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"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness..." -Ephesians 5:11 There are a great many people who would "Amen" this verse and try to live it out in a God honoring way. The will abstain for all forms of wickedness, constantly examine their associations and analyze each choice as to honor their Lord. We have no problem abstaining from things the Lord calls wicked. However, that's not the whole verse. It's the second part of the verse that many simply ignore. The rest of the verse goes like this: "...but instead expose them." Here I think is the wisdom and challenge of the Lord. It's one thing to abstain from things, but very rarely (if at all) will you ever find in scripture a command to abstain from something without replacing it with a positive faith filled response. It's takes no faith to sit in your house with your opinion about the world. It takes faith (and might I add "actually caring") to lift up your voice like a trumpet and show the people their transgressions. I want to point you to three resources for fighting the The New Holocaust. Make copies or buy these resources and hand them out to friends, family and strangers. Resource # 1 - A new movie by Living Waters Publications called "180" is available for download absolutely free. Here is the link. Download it, burn it to DVD and pass it out. It's high quality and very captivating. Watch the entire movie online for free. Resource # 2 - Ligonier Ministries, the teach ministry of R.C. Sproul, has published a book on abortion. Purchase it here for someone you know. Resource # 3 - Butch Rumble preached one of many great sermons on abortion at our churches annual Sanctity of Life Sunday. Download the sermon here. Burn it to a CD and pass it out. God bless you in your fight to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness AND exposing them....

Onward To The Resuce! James Smith, 1860 A house in the neighborhood was on fire, and the alarm soon spread. Life was in danger, and all felt concerned. Young and old, rich and poor, male and female, ran off in the direction of the burning house. Everyone was ready to lend a hand. All were alive, awake, and on the alert. The firemen were in their place, the engines were soon in full play, the inhabitants were all rescued, and some of the property was saved. Human nature had a fine opportunity of manifesting its sympathy, and display its benevolence. Everyone was talking of the fire, of the amount of property destroyed, of the danger in which the inhabitants were placed, and all seemed to rejoice in their safety. All this was as it should be. A few spent their time in speculating upon how the fire began, instead of helping to put it out; and some thought more of what might have been the consequences if there were no engines, or if there had not been plenty of water, or if the firemen had not been on the spot, or if the neighbors had not been willing to help; neither of these parties were of much use. But in general the motto was, "Onward to the rescue!" There was a cry heard, "A boat has tipped over, and a number of people are in the river!" Everyone that heard felt, and everyone that felt ran towards the river. Some labored at the boats to get them into the water, others manned them, and struck off toward that part of the river where the poor creatures were struggling for their lives. Some who could swim plunged into the water, and at the risk of their own lives, were determined to try and save others. All was excitement, until it was announced that all were saved. Soon it was discovered that one was missing; again all were on the alert, some dived to the bottom of the river, others got out the drags, others made all necessary preparations to restore suspended animation,...

Great God From Thee by John Newton Great God from Thee there's nought concealed,Thou seest my inward frameTo Thee I always stand revealed, Exactly as I am Since I can hardly therefore bear, What in myself I seeHow vile and dark must I appear Most holy God to Thee? But since my Savior stands betweenIn garments dyed in bloodTis He instead of me is seen When I approach to God Thus though a sinner, I am safe, He pleads before the throneHis life and death in my behalf,And calls my sins His own What wondrous love. What mysteriesIn this appointed shineMy breaches of the law are His, And His obedience mine Great God from Thee there's nought concealedThou seest my inward frameTo Thee I always stand revealed, Exactly as I am What wondrous love. What mysteriesIn this appointed shineMy breaches of the law are His, And His obedience mine...

via: Extreme Theology...

Do not believe that the common Christianity of the present age will carry anybody to heaven. It is a counterfeit and a sham. It does not make men to differ from their fellows, it pretends to faith and has none, talks about love and does not show it, brags of truth and evaporates it into thin air in its latitudinarian charity. God give us back the real thing—stimuli, strong belief in the gospel, real faith in Jesus, real prayer to him, real spiritual power. Then again there will be persecution, but it will only blow away the chaff and leave the pure wheat! The world likes us better because we like the world better; it calls us friends because we doff our colors and sheathe our swords and play the craven; but if we preach and live the gospel in the old apostolic way, we shall soon have the devil roaring round the camp and the seed of the serpent hissing on all sides, but we fear not, for "the Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." --C.H. Spurgeon...

Remember how your fathers, in times gone by, defended God's truth, and blush, ye cowards, who are afraid to maintain it!Remember that our Bible is a blood-stained book; the blood of martyrs is on the Bible, the blood of translators and confessors. The pool of holy baptism, in which many of you have been baptized, is a blood-stained pool: full many have had to die for the vindication of that baptism which is "the answer of a good conscience toward God."The doctrines which we preach to you are doctrines that have been baptized in blood,—swords have been drawn to slay the confessors of them; and there is not a truth which has not been sealed by them at the stake, or the block, or far away on the lofty mountains, where they have been slain by hundreds. It is but a little duty we have to discharge compared with theirs. They were called to maintain the truth when they had to die for it; you only have to maintain the truth when taunt and jeer, ignominious names and contemptuous epithets are all you have to endure for it.What! do you expect easy lives? While some have led through seas of blood, and have fought to win the prize, are you wearied with a slight skirmish on dry land? What would you do if God should suffer persecuting days to overtake you? O craven spirits, ye would flee away, and disown your profession!Be ye the pillar and ground of the truth. Let the blood of martyrs, let the voices of confessors, speak to you. Remember how they held fast the truth, how they preserved it, and handed it down to us from generation to generation; and by their noble example, I beseech you, be steadfast and faithful, tread valiantly and firmly in their steps, acquit yourselves like men,—like men of God, I implore you!Shall we not have some champions, in these times, who will deal sternly with heresies for the love of the truth,—men who will stand like rocks in the center of the sea, so that, when all others shake, they...

If someone said to you, "If you don't have anything good to say about someone, don't say it at all." Would that be a Biblical statement? In other words, whether implicitly or explicitly could you, in context, back that phrase up with scripture? Most of us at one point or another have either been on the giving end or receiving end of that statement. I recently heard one Christian instruct other Christians in this manner and wondered whether or not they had really thought this through. I believe that this kind of advice is just one more tell-tale sign of how worldly philosophy has crept into the church. Sticking close to the scriptures will prevent this. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ," For an example of how the above phrase is unbiblical here is 10,000 ft overview of Matthew 23:1-36. And this is without much digging. (Nevermind mentioning whole books of the OT prophets who constantly proclaimed dreadful things.) In Matthew 23:1-6 Jesus pronounces woes and judgments on the Scribes and Pharisees. He calls the hypocrites, sons of Hell, blind guides, blind fools, greedy, self-indulgent, unclean, full of death, lawless, sons of murderers, serpents, brood of vipers, condemned to hell, and murderers themselves. Now, if the above principle applies that we shouldn't say anything at all if it's not nice then Jesus is WAY out of line here. But, as Christians we should be more concerned about speaking truth, in love, (Ephesians 4:15) rather than speaking only so-called "good" about someone. I would imagine Joel Osteen could market the above phrase to his congregation as bona-fide biblical truth. That phrase, to me, is borderline word-faith, Robert Schuller, positivism. Furthermore, if the above phrase is true then you would literally have to trim the gospel down to nothing. You could not speak of sin, lawlessness, rebellion, hatred of God, judgment to come, eternal hell, etc....

"The brilliance of the gospel light is dimmed by error. The clearness of the testimony is spoiled when doubtful voices are scattered among the people, and those who ought to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, are telling out for doctrines the imaginations of men, and the inventions of the age.Instead of revelation, we have philosophy, falsely so-called; instead of divine infallibility, we have surmises and larger hopes. The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is taught as the production of progress, a growth, a thing to be amended and corrected year by year. It is an ill day, both for the church and the world, when the trumpet does not give a certain sound; for who shall prepare himself for the battle?" C.H. Spurgeon...

Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." I have listed here, for anyone interested in the ministry, things you will never hear us say when sharing/preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wrote that list because of the fact that I have heard so many people describe a "summary" of the gospel as asking Jesus to do things, or accepting Jesus into your heart (at this point I interject, "Well, why not into my liver?"), or giving Jesus something. All are concepts that stem from a lack of understanding of the true message and nature of the gospel. All are concepts that I will not use because it is clear from scripture, not from my feeble-brained reasoning, that those concepts, which use words and have theology behind them -although it may not be accurate theology- are unbiblical. How you speak about something shows what you know about something. The words that you use are important. If someone uses unbiblical terminology when sharing the gospel then I would have to assume one of two things. One, the person really doesn't know the gospel intimately or two, they have something up their sleeve (producing numbers for church growth etc). I once heard a great analogy of the difference between accurate gospel preaching and quick short-hand unbiblical preaching that try's to get it done in a succinct, quick way and "dumbs it down" (as mentioned above). This is a paraphrase, as much as I can remember, of that analogy. There was once a parachute making factory. They made the best parachutes out there. Every time a soldier yanked the rip cord the parachute opened like a charm. They took their time with every fold of the parachute making sure the folds were precise and there was no slack. When they packed the parachute, they made sure that every part of the parachute went into the backpack nice and neat so that when the soldier pulled the cord there...

You think it will earn you the persona of the "super spiritual" one in your church. You think God will somehow love you more because you are doing something that 98% of the professing Christian population doesn't do. You think that those poor people out there are just begging for someone to come and preach the gospel to them. You think that people are "hurting" and they just need Jesus to make things better. Your gospel is a plea to live more moral and make better choices and follow Jesus rather than repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't think unregenerate sinners are enemies of God. You substitute biblical gospel terminology for something more appealing to the crowd. (i.e. generalized statements about sin and not direct specific statements) You think Jesus is someone who heals a wounded man rather than supernaturally raises a dead man. You think God actually needs you. You actually think you can save someone. In contrast here are 6 reasons to evangelize It brings glory to Christ. Christ has commanded it and those who love Him joyfully and humbly keep his commandments. God has not only ordained the ends of salvation sovereignly but also the means by which it comes about; namely the preaching of His gospel. God has given you this awesome privilege of partaking in preaching His gospel. The King has made you a herald! It keeps you humble and reminds you of the gospel of your salvation every time you share it. You actually think that God is "OK" with you just "living your Christian life" in front of others. ...

I wonder why so many Christians are so zealous to do missionary work abroad in some foreign land when they've never been missionaries at home. That doesn't make too much sense to me.I would think that you would be burdened with the lost immediately around you, who I might add are easier to reach, before you would some foreign group you've never met.My advice would be that if you don't proclaim the gospel where you are, don't even think of packing up and going to where you've never been. The former should be a huge qualification for the latter.But then again, most modern missionary work is just "Peace Corp" work done with a Christian veneer anyway....

I’ve wanted to write this for a long while now, but recently a video that I saw rekindled this thought in my heart. So, I finally sat down and off-the-cuff wrote my thoughts. However scattered and jumbled, please consider the content. Know that it is from the heart. You will find the video below. Let me preface this by saying that I am about to write about something that will probably offend some of you. Maybe this will wake some of you up to a reality that you have either forgotten or never knew in the first place. Let me also preface this by setting your mind upon the tone and mood of my voice as I write this. It is one of low, compassionate, tear filled concern. There is a war going on for the souls of men. Satan never takes a holiday. He never sleeps. He never tires. He never stops seeking to destroy the lives of people. Some people he simply passes by because they are so convinced that they are headed for heaven and they are so duped into believing that they are “safe” that they pose no threat to him. So he doesn’t bother. Others, he actively seeks to destroy. As Christians I think this, along with the fact that there is a literal hell and people will spend an eternity in its torments, are two of the much neglected reflections and realities of the thought life, prayer life and general lifestyle of professing Christians. What do I mean by this? I would submit to you that most Christians are intellectually concerned about the welfare and souls of men. The problem is that most of that concern is fizzled out by a lack of heart-knowledge in the matter. They are not truly convinced in the heart (i.e. the core of who they are) that hell is real and Satan hates the souls of men. A plain evidence of this is Facebook. You say, “What! How? Facebook has nothing to do with the gospel.” If you would allow me…can I dig around in your heart for a...

1. Friendship evangelism is neither friendship nor evangelism without the verbal proclamation of the gospel. 2. If you say that you believe Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life but you refuse to tell people, then you really don't care where people will spend eternity. Why? Because you will do what you care about. 3. Might real revival happen if instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build mausoleums to warehouse the spiritually disobedient and to entertain the lost, the Church invested in indigenous missionaries, both at home and abroad? Jesus never said, "If you build it, they will come." 4. Don't worry about Satan. If you are not actively engaged in proclaiming the Law and the Gospel to lost souls and praying for those who do, you pose no real threat to him. And if the enemy does not see you as a threat, then what kind of soldier are you, really? 5. You can't be saved by a gospel you don't know. If you can't tell me biblically how I can get to heaven, then why should I believe you are going there? 6. Depraved Indifference: Being morally culpable while acting with wanton disregard for the life of another. If you refuse to share the gospel with lost souls, then you are guilty as charged. 7. Remember the same verse that says "all liars will have their part in the lake of fire" also says that the cowardly will meet the same fate. When did you last share the gospel with the lost? Can't remember? Don't want to because your scared? Then you have a problem that may be more serious than you think. 8. The true Christian understands that he is to remain in the world while not being of the world. But a false convert will sit precariously atop the fence separating two worlds and, when he thinks he is loosing his balance and he thinks he may fall, he will look to the world instead of Christ to catch him--all the while insisting his trust is in the Lord. 9. If...

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. I hear evangelists say stuff like, "Tonight, it is your choice whether or not you go to hell. I cannot choose for you. You have to choose for yourself. Each man has to choose for himself." My question is this- How does someone have a choice on whether or not they go to hell when from birth they are headed there already? 1 Corinthians 15:22a says, "For as in Adam all die..." That is universal to the human race. Verse 22b says, "...so also in Christ shall all be made alive." This is particular to the elect children of God. In Adam all die, and unless you are not a homosapien and some alien life form, that includes you. God doesn\'t send someone somewhere they are already headed. John 6:28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Sounds like our autonomy has just been stripped away....

Are you an orator or a herald? Is your pastor an orator or a herald? What's the difference? Is there a difference? How would you know? What does this have to do with whether or not the sermon or your own preaching has anything to do with it being "Junk Food" or "Solid Meal" preaching? Not only is the exegetical preaching of the word of God crucial to Christian growth, it is also crucial in defining how one is to communicate the truth of scripture to the unregenerate. We must get our feet firmly planted as to what our role is as Christian communicators of the gospel of Christ. We think this will help. Take some time to listen to Steve Lawson of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama define and describe for you exactly what your role is as a Christian communicator; whether behind the pulpit or on a soapbox in the middle of park. Listen below:...

Introduction What is Regeneration? "Except a man be born again1, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Our Lord Jesus Christ taught that the new birth is so important that no one can see heaven without it. Mistakes concerning this doctrine have been very destructive to the Church of Christ. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God. It is not a work of man. It is not something that man does but something that God does. The new birth is a change wrought in us, not an act performed by us. This is stated so beautifully by the Apostle John when in the first chapter of his Gospel he speaks of the children of God as those "which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (v. 13). What is "Decisional Regeneration"? The history of the Christian Church has seen many errors concerning the new birth. These teachings depart from Scripture by attributing to man the ability to regenerate himself. When these false concepts of man and the new birth are adopted, churches soon become corrupted with false practices. The Roman Catholic church, the Anglican church, the Lutheran church and many other churches have all been corrupted at different times and to different degrees with the teaching of Baptismal Regeneration. Because of this erroneous teaching on regeneration, these churches have embraced false practices. In the nineteenth century few controversies were so heated as the one over Baptismal Regeneration. It is interesting to note that C. H. Spurgeon (1836-1892), the most prolific preacher of that century, had printed in 1864 more copies of his sermon denouncing Baptismal Regeneration than of any other sermon. Baptismal Regeneration teaches that the new birth is conveyed by the waters of baptism. The sacrament is performed by man and is in his control. But the twentieth century Church has, in "Decisional Regeneration," a more subtle falsehood to combat. "Decisional Regeneration" differs from Baptismal Regeneration only in the fact that it attaches the certainty of the new birth to a...

May this move you to compassion for your own children and for the lost multitiudes around you. This is why it's good to read theology from a bunch of "dead guys." The first way to hell, discovered. From - The Works of John Flavel Volume 3 - Pneumatologia: A Treatise of the Soul of Man (Continued) Section 4 - Of the Human Soul More Valuable than the Whole World: Its Blessedness when Saved, it’s Irreparable Ruin when lost: Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall I man give an exchange for his soul? [This is the first paragraph introducing this section on page 153_ ed] DIFFICULT duties need to be enforced with powerful arguments. In the 24th verse of this chapter, our Lord presseth upon his disciples the deepest and hardest duties of self-denial, acquaints them upon what terms they must be admitted into his service: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." [This is the first of 12 ways to hell and remedies thereof by Mr. Flavel as found on pages 183 through 225 _ ed] The first way to hell, discovered. 1. And to begin where, indeed, the ruin of very many doth began, it will be found, that ill education is the highway to destruction; Vice need not be planted; if the gardener neglects to dress, sow, and manure his garden, he need not give the weeds a greater advantage; but if he also scatter the seeds of hemlock, docks, and nettles into it, he spoils it, and makes it fit for nothing. Many parents, and those godly too, are guilty of too many neglects, through carelessness, worldly encumbrances, or fond indulgence; and whilst they neglect the season of sowing better seed, the Devil takes hold of it; if they will not improve it, he will: if they teach him not to pray, he will teach them to curse, sware, and lie; if they put not the Bible, or catechism...

I remember growing up as a kid never being really heavily exposed to Biblical theology. I never really attended church much but I could tell a little from the culture that people were “religious” and had a sense of the creator God. Although I was never exposed to theology (in retrospect as a born-again believer) I can look back on the culture that I lived in here in the south and see very heavy presuppositions in the lives of the “religious folk” I lived around. There were presuppositions about God that they were living out that I would find later are in direct contrast to His word. One might say that growing up with a non-Christian background would be a curse. God’s common grace (as differentiated from his special grace in salvation) is for all of His creation (it rains on the just and the unjust) and Christians normally see living outside of the covenant blessings of a Christian home or church family as a curse or “bad thing” for lack of a better word. I agree completely, but I want to put something into perspective. Living outside of the special grace of God allowed me to, after being truly born-again, approach the scriptures with no theological presuppositions. I had no “special glasses” that I was wearing when reading God’s word that would filter out certain doctrines. I had not equipped myself with any particular church’s thoughts and viewpoints, nor armed myself as it were with certain barriers and blockades to fight against and resist competing exegetical thoughts on God’s word. I simply read God\'s word as it was. I faced God and wrestled through His word line by line and bowed before His holy word with fear, reverence and awe. I wanted to understand the mind of God in whatever capacity the Spirit would give me and continue to give. I approached God with my mind as a clean slate for Him to write on it as He wishes. With all of that came battles through historically controversial passages and more than one restless night of reading and prayer. With...

I would submit to you that the very things you are about to hear (in a very short clip) are the very things you would never hear explained by most "seeker sensitive" pastors. If you got the last email regarding an interview between the pastor and two TV news anchors and were wondering why the pastor wasn't so clear...maybe this will clear things up. This is what I think should have been said: ...