money right? Good health, power, prestiege. That’s what the unregenerate person wants, that’s not what the gospel offers. The gospel is not intended to give the unregenerate what they want. What the unregenerate want is really irrelevant to the gospel. What the gospel promises to give you is what an unregenerate person doesn’t want, deliverance from sin, holiness, the promise of heaven, godly friends, a worshiping life. People don’t want that.

So what have they done? They’ve invented a gospel that gives people what they want and makes them rich at the same time. And what we have today is what the Apostle Paul warned Timothy that would happen in the last days:

For a time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

Sound like what's happening to the chuch today? If not, just turn on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and watch in stunned amazement as these heretics tell you how to become rich by sending them your money.

God help us.

Rob