False Christian teachings, trends….
This post contains a 8-minute video about the movie, Sound of Freedom. The movie covers the real-life mission of a former Federal Agent who quit his job and started a non-profit to rescue children from human traffickers. Former agent, Tim Ballard, is interviewed and there are brief clips of the movie.
“There are no backdoors in the spiritual life. You never turn your back to the enemy. Stand.” ―Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. …First of all, he says that Christians must not feel disappointed or unhappy because this causes a conflict. Christians should never feel sorry for themselves. The moment they do, they’ve already lost the battle. …realize the privilege of being in this great battle. Consider the captain and leader — Jesus Christ Himself. [MLJ said in his sermon, that we are fighting God’s battle… when we turn away, hell rejoices. An example is unfolding in our society presently: if you were part of ICE, then you would not be fighting your own battle to deport violent illegals, you are fighting for the President and our country. There are a lot of agents fighting the same fight with you…. There are parallels to the Christian life therein, the invisible church, all your born-againg brothers and sisters are in the same fray.]
Christians can feel as though the Lord has withdrawn His smile from them and are concerned that their current or difficult state may mean that they are not truly a Christian. …This ought to be a great comfort in hardship. Adversity encourages the Christian not to rely on their good works, but to be encouraged that they are being matured and prepared for future glory with Christ. They should not question their justification when they experience trials and suffering. Instead they should remember that when they confess their sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse His people from all unrighteousness. [I added more detailed points for the initial 19 minutes of the sermon and a brief video about how God purifies the saint via tribulation.]
The following are a few points from the MLJ sermon of this post: Christians are meant to have assurance of salvation and know the joy of their salvation. The devil tries to rob Christians of the joy of their salvation through his wiles and subtle attacks. The devil first tries to give Christians a false assurance and peace through a hurried and forced conversion without a true change of heart. This results in an artificial and superficial faith. Characteristics of a false assurance include:
No radical change or new life, just a modification of the old life.
In this sermon on Ephesians 6.10–13 titled “Physical, Psychological, Spiritual,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that the Bible teaches that people are body, mind, and soul. They are more than the matter that they are made of, but the human body also affects its spirit. There is a great danger to turn all sin issues into problems of psychology. They say that a person’s problems are never a result of their sin but are a result of their circumstances. The Bible tells something different. [MLJ says much to help a Christian better assess the difficulties that he/she is encountering in terms of where they are coming from; and he also recommends and illustrates a biblical solution.]
The sermon of this post is part 4 of Pastor Hines 5-part series on Satan’s Devices. In it, he read Psalm 73 and presented 3 devices of Satan and remedies for those. Remedies seem to amount to biblical perspectives that enable one to avoid Satan’s snares.
The music video of this post is a great portrayal of the spiritual struggle that the apostle Paul describes in Romans 7. The artist, Ren, portrays the internal spiritual warfare; he even portrays the voice of the Tempter about half way through the video. A couple of reviews of the song are linked. [12-28-24 I edited this post: added a video that edits out the foul language and provides a critique by a pastor; added my own comments at the end.]
This post contains a video short wherein John MacArthur talks about the restraints the God has given us to restrain evil in society, to restrain the sinner. In MLJ’s sermon, he explained how the Devil works to use people to oppose God. He explained how God permits rulers and nations to rise in power but then ultimately shows them there is only one God, Him; and that they are very little in comparison to Him…. MLJTrust added sermon description and breakdown; I added some points from the sermon that I though emphasized the past decade, regarding the chaos and evil on the world stage.
In times of battle and great war, military leaders will do all that is necessary in order to obtain information about their enemy’s strategy. Likewise, in the spiritual warfare of the Christian, they have to know how the enemy will attack. Thankfully, they have been told in God’s word who the enemy is and how he operates. Therefore, there is great encouragement in considering the works of the devil. In this sermon on spiritual warfare from Ephesians 6:10–13 titled “The Wiles of the Devil,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones uses this Scripture to aid the Christian in their understanding of the fiery darts that come from his hand and his evil army. While Satan is not omnipresent and is always subservient to God, he nevertheless has much power. His attacks on the world and Christian people specifically are strategic….
Is it not madness to spend an entire message devoted to describing the devil? After all, is not Satan merely folklore and myth? Many sophisticated people today would conclude that focus on the spiritual realm at all is a sheer waste of time but Christians cannot shy away from what Scripture teaches. They acknowledge that their authority on spiritual matters is not themselves but the word of God. As Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds, to talk about these things is the most practical thing a Christian can do because they are looking at the real cause of the present state of the world. The Christian has been given the ability to see the true nature of the conflict. …By examining the Scriptures on the topic, Dr. Lloyd-Jones equips Christians to understand the devil’s purpose and his kingdom of darkness.