Before I Formed You In The Womb I Knew You

Watch, listen or download the full message: Foreknowledge and Predestination by Todd Nibert here.

Seven Things You Need To Know

1. THERE IS LIFE AFTER DEATH

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

“All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:28,29)

2. WE WILL ALL STAND BEFORE GOD

“We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” (Romans 14:10)

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God…. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” (Revelation 20:12)

3. ALL SIN MUST BE JUDGED

“There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.” (Luke 12:2)

“Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36)

“God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

4. OUR “GOOD” IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH

“We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)

“By grace are ye saved through faith … not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

5. GOD PROVIDES A WAY OUT

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

6. JESUS LIVES TO GIVE YOU LIFE

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)

“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

7. YOU MUST TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18)

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

“There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Do you know these 7 things to be true?

It is God’s desire that you know His plan of salvation. Even more than that, it is of vital importance that you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today!

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)

“There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” (Luke 15:10)

Source: http://www.mwtb.org

The Greatest Danger We Face As The Church

Watch, listen or download the full message: An Age of Persecution by Richard Caldwell here.

The Three Great Exchanges

Watch, listen or download the full message: "Suppressing the Truth in Unrighteousness: The Gospel of Christ Confronts the Conspiracy of the Ages" by Al Mohler given at the 2014 Shepherds' Conference here.

Contextualize or Compromise?

by Pastor Ron Bridge of Rehoboth Baptist Church

My friend Jim Harrison is the pastor of Red Mills Baptist Church in Mahopac, NY. You might remember Jim as one of the speakers at the Rehoboth Bible Conference a couple of years ago. Jim is one of those pastor's who is deeply concerned over the accommodations that the church is making in order to reach people with the gospel in our post modern - and we can say with growing certainty – post Christian culture. The concern is that many of the accommodations have the unintended consequences of lessening rather than increasing spirituality.

You are familiar with some of the accommodations. In the majority of churches hymnals are rarely, if ever, used and have been replaced by choruses projected on a screen. While ostensibly making it easier for the person in the congregation to participate in singing, much that is important has been lost. The modern chorus, which can only be sung to a melody, lacks the depth and richness of the harmony that can only be achieved with a written musical score. This is especially evident when one of the great traditional hymns is attempted without a score. The long term result is that worship singing is reduced – with some exceptions – to a monotonous sameness.

An increasing number of churches no longer supply a Bible that can be held and referenced during a sermon. Some project the Scripture on the screen, often against a distracting background picture. All this is done in recognition that we live in a visual, rather than a word based culture. But the Bible is word based and studying the written word is essential to Christian growth and maturity. While projecting a verse on a screen may be convenient the long term impact is to lessen the importance of carrying and reading a personal Bible. Last week Mickie and I attended a large modern church and in my estimation about half the people did not carry a Bible. There are many other examples where the attempt to make the church and worship relevant to post-moderns – what is called contextualization - often ends up compromising something fundamental.

Now it can be argued that the two areas cited above are themselves cultural accommodations. It was not until the middle ages that musical instruments and musical scores were introduced into the church. Prior to that any singing was performed without accompaniment or score. Nor did worshipers prior to the same era have access to a Bible – most churches had a handwritten one or only portions. What the people knew of the Scriptures was through the teaching of priests, through oral tradition, or pictures, or icons. The consequence was a population heavily influenced by superstition and living in spiritual darkness. So, clearly, some cultural accommodations are helpful. Musical instruments, written music and readily available Scriptures have contributed greatly the church's worship. Any move away from these is a retreat to the dark ages.

Paul said that “he became all things to all men in order to save some” – he was willing to change methods but never to mess with fundamentals. This brings me back to some information that pastor Harrison sent to me. It is an analysis of the trends in preaching methodology titled: Preaching to Post Modern America for the Next Generation. Here are the key points:

1. The logic of the scripture is emphasized over its authority.
2. The love in the scripture is emphasized over its condemnation
3. The stories in the scripture are emphasized
4. The universal “calling” of the gospel is emphasized over its exclusive “choosing”
5. Preaching stems from a single text, without introducing other texts during the message
6. Preaching involves delivery of a single point sermon
7. Preaching provides intrinsic (internal) motivation while avoiding extrinsic (external) motivation i.e. “you must, you should, therefore you need to,”
8. Preaching involves avoiding technical language
9. Preaching involves avoiding the discussion of the Greek and Hebrew
10. Preaching involves a message that appeals to the pre-believer and believer in the body of the message not just an evangelistic conclusion and application
11. Interaction is encouraged during the preaching/teaching period

Now, I could spend a great deal of time addressing each point, one or two of which are good, for instance: a single text and single point can be very effective when speaking to unbelievers – I haven’t figured out what a pre-believer is yet, nor do I know of any message that appeals to one. But if adopted uncritically this methodology cannot but reduce the word of God to something on a par with Joel Osteen's “Your Best life Now.” In an attempt to be culturally relevant the offense of the gospel is removed. Let me take just two of the points.

 - The logic of the scripture is emphasized over its authority. What is the good of logic if the conclusions reached cannot be held as authoritative? That for me is vital. How can I preach if I cannot say: Thus saith the Lord! And having said it command the church to obey the Lord? If the authority of scripture is not established up front everything is up for grabs. That is why the very first article of this church is: “We believe in the absolute authority and accuracy of the 66 books of the Bible.”

 - Preaching involves avoiding technical language. Try preaching through Romans without getting technical. Justification, propitiation, imputation, election and predestination are deeply technical terms and must be explained in detail. To avoid such language is to avoid essential truths in an attempt to make the message palatable to post modern tastes. The gospel was never palatable to human taste or logic – it was never intended to be.

I could say a great deal more about the last point and can only imagine the scene in our church on Sunday morning if we adopted that approach! Sadly, this is not just a discussion list, it is representative of what is taking place in an increasing number of churches as they attempt to contextualize the message to modern Americans but fall prey to the law of unintended consequences - For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine...

The Importance of Godliness

Watch the full message: "The Demands of Discipline" by Steve Lawson given at the 2014 Shepherds' Conference here.