Faith

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Quotes (757)

“For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among the nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.” – Amos 9:9

Every sifting comes by divine command and permission.  Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job.  Nay, more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, “I will sift the house of Israel”.  Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive.  Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord’s floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to His own glory, and to thine eternal profit. 

The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in His hand, and will divide the precious from the vile.  All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process must be performed.  In the sieve true weight alone has power.  Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the wind, and only solid corn will remain.

Observe the complete safety of the Lord’s wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation.  God Himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; He sifts them in all places, “among the nations”; He sifts them in the most effectual manner, “like corn is sifted in a sieve”; and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground.  Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of His redeemed people.  However little we may be, if we are the Lord’s, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

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Quotes (756)

Let it be a rule with us, in the reading of our Bibles, to study the types and ordinances of the Mosaic law with prayerful attention. They are all full of Christ. The altar–the scape-goat–the daily burnt-offering–the day of atonement, are all so many sign-posts pointing to the great sacrifice offered by our Lord on Calvary. Those who neglect to study the Jewish ordinances, as dark, dull, and uninteresting parts of the Bible, only show their own ignorance, and miss great advantages. Those who examine them with Christ as the key to their meaning, will find them full of Gospel light and comfortable truth.

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (755)

John MacArthur One more factor in the abysmal lack of discernment today is a growing deterioration of the overall level of spiritual maturity in the church. As knowledge of God’s truth ebbs, people follow popular views. They seek feelings and experiences. They hunger for miracles, healings, and spectacular wonders. They grope for easy and instant solutions to the routine trials of life. They turn quickly from the plain truth of God’s Word to embrace doctrines fit only for the credulous and naive. They chase personal comfort and success. The brand of Christianity prevalent in this generation may be shallower than at any other time in history.

– John MacArthur

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Another idol bites the dust.

We here at DefCon have reported in the past when idols have met there demise, like the large graven image being paraded around in a Romish church that came crashing to the ground and the statue of Moroni getting struck by lightening. Now, here’s the latest graven image to bite the dust (or should we say “ashes?”) thanks to lightening.

The 62 foot tall, $250,000 statue of Jesus erected outside Solid Rock Church in Ohio was destroyed by a lightening strike. I can’t help but wonder as the leaders of the church stand around the ashes if one of them won’t be brave enough to say, “I guess we should have spent all that money on missions.”


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Most Christians Cannot Explain their Faith, Says Apologist.

The following from an article at the Christian Post says what we’ve been warning about all along.

The faith of most Christians, even that of many pastors, will not stand up to intellectual scrutiny, according to renowned apologist Josh McDowell.

This is a concern because pastors’ inability to present biblical truth comprehensibly and relevantly has led to children from Christian families leaving the church, research has shown.

In the United States, the age at which nearly all such children leave church has decreased to 18 years.

Not even the children of many successful ministers are spared.

McDowell made his comments at a recent networking dinner among various men’s ministries organized recently by Men-in-Covenant. MiC is the men’s ministry of Covenant Evangelical Free Church.

He recalled speaking with the pastor of one of the largest U.S. churches, a man known for his expository preaching. Confiding in him, the pastor said their church was losing its youth right after high school graduation.

In his 50 years of ministry, McDowell has asked several thousand pastors and leaders how they could be certain Jesus Christ said “I am the truth” and not one of many truths or a truth.

“Not one person has ever given me an intelligent, biblically-based answer,” said the author of The New Evidence that Demands A Verdict.

During the past six years, he asked hundreds of Christians and leaders why they see themselves as Christians. Again no one gave him an “intelligent” answer.

In the past 17 years, he has asked over 4,000 pastors, leaders and parents why they believe the Bible is true.

A mere six “came close to giving an intelligent answer,” McDowell noted.

“If anything is based upon truth, it’s the Christian faith,” he said. “Christians who do not know why they have faith or believe have a very difficult time expressing themselves to others.

“The saddest thing is people come to me and say, ‘What’s the answer?’”

“I say, ‘There’s no answer… There are hundreds of answers.’”

Most Christians, even some pastors, don’t even know one. On the other hand, the apologist said he could give 50 reasons for his belief that the Bible is true.

Ninety-five percent of Christians gave disappointing responses when asked why they believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Asked why the Bible is true and historically reliable, Christians replied that it was what they had been taught by their church or parents.

A common response that most Christians gave to both questions was that it is “what I believe.”

McDowell responded: “That’s voodoo thinking. Where did we ever get that crazy idea that something is true just because we believe it?

“If that is true, then there will never be heresy. Everybody would be right.”

On one occasion, 13 youth pastors at a large convention were unable to reasonably answer the apologist’s question.

Finally one young person stood up, walked toward him and told him he knew the answer.

The young man promptly held up his Bible and said, “Because I believe it.”

And to McDowell’s dismay, all the youth pastors applauded him.

McDowell said, “Young man, do you know the difference between you, me and the majority of Christians in the world?

“To you, it is true because you believe it. For me, I believe it because it is true.”

Another response the apologist received was: Because I have faith.

He commented, “Where did we ever get the crazy idea that faith makes something true? That’s idiotic. That’s so unbiblical you can call it heresy.

“God doesn’t use faith to create truth. He uses truth through the Holy Spirit to create faith.”

Christians, the apologist stressed, are called to explain their faith when asked. They are set free by the faith in the truth, he expressed, referring to John 8:32.

Yet others say Christianity is true because Jesus changed their lives.

Even this will not stand up to intellectual scrutiny, McDowell argued.

“Lies change lives; cults change lives,” he said.

To make such an appeal is “not the essence of Christianity,” the author emphasized.

McDowell said: “We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our children, we owe it to our neighbors, we owe it to the lost, to tell them not just what we believe but why do we believe it.”

HT:

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Quotes (753)

Gary Gilley The temptation arises for a church to change, or at least hide, who they are so that they appeal to unchurched Harry. Additionally, the church is tempted to alter its message to correspond with what Harry wants to hear and thinks he needs. The end result is a felt-need gospel that appeals to Harry’s fallen nature in an effort to entice him to come to Christ, the ultimate felt-need supplier, so that he is fulfilled and feels better about himself.

– Gary Gilley

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Sermon of the week “The How, Why, and When of Creation” by John MacArthur.

John MacArthur Your sermon of the week is the third edition of John MacArthur’s The Battle for the Beginning series with a two-part message entitled The How, Why, and When of Creation.

The How, Why, and When of Creation (Part One)

The How, Why, and When of Creation (Part Two)

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Quotes (752)

Let us beware of attempting to add anything to the word of God, as necessary to salvation. It provokes God to give us over to judicial blindness. It is as good as saying that His Bible is not perfect, and that we know better than He does what is necessary for man’s salvation. It is just as easy to destroy the authority of God’s word by addition as by subtraction, by burying it under man’s inventions as by denying its truth. The whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, must be our rule of faith nothing added and nothing taken away.

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (750)

“He humbled Himself.” – Philippians 2:8

Jesus is the great teacher of lowliness of heart.  We need daily to learn of Him.  See the Master taking a towel and washing His disciples’ feet!  Follower of Christ, wilt thou not humble thyself?  See Him as the Servant of servants, and surely thou canst not be proud!  Is not this sentence the compendium of His biography, “He humbled Himself”?  Was He not on earth always stripping off first one robe of honor and then another, till, naked He was fastened to the cross, and there did He not empty out His inmost self, pouring out His life-blood, giving up for all of us, till they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave?  How low was our dear Redeemer brought!  How then can we be proud?  Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed; see the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrimsoned rills; see hands and feet given up to the rough iron, and His whole self to mockery and scorn; see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief, showing themselves in His outward frame; hear the thrilling shriek, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”  And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it; if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know Him.  You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God’s only begotten.  Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you, bow yourself in lowliness at His feet.  A sense of Christ’s amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even a consciousness of our own guilt.  May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary, then our position will no longer be that of the pompous man of pride, but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much because much has been forgiven him.  Pride cannot live beneath the cross.  Let us sit there and learn our lesson, and then rise and carry it into practice.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

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Quotes (748)

Gary Gilley While we do not affirm that everything modern is evil or that everything ancient was excellent, there is no doubt that the greater part of the boasted “progress” in Christendom of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a progress downward and not upward—away from God and not toward Him, into the darkness and not the light.

– Gary Gilley

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Quotes (747)

A W PinkIf we are daily concerned in seeking to please God in all the details, great and small, of our lives, He will not leave us in ignorance of His will concerning us. But if we are accustomed to gratify self and only turn up to God for help in times of difficulty and emergency, then we must not be surprised if he mocks us and allows us to reap the fruits of our folly.

– A.W. Pink

1886 – 1952

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Sermon of the week: “God – Creator and Redeemer” by John MacArthur.

John MacArthur This is the next installment on the subject of creation vs evolution by John MacArthur from his series The Battle For the Beginning. It is entitled God: Creator and Redeemer. Look for the next installment in two weeks.

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Sermon of the week: “You Must Be Born From Above” by Randall Easter.

Your sermon of the week is another must-hear powerhouse sermon by Randall Easter entitled You Must Be Born From Above.

If you haven’t heard Randall Easter’s previous sermon on Jonah (and I highly recommend that you do), you can find it on this post.

HT: The Bororean

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Quotes (743)

“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” —2 Tim. 1:13

 “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.”—Titus 1. 9.

But let us not forget that this testimony for the “form of sound words which we have heard of” the apostles must be borne “in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” Unhallowed is that zeal for the truth which is animated merely by rivalry, or the spirit of party, which is not founded in solemn convic­tion, the result of faithful study and earnest prayer, which con­tends for wrath, and not for conscience’s sake. The apostle here teaches us, in two words, what is that spirit of orthodoxy which God requires. It values revealed truth because it has humbly received it with adoring reverence, as the gift and trust of infinite wisdom and love, and because it sees in those doc­trines the instruments of glory to God and endless blessing to blind, erring man; yea, to our enemies and opposers. Let us, then, while we hold fast to the pattern of sound words, ever study to do it in faith and love.

– R.L. Dabney

1820 – 1898

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When the world gets it but the “church” doesn’t.

I just saw this news piece in which a softball coach required eight of her players to drink soda out of a shoe. The matter is being called a mistake and the coach has apologized. Yet, when “Christian” youth groups in American churches participate in drinking foot bath water and licking peanut butter out of armpits and off toes, for some reason they view this as ministry.

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Smoke, mirrors, and some very bad hermeneutics.

This is a classic! The man in this satirical video uses some ingenious methods in an attempt to prove that Jesus is not God. Although the video is in jest, it illustrates the absurdity of how some go to great lengths to make the Bible say what they want it to say, including denying Jesus’ deity (like Jehovah’s Witnesses).

Although the video is funny, the ramifications of those who deny Jesus’ deity certainly isn’t.