vassal of the King

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 - The Soil That Bears Fruit — “Hearers, Doers, Fruit-Bearers, and Persevering in Faith” Introduction: Jesus has gripped his hearers as He tells them a real-life story that they can all relate to. In fact, Jesus has utterly cornered His hearers. None can escape this story. The point of the story is to show how a true believer hears and responds to the Word of God. Every single hearer that Jesus speaks to must therefore ask and honestly answer the question of how he hears the Word that Jesus sows. Masses have crowded around Jesus. In fact, so many people have gathered that He had to get into a boat and preach from the Sea of Galilee because the crowds congregated on the shore and on the nearby hills of northern Israel (Mark 4:1). Having such a large audience, Jesus began to teach them spiritual truth with a common to life, everyday illustration about a farmer who cast his seed to the ground in hopes of producing healthy crops. Jesus note

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 - The Soil Among the Thorns — “Distracted With a Lust for the Present World” Introduction: Jesus is the master teacher. His illustrations are rich, picturesque, understandable, and undeniably clear. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (called the “synoptics” from Greek two words that mean ‘seeing together’) all provide a particular discourse that Jesus gave in northern Israel while sitting in a bot on the Sea of Galilee while the masses stood before him on the shore and on the surrounding hillside. Many heard this teaching. His hearers were gripped by the illustration and the spiritual meaning of this parable. In the story, Jesus spoke of a man who went out to sow seed and some of the scattered seed fell beside the road where the birds quickly swooped down and ate it up. Other seed came upon rocky ground where it did not have much soil. It did, however, spring up quickly but because it had no moisture and no depth of soil, when the run rose up it

Part 1 - The Introduction Part 2 - The Seed by the Road Continuing the study on the parable of the soils, here is part 3. Part 3 - The Soil On Rocky Ground — “Impulsive But No Persevering Faith” Introduction: In the public ministry of our Lord, he spend much time in the northern region of Israel teaching the masses and preaching the saving gospel of repentance & faith. A large crowd has gathered around him in the northern precincts of the Sea of Galilee and because of the enormity of the crowd he had to get into a boat and teach there. The people gathered on the sea shore and on the hillsides nearby. There very well may have been a man sowing seed in a field nearby as a practical real-life illustration of Jesus’ teaching. Remarkably, Jesus brings all of his hearers into his story as they all stand listening to the “Word” as He sows it to them. Just as a sower scatters the seed, so in Jesus’ story, the seed is the going forth of the Word of God. Thus, none of Jesus’ hearers c

This follows up Part 1 in the 5-part series on: The Parable of the Soils: Part 1 - An Overview of the Parable of the Soils Part 2 - The Soil Beside the Road — “Hearers But Not Doers” Comments: In this real life story that Jesus gives to his hearers who crowded the hillside as he taught on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, he commanded his hearers to listen to his teaching (Mark 4:3). In the illustration, Jesus speaks of a man who sowed seed and some of it fell beside the road. This may have happened as some seed may have dropped out of the pouch as the sower walked through his fields. Others may have been cast out of his hand onto the ground and it fell not on rich, good, fertile soil but next to the road without any root. Luke 8:5 notes that as this seed fell beside the road, it was trampled under foot. And, of course, as these seeds fell beside the road and lay on the surface of the ground, the birds quickly swooped down and ate the seed up. The Explanation: J

Are You Saved? The Parable of the Soils: Which Are You? By: Geoffrey R. Kirkland Introduction Preliminary Notes: The parable that the Lord Jesus Christ gives concerning a sower who went out to sow seed is of paramount importance in understanding the saving gospel. The parable is quite radical. In this particular story when Jesus explains the illustration, Jesus gives four different categories of people. Three of these categories of people are lost, unsaved, and have forfeited eternal life. Only one category of people in Jesus’ illustration consist of truly regenerate people. The Text: Mark 4:1-20  —  He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.  2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching,  3 "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;  4 as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and

Justification by Faith — The Foundational Doctrine A gracious work of God whereby He pardons a sinner & judicially declares him to be perfect righteous because of Christ’s righteousness credited to the sinner by faith alone. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The church stands or falls based on its definition of, biblical fidelity to, and commitment to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. If a person gets this doctrine right and believes in Christ alone then he is justified. If the doctrine of justification is corrupted in his mind and heart and he does not cling to Christ alone then his soul is lost and still dead in sin. Because we must understand justification by faith alone, this paper serves to help in providing a number of helpful points that biblically define what the biblical doctrine of justification entails. 1. It is a declaration that we are righteous. It does not mean that we are made righteous. Jesus told a story of a man who prayed in th

From John Owen: Unless preachers experience of the power of the truth which they preach in and upon their own souls...they will themselves be lifeless and heartless in their own work, and their labor for the most part will be unprofitable towards others. . . . A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savory unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us. And no man lives in a more woeful condition than those who really believe not themselves what they persuade others to believe continually.

LIVE-STREAM LINK: Click HERE to watch the conference sessions. * At the Conference front page, live-stream schedule will be posted — all times will be PST.* Dates of Conference: March 6-10, 2013 Other Shepherd's Conference Media: All past sessions & sermons are found HERE.

CS Lewis: "I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same." Here are other helpful reads on the topic of HEAVEN .  We'll also examine the topic of worship & heaven at CFBC for our Family Bible Hour tomorrow (March 3rd) at 4PM.

CFBC Men! The entire Bible is the Word of God and the entire Bible is sufficient to lead us to the knowledge of the Truth (2 Tim 3.15). That is why we as the Christ Fellowship Bible Church men are starting a new study on Friday mornings at 6AM (at the Des Peres Schnucks ) on the Glory of God in Redemption.   Specifically, we'll see how the gospel of grace occurs in every book of the Bible! Each week we'll take a book of the Bible and examine how and where the gospel is found. We're starting today with the book of Genesis!  See you there!