False Christian teachings, trends….
I just discovered Dr. Mayfield’s church site on YouTube today and was exploring it when I found this 4-minute video on sin. He apparently closed a sermon with this message. I am posting it because I rarely hear pastors talk about sin as he does in the video. He described what the born-again Christian experience is like.
A question was asked Pastor John from Judges 19 and it was phrased in terms of the title above.
In the following 13-minute video, Pastor John provided three reasons for the violence in the Bible. [The following points are summarized highlights from the video; Piper’s words are used in part.] There two phrases in the book of Judges that provide a glimpse into the answer to this question, they are 1) in those days, there was no king in Israel; and 2) In those days, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. His big point under this heading was that the river of evil flowing from the human heart runs wild without the dam of civil authority to keep it from spilling over onto the entire earth….
The 94-second video in this post uses scripture to explain how it is that Christians are still sinners.
This post contains an excerpt of chapter 1 of Kris Lundgaard’s book, The Enemy Within. He greatly simplified concepts on mortification of sin, such as found in the works of John Owen. There is also a book highlight from P&R Books. If you are struggling with sin, then you will likely gain much from this post and the book, which I highly recommend.
This post has a video-excerpt of Dr. Carl Trueman speaking on the mortification of sin. The excerpt is the final minutes of part 2 of a 5-part series Trueman was teaching on mortification of sin via the work of John Owen. This excerpt is intended to introduce readers to Dr. Trueman and mortification of sin; and it also emphasized something about the Christian battle against sin that is not generally known in the contemporary church, it is a life-long battle that must be fought.
When I did the recent miniseries, I forgot that the most powerful commentary I found on 1 Corinthians 6:9-20, was on verse 18, and not by MacArthur, but by Albert Barnes. Before pasting in Barnes’ comments, I provided the definition of the Greek word, ‘porneia’ which was translated ‘fornication’ by the KJV – look at the featured image to quickly get that definition.
This post contains two 1-minute videos by different pastors on sin; these are very informative and excellent for meditation. The thoughts in each video should aid one in self-observation and in obtaining a biblical perspective on sin. Contemporary Christianity falls miserably short regarding any aspect of dealing with personal sin.
The following words are from the vlogger who made the video in this post: “Significant video editing was used to create a unique storyline that teaches about pastors who do and don’t teach about hell. With appearances by Joel Osteen, Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Carlton Pearson, Paul Washer, John MacArthur, and Voddie Baucham.” [The chief distinction between these two groups of pastors is that one group preaches biblical doctrine because they possess faith; the other preaches their opinions about Bible doctrine based on reason, sometimes. Which group is your pastor most like?]
Twenty-first century evangelicalism has gone as far as to say that the concept of ‘sin’ is irrelevant in this modern age. That is an extreme position, of course; but it seems that most of evangelicalism is far from biblical quality. Biblical preachers and teachers of the faith, speak about the value of knowing God as He has revealed Himself in scripture and of knowing self as God has revealed mankind in the Bible. To have more than a theoretical understanding of oneself, one must have insight into his sin. For example, Jesus’s words in the beatitudes indicate that one must first of all know poverty of spirit after he is born again: poverty of spirit means that one must see that he is spiritually bankrupt and has to depend wholly upon Christ for the righteousness required to enter into heaven. Writings such as by Watkinson in this post, inform about sin and provide useful insights for necessary self-discovery. [See category, Jonathan Edwards, 3 posts about glimpses into his personal spiritual walk, for much more relevant information about self-awareness, observation, etc.]
Charles Leiter preached the message in this post, he was introduced by pastor Paul Washer. I think they met in Peru where Washer still heads Heart Cry missionary organization. Leiter briefly defined and explained God’s wrath. His illustrations were very biblical, relevant and memorable. The 21st century church takes a very unbiblical position regarding sin. This short message will reorient those who wish to be on the right path, that described in the Bible.