If We Love a Person

J.C. Ryle

If we love a person, we like to think about him. We do not need to be reminded of him. We do not forget his name or his appearance or his character or his opinions or his tastes or his position or his occupation... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

If we love a person, we like to hear about him. We find a pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. We feel an interest in any report which others make of him... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

If we love a person, we like to read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

If we love a person, we like to please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice and do the things which he approves... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

If we love a person, we like his friends. We are favorably inclined to them, even before we know them. We are drawn to them by the common tie of common love to one and the same person... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

If we love a person, we are jealous about his name and honor. We do not like to hear him spoken against, without speaking up for him and defending him... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

If we love a person, we like to talk to him. We tell him all our thoughts, and pour out all our heart to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

Finally, if we love a person, we like to be always with him. Thinking and hearing and reading and occasionally talking are all well in their way. But when we really love people we want something more... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!

Holiness, (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press) 247-249.
HT: http://www.desiringgod.org

Jesus Christ is Your Only Hope

In this video sermon jam Bob Jennings preaches on the only hope for mankind, Jesus Christ. There is no other way anyone will ever make it to heaven but through Christ alone. (John 14:6)

The Paradox of Birth

Born once, die twice;
Born twice, die once.

There are two births and there are two deaths—the natural and the spiritual birth, and the natural and the spiritual death. The natural birth has to do with our entrance into the world, while the spiritual birth has to do with our conversion, our entrance into the kingdom of God. Natural death is separation of the soul and the spirit from the body, while spiritual death is separation from God. That is why Jesus said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).

We all know that physical life begins with a birth. Spiritual life likewise begins with a birth. We become members of the human family by birth. We become members of the family of God by birth—by being born again. There is no other way to get into God's family except by birth. Education, reformation, performing good deeds, joining a church, being religious, even trying to live a good life will not do it. "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7).

The words born again mean that a man may have a fresh start. There is a breaking with the past. Consider a baby born into the world. We are impressed by its utter pastlessness. It has nothing to regret, nothing to forget. Everything is before it, nothing behind. That "land of beginning again" is found by the sinner who believes the gospel and is thereby born again.

It is far better to be twice-born. If a man has been born but once, he will surely die twice, but if he has been born twice, he will only die once, and perhaps not even once (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

~ Coulson Shepherd

Saved by Fire or No Hope for Repentance

Excerpt of a message given by Sean Harris on Hebrews 6:1-8. Preached on: Sunday, June 26, 2011



Watch, listen or read the full message here.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Revisited

by Keith Comparetto, Faith Bible Church - Concord, New Hampshire



Press the play button to listen or click the title below to watch the full message.

The Testimony of God

by James Smith (1802—1862)

"I came to you declaring the testimony of God." 1 Corinthians 2:1

The gospel is not a cunningly devised fable, but the very word of God; it is a divine testimony; a message from Jehovah to man. It comes directly from heaven, and is addressed to us in love.

By the gospel, God testifies to us that we are totally and entirely lost by nature; that there is neither help nor hope for us but in the Lord Jesus Christ; but that in Him is all that we need, or that our circumstances require. He has . . .
pardon for all sin;
a righteousness to justify the ungodly;
peace for the troubled conscience;
life for the dying soul;
holiness for the impure and filthy;
strength for the weak and languishing;
in a word — a full salvation for the lost and perishing!

He possesses all the wealth of God. He is able to make . . .
the foolish, wise;
the guilty, just;
the filthy, clean;
the miserable, happy;
the weak, strong;
the diseased, healthy;
the carnal, spiritual; and
the slaves of Satan, the children of God.

Christ is all that God can give! Christ has all that a sinner can need. Having Christ — we can need no more; and, if we are taught by the Holy Spirit — we can be satisfied with no less.

The gospel testifies — that we are welcome to all that the fullness of Christ contains, without money and without price. God has set no price upon gospel blessings, because they are invaluable. He has prescribed no conditions, but given a universal welcome. His words are, "Whoever will — let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17.) And the testimony declares, that believing; Christ, and all He has, becomes ours! We receive Him. We are entitled to all that He has. We are interested in all He has done. His work is reckoned ours, for our justification; it is received as ours, to be the foundation of our hope; and it is pleaded as ours, and forms a prevailing plea with God. It becomes our joy, our boast, and our song, in the house of our pilgrimage.

The gospel testifies — that true faith always produces penitence, and leads to holiness. The believing heart and the weeping eye go together. If we really believe — we daily repent. We cannot repent of sin — unless we believe in Jesus. And we do not believe in Jesus — unless we repent of sin. Faith produces godly sorrow — and godly sorrow leads to holiness of life. The stronger our faith — the deeper our penitence; and the deeper our repentance — the holier our life.

Never be satisfied with faith without a broken heart; nor imagine that the heart is broken — unless sin is bitter. And if sin is biter to the soul — it will be sure to be forsaken. Faith and holiness are indisputable evidences of a title to heaven. Faith purifies the heart — and the heart reforms the life.

You have heard the testimony of God, you have read it; but do you believe it? Do you perceive its great importance, and receive it into your heart, as a message of love coming direct from God to you? Do you heartily approve of it? Do you act upon it?

If you reject the testimony, you treat God with contempt!

If you deny the testimony — you give God the lie!

If you postpone the consideration of it — you manifest the greatest folly!

If you receive the testimony — you set to your seal that God is true!

The testimony being sent — man is brought to the test. The testimony being rejected — the doom of man is sealed. Once more the testimony is placed before your eye, and presented to your heart — it is to be received or rejected? Decide!

* James Smith was a predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel in London from 1841 until 1850.

Source: http://gracegems.org
HT: Marilyn B.

Come home! ( Paul Washer )

Broken Bone Hymns

by Paul Tripp

It’s a bit of a strange word picture, the kind that causes you to wonder and to feel just a bit uncomfortable. But it says volumes about what you need and about what it is that God is doing.

If you’re confused about what God’s agenda is in your life, or if it doesn’t always seem like his promises are being fulfilled, then this strange little prayer from Psalm 51 is helpful and clarifying. In his psalm of repentance after his sin against God, Bathsheba, and Uriah, David writes this provocative little prayer, “Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” What in the world is he talking about and how in the world can it give perspective and hope to you and me?

Continue reading here.

Love has already won

by Michael Youssef

As an Anglican pastor, I bear scars from the war with "universalism" inside the Episcopal Church. I also have endured the battering of Bishop John Spong and his effort to "rescue the gospel from fundamentalists." And when I saw Rob Bell's new book Love Wins, I found myself quoting former Yankee great Yogi Berra: "It's like déjà vu all over again."

Continue reading here.

The Extent of God’s Love

Have you ever spoken to an unbeliever who knew some of his Bible—just enough to be angry and confused? If so, you probably heard questions (accusations) like these: “What kind of God orders the slaughter of entire cities—women, children, and animals included—without mercy? Why does God allow so much pain, suffering, and evil in the world? How do you reconcile the love of God with the eternal flames of hell?”

So often, the attribute of God that confuses unbelievers most is His love. They can’t fathom the depth of God’s love in the Incarnation and Crucifixion of Christ. But beyond that, they refuse to see other expressions of God’s love, expressions that sometimes escape our notice too. Here’s John MacArthur to explain...

Listen to an excerpt, download or listen to the full message at: www.gty.org.

Does the Word “Evangelical” Mean Anything Anymore?

By Randy Alcorn

If one can be an evangelical Christian, and especially an evangelical pastor or leader, and not believe that an able-minded adult (whether raised Baptist, Lutheran, Muslim, Hindu, agnostic or atheist) must repent of sin and place their faith in Christ in this life in order to go to Heaven, then…what is left that an evangelical must believe to still be an evangelical?

Read the full post at: http://www.epm.org/

Living a Life that Matters -- 'Living Eternally'

Francis Chan



This video excerpt is a powerful illustration from Francis Chan, on living life from the perspective of eternity.

'But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 3:13-14

Download mp3 at: http://www.sermonaudio.com

The Grim Reality of the Last Days

"I think we’re all finding out that this is a very dangerous planet to live on. You...you can get caught in a war, a war that you really had nothing to do with and become a victim of the hatred and the greed and the struggle for power by people in high positions. We are watching essentially war stretching across the Middle East, very much aware of it. Now that war engages virtually the world in a no-fly zone of Libya, a coalition of nations coming against Muammar Gaddafi. Before it’s all over, there will be thousands if not tens of thousands who die. That’s really nothing new for us.

It’s a dangerous world as well because you can be the victim of an earthquake, or a tsunami. You can be the victim of a famine because you can’t get to the food or the food can’t get to you because of a natural disaster. You can be the victim of a fire, or a flood, as we see repeated again and again throughout the world.

In spite of the fact that living in this world has its bliss and its blessing, and in spite of the fact that our world, our planet bears the marks of divine creation, and the benevolence of God is in the very fabric of life on this planet, in spite of the fact that riches are provided for us and provisions are provided for us, the backside of all those provisions puts us in really imminent danger. We can be killed by disease. We can be poisoned in our food. We can be radiated to death. All of these things are the backside of the blessings. We create civilizations, we create crops, we create dams to dam up the water. We harness all the resources in the world and yet we have to do everything we can to create the prevention of those very things destroying us. It is a very dangerous place to live. Disaster is all around us. War and death are ever present from a myriad of ways.

This, by the way is no surprise to anybody who understands the Bible. Human history is no surprise to God and it is no surprise to our Lord Jesus. If you go to Mark chapter 13, we’re going to find Jesus on the last day of His public ministry in Jerusalem, Wednesday of Passion Week. On Thursday He will prepare to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. On Friday He will be crucified. On Sunday He will be raised from the dead.

But here on this last day of public ministry, He has brought that public ministry to an end and now He is speaking to His disciples as of verse 43 in chapter 12, He calls His disciples to Him. And for the remainder of this day and the next day, He focuses on talking to them.

In this portion that is recorded for us by Matthew in Matthew 24 and 25, and also by Luke as we have recently seen in Luke 21, He gives a picture of history to come. This is prophetic. It is predictive. And it will be very familiar to you because this is exactly the way history has gone." -John MacArthur

Read, listen or download the full message here.

The Trinity At The Cross

The Trinity At The Cross from Rhoison Harris on Vimeo.

Enemies of God

Excerpt from the powerful message: "God Helps Those Who CANNOT Help Themselves" by Jeff Noblit on Romans 6:5-10 given on 6/22/07

Watch, listen or download the full message here.

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

The exquisite star Sirius is the premier gem of our sparkling winter skies [that’s it at the top-right of the photo]. Its name means “the Sparkling or Scorching One,” although it is commonly called the Dog Star because of its location in the constellation of Canis Major, the Big Dog. Sirius is the brightest star visible from Earth (except, of course, for the Sun). This is due in part to its “nearby” location. Sirius is a mere 8.6 light years distant from the solar system. That’s the distance a light beam would travel in 8.6 years at the speed of 186,282 miles per second—about 50 trillion miles! Through careful study, astronomers have concluded that Sirius is about twice as massive as the Sun but about twenty-five times more luminous. This makes it a whopping 660,000 times more massive than Earth! It has a tiny companion star, no larger than Earth, called the “Pup,” which is a white dwarf star. More than a hundred times smaller than the Sun, it has nearly the same mass, making it extraordinarily dense. A single teaspoon of its material would weight more than fifteen hundred tons!

Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God. Take any spot in the sky, and see that this is so. Whether we gaze upon stars, planets, galaxies, or nebulae, day after day and night after night they speak in loud, eloquent tongues of His power, knowledge, beauty, and glory. The Psalm says: “There is no speech, nor are there words”—what words could ever adequately describe His glory? “Yet their voice goes out through all the earth”—and results in the echoes of praise from men and women, great and small, old and young, from every nation, on every continent, in every age. Indeed, the starry heavens are declaring at this very moment that our God is magnificent beyond comprehension. Listen to them! Hear how their endless hosts strive day after day and night after night to declare the least part, the smallest measure, of His glory. It is never enough; it never will be; it never can be. He is infinite. Have you heard their voices? Have you joined their chorus?

Excerpted from The Heavens: Intimate Moments With Your Majestic God, a devotional by Kevin Hartnett. Hartnett is NASA’s Deputy Science Operations Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope. (photo credit)

HT: http://www.challies.com

Cheap Grace

by Pastor Ron Bridge, Rehoboth Baptist Church
Listen or download the full message here.

Are You Truly Converted?

by Dr. Joel Beeke



Listen, watch or download the full message here.

What is Genuine Repentance?

by Jason Robertson



Listen or download the full message here.

The True Meaning of Christian Freedom

by John MacArthur

We understand freedom in this nation because we live in it. We understand freedom in the spiritual sense to some extent because it's a biblical truth. But just as our political freedom can be abused, so our spiritual freedom can be abused. And the Word of God gives us some controlling factors to prevent such abuse. And I know these are things that many of us have understood, perhaps many of us have not and all of us need to be reminded of. I see in the church today the same kind of abuse of Christian freedom that I see in our nation. I look at a church across the land where there is very little concern for holiness of life, where Christian leaders are falling in to gross immorality and it's a rather epidemic kind of thing. It goes on all the time.

Read, listen or download the full message here.
http://www.gty.org

Who's Slave Are You? (Pt. 1 of 4)

Paul David Washer is a Baptist minister and founder of the HeartCry Missionary Society, a Christian society that supports indigenous missionary work. Converted while attending the University of Texas studying to become an oil and gas lawyer, Washer completed his undergraduate studies and subsequently attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he received a Master of Divinity degree. Washer left the states shortly after graduation and began his post-seminary ministry in Peru, where he served as a missionary for 10 years, after which he returned to the United States. It was in his time there that he founded the HeartCry Missionary Society to support Peruvian Church planters.

Part 2 of 4
Part 3 of 4
Part 4 of 4

Thoughts on Christian Patriotism

by Rick Phillips

On July 4, our nation celebrates its independence with waving flags, picnics, and parades. Some churches deck their sanctuary with red, white, and blue, and devote the worship service to the honor of the state. Other Christians virtually ignore this or any other national holiday. This raises the question, "How does Christianity tell us to think about patriotism?"

Continue reading here.