"He who fights and contends against the Gospel necessarily fights simultaneously against God, against Jesus Christ, against the Holy Spirit, against the precious blood of Christ, against His death, against God's Word, against all the articles of faith ...For he who fights against God must fight against all that is of God, or that has to do with God." Martin Luther in his 'Warning to his dear German People'
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GOSPEL OF CHRIST
Are we sinners because we sin or do we sin because we are sinners? Two totally different perceptions of salvation are found here. Whilst we are accountable for our sinful deeds, even were we to live blameless lives we would still be found guilty before God. Being the offspring of Adam, we are guilty even as we are born his sin being reckoned to us. Christ alone was not born a sinner and therefore He alone could be our Saviour. Equally, are we able to stand before God because we are made righteous or because the righteousness of Christ is set to our account apart from what we have done? Being in Christ, His righteousness is accounted to us. The Word of God has the answers in Romans 5.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
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THE FALL AND THE APOSTATE HEART OF MAN
In the beginning, God created man in His own image. Not the mind, but the heart of man was created the religious root, the centre of his being, the supra-temporal root from which spring all the issues of life. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) The heart transcends all things temporal in the service of God. The heart is the centre of our religious life and experience.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Roman 10:9)
Read the complete article here
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THE GOD EVERYONE KNOWS
For thinking men of the twenty-first century, the Christian religion is a sheer fiction and the Bible a collection of ancient of myths – it is most certainly not a revelation of absolute truth. The Christian faith is written off as a world of the stupid. By this count, most stupid are those who fail to see that behind the façade of the Christian faith God is dying or even dead.
Read the complete article here
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THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT
Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920), theologian, reformed pastor and one-time prime minister of the Netherlands
Although the love of God, failing in its purpose, always causes hardening of the heart, yet at times it has a still more terrible effect. For it may lead to the sin against the Holy Ghost.
Read the complete article here
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THE GOSPEL OF GOD'S GRACE
"I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9:13)
We are often led to believe that Great Britain is in a post-Christian era and that the country is now largely secular. Some recent research shows that as much as seventy-one percent of the British still regard themselves as Christian, despite the fact that fewer than a million attend any place of worship, with these figures dropping fast. In view of this, the Churches ought to be asking themselves why this anomaly. Despite all their efforts at offering 'contemporary worship' and discarding much that is traditional in order to be more appealing, the ebbing away of congregations continues apace. There are, however, some even more pressing questions to be posed. What do those calling themselves Christian think that it means to be a Christian? Also, how does their understanding compare with what it really means to be a Christian and how can anyone know for sure what a Christian is?
People today are largely ignorant of the Christian Gospel and only have a very vague sense of any kind of spiritual need. In the Gospel there is an outward offer of salvation but there is also an accompanying inward work of the Holy Spirit bringing with it regenerating power. When men see the need to escape from eternal death through the preaching of the Gospel, they will also at the same time see that Christ has supplied their need. Christ finds them, but they first need to become new creatures before they will see this as a fact.
Many of those professing Christian belief think they have a sound understanding of what they need, but in fact not one of us by nature is fully aware of his or her need. On the contrary, unless God opens the inward eyes, all sit in complete ignorance of their own true state: dead in trespasses and sins and therefore subject to the wrath of God.
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)
“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
For a comprehensive examination of the historic biblical Christian Gospel please read the complete article here
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THE LIVING CHRIST, THE OBJECT OF OUR FAITH
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921)
Dutch Reformed theologian and churchman
The peculiarity of the Christian religion as has been shown so often, and acknowledged even by opponents, lies in the person of Christ. All other religions are independent, to a certain degree, of their founders, because those founders were nothing more than their first confessors. But Jesus was not the first Christian; he was and is the Christ. He is not the subject, but the object, of religion.
“Whoever would enter the kingdom must break with his whole former life, must lose his soul (Matthew10:39), must forsake everything (Luke 14:33, must take up his cross and follow after Him (Matthew 10:38), must become a child (Matthew 18:3), must return to the Father with a confession of sin (Luke 15:18), and must enter into eternal life through the strait gate and the narrow way (Matthew 7:14). Whoever does that is fitted for it by God Himself, for men are evil (Matthew 7:11). Out of their hearts nothing but unrighteousness comes forth (Matthew 15:19). They cannot bring forth good fruit, therefore, the tree must first be made good, and God alone can do that (Matthew 19:26). Those who, as a plant, are planted by the heavenly Father are children of God and citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 15:13), and are they whom the Son has revealed to the Father, and the Father to the Son (Matthew 11:27 and 16:17). Although they formerly were spiritually dead, they have now a share in the true life and await eternal life.” (Matthew 8:22 and Luke 15:24; 18:30).
(Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, pp. 413-414)
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IF THEREFORE THE SON SHALL MAKE YOU FREE
In seeking to be free of God, man has lost what freedom he thought he had
The eighteenth century French libertarian and libertine, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, wrote, “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains”. This perfectly describes the persistent dilemma for godless men, although not in the sense intended by Rousseau. What Rousseau did not see is that man is born fettered in sin and can be freed only by Him “who bled for Adam’s helpless race”.
In seeking to be free of God, man has lost what freedom he thought he had, becoming now being the plaything of chance, or the object of soulless determinism. Of course, in truth he is neither, his view of the world is a complete myth. He is born free only to sin. With no sovereign God, with no sovereign plan, there can be no certain salvation and no freedom of any kind for men at all! Only a sovereign God, One who can ensure all that He wills and all that He promises will surely come to pass, only the God of the Bible, can make it possible for us to exercise our wills in a way that has meaning, can enable us freely to love and serve Him. He has determined that this should be so; nothing is left to ‘chance’. Without the sovereign God of Scripture, heaven would forever remain empty.
When thinking of God, we are faced with choosing one of two possibilities. First, either God is fully conscious of all things and sovereign, and nothing exists or happens of itself; or second, God Himself is dependent upon other things around Him that exist or take place apart from Him and totally unpredictably. He then needs to wait and see what will occur, or wait upon what man will decide before taking action. This second option is not the God of Scripture. All this has very serious implications for the reliability of Scripture. Should we choose the second option, because God Himself can never be quite sure how things will turn out, His Word can hardly be relied upon with respect to events now or in the future. This has particular relevance for the certainty of our salvation and the ultimate triumph of our Saviour. If we take the first option, then we must conclude that, being made in the image of God, when our minds are enlightened by God’s self-revelation, the nature of our knowledge will be a finite replica of God’s own knowledge and so we can know with a certainty that escapes the godless. We can express the same idea by saying that what is in the consciousness of God replicates itself in our finite consciousness within the limited parameters of our finitude and that which He has willed to reveal to us. If we are to know anything for sure, we need the Bible.
We cannot function without the Word of God – because it is the sole physical instrument, which by His Spirit, links our finite hearts and minds to the eternal heart and mind of God.
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WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN
An examination of the claims of Christ and the Gospel of God's grace in the light of the Christian Scriptures.
“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)
THE MOST TRAGIC MISTAKE ANYONE CAN MAKE IS TO BELIEVE THEMSELVES TO BE A CHRISTIAN WHEN IN FACT THEY ARE NOT
Read this important article here
1. Godlessness expresses itself in every area of British life
2. No Gospel, no change
3. Christ, redemption, and the nature of the Scriptures
4. Knowing our need, recognising our helplessness
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SO YOU THINK YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN?
Only by setting aside all that we originate ourselves and by trusting completely and utterly in the merits of our faithful Saviour alone can we be saved.
We can be right with God, but only without our own works
Our right standing with God is not established by our own exertions, nor even by that which God works in us, what we may become, but by that which He has done for us in Christ, apart from us and our behalf. Righteousness exists without the works of the Law, how much more then without the exertions of our will? This demolishes all moral work as being of standing before God or contributing in any way to our relationship with God.
Another very important article for all, read here
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ESSENTIALS OF THE GOSPEL AND WHY EVANGELICALS HAVE LEFT THEM
“It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”(Lamentations 3:22-26)
We see around us utterly appalling wickedness, widespread hypocrisy and apostasy, blasphemy and fearful rebellion against Almighty God. We can but wonder at the mercy and grace of God that He does not destroy us out of hand, such is our degeneracy. We deserve nothing less. It is of God’s mercy that He withholds what is due to us as sinners. It of His grace that instead of immediate judgement, the offer of reconciliation through Christ, His Son, still remains. Were God not merciful and compassionate, where would any of us be today? His longsuffering with us is a matter of exceeding wonder.
read here
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THE COMPREHENSIVE CLAIMS OF CHRIST
“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
(1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
Writing at the end of the nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche put words into the mouth of a madman, who ran everywhere crying: “Where is God gone? I mean to tell you, we have killed him, you and I. We are all his murderers.” Going from church to church, he announces the death of God. Asked the reason for this outburst, the madman replies, “What are these churches now, if they are not the tombs of God?” The significance of this story was to some extent lost on Nietzsche’s own generation; it would take another hundred years for its meaning to fully unfold. Buildings that then resounded in the praise and worship of God are gone and many remaining now stand derelict, or have been turned into homes, theatres, antique shops, museums, Sikh temples. But the death of God has taken place only in the human mind as He has faded from the consciousness of our fellow men and nowhere else. Christ has been driven out of Christendom, yet He lives still; it is just that men live without Him as though He were dead. Nietzsche gives his prophetic words to a madman to announce, reflecting the words of Scripture: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).Today, the rejection of God by so many has left a vacuum waiting to be filled by opportunistic forces of unbelief, godlessness: a vicious, destructive, bigoted, intolerant, and militant atheism with a not so smiling face.
read here
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