Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Dr. Lane G. Tipton describes the important distinction between redemption accomplished and redemption applied.

Good For Nothing Christians by James A. Stewart

Can I Grow in Holiness Without the Local Church?

Source: http://www.desiringgod.org

Do We Really Believe That Those Without Christ Will Be Damned?

Winning the Race Requires Discipline (Tim Conway)

Watch, listen or download the full message here.

The Genuine Article

by John MacArthur

What is repentance? The literal Greek word, metanoia, has to do with changing your mind. But authentic repentance is much more than merely changing your opinion, your thought process, or your mood. It’s a complete spiritual about-face. And if it’s genuine, it will always result in a change of behavior, too.

And while true repentance is the flash point for saving faith, and a source of powerful, lasting assurance of that faith, it’s a widely misunderstood doctrine. Many believers only have a vague notion of what it means to repent, and they’re unfamiliar with what it looks like in the pages of Scripture.

Continue reading here.

The Sinner's Excuses

“They all with one consent began to make excuse” (Luke 14:18).

When a man prepares a feast, men rush in; but when God prepares one they all begin to make excuses and don’t want to go.

One of the excuses given in this parable was that the man invited had bought a piece of ground and had to look at it. It was a lie, for he ought to have looked at it before he bought it. Then the next man said he’d bought some oxen and must prove them. That was another lie. If he hadn’t proved them before he bought them, he should have, and could have done it after the supper just as well as before it. But the third man had the silliest, the worst excuse of all. He said he had married a wife and couldn’t come. Why didn’t he bring her with him?

These seemed to be foolish excuses, but they were not any more so than the excuses of today. Indeed, the excuses of men are getting worse and worse all the time. They say they can’t believe the Bible; it’s so mysterious. If Christians, if theologians have studied it for forty, fifty, sixty years, and then only begin to understand it more fully, how could a man expect to understand it by one reading?

Another says God is a hard Master. No, that is one of Satan’s lies. The devil is the hard master. In the Tombs of New York there is over a door the remark, “The way of the transgressor is hard.” God’s yoke is easy, His burden is light. Ask prisoners, ask gamblers, ask sinners if Satan’s yoke is easy. It’s the hardest of all.

One of the excuses that we very often hear people giving is that becoming a Christian will make them gloomy—they will have no joy until they get to Heaven. We look forward to that happy future, but, thank God, we have some pleasure here. Indeed, no man in the world should be so happy as a man of God. A man away from God cannot have true pleasure. He is continually thirsting for something he cannot get until he comes to the living fountain. The more a man is lifted up to heaven, the more joy and peace and gladness he has.

“Oh, but that is not my case,” says another. “I am too bad to become a Christian.” Notice how the master says in the parable, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind” (v. 21)—just invite them all. I don’t care how vile your heart may be, only accept the invitation of Jesus Christ and He will make you fit to sit down with the rest at the feast. The gospel bids you come as you are.

I haven’t exhausted all the excuses. If I covered them all, you would simply make more by tomorrow. What has to be done with all the excuses is to bundle them all up and label them “Satan’s lies.” There is not an excuse that is not a lie. When you stand at the throne of God no man can give an excuse. It is easy enough to excuse yourself to Hell, but you cannot excuse yourself to Heaven.

“Come; for all things are now ready” (Luke 14:17). Accept the invitation now, my friends. Do not let another day pass, do not eat, do not drink, until you accept the most important thing in this wide world. Blessed is he who shall be found at that marriage feast.

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

—D.L. Moody, condensed.

http://www.mwtb.org

What's Wrong With Today's Gospel Invitation?

Excerpt from the message "The Gift Nobody Wants" by Paul Washer.

Right Understanding of the Gospel

Watch, listen or download the full message here.

Come Clean!

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” (Psalm 32:1,2).

It is unfortunate that the mention of David reminds us too often of his sins and not his victories. Most people think “David and Bathsheba” rather than “David and Goliath.” Perhaps this says more about us than it does about David! The tragic background of both Psalm 32 and 51 is David’s sin with Bathsheba, his unsuccessful attempts to hide it, and then his confession and God’s forgiveness of the king (2 Samuel 11,12). This one event was an ugly blemish on an otherwise faithful life (1 Kings 15:5).

Psalm 32 records the experiences that David went through as he faced his sins, confessed them, and received God’s free forgiveness. How is a righteous God able to forgive guilty sinners? Paul explains this miracle of grace in Romans 4, and he quotes Psalm 32:1,2 as part of his argument. Three words are important: “forgiven,” “covered,” and “imputed.”

The word forgive means “to lift and carry away.” It reminds us of the annual Day of Atonement in the Hebrew calendar (Leviticus 16), when the high priest “laid the sins” of the nation on the head of the scapegoat, and the goat was taken away into the wilderness to be seen no more. This pointed figuratively to Jesus, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

The word covered simply means “concealed, out of sight.” David tried to cover his own sin with deceit, and yet he was found out. When God covers our sins, they are gone forever. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). The blood of Jesus Christ does not simply cover sin; it cleanses sin (1 John 1:7-9).

The word impute is a financial term; it means “to put to one’s account.” After all, what good is it if, after God wipes the record clean, we sin again and He starts a new record? David rejoiced because God would never again keep a record of his sins. Paul made it clear in Romans 4 that the person who trusts Jesus Christ is fully and finally forgiven, the record is made clean, and no record will ever be kept of his sins.

How is this possible? Through the wonderful and perfect transaction on Calvary. On the cross, all of our sins were put to Christ’s account. He was made sin for us (1 Peter 2:24). And, when we trusted Jesus Christ, His righteousness was put on our account! “He [the Father] hath made Him [the Son] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). This dual transaction makes our forgiveness and salvation possible.

Forgiveness, then, is not cheap, even though it is free. David knew that no amount of expensive sacrifices could take away his sins (Psalm 51:16,17). Our own good works, or even our good intentions, can never solve the sin question. Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, had to die for the sins of the world. It is on the basis of that one perfect sacrifice that God can meet the sinner and forgive his sins.

—From Meet Yourself in the Psalms by Warren W. Wiersbe.
Source: http://www.mwtb.org

The Josiah Grauman Story

Source: www.gty.org

We believe that God is holy and perfect. He has commanded us to be completely perfect, just as He is (1 Peter 1:16). Yet we have not lived a perfect life, nor can we...nor can anyone (Romans 3:23). Yet though we have sinned and so deserve to receive the wrath of God forever in hell (Matthew 5:22), we believe that He has made a way to reconcile us to Himself. He sent His Son Jesus to live the perfect life that we could not live, and then die the death that we deserve so that anyone who believes in Him could have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus Christ died on the cross, not because He deserved to die, but rather to receive the punishment that we deserve, thereby freeing us from all condemnation (Romans 8:1). Now that in the justice of God we have already died for our sin (Since Jesus died in our place, Galatians 2:20), we eagerly await the day when God will resurrect us, just as He did His Son, and bring us to heaven where we will worship Him forever (2 Corinthians 4:14). To Him be the glory forever.

To learn more about Josiah Grauman and his ministry, visit this website: www.grauman.com/josiah/

Never Give Up Praying for Your Loved One's Salvation

Don Johnson testifies to how the Lord saved James, his oldest son. He was very obedient as a child but at the age of 17 he dove into sin and rebellion. Don's son decided that he wanted the world, and he proved that he was just pretending and had no reality of knowing Christ. Yet years later, after fervent prayer, the Lord saved his son.

Resurrecting the Message of Repentance by David Ravenhill

Watch the full message here.

It's All About Jesus Christ by Paul Washer

How to Recognize True Repentance (Don Green)

Let me put it to you this way. True repentance…true repentance wants more than deliverance from hell. True repentance wants more than deliverance from eternal damnation. You don’t have to be a Christian to not want to go to hell. There’s nothing uniquely spiritual, or uniquely biblical about that desire. Who wants to go to hell, given the alternative, you know? No, true repentance, true repentance wants to be delivered from sin. True repentance wants to be delivered from the pollution and power of sin in addition to being delivered from the penalty of sin. True repentance hates sin and desires righteousness. There’s a whole reorientation of the inner man in true repentance. True repentance wants to have Christ and His righteousness and is willing to forsake and abandon it all in order to gain Him.

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Does He Know You?

Listen to the full message using the audio player below.

Are We Together? (R.C. Sproul)

Are You Born Again? (J. C. Ryle)

Read the transcript of this audio here.

Matt Chandler - Bored Out Of Your Minds

Matt Chandler addresses "the most entertained generation in the history of the world" at Campus Outreach National Conference 2011 with incredible words of wisdom, bringing to light the fact that we are *bored out of our minds*, constantly filling ourselves with the abundant fleeting pleasures of the world. We settle for so little when we have been invited to be a part of the most epic saga that is the gospel.

The Olympic Fight of Faith

Olympic glory is for the young. Gymnast Gabby Douglas is just 16 years old, swimmer Katie Ledecky is only 15, and Michael Phelps, age 27, says he's old enough to make these Olympic Games his last.

But the Christian "race" is for young and old. The fight of faith is for the healthiest and sickliest, for the seemingly strong and the weak.

So how is it that an aging Christian — barely able to walk, much less compete in Olympic track and field — can have the wherewithal to run?

John Piper tackles the question here.

Christians have a Seeking Problem (Shane Idleman)

What Do I Have to Do With Christ's Church?

Dan Phillips makes a compelling and convicting argument for church attendance and membership. Listen or download the full message here.