God alone is Sovereign

1 Chronicles 29:11

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.

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Sunday, November 30, 2008

James White on Calvinism

This video is only about 10 minutes long and well worth the watch. I love what Mr. White wraps up his closing comments with. God is God and we are not. This simple comment is something that my spirit has agreed with since my conversion. Who am I a mere man, the creature of the great Creator to question or reach into the holy divine dwelling place and question God about anything. He is sovereign and I am not.


The thing I like most about James White is he places all his weight on scripture, no matter the cost. Scripture is the inspired Word of God and is Truth.

Friday, November 28, 2008

"I'm Not Ashamed of the Scandal." (Paul Washer)

It's about a hour long sermon, but well worth the watch. It really heats up around the 35 minute mark.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 64:10


Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Christmas come Early


I just received a new batch of books in the mail from Amazon, and although my wife tells me I have to wrap them up for Christmas, I just had to start on one. The book I choose is “Wesley Gold” a book about John Wesley, compiled by Ray Comfort.

I started the book last night and could not put it down. The first quarter of the book was a biography of John Wesley’s life and the rest of the book are excerpts from his dairies. I completed the biography and will most likely finish the book tonight or tomorrow night.

The thing I am most intrigued about John Wesley is how this man of God could be so wrapped up in God’s word, studying and preaching it, and not be saved. Here is just one part of his dairy about this issue.

“Immediately it struck into my mind, “Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?” I asked Bohler whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered, “By no means.” I asked, “But what can I preach?” He said, “Preach faith till you have it, and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”

Shortly after the above diary, Wesley became a Christian - a true convert who burned with a hot white passion for all to know Christ.

Christmas has come early in the Bentley house!

John Piper - Test Yourself: Football or Christ?

Short clip of John Piper. Enjoy!

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 63:1


O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Enter Through the Narrow Gate (Paul Washer)



Oh Father, please dear Lord remove the veil of satans lies from the minds and hearts of those lost. Oh Holy One of eternity if you do not shine Your light upon us how can any know You in truth? May Your Word rein true and thunder down all You are. Help me oh Lord know Your will and continue to prompt my heart towards desiring to want to obey You in all I do. Save them oh God, save them. I beg You Master of all, please save them...In Christ's name.

If you think there is no problem then look at these statistics.

Since 1990, more than 300,000 people have been murdered in the U.S.
More than 50 million babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade.
50-60% of married couples admit to adultery, and 5 million unwed couples live together.
75-80% have had premarital sex by the age of 19.
One third of births are out of wedlock. 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease.
Americans spend up to 13 billion annually on pornography.
We have over 2,200,000 people in prison – the highest number in the world.
Surveys reveal that 91% lie regularly.

Does the above information look like a Christian nation? God help us....

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 62:8


"Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us."

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Acts 13:47-48


"For so the Lord has commanded us,


'I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.'


"When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Psalm 23

Scripture for the Day


Proverbs 24:11-12


"Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?"

This verse really stood out to me today. The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary makes a note that neglecting a known duty is sin (James 4:17 says “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”)

Let’s quickly look at the verses above.

"Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter."

The damned, unsaved multitudes of people are being led like blinded sheep to death and slaughter. We are to deliver and hold back those stumbling. I believe this is more than just looking pretty for church on Sunday or hoping someone notices how we live our lives. Hold back seems to literally mean we are to reach our hands out to the masses and tell them the truth about their future. Purposely make an attempt to witness to people.

"If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?"

If you are a believer and did not know that you were supposed to be His witness, now you do. (Acts 1:8 says “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me[a] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”) and (Mark 16:15 says “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”)

If you know you are to be His witness and do not do it, you are treading on very dangerous ground with the One True Living God.

(Hebrews 10:31 says “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”)

It’s a fearful thing for those who are perishing or like Proverbs indicate, drawn or stumbling towards death, but it should be just as fearful for those who claim to be His and disobey Him.

Let me help you with one sentence you can ask anyone, even a stranger that will get a conversation going about spiritual things.

“What do you think happens to someone when they die?” This question is not offensive and is really asking the person for their favorite subject, their opinion. This will allow you then to move the conversation towards a few points that are Biblical important.

1. The Holiness of God
2. The Depraved State of Man (If you violate any of the 10 commandments you are guilty before God)
3. The Justice of God (If God is just He has to punish law breakers)
4. The Redemption of God through Christ (Christ crucified and resurrection)
5. Mans Response (Repentance and Faith in Christ)

Now you know. Get to plowing God’s harvest field!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Dogs, Crumbs, and a Faith to Emulate (Jeff Noblit)

This is a great sermon. I found it over at Lane Chaplin's blog.


A Dose of Spurgeon


"We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ, because we say that Christ has not made satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved. Now, our reply to this is, that, on the other hand, our opponents limit it: we do not. The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men. They say, "No, certainly not." We ask them the next question--Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They answer, "No." They are obliged to admit this, if they are consistent. They say, "No, Christ has died that any man may be saved if..." --and then follow certain conditions of salvation. Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why, you. You say that Christ did not die so as to secure the salvation of anybody. We beg your pardon, when you say that we limits Christ's death; we say, "no my dear sir, it is you that do it." We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to your atonement; you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it."


Charles Spurgeon

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 56:13

For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?



How can I not serve my Lord? And how can I know being delivered from death and not tell people about my God, and how to find life? If we have been saved from death and are truly born again, we have a mandate from Christ to be His witnesses. Will we not cry out to this dying world? If we do not do it, who will?

Monday, November 17, 2008

A Short Conversation with Paul Washer

This video is about 16 minutes, but well worth the watch.

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 55:22a


"Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you..."

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Tangled In Sin


The Holy Spirit led me in teaching this lesson today in Bible fellowship. It was a heavy lesson, but one I felt the Lord wanted me to speak.


Tangled In Sin

2 Samuel Chapter 12: 1-14

Introduction:

Story of getting tangled in parachute after emergency landing.

We will be looking at David today in Chapter 12, however Chapter 11 is really the backdrop to today’s lesson. We see in Chapter 11 David have an affair with Bathsheba which In-Tangled him in multiple sins. After David found out Bathsheba was pregnant he had her husband Uriah the Hittite killed. After his death David made Bathsheba one of his wives and she gave birth to a son. The end of the Chapter 11 says

“But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”

I will read verses 1-14 in Chapter 12 so we can get a mental picture of what’s happening.

Let’s look at three points I feel helped David get Un-Tangled from his sin.

Sin Recognized

Vs. 1-4: The prophet Nathan used a story to really get David’s blood pressure up by making it very personal. David had been a Sheppard before becoming a King and no doubt had a very strong bond with his sheep. The rich man was of course David and the poor man was Uriah the Hittite. The little lamb was Bathsheba. Nathan painted David a picture he could easily recognize.

Vs.5-6: David unwittingly condemns himself here. According to Exodus 22:1 the stealing and slaughter of ox or sheep did not result in death, but restitution, and goes on to indicate a person caught stealing or slaughtering another’s animal had to pay them back four fold. John McArthur’s commentary notes: David did in a way pay four fold by losing four of his sons.

Vs.7a: The sin comes alive to David when Nathan says, “You are the man!” Do you think David was starting to catch on here.

Vs. 9: David was a criminal in God’s eyes, “Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?...” In Numbers 15:30 we see anyone defiantly voliating God's law is cut off from among his people...
Numbers 15:31 “because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.’”

If David had yet to figure it out, he now recognized for sure his sin,
“You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.”


Illustration:

Once recognizing I was flying the wrong direction, things became very serious for me. Emergency landings were always dangerous. I was all by myself and no one to blame. The first step in getting out of the mess I was in was seeing clearly that I was in trouble.

Application:

Often we fail to recognize our guilt. It’s easy to sit back and notice the wrong doings of others and very, very easy to condemn others. However, we seldom take a close look at ourselves. We might recognize a sin in our lives, but it is common to try and justify it. Recognizing sin in our lives is the first step towards receiving God’s forgiveness.

Sin Owned

Vs.13a: Read verse 13a

Notice here what David did not say. He did not say anything about Bathsheba or her husband. David owned his sin and acknowledged his sin was against the Lord. This is David’s short response, but it led him to write Psalm 51. Let’s take a look a what true repentance looks like.

Read Psalm 51:1-5 and notice David owning his sin. Then notice how David is turning back to God
Psalm 51:6-13

Illustration:

Go with me back on my skydive. Altitude was getting lower. After I had recognized I was in trouble and flying the wrong direction, I had to quickly own the situation I found myself in. There was no way I was getting back to safe landing areas. Doing nothing was not going to cut it, just like doing nothing with our sin will not cut it. Sin will catch us.
Romans 6:23 “for the wages of sin is death…”

Application:

We need to mainly understand sin is vertical – against God. Sin is transgression of God’s law
(1 John 3:4 says, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”)

David violated many of God’s commandments. He Lied (9th), he was a thief and stole his neighbor’s wife (8th), he murdered (6th), coveted his neighbor’s wife (10), committed adultery (7th) and dishonored his father and mother (5th).

David recognizing and owning his sin led to Godly sorrow which leads to true salvation
2 Corinthians 7:10a “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation…”

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”

We have to own our sin and repent with a genuine sorrow and that will lead us to our third and best point. Sin Forgiven
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Sin Forgiven

Vs. 13b: “the Lord also has put away your sin” I like John McArthur’s notes here: “The Lord graciously forgave David’s sin, but the inevitable temporal consequences of sin were experienced by him. Forgiveness does not always remove the consequences of sin in this life, only in the life to come.”

“You shall not die.” McArthur goes on to note, David’s sin legally required death (Lev.20:10 adultery) and (Lev.24:17 murder), but the Lord showed David grace.

God did not have to show David mercy by allowing him to have eternal life. David was a criminal, but God’s mercy is forever abounding in Glory and He is always prepared to forgive a genuine repentant heart.

Romans 5:20 says, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,”

Illustration:

I ended up all tangled up in my parachute, but because I recognized my problem, owned my problem and followed my emergency procedures I had a hard landing, but a forgiving landing.

Application:

Not accepting responsibility for our sin and denying our guilt will result in destructive consequences. Accepting responsibility for our sins, repenting with a genuine sorrow towards God, will result in God’s forgiveness.

Conclusion:

I just heard last Friday night while I was in Charlotte for the Apologtics Conference, Josh McDowell said large numbers of people in church’s today are committing Idoltary by worshiping a god who does not exist. This is in line with what the great evangelist A.W. Tozer said in “The Knowledge of the Holy” copyrighted in 1961, two years before his death (Chapter 1 Think Rightly About God, page 3)

We need to have a correct understanding of who God is to start unraveling any sin in our lives. King David understood who God is (Psalm 7:11 “God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day”) David also understood very clearly what the Psalmist said in Chapter 50 (vs.3 “Our God approaches, and he is not silent. Fire devours everything in his way, and a great storm rages around him.” vs.4 “He calls on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people.” vs.12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.” In verse 16 God starts talking to the wicked (sinner) then says in vs.21-22 “While you did all this, I remained silent, and you thought I didn’t care. But now I will rebuke you, listing all my charges against you. Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you.”

Now I know these are heavy verses and some might be thinking, “that’s the Old Testiment and we are in the New Convenant.” Well lets real quick look at a couple of verses out of the next book of the Bible we will be studying.
(2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 “And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power.”)

So what are some commands of Christ Jesus? Well in (Luke 6:46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”) Jesus again in (Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”) and in
(Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”)

Jesus said fear Him and this is the key to getting Un-Tangled from sin. David had another son with Bathsheba later on in his life named Solomon. Surly David taught his son about God, the great I AM. King Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and here are just a couple of things recorded from God through him in Proverbs...

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Proverbs 16:6b “And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.”

Proverbs 19:23 “The fear of the LORD leads to life, And he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be visited with evil.”



A healthy fear of the Lord will lead us to life and help us get un-tangled from sin, because it makes us depart from evil or sin. How do we get a healthy fear of the Lord? Read God’s word daily without fail and humble ourselves before Him.

Psalm 119:133 “Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me.”

Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

God’s word promises if we will feed on His law day and night all we do we will prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”

Explain quickly why Christ had to go up on the tree and the Good News!


Pray

Friday, November 14, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Proverbs 21:30


There is no wisdom or understanding Or counsel against the LORD.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Proverbs 20:20


Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp will be put out in deep darkness.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Proverbs 19:16
Keep the commandments and keep your life; despising them leads to death.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 47: 7-9


For God is the King over all the earth. Praise him with a psalm! God reigns above the nations, sitting on his holy throne. The rulers of the world have gathered together with the people of the God of Abraham. For all the kings of the earth belong to God. He is highly honored everywhere.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Scripture for the Day


Psalm 46: 1-7


God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it. The nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumble! God’s voice thunders, and the earth melts! The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress.