christian

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Sermon of the week: “No Graven Images” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is No Graven Images by Phil Johnson. This is the next installment of Johnson’s series on the Ten Commandments that will be featured on DefCon every other week as your Sermon of the Week (on Thursdays).

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Sermon of the week: “No Other Gods” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is No Other Gods by Phil Johnson. This is part one (minus two preludes found here and here) of Johnson’s series on the Ten Commandments that will be featured on DefCon every other week as your Sermon of the Week (on Thursdays).

This is a great series that you won’t want to miss.


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Sermon of the week: “The Breadth of God’s Moral Law” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is The Breadth of God’s Moral Law by Phil Johnson. This is the second installment on Johnson’s series on the Ten Commandments that will be featured every other week as your Sermon of the Week (on Thursdays).

This sermon (like the first one in this series) is a prelude to getting into the study on the Ten Commandments themselves. In two weeks Johnson will get into the first commandment.

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Sermon of the week: “The Preeminence of God’s Moral Law” by Phil Johnson.

DefCon begins our 2011 weekly sermons with a new series by Phil Johnson on the subject of the Ten Commandments.

We begin with one of two preludes to the Ten Commandments entitled The Preeminence of God’s Moral Law. We will continue with this series every other week.

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Derek meets a false apostle and Shelly confronts her pastor.

These two videos hit the proverbial nail on the head on every over-used cliche and every platitude I’ve hear ad nauseum in my time in charismatic circles. (You’ll have to watch each video over at YouTube since embedding has been enabled.)

Derek’s encounter:

Shelly’s encounter:

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Book recommendation: “Radical” by David Platt.

When I picked up this book to read it I told myself that no matter how good any part of it was, I would not post any portion of it as a quote on DefCon (because time is so little of what I have lately). Well, that ambition didn’t last very long (like here and here, for example, with more quotes to come).

I was just putting the finishing touches on my controversial Christmas post when I began reading this book. Although Platt never mentions Christmas in the book, it did confirm my personal conviction about refraining from celebrating the holiday. But that’s another whole issue.

In brief, David Platt presents a scathing critique of self-indulgent American Christianity (specifically in relation to world missions) and its negligence of the poor and those without the gospel, then offers his advice on how to change this glaring deficiency in our own lives.

I would liken this book to a cross between K.P. Yohannan’s Revolution in World Missions and Francis Chan’s Crazy Love (the good parts, of course). And–as with both of those other books–the reader will find some points of disagreement within Radical, but when all things are considered, this book will not leave you unmoved (in a good way, of course).

This is a must-read for every Christian living in the West (America, Britain, Australia, Canada, etc.). I have personally ordered several copies to give away for free (as the Desert Pastor was gracious enough to provide me with my copy for free) and I’ve already given away my first copy this past week!

You will not be disappointed in reading this book . . . unless, of course, you don’t want to be challenged, you don’t want to be convicted, and if you’re not ready–as the subtitle says–to take back your faith from the American dream.

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Sermon of the week: “The Socinians” by Phil Johnson.

We conclude our five-part series by Phil Johnson entitled A Survey of Heresies with The Socinians.

If you’ve missed any of our past installments from this series, you can download the entire series here.

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Sermon of the week: “The Pelagians” by Phil Johnson.

We continue our series A Survey of Heresies by Phil Johnson. In this series Johnson has examined the major heresies that have plagued Christianity throughout the years. This installment is The Pelagians.

Our final installment comes in two weeks.

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A little bit of Heaven in a mall food court.

This video moved me to tears. It is an encouragement for those who belong to the Lord to see Him glorified so beautifully in song in the unlikeliest of places. I liken this video to things yet to come in two ways:

1). The beautiful worship of the Lamb that was slain by His redeemed one’s that will take place in Heaven.

2). This performance was done in spite of most in the mall where the glory of God was the furthest thing from their minds, much like those on the Day of Judgment will bow their knee and proclaim Jesus as Lord in spite of living their lives where the glory of God was the furthest thing from their minds. Those on Judgment Day will have no way to stop their compulsion to proclaim Jesus as Lord, much like those in the food court had no way to stop those who were singing praises of the risen Savior .


HT: Standing for Truth

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Sermon of the week: “The Arians” by Phil Johnson.

We continue our series of the five major heresies that the Church has had to deal with–and still does–since the first century.

This week Phil Johnson delivers a two-part message on The Arians from his series, A Survey of Heresies:

The Arians (Part 1)

The Arians (Part 2)

Johnson does a fantastic job explaining the history of Arianism in addition to detailing what happened at the Council of Nicea, and shows that the Arians of the early church are the Jehovah’s Witnesses of today.

See the previous heresies covered by Phil Johnson: The Judiazers (here) and The Gnostics (here).

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Christians are “legitimate targets.”

Believe it or not, but the “religion of peace” is still not living up to the title ascribed to it.
“Just days after a brutal attack in a Catholic Church in Baghdad that killed more than 50 people, an Al Qaeda group in Iraq has declared all Christians ‘legitimate targets,’ calling for them to be killed.”
Read the article from Fox News here.
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Sermon of the week: “The Gnostics” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is the second installment of Phil Johnson’s series, A Survey of Heresies. These are the five major heresies that have plagued the Church and that are still around today. Two weeks ago Phil Johnson taught on the heresy of the Judiazers (found here), and this week his message is on The Gnostics. Join us in two more weeks when Phil Johnson lectures on the next major heresy, The Arians.

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Is this you?

You look at a beautiful painting and you say to yourself, “There must have been a painter.”

You look at a motor vehicle of great workmanship and you say to yourself, “There must have been a manufacturer.”

You look at a meticulously detailed statue and you say to yourself, “There must have been a sculptor.”

You look at a massive bridge spanning a large body of water and you say to yourself, “There must have been an engineer.”

You look at a tall building and you say to yourself, “There must have been a builder.”

You look at a complex computer program and you say to yourself, “There must have been a programmer.“

You look at a well-written best-selling novel and you say to yourself, “There must have been an author.”

You look at the human body and say to yourself, “This must have been the product of an accident. A long time ago absolutely nothing from absolutely nowhere exploded and not only created absolutely everything, but also created order and it all occurred as a random accident.“

 

If this is you, then these are for you:

– The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).

– Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words (Proverbs 23:9).

– A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding (Proverbs 14:6).

– The way of a fool is right in his own eyes (Proverbs 12:15).

– The foolishness of God is wiser than men (1 Corinthians 1:25).

– God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27).

– The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God (1 Corinthians 3:19).

– A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them (1 Corinthians 2:14).

– The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
(Psalm 150:6)
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Sermon of the week: “The Judiazers” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is the first in a five-part series entitled A Survey of Heresies. Every two weeks DefCon will be bringing you the next installment in this series from Phil Johnson on the top five major heresies that have plagued the church since its inception, and continues to rear its ugly head in the form of the cults and false Christian religions of today.

We begin this series with The Judiazers.

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How to brainwash a nation and a people.

Very interesting video clip, on so many levels; especially when you realize how many Christians have been seduced–thinking “conservative” politicians are somehow the answer to this nation’s dilemmas. We’re headed to one conclusion, regardless of who’s in power . . . one will just get us there faster than the other.

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The poorest man in the world.

The following sobering piece comes from the Fruin family currently serving as missionaries in Mexico:
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The Meeting
It was dusk on Friday evening as we were driving up the dirt road that we call the short-cut to our home that sits in the middle of a ranch in northern Mexico. We were on an uphill, curving section that is very stony and rutted. The combination of road conditions and deep shadows required my undivided focus. “Watch out,” cried my wife, “I think that’s a man!” I had not seen anything but, directed by her gaze, I saw what did indeed appear to be a man just beside the right front corner of our full sized van. His dingy clothing served as camouflage on the unpaved road. I had just missed putting our wheel directly through his body lengthwise. He did not jump up. He did not dodge. “He must be passed out,” I thought to myself. He had moved ever so slightly assuring me he was not dead. The terror of nearly accidentally killing someone began to fade and, as will happen at times like these, was replaced by anger and indignation. “Some fool had become so inebriated that he passed out in the middle of the road,” I reasoned.
Continue reading here.