vassal of the King

This is the next in the ongoing blog-series on "The New Birth"   The IRRESISTIBILITY of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church When God chooses to rebirth a man, that person will most definitely be changed. None can resist the powerful working of God. God has ordained all things that will ever happen and all things will come about precisely and perfectly the way that He foreordained it to happen. Nothing will ever remain unfulfilled. No person will ever die unconverted if God has elected them. One who is born again -- or, born from above -- is drawn to Christ by God alone (John 6:44). Indeed, it is the power of God that draws sinners to salvation. All of this affirms the reality that the regeneration that God imparts to sinners is irresistible. The irresistibility of the new birth is seen, proven, and extolled in the following headings. 1) The picture of regeneration. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John 3 and provided a very simple illustration

This is the next part in the ongoing blog series on "The New Birth"   The CLEANSING of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church What Jesus told Nicodemus should have immediately brought Scriptures from Ezekiel to mind. Jesus told the teacher of Israel, who read and knew the Hebrew Bible, that he must be born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). To see the kingdom of God, Jesus clearly told Nicodemus that he desperately had a need. And that need was spiritual in nature. It was a new birth, a supernatural, God-given miracle, that would make him clean. But what is the nature of this cleansing that comes from the new birth? To understand Jesus’ phrase that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, one must turn back to Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 36, the prophet speaks to the house of Israel (v.22) and speaks on behalf of God and how He will act for His Name and for His glory among all the nations (vv.22-23). God clarifies what He will do to the peop

This brief-audio blog series is answering the question:   Why is same-sex marriage [homosexuality, transgenderism, same-sex attraction, LGBTQ, et al] sinful in God's eyes? This contains all of the messages in this audio-blog series. Same-Sex Marriage Is Sinful because... Part 1 = It defies God's created design  |  listen Part 2 = It refuses to learn from past history  |  listen  Part 3 = It presents a damning gospel  |  listen Part 4 = It ignores the coming wrath of God  |  listen Part 5 = It destroys a people & sends them to hell  |  listen Part 6 = It attempts, pridefully, to 'play God'  |  listen Part 7 = It provides no hope of eternal salvation  |  listen Conclusion: The hope available to the homosexuals  |  listen 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor t

This brief-audio blog series is answering the question:   Why is same-sex marriage [homosexuality, transgenderism, same-sex attraction, LGBTQ, et al] sinful in God's eyes? This contains 6 of the 7 audios in this audio-blog series. Same-Sex Marriage Is Sinful because... Part 1 = It defies God's created design  |  listen Part 2 = It refuses to learn from past history  |  listen  Part 3 = It presents a damning gospel  |  listen Part 4 = It ignores the coming wrath of God  |  listen Part 5 = It destroys a people & sends them to hell  |  listen Part 6 = It attempts, pridefully, to 'play God'  |  listen The 7th and final part will follow in coming days. 

This brief-audio blog series is answering the question:   Why is same-sex marriage [homosexuality, transgenderism, same-sex attraction, LGBTQ, et al] sinful in God's eyes? This contains 4 of the 7 audios in this series.   Same-Sex Marriage Is Sinful because... Part 1 = It defies God's created design  |  listen Part 2 = It refuses to learn from past history  |  listen  Part 3 = It presents a damning gospel  |  listen Part 4 = It ignores the coming wrath of God  |  listen The next 3 parts will follow in coming days. 

Brief audio blogs answering the question: Why is same-sex marriage [homosexuality, same-sex attraction, transgenderism, et al] sinful? Same-Sex Marriage Is Sinful because... Part 1 = It defies God's created design  |  listen Part 2 = It refuses to learn from past history  |  listen

The LGBT community has made many claims about itself and about how they believe Christians ought to relate to those in the community. I provide many of their claims with biblical responses here .

From JC Ryle : Are you a dying believer? Have you gone to that bed from which something within tells you you will never come down alive? Are you drawing near to that solemn hour, when soul and body must part for a season, and you must launch into a world unknown? Oh, look steadily at the cross of Christ by faith, and you shall be kept in peace! Fix the eyes of your mind firmly, not on a man-made crucifix—but on Jesus crucified, and He shall deliver you from all your fears. Though you walk through dark places, He will be with you. He will never leave you—never forsake you. Sit under the shadow of the cross to the very last, and its fruit shall be sweet to your taste. "Ah," said a dying missionary, "there is but one thing needful on a death-bed, and that is to feel one's arms around the cross!"   I lay these thoughts before your mind. What you think now about the cross of Christ, I cannot te

  This is the next part in the ongoing blog-series on the New Birth.   The SOVEREIGNTY of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The new birth comes from God -- and God alone. No one can pick, choose, determine, plan, or resist the working of God as He accomplishes this act in the soul of a sinner. In a word, the new birth is a sovereign work of God. That means that it is a supernatural act, a royal act, a kingly act, an exclusively-divine act. None can resist when God brings the new birth. None can reject it. None can refuse it. And none can resist His power. This is the glory of the sovereignty of God’s power as He puts it on display through the regeneration -- new birth -- of a soul. James speaks of the sovereignty of this new birth when he writes: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18a). The Greek reads: βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείας. This means that God caused us to be born [ἀπεκύησεν] all by t

  This is part 4 of the ongoing blog-series on the New Birth.   The GLORY of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The monergistic working of God in accomplishing the new birth points to the unspeakable glory, the unfathomable grace, and the unrivaled character of God. Nothing in all the universe can compare with the mighty mercy of God in causing spiritually decaying and filthy corpses to rise to new spiritual life by the sovereign breath of the Spirit. Let him who boasts boast in the Lord. None can glory except in what God has done through Christ by means of the Spirit of life. 1) This glory of the new birth points to the SOURCE of the new birth. All glory goes to God alone. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The true nature of the new birth comes from God -- and it can only come from God. Flesh gives birth to flesh. But it is the Spirit that gives birth to spirit. What can revive spiritually dead souls? None but the Spirit Himself. Thus,

  This is part 3 of an ongoing blog-series on The New Birth The IMPOSSIBILITY of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The very fact that Jesus told Nicodemus that in order for him to enter the kingdom of God he must receive the new birth shows that it is utterly impossible for him (or, for any man) to bring about this new birth by his own powers. Nicodemus heard Jesus speak and stood baffled at what the Son of God said. He couldn’t wrap his self-righteous mind around this. How could a person be born again? In fact, Nicodemus asked the Savior: “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he” (John 3:4). Nicodemus is not a fool. He is extremely smart as he is the teacher of Israel (John 3:10). He wasn’t being silly by asking how he could crawl back into his mother’s womb. As a Jew of Jews, he affirmed that from the very beginning of his life, he endeavored to be as righteous as he possibly

This upcoming weekend, many individuals and families will gather at Logan Valley Christian Retreat for the annual CFBC retreat -- getaway! The theme this year is: BODY LIFE IN THE LOCAL CHURCH .  The weekend will be a wonderful time to get to know others in the church and the weekend will focus specifically on specific texts from Galatians 5-6 that direct our attention to body life in the local church . BODY LIFE IN THE LOCAL CHURCH 4 Messages: 1. Session #1 Friday PM - The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) 2. Session #2 Saturday AM - Bearing One Another's Burdens (Galatians 6:1-2) 3. Session #3 Saturday PM - Through Love, Serving One Another (Galatians 5:13) 4. Session #4 Sunday AM - Boasting Only in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14) If you cannot join us, all of the audios will be available at the CFBC media page. And please be in much prayer for the retreat --  - that relationships would be formed - that friendships would grow -

Don’t Return to the Vomit! Biblical Counsel for God’s People Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The Bible addresses real issues of life. One can confidently turn to the Word of God to find comfort in afflictions, guidance in uncertainties, strength in weakness, warnings against sin, and commands for Christians. The Scriptures speak of how the people of God must view sin. Sin is a terrible evil. It woos, it traps, it kisses, and then it kills. Sin whispers that its a friend till in the end it slaughters with a death-blow. But the Bible provides the truth that God’s people must heed to mortify sin and to guard from patterns of evil. Like a dog that returns to its vomit, is a fool who repeats his folly. — Proverbs 26:11 This essay will provide a few helpful thoughts concerning this verse & its application. 1. Be sensitive to sin & inform your conscience by Scripture. The people of God must inform their consciences regularly with biblical truth so that the con

THE KIND OF MAN TO OPEN AIR PREACH Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Open air preaching is biblical. It is one divinely-appointed means of proclaiming the gospel to the lost. But the question must be asked: what kind of man should stand, open the Bible, and herald? 1. A PARDONED Man The kind of man that may open air preach must be, first and foremost, a converted man. He must have received the full pardon of all His sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. This man must have himself fled to Jesus Christ before he stands up before crowds and calls them to find refuge in this Savior. He must cling to Christ as Lord and as Savior so that he doesn’t hypocritically call others to do what he himself hasn’t done. He must truly be regenerated. This converted man, indwelt by the Spirit of God, is able then to know the things of God and to proclaim them with power. True unction, Spirit-given empowerment, comes to the man who is saved by God and full of love for God.

  This is part 2 of a lengthy blog-series on the new birth.   The NECESSITY of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church As has already been seen, the new birth speaks of the birth from above, that is, a heavenly birth. This heavenly birth comes from God, given by grace, to the sinner in desperate need of supernatural intervention lest he perish in his sins. But the question then arises, just how important is this new birth. Is it really that important for a person to be born again? What if they merely know about God or have an intellectual assent to Jesus Christ? Will this save them? What if they’ve been baptized? Or what if they’ve gone to church and have remained faithful in a local congregation all their lives? What if a person prayed a prayer and was real sincere in uttering those words to accept Jesus into his heart? Don’t these help? Contribute? Work? Save? In the passage in John 3 when Jesus speaks with Nicodemus, Jesus unequivocally and most luci

  This is the first of a blog series on the new birth. The MEANING of the New Birth Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Jesus said to Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, when he approached him and remarked on the signs that He had done: “Truly, truly, I say to you that unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Jesus said the same thing in verse 7: you must be “born again.”  What does it mean, however, to be born again? What does the Greek phrase refer to? When Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born again to enter the kingdom, it behooves every reader to carefully study the text so as to know the divinely-given meaning of this most-important verse. To misunderstand this verse is of grave consequence. To rightly understand it thrusts one to the highest heavens in worship. To be born again means that one receives the new birth from above. The word that occurs in this passage is ἄνωθεν [ anothen ] which speaks of being born “from abov

LESSONS FOR YOUNG MEN. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Our world desperately needs men. Real men. Manly men. Godly men. Holy men. Courageous men. Men who fear no one because they fear their God more. Our culture despises true, biblical manhood. What our young people today who grow up in American society will not learn on their own, from their friends, from Hollywood, or simply by observing the way of culture is how to be a real, godly, courageous, man of God. So in this brief essay, I will give 5 simple lessons for young, maturing men. 1. Fear God. Young man, if you are to be a real man, you must fear God. To fear God means to have a true understanding of who God is and what God has done in Christ. It is to know the redemption story and to be affected by what God has done for you by sheer grace. To fear God is to know God and to follow God in obedience. This means that you, young man, must be humble. Manhood and pride are never harmonious. They are antith