In the creation, man was made in God’s image; in the incarnation God was made in man’s image. . . . He took our flesh that He might take our sins, and so appease God’s wrath. . . . Christ’s taking our flesh was one of the lowest steps of His humiliation. For Christ to be made flesh was more humility than for the angels to be made worms. . . . He stripped Himself of the robes of His glory, and covered Himself with the rags of our humanity.
– Thomas Watson
1620 – 1686
I recently heard Don Kistler make the statement that “sin is the reason for the season” and he is absolutely right. Christ coming to earth as a human wasn’t for . . .
Your self-esteem . . .
Your personal finances . . .
Your financial success . . .
Your gift exchange party . . .
Your social status . . .
Your temporal happiness . . .
Nope, Jesus came because of your sin and mine. He was the perfect substitution for the object of God’s righteous wrath that we so justly deserve. So this holiday, remember sin is the real reason for the season!
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
Merry Christmas!
Though all the peoples walk each in the name of his god, as for us, we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.
– Micah 4:5
Your sermon of the week is Christ the Lord by Alistair Begg. This message is from his series The Gospel According to Luke and is a perfect sermon for Christmas. Enjoy.
I found this short and interesting video debate between a Roman Catholic (who includes Evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons under the umbrella of “Christian”) and an Atheist on the subject of Christmas.
The Roman Catholic is a Foxnews anchor, and the Atheist is from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Yes, the same Freedom From Religion Foundation that honors the bloodthirsty racist Margaret Sanger as a great “Free Thinker.”
All in all, a very entertaining video.
Similar to the previous post Thanksgiving Perspectives, I wanted to take the opportunity to recommend that you keep the Christmas holiday in perspective. I offer the following two things I believe will help you to do this: Download and listen to this sobering message by Bill Wilson and view the video on this post.
There’s a new purveyor of false doctrine in town, and they’re using the same argument often used by Atheists to deny God’s justice and punishment of the wicked. The New Covenant Group argues against Hell using a famous but woefully ignorant line of argumentation commonly employed by those who deny God’s existence. Before I address this and show you not only the absurdity of the argument but how to easily dismantle it, I want you to watch the following video from NCG to better understand the problem:
I originally found the above video on The Museum of Idolatry and the following was Chris Rosebrough’s commentary:
Here’s a nifty trick used by almost ALL false teachers. Ignore the clear teaching of the Bible and build a straw man argument based upon a distorted view of the evidence (in this case via suppression of clear Biblical data). Then beat up on the straw man that you’ve constructed (that shouldn’t be because hard [sic] straw men don’t fight back). Once the straw man is good and dead then assert your own position as if it were the truth.
That’s precisely what’s happening in this video put out by the “New Covenant Group” that claims there is no hell. Pay REAL CLOSE attention to the fact that NONE of the passages where Jesus teaches the doctrines of God’s wrath and eternal punishment are discussed. Instead, there is only an appeal to an artificially constructed Jesus that was built using only partial data and warped human reasoning.
Chris certainly hit the nail on the head and now I would like to explore this straw man that the thespian and his pastor in the above video concocted.
First of all I want to make it clear that the sovereign, glorious, majestic, holy God of all creation isn’t a grovelling middle-aged, balding man like the theatrical blasphemer in the above video. Secondly, God begs and grovels for no man! Until you begin to understand the infinite holiness and unparalleled awesomeness of God you won’t begin to understand the fallacy of their argument.
The proposition that God wants us to love Him but if we don’t He will then send us to Hell for all eternity is a misrepresentation of the Gospel and is the product of this very poorly constructed straw man.
It’s not a matter of if we don’t love Him then He’ll cast us into Hell, mankind is already going there. There is no neutrality in the issue of man standing before God. God is not wringing His hands hoping someone, somewhere, will love Him. We are born into iniquity, there is no good in us, we are always doing evil, and we do not seek after God (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:11, 23).
Secondly, we are already in judgment. The Bible is clear that the wrath of God already abides on sinners (John 3:36) and that those who do not believe in the Son of God are already judged (John 3:18). We are not floating around this life in a state of neutrality and after our death we’ll then find out if we are going to receive Heaven or Hell. No, we are drudging around this life with the fetters of sin constantly about us. We are tethered to the abyss of Hell from birth because we are born unregenerate and hostile to God; it is our very nature.
Thirdly, their argument is absolutely fallacious because God knows that unless He calls us, we aren’t going to love Him anyway (John 6:44, John 17:2). And every one of us who are His elect, His chosen, His children were on that same road. It wasn’t until God in His infinite grace, mercy, and love toward us (while we were yet still sinners) rescued us from our rebellious and hostile stance against Him.
The concept that God wants us to love Him or He’ll throw us into Hell is a concept absolutely foreign to Scripture and any serious Bible student should know that. This warped depiction of the holy Triune God of all creation by these mockers in the above video is based solely on their blatant misrepresentation of Scripture (or more specifically a total absence of Scripture). And the furtherance of their lie is wholly dependent upon the biblical illiteracy of their church members.
We are not saved by our act of choosing to love God, and conversely we don’t have to refuse to love God to be found guilty and thus be cast into Hell. Without Christ we already stand condemned!
But the good news is that God loved us so much that He offered His only Son as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus Christ took on human form and willingly gave up His life as a perfect substitute to save us from the wrath of God and from the Hell that we so justly deserve. The condition of escaping Hell is not based on our loving God, it is based on the finished work of Christ at Calvary.
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See also Denying Hell: The bandwagon is getting quite full and Hell is necessary
O, the work that sin has done in the world! This is the enemy that has brought in death; that has robbed and enslaved man, that has turned the world upside down, and sown the dissensions between man and the creatures, between man and man, yea, between man and himself, setting the physical part against the rational, the will against the judgment, lust against conscience; yea, worst of all, between God and man, making the sinner both hateful to God and the hater of God. This is the traitor that thirsted for the blood of the Son of God, that sold Him, that mocked Him, that scourged Him, that spat in His face, that mangled His body . . . condemned Him, nailed Him, crucified Him. . . . This is the bloody executioner that has killed the prophets, burned the martyrs, murdered all the apostles, all the patriarchs, all the kings and potentates; that has destroyed cities, swallowed empires, and devoured whole nations. Whatever weapon it was done by, it was sin that caused the execution. Do you still think it is only a small thing? If Adam and all his children could be dug out of their graves, and their bodies piled up to heaven, and an inquest was made as to what matchless murderer was guilty of all this, it would be all found in sin.
– Joseph Alleine
1634 – 1668
After a class was instructed to sketch something that reminded them of the Christmas holiday, one student drew a crucifix. Apparently, however, according to the godless government-run public school, not only did Christ’s birth have nothing to do with His birth (like they know anything about theology anyway), but it also warranted this child’s removal from school and necessitated a psychological evaluation. Read more about this shocking story from Massachusetts.
Welcome to a brave new world.
Your sermon of the week is Grace Conceived: Unconditional Election by Brian Borgman. This is a great message on the doctrine of Election. If you struggle with this doctrine or simply want to know more about it, you must listen to this sermon.
This is part five of a thirteen-part series entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith that Pastor Borgman gave in 1998. Look for the each additional installment every couple weeks.
Listen to another great sermon on this subject by Russ Sukhia found on this previous post.
From: House of Happiness: “Weighing only 2.5 pounds, Johnny was found in the trash by garbage men on the streets of Quito (the capital of Ecuador, South America). wrapped in a filthy rag, he was taken to the president’s wife, who was overseeing the orphanages of the nation at that time. Henry Davis (the orphanage founder) came to visit her around the same time, and she asked if Henry would take this abandoned little baby to the Happiness Orphanage. He took the baby home to Dorothy, still wrapped in the dirty rags and told her he had a surprise for her. As he began to set the baby down on their kitchen counter top, Dorothy turned around and said, “Don’t set those dirty rags on my counter, Henry!” Before she could get upset, he told her to open the rags and see what was inside. As she opened the rags, she was startled to find a baby. The baby was unnamed, so they began calling him John Mark Peace (“Juan Marco Paz” in Spanish). Johnny was so small and malnourished that they thought he was a newborn. After a visit to the doctor they found out he was one month old. He was so small that Johnny slept in a shoe box. Dorothy cared for him until he was four months old and in good health — then he went to the orphanage to live. He grew up at the orphanage, having no other family. Johnny is now married and has a family of his own. The Lord has blessed him with a charming smile and a natural musical talent.”
I have been researching orphanages and came across this story which I thought I would post to encourage us to be wise stewards with our time and money and to show what a difference one can make. In America and other industralized nations, we often have so much abundance that we do not have enough room to store all of our goods and need bigger houses, taller attics, and rented storage space. And even now so many are preparing to increase their coffers with more goods as we approach the holiday season.
I pray we all might examine our lives and take an accounting of our time, resources and finances to assess how we are using them. And that we might reach out to more of the disadvantaged, downtrodden and despised and share with them the love of Christ, not only in word, but in deed and truth. For it is written:
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
And elsewhere, the Psalmist wrote:
Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.
If any do know of any reputable orphanges, I would be more than interested in learning about them.
As a follow-up to Fourpointer’s post from two days ago, I want to direct your attention to a situation that has arisen between Perry Noble’s church and Dr. James Duncan, a vocal critic of Noble.
I will not attempt to rehash the ugly situation here, but will direct you to the following piece written by Dr. Duncan on the matter: Holy Rage at the Spring
I also highly recommend a fantastic two-part podcast from Pirate Christian Radio on this situation. In the first half of part one of this podcast Chris Rosebrough interviews Dr. Duncan regarding the character assassination and wholly unbiblical and non-Christian acts perpetrated against Dr. Duncan by staff of NewsSpring in retaliation to his vocal opposition to Noble. The second half of part one concludes with Rosebrough’s critique of a Perry Noble sermon. Part two of the podcast is Rosebrough’s continuation of this critique.
You can download the podcasts here:
Perry Noble’s employees assassinate the character of a critic: Part One
Perry Noble’s employees assassinate the character of a critic: Part Two
Frankly, I am not surprised that this whole awful situation has transpired. The current culture that’s being fostered in such churches as NewSpring is that the leader is not to be questioned. When the cults act this way it’s identified as a sign of conditioning and thought-control, but when mega-churches act this way we’re supposed to shut up because Noble’s god told him that those outside of his church who criticize him are jackasses and are to be ignored.
The intolerance and anger that comes from Noble is nothing that his critics should be surprised at. After all, this is the guy, if you’ll recall, who gave a tongue-lashing to his own congregation for expecting their pastor to . . . . well, be a pastor.
Welcome to Laodicea, where peace is defined as the absence of all opposition.
Care not so much for [your children] being mighty in the catechism as for their being mighty in the Scriptures.
J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
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What happens when you mix hippies, psychics, and “prophetess” Patricia King? One huge unbiblical mess reminiscent of Woodstock and a Psychic Fair!
See the results in this video clip.
A sword in a madman’s hand, and the Word of God in some wicked man’s mouth, are used much alike.
– William Gurnall
1617 – 1679
In the news: The Duggar’s welcome child number 19 and a feminist who wants the planet to adopt China’s limited child policy (video).
Timothy George, Co-Author of Manhattan Declaration
From: Ralph Ovadal, Pastor of Pilgrims Covenant Church, Monroe, Wisconsin.
The Manhattan Declaration is an ungodly manifesto, contemptuous of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an ecumenical treatise, complete with a Romish gospel and shot through and through with popish error. Those evangelicals who have authored this document and who have led the way in signing it show themselves to be in rebellion to God. It is, in their case, a brazen manifesto of treason against the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are not friends but rather are enemies of Christian liberty in that they disobey and provoke the Author of liberty with their spiritual fornication, even wresting His word and corrupting His blood-bought church. It is the biblical duty of all faithful Christian pastors to stand against the evangelical authors of the Manhattan Declaration and all evangelicals who sign it or promote it in any way. Such betrayers of Christ and His church must be separated from and called to account by all faithful Christian ministers and people.
For a message speaking to this much needed, very strong public rebuke to the evangelical signers of The Manhattan Declaration, please listen here.
Who made the following statement?
My message is not about doctrine. I don’t have to get 50 references from Scripture in a sermon for it to be a good sermon. Churches that are helping people live out a Christian life are growing and flourishing. . . . I want to be careful not to criticize anybody or be negative . . . but we need to change with the times.
Answer . . .
Christ Alone Wyoming 