Pain

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JUST GOD’S GRACE (Five Solas: Warriors code for Christ)

If you are like-minded, come alongside and we’ll travel together. If you’re of another mind, please get out of the way. For it is written: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3, KJV)”

Grant Swart

God placed in my path the accompanying short article, which I found in a magazine at an overnight lodge on my regular travels around South Africa. In the article, the author, Pastor Paul Walker of the Elm Avenue Baptist Church in Colorado, describes the very personal grief he experienced due to the loss of a beloved grandchild.

What sets the article apart from most others of this nature, is the statement it also makes regarding the positive effect which such pain and hurt can, and more importantly should have, on the truly saved. Continue reading →

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SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD

On this day, July 8, in the year 1741, America heard what is often hailed as the greatest sermon preached on her soil from a man who is often hailed as the greatest theologian and thinker to minister on her soil.

(Considered to be one of the most famous sermons in American history, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was first delivered in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. Timely yet timeless, Edwards shows us our true nature, that nature which we see so very clearly even today.)

by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Enfield, Connecticut
July 8, 1741
Their foot shall slide in due time
Deut. 32:35


In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked
unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under
the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works
towards them, remained (as in verse 28) void of counsel, having no
understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought
forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the
text. The expression I have chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due
time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and
destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

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Trials’ Lessons: Confidence In Heaven

John MacArthur – Grace to You

“To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.”
– 1 Peter 1:4

We can rejoice after enduring a trial because our hope in Heaven will be renewed.
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And who can praise Him?

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Golden Vials Full of Odors,” delivered May 19, 1872.

 

The prayers which the Lord accepts are not the chantings of functionaries, the litanies of priests, or the devout tones of a mechanical service; they must be the prayers of saints: in the life, the character, the soul, the sweetness lies — the acceptance comes not unless they be the prayers of saints.
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The Doctrines of Grace (Part 4 of 10)

John MacArthur – Grace to You

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.

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The Doctrines of Grace (Part 3 of 10)

John MacArthur – Grace to You

The Perseverance of the Saints, Part 3

1 Peter 1:6-9

We are continuing a study for these few weeks on the subject of the perseverance of the saints. That is a, I think, a good biblical title to describe a doctrine that is often called the doctrine of eternal security, or the security of the believer. The bottom line in this doctrine is that when the Lord saves someone, that salvation is forever, never to be reversed. The Bible is clear on that basic truth and the basic truth is that salvation by its very nature is irrevocable.

In spite of the clarity of Scripture, however, on this, there are those who have fallen under the influence of teaching that denies it. There are many in the Christian church who are living in some kind of fear with the possibility that they could lose their salvation. They are warned that they can by sin or failure to believe forfeit that salvation which God has given to them. That is to say a believer can become again an unbeliever, a new creation in Christ can become again the old. Those who are now the children of God can become again the children of the devil. Those who are citizens of heaven can become occupants of hell. In fact, all that is given to us in Christ can be lost and forfeit. And inevitably those who teach that doctrine endeavor to support it in Scripture. And they bring up a list of doctrinal passages to be used as a support for the idea that you can lose your salvation. I’ve dealt with this through the years many, many times and many fronts and not the least of which is trying to help the Russians, the Russian believers understand this doctrine because for so many years they have been taught that it is possible to forfeit your salvation.

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Enemies of Humility: Partisanship

John MacArthur – Grace to You

“. . . That no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.”
– 1 Corinthians 4:6

Genuine humility among Christians will leave no room for arrogant partisanship.

The Corinthian church was a notorious illustration of the sin of partisanship among believers. Its partisanship—some members claimed allegiance to Paul, some to Apollos, and some to Cephas (Peter)—was essentially caused by pride. Paul, as author of 1 Corinthians, vigorously opposed such pride of divisions, as Apollos and Peter would have.

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The Tragedy of Rejecting Salvation

John MacArthur – Grace to You

Hebrews 5:10–6:20

Spelling errors can be changed with an eraser or liquid paper. When you get lost trying to follow a map. you can ask for help. But there is one mistake that doesn’t give a second chance; rejecting salvation through Christ. Once a person comes face-to-face with God. his eternal destiny is established.

What can you say to someone who knows and understands how to become a Christian but doesn’t? And what does God have to say about those who fully know the gospel message but don’t take the final step of receiving Christ as their Lord and Savior?

These messages will spur your heart to have greater concern for unbelievers!

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The Passing of the Saints

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Precious Deaths,” delivered February 18, 1872.

Let us be persuaded of this, that no believer dies an untimely death. In every consistent Christian’s case that promise is true, “With long life also will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation;” for long life is not to be reckoned by years as men count them. He lives longest who lives best. Many a man has crowded half a century into a single year. God gives his people life, not as the clock ticks, but as he helps them to serve him; and he can make them to live much in a short space of time. There are no untimely figs gathered into God’s basket; the great Master of the vineyard plucks the grapes when they are ripe and ready to be taken, and not before. Saintly deaths are precious in his sight.

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The Heart of True Ethics

By John MacArthur – Grace to You

It is common in the evangelical church today for people to verbally acknowledge that the Bible, as God’s Word, is the final authority for both what they believe and how they live. Yet in reality, a clear connection between that public confession and personal conduct is rare.

Instead of looking to the Bible, many professing Christians look to psychology and sociology for supposed solutions to personal needs and social ills. The rise of postmodern thought has similarly skewed the church’s understanding of right and wrong—as an unbiblical tolerance (in the name of love) has weakened churches to the point where they are as soft on truth as they are on sin. Popular television shows, from Oprah to Leno to the average sitcom, have had a tangible effect (and not for the better) on how American Christians think through everyday issues. The political arena, too, has played a major role in shaping an evangelical understanding of morality, as words like “Republican” and “Democrat” or “liberal” and “conservative” have come to redefine the difference between what is good and what is evil.

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If God is good, why is there so much suffering in the world?

Robert Passantino

If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering in the World?

Each of us has watched a loved one die, been the victim of a crime, lived among the poverty-stricken, or in some way been confronted with the reality of suffering. Human history sometimes seems like one long chronicle of suffering and despair. In the midst of suffering we cry out,

Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of the soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure. . . . For sighing comes to me instead of food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil. [Job 3:20-21, 24-26]

Why is there suffering? Why are the innocent victimized? Is there purpose in pain? Is there any escape? For the Christian, who believes that God is all-good and all-powerful, answers to these questions are especially important. Continue reading →

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Jesus and Judas

John MacArthur – Grace to You

John 13:18-30

Turn to John 18, starting in verse 13. Jesus, speaking to His disciples, says,”‘I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with Me has lifteth up his heel against Me. Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he who receiveth whomever I send, receiveth Me. And He that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me. When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.’ Then the disciples looked

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Quench Not

D.L. Moody :

In 1st Thessalonians, 5th chapter, we are told not to Quench the Spirit. Now, I am confident the cares of the world are coming in and quenching the Spirit with a great many. They say: “I don’t care for the world;” perhaps not the pleasures of the world so much after all as the cares of this life; but they have just let the cares come in and quench the Spirit of God. Anything that comes between me and God – between my soul and God –

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Picking up the Bible

D.L. Moody

The hardest thing, I will admit, ever a man had to do is to become a Christian, and yet it is the easiest. This seems to many to be a paradox, but I will repeat it; it is the most difficult thing to become a Christian, and yet it is the easiest. I have a little nephew in Chicago. When he was three or four years of age, he threw that Bible on the floor. I think a good deal of that Bible, and I didn’t like to see this. His mother said to him, “Go, pick up your uncle’s Bible from the floor.” “I won’t,” he replied. “Go and pick that Bible up directly.” “I won’t.” “What did you say?” asked his mother. She thought he didn’t understand. But he

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God: Is He? Who Is He?

John MacArthur – Grace to You

“The world is full of either philosophic or pragmatic atheists–they either don’t believe in God, or if they do, they live as if His existence had no effect on them. In sharing Christ with them, it’s helpful to know which kind of atheist they are. Determine how you might alter your presentation of God’s truth to match the type of person you’re sharing with. For some ideas, compare Stephen’s address to the Jewish religious leaders (Acts 7) and Paul’s address to Gentile philosophers (Acts 17:18-34).”

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