|
|
 |
|
|
CampOnThis
Steve's reformed, biblical, thought-provoking, and exciting blog. Join him today... |
|
|
|
June 26th 2009 - 
CLICK HERE to visit Grace To You
The following article by my friend, John MacArthur, is a tremendous reminder of the importance of the resurrection and what it secures for every believer in Christ.
Shockingly, some evangelical leaders today deny that even knowing about the resurrection or affirming it is necessary for salvation. But pastor John powerfully reminds us, "The real issue is not: can you prove the resurrection? The real issue is: what does the resurrection prove? You take out the resurrection and you have cut out the soul of the Christian faith and you have non-Christianity without the resurrection. All of God's complete redemptive plan depends on this key reality."
John pinpoints several key biblical reasons for the critical importance of this great essential of the faith. This is not only an encouragement to every believer in the Lord, but a passionate invitation to come to Christ for those who do not know Him.
The Apostle Paul expounds this profound and indispensable biblical truth when saying: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men" -1 Corinthians 15:13-19.
Resurrection, the Key to Everything It's always a wonderful challenge for me when I come to this particular Sunday in the year to know what the Lord would have me say after being here 23 past Easters and sharing so many things about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I was meditating and seeking to know the mind of the Lord with regard to this Lord's day, I asked a simple question in the process of my musings and that is the question: what would God the Father desire me to say about the resurrection? Not so much what would the people like to hear, not so much what would gather their attention and hold it, not so much what might be a nuance in regard to Easter that they've not thought about, but what would the Father want me to say? What simple straight-forward direct message could I bring that the Father Himself would want me to say concerning the resurrection of His Son?
...In fact, the resurrection is the key to everything.
Read the rest of "Resurrection, The Key to Everything" |
|
|
|
June 23rd 2009 - The following is a comment that I left at Adrian Warnock's site where he had reviewed Dr. John Piper's article, The Morning I Heard the Voice of God. I had also read John's article and was very encouraged by his words. I hope the following will be a blessing to you to be people of His Word and to be filled with the Spirit of God each day (Col. 3:16-17; Eph. 5:17-21).
Dear Adrian:
I thought this was a very good and helpful article by John Piper. In the Reformed camp (no pun intended) we have unashamedly embraced The Sword (sound doctrine, theology, etc.), but in some respects, have we not with the same conviction and freedom embraced The Swordsman (the Holy Spirit)?
Many of my reformed friends are also asking and wrestling with that same question today-- It is good for us to remember, that the Word of God IS the sword of the Holy Spirit (Eph 6:17); written by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21); and understood only through the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:11-13). After reading his article I had to ask the difficult question, "have I in my own walk with the Lord had an imbalance between the Sword and the Spirit that needs to be corrected?" I think so. It is the passion of my life to study God's Word and communicate its truth in song and word. BUT, I also think it is not a mechanical thing (as D. M. Lloyd-Jones would say); there must also be, what some have referred to as "the unction" of the Holy Spirit (indwelt and empowered with).
IMHO, what Dr. Piper is talking about is a faith that is not extra-biblical, but deeply rooted in the Scriptures, yet unmistakably alive. As my friend, Dr. Stephen Olford once told me many years ago, "if we have only truth, we dry up; if we have only spirit, we flare up; but if we have spirit and truth, we grow up." That is my prayer...
The Apostle Paul encourages us with these helpful words:
Rom. 15:13-20 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; (NASB - emphasis mine)
Here Paul is making the proclamation of the gospel and the Word of God inseparable from the power and work of the Holy Spirit. I hope that can encourage another here today.
Thank you for bringing this issue to my heart and mind today (and HT to Justin Taylor where I saw your comment and link). I also appreciated the balanced wisdom you have demonstrated in presenting its truth.
His unworthy servant in His unfailing love,
Steve Camp
2 Cor 4:5-7 |
|
|
|
June 22nd 2009 - "But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD," Hebrews 10:12
"And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). The preeminent purpose for "the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us" (John 1:14) was that through the Lord's virgin birth, sinless life, and His once for all propitiatory sacrifice for our sins - that He would redeem a people for His own glory to worship Him forever in unbroken fellowship throughout all eternity (cf, Roms. 9:23), This is the powerful reality of "Immanuel, God with us." With much joy and praise, the blessed hope of any regenerated child of God is that the guilt, penalty, and eternal wrath that burns against every sin that would ever be committed by every one that would ever believe, was forever dealt with in Christ at Calvary. Every sin of the elect has already been forgiven and paid in full in the complete atoning work of Jesus Christ the Lord on the cross. "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10). Hebrews 7:27 profoundly says, "who died for the sins of the people, because this He died once of all when He offered up Himself." This concept of one sacrifice for every sin was completely foreign to the Jewish mind who was reliant on the law and the works of the law to appease his guilt and shame and make him whole in the eyes of God. The priests were constantly offering sacrifices for peoples transgressions - even his own (Hebrews. 5:1-3). Grain offerings, peace offerings, burnt offerings, guilt offerings, sin offerings, ceremonies, feast days, rituals, law-keeping... and on and on it went. It never stopped.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of "FOR EVERY TIME...". |
|
|
|
June 17th 2009 - John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14 ¶ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Athanasius (c. 300-373), On the Incarnation
(New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993), sect. 8, p. 34.
"Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death in place of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire."
Ibid., sect. 9, p. 35.
"The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet He Himself, as the Word, being immortal and the Father’s Son, was such as could not die. For this reason, therefore, He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all, and, itself remaining incorruptible through His indwelling, might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection. It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human brethren by the offering of the equivalent. For naturally, since the Word of God was above all, when He offered His own temple and bodily instrument as a substitute for the life of all, He fulfilled in death all that was required." |
|
|
|
June 12th 2009 - As Spurgeon has rightly said,
"Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven."
"If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness."
Read Titus 3:1-8; Roms. 3:19-26; and Eph. 2:1-9. |
|
|
|
June 4th 2009 - Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God." Hold off your hands, ye enemies! Sit down and wait in patience, ye believers! Acknowledge that Jehovah is God, ye who feel the terrors of his wrath! Adore him, and him only, ye who partake in the protection of his grace. Since none can worthily proclaim his nature, let "expressive silence muse his praise." The boasts of the ungodly and the timorous forebodings of the saints should certainly be hushed by a sight of what the Lord has done in past ages.
Read the rest of KNOW THAT I AM GOD.... |
|
|
|
|
|
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
