How Can God Justify The Wicked?

Paul Washer answers the question: How can God justify the wicked?



HT: Truth Matters

THE BURDEN FOR REFORMATION AND REVIVAL

...prayer; contrition; and confession posted by Steve Camp

Oh Lord, send a great awakening among your people again according to Your Word; by Your Holy Spirit, for the praise of Your glory, for the spread of Your gospel, for the holiness of Your people. Leave us not in the condition in which we awoke this morning, but conform us by Your grace to Christlikeness so that we may be vessels fit for the Master's use.

This only is a work of heaven--for no man can conjure up a genuine move of God; no man can transform the heart of another; no man can stir the conscience to repentance, convict the soul of sin, and invoke contrition over iniquity. All our ways are impotent before You; and even when we have done all to obey You, we are still "unprofitable servants."

But the true church marches on her knees; and so may we run into the prayer closet this very hour, shut the door and see what You by Your sovereign grace will accomplish. For "it is not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit" says the Lord.

Forgive us Lord for being consumed with the advancement of our own ministries at the expense of others, for measuring the effectiveness of Your work by the size of a church's yearly offerings, and for charging others for that which we have received freely by Your grace. Dash to the ground our paltry plans, our self-devised and promoted reputations, our carefully positioned and politically aligned agendas and alliances. As my friend once said, "How can we be so dead when we've been so well fed; Jesus rose from the grave, but we, we can't even get out of bed."

May The Swordsman, by His divine sword, whittle us down to size as You did Gideon of old, so that we may not find comfort, resolve, or hope in our own strength, wisdom or wealth. May all our lowly boasting turn to tears, all our pride turn to dust, all our vain exaltations of self turn to ash; may our "laughter turn to mourning and our joy to heaviness" until reformation comes... until revival comes to Your people. Break our stubborn hearts with the hammer of Your Word and humble us under Your reverential fear until our deepest longing, passion and joy is found only in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Glorify Yourself for Your names sake only...
Steve
Col. 1:9-14

Read the full post here.

The Gospel According to Jesus ...repent and believe

by Ichabod Spencer

Mark 1:15 "Repent ye, and believe the Gospel."
These are the words of our blessed Saviour, addressed to poor guilty sinners like you and me. But what is repentance? It is a work of the Spirit of God upon the heart, producing such an inward sense of the evil and guilt of sin, as makes a man wonder that he is out of hell; such a hatred of sin as causes a man to forsake it; and such an apprehension of the consequences of sin, as makes a man willing to be saved wholly and solely through what Jesus Christ has done and suffered for lost souls. The penitent sinner is convinced that sin deserves punishment; that he himself, as a sinner, is liable to the wrath of God; that sin must be pardoned or punished; that he can make no amends for the least of his transgressions; and consequently that his salvation must be all of grace.

The man thus humbled, is prepared to welcome the news of a Saviour who came to seek and to save that which was lost (Matt. 18:11). Such is the Gospel. It is glad tidings to a lost, guilty world. The sum and substance of it is this, that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15). He died to make satisfaction for their sins; and being God and man in one Saviour, "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Heb. 7:25). His blood being the blood of God incarnate (Acts 20:28), was infinitely meritorious; and it was shed for this very purpose, to take away sin; so that if your sins, poor self-condemned sinner, are more in number than the hairs of your head, or the sand on the sea shore; if they are great and aggravated, and red like scarlet, yet there is hope. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth (hath virtue to cleanse) us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

But how am I to become interested in this, and get comfort of it? "Believe the Gospel:" rely on what the Word of God says about Jesus Christ, and His willingness and power to save sinners. But may I without presumption believe that Jesus Christ came to save such a wretch as I am? Yes, "this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 3:23). There can be no presumption in doing what God has commanded, and taking God at His Word.

HT: http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com

John Piper - The gospel saves from morality

"Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul: Learning from the Mind and Heart of C. S. Lewis"
Desiring God 2010 Conference for Pastors
February 2, 2010

Full video @: http://tinyurl.com/y88ymw9

Warning to Professing Christians

By Albert N. Martin
Bible Text: Matthew 7:21
Preached on: Sunday, January 23, 1994

I want you in that day when you stand with me before the judge of the world to have him say, “Come you blessed.”

I don’t want to look at you standing there saying, “Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, I named you in earth. I named you before the elders. I named you before the church. I named you in prayer meeting. I named you in witness. And, Lord, now, Lord, Lord, did I not this, did I not that?”

I don’t want to hear him say, “Depart from me. I never knew you, you worker of iniquity. You never were made a doer of the will of God. You learned enough and you learned what to say properly enough to be accepted for what you professed yourself to be on earth. But now the day of judgment is come and the truth is now to be known.”

Listen to the full sermon below.

Fixing Our Eyes On The Cross

Art Azurdia "Fixing Our Eyes On The Cross". Message was delivered at the Masters College in California. Visit www.spiritempoweredpreaching.c om for more of Art Azurdia's messages.



HT: http://5ptsalt.com

Believing is the Evidence of the New Birth

Awesome explanation of the new birth by John Piper!

The "Seeker"-Sensitive Gospel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HobzJEJJ03w

What I Believe About Election by Jack Brooks

I was recently asked why I described myself as a moderate Calvinist. The "moderate" part reflects the fact that I understand the Scripture to teach that, in some sense, Christ died for everyone without exception. Christ provided the possibility of redemption for everyone, and an actual redemption is applied only to the elect -- those who are given the gift of faith. The logic problems that my five-point Calvinist brethren immediately raise don't sway me, since the only concern I choose to have is over what specific verses actually say in the original languages -- not how many logic syllogisms my view might seem to contradict, or how one escapes "double jeopardy", and so on. Those philosophical objections don't matter to the question, "what does this verse mean?" because, in the end, they are philosophical objections, not exegetical questions. Only exegetical principles matter when one is asking the question, "What does this verse mean?" The question, "How can I reconcile this with these other ideas over here" is a secondary, or even a tertiary, concern. Not a primary concern. Limited atonement does not survive consistent, thorough-going exegetical analysis. It's our job to iron out any wrinkles that the exegesis might create in the over-all fabric of our systematic theology.

But what about election to salvation?

It is impossible for God to elect anyone to salvation on the condition of foreseeing the sinner's willingness, or exercise of faith. This is because sinners are not capable of being willing, or of exercising faith, apart from the grace of God causing them to become so. Sinners are dead, not wounded. They have zero godly virtue in their hearts. All their righteousness is like filthy rags in the eyes of God. Lost people, that is, people who are still in their natural, Adamic condition, cannot exercise faith in Christ. An unregenerate person is incapable of accepting, welcoming, embracing the truths of God's Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12-14). It isn't just that the sinner will not accept them. He cannot accept them.

Unbelievers are spiritually blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). They do not want to find God (Romans 3:11). They commit sins, not because of bad up-bringing, but because their hearts are hardened by sin (Ephesians 4:17-18). Their thoughts and actions are controlled by sinful lust, lusts of both body and mind, which are inflamed by the prince of the power of the air, Satan (Ephesians 2:3). Non-Christians have no ability to put faith in Christ (John 6:44, 65).

To affirm free will, as "free will" is commonly understood, is the same thing as denying the Bible's teachings about sin, and its effects on the human race.

God chose us to be saved (2 Thessalonians 2:13). He didn't chose for us to just have an opportunity to be saved, but to actually be saved. According to this text, the two-sided method God used was the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit (exerted on our hearts prior to faith) and our faith in the Gospel. God chose to do this for us prior to the creation of the universe. He could not foresee our faith, because we had no faith for Him to foresee, nor did we have any ability to have faith for Him to foresee. Any faith God might foresee was foreseen because He put it in our hearts. The ultimate goal of our salvation is to enable us to attain Christ's resurrection glory.

Read Jesus' words in John 6 carefully. Jesus was the most "Calvinistic" preacher around. Jesus said that sinners come to Him because the heavenly Father first gave them to Christ (John 6:37). It is impossible for anyone given to Christ by God not to come (John 6:37). The converting work of the Spirit cannot be successfully resisted. It is impossible for anyone who comes to Christ to fall away and be lost (John 6:39-40). God irresistibly draws the sinner to Christ by spiritually teaching him or her the truth of the Gospel (John 6:45).

God desires many things that never happen. God did not desire Joseph's brothers to sin against Joseph, because God hates sin, but He ordained that they should go ahead and sin against Joseph, for a higher purpose of His own intent (Genesis 50:20). God predetermined that Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Romans, and the people of Israel should reject Jesus, and crucify Him (Acts 4:27). He found displeasure in their sin, but preordained that they should act as they did, fully in obedience to their own wicked souls. God calls all men everywhere to repent, while at the same time knowing that all men everywhere will not repent. Even Arminians teach this, and don't charge God with insincerity. So we cannot charge God with insincerity in regards to election, either.

The affirmation of free will reflects a humanistic, anti-Biblical view of the spiritual condition of lost mankind. The Bible clearly teaches that everyone's heart is in bondage to Satan. You can baptize them until they drown, it won't save them. You can fill them with consecrated bread and wine until they can eat and drink no more, and it won't save them. You can strive to live a faithful Christian life until the day you die, and it doesn't save you. God, by Himself alone, saves you, from beginning to end.

HT: Truth Matters
Source: http://newcovenantliving.blogspot.com

Serious Preaching by Jim Elliff

I have been considering for some time the desperate condition of preaching in the West. I have even toyed with the idea of writing a booklet entitled Serious Preaching. Such preaching is out of vogue, but I still believe in it. Please know that I’m not talking about serious sweating. It used to be said that if a man didn't fill his hanky with sweat, make himself hoarse with screaming and wind up walking on about two inches of his pants cuff, he hadn’t really preached at all! Billy Sunday, the baseball-player-turned-evangelist of the early 1900’s, was like that. But, with all the humor and quaintness of his message and style, after reading his sermons (and even hearing one on tape) I am left empty. He could rivet a sinner with words like a machine gunner, he could wave his chair and compel them to listen, he could lure them down the “sawdust trail” (his words, by the way), but all in all, nothing very important was said. It is easy to wave a Bible and yet never preach it. There are many who have fought hard for the inerrancy of Scripture who don’t sufficiently break open the Bible they fought for. No, What we need is doctrinal preaching...real solid truth.

Read the rest of the article here.

Air Conditioning Hell: How Liberalism Happens

by Albert Mohler

Though any number of central beliefs and core doctrines were subjected to liberal revision or outright rejection, the doctrine of hell was often the object of greatest protest and denial.

Considering hell and its related doctrines, Congregationalist pastor Washington Gladden declared: "To teach such a doctrine as this about God is to inflict upon religion a terrible injury and to subvert the very foundations of morality."[3]

Though hell had been a fixture of Christian theology since the New Testament, it became an odium theologium—a doctrine considered repugnant by the larger culture and now retained and defended only by those who saw themselves as self-consciously orthodox in theological commitment.

Novelist David Lodge dated the final demise of hell to the decade of the 1960s. "At some point in the nineteen-sixties, Hell disappeared. No one could say for certain when this happened. First it was there, then it wasn't." University of Chicago historian Martin Marty saw the transition as simple and, by the time it actually occurred, hardly observed. "Hell disappeared. No one noticed," he asserted.[4]

The liberal theologians and preachers who so conveniently discarded hell did so without denying that the Bible clearly teaches the doctrine. They simply asserted the higher authority of the culture's sense of morality. In order to save Christianity from the moral and intellectual damage done by the doctrine, hell simply had to go. Many rejected the doctrine with gusto, claiming the mandate to update the faith in a new intellectual age. Others simply let the doctrine go dormant, never to be mentioned in polite company.

What of today's evangelicals? Though some lampoon the stereotypical "hell-fire and brimstone" preaching of an older evangelical generation, the fact is that most church members may never have heard a sermon on hell—even in an evangelical congregation. Has hell gone dormant among evangelicals as well?

Read the full article here.

Do You Have Integrity? - Tim Conway

Watch the full sermon here.

Catholic Mysticism and the Emerging Church Reexamined

A very important presentation by Richard Bennett from Bearean Beacon given to an audience in London.

Mysticism attempts to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. Catholic mysticism, now officially married to the Emerging Church, needs to be reexamined.

Public Passion VS Private Devotion

by Francis Chan

It is hard to be rejected. I hated it in junior high, and I still hate it today. It didn’t take long to learn how to fit in, in order to avoid the pain of rejection. That ability has stayed with me and begs me to use it. I know how to keep people from rejecting me and leaving the church. I know what words to say and which actions to take to keep people around. But when I do that, I’m no longer leading. I’m being led by the right or wrong desires of the people.

God calls us to give people what they need. Based on His word, regardless of whether they stick around. Jesus led. Few followed, but He kept leading.

Last summer I came to a shocking realization that I had to share with my wife: If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger. People would leave His church to attend mine because I call for an easier commitment. I know better how to cater to people’s desires so they stick around. Jesus was never really good at that. He was the one who said, “He who loves father or mother … son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37 NIV) I’m much more popular than Jesus.

Having come to that conclusion, I came back to the church with resolve to call people to the same commitment Christ called them to. I knew that people would leave, and they have. I found comfort in that because, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26 NIV) Over time though, the conviction can fade, and it gets tiresome seeing people leave. There is a constant pull to try to keep people around rather than truly lead the faithful who remain. When my church was started, I used to tell my wife that I didn’t care if we only had ten people, as long as they really loved God and desired to worship Him with all of their hearts. Where is that conviction now?

Read the full post here

Heavenly-minded, Courageous John Bradford

By Steve Burchett

What would inspire a man to fearlessly preach Christ and offer words of hope in the minutes just before he was burned to death on a stake? Consider the life, and death, of John Bradford.

John Bradford lived in Britain in the 16th century. He was born around 1510, converted in 1547, and he became a "roving chaplain" in 1550, rebuking sin and preaching Christ. Eventually, the rule in Britain was handed over to a rogue regime set against the gospel. The ensuing persecution was fierce, and Bradford was imprisoned because of his love for Christ. He was ultimately condemned to die by wicked men. Another believer, 19 year-old John Leaf, was to be killed beside Bradford. Finally, the day of their martyrdom arrived. Faith Cook tells what happened next:

Approaching the stake, both men fell on their faces in one brief moment of silent prayer. "Arise and make an end," said the sheriff impatiently, "for the press of the people is great." And so the martyrs were chained to the stake. Just moments before the fires were lit, John Bradford lifted up his face and hands in one last plea to his countrymen: "O England, England, repent thee of thy sins. Beware of false anti-christs; take heed they do not deceive you." He asked forgiveness of any he might have wronged and freely forgave those who so grievously offended against him. After begging the prayers of the people, he turned to address young John Leaf, his fellow-sufferer. The words are unforgettable: "Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night!"1

What gave John Bradford the courage to live, and die, for His Savior? Was he just a naturally gutsy guy? No, Bradford's courage was inspired by his knowledge of the eternal inheritance to come. Read again these words of Bradford to John Leaf: "Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night!" Because Bradford's mind was enthralled with future blessings in eternity, he was freed from the fear of man and the comforts of this world.

Even while Bradford was sitting in prison, his thoughts were on the joys of heaven. He wrote the following to his loved ones:

Ah! dear hearts, be not faint-hearted. Continue to walk in the fear of the Lord, as you have well begun. At the length we shall meet together in Christ's kingdom, and there never part asunder . . . O joyful place; O place of all places desired!2

John Bradford endured suffering and death for Christ because he knew and believed God's promises. He did what Peter charged his suffering readers to do: "Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). Bradford was like Abraham who "by faith . . . lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land . . . for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:9-10, emphasis added).

Bradford understood and believed what those suffering Christians knew in Hebrews 10:34. Faced with the choice to either hide and avoid persecution, or visit fellow believers in prison and lose their goods, the author of Hebrews writes, "For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one" (emphasis mine). Like these believers, Bradford's fixation with heaven was the key to his courageous faith.

What was the impact of Bradford's life and death? Cook writes that he confirmed "by his death the truth of that doctrine he had so diligently and powerfully preached" and "inscribed the Reformation truths more deeply on the conscience of the nation."3 He had previously prayed that God would give him strength to glorify Him by his death. His prayer was answered.

John Bradford teaches us the importance of living in light of the hope that awaits us in Christ in heaven. By filling our minds with the truth about the blessings of eternity (which will take more than just a few minutes a day of meditation on Scripture!), we will be strengthened to live for Christ today. This means we must beware of bondage to anything this world has to offer, like the television, or computers, or supped-up technological gadgets. Those things are not wicked, but habitually overusing them will dull your affections for Christ and make you a selfish person who lives a cozy, Christ-denying, non-influential life.

"So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." (Hebrews 13:13-14)

_________________________

1 Faith Cook, Singing in the Fire (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2008), 7-8.
2 Ibid., 6.
3 Ibid., 8.

Copyright © 2009 Steve Burchett. Permission granted for reproduction in exact form, including web address. All other uses require written permission.
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