So what do you do when you’re preaching to a church full of people and you want to persuade them to believe that a sin (that’s clearly defined in Scripture) isn’t really a sin?
Well, if you’re Jay Bakker, you first go for the shock of it all then follow it up with making the congregation feel stupid. If that doesn’t work, make them feel guilty. And if that still doesn’t work turn on the tears to manipulate their emotions.
And what do you do if none of this works? If you’re the Sundance Channel you make a short video of the incident, insert some sentimental music at just right spot, and make it available to upload to YouTube.
Your sermon of the week is a two part message by John MacArthur entitled Sheep Among Wolves. MacArthur identifies how to spot the wolves, what methods they will use to kill the sheep, and how the sheep should respond to the presence of wolves.I highly recommend this to the readers of DefCon.
Instead of the Bible’s masculine doctrine of salvation in which an initiating God acts with efficacious love to subdue His chosen people to Himself, much of the church now proclaims a passive God who offers His love but would not think of imposing His love on His bride. The pallid Jesus stands at the door and knocks, hoping we’ll let Him in. God is no longer presented as the very archetype of masculine power and love. This kind of feminized doctrine has contributed to the proliferation of feminized men who stand fearful even before their wives. If God is feminized, what chance do Christian men have?
Recently my grandfather was in the hospital for a week (it was looking pretty serious). On one of my visits to the hospital with my grandmother present, a nice white-haired man in a dress shirt and a tie entered the room. He introduced himself as a Eucharist Minister (I saw where this was going).
He was “doing his rounds” throughout the hospital visiting those who listed themselves as Roman Catholics on their intake papers and wanted to know if my grandfather wished to take (the heretically distorted version of Rome’s) holy communion. Of course both my grandparents were anxious to do so and stopped their profanities, taking of God’s name in vain, and all their other pet sins long enough to be good Catholics for a moment in the presence of such a holy man.
This man asked if we were all Roman Catholics and after my grandparents said yes, I said, “No, I’m a Christian.” Immediately realizing that his response was inevitably going to be “we’re all Christians,” I cut him off before he had a chance to tell that lie and I added, “Protestant,” for clarification.
My grandfather jokingly replied, “We won’t hold that against you.” And of course this stranger representing Rome agreed, confirming they don’t hold anything against anyone. (How kind of him.)
Because challenging this man in front of my grandparents would do more harm than good, I bit my tongue. He then wasted no time as he leapt into ecumenical action requesting that since we were all Christians “let us pray to God together.”
I stood and watched as this man who knows nothing about my grandparents, their lives, their sins, their struggles, or even their current relationship with God, blasphemously stood in the place of the Lord Jesus Christ as their mediator and prayed for them to be forgiven of their sins.
And what sin of my grandparents did this stranger clairvoyantly hone in on as their biggest sin, requiring special emphasis and forgiveness from? Why, none other than their needing to be forgiven of their sin of not realizing how close God is to them and that God is near to them at all times.
After this feel-good prayer of pseudo-repentance while avoiding the real issues of their sin nature in all its abhorrent wretchedness and hostility toward God, we were now ready for communion! (If only the hospital was this quick with their formalities before moving on to administer care and medicine.)
The man then reached into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out a round object. It was very similar to an Altoid tin. This man then opened the lid to reveal a bunch of white squares resembling Chiclets gum. He removed one of the squares, and holding it between his two fingers, held it in front of him so that my grandparents could see it. He then presumptuously announced, “This is the Lamb of God.” I could endure no more and removed myself from the room with an exhale that I’m certain he heard.
This false teacher peddling his false assurance had the audacity to call a little piece of food the very Lamb of God; what utter blasphemy. Yet my grandparents clung to every word of this fork-tongued tool of Satan, and now had clean consciences to continue about their normal lifestyles of rampant and impenitent sin.
Sadly, late at night while I sat alone by my grandfather’s bedside trying desperately to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ to him (Law first), he remained completely averse to it. After all, the nice priestly mediator already prayed for him and he took communion, so what need does he have of a propitiation for his sins?
Not even his brush with death that put him in the hospital could rouse him from his spiritual slumber. My grandfather opined that God understands that he’s just a human, and with a nice condescending pat on my arm he assured me that all will be well . . . all will be well.
“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.” – Jeremiah 16:14
Over the past couple years DefCon has compiled a large cache of sermons available for free to download, and every Thursday we feature a new message for our Sermon of the week. So our repository of over 160 sermons continues to grow. Because of this DefCon now features a Sermons Page at the top of this blog for an easy way to get to the many sermons DefCon features.
“The next week,” says the sinner, “I will begin to be sober and temperate, serious and devout.” But the true sense of what he says is this, “I am fully bent to spend this present week in riot and excess, in sensuality and profaneness, or whatever vice it is that I indulge myself in.” And if we do this often, and it becomes our common practice to put off our repentance from time to time, this is a shrewd sign that we never intended to repent at all. . . . It is with the wicked men in this case, as it is with a bankrupt. When his creditors are loud and clamorous, speaking big and threatening high, he answers them with many good words and fair promises. He arranges for them to come another day, entreats their patience but a little longer, and then he will satisfy them all, when all the time the man never intends to pay them one farthing. . . . In the same way men endeavor to pacify and calm their consciences, by telling them they will listen to them another time. All this is only to delude and cheat their consciences with good words and specious pretenses, making them believe they will certainly do what they cannot endure to think of, and what they would fully desire to excuse themselves from.
“… We ask that everything we do would bring honor to you … and we just lift up especially Mayor Annise Parker. … Lord, we thank you just for raising her up and just for your goodness, your mercy in her life, and just for supernatural wisdom, Father. We honor her today and our other officials, and Lord, we count it a joy and honor to be here in your presence with all of our friends and we just thank you for this day. In Jesus name, amen.”
Can you identify which of the following three lyric excerpts come from Christian musical artists and which are from secular musical artists? I admit it won’t be easy, but differentiating between Christian lyrics and worldly lyrics shouldn’t be that difficult, right?
Lack of understanding lack of communication
Lack of a desire for expanding education
Lack of inspiration lack of innovation
The fact you can’t respect another mans creation
Lack of motivation lack of restoration
The fact we lack unity and enjoy separation
Lack of destination because you know what I feel
I feel that humans lack the ability to be real
Do not tell me what I can and cannot do when I rock
2.
Welcome to the world of a girl named Susie
Susie’s only crime was that she was born a cutie
Physically abused by her uncle and his friends
Alcohol let ’em all leave the house with grins
But Susie couldn’t shake off the memories
Forced to find her own kind of remedy
A man-eater for the rest of her days
Three kids, three men, no daddies by eleventh grade
3.
The secret side of me, I never let you see
I keep it caged but I can’t control it
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly
I feel the rage and I just can’t hold it
It’s scratching on the walls, in the closet, in the halls
It comes awake and I can’t control it
Hiding under the bed, in my body, in my head
Why won’t somebody come and save me from this, make it end?
I feel it deep within, it’s just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I’ve become, the nightmare’s just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster
The Law speaks of what man must do for God; grace tells of what Christ has done for men. The Law demanded righteousness from men; grace brings righteousness to men. The Law brought out God to men; grace brings in men to God. The Law sentenced a living man to death; grace brings a dead man to life. The Law never had a missionary; the Gospel is to be preached to every creature. The Law makes known the will of God; grace reveals the heart of God!
Your sermon of the week is Solus Christus – The Supremecy of Christ in Salvation. This is part eight of a thirteen-part series on the Doctrines of Grace entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith by Pastor Brian Borgman. Look for the each additional installment every couple weeks.
For too long we have been committed to forms of evangelism that ignore the crucial discipleship element explicit in the Great Commission. We have been called to make disciples, not converts.
It is not enough to hear God’s voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honor we owe to God. . . . Obedience carries in it the lifeblood of religion. . . . Obedience without knowledge is blind, and knowledge without obedience is lame. . . . Saul thought it was enough for him to offer sacrifices, though he disobeyed God’s command; but “to obey is better than sacrifice.” God disclaims sacrifice, if obedience be wanting.
Isn’t “new revelation” about doctrine just grand? It’s like silly putty: so pliable in the hands of the “prophets” that they can overturn years of racist LDS traditions and teachings (including the prohibition against blacks in the priesthood) with one simple claim: God has changed His mind.
And since this “new revelation” in June of 1978, the LDS spin doctors have worked tirelessly to cover up the racist teachings of their prophets, even going so far as to change the Book of Mormon–the very book they claim not only contains the fullness of the gospel, but is the most correct book on earth (minus those 3,913 changes and corrections made to it of course).
So on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let us embark on a leisurely stroll down the halls of Mormonism’s history to see what this organization’s stance on race was until the summer of 1978.
And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them [Lamanites]; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ . . . . and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people. – Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 30:5-6, (Changed in 1981 to read “pure and delightsome“)
And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations. – Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 12:23
And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites; And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair . . . – Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 2:15-16
For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people. – Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:8
The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. . . . The children [Indian children in the LDS] home placement program in Utah are often shades lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservations . . . . These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated. – Spencer Kimball, Improvement Era, Pags 922-923, December 1960
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, Page 110, 1863
You can see men and women who are sixty or seventy years of age looking young and handsome; but let them apostatize, and they will become grayhaired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil. – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 5, Page 332, 1857
Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to. The volition of the creature is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God. – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 11, Page 272, 1866
Suppose we summons them to appear here, and here declare that it is right to mingle our seed, with the black race of Cain, that they shall come in with us and be pertakers [sic] with us of all the blessings God has given to us. On that very day, and hour we should do so, the priesthood is taken from this Church and kingdom and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain and Church must go to desstruction [sic], — we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain . . . . Therefore I will not consent for one moment to have an african [sic] dictate me or any Bren. with regard to Church or State Government. . . . If the Affricans [sic] cannot bear rule in the Church of God, what business have they to bear rule in the State Government affairs of this Territory or any others? – Brigham Young Address, Ms d 1234, Box 48, Folder 3, LDS Church Historical Department, February 05, 1852
Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was placed upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage and must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with a black skin and have been denied the privilege of Priesthood and the fulness [sic]of the blessings of the Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain. Moreover, they have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning. – Joseph Fielding Smith, Way to Perfection, Page 101
It was well understood by the early elders of the Church that the mark which was placed on Cain and which his posterity inherited was the black skin. The Book of Moses informs us that Cain and his descendants were black. – Joseph Fielding Smith, Way to Perfection, Page 107
There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient, more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less.– Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, Volume 1, Page 61
The negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned . . . but this inequality is not of man’s origin. It is the Lord’s doing, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the lack of spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate. – Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Pages 527-528, 1966 Edition
“I don’t know, I don’t know, I can only say that.”
The late Mormon prophet, seer, and revelator, Gordon B. Hinckley
A sad trend as of late is that many supposed professing Christians are unifying with and even returning to Rome (like a dog to its vomit) and taking many of the undiscerning with them.
But what I find ironic is that while an exodus out of Biblical Christianity and into Roman Catholicism is taking place (i.e. A great falling away), simultaneously the church of Rome appears to be borrowing from evangelicalism the very pragmatic methodologies that’s killing evangelicalism.
After watching the following video it seems that Rome is trying to model the same seeker-sensitive, feely-touchy, charismatic, man-made methodology that has left so many evangelicals disenfranchised with Christianity and is the impetus behind why so many are running into the arms of the Romish organization.
Here’s the Roman Catholic Life Teen promo video chalk full of images explicitly Romish along with images indistinguishable from modern Churchianity, devotion to a dead woman, and typical Romish heresy.
The church is in a sad state today. Never mind the mainline denominations that have long-since abandoned biblical faith; we’re talking about the bible-believing church. Here, too often, we see much ado about nothing. There is talk of revival without the reality. The church today measures its success by the numbers on its rolls, the size of its offerings, or the volume of its worship bands—rather than by the holiness of its members.
Your sermon of the week is Sola Fide – The Supremacy of God in Salvation by Brian Borgman. This is part seven of a thirteen-part series on the Doctrines of Grace entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith. It seems that this series gets better and better with each installment. Look for the each additional installment every couple weeks.
Phil Johnson carefully handles the issue of lying in the sermon No Lie is of the Truth. He even tackles the much debated lie of Rahab. This is a good sermon to digest on the whole issue of lying and deception.
Your sermon of the week is a two part message by John MacArthur entitled Sheep Among Wolves. MacArthur identifies how to spot the wolves, what methods they will use to kill the sheep, and how the sheep should respond to the presence of wolves. I highly recommend this to the readers of DefCon.
Instead of the Bible’s masculine doctrine of salvation in which an initiating God acts with efficacious love to subdue His chosen people to Himself, much of the church now proclaims a passive God who offers His love but would not think of imposing His love on His bride. The pallid Jesus stands at the door and knocks, hoping we’ll let Him in. God is no longer presented as the very archetype of masculine power and love. This kind of feminized doctrine has contributed to the proliferation of feminized men who stand fearful even before their wives. If God is feminized, what chance do Christian men have?
The Law speaks of what man must do for God; grace tells of what Christ has done for men. The Law demanded righteousness from men; grace brings righteousness to men. The Law brought out God to men; grace brings in men to God. The Law sentenced a living man to death; grace brings a dead man to life. The Law never had a missionary; the Gospel is to be preached to every creature. The Law makes known the will of God; grace reveals the heart of God!
Your sermon of the week is 
For too long we have been committed to forms of evangelism that ignore the crucial discipleship element explicit in the Great Commission. We have been called to make disciples, not converts.
It is not enough to hear God’s voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honor we owe to God. . . . Obedience carries in it the lifeblood of religion. . . . Obedience without knowledge is blind, and knowledge without obedience is lame. . . . Saul thought it was enough for him to offer sacrifices, though he disobeyed God’s command; but “to obey is better than sacrifice.” God disclaims sacrifice, if obedience be wanting.
Phil Johnson carefully handles the issue of lying in the sermon 
Christ Alone Wyoming 