Salvation

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CHRIST’S LONELINESS AND OURS

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Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon 

NO. 3052

A Sermon published on Thursday , August 8 , 1907 , At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington 

“Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour comes, yes, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every
man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”
John 16:31, 32

“Do you now believe?” Then it seems that faith held them fast to Christ, but as soon as fear prevailed they were scattered and left their Master alone. Faith has an attracting and upholding power. It is the root of constancy and the source of perseverance under the power of God’s Spirit. While we believe, we remain faithful to our Lord. When we are unbelieving, we are scattered, “every man to his own.” While we trust, we follow closely. When we give way to fear, we ungratefully forsake our Lord. May the Holy Spirit maintain our faith in full vigor that it may nourish all our other Graces! Faith being strong, no faculty of the inner man will languish, but if faith declines, the energy of our spiritual nature speedily decays. If you believe not, you shall not be established, but “the just shall live by faith” to the fullest force of life.

This being noted, our meditation shall now be fixed alone upon the Savior’s loneliness and the measure in which the Believer is brought into the same condition.

I. THE LONELINESS OF THE SAVIOR. Continue reading →

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Man’s Need of Salvation: Total Depravity and Man’s Inability

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By: Brian Schwertley

 

We begin our study of God’s sovereign grace in salvation with the biblical teaching regarding the effect of the fall upon man and the doctrine of original sin. This teaching is crucial for understanding the doctrine of salvation because one’s understanding of the effects of the fall upon mankind will largely determine one’s view of salvation. In other words, a person’s view of man’s state resulting from Adam’s sin is foundational to that person’s concept of how man appropriates salvation. Obviously, a person who views man as spiritually dead and unable to do anything that meets with God’s approval will view salvation differently than a person who believes that man is sick and weakened but is still able to cooperate with God in the salvation process.

What Happened When Adam Sinned? Continue reading →

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Soaking Prayer? The New NAR Pagan Approach, Beware !

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This trend will surely reach our shores soon, if it is not already in South Africa. Beware and run from these type of false teachings, beloved brothers and sisters. This new ludicrous practice is part of the New Apostolic Reformation movement (NAR) as it is typical of their style of teaching. Do not be deceived, there is nothing Biblical about this latest trend from NAR. This latest pagan ritual called “soaking prayer” is nothing but a form of Contemplative spirituality, an eastern form of meditation wrapped in a nice colored paper and disguised under the banner of Christianity. It is pagan Mysticism. Dr John MacArthur says the following about NAR :

“NAR, the New Apostolic Reformation. It is not new, it is not apostolic, and it is not a reformation, by the way. It is like Grape-Nuts, it’s not grapes and it’s not nuts, it’s like Christian Science, it’s not Christian and it’s not scientific. Well the New Apostolic Reformation isn’t new, it isn’t apostolic and it isn’t a reformation. But it is a rapidly expanding movement being generated by some of the same old troubling false teachers and false leaders that have been around in Charismania for decades, always dishonoring the Holy Spirit, always dishonoring the Scripture, always claiming miracle signs, wonders, visions, dreams.”

We previously reported on NAR in an article here: Warning! Rick Joyner to visit South Africa and Join hands with Angus Buchan

Here is how Dr  John MacArthur explains Contemplative spirituality:

Contemplative spirituality is an extremely dangerous practice for any person who desires to live a biblical, God-centered life. It is most commonly associated with the emerging church movement, which is riddled with false teachings. It is also used by many different groups that have little, if any, connection with Christianity.

In practice, contemplative spirituality is primarily centered on meditation, although not meditation with a biblical perspective. Passages such as Joshua 1:8 actually exhort us to meditate: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Notice what the focus of meditation should be—the Word of God. Contemplative spirituality-driven meditation focuses on nothing, literally. A practitioner is exhorted to completely empty his/her mind, to just “be.” Supposedly, this helps one to open up to a greater spiritual experience. However, we are exhorted in Scripture to transform our minds to that of Christ’s, to have His mind. Emptying our minds is contrary to such active, conscious transformation. Continue reading →

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The End of Self….The Beginning of Christ

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Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
taken from: Cured At Last!, sermon No. 2018, April 8, 1888.

“All that you do apart from Jesus, in order to win salvation, will only cause you increased suffering. You have tried to save yourself by prayers. Your prayers have turned your thoughts upon your sin and its punishment and thus you have become more wretched than before. You have attended to ceremonies and if you have used them sincerely, they have worked in you a solemn sense of the holiness of God and of your own distance from Him. And this, though very proper, has only increased your sorrow. You have been trying to feel good and to do good, that so you may be good. But the very effort has made you feel how far off you are from the goodness you so much desire.

Your self-denial has excited cravings after evil and your mortifications have given new life to your pride. Efforts after salvation made in your own strength act like the struggles of a drowning man, which sink the more surely. As the fruit of your desperate efforts, you have suffered all the more. In the end I trust this may work for your good, but up till now it has served no healing purpose—you are now at death’s door and all your praying, weeping, Church-going, Chapel-going and sacrament-taking—do not help you one bit. There has been this peculiarly poignant pang about it all, that you are not better. Cheerily did you hope but cruelly are you disappointed. Continue reading →

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Some Important Questions To Ask About ” Discernment Ministries “

Discernment ministries

How to Discern : What of the Watchmen? 

Here are some important questions to ask about discernment ministries:

What attitude do they display? Is it one of arrogance and pride and do they feel that they are better than those poor heretics over there? Or do they genuinely mourn and weep over the state of the church? Do they speak with humility and grace, recognizing that it is only the grace of God that has kept them? Do they feel that they are superior to everyone else and God’s only remnant? (The series “Contentiously Contending” deal with this in more detail see below.)

Who are the faces behind that particular ministry? What are their personal lives like? Do they have a history of serving the churches and standing for truth? Are they in fellowship with other believers and ministries and do they serve a local church or are they loose cannons?

What is their motive? Is it revenge, profit, fame and importance? Or is it love for the Lord, His Word and His People? (The previous article “Who’s Who?” applies as much to discernment ministries as to preachers.)  Continue reading →

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Free-willism is clearly Blasphemy and Idolatry

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Grant Swart

Free-Willism, Legalism, Arminianism, Blasphemy and Idolatry are some of the parts which combine to form the body of a dreadful and monstrous beast which runs fiercely and defiantly through the church.

A vile and detestable thing exists, a pestilence and disease which causes festering sores to form on the belief system of many who congregate in so many churches today. Grotesquely seething and bubbling, it places a burden of immeasurable weight onto the backs of those who become infected by it. It is a virulent disease carried by a beast of biblical proportions, and which can only be eradicated by the dedicated and correct application of the Word of God. Such correct application as can only be facilitated by means of God’s free and Sovereign grace.

The phenomenal and odiferous beast has been proliferated from within the teachings of certain men Continue reading →

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Getting Past the TULIP

Tulip Nico

Michael S. Horton

“Like Christ’s redeeming work, then, faith is not merely offered but is actually conferred, by sheer grace and without any obligation to grant it.”

Just as Luther’s followers preferred to be called “evangelicals” but were labeled “Lutherans” by Rome, around 1558 Lutherans coined the term “Calvinist” for those who held Calvin’s view of the Supper over against both Zwingli and Luther. Despite self-chosen labels such as “evangelical” and “Reformed” (preferred because the aim was always to reform the catholic church rather than start a new one), “Calvinism” unfortunately stuck as a popular nickname.

No Central Dogma  Continue reading →

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GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY DEFINED

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People who vehemently fight against the Doctrines of Grace,  have NO understanding of Scripture,  it is due to a lack of understanding and reading the Word of God. This is why there are so many , stupid , senseless ugly arguments about the doctrines of election on Social media. People are not taught the Bible at most churches today, hence the lack of and rejection of the Bible. People wake up and study the Word! Continue reading →

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Another Gospel

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A W PINK (1886-1952) 

Satan is not an initiator but an imitator. God has an only begotten Son-the Lord Jesus, so has Satan-”the son of Perdition” (2 Thess.2:3). There is a Holy Trinity, and there is likewise a Trinity of Evil (Rev. 20:10). Do we read of the “children of God,” so also we read of “the children of the wicked one” ( Matthew 13:38). Does God work in the former both to will and to do of His good pleasure, then we are told that Satan is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). Is there a “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16), so also is there a “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess 2:7). Are we told that God by His angels “seals” His servants in their foreheads (Rev 7:3), so also we learn that Satan by his agents sets a mark in the foreheads of his devotees (Rev. 13:16). Are we told that “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), then Satan also provides his “deep things” (Greek-Rev. 2:24). Did Christ perform miracles, so also can Satan (2 Thess. 2:9). Is Christ seated upon a throne, so is Satan (Greek-Rev. 2:13). Has Christ a Church, then Satan has his “synagogue” (Rev 2:9). Is Christ the Light of the world, then so is Satan himself “transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). Did Christ appoint “apostles,” then Satan has his apostles, too (2 Cor. 11:13). And this leads us to consider: “The Gospel of Satan.”

Satan is the arch-counterfeiter. The Devil is now busy at work in the same field in which the Lord sowed the good seed. He is seeking to prevent the growth of the wheat by another plant, the tares, which closely resembles the wheat in appearance. In a word, by a process of imitation he is aiming to neutralize the Work of Christ. Therefore, as Christ has a Gospel, Satan has a gospel too; the latter being a clever counterfeit of the former. So closely does the gospel of Satan resemble that which it parodies, multitudes of the unsaved are deceived by it. Continue reading →

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If God is so powerful and so good, why do bad things happen?

 “SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD”

“Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

There are basically two aspects in any definition of sovereignty. In order for anyone to be a king he must possess, (1) Absolute Authority, and, (2) All Power. A king must have the right to rule, and the ability to carry out his will. God said through Isaiah, “.. for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me .. My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isa. 46:9-10. Our God is a unique King in that his reign is eternal, “..the LORD sitteth King for ever.” Psa. 29:10.

A — DEFINITION OF SOVEREIGNTY:

“That the great God, blessed for ever, hath an absolute power and right dominion over his creatures, to dispose and determine of them as seemeth him good. Elisha Coles, God’s Sovereignty.” P 1.

B — PLACE OF SOVEREIGNTY:

We are not to think necessarily that sovereignty is an attribute of God. It is the conclusion of all His attributes. When we read that God is holy, just, love, gracious, merciful, all-wise, all-powerful, yea, all the works of God we see displayed, we reckon that He is sovereign! This is of extreme value to the child of God, to know there is no greater than his God.

“Although the sovereignty of God is universal and absolute, it is not the sovereignty of blind power. It is coupled with infinite wisdom, holiness, and love. And this doctrine, when properly understood, is a most comforting and reassuring one. Who would not prefer to have his affairs in the hands of a God of infinite power, wisdom, holiness and love, rather than to have them left to fate, or chance, or irrevocable natural law, or to short-sighted and perverted self? Those who reject God’s sovereignty should consider what alternatives they have left.” Loraine Boettner.

All of the works of God described in the Bible indicate that He is sovereign and that he has such authority and power, even as we are told in our text, “..the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” When John, in the Revelation, saw inside heaven he saw, “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.” Rev.21:22 Continue reading →

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Abhoring Error and Loving the Truth

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— By Horatius Bonar

“Our Reformers, following Scripture, abhorred error. They regarded it as sin, as in itself evil, and as the root of almost every evil. They loved truth, upheld it, sought to spread it. They eschewed error as poison; they prized truth as medicine, containing in it the world’s true health. They knew that men might have it and yet not use it, that they might abuse it, that they might ‘hold it in unrighteousness;’ but they loved it still, and refused to believe that any untruth, however beautiful, however well argued or well adorned, however recommended by authority, or antiquity, or genius, could be available for the revivification of collapsed prostrate Europe, for expelling the poison of ages from the veins of humanity, for bracing the constitution of the race, even apart from the great purpose of saving the lost, of gathering in the chosen of the Father, the purchased of the Son.

Our Reformers, working on the model of the Bible, laboured to set truth before the nations. They did not despise ‘head knowledge.’ They were careful that head knowledge should be true knowledge; and, in so far as it was so, they urged its widest propagation; undeterred by the thought which acts as a drag or damper on some, ‘What is the use of head knowledge without heart knowledge?’ They had confidence in truth, because it was of God, and because it was the representative of Him who is the wisdom and the truth of God. Continue reading →

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THREE RELIGIOUS FABLES

To argue that God is “trying His best” to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature is omnipotent.” -A.W. Pink

Pastor Don Fortner

The prophecy made by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 has come to pass in our day. All over the world men, and women, and boys, and girls gather in religious assemblies. Some are very solemn. Others can barely be distinguished from dance hall revelry. But they gather in the name of Christ to worship God. They read the Bible, say their prayers, invoke God’s blessing, and give their money. They are devoted. They are sincere. But they are lost! They have faith; but theirs is a false faith. They have hope; but their hope is a delusion. Having been led and taught by blind and ignorant men, “They will not endure sought doctrine; but after their own lusts…they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears…They turn away their ears from the truth and (have been) turned into fables.”

I am not talking about Hindus, Buddhist, and Muslims. I am talking about men and women who profess to know, worship, trust, and serve the living God by faith in his Son Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. I am talking about our friends, relatives, and neighbors. I am talking about many of you. You have turned away from the truth have been turned unto fables. Do I have your attention? If you will pay attention to the Word of God, God just might teach you something. Continue reading →

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The Dangers of Arminianism: Part 1 of 2

All free will, works religion, Arminianism in every form, under any denominational name is false religion. It may call itself Christian. But it is not Christian at all. Such religion is utter paganism! It is a total denial of God’s free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ (Gal. 5:2, 4). Any mixture of works with grace is a total denial of grace (Rom. 11:6). To assert that salvation is by the will of man is to deny that “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jon. 2:9; Rom. 9:16). – Don Fortner

I do not serve the god of the Arminians at all; I have nothing to do with him, and I do not bow down before the Baal they have set up; he is not my God, nor shall he ever be; I fear him not, nor tremble at his presence…The God that saith today and denieth tomorrow, that justifieth today and condemns the next…is no relation to my God in the least degree. He may be a relation of Ashtaroth or Baal, but Jehovah never was or can be his name.” – C.H. Spurgeon

 

The Dangers of Arminianism (Part 1 of 2)

by Jim Van Winkle
re-posted by Grant Swart


OUTLINE

I. ARMINIANISM FOSTERS THEOLOGICAL CONFUSION

A. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION
B. A FALSE TEACHING ON GOD’S DECREE
C. A FALSE TEACHING ON FOREKNOWLEDGE
D. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
E. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF CALLING
F. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION
G. A FALSE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ATONEMENT
H. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION
I. A FALSE TEACHING ON GOD’S PROVIDENCE
J. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF SOVEREIGNTY
K. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF ASSURANCE
L. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF OMNISCIENCE
M. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF IMPUTATION
N. A FALSE DOCTRINE OF DEPRAVITY

INTRODUCTION

Having been reared in American Evangelicalism for the better part of our lives most of us have come to hold very benign views of Arminianism. To us Calvinism versus Arminianism debates have always been rather peripheral arguments not founded upon anything substantial, doctrinally (although it was at the heart of the Protestant Reformation). Many of us in fact were taught that we were a little Continue reading →

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The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women

As Spurgeon cried with deep insight: “Once a church or individual Christian gets on the downgrade, momentum takes over, recovery is unusual.” And there our modern church is found falling away in profound decadency with most churches having “ICHABOD” written on their doors.

The issue of Women Preachers is just one of the symptoms of this malaise of the church and so from all sides the word now used is “Post Christian Era”. But here we are dealing with this “cancer” of women preachers in the church. The Bible speaks too clearly on this subject for there to be any confusion. The problem is that churches too often are looking to sources other than the Bible for guidance; indeed they are fully steeped in the tenets of secularism. God loves women as much as He does men. Women are as important to the home, church, and society as men are. In Jesus Christ, women enjoy the same access to salvation and blessings before God as men do. This does not mean, though, there is no difference in men and women in their appearance and roles. There is a basic truth, which needs to be restated in the church and society today: Men and women are different and are not interchangeable! Continue reading →

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Usurping Women have been the originators of many false Charismatic movements !

One of the trademarks of Pentecostalism is that women usurp their God ordained place of submission in the church! Pentecostalism: The only religion often founded by women who usurp their place! Dominated by emotionalism!

Teaching or exercising authority over a man in the church. This includes pulpit preaching and administration.

1 Tim 2:12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, andthen Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression. 15 But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

Being a pastor/elder/overseer. 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1 explicitly identify that pastors MUST BE MEN.

1 Timothy 3:1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, uncontentious, free from the love of money. 4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 and not a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Notice that the prohibition against women teaching or exercising authority over men in the church is IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY THE CLEAR STATEMENT THAT ONLY MEN CAN BE OVERSEERS/PASTORS! One continuous text!

Miram ~ 1500 BC Continue reading →