I hope the title of this article reveals the importance of the doctrine of imputation. Many conservative evangelicals pushed back on Evangelicals and Catholics Together in 1994. Charles Colson represented evangelicals and Richard John Neuhaus represented the Catholics. The gospel was watered down. “We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ.” (click to open). But the indispensable word "alone” was left out. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. R. C. Sproul wrote Justification by Faith Alone to correct this biblical error.
Read moreWe must accept God’s righteous dealings with His people
Warren Wiersbe recalled sharing in a street meeting in Chicago and passing out tracts at the corner of Madison and Kedzie. Most of the people graciously accepted the tracts, but one man took the tract and with a snarl crumpled it up and threw it in the gutter. The name of the tract was “Four Things God Wants You to Know.”
“There are a few things I would like God to know!” the man said. “Why is there so much sorrow and tragedy in this world? Why do the innocent suffer while the rich go free? Bah! Don’t tell me there’s a God! If there is, then God is the biggest sinner that ever lived!” And he turned away with a sneer and was lost in the crowd.
Read moreNEW “Factual Data” sheet for Romans
On May 24, 1738, a discouraged missionary went “very unwillingly” to a religious meeting in London. There a miracle took place. “About a quarter before nine,” he wrote in his journal, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
That missionary was John Wesley. The message he heard that evening was the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. Just a few months before, John Wesley had written in his journal: “I went to America to convert the Indians; but Oh! who shall convert me?” That evening in Aldersgate Street, his question was answered. And the result was the great Wesleyan Revival that swept England and transformed the nation.[1]
Our focus is on the life-changing book of Romans. Why was Romans placed first in the canon when Romans was Paul’s sixth letter?
Read moreWhat is the greatest theological threat to evangelical churches today?
There is an array of answers to this question from pastors and theologians.
1) Pastors who present Christianity as therapy and self-help do not present Christianity. They are like the liberals that J. Gresham Machen denounced. Machen said that people who don’t believe the Bible should be honest and stop calling themselves Christians because they have in fact created a new religion that is not to be identified with Christianity. Similarly, the promoters of the American religion of self-help and therapeutic pop psychology ought to be honest: they don’t believe the Bible is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16) (9Marks Click to open).
Read moreA Proverb for Mom and Dad
Last week, six-year-old Mason Stonehouse used his dad’s cell phone and the Grubhub app, to order over $1000.00 dollars of food. He ordered 5 plates of 20-piece jumbo shrimp, chicken sandwiches, chili cheese fries, over $400 of pepperoni pizza, ice cream, etc. After the home deliveries just kept coming, the dad, Keith Stonehouse, figured out what had happened. The dad had let his son use his cell phone to play games for thirty minutes before bedtime. Keith found his son hiding under the comforter on his bed. When his dad asked Mason why he did it, Mason replied, “I don’t know, I was hungry.” Well, Mason went to bed hungry that evening. Mason was not going to reap any of the benefits of his misdeeds. His parents also took the $115 in his piggy bank to help off the food debt. Obviously, Mason lost his cell phone privileges.
Parenting at times can be very challenging.
Read moreHow to live in a culture of death!
Kent R. Hughes reminds us that we live in a culture of death: “We play violent video games, watch documentaries on serial killers, and murder our unborn.”[1] The culture of death got pushed back a few steps recently. Last week, the North Carolina legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban. There can be no abortions after 12 weeks, a bill that is more restrictive than the existing law. The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, on Saturday, held a rally in order to publicly veto the bill that had been adopted by the legislature.
On Tuesday the General Assembly overrode the governor's veto of the bill and thus, this particular ban on abortions after 12 weeks in the state of North Carolina will become law. The result is as one senator said, the lives of “millions of unborn children” will be saved.
Read moreAm I the kind of friend I would want to be friends with?
I called a dear friend this week. I met this friend the first week of our college freshman year. He of late has had a difficult life. For some reason, I remembered a book I read years ago: How to Win Friends and Influence People. Why has this book been so popular? This book written by Dale Carnegie in 1936 has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It still sells 250,000 copies annually. The Library of Congress in 2013 ranked this best seller as the 7th most influential book in American history.[1] Why has this self-help book been so popular?
Warren Wiersbe answered: We need Proverbs “Because just about everybody has ‘people problems’ and wants to know how to solve them.”[2] God’s manual on developing people skills was written long before Carnegie’s best seller. God wrote Proverbs to sharpen our people's skills for his glory.
Read moreNEW Factual Data Sheet for "Mark"
The idea of “The Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry who used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres (Narratives, Hebrew Poetry, the Epistles, and the Gospels) of Scripture instead of one-size-fits all approach
Read moreIs Cremation a Christian Option?
Conservatives like John Davis, Rod Decker, and Norman Geisler all agree that even though Scriptures do not explicitly forbid cremation, burial should still be the Christian method of laying to rest our loved ones. The overall pattern of Scripture is interment. G. Campbell Morgan favored cremation.
Read moreForgiveness
An unwillingness to forgive is sometimes described as burying the hatchet but leaving the handle sticking out. Country music singer Garth Brooks actually wrote a song about forgiveness called We Bury the Hatchet But Leave the Handle Stickin’ Out
Read moreThe Six Marks of Leadership, Mark Six, Part 3 “He Handles More Outside Opposition” (Nehemiah 6:1-14)
It helps to have a sense of humor.
Spurgeon would occasionally find a nasty anonymous letter lying on his pulpit when he would stand up to preach. There would a letter but no name. One day he got to the pulpit and there was a piece of paper with one word written in large letters … “idiot” … So, Spurgeon said, “Normally I get letters without signatures, but today I got a signature without a letter.”
Read moreThe Six Marks of Leadership, Mark Four, “The Leader Motivates His Followers? (Nehemiah 2:9-20)
I read a book that really challenged my thinking in the area of leadership by Hans Finzel entitled The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. He defines leadership and identifies leaders.
Finzel's definition of leadership: “Leadership is influence. Anyone who influences someone else to do something has led a person. A leader takes people where they would never go on their own.” That definition includes each of you!
Finzel's identification of a leader: “You are a leader if you are leading a company, a ministry, a department, one or two coworkers, a Girl Scout club, and army platoon, a committee, or your family” (Hans Finzel. The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. pages 19-21). That identification includes you!
Read more“The Factual Data” Sheet for Sermon Preparation for Narratives (Nehemiah)
The idea of “The Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres of Scripture instead of one-size fits all approach.
Read moreYou Can Be Mentored by Spurgeon!
Since Spurgeon was not televised and Mclaren did not pod cast, does this mean I must leave their beautifully leather bond sermons just to decorate my library shelves? Being personally familiar with a preacher is helpful to benefit from his preaching. Andrew W. Blackwood in his book Preaching from the Bible aids us in getting to know preachers from the past. Blackwood encourages preachers to read at least one good biography of a well known and greatly used preacher before getting into his printed sermons. Next, read any books he has written on preaching and pasturing (Andrew W. Blackwood. Preaching from the Bible. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1941, pages 235 ff.).
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