So what is the difference between someone who willfully indulges in sexual pleasures while ignoring the Bible on moral purity and someone who willfully indulges in the selfish pursuit of more and more material possessions while ignoring the Bible on caring for the poor? The difference is that one involves a social taboo in the church and the other involves the social norm in the church.
– David Platt
Christian author and editor-at-large for Christianity Today, Philip Yancey, will be the keynote speaker at the Gay Christian Network’s upcoming 2011 conference.
Here’s a link to a Q&A with Philip Yancey from 2009 on the topic of homosexuality.
There’s nothing more I can add to Ingrid Schlueter’s remarks (summing up what we are beholding) when she said the following in response to this news:
“Evangelicals once prided themselves that they were not like those small-minded fundamentalists who erected walls around their beliefs and stuck to the Bible. Evangelicals were different, they claimed, because they believed in lowering the drawbridge into the culture so that the church could intermingle. Well, all these years later, evangelicalism is indistinguishable from the culture around it, this story being a case in point. That’s because the lowered drawbridge of evangelicalism wasn’t sending out soldiers of Christ intent on evangelizing the lost. It was sending traffic from the world’s culture straight into the heart of the church. Traffic goes both ways on a drawbridge, and nobody bothered to stand watch at evangelicalism’s gate.”
Another great message for your sermon of the week, The Sanctifying Shepherd, was delivered at the 2009 Resolved Conference
John MacArthur has a bold proclamation for pastors: Quit trying to be funny and entertaining; be a sanctifying shepherd to your congregation. And if you’re not a pastor, MacArthur’s plea to you is: find a sanctifying shepherd to be your pastor.
A candid message that I wish most pastors I know would listen to.
If we enjoy the favor of the Lord, it is certain that we will be out of favor with those who hate Him. He has plainly warned, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). It is useless to suppose that, by acting prudently and circumspectly, we can avoid this. “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). It is only by unfaithfulness, by hiding our light under a bushel, by compromising the Truth, by attempting to serve two masters, that we can escape “the reproach of Christ” (Hebrews 11:26).
– A. W. Pink
1886 – 1952
Someone took our previous post Which Jesus Do You Worship? and turned it into a video.
Enjoy.
I remember when I was preparing to take my first trip to Sudan in 2004. . . . A couple months before we left, I received a Christian news publication in the mail. . . . On the left one headline read, “First Baptist Church Celebrates New $23 Million Building.” A lengthy article followed, celebrating the church’s expensive new sanctuary. The exquisite marble, intricate design, and beautiful stained glass were all described in vivid detail.
On the right was a much smaller article. The headline for it read, “Baptist Relief Helps Sudanese Refugees.” Knowing I was about to go to Sudan, my attention was drawn. The article described how 350,000 refugees in western Sudan were dying of malnutrition and might not live to the end of the year. It briefly explained their plight and sufferings. The last sentence said that Baptists had sent money to help relieve the suffering of the Sudanese. I was excited until I got to the amount. . . . “Baptists have raised $5,000 to send to refugees in western Sudan.”
Five thousand dollars. That is not enough to get a plane into Sudan, much less one drop of water to people who need it. Twenty-three million dollars for an elaborate sanctuary and five thousand dollars for hundreds of starving men, women, and children, most of whom were dying apart from faith in Christ.
Where have we gone wrong? How did we get to the place where this is actually tolerable?
– David Platt
The duty of the true Christian is clear and plain. Whatever others do, he must give all diligence to make his own calling and election sure. While others are occupied in national conflicts and political speculations, he must steadily seek first the kingdom of God. In so doing, he shall feel his feet upon a rock when the foundations of the earth are out of course, and the kingdoms of this earth are going to ruin. He shall be like Noah, safe within the ark.
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
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.
The following is the complete Sermon Builder found here on the Shepherd’s Conference website:
Welcome to the Sermon Builder – a step-by-step guide for expository sermon preparation. While the Sermon Builder will not write someone’s sermon for them, it is intended to lead pastors and Bible teachers through the basic steps of exegesis and exposition. It is our desire that even the experienced expositor, as he works his way through the Sermon Builder, will be refreshed and reminded of helpful principles and truths.
The Sermon Builder has divided the sermon building process into four main stages: 1) Preparation, 2) Precision, 3) Production, and 4) Presentation. Later stages can be accessed immediately by clicking on the corresponding link at the top of the page. Each stage is divided into specific steps. By clicking “next” or “back” users can navigate from one step to the next.
With each step, users can also click on the online links listed to the right of the text. These links are designed to give the user immediate access to helpful resources and sermon building tools.
Your sermon of the week is The Art of the Sermon by Rick Holland.
The world and the devil combined, cannot do us so much harm as our own hearts will, if we do not watch and pray. Happy is he who remembers daily the words of Solomon, “One who trusts in himself is a fool.” (Prov. 28:26.)
– J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
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 .
I believe that Christian parents and children, Christian families, have a unique opportunity of witnessing to the world at this present time by just being different. We can be true evangelists by showing this discipline, this law and order, this true relationship between parents and children.
– David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
1899 – 1981
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:
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).
The United Kingdom’s The Guardian has published a scathing indictment of the American mainstream church that Ingrid Schlueter described as:
Imagine finding the most incisive, succinct description of empty evangelicalism you’ve ever seen, and finding it in the UK’s left-wing Guardian newspaper.
The entire article, Crystal Cathedral Had It’s Day, can be read here. It’s certainly an article worth the read, but if you’re still reluctant I’ve provided the following quote to whet your whistle.
But there is nothing new under the sun. Saddleback and the Crystal Cathedral, Willow Creek and all the other evangelical megachurches that have had their time in the sun sell the same product: mind-power through talk-magic, which in secular packaging is just what all the innumerable therapies and self-help programmes on the market promise. In the US, where school psychologists are almost as common as school nurses, we are obsessed with talk therapies because they are in fact ecumenical and secularised versions of evangelical Christianity, our old time religion.
Let us carefully remember that our blessed Lord suffered and died of His own free will. He did not die because He could not help it; He did not suffer because He could not escape. All the soldiers of Pilate’s army could not have taken Him, if He had not been willing to be taken. They could not have hurt a hair of His head, if He had not given them permission. But here, as in all His earthly ministry, Jesus was a willing sufferer. He had set His heart on accomplishing our redemption. He loved us, and gave Himself for us, cheerfully, willingly, gladly, in order to make atonement for our sins. It was “the joy set before Him” which made Him endure the cross, and despise the shame, and yield Himself up without reluctance into the bands of His enemies. Let this thought abide in our hearts, and refresh our souls. We have a Savior who was far more willing to save us than we are willing to be saved. If we are not saved, the fault is all our own. Christ is just as willing to receive and pardon, as He was willing to be taken prisoner, to bleed, and to die.
– J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
“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.”
Your sermon of the week is The Ability of God by Randall Easter. This is the sixth sermon I’ve ever listened to by Randall Easter (and the sixth featured on DefCon) and like the others, it’s another example of powerful, convicting preaching. You will not be disappointed.
Faith, let us remember, is the root, and assurance is the flower. Doubtless you can never have the flower without the root; but it is no less certain you may have the root and not the flower.
Faith is that poor trembling woman who came behind Jesus in the press and touched His garment. (Mark 5:27) Assurance is Stephen standing calmly in the midst of his murderers, and saying, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:5-6)
Faith is the penitent thief, crying, “Lord, remember me.” (Luke 23:42) Assurance is Job, sitting in the dust, covered with sores, and saying, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” (Job 19:25) “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.” (Job 13:15)
Faith is Peter’s drowning cry as he began to sink, “Lord, save me.” (Matthew 14:30) Assurance is that same Peter declaring before the Council in after-times, “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)
Faith is the anxious, trembling voice, “Lord, I believe: help Thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) Assurance is the confident challenge, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who is he that condemeth?” (Romans 8:33-34)
Faith is Saul praying in the house of Judas at Damascus, sorrowful, blind, and alone. (Acts 9:11) Assurance is Paul, the aged prisoner, looking calmly into the grave, and saying, “I know whom I have believed. There is a crown laid up for me.” (2 Timothy 1:12, 4:8)
Christ Alone Wyoming 