If you click the following link there is a brilliant summary and introduction to Calvinism from John Piper. If you have ever wondered what it is, who Calvin was and why it makes sense for many people then click HERE.
Also just cam across this PDF book on the 'Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World'. Contains some arguments against the emergent church view of theology.The following is one of the clearest explanations of the Sovereign free will of God in salvation that I have heard. Taken from John 3:1-10 is explains the process of how God the Spirit enables a person to come to saving faith in Christ. Outstanding teaching from Jon Piper here, enjoy!
Click here to go to John Piper’s website including the notes from the sermon.
For the Video of the sermon click here.
For the Audio of the sermon click here.
(By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)
I recently had a fleeting visit to the city of York. This city has a very long history over many centuries which I don’t claim to know much about. However I recently became aware of an incident that happened in 1190. The outline of which can be seen in the photo below.
This anti-Semitism partly stemmed from the utterly incomprehensible idea that all Jews were responsible for Killing Jesus. This has been a recurring theme of anti-Semitic behaviour from people who claim to be Christian through the centuries.
This got me thinking about why and how such atrocities can occur and how people claiming to be Christian get it so horribly wrong when it quite clearly goes against anything that is written in the Bible. Then it occurred to me that up until the Bible was translated into normal everyday language, whatever that may be, ‘Christians’ only knew what was taught them from the pulpit of the Church. (From a brief search this site gives an outline of the History of the Bible translations). Not until the 1500’s was an English translation of the Bible available for the common man. The Roman Church tried to suppress any version that was not in Latin and killed many in the process. It became clear that the Latin Vulgate bible that the Catholic church held to was massively corrupt and I am sure the source of much of the error that seeped into the church over the centuries. Satan won a great victory for a time here by blinding the understanding of the common man by using our innate desire for power and corrupting what started as good, the Church!
Not until everyone could read the Bible for themselves could they discern that what was being taught by the Church was far from ‘the Truth’. This kicked off the Reformation and much conflict between the Catholic and for a time Anglican church who wanted to retain tight control and those that Declared the Truth of scripture boldly challenging the established order. I am not about to discuss the Reformation here, Google it if you wish to look that up.
We are encouraged to search the scriptures daily like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11), finding out if what is being taught us is right. We should never take on face value any teaching that is given. We are to test the spirits to make sure everything is from God and not from the Devil. The only way to do that is to know what is contained in the Bible. Without scripture we will warp God’s word and come up with all sorts of error in our thinking about our Faith for ‘the Heart is Deceitful above all Things, and desperately sick;’ (Jeremiah 17:9-10). A Christian needs to live in the Spirit but from the Word of God. Without both we either end up as ‘Charismaniacs’ and falling into all sort of gross lunatic heresy or we become legalists bound by duty and adherence to the law.
Either being ignorant of scripture or choosing to put your own slant on something, influenced by culture for instance, leads to such errors that Steve Chalke is currently declaring. He has denied the ‘Substitutionary Atonement’ of Jesus calling it cosmic child abuse. The whole of Christian faith pretty much hangs on this doctrine and it is so clearly taught right from the beginning to the end of scripture. The current Emergent church seems to be falling in to this trap of discarding Biblical Doctrine for the sake or being culturally relevant. Taken to its ultimate end is how the Cults that are based on Christianity came about. Where a Man or Men decided to add to what the Bible says and distort what is clearly taught in the Bible alone. Revelation 22:18 clearly warns that God is really not impressed by anyone who adds to scripture along with Other OT passages that command us not to add to God’s Word.
So in conclusion and in answer to my Question that is the Title of this article. How do we get it so wrong in reference to doing things in the name of God that are so in contradiction with God and His commandments. If we do not understand what is in Gods word, about the human condition, our sinful nature, our ultimate destination if we do not accept Jesus Christ and his Substitutionary death on the Cross, ie: Hell. We will invent our own theories and doctrines and be deceived by the Devil who is the great deceiver and father of lies. His very goal is to get us to put ourselves in the place of God and walk in utter darkness while thinking we are in the light.
Hebrews 4:12 says: ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’
If you do not know what the Word says then you will be deceived and are in fact in Darkness and heading for a most horrendous place. This life on earth is the closest you will get to Heaven. Happy to live your own life, your way, for you alone. I plead with all my heart that you would come to know and understand that without surrender and submission to Christ there is no hope. But with Christ there is salvation, Hope, joy, life and unconditional Love for eternity. Living knowing this life is the nearest you will ever get to Hell.
So such atrocities that occurred in York and through the Centuries and up to today in the name of the God of the Bible absolutely inexcusable in the light of the Word of God. The conflicts in the world today are not because of ‘Religion’ even when they are in its name. They are caused by such things as greed, selfishness, pride, desire for power, covetousness, ignorance, false religion, hatred and idolatry. True Christianity speaks against such things because the Bible does and therefore God does. We are to stand up for truth and fight against evil and oppression but only out of a heart to see people brought to Christ and for God’s Kingdom to come on Earth for the Glory of God alone.
This is a talk I recently gave to our church Worship Team where we are working through the Book Facedown by Matt Redman.
Worship of God must come from a sense of wonder at His otherness or it is not worship. Words like Inexhaustible, immeasurable, unfathomable, eternal, immortal and invisible try to convey something of the otherness of God.
God is like no other but as Tozer remarked ‘Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms’. The Bible reminds us repeatedly of God’s uniqueness.
Q: Are there any areas in your life you can identify where you box God into your view rather than that of scripture?
Isaiah:
I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 42:8
I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god 44:6
To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? 46:5
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me 46:9
We must be wary of trying to be so culturally relevant that we fail to see the higher value in the Glory of God. He is in no way like us and we merely touch the shallowest depths of who God is.
It is too easy to present a tame, domesticated God in church and fail to explore the mighty depths of the Lord. We can package God as though he somehow needs us, our worship, our offerings and love. God does not need us at all, in any way. He is perfectly whole, complete in the relationship within the Trinity.
Q: Has it ever occurred to you that God in no way needs you?
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Psalm 50:12
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:24-25
Everything we have comes first from God, even the breath we use to praise Him came from Him.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” Romans 11:35
God owes us nothing and never fall into the lie that He somehow does. No matter what deep and painful struggle we may find ourselves in we must never think we can demand God help us and that he somehow owes us an answer. Or that we can demand He bless us, heal us, fix the circumstances we find ourselves in. He may do so in His sovereign will and loves to lavish good gifts upon us but never, ever think he somehow owes them to us.
Q: Can you think of times where you have demanded God come through for you and been disappointed that He didn’t?
When things go wrong, how we react is a good indicator of how much we understand about the otherness of God. It highlights where we are placing more trust in ourselves or something other than God. That we are more interested in our own comfort than His Glory. This is idolatry! Worship of something other than God.
However this picture of Gods otherness is only really complete when we add in His outrageous Grace. God does not need our worship but the wonderful thing is He loves our worship. God delights in honest, heartfelt worship. He is like a doting father over a cherished child. Just as His otherness is beyond our understanding so is His fatherly love and grace.
This Love and grace is summed up in the sacrifice of Jesus that provides the access to God in the first place. Without which we could never approach the throne room of God. We come through Jesus, in Jesus and with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our existence, from creation to salvation to sanctification is quite simply all about Him and for His Glory.
Isaiah:
everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. 43:7
the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. 43:21
I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 43:25
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. 48:10-11
We are created and he is creator. Every page of the story is one of Grace, Love and mercy towards us. God lavishly gives us good gifts but we must never think for a second any of it is about us. God is passionate and jealous for His own Glory.
It seems hard to accept that God must care about his own Glory. When man glorifies himself it is pure arrogance and pride. When God glorifies himself it is from a place of pure holiness. God must prize Himself above all others since there is no one else above Him, He is God.
Passionate and intimate worship of God is not so uncommon in today's church. However we need to find ways of helping the church respond to the otherness of God which is equally as important. This surely has to start in our own lives and become part of who we are. A people who reserve something for God alone. Words, thoughts or actions.
Q: Is there anything you do or could do that is reserved for God alone?
Q: How in leading worship can we get across something of the Otherness we have been discussing?
The Jews revered the name of God so highly they would not even write or say his name. We need to recapture this sense of otherness but we need glimpses of this otherness before we can sing wholeheartedly about it.
Tozer writes: ‘What the Church needs today is a restoration of the vision of the Most High God’. This is a relevant today as it was 50 years ago when it was written.
Received this from a friend. Sadly oh so true………… ish!
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First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!
We shared one so ft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY ,
no video/dvd films,
no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears!
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...
We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house ! and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on
MERIT
Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL !
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
This sermon is a must hear for ALL ‘Men’ married or not. This applies to Christian and non Christian men everywhere. Listen, absorb and take action.
Here is another title in the series that we are studying in my home group going through Wayne Grudems Book. This is from Chapter 15 of:
Christian Beliefs 'twenty basics every Christian should know':
All scripture quoted is ESV.
Also please take a look at an earlier post I made on Sanctification here. (NB: This is a paraphrase of the chapter therefore all credit goes to Wayne Grudem and not me.)
Repentance and faith result in Justification but they also play a part in what is sometimes called Sanctification. It ‘is a progressive work of both God and man that makes Christians more and more free from sin and more and more like Christ in their actual lives’. This is co-operation between God and his children where each has distinct roles. This is a life long process where we will make progress but we will never achieve perfection until the return of Christ.
Sanctification starts at the point we become Christians, or are Regenerated and increases through life. At regeneration Paul says we are ‘set free from sin’ (Romans 6:18) and should consider ourselves:
‘So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.’ (Romans 6:11-14)
This means at rebirth the power of sin is broken and we are no longer ruled and dominated by sin and no longer love to sin. However since Sanctification is a process we will never be completely free from sin in this life. As 1 John 1:8 says, ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ And Ecclesiastes 7:20 ‘Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.’ This is the reason Jesus says pray “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4)
When we die and go to be with God our sanctification is made complete because our souls are set free from indwelling sin and made perfect. Hebrews 12:23 says that when we come into the presence of God to worship we come to ‘... the spirits of the righteous made perfect’, because ‘…nothing unclean will ever enter it’ (Revelation 21:27). In another sense, sanctification will not be complete until the Lord returns and he transforms ‘…our lowly body to be like his glorious body’ (Philippians 3:21). Then our bodies too will be made perfect and free from all the influences of sin.
Though we can never be completely free from sin in this life we should still expect to see a regular increase in our sanctification. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says, we ‘…are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another’. He also says, ‘…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’. The picture here is a lifelong and continuous process. There is no indication from scripture as to how much sanctification we can expect and what specifically it will look like. We may defeat one sin only to struggle deeply with another.
However in all this we should never give up our struggle. We should never say any one sin has defeated us and that we cannot change. In the midst of struggle we cling on to the promises of God. For instance Romans 6:14: ‘For sin will have no dominion over you’.
Sanctification is primarily the work of God. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prays, ‘Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely’. And the writer of Hebrews in 13:20-21 writes ‘Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen’.
God equips us through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that works within us to change and sanctify us towards greater holiness. Peter and Paul in 1 Peter 1:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13 respectively refer to the Spirit doing the Sanctification. Galatians 5:22-23 refers to the fruit of the spirit that increase as we are sanctified. As we ‘walk by the spirit’ and are ‘led by the spirit’ (Galatians 5:16-18) we become more and more responsive to the desires and prompting of the Holy Spirit and since the Spirit is a spirit of Holiness then he produces holiness in us.
Our role is both Passive and active. Through repentance and faith we are told to present ourselves ‘to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness’ (Romans 6:13). This is our passive involvement. But in Romans 8:13 we are told ‘if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body’. This implies an active role on our part. But Paul is clear that it is also by the spirit.
This same active and passive role is found in Philippians 2:12-13: ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.’ This encouragement to do our part is based on the promise that God will empower our work.
So just as becoming a Christian is a gift from God that requires our involvement; we find the same to be true for sanctification. Progress is a gift of grace and is a gift we can expect to receive. God honours our continual acts of faith and obedience seen through:
· Bible Reading and meditation (Psalm 1:2, Matthew 4:4, John 17:17)
· Prayer (Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 4:6)
· Worship (Ephesians 5:18-20)
· Witnessing (Matthew 28:19-20)
· Acts of mercy and justice (Mathew 23:23, James 1:27)
· Christian fellowship (Hebrews 10:24-25)
· Self-discipline and self-control (Galatians 5:23, Titus 1:8)
Q: Any questions on the meaning or process of sanctification?
All true Christians should expect growth in sanctification during their lives. What if the process seems to end? If it ends what does that mean? Does it mean that we are no longer Christians? The root of these questions lies in the final question: can we really lose the blessing of our salvation?
The answer to that question is no. All who are truly Christians will be kept by God’s power and will persevere to the end of their lives as Christians. But how do we know if we are truly Christians? What if some fall away from any profession of faith and live a life of active rebellion against God? With respect to such cases we have to say that only those who persevere to the end are truly Christians. This two part teaching that all true Christians will persevere and only those who persevere are true Christians is sometimes referred to as the perseverance of the saints.
There is scriptural evidence that all true Christians will persevere. In John 6:38-40, Jesus says, ‘For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’
Here Jesus is saying that everyone who believe in him will have eternal life and that it is God’s will that he ‘lose nothing’ of all God has given him. A similar promise is made in John 10:27-29. In John 10:28 Jesus specifically says two things about his followers. First, “no one will snatch them out of my hand” and second “they will never perish”. All this together shows the promise that those whom Jesus gives eternal life will never lose it.
Another piece of evidence that God keeps Christians safe for eternity is in the seal that is placed upon us. This is the seal of the Holy Spirit within us. In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul writes, ‘In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.’
The seal, or guarantee is God’s very presence, the Holy Spirit, present in every Christian.
While those who are truly Christians will persevere to the end, only those who persevere to the end are truly Christians. Jesus, in John 8:31 says, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples’. So, one evidence of genuine faith is continuing to believe and obey what Jesus said.
Paul, in Colossians 1:22-23, writes ‘in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard’. The condition Paul puts on perseverance indicates that those who don’t truly believe will eventually fall away from the faith they claim to have.
Though the promise in perseverance is that those who continue in the faith are true Christians it does not mean they will live perfect lives. We may have deep struggle with sin at different points in our lives. If we are truly Christians we will fight against sin in repentance and faith. So the promise regarding perseverance gives a warning that those who fall away were never truly believers.
Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 3:14, ‘if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end’. However if the only confidence we have of genuine faith is when we have persevered to the end that is little hope for today.
We can have real assurance of salvation from other factors. Eg: A present trust in Christ and his ongoing work in our lives as in John 3:16. If you have confidence in Christ’s work on you behalf, in his ability to take the penalty of your sin and that you will enter heaven based solely on his work and not your own then this is indicative of true faith.
Another evidence of assurance is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit on your life. 1 John 4:13, Romans 8:14 and Galatians 5:22-23. There should be some evidence of growth in these areas.
Additionally there should be evidence of continuing, present relationship with Jesus Christ.’ ‘Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked’, 1 John 2:4-6. A perfect life is not necessary but a general pattern of obedience to Christ’s commands will be evident in the true Christian.
So this ongoing work of Sanctification will be seen over a long period of time. ‘Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall’, 2 Peter 1:10. If there is a lack of these qualities, do not simply try to put more effort in, instead repent of their lack and ask God to give growth in these areas.
I listened to this sermon during the week on my way to work and thought it brilliant teaching on what worship is! Listen and learn with an open heart. You can skip the first 8 Minutes as it relates to Mars Hill church information only. It is long, at about an hour, so take the time to hear some great teaching.
Just read this article on Christian Today. This is my view is one of the single biggest mistakes that the Christian Church is making today. I am in now way denying the huge impact and importance of what Darwin wrote. Just not in the way that the secular scientists and humanists would describe it.
I am not going to detail why this is such a tragedy as there are plenty of websites that do that significantly better than I can, eg: Click Here. However I will say that I believe this is one of the reasons why the Church of England and other denominations are in decline. They compromise and undermine the truth and authority of scripture interpreting it in the light of humanistic beliefs. Once you start doing that then no passage of scripture can be taken as an absolute truth. You fall into the modern quagmire that is moral relativism. The compromises on Homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and dare I say it, women priests and Bishops are other examples.
I am sure not all Anglican or other Denomination members are in support of the Darwin Worship and I would not like to make such sweeping statements. However when the Top leadership of such organisations come out in support of placing Darwin on the pedestal he is being placed on then it is a sad indeed. Belief in Theistic Evolution is a compromise and weakens every biblical and moral argument you subsequently make. Darwin knew this and Dawkins knows this and almost has more contempt for those that compromise what scripture teaches, than the Creationists he so violently and unflinchingly opposes.
If you are blown by every change of what society accepts and absorb it into your own worldview then how do you stand out from the world. How are you salt and light to a dark world. If there was no fall as described in Genesis and we evolved from pondscum then there is no sin, there can be no explanation of suffering that doesn’t make God out to be at best uncaring and at worst hateful, mans glorious standing as being made in the image of God is reduced to our existence having no meaning or purpose, there is no need for Christ to have come to redeem and save the lost. There is no Gospel!
