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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.

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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.

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The Mystery of the Resurrection

Here is a wonderful sermon series I found on the Grace to You website with John MacArthur at his best as always.

With Easter in mind it is my prayer that you the reader/listener may enjoy to learn from the Word of God in this wonderful expository as only John MacArthur can !! 

Here is a short writing by  A W Tozer– Easter Meditation

THERE IS AN EXQUISITE APPROPRIATENESS in our celebrating the resurrection of Christ in the spring. When nature is waking to life again after her long winter of sleep, it is then that the thoughts of Christians everywhere are turned to the wonder of the Savior’s coming out of the tomb after His ordeal with sin and death. Christ’s resurrection was an act once accomplished at a given moment in history. It does not in any sense depend upon seasons or celebrations, nor does the miracle of the springtime add anything to the glory of the once-done deed. The workings of God in nature do, however, cast a warm light upon His workings in redemption and the springtime of life in the earth illustrates the miracle of life in the new creation.

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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)

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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?

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How to Treat False Teachers, Part 2

John MacArthur – Grace to You

1 Timothy 1:7-11

Let’s open our Bibles this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 1.  We’re looking again at verses 3 through 11.  The opening charge that is given from the Apostle Paul to Timothy to carry out a work in the church and the region around the church in Ephesus.

Now as I mentioned last time, the primary objective that Paul has in mind with Timothy in the writing of this epistle is to encourage Timothy to bring the church to a place of sound doctrine and godly living.  He is concerned about the impact of false teachers, not only what they say but what they model by way of a life style.  And he is greatly concerned that Timothy reverse the impact of these false teachers.  In so writing to Timothy he has left us a letter which all of us in the church of Jesus Christ today, or in any era, can benefit from because we all face the same potential encroachment of false teaching and unholy living.

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How to Treat False Teachers, Part 1

John MacArthur – Grace to You

1 Timothy 1:3-6

Turn in your Bible to the first chapter of 1 Timothy.  We have recently begun a study of 1 Timothy.  We’ve had a couple of messages getting started, looking at the introduction, and now we come in this next section to verses 3 through 11.  This section has to do with dealing with false teachers.  I want us to take verses 3 through 11 as a unit, but we’re going to divide it between two weeks, this Lord’s day and next.

Let me introduce our study today by reminding you of something I’m sure you’re very much aware of.  In John’s gospel chapter 8 and verse 44, it reminds us that Satan is not only a murderer but Satan is also a liar.  One of the manifestations of the lying intent of Satan is the proliferation of false teachers that besiege the gospel and the church through all the history of the church’s life.  False prophets and false teachers are a part and parcel of the battle the church has to fight in every age.

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Rob Bell: “Evangelical and orthodox to the bone?” Hardly.

Grace to You Blog (a follow up) Thursday, April 14, 2011

Rob Bell is reminiscent of the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-27. He has a warped view of goodness. He talks as if his own standard of good is the norm, and Bell even suggests that God is not good if He sends people to hell.Jesus’ reply to the young inquirer (“No one is good except God alone”—v. 18) says God himself alone is the standard of true good, not any creature—certainly not a fallen creature.The Young Ruler was not saved, nor can any person be who thinks his or her own preferences determine what is truly good. That kind of arrogance reflects a damning egotism.

n his books, sermons, and videos, Rob Bell has consistently promoted views that are antithetical to biblical Christianity and hostile to historic evangelical principles.

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The Fate of the Filthy (Revelation 22)

John MacArthur – Grace to You – Bible Q & A

Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. (Revelation 22:11)

The angel’s statement seems strangely out of place in this context: “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” Some may think its connection with the command that preceded it is not immediately apparent. But the truth it dramatically conveys is that people’s response to the proclamation of the truth will fix their eternal destinies. Those who hear the truth but continue to do wrong and be filthy will by that hardened response fix their eternal destiny in hell. On the other hand, the one who continues to practice righteousness and keep himself holy gives evidence of genuine saving faith. The adverb eti (still) may have the sense of “yet more.” In that case, the meaning is that those who do wrong and are filthy in this life will be even more so in eternal hell, where there will be absolutely no good influences to mitigate their evil. In contrast, those who are righteous and holy in this life will be perfectly holy in their glorified bodies in heaven.

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The Most Important Question

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Testimony and Experience,” delivered June 2, 1872.

The most important question concerning any man living is this, is he a saved soul or no? It is of comparatively little consequence whether he be rich or poor, educated or uneducated, compared with this. Is he among the living before God or is he dead in sins? Is he pardoned or unpardoned? Is he a child of God or an heir of wrath? Is he walking in the darkness or has he passed into the light? Hence of all the days of a man’s history the most important is the day in which he is born again.

If the man be indeed saved, and a new man in Christ Jesus, he will look back upon the day of his regeneration as his chief birthday. His new birth is second in order of time, but he will always put it first in importance. His birth gave him his being, but his new birth secured his well being. Being born first we might have descended into hell; but, being born a second time we are secured for heaven.

Source : http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com


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Bells Hell Sells

Grant Swart

In keeping with our intended purpose, and as mentioned on our About page, we attempt to maintain a positive slant to the content of 4TheLoveOfTheTruth. There are certainly sufficient blogs which effectively highlight the negative deception and falsehood in the what the world sees as the Christian church.

In certain instances I feel it is warranted that attention be given to events which could have a “worse than usual” negative impact on the Christian. The recent book by Rob Bell is one of those instances. Another recent posting on this blog, in which John MacArthur addresses this issue, ties in with this short but thought-provokingly powerful piece by Ray Comfort.

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The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

By Vernelle Imaging

by R.C. Sproul

Shortly after the Reformation began, in the first few years after Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg, he issued some short booklets on a variety of subjects. One of the most provocative was titled The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In this book Luther was looking back to that period of Old Testament history when Jerusalem was destroyed by the invading armies of Babylon and the elite of the people were carried off into captivity. Luther in the sixteenth century took the image of the historic Babylonian captivity and reapplied it to his era and talked about the new Babylonian captivity of the Church. He was speaking of Rome as the modern Babylon that held the Gospel hostage with its rejection of the biblical understanding of justification. You can understand how fierce the controversy was, how polemical this title would be in that period by saying that the Church had not simply erred or strayed, but had fallen — that it’s actually now Babylonian; it is now in pagan captivity.

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The Doctrines of Grace (Part 10 of 10)

John MacArthur – Grace to You

The Doctrine of God’s Effectual Call

We have a wonderful subject to talk about tonight and I took up a little more time than I ought to have, in one sense, but wanted to share with you what I did, so we’re going to try to squeeze it in the time we have. I want you to open your Bible to Romans 8…Romans chapter 8 and let’s begin in Romans 8 with some very familiar revelation from God.

Verse 28 which is familiar to all of us is a good starting point. Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, and whom He predestined these He also called and whom He called these He also justified and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

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The Doctrines of Grace (Part 9 of 10)

John MacArthur – Grace to You

The Doctrine of Actual Atonement, Part 2

Those of you who have been with us know we are tackling some of the more challenging and profound and difficult doctrines in the Scripture. And I trust we’re having a wonderful time digging deeply into God’s precious truth.

Last Sunday night we began to look at the subject, “For whom did Christ die?” Or, “The Nature of the Atonement.” Or as I chose to call it, “The Doctrine of Actual Atonement.” And I want to go back to that. If you weren’t here last week, it really would be helpful for you to get the tape or the CD, whatever is best for you, and to listen to what I said and pair it up with what we’re going to say tonight because you’re going to get just a very abbreviated review of that important foundation.

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Do We Really Believe?

By Ken Silva pastor-teacher

on Apr 10, 2011 in Devotions

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

The bold words from Charles Spurgeon below undoubtedly ring as true to this tepid and tolerant generation of today as when he first preached them:

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The Doctrines of Grace (Part 8 of 10)

John MacArthur – Grace to You

The Doctrine of Actual Atonement, Part 1

Well, how many of you have always wanted to go to seminary?  You’re about to go tonight.  I’m going to challenge your thinking a little bit as we talk about this issue of the question, “For whom did Christ die?”  We have been looking over the last number of weeks at some very important doctrines, the doctrine of perseverance, or the preservation of the saints; the doctrine of sovereign election in salvation.  We have looked at the doctrine of total or absolute inability, that is the depravity of the sinner which renders it impossible for him to respond to the gospel.  And tonight I want to talk to you about what I’ve chosen to call, trying to give it a more accurate name, the doctrine of actual atonement…the doctrine of actual atonement.

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