Your sermon of the week is a good one by Todd Musser entitled Dismantling Easy Believism. In this message, Musser makes the following three critical points from Ezekiel 18:
– There is no victim mentality when it comes to spiritual things.
– There is no works righteousness.
– Do you have fire insurance or full assurance?
The only thing of my very own to which I can contribute to my own redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed.
– William Temple
1628 – 1699
DefCon continues its Saturday Sermon Series by Albert Martin on the fear of God. Today you can download parts 4 through 6. You can download the first three messages from this series here.
We will conclude with the final three parts next Saturday (one week from today).
The Fear of God – Part 4 (Ingredients, Part 2)
The Fear of God – Part 5 (Ingredients, Part 3)
The Fear of God – Part 6 (Source)
Your sermon of the week is Three Reasons to Fear God by John MacArthur.
MacArthur begins this sermon by asking those in attendance what they would preach if they had one opportunity to speak in the largest church. He then reveals that when Jesus preached to the largest audience He had, He preached on the subject of Hell; something not even conceived of by most of today’s pastors.
“A Letter to Paul the Apostle”
The Trinity Review, July, August 1988
Copyright (C) 2003
_______________________________________________________
Charles Phinney
Presbyterian Church in Asia Minor
Committee on Missions
Paul the Apostle
c\o Aquila the Tentmaker
Corinth, Greece
Dear Paul:
We recently received a copy of your letter to the Galatians. The committee has directed me to inform you of a number of things, which deeply concern us.
First, we find your language to be somewhat intemperate. In your letter, after a brief greeting to the Galatians, you immediately attack your opponents by claiming they “want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”
You then say that such men should be regarded as “accursed”; and, in another place, you make reference to “false brethren.” Wouldn’t it be more charitable to give them the benefit of the doubt—at least until the General Assembly has investigated and adjudicated the matter?
To make the situation worse, you later say, “I could wish those who trouble you would even cut them selves off!” Is such a statement really fitting for a Christian minister? The remark seems quite harsh and unloving.
Read the entire letter here.
HT: Flock Alert
If the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Church in Galatia had been published in the magazine Christianity Today how would it be received? Well, what follows is a dramatization of letters received from readers in response to Paul’s inspired Epistle.
(Source: Sacred Sandwich)
Dear Christianity Today:
In response to Paul D. Apostle’s article about the Galatian church in your January issue, I have to say how appalled I am by the unchristian tone of this hit piece. Why the negativity? Has he been to the Galatian church recently? I happen to know some of the people at that church, and they are the most loving, caring people I’ve ever met.
Phyllis Snodgrass; Ann Arbor, MI
————————————————————————
Dear Editor:
How arrogant of Mr. Apostle to think he has the right to judge these people and label them accursed. Isn’t that God’s job? Regardless of this circumcision issue, these Galatians believe in Jesus just as much as he does, and it is very Pharisaical to condemn them just because they differ on such a secondary issue. Personally, I don’t want a sharp instrument anywhere near my zipper, but that doesn’t give me the right to judge how someone else follows Christ. Can’t we just focus on our common commitment to Christ and furthering His kingdom, instead of tearing down fellow believers over petty doctrinal matters?
Ed Bilgeway; Tonganoxie, KS
————————————————————————–
Dear CT:
I’ve seen other dubious articles by Paul Apostle in the past, and frankly I’m surprised you felt that his recurrent criticisms of the Church deserved to be printed in your magazine. Mr. Apostle for many years now has had a penchant for thinking he has a right to “mark” certain Christian teachers who don’t agree with his biblical position. Certainly I commend him for desiring to stay faithful to God’s word, but I think he errs in being so dogmatic about his views to the point where he feels free to openly attack his brethren. His attitude makes it difficult to fully unify the Church, and gives credence to the opposition’s view that Christians are judgmental, arrogant people who never show God’s love.
Ken Groener; San Diego, CA
—————————————————————————-
To the Editors:
Paul Apostle says that he hopes the Galatian teachers will cut off their own privates? What kind of Christian attitude is that? Shame on him!
Martha Bobbitt; Boulder, CO
—————————————————————————-
Dear Christianity Today:
The fact that Paul Apostle brags about his public run-in with Peter Cephas, a well-respected leader and brother in Christ, exposes Mr. Apostle for the divisive figure that he has become in the Church today. His diatribe against the Galatian church is just more of the same misguided focus on an antiquated reliance on doctrine instead of love and tolerance. Just look how his hypercritical attitude has cast aspersions on homosexual believers and women elders! The real problem within the Church today is not the lack of doctrinal devotion, as Apostle seems to believe, but in our inability to be transformed by our individual journeys in the Spirit. Evidently, Apostle has failed to detach himself from his legalistic background as a Pharisee, and is unable to let go and experience the genuine love for Christ that is coming from the Galatians who strive to worship God in their own special way.
William Zenby; Richmond, VA
——————————————————————————
Kind Editors:
I happen to be a member of First Christian Church of Galatia, and I take issue with Mr. Apostle’s article. How can he criticize a ministry that has been so blessed by God? Our church has baptized many new members and has made huge in-roads in the Jewish community with our pragmatic view on circumcision. Such a “seeker-sensitive” approach has given the Jews the respect they deserve for being God’s chosen people for thousands of years. In addition, every Gentile in our midst has felt honored to engage in the many edifying rituals of the Hebrew heritage, including circumcision, without losing their passion for Jesus. My advice to Mr. Apostle is to stick to spreading the gospel message of Christ’s unconditional love, and quit criticizing what God is clearly blessing in other churches.
Miriam “Betty” Ben-Hur; Galatia, Turkey
——————————————————————————-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Christianity Today apologizes for our rash decision in publishing Paul Apostle’s exposé of the Galatian church. Had we known the extent in which our readership and advertisers would withdraw their financial support, we never would have printed such unpopular biblical truth. We regret any damage we may have caused in propagating the doctrines of Christ.
And to think, for most people on earth, this is the closest they’ll be to ever seeing Heaven.
If you try to imitate Christ, the world will praise you; if you become Christlike it will hate you.
– David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
1899 – 1981
Pastor Brian Borgman reveals three of his pet-peeves when it comes to youth ministry:
Sunday School and VBS curriculum which trivializes and moralizes the Bible.
Children’s Church which substitutes for Church.
Sending the kids out right before the sermon.
Read the entire post here.
Also be sure to listen to Borgman’s fantastic sermon Children in Worship found here.
In addition to DefCon’s weekly sermon of the week (posted every Thursday), we occasionally feature a Saturday Sermon Series.
For the next three Saturdays we are pleased to present a nine-part series (three parts a week) by Albert N. Martin on the fear of God.
This is a powerful message that every Christian can benefit from.
The Fear of God – Part 1 (Predominance in Biblical Thought)
The Fear of God – Part 2 (Definition, Part 1)
The Fear of God – Part 3 (Definition, Part 2; Ingredients Part 1)
An interesting article on the invention of adolescence by Otto Scott.
Adolescence is now accepted by most Americans as a strange and difficult period marked by wild swings of mood, outbursts of temper, rudeness, rebelliousness, and personality changes — all involuntary. They would be surprised to learn that this period was unknown, unrecognized, and unseen in every previous civilization, culture, and society throughout the immensely long history of humanity. It is, even today, unknown in large areas of the inhabited world.
Read the entire article here.
Many churches spend more on interest payments than on world missions. Debt ties the church’s hands. If attendance drops, the economy suffers, or giving dips, then pastors or missionaries must go unpaid. The building completed eight years ago, already needing repairs, keeps demanding those monthly payments, mostly going to interest. . . . When a church overextends itself financially, it inevitably spends time during services trying to persuade people to give to the building fund. This changes the focus from worshiping Christ, studying the Scriptures, and meeting the needs of the community to concerns about buildings, mortgages, and money.
– Randy Alcorn
Someone was finally bold enough to address one of the greatest causes for people to reject the Doctrines of Grace: proud, combative, and caustic Calvinists. John Scheffer boldly goes where few will dare in his candid message Dangers of Calvinism: The Danger of Pride.
The following is from Flock Alert:
“Many are honestly confused about the Federal Vision, and are looking for a quick, basic understanding of it. As such, here we offer a crash course about this enormously influential movement.
“The following resources demonstrate that the Federal Vision is indeed a heresy of the worst kind, and perverts almost every doctrine related to salvation. It is [sic] has much in common with N. T. Wright’s theology, and is essentially a form of Roman Catholicism in sheep’s clothing. It denies justification by faith alone, Christ’s active obedience, and perseverance of the saints, and holds to salvation by works (for instance, the soul damning heresy of baptismal regeneration).”
Read the entire article here.
Source: Just Stop And Think
Are Arminians really closet Calvinists? Find out in your sermon of the week is Closet Calvinists – Why Arminians Pre-Suppose the Doctrines of Grace by Phil Johnson.
HT: Desert Pastor
[Jonah] was exceedingly displeased and even very angry (Jonah 4:1) because Nineveh had been spared from destruction. Jonah was far more deeply concerned with the fate of a single plant than he was with perhaps a million or more never-dying souls who had just turned to the living and true God.
What a lesson for us today. How many of us are far more deeply concerned over our gardens and our clothes, our houses and our businesses, our cars and our gadgets, than we are with the millions of perishing–yet never-dying–souls all around us. How many of us are “exceeding[ly] glad” for something that adds a little more to our own comfort and ease and luxury, but we are utterly unconscious and without a care or a thought as to whether there is joy, exceeding joy, in Heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10).
Furthermore, like Jonah, we are “exceedingly displeased” and even “angry” if anything happens to disturb our comfort and upset the course of our day. The unsaved in their blindness may bow down to wood and stone, for all we care, provided the worms do not get into our gourds and the hot east wind does not blow upon us.
– G. C. Willis
As a follow-up to What did C.S. Lewis really believe? I offer this video from Todd Friel of Wretched Radio.
HT: Sacred Sandwich
Christ Alone Wyoming 