What kind of love is this?

or; "God helps those who are willing help themselves"

Al Gibbs

I'm amazed that there is not one person saved in the Bible, after an alter call, or even told that God loves them and wants them to make him lord.

1. What kind of love would stand by and allows the objects of that love to perish and suffer everlasting condemnation, all because they fail to meet a divine requirement such as repentance or confession?

2. This kind of love presupposes man is not spiritually dead and is perfectly capable of seeing his spiritual need as well as repenting of his evil ways and receiving Jesus into his heart.

3. This kind of love only makes salvation a possibility LEAVING THE BURDEN AND FINAL OUTCOME UP TO THE SINNER.

4. This kind of love will not coerce or control anyone if it did it would not be love at all, especially since He sees our will is so very important to us.

5. This kind of love is fair, "just like our sense of fairness", it says God, in order to be fair, must love all the same and provide a salvation that is equally "available to all" though He knows ''all" will not accept it, but it is there for the taking. What kind of love is this?

Why Doctrinal Preaching Declines

Arthur W. Pink

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2Timothy.4:3-4.

During the last two or three generations the pulpit has given less and less prominence to doctrinal preaching, until today, with very rare exceptions, it has no place at all. In some quarters the cry from the pew was, 'we want living experience and not dry doctrine'; in others, 'we need practical sermons and not metaphysical dogmas'; and yet others, Give us Christ and not theology. Sad to say, such senseless cries were generally heeded: 'senseless' we say, for there is no other safe way of testing experience, as there is no foundation for practicals to be built upon if they be divorced from Scriptural doctrine; while Christ cannot be known unless he be preached (1Cor.1:23), and he certainly cannot be 'preached' if doctrine is shelved. Various reasons may be given for the lamentable failure of the pulpit, chief among them being laziness, desire for popularity, superficial and lop-sided evangelism, and love of the sensational'.

Laziness. It is a far more exacting task, one which calls for much closer confinement in the study, to prepare a series of sermons on, say the doctrine of justification, than it does to make addresses on prayer, missions, or personal-work. It demands a far wider acquaintance with the Scriptures, a more rigid disciplining of the mind, and a more extensive perusal of the older writers. But this was too exacting for most of the ministers, and so they chose the line of least resistance and followed an easier course. It is because of his proneness to this weakness that the minister is particularly exhorted, 'Give attendance to reading ... take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine: continue in them' (1Tim.4:13,16); and again, 'Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, (2Tim.2: 15).

Desire for popularity. It is natural that the preacher should wish to please his hearers, but it is spiritual for him to desire and aim at the approbation of God. Nor can any man serve two masters. As the apostle expressly declared, 'For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ' (Gal.1:10): solemn words are those! How they condemn them whose chief aim is to preach to crowded churches! Yet what grace it requires to swim against the tide of public opinion, and preach that which is unacceptable to the natural man. But on the other hand, how fearful will be the doom of those who, from a determination to curry favour with men, deliberately withheld those portions of the truth most needed by their hearers. 'Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it' (Deut.4:2). Oh to be able to say with Paul, 'I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ... I am pure from the blood of all' (Acts.20:20, 26).

A superficial and lop-sided 'evangelism'. Many of the pulpiteers of the past fifty years acted as though the first and last object of their calling was the salvation of souls, everything being made to bend to that aim. In consequence, the feeding of the sheep, the maintaining of a Scriptural discipline in the church, and the inculcation of practical piety, was crowded out; and only too often all sorts of worldly devices and fleshly methods were employed under the plea that the end justified the means; and thus the churches were filled with unregenerate members. In reality, such men defeated their own aim. The hard heart must be ploughed and harrowed before it can be receptive to the gospel seed. Doctrinal instruction must be given on the character of God, the requirements of his Law, the nature and heinousness of sin, if a foundation is to be laid for true evangelism. It is useless to preach Christ unto souls until they see and feel their desperate need of him.

December 1939

Excert from The Life of Arthur W. Pink, by Ian H. Murray, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, 1981, pp217-8

A Good Kind of Proud

Scott Price

Yes, you heard me correctly; The good kind of proud. Are you NOT ashamed of Christ? If not, then you should be proud of Him. Is He someone you boldly identify with and agree with all His precepts? Do you love His truth? Are you embarrassed with His sovereign salvation? Do you cow down when the Arminian, works-religionist cries out against an effectual, limited atonement? Do you fear (in reverence) man or God?

What embarrasses me is false religion and those who dabble in the business of it. The atmosphere of hypocrisy is not a comfortable one. It is embarrassing be identified by the non-religious world as being the same as the religious world. I am ashamed of the false christ. He is an absolute failure. A christ who died for all but cannot save all for whom he died is a wimp and weasel. I will not worship such a piece of garbage.

I am proud of the only successful Christ of the Bible, the One who is God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. All other christs are false if they do not line up with the character attributes of the One described in the gospel of grace. To hell with the false gospel, false christ, and other spirit. It is the spirit of anti-christ. Boy o boy, I hate to be unclear. Hope everyone gets the picture. It is the good kind of proud. I am proud of Him.

A Ministry of Questions (for local newspaper)

Scott Price

Most people today seem very uninterested in thinking. They crack jokes about hurting their brain from thinking. If you ask them in a generic greeting, "What do ya know", they reply, "Nothing, it gets me in trouble" as if thinking, knowing, and learning were something bad. Year after year attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Scholars, to some people, are looked upon as nerds or losers. Some people keep the TV on at home even when they are not watching it for what they call "back ground noise". What has happened to the mind of the average American, has it expanded or has it become used to being unchallenged, unopened, and willfully ignorant of the knowledge of the most important things?

A few years ago I bought an old work car and did not have a stereo in it for well over a year. A friend of mine asked how I could stand the silence in the car day in and day out. I used the time in the car for thinking, even prayer. Now before we go on we need to clarify that, yes, you can pray with your eyes open. It can be done and it is acceptable. Did some of you religious people think God only hears prayers of people with their eyes tightly shut, their hands neatly folded, and that you must be on your knees? If this is the case then what does the Bible mean when it tells God's people to, "Pray without ceasing"? Oh, a question to cause thought. See, now we are getting somewhere.

The gospel ministry is one of causing people to think or to consider things by questions that confront them. Not questions about things that are not related to the gospel but Christ-centered, Gospel-centered, Truth-centered questions that quickly get to the heart of the matter. The main problem today with most religions is they think they have the answers and they simply do not even know the right questions. The gospel ministry should be one of posing vital questions and answering them for the people you are preaching to. We must raise the important questions that nobody else in the religious world is asking. Then as we seek to graciously help people we give a clear explained gospel answer to the question, based on God's word.

Think just in one aspect of this for a minute: Definitions. When we ask ourselves to define a word we are simply asking the question, 'what does this word mean?' When we deal with any subject we must get on board with what words in that subject mean. If we are talking about the Bible then what Bible version or translation is used will be a determining factor on whether you even understand the English words being used. If faith comes by hearing the word of God (the truth of the Bible or Scriptures) as it tells us in Romans 10:17, then we need to know the definitions of the words we are hearing.

Have you ever spoken to someone about a topic and you both talked right passed each other because you were both using a different set of definitions for the topic at hand? The concepts in your mind were totally different but they thought they agreed with you because they assumed you had the same set of definitions. An example would be: If I called every preacher in the area and asked them if they believe in Predestination and they answered by saying "yes", then what should I do? Should I simply say, "I do too"? Or should I say, "Well, I do, but what do YOU mean when you say YOU do?" The definitions of things and even whole concepts must be brought to the table before we can even know what we are talking about. The idea here is that questions lead to clarity.

If people are not being open for questions or even to challenge themselves with questions then there is no progression in the truth. If a preacher will not answer questions or allow himself to be questioned at all is he not, in a sense, hiding the truth or hiding from something? The Bible says to "Beware of false prophets" (Matt 7:15), which means you cannot trust every preacher out there. Actually according to the 2 verses ahead (13-14) MOST are not to be trusted. In religion, the majority are wrong, in other words. Wow, the job seems to be getting harder. Maybe that information actually just made it easier for some who are starting to think.

When it comes to eternal matters of truth about who God is, what is the condition of humankind, and what is the remedy for that condition, there is no time for ignorance, half hearted attempts at searching for answers and certainly not time to dodge the questions that matter. There is no excuse for laziness in these areas. There is no excuse for ignorance in these areas. Think, read, hear, think some more, question, read some more, hear, challenge, think again and so on. As truth comes in adjustments are made to cast out error. This is progression. The thing is you must get started. Do you care enough to take that journey? There are many questions the Bible asks that could be started with. One is: What do you think of Christ? Think about it. Can you think about that one enough to start reading, digging, and finding answers that would satisfy you? It is dangerous to stop thinking. May God give you grace to ask the right questions and He give you the right answers.

http://www.GospelDefense.com

Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good

Al Gibbs (member of Gospel of Grace Church

Seeking to persuade ourselves that our flesh is becoming less active as we diligently apply ourselves to Christian fellowship, Bible reading, prayer, and the like, cannot counter-balance the humbling reality of our present state in these bodies of death. Discouraging though it may be at times, nevertheless our corruptions should not quench true Gospel hope.

The realization that my life is no longer mine does brings comfort as daily God's Spirit reminds me of this truth, especially during those thought processesing moments of the humdrum of everyday living.

It is then I am tempted to, and do run to those old programs in my mind that used to bring me comfort as I attempt to prop my self up seeking to think myself to be something when I am nothing I then only find that my present state will not allow me to glory for very long as God's Spirit reminds me that I am dead and my life is hid with God in Christ.

The realization that there is so much in me that is opposed to Christ helps me not to look within. As I realize a life of holiness is a life of faith (the heart turning daily to Christ) and the fruits of faith are genuine repentance, true humility, praising God for His infinite patience and mercy.

My conformity to Christ is completely dependent on His Spirit as I am reminded that it is Christ that works in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure. I am forced by faith to die the death that my Lord died for me and it is only then that I realize God only accepts what He provides, and that's it! Glory to God!!!!

Look to Him and Don't Look Back!

Scott Price

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Hebrews 12:2-3

But without faith it is impossible to please him: Hebrews 11:6

For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins Hebrews 10:26

When God converts the minds of His people He gives them grace to look outside themselves to the proper object of faith: Christ Jesus The Lord. The elect are saved from themselves. They are given repentance to change their mind about their former trust they had in their own deeds. They see the only merit God will accept is that of Christ. They submit to that standard and are quite happy with it. They do not go back to continue in their old false religion, but rather hear and listen to the voice of the Shepherd. They are preserved and as a result they persevere in trusting the only sacrifice, the final sacrifice of the Lamb of God. They look to Him. This is the justified sinner's life: a continual looking to Jesus by faith and resting right there. What joy! What peace! What comfort! What assurance! Thank God for sovereign grace.