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Spurgeon on Grace
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Aug 12, 2007 10:05 am
600 Views
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" I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will. "
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
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IN MY HANDS
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Jul 31, 2007 6:25 pm
450 Views
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“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”
This is a famous quote from Martin Luther. He came to understand; the significants of placing everything in God's hands, in order to keep from loosing anything.
My salvation is in God's hands.......need I say more ?
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ABIDING IN CHRIST II
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Jul 31, 2007 11:17 am
445 Views
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Previously, I did a quick look at what it means to abide in Christ, and showed that believers abide permanently with Him, because the Holy Spirit; remains permanently with them.
Someone might say, well as long as you bear fruit; then you will abide, but is this idea correct ? The Bible makes it clear ( to the sheep ), that our remaining in Christ; is conditioned on what He has done, and not on what we do. In John the fifteenth chapter; Jesus uses the metaphor of a gardener who cares for his garden.
The Son ( Jesus ) is the true vine, and the Father is the vine-dresser. He speaks of two different types of branches.
Clearly, we see the branches that bear fruit ( vv. 2,8 ) and the branches that do not ( vv. 2,6 ); the branches that bear fruit represent true believers. Where those who believe that Christians can loose their salvation ( by no longer abiding ); make their mistake, is by wrongly identifying, those who don't bear fruit, as true believers; who stopped abiding. They make that same mistake, in relation to other passages as well.
" I am the vine, you are branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. " John 15:5-6 NKJV
The true branches can do nothing on their own ( they don't keep themselves saved ), it is only because they abide in Christ ( they abide by His power ), that they ( true believers ) bear much fruit.
Is the fruit of the true believer; a lasting kind of fruit ?
" You did not choose Me, but I you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. " John 15:16 NKJV
True believers ( fruit bearing vines ), were chosen ( elected ) and appointed by Christ, to bear fruit that last, and they become even more fruitful, as the vine-dresser tends to them.
Why do Christians abide in Christ ? Because they were appointed to abide and bear much fruit. Can their appointment in Christ be removed ? Nope. But I'm sure someone will try to say it can.
He is able to keep us from falling!!!
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ABIDING IN CHRIST
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Jul 29, 2007 6:21 am
604 Views
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There is a misconception, about what it means to abide in Christ. Some have taken the word " Abide " which means remain; to mean if I ( by my own efforts ) stick it out.
Lets take a quick look at what it really means to abide.
" And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever. " John 14:16
Jesus says, that the helper the Father will send is a Helper who will remain with us forever. How long is forever ? How can anyone who understands scripture make a statement; saying I believe in the eternal security of the believer, then add " If they abide " ?
The very nature of true faith; is its staying ( abiding ) power, which comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit, and it is not the believers choice to remain indwelt.
True believers abide ( remain ) in Christ, because the Holy Spirit abides ( remains ) with ( in ) them FOREVER. So, the notion of a true believer becoming demon possessed; or not abiding, or falling away, or returning to their former life; can never happen.
TO BE CONTINUED
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I BELIEVE IN JESUS..........
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Jul 26, 2007 7:56 pm
654 Views
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"I Believe in Jesus, Not Doctrine"
Quoting Martyn Lloyd-Jones . . .
You cannot separate what a man believes from what he is. For this reason doctrine is vitally important. Certain people say ignorantly, "I do not believe in doctrine; I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; I am saved, I am a Christian, and nothing else matters".
To speak in that way is to court disaster, and for this reason, the New Testament itself warns us against this very danger. We are to guard ourselves against being "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine", for if your doctrine goes astray your life will soon suffer as well.
So it behooves us to study the doctrines in order that we may safeguard ourselves against certain erroneous and heretical teachings that are as rife and as common in the world today as they were in the days of the early Church. "
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DISCERNMENT
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Jul 24, 2007 11:52 am
666 Views
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Taken from Old Truth ( copied and pasted )
Discernment: Detecting The Voice of The Enemy
Quoting John Murray . . .
" A shepherd protects his sheep from their enemies. Wolves enter in among the sheep. The wolves which harass the church of God are emissaries of false doctrine and of evil practice. Satan is never out of his diocese and his specialty is to destroy the pure witness and the fellowship of the church of God.
Perhaps there is no more ominous feature of members of the church than the lack of discernment; they can listen to what is good and true, and to what is bad and false, without discrimination.
If we are to live in a world where the enemy is active and error is rampant, we must be imbued with a good measure of critical faculty, and here the elders in tending the flock must cultivate for themselves, and inculcate in the members of the church, that sensitivity to truth and right, so that they and the people will be able to detect the voice of the enemy.
Jesus said of His sheep, "a stranger will they not follow,
for they know not the voice of strangers" (John 10:5).
But this discernment does not operate in a vacuum, and it does not act mechanically; it acts in the context of intelligent apprehension and understanding of the truth. "
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WRONG EVANGELISM
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Jul 24, 2007 11:17 am
587 Views
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This is an excerpt from the website Old Truth ( which I copied and pasted ), it shows how poor evangelism is not concerned with doctrine, and how hurtful it is.
Are you guilty of using wrong evangelism ?
Wrong Evangelism Fails To Start With Doctrine
Quoting Martyn Lloyd-Jones . . .
" The trouble with all false evangelism is that it does not start with doctrine, it does not start by realizing man's condition. All fleshly, carnal, man-made evangelism is the result of inadequate understanding of what the apostle teaches us in the first ten verses of this second chapter of Ephesians.
If you and I but realized that every man who is yet a sinner is absolutely dominated by 'the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience', if we only understood that he is really a child of wrath and dead in trespasses and sins, we would realize that only one power can deal with such an individual, and that is the power of God, the power of the Holy Ghost. And so we would put our confidence, not in man-made organizations, but in the power of God, in the prayer that holds on to God and asks for revival and a descent of the Spirit. We would realize that nothing else can do it.
We can change men superficially, we can win men to our side and to our party, we can persuade them to join a church, but we can never raise the spiritually dead; God alone can do that. The realization of these truths would of necessity determine and control all our evangelism. "
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LOOSE CHANGE
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Jul 24, 2007 8:46 am
676 Views
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Its an interesting documentary on 911, and the possible involvement of the U.S. Government, in the tragedies of 9/11. It raises some serious questions.
Questions such as, why did Larry A. Silverstein; owner of the World Trade Center, just six weeks before 9/11 sign a new 99 year lease, for 3.2 billion dollars, and take out a new insurance policy for 3.5 billion dollars; which specifically covered terrorist attacks ?
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To link to this blog (godlycook) use [blog godlycook] in your messages.
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