Friday, March 30, 2012

Hey — Are You Boasting in the Lord?

I received this email from a good friend:
What does it exactly mean to boast in the Lord? I have a vague idea of what it means however what does it truly mean? And where in the bible does it talk about it?

Here is my answer to him:

Monday, March 26, 2012

The Power & Trustworthiness of the Bible

The Bible is trustworthy. The heart of the Christian is a library that must hold, keep, & store the Word of God. It is dependable, trustworthy, powerful, effective, supernatural, and divinely given. Last night I had the privilege to preach what God has taught me this past week regarding the supernatural power and Spirit-given assurance that God's Word is truly that — God's Word.

Listen to and apply this sermon here. I feel that Spurgeon's remarks aptly conclude a discussion on the trustworthiness of Scripture:
God’s word is the soul’s manna and the soul’s water of life. How greatly we ought to prize each word of divine teaching. But, dear brethren, do you not think that many are very neglectful of God’s instructive voice? In the Bible we have precious doctrines, precious promises, precious precepts, and above all a precious Christ, and if a man would really live upon these choice things, he might rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But how often is the Bible left unread! And so God is not heard.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Look to Christ!

Reader, trust Christ, look to Christ, cry to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you never yet believed, about your soul. If you have not the right feelings yet, ask Him to give you right feelings.  If you dare not think that you have true faith yet, ask Him to give you faith.  But in any case do not sit still.  Do not idle away your soul into hell in ignorant, unscriptural sloth.  Do not live on in senseless inactivity,—waiting for you know not what,—expecting what you cannot explain,—increasing your guilt every day,—offending God by continuing in lazy unbelief, —and hourly digging a grave for your own soul.  Arise and call upon Christ!  Awake and cry to Jesus about your soul!  Whatever difficulties there may be about believing, one thing at least is abundantly clear,—no man ever perished and went to hell from the foot of the cross.  If you can do nothing else, lie down at the foot of the cross.

— JC Ryle

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The importance of domestic piety (=holiness)

Here is a marvelous reminder from J.H. Merle D'Aubigne (Swiss pastor, 1827):

But, my brethren, if the love of God be in your hearts, and if you feel that, being bought with a price, you ought to glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are his, where do you love to glorify him rather than in your families and in your houses? You love to unite with your brethren in worshipping him publicly in the church; you love to pour out your souls before him in your closets. Is it only in the presence of that being with whom God has connected you for life and before your children, that you can not think of God? Is it, then, only, that you have no blessings to ascribe? Is it, then, only, that you have no mercies and protection to implore? You can speak of every thing when with them; your conversation is upon a thousand different matters; but your tongue and your heart can not find room for one word about God! You will not look up as a family to him who is the true Father of your family; you will not converse with your wife and your children about that Being who will one day, perhaps, be the only husband of your wife, the only Father of your children!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Friday, March 9, 2012

Charles Spurgeon — The Nineteenth Century Calvinistic Evangelist!

Here are quotes from Steve Lawson's session on Charles Spurgeon - the Evangelistic Zeal of a Calvinist. (Forgive me for any typos — I tried to type fast while Lawson spoke.)


INTRO:
“If you’re going to be a fisherman, you must cast the line, draw the fish.”

Be committed to the sovereignty of God in salvation & have an evangelistic heart and fervor.

“The only preacher who plays with a full deck is a Calvinistic evangelist.” He is a force to be reckoned with.

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
The “prince of preachers” - the greatest preacher the church has ever known since Paul.

He stands at the head of the list of every survey of great preachers.

If Calvin was the greatest theologian, if Edwards was greatest philosopher, and Whitefield was greatest evangelist, then SPurgeon was the greatest evangelistic pastor to occupy one pulpit over a period of time.

WHY SPURGEON???

One of the greatest preachers of the last century, if not the greatest of all time (Lloyd Jones on Spurgeon)

Spurgeon was one of the greatest evangelists England has ever seen … Spurgeon was one of the staunchest defenders of the doctrines of grace (Boice)

Spurgeon preached a full bodied gospel with … Calvinist convictions and evangelistic appeal (Al Mohler)
    --> he had the depth of Calvinism
    --> he had the breadth of evangelism
    --> WE NEED THIS

“We need depth fo reformed thinking & breadth of evangelistic zeal & fervor. When you bring them together, it’s like GAS and FIRE ---- an explosion takes place.”

He was bold, courageous, larger-then-life personality. As he stood in the pulpit, he roared like a lion.

Spurgeon was in ONE pulpit for 38 years and thousands came to faith in Christ.

HIS LIFE…

HIS AUTHORITY.
His foundation was built on the authority of God’s Word.

He was personification of sola scriptura.

One ounce of what God has to say is worth more than 40 tons of what man has to say (Steve Lawson paraphrasing Spurgeon)

“I believe nothing because Calvin taught it but because we find his teaching in the Word of God.”

“I am content to be a mere repeater of Scripture. If it’s new it’s not true.”

“Great men help us to understand the truth. But we believe what we believe because we can put a finger on chapter and verse.”

WHAT WAS SPURGEON’S CALVINISM (sovereignty of God in salvation):
The old truth that Calvin preached … must thunder through England again.

Sovereignty of God in Salvation
1, TOTAL DEPRAVITY
The totality of our humanity is tainted by sin and corrupted by sin. Every inch and every ounce as born in Adam’s fallen race. We are all under the plague of sin.

Our mind, heart, and will is under dominion of sin.

Every son and daughter of Adam’s race has moral inability. No one can come to God nor believe in Christ.

2. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
Election is written with an iron pen. It is forever etched in God’s Word.

Spurgeon championed the doctrine of God’s sovereign choice of whom he would save before time began.

3, DEFINITE ATONEMENT/PARTICULAR REDEMPTION
Every person for whom Christ died must beyond a shadow of a doubt be cleansed from sin and be washed in the blood before the Father’s throne.

He believed in actual atonement.

4. IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
A man is not saved against his will; but he is made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost.

A mighty grace which he does not wish to reisst enters into the man, disarms him, makes him a new creature and he is saved.

The holy Spirit triumphs in the hearts of all those whom the Father has chosen.

By the power of his effectual grace, He said “I must I will come I” and then he turned my heart, and made me love him”

5. PRESERVING GRACE
I could not keep myself, but if Christ promised to keep me then I’d be safe forever.

God would save me forever --- that is sovereign grace” (Lawson)

SERMON: text: Matt 8:11 - many shall come from the East & West…
In this sermon, Spurgeon drew focus on the word shall ---- many shall…

The gospel does not ask for your consent, it gives it.”

“It does not say: “will you have it” but it makes you willing in the day of GOd’s power.”

Christ says: “You shall be saved.”

“Oh the evangelistic power of preaching the DOCTRINES OF GRACE” (Lawson)

Pride must be crushed in order for sinners to come to faith in Christ.

For God to put something in the Bible and you NOT proclaim it is nothing but POPERY (what the Catholic church does).

“It claims elitism with Rome, the Pope & Cardinals. To withhold the preaching of the doctrines of predestination & election is nothing more than Roman Catholicism in the Evangelical Church”

“If you think something in the Book is not fit, then go complain to God, … not men.” (Spurgeon)

If we are going to have REVIVAL, then we MUST dust off the old doctrines and preach them under the power of the Holy Spirit of God (Lawson)

SPURGEON’S EVANGELISM
Not only did God appoint the end, but the means to that end. God has ordained gospel preaching and prayer for lost souls & holy living and personal witnessing & its not either or (w/ election) but BOTH and.

Spurgeon had one model in the ministry == GEORGE WHITEFIELD

Whitefield was my own model (Spurgeon).

SERMONS:
Nov 13, 1864 - John 6.37 - “All that the Father has given shall come to me.”

Luke 14:23 - “Go out into the highways & hedges & compel them to come in”   TITLE:  Compel them to come in

“It is not enough merely to present the gospel; it’s not enough merely to tell people about the gospel. We must plead with them, we must persuade them, reason with them, urge them, compel them to come in.”

Too many of us who hold to Reformed truth are too proud to beg with sinners to repent.” (Lawson)

I compel you to come (here is Spurgeon’s OUTLINE):
I invite you to come
I command you to come
I exhort you to come
I reason with you to come
I entreat you to come
I threaten you to come
I weep for you to come
I pray for you to come.


2 Cor 6.2 - “Behold now is the accepted time”    TITLE: “NOW”

SPURGEON’S BOLDNESS
Come on fire for God and people will come and see you burn (Spurgeon)

Preach the gospel; the gates of hell shake. … it is the Master’s mandate (Spurgeon)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Quotes from Alex Montoya's Seminar on Preaching with Passion

Here are some quotes from Montoya's seminar at the Shepherd's Conference yesterday on PREACHING WITH PASSION: (sorry for the misspellings — I was typing quickly as he spoke.)

Preaching is not an end in of itself; preaching is the declaration of God’s Word to mankind that man might repent of his sin & come to saving faith.

Preaching is the finest way that we can present every man complete in Christ.

“For us to preach or teach a boring sermon is a great sin.”

“We are entrusted with the oracles of God --- it is an exciting book.”

“Normally when people don’t like your preaching they don’t write you poems, they send white powder in little envelopes.”

“Preach God’s WOrd effectively; preach it in such a way that what you say is important but how you say it is important.”

“Preach the Word of God that it comes across with great passion, with great energy, with great fire.”

“Witohut passion, the sermon becomes a lecture or a moral speech.”

A dull minister creates a dull audience. A dull preacher is a contradiction in terms.

“Come to God as a clean preacher and not an unclean preacher.”

You may be a cracked vase, but may you be the cleanest vase in the cabinet.

Preaching with passion comes from one who has communion with God.

“Spiritual power comes when you know God has called & commissioned you.”

Preach a text that keeps you awake Saturday night. It keeps you awake & you can’t sleep.

“If you love your people you cannot ever preach a bad sermon.”

“Don’t be so deep and in a deep well that there’s nothing down there but an old shoe & a dead cat.”

What we need today is preachers in pulpits who preach with authority. Not giving suggestions, opinions, not making some remark, but every time you declare God’s Word say “Thus says the LORD.”

We’re killing our church b/c our preachers can’t preach, they don’t bother to think and improve at preaching.

Preaching is delivering truth with deep urgency.

Preachers must become gospel maniacs; and we must be captivated and recaptivated by Christ.

Always think of Judgement. Think of the judgment of sin. Sin is the enemy of God and of the soul. It is a ruthless enemy. And it needs to be assaulted by preachers.

“Preach towards a verdict. Call men to a verdict. You must do something about this message. We must persuade men.”

If you preach apathetic sermons then you’ll preach with no effect.

“If you don’t preach expecting change then people won’t change.”

“Take your life and pour the truth on you and when you preach preach with great passion and fire to the glory of God.”

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Coffee with the Pastor

On Sunday evenings after our worship service, you are most welcome to drop by our home for a time of coffee, fellowship, & discussion about Christ Fellowship Bible Church.

If there are any questions you have about CFBC feel free to bring them. We would also love to hear your testimony, how you heard about CFBC, and what God is doing in your life.

For more info, contact us through the CFBC website.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

LIVE-STREAM the Shepherd's Conference

This upcoming week the SHEPHERD'S CONFERENCE will be live-streamed so you can watch the general sessions online. Here is the schedule (all times are PST).


March 7-9, 2012.  Click HERE for the Live-Stream link.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012




8:00 amRegistration
10:00 amGeneral Session 1 - John MacArthur
11:30 amLunch*
1:30 pmSeminar Session 1 Details
2:45 pmBreak
3:15 pmGeneral Session 2 - Tom Pennington
4:30 pmDinner Break
7:00 pmGeneral Session 3 - John MacArthur

Thursday, March 8, 2012

9:00 amGeneral Session 4 - Voddie Baucham
10:15 amBreak
10:45 amGeneral Session 5 - John MacArthur Q&A
NoonLunch*
2:00 pmSeminar Session 2 Details
3:15 pmBreak
3:45 pmSeminar Session 3 Details
5:00 pmDinner Break
7:00 pmGeneral Session 6 - Al Mohler

Friday, March 9, 2012

9:00 amGeneral Session 7 - Phil Johnson
10:15 amBreak
10:45 amSeminar Session 4 Details
NoonLunch*
2:00 pmGeneral Session 8 - Steve Lawson
4:00 pmDinner Break
7:00 pmGeneral Session 9 - John MacArthur

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Collapse of Commitment — Church Membership & the Reluctance to Commit

Tim Witmer has a great comment in this regard in his book on The Shepherd Leader:

People are showing increasing reluctance to identify themselves with a particular flock, to make the commitment of church membership vows, and to submit to the authority of shepherd-elders inherent in those commitments. Even within the church, however, Christ's sheep are transgressing the bounds of safety and security established in His Word. Church leaders, on the other hand, are showing unwillingness not only to embrace the standards of the Chief Shepherd and his Word but reluctance to courageously seek those who have strayed for the glory of God and the health of his flock. The danger of the age in which we live is the collapse of commitment: to the Lord, to his standards, and to the authorities he has established.

Friday, February 24, 2012

JUSTIFICATION by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone.

Martin Luther once remarked concerning the doctrine of justification:

a Christian is righteous and holy by an alien and foreign holiness --- this mercy and grace is not something human; it is not some sort of disposition of the heart; but it is a divine blessing, given through the true knowledge of the GOspel, when we know or believe that our sin has been forgiven through the grace and merit of Christ … is not this righteousness an alien righteousness? … Therefore, a Christian is not formally righteous; he is not righteous according to substance or quality.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Pray for Pastor Youcef & for his strength during time of imminent death.

Pray for Pastor Youcef & his family during this time:

A trial court in Iran has issued its final verdict, ordering a Christian pastor to be put to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, according to sources close to the pastor and his legal team.
Supporters fear Youcef Nadarkhani, a 34-year-old father of two who was arrested over two years ago on charges of apostasy, may now be executed at any time without prior warning, as death sentences in Iran may be carried out immediately or dragged out for years.
It is unclear whether Nadarkhani can appeal the execution order.

Philosophy of "The Sinner's Prayer"

Philosophy of “The Sinner’s Prayer”
By: Geoffrey R. Kirkland
CFBC

Many evangelists and pastors have utilized “the sinner’s prayer” for many years. One may share the gospel with someone and then call them respond by praying the sinner’s prayer. This is the prayer that sinners pray which “seals the deal” and confirms someone to be a Christian. Or does it? It may shock some that the sinner’s prayer is nowhere found in the Scriptures and it is, in fact, a practice introduced very late in church history—and that amongst the Arminian movement. A number of reasons could be given as to why the sinner’s prayer is not the best way of calling people to salvation. In other words, it is the persuasion of CFBC that the sinner’s prayer is not a biblical element in evangelism and should therefore be discarded. The following reasons provide support for this statement.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Teach Your Children...

Deuteronomy 6:20–21:
When your son asks you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?" then you shall say to your son, "We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand."
Charles Spurgeon:

a healthy fear of the LORD

Numbers 17:12-13 12 Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Behold, we perish, we are dying, we are all dying! 13 "Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, must die. Are we to perish completely?"

In God's Word, the people of Israel were in the wilderness and as they journeyed through the arid desert, a group led by Korah assembled together "against Moses and Aaron" (Num 16:3) and accused them of "exalting themselves above the assembly of the LORD" (16:3b).

Saturday, February 11, 2012

the seriousness of idolatry — false worship.

From Leviticus 20:

Leviticus 20:4-5 4 'If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his offspring to Molech, so as not to put him to death, 5 then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the harlot after him, by playing the harlot after Molech.

Leviticus 20:4-5
4 וְאִם הַעְלֵם יַעְלִימוּ עַם הָאָרֶץ אֶת־עֵינֵיהֶם מִן־הָאִישׁ הַהוּא בְּתִתּוֹ מִזַּרְעוֹ לַמֹּלֶךְ לְבִלְתִּי הָמִית אֹתוֹ
5 וְשַׂמְתִּי אֲנִי אֶת־פָּנַי בָּאִישׁ הַהוּא וּבְמִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתוֹ וְאֵת כָּל־הַזֹּנִים אַחֲרָיו לִזְנוֹת אַחֲרֵי הַמֹּלֶךְ מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּם

In the Mosaic, Old Testament Law, God said that if His covenant people, Israel, should ever disregard a man when he gives any of his offspring to Molech — the Phoenecian & Canaanite god — so as to not put him to death, then God Himself will set his face against that man & his family and cut him off from the covenant people.

From these verses we can see a number of helpful thoughts to bear in mind:

Friday, February 10, 2012

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Spurgeon on Family Worship

"To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. . .. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the parents' prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this volume shall come honor the Lord and receive his smile."
Quoted in Voddie Bauckham, Family Shepherds, 19.

So HOW do you do family worship, you ask?

The Pastor's Primary Responsibilities in a Church Plant

The Pastor’s Primary Responsibilities in a Church Plant
By Geoffrey R. Kirkland

These are not exhaustive nor are they unchanging. These five principles serve to keep the pastor’s focus on keeping the main thing the main thing and not becoming sidetracked with the many—innumerable—responsibilities that may arise. At the outset of a church plant with one man on staff and a small church, the focus must be very narrow and clear.

1. Preach the Word of God.

The pastor must study the Word of God so that he is adequately prepared to preach the Word of God in an expository way weekly.

2. Shepherd the People of God.

The pastor must tend his sheep. He must know them, learn them, love them, care for them, pray for them, counsel them, rebuke them, correct them, and train them. The best way to be an effective shepherd is to know the sheep.

3. Pray for the Unction of God.

The pastor must learn to be alone with God. He must love isolated times of communion with God. The pastor must pray for and depend on the unction—the power—of God the Holy Spirit in every aspect of the ministry. Prayer is not secondary or tertiary; it must be primary.

4. Train Men in the Word of God.

The pastor must make it his goal to train up “faithful men who will be able to train others” for the furthering of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pastor can meet weekly with the men of the Church to preach, teach, exhort, and pour into the men so that the church will be full of masculine men who are biblically-grounded and theocentrically focused.

5. Focus on the Glory of God.

The pastor must anchor his mind and heart on the glory of God in all things. That God is glorified in everything that happens is clear from Scripture. Therefore, the pastor should bear in mind that when the good and the hard times come in church planting, the magnificent glory of God must fill the pastor’s heart and soul.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

how the sovereignty of God is necessary for Christ's substitutionary death to have any meaning.

“It is a part of sovereignty to transfer the penalty due to the crime of one upon another, and substitute a sufferer, with the sufferer’s own consent, in the place o a criminal, whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserved punishment.

God transferred the sins of men upon Christ, and inflicted on him a punishment for them. He summed up the debts of man, charged them upon the score of Christ, imputing to him the guilt and inflicting upon him the penalty: 'the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all;' he made them all to meet upon his back: 'He hath made him to be sin for us' (2 Cor 5:21).

He was made so by the sovereign pleasure of God; a punishment for sin, as most understand it, which could not be righteously inflicted had not sin been first righteously imputed, by the consent of Christ, and the order of the Judge of the world.

Without this act of sovereignty in God, we had forever perished: for if we could suppose Christ laying down his life for us without the pleasure and order of God, he could not have been said to have borne our punishment

It was an act of Divine sovereignty to account Him that was righteous a sinner in our stead, and to account us, who were sinners, righteous upon the merit of his death."


Stephen Charnock, The Existence & Attributes of God, 1:424-25.