False Christian teachings, trends….
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.
The preacher begins by addressing the context of the epistle to the Hebrews, written to Jewish Christians who were becoming discouraged in their faith. He emphasizes the importance of prayer in the Christian life and highlights the difficulties that can arise when attempting to pray. …In conclusion, Dr. Lloyd-Jones exhorts his listeners to rely solely on Jesus Christ and His finished work for access to God in prayer, rather than on human efforts, rituals, or earthly intermediaries. [In the last third of the message, he compared the RCC to the old way that the Hebrews were also struggling with. His comparison helped me see another problem with such rituals and sensual stimuli: although MLJ likely preached this sermon in the 1950-60’s, protestants are still going back to Rome in our day; MLJ’s words might help such people see their error more clearly.]
Sinclair Ferguson’s brief video is about attending to your Christmas celebration to see whether or not Christ is in it; and if you find that He is not, how you might put Him back in it.
This post contains a message by R C Sproul about the covenant God made with Adam and Eve, from his series, Promise Keeper. I already used some of Sproul’s material to show how the Abrahamic covenant was foundational to the incarnation; but I want to emphasize that more by considering the creation covenant God made with Adam and Eve and also the Mosaic covenant. The overall goal of this series is to show that the biblical account of God’s plan of redemption is addressed to His one people; furthermore, that since Genesis 3, there has only been one way of salvation, by grace via the atoning work and imputed righteousness of Christ. That is, the idea that Israel could earn salvation by any other way is biblically wrong; the idea that Israel and the church are two people of God is biblically wrong.
If you’re not familiar with Side “B” ministries let me sum them up in a nutshell. Side “B” ministries are deceptive parachurch organizations that purport to help the church minister more effectively to those who identify as LBGTQ+ and provide guidance for Christian families who have kids identifying as such. They claim to do this without ever compromising Christian orthodoxy, but this notion is untenable because these ministries promote the idea that same-sex attraction is not a morally culpable sin. Therefore it is perfectly acceptable to be a Gay-Christian as long as you stay celibate, ostensibly. …Any shepherd of the flock ought to be ready to use the rod and chase off these wolves in sheep’s clothing so that the sheep might be protected and brought to better pastures, where God’s Word is faithfully preached and the sheep faithfully discipled.
Mike Gendron’s message for this month addresses the following topics: The Condescension and Exaltation of Jesus; Man’s Perfect God Became God’s Perfect Man; Deity and Humanity in Perfect Unity; He Was Born a Man so Man Could Be Born of God; Christ Was Born to Die to Give Life to the Dead; Devotion to Christ Must Not Be Led Astray; Bizarre Tales from Catholics in Purgatory; Guess What the Pope Has Done Now; Letters to Equip and Encourage the Saints; and Mike’s speaking engagements
This issue of AW provides briefs on the following topics and more: TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO LEAD FBI; JOE BIDEN PARDONS HUNTER; RESPONSES TO THE PARDON; WILL THE PARDON BACKFIRE? NEW HOUSE REPORT CONFIRMS COVID CONSPIRACY; SUPREME COURT HEARS ARGUMENTS IN TRANSGENDER CASE; ROGAN INTERVIEWS TECH MOGUL MARC ANDREESON; ZUCKERBURG WANTS TO HELP SHAPE TRUMP’S TECH POLICY; SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT DECLARES MARTIAL LAW; INTERNATIONAL STORIES [article links]; and much more
Because of Adam’s sin, the whole world became subject to sin and the rule of Satan. The devil, also called the prince of the world, blinds people from seeing and believing in the truth of the gospel. In this sermon on Ephesians 6:10–13 titled “The Strong Man Disarmed,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes the way Christ has broken the grip that the evil one has on the world. For Jesus has bound the strong man and by the proclamation of the gospel, the works of Satan and all who follow him are destroyed.
In the last post on syncretism, Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on the Devil and the nations and a short of a John MacArthur sermon was used to introduce MLJ’s sermon. Marxism was a peripheral topic under consideration by each of those men in that Marxists are confirmed in their opposition to Christianity. This post is just going to set down a partial list of points that have been established about Christianity and Marxism in this brief series on syncretism: the list shows that these systems contradict one another.
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.