False Christian teachings, trends….
In Proverbs 5:5 and 6, Solomon talked about how the harlot leads one from the path of life – she has no concern for it, and will lead you from it by her wiles; and in Proverbs 7, he made a statement that she will lead a man down the path to death like an ox is led to the slaughter – he doesn’t know he is going to his death…. Some excerpts from commentaries are used to give significance and clarification to these verses and a couple from Hosea
Many people deny the existence of the afterlife, especially the existence of hell. In this series, Dr. Gerstner reminds us of the biblical truth: hell and heaven are real, and how we live today has eternal consequences. Drawing from the writing and preaching of Jonathan Edwards, he considers the terrors of hell, the treasures of heaven, and the reality that all of us will one day come face to face with God.
This post conveys what the Bible says about the fall of mankind, sin and punishment. The six points from this portion of the Westminster Confession of Faith are the basis of a video featuring professor John Gerstner; also, the six points are in narrative from a modern version of the WCF. I plan on posting a wonderful sermon by C H Spurgeon on sin, later this week. The initial 10 minutes or so of his sermon were about sin, as defined in the Bible; then he went into how sin is often wrongly dealt with in real life by Christian professors. He also emphasized that one must learn to face sin, confess it…. His sermon was one of the best I have heard on the topic and this should prepare readers, who want to deal with sin, to receive what Spurgeon preaches.
The 9-minute video of this post, is about president Biden’s signing into law the ‘respect of marriage act.’ Vlogger, John Henry shows three different clips of Biden as his views ‘evolved’ from opposition to promotion of gay marriage. In the process, he shows how pastors abandoning the preaching of God’s word have helped create this cultural environment. As he discusses the above, John Henry explains how Romans 1 describes the events we are living through as the outpouring of God’s wrath upon society.
There are two brief videos in this post; they are excerpts from Puritan Thomas Watson’s book, Heaven Taken by Storm. The first, 3 ½ minutes, is about sin and how to fight it; the second, 4 ½ minutes, is about the word and its benefits. There is a link to the 27-minute video from which I took these excerpts. Watson’s scriptural text is Matthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Dr. MacArthur’s sermon emphasized the necessity of the born-again believer speaking God’s truth in our society. He explained the major problems of this society, and how these are the result of God’s judgment of abandonment. He briefly traced the social history of that judgment using Romans 1, and went to 2 Corinthians 10 and talked about ideological strongholds, how God’s truth is the only way those fall… that we must be focused on breaking these down by speaking God’s truth. He also explained how false teachers interfere with truth being spoken; and how politicians are increasing judgment by codifying wickedness, and more.
Dr. MacArthur opened his sermon by mentioning a few questions from a survey on evangelicalism; participant responses, by percentage, were given. That modern evangelicalism suffers from biblical illiteracy was apparent. He put that on church leaders for their teaching that falls short of scripture, and is largely devoid of truth. He talked about how hard it is to witness the biblical gospel because it must begin with ‘the most hated doctrine’ of scripture, that man is a depraved sinner. He used scripture to show what happened to Jesus, and then to the disciples for teaching that biblical gospel. [If you’re a new Christian, or have been under unbiblical teaching for some time, then this sermon will help you understand the biblical perspective of the gospel and witnessing it].
A dear friend of mine gave me one of the following booklets which I just began reading: Killing Sin Habits, by Stuart Scott. I found a review on that book and another booklet today, and I wanted to blog it because posts related to sin and temptation are frequently read from this blog. In the following review, Pastor Dave provided an overview and critique that may move some readers to examine these booklets for help. [Also in this post is a link to Pastor Dave’s site where 23 other articles are linked, the titles of each are listed herein]
In the R C Sproul sermon of this post, he carefully explains how God gives salvation to a believer. In the process he discusses faith, justification and imputation, all bed-rock doctrines upon which the Christian’s spiritual life is built. He also clearly shows where Protestantism and Roman Catholicism differ, and where the latter veers into unbiblical byways. He uses scripture to make his points. [Sermon highlight points and some passages of scripture are provided]
In the 3-minute video of this post, John MacArthur talks about the origins and impact of the self-esteem cult on America. [I worked in the field of psychology for over 20 years before I was born again, and I have to say that after having become familiar with the contents of the Bible, his words are biblical and worthy of considering. One major reason a Christian’s worldview be as MacArthur described, is that Christ called us to deny self, not exalt self.]