False Christian teachings, trends….
How is a person saved? Is it through just hearing the gospel or is it through faith? The debate is a theological divide in the Christian church. …Dr. Lloyd-Jones says that there are two types of hearing: hearing that falls on the ears and hearing that moves a person to believe. Quoting the words of Isaiah, he reveals that this has always been the case.
In my correspondence yesterday, the topic of original sin came up. I thought I would post on this topic because there are so many unbiblical preachers in the 21st century church that many newer Christians may not know about this doctrine. Students of the Bible come to understand it, especially if they attend a church whose standards are the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Baptist Confession of 1689….
“Faith does not only mean a belief, it doesn’t only mean an intellectual assent. It does mean that, but it means more than that. There are these three essential elements in faith: believing, being persuaded, and acting. In other words, the mind is involved, the heart is involved, and the will is involved.” ―Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Temptation is a constant trap that the devil puts in the path of Christians. Satan is constantly prowling around as he tries to convince Christians into crediting their salvation to the binding of rules and regulations. He twists and distorts the truth of the gospel by making the Christian think that they are still under the power and dominion of sin. …He points out in Scripture how the breastplate of righteousness is a reminder that the old self has been crucified with Christ, resulting in liberation from the laws and regulations they were bound to before.
In the Christian life, one must fight a daily battle against the accusations of the devil. How then do they fight against these accusations and respond by living in the truth of the Bible? When Satan tries to distract and condemn them with their imperfections, failures, and unworthiness, how do they respond in a way that keeps their focus on God and not themselves? In this sermon on Ephesians 6.14 titled “Putting on the Breastplate,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains how the breastplate of righteousness protects the Christian from these accusations by reminding them of who they are in Christ Jesus. [This is MLJ’s last sermon on verse 14 in this 67-part series. It is different from others on this verse. I pasted in all the scriptures mentioned in the points by MLJTrust]
MLJ explained what it means to put on the truth of scripture. In the process, he clarified in a variety of ways what that truth is and how many in the church have erred via Liberalism and other ideas of men. A video reading of 1 Corinthians 15 and the complete text was added to this post because those ideas were an important part of his sermon.
In the sermon of this post, MLJ went more deeply into concepts about God’s truth. He briefly discussed death and war in the process of emphasizing our need to surrender fully to scripture and the Holy Spirit. His points were very relevant in terms of current events of our day surrounding the EU’s support of Ukraine after Trump refused to embolden Zelensky, who was not ready for peace…. Also, I added a point from MLJ’s words that was not covered by MLJTrust, but that is very relevant to the false NAR movement of our day.
MLJ herein carefully explains how it is that those Christians who focus on feelings, experiences, fresh revelation… cannot put on the belt of truth because the truth that the apostle Paul referred to is something all together different. It is based upon objective truth statements. He explained such that all readers might understand. I was fascinated by how he explained the error of relying on experiences, the mystical type of experience one might feel via an encounter with God, for example; that such people will inevitably come to a place wherein they say such things as, “well that is your truth, but mine differs….” Such erroneous statements are commonly made in our 21st century culture. This is a pretty deep sermon; part of his process of teaching Christians about the belt of truth as described in the scriptures.
Spurgeon’s morning thoughts indicate how it is that the Lord works in a believer concerning salvation and sanctification; evening thoughts focus on sin and explain that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable us to see it and realize that we are lepers, covered in sin without Christ. [His words are very different from my description.]
In this sermon, MLJ carefully explained that the Bible is revealed by God and is the foundation of the Christian life. He has been using scripture to explain what it means to put on the belt of truth; the bulk of his explanation has thus far been about defining the quality of the ‘truth’ the apostle Paul referenced.