I was alerted earlier today to listen to a local radio talk about the infamous date 21 May 2011. The person who was interviewed was Johannes Coetzee on radio RSG. It grieves my heart to know there are actually people who believe this nonsensical rubbish. I believe every true Christian will by the Grace of God have discernment enough to shun this lie. There are sadly others who will blindly follow these False teachers. This led me to go back to Scripture and again it was made clear that Mat 24:36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. and also Mat 24:42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Praise God for His mercy on our poor wretched souls. Praise God for the only truth we have: the Scripture. Continue reading
Heavens
The Problem of a Suffering Christian
Arthur W. Pink
A child of God oppressed, suffering sorely, often driven to his wit’s end..what a strange thing! A joint-heir with Christ financially embarrassed, poor in this world’s goods, wondering where his next meal is coming from..what an anomaly! An object of the Father’s everlasting love, and distinguishing favor tossed up and down upon a sea of trouble, with every apparent prospect of his frail barque capsizing..what a perplexity!
One who has been regenerated and is now indwelt by the Holy Spirit daily harassed by Satan, and frequently overcome by indwelling sin..what an enigma! Loved by the Father, redeemed by the Son, his body made the temple of the Holy Spirit, yet left in this world year after year to suffer affliction and persecution, to mourn and groan over innumerable failures, to encounter one trial after another, often to be placed in far less favorable circumstances than the wicked; to sigh and cry for relief, yet for sorrow and suffering to increase..what a mystery! What Christian has not felt the force of it, and been baffled by its inscrutability.
Continue reading
“Joint heirs with Christ.”
C H Spurgeon – Morning Devotional
“Joint heirs with Christ.”
– Rom_8:17
and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
The boundless realms of his Father’s universe are Christ’s by prescriptive right. As “heir of all things,” he is the sole proprietor of the vast creation of God, and he has admitted us to claim the whole as ours, by virtue of that deed of joint-heir-ship which the Lord hath ratified with his chosen people. The golden streets of paradise, the pearly gates, the river of life, the transcendent bliss, and the unutterable glory, are, by our blessed Lord, made over to us for our everlasting possession. All that he has he shares with his people.
Ancient Labyrinths are Re-emerging
Prof Johan Malan
There is a sharp increase in the building and use of labyrinths in the West, which occurs in conjunction with the resurgence of other mystical practices such as Yoga and Eastern meditation. In the USA, more than 1000 labyrinths have been built in meditation garden settings, at retreat centres, churches, hospitals and prisons.
The popularity of labyrinths is also increasing in South Africa and many other countries.
Taming a Wild Church
Grace Unlimited – Alan Lester
It is not uncommon for whole churches to lose focus of the real thing. But at the same time, while they search, the real thing evades them.
Painfully absent is a clear presentation of the Gospel, and a deep appreciation of that Gospel. Without this, churches must drop into one of the various ditches that line the road. Either legalism or liberalism. Either joyless slavery or emotional burnout. Both are exhausting because they pursue a non-existent paradise.
Deliverance: From Error to the Truth, Part 1
Well, as I said last week, I have taken a bit of a diversion from our study of the gospel of Luke. I warned you a few weeks in advance that I was prompted to write a book on the subject of deliverance because the theology of deliverance which is so intensely biblical is so completely neglected today. And when I was away for a couple of weeks in Italy, it really began to weigh heavy on my mind that I needed to address this subject. And so it became like Jeremiah, fire in my bones and I can’t go back to the gospel of Luke until I have delivered my soul on the subject of deliverance.
As I said last week, and I would just encourage you, if you weren’t here last week to get the tape and listen because what I said last week is essential and foundational to this discussion. It’s not one of those messages that’s sort of optional, it’s a mandatory theme to be understood by all of us. So if you didn’t hear the message, you certainly can pick up the tape out at the tape center today.
Shoe-Leather Faith
John MacArthur – Grace to You
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
It’s always a highlight of worship to turn to the Word of our God because His Word is His response to us, the Spirit applies it to our hearts. His Word is also the revelation of Himself so that we know His way and His will and His purpose and thus can worship Him more perfectly.
As you know, for many, many months we’ve been studying 1 Thessalonians and we have been interrupted a bit in the summer, but we go back to it this morning. Open your Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 9 through 12…1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 9 through 12.
Bell’s Inferno
Grace to You Blog (a follow up) Friday, April 21, 2011
| If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that religion is a means of gain (1 Timothy 6:3-5). |
No one in all the Scriptures had more to say about hell than Jesus. No stern messenger of doom from the era of the Judges, no fiery Old Testament prophet, no writer of imprecatory psalms, and no impassioned apostle (including the Boanerges brothers)—not even all of them combined—mentioned hell more frequently or described it in more terrifying terms than Jesus.
But without sin
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “No Quarter,” delivered June 30, 1872.
Remember, brethren, that the manhood of Christ was really human. Do not think of your Lord as though he were not truly man. Remember, he was tempted in all points like as we are, but, oh, that word, “yet without sin.” The devil sets him on the high mountain, and bribes him with a world, but he says, “Get thee behind me Satan.” The devil puts him on the pinnacle of the temple, and bids him cast himself down, but he will not tempt the Lord his God. Satan appeals to his hunger and bids him turn stones to bread, but he will not take the way of the flesh; he rests on God, knowing that “man lives not by bread alone.”
O blessed Redeemer, pattern of our spirit, model to whom we are to be conformed, we reverence thee. Conquering in so many conflicts, coming forth from every trial victorious, thou art glorious indeed.
The Significance of the Ascension
Luke 24:50-53
December 21, 2008
Well, this is a special Lord’s day in the sense of our text of Luke because we have finally come to the final paragraph in Luke’s gospel, and we close out this great history with many wonderful memories of what we have learned in these ten years in Luke, many wonderful benefits spiritually to these great truths, this great account of Christ. Let’s look together at the final paragraph, verses 50 to 53.
Before I read them to you, just simply to make a comment. This is the brief account of the ascension of Christ into heaven, having completed His earthly journey and His earthly work. It is a significant event, maybe, in some ways, far more significant than most people give it credit for. In our culture we have a tradition of honoring the birth of people. We celebrate birthdays. When there is someone important, we make note of their birthday. Sometimes we even make national holidays out of the birthday of famous people, Presidents, and so forth. We do that not because their birth was significant, because none of their births were really significant. And when they were born, they had accomplished absolutely nothing. So at the risk of seeming a little bit odd, may I suggest another approach? That we begin to celebrate the death day of significant people which marks the culmination of their achievement.
WHY DO WE MEET AS WE DO?
By J.R. Gill, 1926
“Father, Thy sovereign love has sought
Captives to sin, gone far from Thee;
The work that Thine own Son hath wrought
Has brought us back in peace and free.”
Hymn 331 (Little Flock)
* * *
I have the thought before me, beloved Christian friends, of taking up a certain line of things that already has engaged the attention of some of us in one or two gatherings recently and would ask the indulgence of any here, in the matter, if what is before us has been rehearsed before. There are other persons present to whom these things are newer, and I trust I have the Lord’s mind in taking them up again. The subject before me is this: why do we, who are gathering unto the Lord’s name, meet as we do? Why do we?
God’s Testimony to the Scriptures (Psalm 19) John MacArthur
Sermon preached at Geneva Cathedral (St Pierre) Geneva, Switzerland.
The Doctrines of Grace (Part 7 of 10)
The Doctrine of Absolute Inability
We have embarked upon a wonderful study of some very important doctrines on these Sunday nights. And from my viewpoint, it’s kind of open ended, I’m just kind of following the flow and seeing where it goes. But I’m having a wonderful time. As you well know through all these years, we predominantly, if not almost always, work through texts of Scripture and that way we are obligated to affirm what the Word of God says because it’s what it says. And there is always the, I suppose, potential accusation that when you leave the flow of expositional preaching and you embark upon a topical study or a doctrinal study, you ….you may be caught up in something philosophical, you may be caught up in something rational, something logical and you may be drawing conclusions that wouldn’t stand the test of Scripture. And so I want to affirm to you that everything I say I trust will be before your very eyes drawn out of Scripture, and I would encourage you, like the noble Bereans, to do a little work yourself and search the Scripture and see if these things are so. I certainly don’t want to bring to you a rational theology, although it’s not irrational. I don’t want to bring to you a philosophical approach to theology. I don’t want to follow the path of human reason to conclude the things we conclude. I want to bring you what the Word of God has to say and the Word of God does speak to these very, very important doctrinal issues.
The Doctrines of Grace (Part 6 of 10)
The Doctrine of Election, Part 3
We have over the last couple of Sunday-evening messages been talking about the issue of divine election. Who chose whom? And I understand that this is not a small controversy when you talk about the doctrine of election. There are many people who feel, as I noted in our original message, that this is a dangerous doctrine, that this turns God into a monster, that this is an almost blasphemous, that this is a kind of heresy. And yet no matter how much human reason, human preference might rage against this doctrine, it is inescapably taught in Scripture. And we need to bow our knees to this great truth of divine election, and once we do it may become to us the most precious of all doctrines.
The Doctrines of Grace (Part 4 of 10)
The Doctrine of Election, Part 1
As you know, a couple of weeks ago we completed our study in the wonderful epistle written by Jude which ended with a promise that God is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His presence with glory. And because that introduced to us the wonderful doctrine of eternal security, or better stated, the perseverance of the saints, or the preservation of the saints, we spent a few weeks talking about that doctrine. And in the discussions that I had with you regarding that, I said that the end is determined by the beginning. Our salvation is secure to the end because our salvation was predestined in the very beginning to be completed. And we remember that Romans 8 makes a monumental and very clear statement to that regard. When in Romans 8 the Apostle Paul writes, “For whom He foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” That is all whom God predestined will become conformed to the image of His Son in eternal glory. And thus whom He predestined He called, and whom He called He justified, and whom He justified these He also glorified.
For the Love of His Truth 