“Shame on Christians for Being Christians!” Cries…Sean Penn??

James White

Evangelize or Fossilize or Compromise? – Part 2

Here are three common, but deficient ways of dealing with sinners.  It’s the truth that sets sinners free, so why would we even think of resorting to a lie or a partial truth?

1)  God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. If we are well-taught, we should immediately see the man-centered problem with this appeal.  However, this statement could be presented as a truth, if we are willing to tell the sinner that the wonderful plan God has may be for them to serve as an eternal example of God’s justice and wrath.  We would most likely do better service to God and His Word by abandoning statement number one altogether, and concentrate on the fact that there is forgiveness and eternal life for sinners who flee to Jesus Christ.

2) Jesus died for you. To make such a statement is tantamount to declaring that one can declare which lost person is part of God’s elect, (of course, no one means it that way).  A desire to spread the gospel should not cause us to misrepresent the purpose of the atonement.  In fact, the thinking sinner should immediately deduce from statement number two that Christ’s blood and sacrificial death are not sufficient for salvation.  Simply changing this to “Jesus died for sinners” or even “God saves sinners” is a positive truth we can proclaim with confidence and not just a nice sounding sentiment that may harbor insidious error.

3)  It’s up to you to accept Him.  There are many variations of this one, and it is usually given at the close of a gospel presentation.  But all the variations boil down to the same thing: “God has done everything He can to save you, and now it’s up to you to make the final choice”.  That is a far cry from “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”  There is truth in the old saying that every man is born a Catholic and an Arminian.  This is what lies in the heart of every sinner.  He believes in the power of his own free will.  The last thing a totally depraved man needs is for that inner belief to be fed.  We shouldn’t be telling the sinner that he somehow has the power to save himself by the powerful exercise of his free will or by his good works.  Self-salvation is the way of salvation for every single religion in the world except for one, The True One.  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone by Christ alone.

True freedom in personal evangelism comes from knowing that God is in control.  The eternal salvation or damnation of a sinner does not rest in my hands, ultimately.  I must speak the truth, as best as I can, but the results are up to God, and not in the polish of my presentation.  If a true work of grace is to be done, He must do it.  The fact that He is pleased to use men (and women) in the spread of the gospel is part of the wonder of it all!

Steve Marquedant

Sovereign Grace Reformed Baptist Church

Ontario, California

www.sgbc-ontario.us

Evangelize or Fossilize or Compromise? – Part 1

There is an old tried and true saying, “Evangelize or fossilize”.  In the sovereignty of God this saying is true.  God could have ordained angels or stones to spread the gospel and bring the elect to faith.  Instead God has ordained that the tongues of His people would testify of His grace.  However, that does not mean that all evangelistic efforts are good, even if they are bold or sincere.  Three elements must be a part of any true effort at personal evangelism or the preaching of the gospel:

1)  The message given must be true to the Scriptures concerning God and man

2)  The messenger should sincerely care about the individual

3)  The messenger must rely upon the Holy Spirit for results.

Some in our congregations will be more adapt at personal evangelism than others, but all can and must be involved in reaching souls at some level.  There should be no question in the minds of our church member’s relatives, friends and co-workers that the member is a Christian.   That alone should spark some conversation and open doors.  Something as simple as an invitation to attend church is a witness.  Many excellent booklets exist that the member can give out with little to no effort.  To not engage in simple efforts like these shows an amazing callousness toward those we profess to love.

Hyper-Calvinism, and especially Practical Hyper-Calvinism (better known as sloth) can be the cause of a lack of witnessing.  However, our Arminian friends often find their members are not engaged in evangelism.  The real cause is often the fact that all of us are afraid to be embarrassed, and that causes us to silence our mouths when we have the opportunity to speak for the cause of Christ and the gospel.

Modern methods of personal evangelism, combined with a false view of man’s free will, have led to much in the way of decisionism and wrong methodology, but not a lot in the way of true conversions.  Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, who moves in such a way that we can see the results of His working, but we do not know for sure when He will work, or where He will work (John 3:8).  As Reformed Baptists, we need to make sure our heartfelt desire for revival does not cause us to abandon the truth of God’s Word or our reliance upon Him while attempting to speak for His name.

Next time we will deal with three common, but deficient ways of dealing with sinners.

Steve Marquedant

Sovereign Grace Reformed Baptist Church

Ontario, California

www.sgbc-ontario.us

The BCF Assistant

A London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 freeware program.

Some of the features of this program are:

• Original 1677 Confession text.
• The opening letter to “the Judicious and Impartial Reader” from the 1677 text.
• The Appendix to the 1677 text in which the authors defend their Baptistic Principles and Convictions.
• Chapter Outlines taken from Samuel E. Waldron’s book, A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, (Evangelical Press, 1989).
• A section on the Doctrine and Theology of the Confession (various authors included Pastors Sam Waldron and Greg Nichols, Grand Rapids, MI, USA).
• A section outlining some of the Historical Background of the Confession and how it came to be, including some biographical information on some of those who were signatories to the Confession in 1689. This section principally comes from Dr James Renihan (Institute for Reformed Baptist Studies, Escondido, CA, USA.).

http://www.vor.org/rbdisk/bcfassis.htm

Hey Don’t Say Gay

Recently I conducted the wedding of an unconverted couple with whom I met some dozen times for premarital counseling.  Alas, during the wedding I committed a costly cultural crime.  I commended the couple for getting their sexuality aligned with biblical norms in a day of rampant fornication, adultery and homosexuality.  That was it: one innocuous reference to homosexuality in a list of sexual sins.  The fornicators and adulterers in the crowd apparently took the comment in stride.  But the homosexuals and a surprising coterie of the concerned complained to the couple.  My cultural faux pas has occasioned a fresh realization of just how far common grace has eroded.

It’s not like I’m unaware that homosexual activists are being culturally successful.  Their success at cultural infiltration has happened in my generation.  I remember attending the first meeting of a new homosexual campus group at a state university in Ohio in 1973.  I wanted to hear how these people were justifying themselves and what they hoped to accomplish.  When the time came for input from the audience, I asserted that their main concern should not be their sexuality but their idolatry.  Scowls and murmured opposition turned into shouting abuse after I read Romans 1:24-27.  For the rest of the meeting I was honored to be the example of the kind of people the gay group needed to silence.  I knew, of course, that it was not me they wanted to silence, but the voice of God speaking to their conscience in the words of Scripture.

In the 1980’s the gay movement swelled.  Marshall Kirk, a researcher in neuropsychiatry, and Hunter Madsen, a public relations consultant, set the gay agenda in their 1989 book After The Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s.  The book urged gay activists to target three sectors of society: the media, the judiciary, and the institutions of education.  They advanced a six-point strategy:

1. Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and often as possible.
2. Portray gays as victims, not aggressive challengers.
3. Give homosexual protectors a “just” cause.
4. Make gays look good.
5. Make the victimizers look bad.
6. Solicit funds from corporate America and major foundations in support of the homosexual cause.

The onslaught of AIDS in the 90’s set the stage to promote the profile of victimization and advance the language of “rights-speak” to move the discussion away from sexual sin into civil rights and needed legislation.  The media, the judiciary, and the educational institutions have extensively become conduits to convey the “gospel of gay” to an American populace increasingly ignorant of the “gospel of God.”

The argument that we meet now is the “they were born that way,” natural orientation argument.  In other words, the issue is not what homosexuals do but what they are. The terms “sexual preference” used in the 70’s and 80’s revealed too much of an exercise of personal choice.  Now the issue concerns “sexual orientation,” a much more clinically sounding term that points to biology, nature.  I admit that sorting through all this “orientation” stuff is not easy.  There is no scientific consensus that homosexuality originates in genes, or parental influences, or cultural conditioning, or any combination thereof.

As a fallen creature, it doesn’t surprise me that my physiological and psychological proclivities render me liable to certain sins more than others.  Psalm 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb, these who speak lies go astray from birth. Scripture teaches me that I am a “natural” liar.  In my now fallen nature, I am born with an inbred orientation to lie.  Lying may come naturally to me, but “to lie” is still an act, a behavior which is measured by God’s moral law.  The act of lying is not rendered less immoral simply because the Bible tells me that I’m a natural-born liar.  No, I’m naturally born in real trouble.  Both my fallen nature and my sinful acts render me blame-worthy before a holy God.  I need to be saved, big time!

Could a man, in this fallen state, have an inbred orientation to homosexuality?  That’s where the debate rages.  But is not homosexuality constituted by one’s sexual acts?  Do not homosexual acts first serve to identify the homosexual who only after indulging in such activity has warrant to even ask “Was I born this way?”  What pattern of sin, sexual or otherwise, is not traceable to our fallen nature?  If we were not sinful, we would not sin.  Who of us does not go astray from birth into various patterns of sin?

Peter tells us that righteous Lot (was) oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (2 Peter 2:7).  The word oppressed means tormented, distressed, or worn out: subdued after a hard struggle.  Lot was offended by Sodom’s society, but he eventually capitulated and was worn down by the oppressive prevalence of their sensual conduct.  Are we being worn down, subdued after a struggle?  Mark Bergin’s article “Evangelical Shift” ( WORLD January 31, 2008 ) indicates that we are.

A Pew survey from 2006 revealed that 30 percent of white evangelicals and 35 percent of black Protestants favor same-sex civil unions. Another Pew study from last year found that 14 percent of all white evangelicals and 15 percent of all black evangelicals support the more radical same-sex marriage.

What’s more, a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner survey conducted for Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly in September found that 58 percent of white evangelicals ages 18 to 29 support either gay marriage or civil unions. For those 30 years and older, the number dipped to 46 percent. (The Rosner poll included those who identified themselves as fundamentalist, evangelical, charismatic, or Pentecostal or who said they were born-again Christians.)

According to the Rosner poll, a full quarter of white evangelical young adults agree that “gay and lesbian couples should have the same legal right to marry as do a man and a woman.”

The spike in such nontraditional views among youth suggests substantial movement on the issue over the past decade. But is a reexamination of Scripture driving that shift?

Good question, Mark.  Are almost 50 percent of Evangelicals being Scriptural or being subdued?  We cannot allow the homosexual agenda to wear us down.  Al Mohler concludes his 2008 volume Desire and Deceit: The Real Cost of the New Sexual Tolerance by alerting us to seven strategies homosexual activists are employing to wear us down:

1.     The psychological strategy: to change the discussion from what a person does to what his self-conscious orientation is.  This strategy seeks to remove moral accountability from sexuality.

2.     The medical strategy: “Anything that can be ‘psychologized’ can also be ‘medicalized.’”  The history behind the American Psychiatric Association’s decision to remove homosexuality from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973 reveals a rationale of political and ideological pressure, not the scientific discovery that homosexuality is in fact, normal.  Mohler points out that the APA’s decision not only affected how we are to view homosexuality, but also how we are to view ourselves.  One day in 1973 the AP agreed that an indicator of healthy moral thinking was to view homosexuality as abnormal.  The next day the APA saw such a view as unhealthy, bigoted, repressive, whereas they then saw the evidence of mental health to be an acceptance of homosexuality as an “alternative lifestyle.”

3.     The political strategy has been the least effective.  Recent voting indicates the American populace, while being worn down, is yet reluctant to give homosexuality full societal sanction.

4.     The legal strategy however has been very effective.  (See Robert Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Regan Books, 1996 which argues that the radicals of the 60’s, bent on social engineering, have extensively permeated the judiciary.)

5.     The educational strategy seeks to separate the child from his or her parents and to advance deviant sex education curriculums from elementary schools through universities.

6.     The cultural strategy employs the media and entertainment industries.

7.     The theological strategy seeks to dismantle biblical morality in those institutions which train future leaders of the church.  Activists justify sexual perversion with a perverted, twisted interpretation of biblical texts which clearly indict homosexuality as abominable sin.  (See Al Mohler’s Bog, “Sex and the Seminary” January 13, 2009 for an eye-opening look at the audacity of those pushing this agenda into the theological arena.)

Mohler concludes his book warning of the potential collapse of Western culture if society allows ungodly social engineers to dismantle the moral foundations of sexual normalcy and the family.  He calls us to counter the attack at each of the seven battle lines drawn above.  He urges us to bear witness by being ourselves sexually pure and exemplifying godly family life.  He calls for us as Christians and as churches to reach into the lives of those ensnared in sexual sin and declare the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are all only saved sinners.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

We need to call men to be what God created us to be: image of God.  Only in Christ are sinners of every sort remade in God’s image, and given the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Ephesians 4:24).

Alan Dunn

Word of the Cross

For 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 Cor. 1:18

This is directly connected to what came before: why is it that preaching the gospel with the words of wordly wisdom, with “wise speech,” speech marked by earthly wisdom, can empty the cross, make it null, and void? It has to do with the context in which God has placed the gospel: the sinful, fallen world. The gospel, in all places, at all times, calls rebel sinners, no matter what their culture, their language, their education, to repentance and obedience to His Lordship. Man will always respond to that message—and outside of grace, that response will always be negative. To those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness. The contrast is striking, “but to us who which are being saved, it is the power of God.” Same message, heard very differently, having very different results.

What is the preaching of the cross? Is Paul saying that every sermon he preached had only one theme? I don’t believe so. But the cross is indeed the focus, the center, of the gospel, and hence anything that can be called “preaching” must be related thereto, and even when preaching on other aspects of the gospel’s impact upon our lives, we do so standing in its shadow.

One thing is for certain: there is no such thing as Christian proclamation without the cross. There is no preaching without the full message of the cross, and that includes God’s wrath against sin, His holiness, and His provision of full and complete salvation in only one way, through the cross. Abandon the cross, atonement, forgiveness, and all you have is…worldly wisdom.

James White

Charles H. Spurgeon’s Sermon Notes

If you ever wondered what Spurgeon’s sermon notes were like, take a look at this – sample notes

A Lord’s Day Thought

“in the defense and confirmation of the gospel” (Phil. 1:7). As you go to gather with the saints this day, aren’t you thankful that despite all the voices that cry out “you can’t know the gospel! It is too difficult, too obscure!” that we do, in fact, possess the life-changing truth that God has saved in Jesus Christ, and that we can have peace with Him through faith in Christ alone? John promised that the truth would abide in us and be with us forever (2 John 2), and the continued progress of the gospel in our world today is evidence that this promise is being fulfilled in generation after generation. Rejoice this day that the gospel of Jesus Christ continues to change hearts and lives, no matter how the skeptics rant and rave against it!

James White

Is It Really True?

So, the other day I was looking at the sermonaudio website (excellent and essential if you have never checked it out!), when I saw another diatribe against that system of theology known as Calvinism.  In this message we are told how the “TULIP” will be wilted by the Son!  We are informed again that this is Deformed Theology and that it turns the Great Commission into the Great Omission!  The dread expressed in the message is that which is often raised against the doctrines of grace (if we may take our critics at face value) is the fear that if we really believe that God is sovereign we will slacken in our zeal for missions and evangelism.   Often the great defense issued against such an accusation is to remind these brothers that the greatest evangelist of the past actually embraced such theology and that modern missionary movement was birthed through those who closely adhered to such things.  We are quick to bring out the names of Whitefield, Carey, and Judson, and of course, our ace in the hole, CH Spurgeon!  Now, I will not at this time quibble with our playing the history card rather than an exegetical card (pointing out how sovereignty and responsibility go side by side in the scriptures, who earnest pleadings follow the articulation of sovereignty-see Matt. 11 and Romans 9, 10 for instance), I will instead quibble with our lack of  personal defense.

What do I mean by that?  I mean that too often we quote from figures that lived hundreds of years ago rather than pointing to current reality.  Instead of saying, “Oh, yeah!  I’ll prove that Calvinism does not squash evangelism-look at what happened two hundred years ago buddy!”  Why don’t we instead say, “I can only tell you that I have never been more earnest, more involved, and more compassionate with souls than I am right now!”    The sad reality is that many times our critics have a point.  While Calvinism should not extinguish the fires of evangelism, the fact of that matter is that many of us who embrace the doctrines where once more passionate, more prayerful and more involved in personal witnessing when we were less “enlightened”.   While we do well to criticize the use of tracts like the Four Spiritual Laws (which I used to always carry with me and used with a fair amount of frequency), do we have a suitable replacement?  Has our confidence in God’s sovereign plan to bring all of His elect to Himself, in fact made us practically more like William Carey or more like the man who told him that if God wants to save the heathen he will do so without our help?   My question is not whether the doctrines of grace are true and biblical (of course they are!), the question is not whether they should dampen or enflame evangelism and missions (of course, they should enflame!), the question is, what have we allowed them to do in our own lives?   Why is it that in many of our churches, we see the saints grow that are birthed in other contexts?  Yes, I know God is sovereign!  But I also know that those who are wise win souls!    May it increasingly be said of our churches, in the words of Psalm 87:6 The LORD will record, When He registers the peoples: “This one was born there!”

James Savastio

The Reformed Baptist Theological Collection Volume 1

The Reformed Baptist Theological Collection Volume 1 includes 20 titles covering Reformed Baptist history, theology, and exegesis. Perform searches, add user notes, or author your own material using the built-in tools. For more information click here or demo video

“The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

“The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” – 1 John 4:14

It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without his Father’s permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father, that he might be the Saviour of men. We are too apt to forget that, while there are distinctions as to the persons in the Trinity, there are no distinctions of honour. We too frequently ascribe the honour of our salvation, or at least the depths of its benevolence, more to Jesus Christ than we do the Father. This is a very great mistake. What if Jesus came? Did not his Father send him? If he spake wondrously, did not his Father pour grace into his lips, that he might be an able minister of the new covenant? He who knoweth the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost as he should know them, never setteth one before another in his love; he sees them at Bethlehem, at Gethsemane, and on Calvary, all equally engaged in the work of salvation. O Christian, hast thou put thy confidence in the Man Christ Jesus? Hast thou placed thy reliance solely on him? And art thou united with him? Then believe that thou art united unto the God of heaven. Since to the Man Christ Jesus thou art brother, and holdest closest fellowship, thou art linked thereby with God the Eternal, and “the Ancient of days” is thy Father and thy friend. Didst thou ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped his Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this thy day’s meditation. The Father sent him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the Father wills. In the wounds of the dying Saviour see the love of the great I AM. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the Eternal, ever-blessed God, for “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.”

C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and evening : Daily readings

My Dad Delivers Pizza

Saturday evening I drove out in the middle of a Michigan January blizzard to pick up my family’s evening meal at Domino’s Pizza.  While waiting at the counter, I heard behind me the parlor door swing open, and in blew the Domino’s Pizza delivery man carrying his empty pouches.  Our eyes locked.  He looked a bit embarrassed.

It was Justin.  Justin is a thirty-something father of three daughters.  For years he’s been a successful construction entrepreneur, but apparently the recession has choked his business.  So now, he’s delivering pizzas at night.

Before he could think to himself: “I’ll bet Pastor Chanski thinks I’m such a loser”, I shouted, “You’re a great man, Justin!  When I was young like your kids, my dad used to work three jobs to keep clothes on our backs, food on our table, and a roof over our heads.  And there’s no man I respect more in the whole world than my dad!  He did whatever it took to take care of us.  That’s what you’re doing for your girls.  You’re a great man!”

Justin’s changed face told me he wasn’t embarrassed anymore.

Times are tough, not only in Michigan, but all over the country.  We financially challenged fathers can keep up our courage by considering our grand roles as imaging our Heavenly Father to our little ones.

“Your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.   ‘Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. . .  Give us this day our daily bread . . .’” (Matthew 6:8-9, 11).

“Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone?  Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:9-11).

As image bearing Fathers, we’re fundamentally to be providers – not fulfilled self actualizers, not esteemed business owners, not corporate heavy hitters, not sharp automobile drivers, not stylish clothing wearers.  We’re to be providing bread winners who sweat from our brows (Genesis 3:17-19), caring for the needs of our wives and their babies.

These hard times help us get back to the basics of true manly and godly nobility.  Edgar Guest hosted an cheering radio program in Detroit from 1931 to 1942, through the heart of the Great Depression.  His poem provides perspective for many in 2009:

Father

Used to wonder just why Father

Never had much time to play,

Used to wonder why he’d rather

Work each minute of the day.

Boys are blind to much that’s going

On about them every day,

And I had no way of knowing

What became of Father’s pay.

Father didn’t dress in fashion,

Sort of hated clothing new;

Style with him was not a passion;

He had other things in view.

All I knew was when I needed

Shoes I got ‘em on the spot;

Everything for which I pleaded

Somehow Father always got.

Wondered season after season

Why he never took a rest,

And that I might be the reason

That I never even guessed.

Saw his cheeks were getting paler,

Didn’t understand just why;

Saw his body growing frailer,

Then at last I saw him die.

Rest had come – his task was ended,

Calm was written on his brow;

Father’s life was big and splendid,

And I understand it now.

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

You’re a great man, Justin!

Mark Chanski