The Unforgivable Sin

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin“– Mark 3:28-29

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.  Matt 12:31-32

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life–to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.  All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 1John 5:16-17

Gospel Is The Means Through Which God Actually Saves Sinners

“In preaching, not only is the minister giving us doctrinal and moral instruction (though that is involved), but God is actually killing us and making us alive, writing us out of the “in Adam” story and into his new script of the new creation.

Throughout the Scriptures, God’s Word through the lips of sinful ambassadors is spoken of as “the power of God for salvation” (Rom 1:16,cf. Mark 8:38. 1 Cor 1:18, 24; 2:9) and effective in every mission for which it is sent (Isa 55:10-11). The Word of God is inherently “living and active” (Heb 4:12), judging and justifying (vv.13-14). Peter tells us that we have been “born again …..through the living and abiding word of God……..And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:23,25). The gospel does not merely tell us how to “get saved”, as though it were an instruction manual (another command); it is the means through which God actually saves sinners.”

p 169 “The Gospel Commission: Recovering God’s Strategy for Making Disciples”  By Michael Horton

Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God

 

Holy Spirit, living Breath of God

Holy Spirit, living Breath of God,
Breathe new life into my willing soul.
Bring the presence of the risen Lord
To renew my heart and make me whole.
Cause Your Word to come alive in me;
Give me faith for what I cannot see;
Give me passion for Your purity.
Holy Spirit, breathe new life in me.

Holy Spirit, come abide within;
May Your joy be seen in all I do—
Love enough to cover ev’ry sin
In each thought and deed and attitude,
Kindness to the greatest and the least,
Gentleness that sows the path of peace.
Turn my striving into works of grace.
Breath of God, show Christ in all I do.

Holy Spirit, from creation’s birth,
Giving life to all that God has made,
Show your power once again on earth;
Cause Your church to hunger for Your ways.
Let the fragrance of our prayers arise.
Lead us on the road of sacrifice
That in unity the face of Christ
Will be clear for all the world to see.

Sung By Kristyn Getty
Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
© 2006 Thankyou Music

The Holy Spirit Will Glorify Jesus Christ

The Holy Spirit Will Glorify Jesus Christ

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.  John  15:26

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:13-14

The Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit

The Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. ….For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. …, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  Romans 8:11, 14-16

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 12:3

God’s Sovereignty in Salvation

“This is the issue: Is it a part of God’s gift of salvation, or is it in our own contribution to salvation? Is our salvation wholly of God or does it ultimately depend on something that we do for ourselves? Those who say the latter, that it ultimately depends on something we do for ourselves, thereby deny humanity’s utter helplessness in sin….in effect, it turned faith into a meritorious work, … denied the sovereignty of God in saving sinners,…………Until we humble ourselves and understand that no man is an island and that no man has an island of righteousness, that we are utterly dependent upon the unmixed grace of God for our salvation, we will not begin to rest upon grace and rejoice in the greatness of God’s sovereignty, and we will not be rid of the pagan influence of humanism that exalts and puts man at the center of religion.”

Dr R C Sproul, The Pelagian Captivity of the Church ( from Modern Reformation, Vol 10, Number 3 (May/June 2001), pp. 22-29.)

Not What My Hands Have Done

Not What My Hands Have Done

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar
Sung By: Nathan Clark George

By Faith

By Faith

By faith we see the hand of God
In the light of creation’s grand design
In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness
Who walk by faith and not by sight

By faith our fathers roamed the earth
With the power of His promise in their hearts
Of a holy city built by God’s own hand
A place where peace and justice reign

We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith the prophets saw a day
When the longed-for Messiah would appear
With the power to break the chains of sin and death
And rise triumphant from the grave

By faith the church was called to go
In the power of the Spirit to the lost
To deliver captives and to preach good news
In every corner of the earth

We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith this mountain shall be moved
And the power of the gospel shall prevail
For we know in Christ all things are possible
For all who call upon His name

We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight

by Keith and Kristyn Getty | from the album Awaken the Dawn

And Can It Be – Hymn

 

And Can It Be

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Psalms and Hymns, 1738.
Music: Sa­gi­na, Thom­as Camp­bell, Bou­quet, 1825

Bane of Modern Evangelism: Building a seeker sensitive church via another Gospel

” Neo-Christianity, which seems for the time to be the most popular(and is certainly the most aggressive), is very careful not to oppose sin. It wins its crowds by amusing them and its converts  by hiding from them the full implications of the Christian message. It carries on it projects after the ballyhoo methods of American business.” – A.W. Tozer from “The Next Chapter after the Last, p. 18.

” The feeling that we got to make converts at any cost has greatly wounded the Church of Christ. We must present the truth as we are told to present it and let the Holy Ghost(Spirit) work and the individual man decide whether he will accept it or not. This soft, pussy idea that in order to keep people coming and giving and filling the seats we don’t dare in any wise offend them, and we’ve got to make everything smooth and soft, is not New Testament.” -A.W. Tozer from sermon, “This I Believe,” 1969.

“The temptation to modify the teaching of Christ with the hope that larger numbers may ‘accept’ Him is cruelly strong in this day of speed, size,  noise, and crowds. But if we know what is good for us, we’ll resist it with every power at our command. To yield can only result in a weak and ineffective Christianity in this generation, and death and desolation in the next.”- A.W. Tozer from the “The Size of the Soul”, p. 119.

“The crowds-at-any-price mania has taken a firm grip on American Christianity and is the motivating power back of shockingly high percentage of all religious activity. Men and churches compete for the attention of the paying multitudes who are brought in by means of any currently popular gadget or gimmick ostensibly to have their souls saved, but , if the truth were told, often for reasons not so praiseworthy as this.” A. W. Tozer from “The Size of the Soul”, p. 117.

Galatians 1:6-12  “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel– not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.“

Related Posts:

What Does It Mean to Accept Christ ?

Do We Need To Hear And Believe Gospel To Get To Heaven?

“It would seem that everybody in evangelical Christianity, everybody who is truly a Christian, would understand that the gospel is the heart of Christianity, that the gospel is found only in the Scripture. And that the gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth. ……. The heart of the Christian faith is the gospel. The gospel is found in the New Testament. The foundations of the gospel are found in the Old Testament. And the gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth if people are to be saved. That’s essentially the Christian mission.

“That’s what the church has believed. That has compelled its life. That has been its mandate. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in My name and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” He said it another way. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”……..That has been the church’s mandate. True Christians have always believed that. The true church has always taught that. We have believed and been compelled by the fact that if people don’t hear the gospel, they can’t be saved. And if they aren’t saved, then they’ll spend eternity in hell under the judgment of God. So it is absolutely critical that the world hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. That they not only hear it but that they understand it accurately. That they believe it. That they embrace it for themselves because it is the only saving truth.”

“Compelled by this clear biblical mandate, Christians through the centuries have taken the saving message to the ends of the earth. Generation after generation they have been engaged in doing this. Preaching the gospel to every person on earth has been the goal of the church. I have told you many times that that’s the only reason we’re still here. We’re already saved and sealed for eternity. There’s no reason to leave us here except for this responsibility of evangelism.”

“Now we believe that the Bible is very clear that salvation comes through believing in Christ. Believing in Christ comes from hearing and understanding the gospel. Being able to hear and understand the gospel can only occur if somebody takes the message. And somebody can only take the message if they’re sent with it. And that’s what Romans 10 says, “You’re saved by believing in Christ but you can’t believe in Christ unless you hear about Christ. You can’t hear about Christ unless somebody preaches. And somebody is not going to preach unless they’re sent. And that is our mandate and that has been the mission of the church since the church was born on Pentecost and Jesus said, “You’ll receive the Holy Spirit and you’ll be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” Since the church was launched till today, uncounted millions of dollars in every currency on the map of the world and millions of hours of effort and work and millions of Christian people through the centuries have been spent and sacrificed to take the only message of salvation to the edges of the earth. Translation work, rigorous, difficult, challenging work of taking a language that isn’t even written and developing an alphabet and developing a way to write that language and then teaching the people to read their own language when they’ve never even seen it. And then giving them the scriptures and the gospel, leading them to Christ, rigorous work that takes decades and then printing materials in every language, preaching, teaching, evangelizing…that’s what the church has been engaged in since its calling, since the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. An unrelenting effort to use every means available to reach people with the only message that can save them from eternal judgment and that’s the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.“

“Now all of that is bad enough and we’ve tried to address that. But there’s a new wave in the evangelical world that is at least as frightening, if not more frightening. And the new wave in the evangelical world is this, there are some people who are telling us it isn’t necessary to even take the gospel to the ends of the earth. It’s not necessary. People are being saved without it…without it.”

“Well what does the Bible have to say about this? Do we have a biblical case for the…for the exclusivism? Do we have a case for the fact that if you don’t know the gospel and if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, you aren’t going to heaven?…….The answer to that is yes.“

selected quotes from The Exclusiveness of the Gospel, Part 1 -December 31, 2000 by John Macarthur.

Related Posts;

No Christ, No Heaven. Enter by the Narrow Gate

Christless Christianity: 2010 West Coast Conference – Free Viewing

Presenting the Gospel: What Are The Non-Negotiables For The Gospel?

A “Christianity” without Jesus Christ and the Gospel

The Truth of the Cross: Jesus Christ taking God’s curse and wrath in the place of sinners

The Essence of Gospel Evangelism Is To Proclaim the True Doctrine of the Cross

Who is God and how are we saved? – Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Muslims

Who is Jesus Christ ? – A former Muslim explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Studying The Word of God And Profiting The Soul

There is grave reason to believe that much Bible reading and Bible study of the last few years has been of no spiritual profit to those who engaged in it. Yea, we go further; we greatly fear that in many instances it has proved a curse rather than a blessing. This is strong language, we are well aware, yet no stronger than the case calls for. Divine gifts may be misused, and Divine mercies abused. That this has been so in the present instance is evident by the fruits produced. Even the natural man may (and often does) take up the study of the Scriptures with the same enthusiasm and pleasure as he might of the sciences. Where this is the case, his store of knowledge is increased, and so also is his pride. Like a chemist engaged in making interesting experiments, the intellectual searcher of the Word is quite elated when he makes some discovery in it; but the joy of the latter is no more spiritual than would be that of the former. Again, just as the successes of the chemist generally increase his sense of self-importance and cause him to look with disdain upon others more ignorant than himself, so alas, is it often the case with those who have investigated Bible numerics, typology, prophecy and other such subjects.

The Word of God may be taken up from various motives. Some read it to satisfy their literary pride. In certain circles it has become both the respectable and popular thing to obtain a general acquaintance with the contents of the Bible simply because it is regarded as an educational defect to be ignorant of them. Some read it to satisfy their sense of curiosity, as they might any other book of note. Others read it to satisfy their sectarian pride. They consider it a duty to be well versed in the particular tenets of their own denomination and so search eagerly for proof-texts in support of “our doctrines.” Yet others read it for the purpose of being able to argue successfully with those who differ from them. But in all this there is no thought of God, no yearning for spiritual edification, and therefore no real benefit to the soul.

Of what, then, does a true profiting from the Word consist? Does not 2 Timothy 3:16,17 furnish a clear answer to our question? There we read, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”the Holy Scriptures are given us not for intellectual gratification and carnal speculation, but to furnish unto “all good works,” and that by teaching, reproving, correcting us.

PROFITING FROM THE WORD by  A. W. Pink-  “The Scriptures and Sin”

Breathe On Me, Breath of God

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will Thy will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Being Right With God Must Precede Doing Right For God.

“Forgiveness for our sins through faith in Christ must precede and then empower our battle against sin in our lives. Or to put it another way, God’s declaration that we are forgiven and righteous in Christ must precede and enable our transformation into loving, sacrificial, Christ-exalting people. The divine declaration must precede the human transformation. Or to put it one more way: Justification must precede and uphold sanctification. Being right with God must precede doing right for God.“

“The Difference This Makes

It’s the difference between fighting fearfully to get justified and fighting confidently because we are justified.

It’s the difference between your heavenly court-trial being behind you with an irrevocable verdict of not guilty, and your trial being in front of you with the verdict up in the air depending on your performance.

It’s the difference between the freedom of confidence and the bondage of fear.

It’s the difference between giving Christ the double glory of both being our righteousness as well as working righteousness in us, and giving him only the single glory of helping us become our own righteousness.”

Set Free by the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus
October 07, 2001 by John Piper
Scripture: Romans 8:1-4
Topic: Sanctification & Growth

Believer’s Confession of Sin and True Worship

The Believer’s Confession of Sin-Psalm 51 -by John Macarthur
(the following is only an extract, for the full text please visit the link above for the full sermon transcript)

In the true church of Jesus Christ, there is a kind of obsession with sin. Now that’s not popular today, even in quote/unquote churches. The more Christian a church is and the more mature its people are, the more sensitive it is to sin. I was exposed to a church, it calls itself a church and watch the service on television recently and the first thing the pastor did was say, “Welcome to our worship, we’re going to worship the Lord together.” And he said, “Let’s pray.” And the first words out of his mouth as he articulated his prayer, “O Lord, we deny anything that is negative, we deny anything that takes away our joy. We reject all thoughts of loss. We reject anything that would steal our dreams, our ambitions, our goals, our desires,” and he went on and on with this kind of thing for rather extended period of time.

And I thought to myself, “If that’s Christian at all, it certainly as infantile and as immature as a Christian prayer could ever be because the heart and soul of a true believer who comes to worship is, first of all, to come to grips with the reality of his or her own sinfulness. We come to confess things that are negative. We come to confess our weakness, our inabilities, our deceptiveness, our tendency to be dishonest, disloyal, unloving, unkind, the fallenness of our flesh, the constant recycling of our tendencies toward iniquity and sins in the same kind of categories.

Churches that talk about only good things don’t ever speak of sin, don’t ever lead the people to serious contemplation and confession of sin may not be Christians at all, they may be churches, but not made up of Christians or if some are Christians, they are of the most immature kind.

The more mature believer is, the more likely a believer is to open his mouth in any expression of worship and come out, first of all, with a confession of his own unworthiness. It was Isaiah, you know, who was the best man in his nation, he was the prophet of God, he was the noblest of all who in Isaiah 6 said, “I am a man of unclean lips and I come from a people of unclean lips.” And he pronounced a curse on himself for his own wretched sinfulness. It was the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 who said, “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” He was the best, he was the best of us, maybe the noblest Christian that ever lived and he was really distraught and overwhelmed by his own wretched sinfulness.

Whenever the church gathers to worship on a Sunday here, it gives the opportunity for one of us to pray a pastoral prayer and part of that pastoral prayer prayed in the service usually after the reading of the Scripture is to acknowledge our unworthiness, our sinfulness. To acknowledge that not only are we sinful and unworthy, but our dreams and ambitions and desires and goals are corrupted. The notion that we’re supposed to come to church to tell God He needs to fulfill everything we want couldn’t be further from the truth. We come to say, “Lord, the things that I want may be worldly things and earthly things and passing things and temporal things and even sinful things and even corrupting things, rather I want what You want for me, the highest and the best and the good. But I confess that none of that is in me.”

The church never worships more purely than when it confesses its own sinfulness because that’s the platform in which we enter into worship, recognition of our own sinfulness and our own unworthiness. Everybody understands David was a great worshiper, wasn’t he? Great worshiper. He wrote many, many, many Psalms, dozens and dozens of Psalms. And we use those Psalms to worship and they are worshiping Psalms. But David also understood the wretchedness of his own heart and he was a true worshiper who knew that while it was one thing to come to God and give Him glory, it was also an equal critical thing to come to God and recognize His own unworthiness. He is not a spiritual novice, this David, he is a man after God’s own heart.

Related Posts:

Lord’s Prayer: Confession should be a daily activity for the Christian – by R. C. Sproul

If we confess our sins

The Blessed Completeness of Divine Forgiveness Covers All Sins – Past, Present and Future

The Bible is God’s Revelation for Every Generation

Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. Psa 119:49-50

‘Scripture Is Clean, Enduring Forever

In Ps 19:9 David uses the term “fear” as a synonym for God’s Word: “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever.” “Fear” speaks of the reverential awe for God that compels us to worship Him. Scripture, in this sense, is God’s manual on how to worship Him. The Hebrew word translated “clean” speaks of the absence of impurity, filthiness, defilement, or imperfection. Scripture is without sin, evil, corruption, or error. The truth it conveys is therefore absolutely undefiled and without blemish. That truth is pictured in Ps 12:6, where David calls the Word “flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times” (NIV).’

‘Because it is flawless, Scripture endures forever (Ps 19:9). Any change or modification could only introduce imperfection. Scripture is eternally and unalterably perfect. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). That guarantees that the Bible is permanent, unchanging, and therefore relevant to everyone in every age of history. It has always been and will always be sufficient.

It must grieve God when people slander Him by claiming that the Bible is outdated or is not sophisticated enough for our educated society. Scripture needs no updating, editing, or refining. Whatever time or culture you live in, it is eternally relevant. It needs no help in that regard. It is pure, sinless, inerrant truth; it is enduring. It is God’s revelation for every generation. It was written by the omniscient Spirit of God, who is infinitely more sophisticated than anyone who dares stand in judgment on Scripture’s relevancy for today’s society, and infinitely wiser than all the best philosophers, analysts, and psychologists who pass like a childhood parade into irrelevancy.’

THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE – selected quotes by Pastor John MacArthur

Did God Write His Law Within Our Hearts ?

Christians, there is an important question we must ask ourselves:

Did God Write His Law Within Our Hearts ? If He did, which Law did He Write ?

There are many today who think and speak smugly as if that they have just discovered a “Grace Revolution”, something long hidden from other believers for the past 2000 years and freshly minted in the 21st century. They decry anything concerning confessing your sins to God and repentance towards God, their stance is that one only has to embrace the “Gospel of Grace”, to be “Christ Conscious” and against any need for a believer’s pursuit of personal holiness and self denial. They teach against any need for searching one’s heart before God, confessing and repenting . People of this Grace Revolution mindset “appear to delight in the imputed obedience of Christ who make little or no concern about personal holiness”. Claiming in error and with arrogance and that any pursuit of holiness and any self denial is deemed to be “legalistic”, “law based”, “old covenant” and “work based” salvation.

Let hear the late Pastor Arthur Pink’s words warning against this “Grace Revolution” error mindset:
“True, there is perfect holiness in Christ for the believer, but there must also be a holy nature received from Him.”

“There are some who appear to delight in the imputed obedience of Christ who make little or no concern about personal holiness. They have much to say about being arrayed in “the garments of salvation and covered with the robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10 , who give no evidence that they are “clothed with humility….How many there are today who suppose that if they have trusted in Christ, all is sure to be well with them at the last even though they are not personally holy.

Under the pretense of honoring faith, Satan as an angel of light, has deceived and is now deceiving multitudes of souls.When their “faith” is examined and tested, what is it worth? Nothing at all so far as insuring an entrance into heaven is concerned: it is a powerless, lifeless, fruitless thing.”

Arthur Pink did not mince his words, though dead yet he speaks with clarity, pointedly and faithfully from the Word of God against the maladies and errors of our day. In our walk as professing believers and born of His Spirit, UNLESS WE ARE denying self and dying to self, the question needs to be asked “Are we really putting on Christ and following Him?

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jer 31:31-33

Related Posts:

Misunderstanding Grace : Misconstrue Law and Grace as Opposing, Contrary and Irreconcilable Systems

The Perfect Law of God Must Stand Forever

The Law of God Must Be Perpetual: No Abrogation, No Amendment.

The Heart of Every Real Christian is Most Reverent Towards the Law of the Lord

Misunderstanding Grace : “outside the law” is not the same as having no law

Misunderstanding Grace: Easy to miss the path and go far astray from the truth

Misunderstanding Grace – Antinomianism’s primary error is confusing Justification with Sanctification

Misunderstanding on the teaching of Grace

Reflections on the Doctrine of the Trinity

the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." Mark 1:10-11

The Trinity being of the One and only living God is something a finite creature, which man is, cannot fully grasped or explained. It is the very being of the One everlasting and ever existing God, who is The Creator. How can we fully grasp or explain it ? However, the scriptures are abundantly clear that God has revealed Himself as such. To worship God in spirit and truth, in exercising our biblical faith, we need to know God as fully as He has chosen to reveal Himself, our reliance must be based on His written Word.

What do we mean when we say the Bible declare that God is incomprehensible? When the Bible states that God is incomprehensible, we mean God through scripture is saying that there is much about Him that is still mysterious. God is simply beyond our understanding and comprehension. Augustine of Hippo was trying and struggling hard to understand the Trinity nature of God without success until he recognized the humbling fact that as a finite creature he was merely trying “to cram the ocean of God’s truth about Himself into his little box of brains”.

“There is nothing that the Father is that the Son is not, except that the Son is not the Father.” * Quote from Notes on Hebrews 1:1-4 by David Linden

There is nothing that the Father is and the Son is that the Holy Spirit is not, except that the Holy Spirit is not the Father and the Holy Spirit is not the Son.

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  Mat 3:16-17

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14

In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
(Of God, and of the Holy Trinity. Chapter 2 – III. THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH -1646)

UPDATE 17 June 2010: The sermon titled “Reflections on the Trinity”  by Pastor Alistair Begg is no longer available on Youtube, it has been removed.

The Breath of the Almighty: The Holy Spirit

The Breath of the Almighty: The Holy Spirit

By Pastor Dr. Alistair Begg

at the Ligonier Ministries 2009 National Conference: “The Holiness of God”

Alistair Begg - “The Breath of the Almighty: The Holy Spirit”

Update: Embedded Video “Alistair Begg – “The Breath of the Almighty: The Holy Spirit” is no longer available on YouTube as at 24 June 2009

Please visit Ligonier Ministry’s site to download the MP3 or get the full its DVD on the 2009 National Conference: “The Holiness of God”

For a good blog post on notes taken from this sermon.

For another sermon by Alistair Begg on “Reflections on the Doctrine of Trinity”.

Lasting Results from Evangelist Dr John Sung’s Ministry in Manila, Philippines.

“Three Churches in Manila – the Episcopal, the United Evangelical and the Christian Assembly Churches – united in extending an invitation to Dr Sung to conduct meetings from June 6th to 14th. he traveled to Manila after another great campaign in Peking in April.

Crowds gathered from all over Luzon and from other islands to attend the meetings. About 800 people filled every seat and blocked the aisles and stairways of the Chinese United Evangelical Church. Pastor Silas Wang of the United Church who took a prominent role in the meetings said: ” Dr. Sung had one line of teaching: sin, repentance, the new birth, holiness.” As usual, his denunciations of sin were fearless – the sins of professing Christians especially so. Sometimes he would single out an individual, a pastor or an office-bearer in the church, and say, “There is sin in your heart !”and he was always right. Sung used some of the old illustrations and some new ones. Once he appeared carrying a miniature coffin half full of stones. These represented sin committed and the death which sin would bring. For every fresh sin committed a stone would be added to the load until the bearer was almost bowed down under the weight. To emphasize the New Birth, he came on to the platform one day wearing an old gown with the names of different sins written all over it. Then, at the appropriate moment in the address, he discarded the old gown “at the Cross” and put on a new robe of righteousness produced from somewhere ! The sermons lasted as usual two hours or more with the favorite choruses copiously interspersed. Evangelism was followed by instruction to newly converted and the other Christians, and towards the end there was healing meeting. Crowds went to the platform to be prayed for, yet Dr. Sung, days later, would met the individuals and recognizing them as among those who had sought healing, ask “How are you?” He has a prodigious memory.

There were lasting results from these meetings. The United Evangelical Church was greatly straightened and its evangelistic zeal kindled. The Evangelistic Band organization which was formed at that time was still active in 1953, eighteen years later having survived the years of war and grown out of all recognition. It was divided into ten sections, each with its own leader and its own responsibility for prison, hospital and radio evangelism, for personal visitation, cottage meetings, devotional gatherings and the like. A missionary, writing in 1954, reports: “So many of the true Christians in the Philippines are the direct result of John Sung’s ministry”

A Biography of John Sung By Leslie T. Lyall Page 181-182

A copy of book can be read online here: A Biography of John Sung By Leslie T. Lyall.

Some Photographs of John Sung’s ministry and meetings can be viewed here: Dr John Sung – God’s Evangelist to Chinese in China and Asia

For other posts on this blog on John Sung.