tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63879374184001367302024-02-20T17:26:39.721-08:00Under Gracea reformed christian theological bloglutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-16574589468063024042008-02-25T11:34:00.000-08:002008-02-25T11:35:07.890-08:00Cultural "Christianity" and the Emergent Church(Francis Schaeffer)<span>Francis Schaeffer died in 1984. Even before then, though, he could see things creeping into the church that had no business being there. His suggestion? He suggests to make sure there is a line drawn in the sand; to make sure there is a differentiation between theose who hold to a full view of Scripture and those who do not and for those that do to not associate with those that don't without preaching repentance from their unbelief. I agree with the late Dr. Schaeffer.<br /><br />(This video is in four parts. If anyone would like the embed code to a four part video player to post on their site, just let me know, and I'll send it to you.)<br /><br /><center><object height="500" width="565"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/cp/vjVQa1PpcFMvyMyEd4Pts_M3y4Tz3mn10ijt62veO5o="><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/cp/vjVQa1PpcFMvyMyEd4Pts_M3y4Tz3mn10ijt62veO5o=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="500" width="565"></embed></object></center><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:130%;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:130%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://turret2.discipleshiplibrary.com/E384.mp3">Entire lecture by mp3 here</a>.<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:130%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/pdfs/E384.pdf">Lecture outline (pdf) here</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />END OF POST.</span><br /></span></div><span></span></div><span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-45698792721860246692008-02-23T08:14:00.000-08:002008-02-23T08:15:24.852-08:00Reformed Dating- Should we Date Arminians?<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PDi-yMT3tpQ&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PDi-yMT3tpQ&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-64980833638784207242008-01-11T13:24:00.000-08:002008-01-11T13:33:44.300-08:00What is Calvinism?Here's a series of videos from YouTube on calvinism that are very useful.<br />The first is a response to a YT user "potatofarts" and gives a greatpresentation of calvinism in less than 10 minutes. <br /><br />The user's link is here-<br />http://www.youtube.com/Oct31st1517<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jlkeamz5jSU&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jlkeamz5jSU&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />This video series is from administrator/writer Lane @ this site-<br /><br />lanechaplin.blogspot.com<br /><br />And his You Tube channel is here-<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/LaneCh<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fVRrSO5wOj4&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fVRrSO5wOj4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/H5vYECqyT3k&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/H5vYECqyT3k&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DTjOrOz6G4w&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DTjOrOz6G4w&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />Here's a video I did<br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVSg0s33r3I&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVSg0s33r3I&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-21396168127698349892008-01-11T12:57:00.000-08:002008-01-11T12:58:51.059-08:00Islamic Arguments- Dr. White<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MVI_TMBggLs&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MVI_TMBggLs&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-63213738888811174662008-01-04T19:53:00.000-08:002008-01-04T19:57:10.281-08:00The Gospel- Words from Paul Washer<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mXyVyD9yfxE&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mXyVyD9yfxE&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gIlGXIyoKBI&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gIlGXIyoKBI&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-84701516941802911872007-12-27T23:20:00.001-08:002007-12-27T23:20:11.925-08:00Why it is Important to Know How God Converts the Human Soul(Mark Kielar)<br><center><object width="565" height="475"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b0Z9Q07bMZY&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b0Z9Q07bMZY&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="565" height="475"></embed></object></center><br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-12809412574755130582007-12-26T17:44:00.000-08:002007-12-26T17:45:15.147-08:00The Victory of Faith- C.H. Spurgeon<object width="300" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/metu9mtY8D/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/metu9mtY8D/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-17073424480049235142007-12-20T08:40:00.001-08:002007-12-20T08:40:50.224-08:00Search the Scriptures- C.H. Spurgeon<object width="300" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/Ou0U3k60PO/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/Ou0U3k60PO/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-73812825030552007322007-12-17T12:11:00.001-08:002007-12-17T12:11:09.091-08:00Propitiation: (n) \prō-pi-shē-ˈā-shən\ ἱλαστήριον<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/7zchiInEECs' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/7zchiInEECs'/></object></p><p>Watch this video!!!</p></div>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-29166183328701068772007-12-16T14:30:00.001-08:002007-12-16T14:30:22.931-08:00Does Your Church Teach Only Parts of the Truth?<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/uG5Ri-ifdfY' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/uG5Ri-ifdfY'/></object></p></div>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-89007362004111101492007-12-14T20:53:00.000-08:002007-12-14T20:56:52.280-08:00"Sound doctrine just divides...it's love that matters!"<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ma6adMwgjSQ&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ma6adMwgjSQ&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-5514912599254768722007-12-10T23:23:00.001-08:002007-12-10T23:23:26.222-08:00Why is it Vitally Necessary to be Found in Christ?<br><center><object width="565" height="450"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xp2FKh2HRlA&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xp2FKh2HRlA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="565" height="450"></embed></object></center><br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-17742335882840391022007-12-08T10:39:00.001-08:002007-12-08T10:39:46.826-08:00The Genuine Gospel-Paul Washer<object width="300" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/i4Ssccc69K/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/i4Ssccc69K/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-72393347319756041292007-12-01T08:50:00.000-08:002007-12-01T15:59:29.112-08:00Walking with God By: George Whitefield<em>"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." </em> -Genesis 5:24<br /><br /><br />Various are the pleas and arguments which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding obedience to the just and holy commands of God. But, perhaps, one of the most common objections that they make is this, that our Lord's commands are not practicable, because contrary to flesh and blood; and consequently, that he is `an hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed'. These we find were the sentiments entertained by that wicked and slothful servant mentioned in the 25th of St. Matthew; and are undoubtedly the same with many which are maintained in the present wicked and adulterous generation. The Holy Ghost foreseeing this, hath taken care to inspire holy men of old, to record the examples of many holy men and women; who, even under the Old Testament dispensation, were enabled cheerfully to take Christ's yoke upon them, and counted his service perfect freedom. The large catalogue of saints, confessors, and martyrs, drawn up in the 11th chapter to the Hebrews, abundantly evidences the truth of this observation. What a great cloud of witnesses have we there presented to our view? All eminent for their faith, but some shining with a greater degree of luster than do others. The proto-martyr Abel leads the van. And next to him we find Enoch mentioned, not only because he was next in order of time, but also on account of his exalted piety; he is spoken of in the words of the text in a very extraordinary manner. We have here a short but very full and glorious account, both of his behavior in this world, and the triumphant manner of his entry into the next. The former is contained in these words, `And Enoch walked with God'. The latter in these, `and he was not: for God took him'. He was not; that is, he was not found, he was not taken away in the common manner, he did not see death; for God had translated him. (Heb. 11:5.) Who this Enoch was, does not appear so plainly. To me, he seems to have been a person of public character; I suppose, like Noah, a preacher of righteousness. And, if we may credit the apostle Jude, he was a flaming preacher. For he quotes one of his prophecies, wherein he saith, `Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him'. But whether a public or private person, he has a noble testimony given him in the lively oracles. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews saith, that before his translation he had this testimony, `that he pleased God'; and his being translated, was a proof of it beyond all doubt. And I would observe, that it was wonderful wisdom in God to translate Enoch and Elijah under the Old Testament dispensation, that hereafter, when it should be asserted that the Lord Jesus was carried into heaven, it might not seem a thing altogether incredible to the Jews; since they themselves confessed that two of their own prophets had been translated several hundred hears before. But it is not my design to detain you any longer, by enlarging, or making observations, on Enoch's short but comprehensive character: the thing I have in view being to give a discourse, as the Lord shall enable, upon a weighty and a very important subject; I mean, WALKING WITH GOD. `And Enoch walked with God.' If so much as this can be truly said of you and me after our decease, we shall not have any reason to complain that we have lived in vain. <br /><br />In handling my intended subject, I shall, <br /><br />FIRST, Endeavor to show what is implied in these words, WALKED WITH GOD. <br /><br />SECONDLY, I shall prescribe some means, upon the due observance of which, believers may keep up and maintain their WALK WITH GOD. And, <br /><br />THIRDLY, Offer some motives to stir us up, if we never walked with God before, to come and walk with God now. The whole shall be closed with a word or two of application. <br /><br />FIRST, I am to show what is implied in these words, `walked with God'; or, in other words, what we are to understand by WALKING WITH GOD. <br /><br />And FIRST, WALKING WITH GOD implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a person's heart be taken away by the blessed Spirit of God. Perhaps it may seem a hard saying to some, but our own experience daily proves what the scriptures in many places assert, that the carnal mind, the mind of the unconverted natural man, nay, the mind of the regenerate, so far as any part of him remains unrenewed, is enmity, not only an enemy, but enmity itself, against God; so that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Indeed, one may well wonder that any creature, especially that lovely creature man, made after his Maker's own image, should ever have any enmity, much less a prevailing enmity, against that very God in whom he lives, and moves, and hath his being. But alas! so it is. Our first parents contracted it when they fell from God by eating the forbidden fruit, and the bitter and malignant contagion of it hath descended to, and quite overspread, their whole posterity. This enmity discovered itself in Adam's endeavoring to hide himself in the trees of the garden. When he heard the voice of the Lord God, instead of running with an open heart, saying Here I am; alas! he now wanted no communion with God; and still more discovered his lately contracted enmity, by the excuse he made to the Most High: `The woman (or, this woman) thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat'. By saying thus, he in effect lays all the fault upon God; as though he had said, If thou hadst not given me this woman, I had not sinned against thee, so thou mayest thank thyself for my transgression. In the same manner this enmity works in the hearts of Adam's children. They now and again find something rising against God, and saying even unto God, What doest thou? `It scorns any meaner competitor (says the learned Dr. Owen, in his excellent treatise on indwelling sin) than God himself.' Its command is like that of the Assyrians in respect to Ahab _ shoot only at the king. And it strikes against every thing that has the appearance of real piety, as the Assyrians shot at Jehoshaphat in his royal clothes. But the opposition ceases when it finds that it is only an appearance, as the Assyrians left off shooting at Jehoshaphat, when they perceived it was not Ahab they were shooting at. This enmity discovered itself in accursed Cain; he hated and slew his brother Abel, because Abel loved, and was peculiarly favored by, his God. And this same enmity rules and prevails in every man that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam. Hence that a averseness to prayer and holy duties which we find in children, and very often in grown persons, who have notwithstanding been blessed with a religious education. And all that open sin and wickedness, which like a deluge has overflowed the world, are only so many streams running from this dreadful contagious fountain; I mean a enmity of man's desperately wicked and deceitful heart. He that cannot set his seal to this, knows nothing yet, in a saving manner, of the Holy Scriptures, or of the power of God. And all that do know this, will readily acknowledge, that before a person can be said to walk with God, the prevailing power of this heart-enmity must be destroyed: for persons do not use to walk and keep company together, who entertain an irreconcilable enmity and hatred against one another. Observe me, I say, the prevailing power of this enmity must be taken away; for the in-being of it will never be totally removed, till we bow down our heads, and give up the ghost. The apostle Paul, no doubt, speaks of himself, and that, too, not when he was a Pharisee, but a real Christian; when he complains, `that when he would do good, evil was present with him'; not having dominion over him, but opposing and resisting his good intentions and actions, so that he could not do the things which he would, in that perfection which the new man desired. This is what he calls sin dwelling in him. `And this is that Fronhma sarko", which (to use the words of the ninth article of our church,) some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affectation, some the desire, of the flesh, which doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated.' But as for its prevailing power, it is destroyed in every soul that is truly born of God, and gradually more and more weakened as the believer grows in grace, and the Spirit of God gains a greater and greater ascendancy in the heart. <br /><br />But SECONDLY, Walking with God not only implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a man's heart be taken away, but also that a person is actually reconciled to God the Father, in and through the all-sufficient righteousness and atonement of his dear Son. `Can two walk together, (says Solomon, [actually Amos 3:3]) unless they are agreed?' Jesus is our peace as well as our peace-maker. When we are justified by faith in Christ, then, but not till then, we have peace with God; and consequently cannot be said till then to walk with him, walking with a person being a sign and token that we are friends to that person, or at least, though we have been at variance, yet that now we are reconciled and become friends again. This is the great errand that gospel ministers are sent out upon. To us is committed the ministry of reconciliation; as ambassadors for God, we are to beseech sinners, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto God, and when they comply with the gracious invitation, and are actually by faith brought into a state of reconciliation with God, then, and not till then, may they be said so much as to begin to walk with God. <br /><br />Further, THIRDLY, Walking with God implies a settled abiding communion and fellowship with God, or what in scripture is called, `The Holy Ghost dwelling in us'. This is what our Lord promised when he told his disciples that `the Holy Spirit would be in and with them'; not to be like wayfaring man, to say only for a night, but to reside and make his abode in their hearts. This, I am apt to believe, is what the apostle John would have us understand, when he talks of a person `abiding in him, in Christ, and walking as he himself also walked'. And this is what is particularly meant in the words of our text. `And Enoch walked with God', that is, he kept up and maintained a holy, settled, habitual, though undoubtedly not altogether uninterrupted communion and fellowship with God, in and through Christ Jesus. So that to sum up what has been said on this part of the first general head, WALKING WITH GOD consists especially in the fixed habitual bent of the will for God, in an habitual dependence upon his power and promise, in an habitual voluntary dedication of our all to his glory, in an habitual eyeing of his precept in all we do, and in an habitual complacence in his pleasure in all we suffer. <br /><br />FOURTHLY, WALKING WITH GOD implies our making progress or advances in the divine life. WALKING, in the very first idea of the word, seems to suppose a progressive motion. A person that walks, though he move slowly, yet he goes forward, and does not continue in one place. And so it is with those that walk with God. They go on, as the Psalmist says, `from strength to strength'; or, in the language of the apostle Paul, `they pass from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord'. Indeed, in one sense, the divine life admits of neither increase nor decrease. When a soul is born of God, to all intents and purposes he is a child of God; and though he should live to the age of Methuselah, yet he would then be only a child of God after all. But in another sense, the divine life admits of decays and additions. Hence it is, that we find the people of God charged with backslidings and losing their first love. And hence it is that we hear of babes, young men, and fathers in Christ. And upon this account it is that the apostle exhorts Timothy, `to let his progress be made known to all men'. And what is here required of Timothy in particular, by St. Peter is enjoined on all Christians in general. `But grow in grace, (says he), and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ'. For the new creature increases in spiritual stature; and though a person can but be a new creature, yet there are some that are more conformed to the divine image than others, and will after death be admitted to a greater degree of blessedness. For want of observing this distinction, even some gracious souls, that have better hearts than heads, (as well as men of corrupt minds, reprobates concerning the faith) have unawares run into downright Antinomian principles, denying all growth of grace in a believer, or any marks of grace to be laid down in the scriptures of truth. From such principles, and more especially from practices naturally consequent on such principles, may the Lord of all lords deliver us! <br /><br />From what then has been said, we may now know what is implied in the words, `walked with God', viz. Our having the prevailing enmity of our hearts taken away by the power of the Spirit of God; our being actually reconciled and united to him by faith in Jesus Christ; our having and keeping up a settled communion and fellowship with him; and our making a daily progress in this fellowship, so as to be conformed to the divine image more and more. <br /><br />How this is done, or, in other words, by what means believers keep up and maintain their walk with God, comes to be considered under our second general head. <br /><br />And, FIRST, Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by reading of his holy word. `Search the scriptures', says our blessed Lord, `for these are they that testify of me'. And the royal Psalmist tells us `that God's word was a light unto his feet, and a lantern unto his paths'; and he makes it one property of a good man, `that his delight is in the law of the Lord, and that he exercises himself therein day and night'. `Give thyself to reading', (says Paul to Timothy); `And this book of the law, (says God to Joshua) shall not go out of thy mouth'. For whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning. And the word of God is profitable for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, and every way sufficient to make every true child of God thoroughly furnished unto every good work. If we once get above our Bibles, and cease making the written word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion, and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Our blessed Lord, though he had the Spirit of God without measure, yet always was governed by, and fought the devil with, `It is written'. This the apostle calls the `sword of the Spirit'. We may say of it, as David said of Goliath's sword, `None like this'. The scriptures are called the lively oracles of God: not only because they are generally made use of to beget in us a new life, but also to keep up and increase it in the soul. The apostle Peter, in his second epistle, prefers it even to seeing Christ transfigured upon the mount. For after he had said, chap. 1:18. `This voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount'; he adds, `We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts': that is, till we shake off these bodies, and see Jesus face to face. Till then we must see and converse with him through the glass of his word. We must make his testimonies our counselors, and daily, with Mary, sit at Jesus' feet, by faith hearing his word. We shall then by happy experience find, that they are spirit and life, meat indeed and drink indeed, to our souls. <br /><br />SECONDLY, Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by secret prayer. The spirit of grace is always accompanied with the spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature, the fan of the divine life, whereby the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not only kept in, but raised into a flame. A neglect of secret prayer has been frequently an inlet to many spiritual diseases, and has been attended with fatal consequences. Origen observed, '`hat the day he offered incense to an idol, he went out of his closet without making use of secret prayer'' It is one of the most noble parts of the believers' spiritual armor. `Praying always', says the apostle, `with all manner of supplication.' `Watch and pray', says our Lord, `that ye enter not into temptation.' And he spake a parable, that his disciples should pray, and not faint. Not that our Lord would have us always upon our knees, or in our closets, to the neglect of our other relative duties. But he means, that our souls should be kept in a praying frame, so that we might be able to say, as a good man in Scotland once said to his friends on his death-bed, `Could these curtains, or could these walls speak, they would tell you what sweet communion I have had with my God here'. O prayer! Prayer! It brings and keeps God and man together. It raises man up to God, and brings God down to man. If you would there, O believers, keep up your walk with God; pray, pray without ceasing. Be much in secret, set prayer. And when you are about the common business of life, be much in ejaculatory prayer, and send, from time to time, short letters post to heaven upon the wings of faith. They will reach the very heart of God, and return to you again loaded with spiritual blessings. <br /><br />THIRDLY, Holy and frequent meditation is another blessed means of keeping up a believer's walk with God. `Prayer, reading, temptation, and meditation', says Luther, make a minister.' And they also make and perfect a Christian. Meditation to the soul, is the same as digestion to the body. Holy David found it so, and therefore he was frequently employed in meditation, even in the night season. We read also of Isaac's going out into the fields to meditate in the evening; or, as it is in the margin, to pray. For meditation is a kind of silent prayer, whereby the soul is frequently as it were carried out of itself to God, and in a degree made like unto those blessed spirits, who by a kind of immediate intuition always behold the face of our heavenly Father. None but those happy souls that have been accustomed to this divine employ, can tell what a blessed promoter of the divine life, meditation is. `Whilst I was musing', says David, `the fire kindled.' And whilst the believer is musing on the works and word of God, especially that work of works, that wonder of wonders, that mystery of godliness, `God manifest in the flesh', the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world, he frequently feels the fire of divine love kindle, so that he is obliged to speak with his tongue, and tell of the loving-kindness of the Lord to his soul. Be frequent therefore in meditation, all ye that desire to keep up and maintain a close and uniform walk with the most high God. <br /><br />FOURTHLY, Believers keep up their walk with God, by watching and noting his providential dealings with them. If we believe the scriptures, we must believe what our Lord hath declared therein, `That the very hairs of his disciples' heads are all numbered; and that a sparrow does not fall to the ground, (either to pick up a grain of corn, or when shot by a fowler), without the knowledge of our heavenly Father'. Every cross has a call in it, and every particular dispensation of divine providence has some particular end to answer in those to whom it is sent. If it be of an afflictive nature, God does thereby say, `My son, keep thyself from idols': if prosperous, he does, as it were by a small still voice, say, `My son, give me thy heart'. If believers, therefore, would keep up their walk with God, they must from time to time hear what the Lord has to say concerning them in the voice of his providence. Thus we find that Abraham's servant, when he went to fetch a wife for his master Isaac, eyed and watched the providence of God, and by that means found out the person that was designed for his master's wife. `For a little hint from providence', says pious Bishop Hall, `is enough for faith to feed upon.' And as I believe it will be one part of our happiness in heaven, to take a view of, and look back upon, the various links of the golden chain which drew us there; so those that enjoy most of heaven below, I believe, will be the most minute in remarking God's various dealings with them, in respect to his providential dispensations here on earth. <br /><br />FIFTHLY, In order to walk closely with God, his children must not only watch the motions of God's providence without them, but the motions also of his blessed Spirit in their hearts. `As many as are the sons of God, are led by the Spirit of God', and give up themselves to be guided by the Holy Ghost, as a little child gives its hand to be led by a nurse or parent. It is no doubt in this sense that we are to be converted, and become like little children. And though it is the quintessence of enthusiasm, to pretend to be guided by the Spirit without the written word; yet it is every Christian's bounden duty to be guided by the Spirit in conjunction with the written word of God. Watch, therefore, I pray you, O believers, the motions of God's blessed Spirit in your souls, and always try the suggestions or impressions that you may at any time feel, by the unerring rule of God's most holy word: and if they are not found to be agreeable to that, reject them as diabolical and delusive. By observing this caution, you will steer a middle course between the two dangerous extremes many of this generation are in danger of running into; I mean, ENTHUSIASM, on the one hand, and DEISM, and DOWNRIGHT INFIDELITY, on the other. <br /><br />SIXTHLY, They that would maintain a holy walk with God, must walk with him in ordinances as well as providences, etc. It is therefore recorded of Zachary and Elizabeth, that `they walked in all God's ordinances, as well as commandments, blameless'. And all rightly informed Christians, will look upon ordinances, not as beggarly elements, but as so many conduit-pipes, whereby the infinitely condescending Jehovah conveys his grace to their souls. They will look upon them as children's bread, and as their highest privileges. Consequently they will be glad when they hear others say, `Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord'. They will delight to visit the place where God's honor dwelleth, and be very eager to embrace all opportunities to show forth the Lord Christ's death till he come. <br /><br />SEVENTHLY and LASTLY, If you would walk with God, you will associate and keep company with those that do walk with him. `My delight', says holy David, `is in them that do excel' in virtue. They were, in his sight, the excellent ones of the earth. And the primitive Christians, no doubt, kept up their vigor and first love, by continuing in fellowship one with another. The apostle Paul knew this full well, and therefore exhorts the Christians to see to it, that they did not forsake the assembling of themselves together. For how can one be warm alone? And has not the wisest of men told us, that `As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend?' If we look, therefore, into church history, or make a just observation of our own times, I believe we shall find, that as the power of God prevails, Christian societies, and fellowship meetings prevail proportionably. And as one decays, the other has insensibly decayed and dwindled away at the same time. So necessary is it for those that would walk with God, and keep up the life of religion, to meet together as they have opportunity, in order to provoke one another to love and good works. <br /><br />Proceed we now to the third general thing proposed: to offer some motives to excite all to come and walk with God. <br /><br />And, FIRST, walking with God is a very honorable thing. This generally is a prevailing motive to persons of all ranks, to stir them up to any important undertaking. O that it may have its due weight and influence with you in respect to the matter now before us! I suppose you would all think it a very high honor to be admitted into an earthly prince's privy council, to be trusted with his secrets, and to have his ear at all times and at all seasons. It seems Haman thought it so when he boasted, Esther 5:11, that besides his being `advanced above the princes and servants of the king; yea, moreover, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared, but myself; and to-morrow am I invited unto her also with the king'. And when afterwards a question was put to this same Haman, Chap. 6:6. `What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?' he answered, verse 8. `Let the royal apparel be brought which the king used to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head; and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor.' This was all, then, it seems, that an ambitious Haman could ask, and the most valuable thing that he thought Ahasuerus, the greatest monarch upon earth, could give. But, alas, what is this honor in comparison of that which the meanest of those enjoy, that walk with God! Think ye it a small thing, sirs, to have the secret of the Lord of lords with you, and to be called the friends of God? And such honor have all God's saints. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him: and `Henceforth(says the blessed Jesus) call I you no longer servants, but friends; for the servant knoweth not the will of his master'. Whatever you may think of it, holy David was so sensible of the honor attending a walk with God that he declares, `he had rather be a door-keeper in his house, than to dwell even in the tents of ungodliness'. O that all were like-minded with him! <br /><br />But, SECONDLY, As it is an honorable, so it is a pleasing thing, to walk with God. The wisest of men has told us, that `wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace'. And I remember pious Mr. Henry, when he was about to expire, said to a friend, `You have heard many men's dying words, and these are mine: A life spent in communion with God, is the pleasantest life in the world'. I am sure I can set to my seal that this is true. Indeed, I have been listed under Jesus' banner only for a few years; but I have enjoyed more solid pleasure in one moment's communion with my god, than I should or could have enjoyed in the ways of sin, though I had continued to have gone on in them for thousands of years. And may I not appeal to all you that fear and walk with God, for the truth of this? Has not one day in the Lord's courts been better to you than a thousand? In keeping God's commandments, have you not found a present, and very great reward? Has not his word been sweeter to you than the honey or the honeycomb? O what have you felt, when, Jacob-like, you have been wrestling with your God? Has not Jesus often met you when meditating in the fields, and been made known to you over and over again in breaking of bread? Has not the Holy Ghost frequently shed the divine love abroad in your hearts abundantly, and filled you with joy unspeakable, even joy that is full of glory? I know you will answer all these questions in the affirmative, and freely acknowledge the yoke of Christ to be easy, and his burden light; or (to use the words of one of our collects), `His service is perfect freedom'. And what need we then any further motive to excite us to walk with God? <br /><br />But methinks I hear some among you say, `How can these things be? For, if walking with God, as you say, is such an honorable and pleasant thing, whence is it that the name of the people of this way is cast out as evil, and every where spoken against? How comes it to pass that they are frequently afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented? Is this the honor, this the pleasure, that you speak of?' I answer, Yes. Stop a while; be not over hasty. Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment, and all will be well. It is true, we acknowledge the `people of this way', as you, and Paul before you, when a persecutor, called them, have their names cast out as evil, and are a sect every where spoken against. But by whom? Even by the enemies of the most high God. And do you think it is disgrace to be spoken evil of by them? Blessed be God, we have not so learned Christ. Our royal Master has pronounced those `blessed, who are persecuted, and have all manner of evil spoken against them falsely'. He has commanded them `to rejoice and be exceeding glad', for it is the privilege of their discipleship, and that their reward will be great in heaven. He himself was thus treated. And can there be a greater honor put upon a creature, than to be conformed to the ever-blessed Son of God? And further, it is equally true that the people of this way are frequently afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented. But what of all this? Does this destroy the pleasure of walking with God? No, in no wise; for those that walk with God are enabled, through Christ strengthening them, to joy even in tribulation, and to rejoice when they fall into divers temptations. And I believe I may appeal to the experience of all true and close walkers with God, whether or not their suffering times have not frequently been their sweetest times, and that they enjoyed most of God when most cast out and despised by men? This we find was the case of Christ's primitive servants, when threatened by the Jewish sanhedrin, and commanded to preach no more in the name of Jesus; they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Jesus. Paul and Silas sang praises even in a dungeon; and the face of Stephen, that glorious proto-martyr of the Christian church, shone like the face of an angel. And Jesus is the same now as he was then, and takes care so to sweeten sufferings and afflictions with his love, that his disciples find, by happy experience, that as afflictions abound, consolations do much more abound. And therefore these objections, instead of destroying, do only enforce the motives before urged, to excite you to walk with God. <br /><br />But supposing the objections were just, and walkers with God were as despicable and unhappy as you would represent them to be; yet I have a third motive to offer, which if weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, will over-weigh all objections, viz. That there is a heaven at the end of this walk. For, to use the words of pious bishop Beveridge, `Though the way be narrow, yet it is not long: and though the gate be strait, yet it opens into everlasting life'. Enoch found it so. He walked with God on earth, and God took him to sit down with him for ever in the kingdom of heaven. Not that we are to expect to be taken away as he was: no, I suppose we shall all die the common death of all men. But after death, the spirits of those who have walked with God shall return to God that gave them; and at the morning of the resurrection, soul and body shall be for ever with the Lord; their bodies shall be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, and their souls filled with all the fullness of God. They shall sit on thrones; they shall judge angels. They shall be enabled to sustain an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, even that glory which Jesus Christ enjoyed with the Father before the world began. `O gloriam quantam et qualem', said the learned and pious Arndt, just before he bowed down his head, and gave up the ghost. The very thought of it is enough to make us `wish to leap our seventy years', as good Dr. Watts expresses himself, and to make us break out into the earnest language of the royal Psalmist, `My soul is athirst for God, yea, for the living God. When shall I come to appear in the presence of my God?' I wonder not that a sense of this, when under a more than ordinary irradiation and influx of divine life and love, causes some persons to faint away, and even for a time lose the power of their senses. A less sight than this, even the sight of Solomon's glory, made Sheba's queen astonished; and a still lesser sight than that, even a sight of Joseph's wagons, made holy Jacob faint, and for a while, as it were, die away. Daniel, when admitted to a distant view of this excellent glory, fell down at the feet of the angel as one dead. And if a distant view of this glory be so excellent, what must the actual possession of it be? If the first fruits are so glorious, how infinitely must the harvest exceed in glory? <br /><br />And now, what shall I, or, indeed, what can I well say more to excite you, even you that are yet strangers to Christ, to come and walk with God? If you love honor, pleasure, and a crown of glory, come, seek it where alone it can be found. Come, put ye on the Lord Jesus. Come, haste ye away and walk with God, and make no longer provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof. Stop, stop, O sinner! Turn ye, turn ye, O ye unconverted men, for the end of that way you are now walking in, however right it may seem in your blinded eyes, will be death, even eternal destruction both of body and soul. Make no longer tarrying, I say: at your peril I charge you, step not one step further on in your present walk. For how knowest thou, O man, but the next step thou takest may be into hell? Death may seize thee, judgment find thee, and then the great gulf will be fixed between thee and endless glory for ever and ever. O think of these things, all ye that are unwilling to walk with God. Lay them to heart. Show yourselves men, and in the strength of Jesus say, Farewell, lust of the flesh, I will no more walk with thee! Farewell, lust of the eye, and pride of life! Farewell, carnal acquaintance and enemies of the cross, I will no more walk and be intimate with you! Welcome Jesus, welcome thy word, welcome thy ordinances, welcome thy Spirit, welcome thy people, I will henceforth walk with you. O that there may be in you such a mind! God will set his almighty fiat to it, and seal it with the broad seal of heaven, even the signet of his holy Spirit. Yes, he will, though you have been walking with, and following after, the devices and desires of your desperately wicked hearts ever since you have been born. `I, the high and lofty One', says the great Jehovah, `that inhabiteth eternity, will dwell with the humble and contrite heart, even with the man that trembleth at my word.' The blood, even the precious blood of Jesus Christ, if you come to the Father in and through him, shall cleanse you from all sin. <br /><br />But the text leads me to speak to you that are saints as well as to you that are open and unconverted sinners. I need not tell you, that walking with God is not honorable, but pleasant and profitable also; for ye know it by happy experience, and will find it more and more so every day. Only give me leave to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, and to beseech you by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, to take heed to yourselves, and walk closer with your God than you have in days past: for the nearer you walk with God, the more you will enjoy of him whose presence is life, and be the better prepared for being placed at his right hand, where are pleasures for evermore. O do not follow Jesus afar off! O be not so formal, so dead and stupid in your attendance on holy ordinances! Do not so shamefully forsake the assembling yourselves together, or be so niggardly or indifferent about the things of God. Remember what Jesus says of the church of Laodicea, `Because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth'. Think of the love of Jesus, and let that love constrain you to keep near unto him; and though you die for him, do not deny him, do not keep at a distance from him in any wise. <br /><br />One word to my brethren in the ministry that are here present, and I have done. You see, my brethren, my heart is full; I could almost say it is too big to speak, and yet too big to be silent, without dropping a word to you. For does not the text speak in a particular manner to those who have the honor of being styled the ambassadors of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. I observed at the beginning of this discourse, that Enoch in all probability was a public person, and a flaming preacher. Though he be dead, does he not yet speak to us, to quicken our zeal, and make us more active in the service of our glorious and ever-blessed Master? How did Enoch preach! How did Enoch walk with God, though he lived in a wicked and adulterous generation! Let us then follow him, as he followed Jesus Christ, and ere long, where he is there shall we be also. He is not entered into his rest: yet a little while and we shall enter into ours, and that too much sooner than he did. He sojourned here below three hundred years; but blessed be God, the days of man are now shortened, and in a few days our walk will be over. The Judge is before the door: he that cometh will come, and will not tarry: his reward is with him. And we shall all (if we are zealous for the Lord of hosts) ere long shine as the stars in the firmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father, for ever and ever. To Him, the blessed Jesus, and eternal Spirit, be all honor and glory, now, and to all eternity. Amen, and Amen.lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-3276024335725567242007-11-28T11:15:00.001-08:002007-11-28T11:15:58.374-08:00Amazing Grace movie trailer<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/Q6Cv5P9H9qU' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/Q6Cv5P9H9qU'/></object></p><p>A suprisingly great movie for 2007.</p></div>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-2681954633617886712007-11-26T15:46:00.000-08:002007-11-26T23:07:09.732-08:00Salvation by Works, a Criminal Doctrine-C.H. Spurgeon<object width="400" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/TuJ_HEM_YK/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/TuJ_HEM_YK/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-39259066844198869542007-11-26T15:10:00.001-08:002007-11-26T15:10:27.482-08:00What Do the Doctrines of Grace Mean?<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/yVSg0s33r3I' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/yVSg0s33r3I'/></object></p></div>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-50325712603028703782007-11-25T12:43:00.000-08:002007-11-25T12:47:01.833-08:00Providence -God Governs This World By: J.I. Packer<span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>"The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD"-</em>Proverbs 16:33</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">"God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions"-Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.11. If Creation was a unique exercise of divine energy causing the world to be, providence is a continued exercise of that same energy whereby the Creator, according to his own will, (a) keeps all creatures in being, (b) involves himself in all events, and (c) directs all things to their appointed end. The model is of purposive personal management with total "hands-on" control: God is completely in charge of his world. His hand may be hidden, but his rule is absolute.<br />Some have restricted God's providence to foreknowledge without control, or upholding without intervention, or general oversight without concern for details, but the testimony to providence as formulated above is overwhelming.<br />The Bible clearly teaches God's providential control (1) over the universe at large, Ps. 103:19; Dan. 4:35; Eph. 1:11; (2) over the physical world, Job 37; Pss. 104:14; 135:6; Matt. 5:45; (3) over the brute creation, Ps. 104:21, 28; Matt. 6:26; 10:29; (4) over the affairs of nations, Job 12:23; Pss. 22:28; 66:7; Acts 17:26; (5) over man's birth and lot in life, 1 Sam. 16:1; Ps. 139:16; Isa. 45:5; Gal. 1:15-16; (6) over the outward successes and failures of men's lives, Ps. 75:6, 7; Luke 1:52; (7) over things seemingly accidental or insignificant, Prov. 16:33; Matt. 10:30; (8) in the protection of the righteous, Pss. 4:8; 5:12; 63:8; 121:3; Rom. 8:28; (9) in supplying the wants of God's people, Gen. 22:8, 14; Deut. 8:3; Phil. 4:19; (10) in giving answers to prayer, 1 Sam. 1:19; Isa. 20:5, 6; 2 Chron. 33:13; Ps. 65:2; Matt. 7:7; Luke 18:7, 8; and (11) in the exposure and punishment of the wicked, Pss. 7:12-13; 11:6. (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 4th ed.)<br />Clear thinking about God's involvement in the world-process and in the acts of rational creatures requires complementary sets of statements, thus: a person takes action, or an event is triggered by natural causes, or Satan shows his hand - yet God overrules. This is the message of the book of Esther, where God's name nowhere appears. Again: things that are done contravene God's will of command - yet they fulfill his will of events (Eph. 1:11). Again: humans mean what they do for evil - yet God who overrules uses their actions for good (Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23). Again: humans, under God's overruling, sin - yet God is not the author of sin (James 1:13-17); rather, he is its judge.<br />The nature of God's "concurrent" or "confluent" involvement in all that occurs in his world, as - without violating the nature of things, the ongoing causal processes, or human free agency - he makes his will of events come to pass, is mystery to us, but the consistent biblical teaching about God's involvement is as stated above.<br />Of the evils that infect God's world (moral and spiritual perversity, waste of good, and the physical disorders and disruptions of a spoiled cosmos), it can summarily be said: God permits evil (Acts 14:16); he punishes evil with evil (Ps. 81:11-12; Rom. 1:26-32); he brings good out of evil (Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; 13:27; 1 Cor. 2:7-8); he uses evil to test and discipline those he loves (Matt. 4:1-11; Heb. 12:4-14); and one day he will redeem his people from the power and presence of evil altogether (Rev. 21:27; 22:14-15).<br />The doctrine of providence teaches Christians that they are never in the grip of blind forces (fortune, chance, luck, fate); all that happens to them is divinely planned, and each event comes as a new summons to trust, obey, and rejoice, knowing that all is for one's spiritual and eternal good (Rom. 8:28).</span>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-25118873025153405812007-11-23T20:05:00.001-08:002007-11-23T20:05:19.515-08:00Why?- Michael Card<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/3T74qnBqip8' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/3T74qnBqip8'/></object></p></div>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-27124291685762579852007-11-23T13:11:00.001-08:002007-11-23T13:11:53.534-08:00Paul Washer sermon jam 1<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/OY6F0pkArds' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/OY6F0pkArds'/></object></p></div>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-66193444811572378072007-11-21T12:58:00.000-08:002007-11-26T23:07:26.207-08:00Life Verses by Paul Washer<br><object width="400" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/iF24O_pBUT/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/iF24O_pBUT/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-50440676612459079212007-11-20T14:06:00.000-08:002007-11-20T14:27:02.941-08:00Taming the Tongue James Chapter 3:1-12<span style="font-family:arial;">1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.<br /> 3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.<br /> 7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.<br /> 9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.</span>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-8050971843138447312007-11-20T13:10:00.000-08:002007-11-20T13:18:13.462-08:00The Good Shepherd (A farewell sermon) By: George Whitefield<em><span style="font-family:arial;">"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand."-John 10:27-28</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></em><span style="font-family:arial;">It is a common, and I believe, generally speaking, my dear hearers, a true saying, that bad manners beget good laws. Whether this will hold good in every particular, in respect to the affairs of this world, I am persuaded the observation is very pertinent in respect to the things of another: I mean bad manners, bad treatment, bad words, have been overruled by the sovereign grace of God, to produce, and to be the cause of, the best sermons that were ever delivered from the mouth of the God-man, Christ Jesus.<br />One would have imagined, that as he came clothed with divine efficience, as he came with divine credentials, as he speak as never man spake, no one should have been able to have resisted the wisdom with which he spake; one would imagine, they should have been so struck with the demonstration of the Spirit, that with one consent they should all own that he was `that prophet that was to be raised up like unto Moses.' But you seldom find our Lord preaching a sermon, but something or other that he said was cavilled at; nay, their enmity frequently broke through all good manners. They often, therefore, interrupted him whilst he was preaching, which shows the enmity of their hearts long before God permitted it to be in their power to shed his innocent blood. If we look no further than this chapter, where he presents himself as a good shepherd, one that laid down his life for his sheep; we see the best return he had, was to be looked upon as possessed or distracted; for we are told, that there was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, `He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?' If the master of the house was served so, pray what are the servants to expect? Others, a little more sober-minded, said, `These are not the words of him that hath a devil;' the devil never used to preach or act in this way; `Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?' So he had some friends among these rabble. This did not discourage our Lord; he goes on in his work; and we shall never, never go on with the work of God, till, like our Master, we are willing to go through good and through evil report; and let the devil see we are not so complaisant as to stop one moment for his barking at us as we go along.<br />We are told, that our Lord was at Jerusalem at the feast of the dedication, and it was winter; the feast of dedication held, I think, seven or eight days, for the commemoration of the restoration of the temple and altar, after its profanation by Antiochus. Now this was certainly a mere human institution, and had no divine image, had no divine superscription upon it; and yet I do not find that our blessed Lord and Master preached against it; I do not find that he spent his time about this; his heart was too big with superior things; and I believe when we, like him, are filled with the Holy Ghost, we shall not entertain our audiences with disputes about rites and ceremonies, but shall treat upon the essentials of the gospel, and then rites and ceremonies will appear with more indifference. Our Lord does not say, that he would not go up to the feast, for, on the contrary, he did go there, not so much as to keep the feast, as to have an opportunity to spread the gospel-net; and that should be our method, not to follow disputing; and it is the glory of the Methodists, that we have been now forty years, and, I thank God, there has not been one single pamphlet written by any of our preachers, about the non-essentials of religion.<br />Our Lord always made the best of every opportunity; and we are told, `he walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.' One would have thought the scribes and Pharisees would have put him in one of their stalls, and have complimented him with desiring him to preach: no, they let him walk in Solomon's porch. Some think he walked by himself, no body choosing to keep company with him. Methinks I see him walking and looking at the temple, and foreseeing within himself how soon it would be destroyed; he walked pensive, to see the dreadful calamities that would come upon the land, for not knowing the day of its visitation; and it was to let the world see he was not afraid to appear in public: he walked, as much as to say, Have any of you any thing to say to me? and he put himself in their way, that if they had any things to ask him, he was ready to resolve them; and to show them, that though they had treated him so ill, yet he was ready to preach salvation to them.<br />In the 24th verse we are told, `Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us doubt?' They came round about him when they saw him walking in Solomon's porch; now, say they, we will have him, now we will attack him. And now was fulfilled that passage in the Psalms, `they compassed me about like bees,' to sting me, or rather like wasps. Now, say they, we will get him in the middle of us, and see what sort of a man he is; we will see whether we cannot conquer him; they came to him, and they say, `How long dost thou make us to doubt?' Now this seems a plausible question, `How long dost thou make us to doubt?' Pray how long, sir, do you intend to keep us in suspense? Some think the words will bear this interpretation; Pray, sir, how long do you intend thus to steal away our hearts? They would represent him to be a designing man, like Absalom, to get the people on his side, and then set up himself for the Messiah; thus carnal minds always interpret good men's actions. But the meaning seems to be this, they were doubting concerning Christ; doubting Christians may think it is God's fault that they doubt, but, God knows, it is all their own. `How long dost thou make us to doubt?' I wish you would speak a little plainer, sir, and not let us have any more of your parables. Pray let us know who you are, let us have it from your own mouth; `if thou be the Christ, tell us plainly;' and I do not doubt, but they put on a very sanctified face, and looked very demure; `if thou be the Christ, tell us plainly,' intending to catch him: if he do not say he is the Christ, we will say he is ashamed of his own cause; if he tells us plainly that he is the Christ, then we will impeach him to the governor, we will go and tell the governor that this man says he is the Messiah; now we know of no Messiah, but what is to jostle Caesar out of his throne. _ The devil always wants to make it believed that God's people, who are the most loyal people in the world, are rebels to the government under which they live; `If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.' Our Lord does not let them wait long for an answer; honesty can soon speak: `I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.' Had our Lord said, I am the Messiah, they would have taken him up; he knew that, and therefore he joined `the wisdom of the serpent' with `the innocence of the dove;' says he, I appeal to my works and doctrine, and if you will not infer from them that I am the Messiah, I have no further argument. `But,' he adds, `ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.' He complains twice; for their unbelief was the greatest grief of heart to Christ: then he goes on in the words of our text, `My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.' My sheep hear my voice; you think to puzzle me, you think to chagrin me with this kind of conduct, but you are mistaken; you do not believe on me, because you are not of my sheep. The great Mr. Stoddard of New England, (and no place under heaven produces greater divines than New England), preached once from these words, `But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep;' a very strange text to preach upon, to convince a congregation! Yet God so blessed it, that two of three hundred souls were awakened by that sermon: God grant such success to attend the labors of all his faithful ministers.<br />`My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.' It is very remarkable, there are but two sorts of people mentioned in scripture: it does not say that the Baptists and Independents, nor the Methodists and Presbyterians; no, Jesus Christ divides the whole world into but two classes, sheep and goats: the Lord give us to see this morning to which of these classes we belong.<br />But it is observable, believers are always compared to something that is good and profitable, and unbelievers are always described by something that is bad, and good for little or nothing.<br />If you ask me why Christ's people are called sheep, as God shall enable me, I will give you a short, and I hope it will be to you an answer of peace. Sheep, you know, generally love to be together; we say a flock of sheep, we do not say a herd of sheep; sheep are little creatures, and Christ's people may be called sheep, because they are little in the eyes of the world, and they are yet less in their own eyes. O, some people think, if the great men were on our side, if we had king, lords, and commons on our side, I mean if they were all true believers, O if we had all the kings upon the earth on our side! Suppose you had: alas! alas! do you think the church would go on the better? Why, if it were fashionable to be a Methodist at court, if it were fashionable to be a Methodist abroad, they would go with a Bible or a hymn-book, instead of a novel; but religion never thrives under too much sun-shine. `Not many mighty, not many noble, are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.' Dr. Watts says, Here and there I see a king, and here and there a great man, in heaven, but their number is but small.<br />Sheep are looked upon to be the most harmless, quiet creatures that God hath made: O may God, of his infinite mercy, give us to know that we are his sheep, by our having this blessed temper infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. `Learn of me,' saith our blessed Lord; what to do? To work miracles? No; `Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' A very good man, now living, said once, if there be any particular temper I desire more than another, it is the grace of MEEKNESS, quietly to bear bad treatment, to forget and to forgive: and at the same time that I am sensible I am injured, not to be overcome of evil, but to have grace given me to overcome evil with good. To the honor of Moses, it is declared, that he was the meekest man upon earth. Meekness is necessary for people in power; a man that is passionate is dangerous. Every governor should have a warm temper, but a man of an unrelenting, unforgiving temper, is no more fit for government than Phaethon to drive the chariot of the sun; he only sets the world on fire.<br />You all know, that sheep of all creatures in the world are the most apt to stray and be lost; Christ's people may justly, in that respect, be compared to sheep; therefore, in the introduction to our morning service, we say, `We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep.' Turn out a horse, or a dog, and they will find their way home, but a sheep wanders about; he bleats here and there, as much as to day, Dear stranger, show me my way home again; thus Christ's sheep are too apt to wander from the fold; having their eye off the great Shepherd, they go into this field and that field, over this hedge and that, and often return home with the loss of their wool.<br />But at the same time sheep are the most useful creatures in the world; they manure the land, and thereby prepare it for the seed; they clothe our bodies with wool, and there is not the least part of a sheep but is useful to man: O my brethren, God grant that you and I may, in this respect, answer the character of sheep. The world says, because we preach faith we deny good works; this is the usual objection against the doctrine of imputed righteousness, but it is a slander, an impudent slander. It was a maxim in the first reformers' time, that though the ARMINIANS preached up good works, you must go to the CALVINISTS FOR THEM. Christ's sheep study to be useful, and to clothe all they can; we should labor with our hands, that we may have to give to all those that need.<br />Believers consider Christ's property in them; he says, `my sheep:' O blessed be God for that little, dear, great word MY. We are his eternal election: "the sheep which thou hast given me," says Christ. They were given by God the Father to Christ Jesus, in the covenant made between the Father and the Son from all eternity. They that are not led to see this, I wish them better heads; though, I believe, numbers that are against it have got better hearts: the Lord help us to bear with one another where there is an honest heart.<br />He calls them `My sheep;' they are his by purchase. O sinner, sinner, you are come this morning to hear a poor creature take `his last farewell:' but I want you to forget the creature that is preaching, I want to lead you further than the Tabernacle: Where do you want to lead us? Why, to mount Calvary, there to see at what an expense of blood Christ purchased those whom he calls his own; he redeemed them with his own blood, so that they are not only his by eternal election, but also by actual redemption in time; and they were given to him by the Father, upon condition that he should redeem them by his heart's blood. It was a hard bargain, but Christ was willing to strike the bargain, that you and I might not be damned for ever.<br />They are his, because they are enabled in a day of God's power voluntarily to give themselves up unto him; Christ says of these sheep, especially, `that they hear his voice, and that they follow him.' Will you be so good as to mind that! Here is an allusion to a shepherd; now in some places in scripture, the shepherd is represented as going after his sheep; 2 Sam 7:8, Ps 78:71. That is our way in England; but in the Eastern nations, the shepherds generally went before; they held up their crook, and they had a particular call that the sheep understood. Now, says Christ, `My sheep hear my voice.' `This is my beloved Son,' saith God, `hear ye him.' And again, `The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and live:' now the question is, what do we understand by hearing Christ's voice?<br />First, we hare Moses' voice, we hear the voice of the law; there is no going to Mount Zion but by the way of mount Sinai; that is the right straight road. I know some say, they do not know when they were converted; those are, I believe, very few: generally, nay, I may say almost always, God deals otherwise. Some are, indeed, called sooner by the Lord than others, but before they are made to see the glory of God, they must hear the voice of the law; so you must hear the voice of the law before ever you will be savingly called unto God. You never throw off your cloak in a storm, but you hug it the closer; so the law makes a man hug close his corruptions, (Rom 7:7, 8, 9) but when the gospel of the Son of God shines into your souls, then they throw off the corruptions which they have hugged so closely; they hear his voice saying, Son, daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee. `They hear his voice;' that bespeaks the habitual temper of their minds: the wicked hear the voice of the devil, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life; and Christ's sheep themselves attended to it before conversion; but when called afterwards by God, they hear the voice of a Redeemer's blood speaking peace unto them, they hear the voice of his word and of his Spirit.<br />The consequence of hearing his voice, and the proof that we do hear his voice, will be _ to follow him. Jesus said unto his disciples, `If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.' And it is said of the saints in glory, that `they followed the Lamb whithersoever he went.' Wherever the shepherd turns his crook, and the sheep hear his voice, they follow him; they often tread upon one another, and hurt one another, they are in such haste in their way to heaven. Following Christ means following him through life, following him in every word and gesture, following him out of one clime into another. `Bid me come to thee upon the water,' said Peter: and if we are commanded to go over the water for Christ, God, of his infinite mercy, follow us! We must first be sure that the great Shepherd points his crook for us: but this is the character of a true servant of Christ, that he endeavors to follow Christ in thought, word, and work.<br />Now, my brethren, before we go further, as this is the last opportunity I shall have of speaking to you for some months, if we live; some of you, I suppose, do not choose, in general, to rise so soon as you have this morning; now I hope the world did not get into your hearts before you left your beds; now you are here, do let me entreat you to inquire whether you belong to Christ's sheep, or no. Man, woman, sinner, put thy hand to thy heart, and answer me. Didst thou ever hear Christ's voice so as to follow him, to give up thyself without reserve to him? I verily do believe from my inmost soul, (and that is my comfort, now I am about to take my leave of you,) that I am preaching to a vast body, a multitude of dear, precious souls, who, if it were proper for you to speak, would say, Thanks be unto God, that we can follow Jesus in the character of sheep, though we are ashamed to think how often we wander from him, and what little fruit we bring unto him; if that is the language of your hearts, I wish you joy; welcome, welcome, dear soul, to Christ. O blessed be God for his rich grace, his distinguishing, sovereign, electing love, by which he as distinguished you and me. And if he has been pleased to let you hear his voice, though the ministration of a poor miserable sinner, a poor, but happy pilgrim, may the Lord Jesus Christ have all the glory.<br />If you belong to Jesus Christ, he is speaking of you; for, says he, `I know my sheep.' `I know them;' what does that mean? Why, he knows their number, he knows their names, he knows every one for whom he died; and if there were to be one missing for whom Christ died, God the Father would send him down again from heaven to fetch him. `Of all,' saith he, `that thou hast given me, have I lost none.' Christ knows his sheep; he not only knows their number, but the words speak the peculiar knowledge and notice he takes of them; he takes as much care of each of them, as if there were but that one single sheep in the world. To the hypocrite he saith, `Verily, I know you not;' but he knows his saints, he is acquainted with all their sorrows, their trials, and temptations. He bottles up all their tears, he knows their domestic trials, he knows their inward corruptions, he knows all their wanderings, and he takes care to fetch them back again. I remember, I heard good Dr. Marryat, who was a good market-language preacher, once say at Pinner's hall, (I hope that pulpit will be always filled with such preachers), `God has got a great dog to fetch his sheep back,' says he. Do not you know, that when the sheep wander, the shepherd sends his dog after them, to fetch them back again? So when Christ's sheep wander, he lets the devil go after them, and suffers him to bark at them, who, instead of driving them farther off, is made a means to bring them back again to Christ's fold.<br />There is a precious word I would have you take notice of, `I know them,' that may comfort you under all your trials. We sometimes think that Christ does not hear our prayers, that he does not know us; we are ready to suspect that he has forgotten to be gracious; but what a mercy it is that he does know us. We accuse one another, we turn devils to one another, are accusers of the brethren; and what will support two of God's people when judged by one another but this, Lord, thou knowest my integrity, thou knowest how matters are with me?<br />But, my brethren, here is something better, here is good news for you; what is that? Say you: why, `I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.' O that the words may come to your hearts with as much warmth and power as they did to mine thirty-five years ago. I never prayed against any corruption I had in my life, so much as I did against going into holy orders so soon as my friends were for having me go: and bishop Benson was pleased to honor me with peculiar friendship, so as to offer me preferment, or do any thing for me. My friends wanted me to mount the church betimes, they wanted me to knock my head against the pulpit too young; but how some young men stand up here and there and preach, I do not know how it may be to them; but God knows how deep a concern entering into the ministry and preaching, was to me; I have prayed a thousand times, till the sweat has dropped from my face like rain, that God, of his infinite mercy, would not let me enter the church before he called me to, and thrust me forth in, his work. I remember once in Gloucester (I know the room, I look up at the window when I am there and walk along the street; I know the window, the bedside, and the floor, upon which I have lain prostrate) I said, Lord, I cannot go, I shall be puffed up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil; Lord, do not let me go yet; I pleaded to be at Oxford two or three years more; I intended to make an hundred and fifty sermons, and thought I would set up with a good stock in trade but I remember praying, wrestling, and striving with God; I said, I am undone, I am unfit to preach in thy great name, send me not, pray, Lord, send me not yet. I wrote to all my friends in town and country, to pray against the bishop's solicitations, but they insisted I should go into orders before I was twenty-two. After all the solicitations, these words came into my mind, `My sheep hear my voice, and none shall pluck them out of my hand.' O may the words be blessed to you, my dear friends, that I am parting with, as they were to me when they came warm upon my heart; then, and not till then, I said, Lord, I will go, send me when thou wilt. I remember when I was in a place called Dover-Island, near Georgia, we put in with bad winds; I had an hundred and fifty in family to maintain, and not a single farthing to do it with, in the dearest part of the king's dominions; I remember, I told a minister of Christ, now in heaven, `I had these words once, sir, "Nothing shall pluck you out of my hand." `O', says he, `take comfort from them, you may be sure God will be as good as his word, if he never tells you so again.' And our Lord knew his poor sheep would be always doubting they should never reach heaven, therefore says he, `I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish.'<br />Here are in our text three blessed declarations, or promises:<br />First. I KNOW THEM.<br />Second. THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH; though they often think they shall perish by the hand of their lusts and corruptions; they think they shall perish by the deceitfulness of their hearts; but Christ says, `They shall never perish.' I have brought them out of the world to myself, and do you think I will let them go to hell after that? `I give to them eternal life;' pray mind that; not, I will, but I do. Some talk of being justified at the day of judgment; that is nonsense; if we are not justified here, we shall not be justified there. He gives them eternal life, that is, the earnest, the pledge, and assurance of it. The indwelling of the Spirit of God here, is the earnest of glory hereafter.<br />Third. NEITHER SHALL ANY PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HAND. He holds them in his hand, that is, he holds them by his power; none shall pluck them thence. There is always something plucking at Christ's sheep; the devil, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, all try to pluck them out of Christ's hand. O my brethren, they need not pluck us, yet we help all three to pluck ourselves out of the hand of Jesus; but `none shall pluck them out of my hand,' says Christ. `I give to them eternal life. I am going to heaven to prepare a place for them, and there they shall be.' O my brethren, if it were not for keeping you too long, and too much exhausting my own spirits, I could call upon you to leap for you; there is not a more blessed text to support the final perseverance of the saints; and I am astonished any poor souls, and good people I hope too, can fight against the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints: What if a person say they should persevere in wickedness? Ah! That is an abuse of the doctrine; what, because some people spoil good food, are we never to eat it? But, my brethren, upon this text I can leave my cares, and all my friends, and all Christ's sheep, to the protection of Christ Jesus' never- failing love.<br />I thought this morning, when I came here, riding from the other end of the town, it was to me like coming to be executed publicly; and when the carriage turned just at the end of the walk, and I saw you running here, O, thinks I, it is like a person now coming just to the place where he is to be executed. When I went up to put on my gown, I thought it was just like dressing myself to be made a public spectacle to shed my blood for Christ. I take all heaven and earth to witness, and God and the holy angels to witness, that though I had preferment enough offered me, that though the bishop took me in his arms, and offered me two parishes before I was two- and-twenty, and always took me to his table; though I had preferment enough offered me when I was ordained, thou, O God, knowest, that when the bishop put his hand upon my head, I looked for no other preferment than publicly to suffer for the Lamb of God: in this spirit I came out, in this spirit I came up to this metropolis. I was thinking, when I read of Jacob's going over the brook with a staff, that I could not say I had so much as a staff, but I came up without a friend, I went to Oxford without a friend, I had not a servant, I had not a single person to introduce me; but God, by his Holy Spirit, was pleased to raise me up to preach for his great name's sake: through his divine Spirit I continue to this day, and feel my affections are as string as ever towards the work and the people of the living God. The congregations at both ends of the town are dear to me: God has honored me to build this and the other place; and, blessed be his name, when he called me to Georgia at first, and I left all London affairs to God's care, when I had most of the churches in London open to me, and had twelve or fourteen constables to keep the doors, that people might not crowd too much; I had offers of hundreds then to settle in London, yet I gave it all up to turn pilgrim for God, to go into a foreign clime; and I hope with that same single intention I am going now _<br />Now I must come to the hardest part I have to act; I was afraid when I came out from home, that I could not bear the shock, but I hope the Lord Jesus Christ will help me to bear it, and help you to give me up to the blessed God, let him do with me what he will. This is the thirteenth time of my crossing the mighty waters; it is a little difficult at this time of life; and though my spirits are improved in some degree, yet weakness is the best of my strength: but I am clear as light in my call and God fills me with a peace that is unutterable, which a stranger intermeddles not with: into his hands I commend my spirit; and I beg that this may be the language of your hearts: Lord, keep him, let nothing pluck him out of thy hands. I expect many a trial while I am on board, Satan always meets me there; but that God who has kept me, I believe will keep me. I thank God, I have the honor of leaving every thing quite well and easy at both ends of the town; and, my dear hearers, my prayers to God shall be, that nothing may pluck you out of Christ's hands. Witness against me, if I ever set up a party for myself. Did ever any minister, or could any minister in the world say, that I ever spoke against any one going to any dear minister? I thank God, that he has enabled me to be always strengthening the hands of all, though some have afterwards been ashamed to own me. I declare to you, that I believe God will be with me, and will strengthen me; and I believe it is in answer to your prayers that God is pleased to revive my spirits: may the Lord help you to pray on. If I am drowned in the waves, I will say, while I am drowning, Lord, take care of my London, take care of my English friends, let nothing pluck them out of thy hands.<br />And as Christ has given us eternal life, O my brethren, some of you, I doubt not, will be gone to him before my return; but, my dear brethren, my dear hearers, never mind that; we shall part, but it will be to meet again for ever. I dare not meet you now, I cannot bear your coming to me, to part from me; it cuts me to the heart, and quite overcomes me, but by and by all parting will be over, and all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. God grant that none that weep now at my parting, may weep at our meeting at the day of judgment; and if you never were among Christ's sheep before, may Christ Jesus bring you now. O come, come, see what it is to have eternal life; do not refuse it; haste, sinner, haste away: may the great, the good Shepherd, draw your souls. Oh! If you never heard his voice before, God grant you may hear it now; that I may have this comfort when I am gone, that I had the last time of my leaving you, that some souls are awakened at the parting sermon. O that it may be a farewell sermon to you; that it may be a means of your taking a farewell of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. O come! Come! Come! To the Lord Jesus Christ; to him I leave you.<br />And you, dear sheep, that are already in his hands, O may God keep you from wandering; God keep you near Christ's feet; I do not care what shepherds keep you, so as you are kept near the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. The Lord God keep you, lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen. </span>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-10425315150172141602007-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:002007-11-19T17:04:24.488-08:00"If Jesus Christ is Not Risen, Our Faith is in Vain."</br><center><object width="575" height="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V1355Ui_WmA&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V1355Ui_WmA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="575" height="500"></embed></object></center></br></br></br><br />Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and in which you stand; By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of over five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one untimely born. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins. Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. <em>But now is Christ risen from the dead,</em> and become the firstfruits of them that slept.<br /><br />(1Co 15:1-20)</br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6387937418400136730.post-19386487819701510012007-11-19T15:04:00.000-08:002007-11-19T15:09:04.317-08:00Reading the Scriptures<em><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>The following a letter from James W. Alexander to his younger brother in a series called "My Brother's Keeper".</strong></span></em><br /><strong><em><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></em></strong><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">My dear brother,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">You gave me much gratification when you informed me that you were attentive to the reading of the Scriptures. And I rejoice to find you inquiring how you may continue to read them with greater profit. I shall answer your questions, and shall also, from time to time, write you some directions on other things; such as your learning, your manners, and your amusements. I take your questions as you ask them.<br />1. Ought I to read the Bible in regular order?<br />I think you ought. Not that this should be the only way of reading—but every day you should be going forward. Suppose you were roaming through a beautiful estate, and that your object was to learn all about it. You might pursue two methods. First, you might set out at one of the gates, and follow the first path, then strike off into a grove, and walk a few steps; then branch into a garden; then return to see the fishpond or the statue. You might spend a day or two in this employment, and at the end of it you would have seen a great many beautiful things. But while you had looked at some of these four or five times over, there would be a great number of spots which you had not seen at all. Instead of looking ten times at the observatory, you might have looked at ten different scenes. What was the matter? I will tell you; you did not view it in regular order. You had no plan. So you might spend years in reading the Scriptures; and at the end of them, you would have learned many whole chapters or even books of the Bible; yet there might be some very useful parts which you would know nothing about. Why? Because you did not read in regular order.<br />Secondly—You might get an exact plan of the grounds, like a little map, on a piece of paper; then you might divide it off into portions, and say, "I can do so much today, and so much tomorrow, etc." Then you might go over every step of the fine park and gardens, look at every bridge, and examine every curiosity. You would have surveyed every single beauty. But what makes the difference between these methods? You viewed it this second time in regular order. Thus, too, you ought to read the Scriptures. And if you lay down a plan, and take care to observe it, and keep it up for a few years, you will know something about the whole Bible. Why? Because you read it in regular order.<br />2. Ought I to commit verses to memory?<br />Most certainly you ought; at least half a dozen every day. The more you learn by rote, the more you will be able to learn. If you get six verses every morning, for one year, you will have learned more than two thousand verses, or more than sixty chapters. But this is not all. At the end of the year, it will be as easy for you to commit twenty verses to memory, as it is now for you to commit half a dozen. The best plan I know of is to learn your verses partially just before you prepare to go to bed. Think of them as you are falling asleep, repeat them as you wake the next morning; and after your morning devotions, learn them perfectly. This you will find, was the advice of the ancients, and if you lay to heart what you learn, it will be the greatest treasure. Nobody can rob you of it. You may he shipwrecked, or robbed, or imprisoned—but no one can take this out of your memory.<br />3. Ought I to read the Bible for amusement?<br />Not exactly. If you mean reading it with a thoughtless, careless mind, certainly not. But if you mean, reading its beautiful narratives, and its lively descriptions, because you admire them, and because it refreshes and delights you, certainly it is right for you to read it thus. I have just been reading again the story of Joseph, in the book of Genesis, and I find it more charming than anything I ever saw in any history or romance. Now there is no harm in your going to the Bible for pleasure, rather than to any other book. It is remarkable that more people do not find out how much interesting history the Scriptures contain. Just think of the life of David. It is far more striking than that of Peter the Great, or Baron Trenck. Yet scarcely any one opens the Bible to find rational entertainment.<br />So I have answered your questions—and now I shall add a few remarks of my own. There are two books in the Bible which are exceedingly interesting and useful. One was written in poetry; the other in prose. The greater part of one was composed by a great king; the greater part of the other by his son, another great king. One was by a warrior, a musician, and a poet; the other was by the wisest monarch who ever lived. In these two books you will find directions for your devotions and your conduct. The Psalms are noble pieces of prayer, thanksgiving, and praise. The Proverbs are short sayings, every one of which is full of meaning, and rich with wisdom.<br />When you are older, I would recommend to you to read each of these books through once a month. The book of Psalms is already divided into portions, for every morning and evening, in the book I gave you. And the book of Proverbs has just as many chapters as there are days in the long months, one for every day. Scarcely any day will pass in which you will not find an opportunity to govern your speech or your behavior by some one of these short maxims. And as the Lord Jesus Christ is the great subject of many psalms, you will learn from the New Testament how to find him everywhere in your daily reading.<br />Farewell, my dear boy. Attend to your studies and your health, and, above all, offer up your heart to God.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Your affectionate brother,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">James</span>lutheranmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223741570681788678noreply@blogger.com0