The Gospel

Quotations

By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch. III:3

Those of mankind who are predestined unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving Him thereunto.
The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, III:5

Jonathan Edwards

The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husband, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Together 4 Gospel 2008 Sessions


Tuesday April 15 - Thursday April 17,
2008 Kentucky International Convention Center Louisville, KY
Click on this linky to listen and download the messages

Session I
Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine – Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry

Session II
Thabiti Anyabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church

Session III
John MacArthur - The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability

Session IV
Mark Dever - Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology

Session V
RC Sproul - The Curse Motif of the Atonement

Session VI
Albert Mohler - Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution

Session VII
John Piper - How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice

Session VIII
CJ Mahaney - Sustaining a Pastor's Soul

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Friday, May 23, 2008

Can We Go Without Sinning In A Day?

While we do not have a Bible verse that specifically states we commit a sinful act each day, we do have verses that remind us that we have inherited the capacity to sin at any moment. "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalms 51:5). In addition, we have commands that we know we never keep, much less on a daily basis. For instance, who can claim to love God with all our heart, mind and soul every moment of every day? No one. Yet, that is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-38). Failing to love God completely at all times is a daily sin for all Christians.

We also have a verse that warns us of the deceitfulness of our old sinful nature, which in a sense is warning us of the potential, if not the likelihood, of daily sin. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Even the apostle Paul was frustrated with his own battle against indwelling sin. "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:22-23). This capacity to sin led him to cry in desperation “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Solomon knew full well that he and all men not only have the potential for sin, but that we all exercise that capacity routinely. As he stated in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, "... If they sin against thee, ( for there is no man that sinneth not, ) … " (1 Kings 8:46). And Solomon spoke of it again in the book of Ecclesiastes, "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
Again, while these verses do not unequivocally indicate daily sin, they certainly warn us against the pride of saying at any moment that we have no sin.The good news is that we will not have to strive forever against daily sin. One day we will be in heaven with our Savior and will be freed from the presence and power of sin, just as we have already been freed from its penalty.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Our Radical Fallenness (Depravity)

Our Objectives:
1. To see our own fallenness
2. To understand that men are either in the flesh or in the spirit
3. To see the need for God's help

Scripture to Memorize:
Romans 8:6-8
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Thou hast made us for Thyself, O god, and our heart is restless till it finds its rest in Thee -- Augustine

Read and meditate on the following scriptures:
Genesis 6:5
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.


Genesis 8:21
21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.


Psalm 51:5
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,and in sin did my mother conceive me.


Ecclesiastes 9:3
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.


Jeremiah 13:23
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately sick;who can understand it?


Mark 7:21-23
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

John 3:19
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.


Romans 3:10-20
10 as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;11 no one understands;no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;no one does good,not even one.”13 “Their throat is an open grave;they use their tongues to deceive.”“The venom of asps is under their lips.”14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;16 in their paths are ruin and misery,17 and the way of peace they have not known.”18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Ephesians 4:17-19
The New Life
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.


Titus 1:15
15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.


Titus 3:3
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.



It is important for us to understand that our fallenness affect our relationship with God. With God's grace we must continually seek and grow in Him and view ourselves with extreme honesty in light of His holiness. We need to humble ourselves so we can set aside our pride and ask the Holy Spirit to help us fight the sin that plague us everyday.