Podcasts about truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 30, 2024 27:29

As 2024 draws to a close, we present a brief round-up of some of the most popular episodes of the first 12 months of the Magazine Podcast. We then read W. J. Grier's account of the last months of John Calvin's life, an appropriate 'bookend' counterbalancing the account of Calvin's early ministry in our episode 'Calvin in France'. We finish with a stirring meditation for a new year, also by W. J. Grier. Featured Content: – Excerpt from W. J. Grier, 'The Life of John Calvin', (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2012), featured in the Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 567, December 2010. – 'On Toward the Goal: A Meditation for the New Year by the Late W. J. Grier', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 244 (January 1984). About the Contributor: W. J. Grier came to Christ while studying Classics at Queen's University, Belfast, through the witness of a Christian student friend and in a W. P. Nicholson mission meeting. He was a trustee of the Banner of Truth Trust, co-chairman of the Leicester Ministers' Conference, a founding member of the British Evangelical Council (now Affinity), and served on committees of the Evangelical Fellowship of Ireland and the Evangelical Library in Belfast. He was a well-known and enormously respected leader throughout the international Reformed constituency. He retired in 1979 after a ministry of almost fifty-two years and went to be with the Lord on 6 August 1983. He was the author of many booklets, articles, tracts, Daily Readings and Calendar Notes, including The Momentous Event and The Life of John Calvin, published by the Trust. Listen to 'Calvin in France': https://bannermagazine.podbean.com/e/calvin-in-france/ Buy The Life of John Calvin by W. J. Grier: https://banneroftruth.org/store/history-biography/the-life-of-john-calvin/ Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us a voice message: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

The Power to Stand Firm

The Assembly - Broken Arrow, OK

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2024

We come to the end of Ephesians today. At the beginning of his letter to these dear Christians, Paul prayed that they would come to know the significance of what it meant to be a Christian and what it meant to be the Church: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe (Eph. 1:1819a). Isnt this what we want for our own selves? To see with the eyes of our hearts the hope we have because of Gods calling, to wrap our hearts around the profound implications of what it means to belong to God as His inheritance, and to have our hearts full with the reality that the boundless greatness of the power of Almighty God now belongs to those of us who have been redeemed by Gods own Son. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be the Church? The answer is provided for us more than 200 times in the New Testament and over 30 times in Ephesians alone; the answer given for what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be the Church is that you are a Christian and you belong to His church if you are in Christ. Before He spoke Creation into existence, God chose you and set His love upon you for the purpose that you would be holy and blameless... in Christ (1:4-6). Your sin was not so great to keep you from the love of God, for He made your salvation and redemption possible through His Son who died upon a cross for your sins and lavished His grace upon you (vv. 7-12). You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit which guarantees your complete and total salvation... and He did it in Christ (vv. 13-14). Oh, dear Christian, what did you ever do to deserve so great a salvation? Nothing, because all of it was provided for you in and through Christ! The Christ who was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places is now yours (1:20-21)! The Christ who is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, the One to Whom belongs the obedience of the nations, and He who is head over all things... is now yours (vv. 22-23)! Christian, what did you do to receive Him as yours? You who were once dead in your offenses and sins, was there anything in you that warranted Gods grace? You were listed among the sons of disobedience, you lived in the lusts of your flesh, you indulged the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and because of your sins... you were categorized by the Almighty as a child of wrath (2:1-3). What was it about you that compelled God to save you instead of leaving you in your sins? It was His rich mercy, His great love, and His all-sufficient grace that made you alive in Christ (vv. 4-9). You are now in Christ, and all because of Christ! Now that you have been saved by Christ, you who were once far away have been brought near so that He is now your truth, He is now your righteousness, and He is now your peace (2:11-16). You are now united to Christ and belong to His body (4:1-32). As a member of His body, you now belong to the Bride of Christ, and because you are His Bride, Jesus is cleansing and sanctifying you through His word and the power of the Holy Spirit (5:22-32). So, when you come to Ephesians 6:10 and read: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might you should know by now where it is that you are able to find that strength. It is found... in Christ. We are strong in the Lord when we put on the full armor of God. Yet, the irony is that it is already provided because of our union in Jesus. He is our belt of truth, He is our breastplate of righteousness, He is our peace through the gospel, He is our shield of faith, He is our helmet of salvation, and He is our sword of the Spirit. We are stronger in the Lord the more we recognize our weakness and how much we need to pursue Him. Listen, the only way you will discover how weak you are is by seeing how big God is, how sufficient Jesus is as your Savior, and how powerful the Holy Spirit is as the One who is keeping you. How We Are to Pray So here is what I want to do with the remainder of our time together. First, I want to look at how we are to pray and then I hope to show you what that kind of praying is where the power of the armor of God is experienced. There are four categories of prayer that ought to be a part of our prayer life as Christians listed in Ephesians 6:18. The Greek word that is used four times in verse 18 that can be translated all or every is the Greek word, pas (ᾶ). Some versions of the Bible have chosen to translate pas as all every time it is used in verse 18, while others like new version of the NASB translate pas as every and all. In an effort to make the translation read smoothly, the NASB translates it this way: With every [pas] prayer and request, pray at all [pas] times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all [pas] perseverance and every request for all [pas] the saints... So how are we to pray? We are to pray in ALL ways to God (v. 18a). What are the ways you can pray? You can pray quietly to God. You can pray vocally to God. You can pray with groups of other Christians to God. You can pray privately to God. You can pray while prostrate on your face to God. You can pray while standing, you can pray while kneeling, and you can pray while walking. You can pray with your eyes closed, you can pray with your eyes open, and you can pray with your head bowed or lifted up. You can pray in all ways to God because of who you are in Christ. We are to pray at ALL times to God (v. 18b). You can pray in the evening to God. You can pray in the morning to God. You can pray midday to God. You can pray while suffering, while hungry, while in good health, or when in ill health. It does not matter what the circumstances are or if it is in the early morning hours or in the midnight hour... there is no time when Gods door is shut, or His time limited so that His redeemed children are not permitted to come before Him in prayer. We are to pray with ALL perseverance (v. 18c). While we pray in all ways and at all times in the Spirit, we are to do so while alert and do so persistently. We stand between the first advent and the second advent when Jesus will come again as King, until He comes again, we are to remain alert for two reasons: first, while we wait, we are in enemy territory where our adversary is categorized as a roaring lion who longs to destroy and devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Jesus told His disciples that while we wait for His return that we must, Watch out, stay alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is (Mark 13:33). Sinclair Ferguson said of prayer: Christ is building his church on territory that has been occupied by an enemy. Alertness is always essential when living in a war zone.[1] We are to pray for ALL the saints (v. 18d). In the same way that we pray for ourselves, we must also pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ! We do not just pray for those who we agree with theologically, but for every Christian regardless of where they fellowship, what church they attend, or in what part of the world they live. This also means praying for your spouse, praying for your children, praying for your grandchildren, and anyone else in your world who believes in Jesus. When it comes to their relationship with God, God cares more about their spiritual health than you ever could, so pray expecting that God can do, far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think... (3:20) in the lives of those saints you pray for more than your imagination can come up with. There is a fifth way we are to pray: We are to pray in all ways and at all times in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power that makes the armor of God effective so that you can stand strong, stand against the schemes of the devil, and stand firm on the evil day. The Power of the Armor of God is in Who it Belongs To To Pray in the Spirit according to Ephesians 6:18 is not to pray in tongues, that is a different type of praying addressed elsewhere in the Bible, but not here. When we pray in the Spirit, we pray with the confidence that we have access to God Almighty who spoke billions of stars into existence with just the word of His power; not only does He hear us as our Heavenly Father, but He can, do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (3:20) because we are in Christ and He is our Heavenly father. It is the kind of confidence we read about in Romans 8:14-16, For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God... Do you remember what I said about what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit when we covered Ephesians 4:30 and 5:18 in this sermon series? I said to be filled with the Spirit is not about you getting more of the Holy Spirit, but about the Holy Spirit getting more of you. The more of you that the Holy Spirit has, the more power of the Holy Spirit you will experience! Same is true when it comes to experiencing the strength of the Lord: the more of our hearts, the more of our obedience, and the more of our dependance He has of us... the more of His strength we will experience through His Holy Spirit. The power of the Armor of God is not in our ability to put it on but in the One who it belongs to! This brings us back full circle from what we read in the first sentence of Ephesians (1:1-14) to Ephesians 6:18-24. Conclusion The baby born on the first Christmas and laid in a manger is Christ the Lord! He who was born of a virgin, is the same One who formed Mary in her own mothers womb. The One who through whom all things were created, was laid in a manger for the purpose of carrying a cross to die for sinners. The One who lived the life we could not, to die a death we deserved is not only our Savior, but our Mediator: For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all... (1 Tim. 2:56). The Christ in the manger is ours not because of anything we have done, but because of His victory on the cross and over the grave: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Eph. 1:7-8a). So, it makes perfect sense that Paul would conclude his letter with a call to all of those who are in Christ to pray in the Spirit in all ways, all the time, with all perseverance, and for all the saints because in Jesus, we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens... (Heb. 9:1). If you are a Christian, then one of the things you learn from Ephesians is that you are in Christ. To be in Christ means that you now share an unbreakable union with Christ because that union was chosen by God the Father, purchased by His Sons own blood, and sealed by His Holy Spirit. Prayer is the fruit of our union in Christ, prayer is communion we have with God, prayer is the direct access we have to God because of our union in Christ. Prayer is the power source to the strength of the Lord that is available to the Christian with the armor of God. Jesus is the belt of truth, which is your identity in Him, but the security you have with Jesus as your truth will only be as firm as your understanding and confidence that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Jesus is your breastplate of righteousness, but your confidence in Him as your righteousness will only be as firm as your confidence that His righteousness is all the righteousness that you will ever need. Jesus is the shoes of the gospel of peace, but the extent you will be able to stand firm in the gospel will only be as secure as your understanding of the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the shield of faith, but your shield will only be as large as your understanding of who He is based on how saturated your faith in the Word of God is. Jesus is the helmet of salvation, but the hope of your salvation will only be as effective as your joy in just how great your salvation really is. Jesus is the sword of the Spirit in that all the word of God points to Him, but your ability to wield the truth of Gods word will only be as effective as you are willing to use it. Prayer is what happens when you understand how weak you are and how big God really is. Prayer is the evidence that we are growing in our relationship with Christ! Sam Allberry, in his excellent book, One with My Lord, put it this way: Growth in the Christian life is needing God more, not needing him less. So we will be doing more asking over the years, not less asking. We dont grow out of prayer, just further into it.[2] This is why it is only fitting that Paul would conclude his epistle with the appeal to pray at all times! The more we seek God out of a growing awareness of our weakness, the more like Jesus we will become. Again Sam Allberry is spot on: Prayer is not about bending God to our wills but about expressing our own wills as they are being bent to his.[3] Here is the thing though: Our union in Christ is not dependent upon our performance as Christians. Our union in Christ was, is, and forever will be dependent upon the life and faithfulness of Jesus. To the extent that we depend upon Him will determine just how much of our hearts He really has, and to the extent of how much of our minds, our hearts, and our will that He has will determine just how much of His power we will experience in our lives. You will never be less in Him than you already are, but His power will only be experienced in and through your life to the extent of how much of you Jesus really has. So, my question to you dear Christian is simply this: How much of you does Jesus really have? Oh, dear brother... oh, dear sister in Christ, do you not want to see with the eyes of your heart the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance, and know the power of the Holy Spirit (1:18-19a)? Do you not want to know the joy of a life built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as your chief cornerstone (2:20)? Do you not long for the kind of life that comes out of comprehending the width and length and height and depth of what you have in Christ (3:14-19)? Are you not tired of the cheap thrills this world offers when it is through Christ that you can know the kind of satisfaction that comes with walking in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called (4:1-3)? If you understood your union in Christ, you would seek to enjoy the unity we are called to with those who belong to His Church (4:4-6). If you understood what it is that you share with Christ, you would desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit instead of looking for ways to grieve Him (4:30; 5:18). Oh, because of the great redemption you now enjoy, do you not hate the things that displease Him (5:1-13)? Do you not want to come out of this life smelling like the sweet aroma of Christ; can you not hear the Holy Spirits call upon your life at this very moment: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you (5:14)? To be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might (6:10), the ability to stand firm against the devils schemes, and to be able to resist when the evil day comes... will only be experienced more frequently when you see just how weak you are and how sufficient Christ is in all things, in all ways, for all times, and for all people! In so doing, may we be known for our love for Jesus and in the way we live for Him and serve those around us. [1] Sinclair Ferguson, Lets Study Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), p. 186. [2] Sam Allberry, One With My Lord (Weaton, IL: Crossway; 2024), p. 151 [3] Sam Allberry, One With My Lord (Weaton, IL: Crossway; 2024), p. 152.

December 15, 2024 - "The Story of Christmas: Togetherness, Truth, Trust" - Pastor Ron Woods

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2024 34:10

CONNECT, GROW, GIVE at https://theassembly.org/

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Christ Freely Offered

OPC Ruling Elder Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2024 56:59

Rev. Andy Wilson and Rev. Russell Hamilton talk about The Marrow of Modern Divinity, an old book that wrestles with the free offer of Jesus Christ to sinners, and questions of law and assurance. This lively old book continues to be relevant to ruling elders in helping people with questions of faith, freedom from the law, legalism, and assurance. Gospel preaching is vital to gospel churches.Further Reading on the Marrow Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, (Christian Focus, 2016). This edition includes explanatory notes by Thomas Boston, an introduction by Philip Ryken, and an historical introduction by William Vandoodewaard. Andy Wilson, The Marrow of The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Expanded Edition): A Simplified Version of Edward Fisher's 17th Century Classic.Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance―Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters. (Crossway, 2016)Donald Macleod, From the Marrow Men to the Moderates, Scottish Theology 1700–1800. (Christian Focus, 2023)William VanDoodewaard, The Marrow Controversy and Seceder Tradition: Atonement, Saving Faith, and the Gospel Offer in Scotland (1718–1799). (Reformation Heritage Books, 2014)David C. Lachman, The Marrow Controversy 1781-1723: An Historical and Theological Analysis (Rutherford Studies in Historical Theology)Andy's three booksHarrison Perkins, Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction (Lexham Academic, 2024)John Murray, Redemption, Accomplished and AppliedRichard Sibbes, Glorious Freedom: An Exposition, Puritan Paperback (Banner of Truth Trust; 2nd ed. edition, 2024)Russell's three booksRichard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, (Banner of Truth Trust; 2nd ed. edition, 2021)Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, (Penguin Books; Reprint edition 2015)Thomas Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, (Banner of Truth; Reprint edition, 1964)

Burial or Cremation?

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2024 41:08

How should the bodies of deceased believers be treated? Are burial and cremation equally valid for Christians? Do the Scriptures speak to the issue at all, or is it merely a matter of preference? These questions are all addressed by this week's featured article, by S. M. Houghton. S. M. Houghton was chief literary and editorial advisor to the Banner of Truth Trust from 1960 to 1987. His reminiscences are published in 'My Life and Books'. Buy S. M. Houghton, My Life and Books: https://banneroftruth.org/store/history-biography/my-life-and-books/ Donald Howard is the retired minister of St. Peter's Church of England, Sydney, Australia. After experience in agriculture, The Royal Australian Air Force, and journalism, Donald Howard studied Theology at Moore College, Sydney and then served for many years in the pastoral ministry. While at St. Peter's, his first wife, Diana, died of cancer at the age of forty-six in 1977, which occasioned the writing of his booklet Christians Grieve Too. The Banner also publishes a booklet by Donald Howard, Burial or Cremation: Does it Matter?: https://banneroftruth.org/store/christian-living/burial-or-cremation/ Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us a voice message: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

Of Controversy

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2024 34:36

When is controversy justified? When is it not? How ought it to be conducted? When ought it to be refused? These are questions of particular importance for Christians in an argumentative and distracted age, such as ours. The three selections we read this week go some way towards helping us answer them. Featured Content: – Excerpt from 'The Benefits and Dangers of Controversy' in Evangelical Holiness and Other Addresses, by Iain H. Murray (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2013), pages 119–130. – Selection from a sermon by Dan Peters given at the 2024 Banner Borders Conference, 'Blessed are the Peacemakers, Part II'. – 'William Cunningham–Humble Controversialist', David Campbell, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 690, March 2021. About the Contributors: Iain H. Murray is one of the founders of the Banner of Truth Trust. His books published with Banner include Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (1987), Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750–1858 (1994), and Amy Carmichael: Beauty for Ashes (2015). Dan Peters is minister at Newcastle Reformed Evangelical Church and is the author of Distinct Communion: The Believer's Relations with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Christian Focus Publications, 2024). David Campbell is minister at North Preston Evangelical Church, a trustee of the Banner of Truth Trust, and author of Sanctification: Transformed Life (Banner Mini-Guides). Buy Iain H. Murray, Evangelical Holiness and Other Addresses (Paperback, 2011): https://banneroftruth.org/store/christian-living/evangelical-holiness/ Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us a voice message: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

Growth, Grumbling, and Gospel Unity

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2024 37:25

We are by nature grumblers and malcontents. We take offence easily, and become critical when our desires and expectations are disappointed. Paul Levy, in this week's main article, helps us to see that these tendencies aren't mere quirks, or 'weaknesses', but sins of great consequence in the church of God. Moreover, they are sins to which we are often tempted at times of great growth and kingdom advance. Through a discussion of the beginning of Acts 6, he helps us see how this dynamic was negotiated by the apostles, and how we can take evasive action against it today. Featured Content: – 'The Gospel, Grumbling, and Growth', Paul Levy, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 735, December 2024. – Excerpt from United We Stand (Pocket Puritans), by Thomas Brooks (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2009). United We Stand is sourced from Brooks' Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices (Puritan Paperbacks). Buy United We Stand: https://banneroftruth.org/store/church-ministry/united-we-stand/ Buy Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices: https://banneroftruth.org/store/christian-living/precious-remedies-against-satans-devices/ About the Contributors: Paul Levy is ministry of International Presbyterian Church in Ealing, London. He writes at https://ealinglevy.wordpress.com/ Thomas Brooks was a Puritan gospel minister. The scant amount of information known about him comes largely from his writing. Born in 1608, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1625. He spent several years at sea, perhaps as chaplain, and was licensed as a preacher by 1640. After England's Civil War, Brooks served as pastor of London's Thomas Apostle; in 1648, he preached before the House of Commons. He later became the subject of controversy when he refused baptism and the Lord's Supper to people that weren't walking faithfully with the Lord. Thomas Brooks books include a six-volume set titled The Works of Thomas Brooks, with each book also available individually. Other books include Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices (written to help people resist Satan's seductive power), The Secret Key to Heaven ( which emphasizes the importance of private prayer) and Heaven on Earth, which reminds people there is no greater privilege than to be a child of God. Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us a voice message: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

Encouraging Congregational Singing

OPC Ruling Elder Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2024 53:05

Jonathan Cruse talks about how Ruling Elders can foster and energize congregational singing.Further ReadingResources by JonathanJonathan Landry Cruse, What Happens When We Worship, Reformation Heritage Books, 2020.Jonathan Landry Cruse, “What Every Elder needs to Know About Congregational Singing” in Faithful and Fruitful, Essays for Elders and Deacons, Eds. William Boekestein and Steven Swets, Reformed Fellowship Inc. 2019.Books mentioned in the podcastJonty Rhodes, Reformed Worship (Blessings of the Faith), P&R Publishing, 2023.Ligon Duncan, Does God Care How We Worship? P&R Publishing, 2020.Jonathan's three recommendations for every Ruling ElderThomas Watson, The Godly Man's Picture, Drawn with a Scripture Pencil, or, Some Characteristic Marks of a Man Who is Going to Heaven, Banner of Truth Trust.David Dickson, The Elder and His Work. The Westminster Directory for Public Worship (The Westminster Directory for Public Worship discussed by Sinclair B. Ferguson and Mark Dever is currently out of print.Two examples of John Wesley's Directions for Singing.IV. Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.VII. Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your Heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve of here, and reward when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

Loving the Confessions

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 14, 2024 27:35

Confessions of faith, such as the Westminster Confession of 1646, play a celebrated role in Reformed, evangelical Christianity. This week we consider the value of such documents, and the way in which they often result from a period of pressure or crisis, which leads God's people to give fresh expression to their faith, in order to assist believers in its defense and propagation, and their unity in the truth. Featured Content: – 'Loving the Westminster Confession and Catechisms', David B. Calhoun, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 651, December 2017. – Excerpt from B. B. Warfield, 'The Significance of the Westminster Standards as a Creed' in Princeton and the Christian Ministry, volume 2, pages 457—459 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2012). – 'Confessions and Crises in Church History', John R. De Witt, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 50, September/October 1967. Explore the work of the Banner: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us a voice message: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

Episode 89: No Filter Needed: Truth, Trust and Transformation with Nune Stepanyan, DNP, FNP-C

For The Record

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2024 71:14

In Episode 89, we sit down with Nune Stepanyan, DNP, FNP-C, CEO, Founder & Aesthetic Injector at The Stepanyan Clinic in Encino, CA. Nune began her career in Critical Care, and while she made the jump to Aesthetics many years ago, her traditional medical roots run deep! While she's a rising star in the injectable world, she approaches her patients and her treatment philosophy with a clinical mindset; that means saying NO or referring out, spending more time on Patient education, and setting realistic expectations that may impact revenue today but result in a lot less headaches tomorrow! In addition to her role as a CEO and a full-time injector at TSC, she's also teaching and training others- a passion she found early on in academia. And she's really good at it! She's currently one of the headliners of the national Revanesse tour with Prollenium going city to city to share her techniques. She's leading cadaver labs, doing in-practice training and consulting, and she made her Aesthetic Next debut this year in multiple talks. In every lecture, it's clear that Nune is a truth teller. She's authentic and unafraid to call out the parts of the industry that seem to jeopardize patient safety or optimal outcomes. She's also a master content creator and has a passion for using her platform to authentically educate, inform and excite others about aesthetic procedures. Tune into her IG any day of the week, and you can find her spilling at least a little tea about the realities of the aesthetics industry! But she credits her candor and real-talk approach to creating trust with her patients and allowing them to feel confident in her ability to deliver great results. Some of Our Favorite Episode Highlights: • Industry Culture: How Nune navigated and transformed challenging industry dynamics and a “mean girl” experience into a platform for authenticity and inclusivity • Ethical Practice: The importance of saying "no" to inappropriate treatments, prioritizing patient well-being over profit, and erroring on the side of caution • Social Media and Aesthetics: Balancing online presence with clinical excellence in the digital age. You really can do both at the same time! • Safety First: Addressing the dangers of unlicensed procedures and DIY treatments and our obligation to keep bad actors out of our specialty • Personal Experience: How her decision to forgo injectables and choose surgery at 35 took her consults to the next level • Business Growth: Insights on expanding to a second clinic location while managing a busy schedule, the finances, and Instagram vs. Reality expectations • Continuous Learning: The value of ongoing education and conference attendance for experienced practitioners to stay innovative and connected in a rapidly evolving specialty • Patient Education: Creating transparent, informative content to build trust and expertise in the field but make it fun, trendy, and sometimes viral! Nune shares her own journey through imposter syndrome, weight issues, mean girls and more, and she's come through it all with her authentic self still intact and zero concern that she's changing who she is to fit anyone's narrative! Her commitment to ethics and patient safety are at the forefront as she navigates the complex world of medical aesthetics with grace, humor, and a dash of sass and brings us all along for the journey. This episode will inspire you and provide a healthy dose of truth moments whether you're an aspiring injector, established practitioner, and anyone finding their way in the evolving world of medical aesthetics. Tune in to hear Nune keep it real in an industry that can be anything but transparent. Warning: Side effects may include a few “hell yeah,” moments of shock, awe and pure entertainment, and a newfound respect for speaking the truth! Learn more about Nune and The Stepanyan Clinic: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestepanyanclinic/?hl=en Website: https://www.thestepanyanclinic.com/

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Bonnie Kristian | Truth, Trust and Christian Community

Today's Conversation

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2024 39:11

In a world where news is constantly streamed, the sheer amount of information can leave many of us feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to filter what is true. Bonnie Kristian, journalist and author of “The Knowledge Crisis” joins NAE President Walter Kim to discuss how this issue is leaking into churches and becoming a discipleship issue. Listen in to hear them discuss a way forward. In this episode of Today's Conversation, journalist Bonnie Kristian and NAE President Walter Kim explore practical ways to engage with the surplus of information coming our way, and how to stay on guard in our discipleship to Jesus in the digital age. You'll also hear Walter and Bonnie discuss: The issue of “expertise” in the post-pandemic era; Why having a depth of knowledge on a few topics vs. broad knowledge on all current issues may be more helpful; The growing mindset of “conspiracism” and how to speak to it, or sometimes how to refrain from speaking to it; and Other practical tips for staying grounded in truth.Click here for show notes: NAE.org/kristianpodcast

jesus christ community conversations christian communities nae truth trust bonnie kristian

A GREAT Devotional Recommendation!

2Days Denarius

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2024 26:48

No doubt there are many great spiritual devotionals out there that help us grow in our relationship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I've read a good number of them. But the devotional that is recommended in this video, unlike any other I've ever seen, truly teaches us and richly enhances our prayer and meditation times unlike any other I've ever seen. If you want to learn how to pray, meditate, and learn how to grow in the faith, this devotional is for you. It is a collection of Puritan prayers by faithful men of the past, such as Richard Baxter, Thomas Watson, David Brainerd, Charles Spurgeon, among many others. This episode of 2Days Denarius takes an educational and teaching approach to a devotional published by Banner of Truth Trust titled "The Valley of Vision." It is available through banneroftruth.org. 2Days Denarius is an evangelical Christian ministry which fully supports the inerrancy, infallibility and authority of Scripture as our only rule of faith and practice. It also follows the tenets of the London Baptist Confession of 1689 and the Westminster Confession of 1647. 2Days Denarius may be found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@2daysd. It can also be reached at 2daysdenarius@gmail.com. Theme song "Most of Our Time" is used by permission of songwriter and artist Pastor Steve Hereford of the Changed By Grace Church in Jacksonville, FL.

jesus christ lord vision scripture valley recommendations jacksonville devotional banner puritan charles spurgeon our time westminster confession thomas watson london baptist confession richard baxter truth trust

The Marvel of Marriage

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2024

If there were ever a sentence in the Bible to serve as a trigger for anger, resentment, and resistance towards the Bible it is most likely Ephesians 5:22, Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord. The reason some women bristle at verses like Ephesians 5:22-24 is because they have not known the kind of love husbands are called to demonstrate in verse 25, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her... Before we can even begin to address these verses, I need you to hear something. Marriage is an institution created by God to be celebrated, enjoyed, protected, and fought for within the covenant relationship between God and one man and one woman for a lifetime. However, if marriage (as Gods good gift) is something that you have made into the ultimate thing for your life, then you have potentially done two things: You have set your bar way too low. You have made an idol out of the institution of marriage. When it comes to marriage, how can you set the bar way too low by making it the ultimate thing you aspire to? By making marriage the ultimate thing, you miss its ultimate purpose in that it serves as the only institution on earth designed to reflect Christs relationship with the Church and the Churchs relationship with Christ (v. 32). What is marriage? It is a great mystery because it is, an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one (v. 32; NLT). In fact, in reference to the mystery of marriage, the ESV, NIV, and CSB translate the Greek word megas (έ) as profound while the KJV, NASB, and NLT use the word great. The word can also be translated: large, surprising, or prominent. What is the point? Marriage is a big deal for reasons much more significant than two humans who want to spend a lifetime together. When you read what is written in Ephesians 5 concerning marriage, you must read and study these verses within the context of everything written in Ephesians 1:1 - 5:21. Let me help you understand Ephesians 5:22-33 in light of the overall context of the epistle: In Ephesians 1:1-19, the Christian was chosen before the foundation of the world to be redeemed and forgiven of all sin exclusively through the shed blood of Jesus upon a cross. If you are a Christian, at the moment you believed in Jesus, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of becoming holy and blameless as Gods treasured possession to the praise of His glory, so that Jesus, who is Lord over everything (vv. 19b-21), would be head over all things to the church (v. 22-23). In Christ, those who were dead in their sins are made alive according to Ephesians 2:1-10 because of the rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace of God. The reason why you, Christian, were made alive... is to live out your calling as Gods, workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:1-10). Now that you are alive with Christ, you are a citizen with the saints, and are of Gods household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord... (2:19-21). Because you are in Jesus, you now have a new identity, and as His redeemed people, we all can, know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge as His Church (3:14-19). As those who were once far off but have been brought near as Jesus redeemed people, we are to be known for walking a better way as followers of Jesus, indeed, we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called... (4:1). We do this, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (vv. 2-3). As the Church of Jesus Christ, we are His holy Bride and no longer characterized by the useless deeds of darkness (5:3-13) but are now children of light (5:8-9) who walk with wisdom while the days are evil (vv. 15-16). We do this as the holy temple of the Spirit of God and body of Christ, who will experience a marriage as His beloved Bride. Now, as those who belong to Christ, we are to diligently keep, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace since we belong to each other as, one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (4:4-6). If you are a Christian, then you are the Bride of Christ, and as the Bride of Christ, we come to what I consider to be the hermeneutical key for understanding what Paul states in the verses to follow regarding marriage, children, and work. Here it is: subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ (v. 21). Gods Intended Culture for Marriage It is important to point out that what proceeds what Paul says to wives and husbands is one long sentence in verses 18-21 that begins with an imperative: do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit... So, the culture of a healthy marriage begins by being filled with the Holy Spirit instead of filling yourself with something that leads to debauchery. The way to do that is provided in a list of four participles: 1) Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 2) singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord, 3) always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father, and 4) subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. If you are wondering what Ephesians 5:19-21 looks like in the home, the point is not the songs you sing to one another, but what it is that moves you and motivates you as a wife or as a husband. What Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:19-20 is not all that different than what he wrote to the Colossians: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (3:16-17). To subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ is to do all things, both in word and deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Greek word for subject is hypotassō (ὑά) and it literally means to put oneself under another; here we are to humble ourselves in this way out of a reverence for Jesus. In the case of Ephesians 5:21, we Christians are to mutually subject/submit to one another out of a humility that is empowered by the Holy Spirit which is best experienced as you are filled by the Holy Spirit. The best way I can help you understand what Paul is communicating here is to see it against the backdrop of Philippians 2:3-8, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. Jesus, while equal to the Father, when He took on flesh during His incarnation, humbled Himself by taking the form of a bondservant. What Jesus did, is that He subjected Himself under the authority of the Father to accomplish what was necessary for our redemption. We are told that we must have the same mindset of Jesus in the way we treat one another. Never was Jesus less than God, but He did willingly place Himself under the headship of the Father while He remained fully God and at the same time fully human. We are to humble ourselves in the same way as brothers and sisters in a world where individualism and power struggles are part of the dog-eat-dog culture of the world that we live in. So, against the backdrop of Philippians 2:3-8, consider again Ephesians 5:21, subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ (v. 21). Do you see it? Do you see why this verse serves as a type of linchpin that joins what we read in verses 15-20 and the section in Ephesians that addresses husbands, wives, children, and slaves? How are Wives to Subject Themselves to Their Husbands? So now we come to the word subject and the way it is used for how wives must respond to their husbands and how it is not used to instruct the way husbands are to respond to their wives. We will look more deeply at the husband-and-wife relationship as it is explained in these verses next week, but for now I want to set things up for next week in a way that still helps you today. Within the covenant of marriage, a wife is to, subject herself to her husband, as to the Lord (v. 22). The husband is not commanded to do the same regarding his wife. Instead, he is commanded to love his wife just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her (v. 25). Sinclair Ferguson states in light of Ephesians 5:21-22, there is, of course, an appropriate mutual submission in marriage. The exhortation of 5:21 is to be obeyed by all Christians within the context of their mutual fellowship! But that is not the only aspect to the Christian life. Mutual submission no more obliterates the command in 5:22 than it rescinds the command of Hebrews 13:7 Obey your leaders![1] When it comes to marriage, the God who invented marriage offers a better way than the perversion of marriage propagated by the world. Indeed, marriage was always intended to express, demonstrate, and point to a greater marriage that every Christian was chosen, redeemed, and sealed by the Holy Spirit to experience regardless of your marital status on planet earth (more on this in two weeks)! The better way for the Christian woman, who happens to be a wife, is to illustrate how Christians (the Church) respond to the great love of Christ that compelled Him to willingly go to the cross to redeem her; the response of Jesus wife is to be that of joyful submission. In a world that balks at any notion that a married woman must subject/submit to her husband; the Christian is called to a better way. Listen, just as our response to Jesus should be one of deep and joyful submission to Him because of the love we have experienced from Him, the wife is to joyfully place herself under the loving headship of her husband in response to his self-sacrificing love, care, and protection for his bride. The command for wives to subject themselves to their husbands has nothing to do with value or importance, but Gods design for marriage and the kind of thriving, joy, and companionship He intends His people to enjoy within the covenant of marriage that He instituted. What does it mean to subject yourself to your husband, as to the Lord? Well, it certainly does not mean that you become his doormat so that he can treat you however he wants. There is only One Lord, and that Lord is Jesus Christ. There is a chain of command, and your first obligation is to obey Jesus as your Lord. The reason why I believe the NASB offers a better translation of hypotassō (subject) is because the wife is not commanded to enter subjugation under her husband as an inferior person to a superior human. When a woman enters marriage, she does so as a different but equal counterpart to the man she loves. The wife willingly and humbly places herself under her husbands headship out of a deep trust and respect for him in response to the selfless love she has experienced and rightfully anticipates she will continue to enjoy throughout a lifetime of marriage when they come together as a one-flesh union. Again, Sinclair Fergusons perspective on Ephesians 5:22-24 is very much appreciated: Marriage is not a recipe for the subjugation of a woman, but a blueprint for her true freedom in a healthy, loving relationship with her husband.[2] Richard Coekin, in his little commentary on Ephesians, states: As he [God] committed himself sacrificially to us in covenanted and exclusive love, so the most precious aspect of all our human relationships, and especially marriage, is to love and be loved, not merely with sentimental affection or sensual desire, but with sustained sacrificial kindness in every season of lifean unconditional love based not upon the others glamorous looks, but upon a commitment to be exclusively devoted to their best interests. And what a stunningly wonderful blessing a happy Christian marriage is![3] However, for some of you, your marriage seems anything but a wonderful blessing. Others of you are afraid of entering into marriage because of what you witnessed growing up. The sad truth is that even in the Church, men and women have bought into the lie of a version of marriage that does not reflect what we read in the Bible. You need to hear that when it comes to marriage or any other relationship for that matter, God offers a better way. Nevertheless, to experience that better way, it takes two who desire to walk in a manner worthy of their calling as followers of Jesus for Gods design for marriage to be experienced on some level. In the weeks to come, I hope to offer you some level of help and encouragement for your marriage and your desire to follow Jesus well. Before I conclude, permit me to address the woman and then the men of this church. To the women in this church: You are created in the image of God and there is no man whose love is greater for you than the one your heavenly Father has for you. Any abuse you suffered growing up, the careless words spoken by any of the men in your life, or any treatment of you that has reduced you to an object is NOT a reflection of Gods love for you. You are valued because God has placed value upon you as His daughter! There is no marriage or situation where it is acceptable or okay for you to be abused or mistreated as a daughter of the God who loved you so much that He sent His only Son to die to redeem you. If you are in a marriage that seems more of a misery than the beautiful marvel it is intended to be, I want to encourage you to hang on and trust that the God who raises the dead can bring life to your marriage. If you are in what you believe to be a dead or failing marriage, I would like to give you an assignment this week: Pray for your husband, that the God who created out of nothing, can do something with the man in your marriage. To the men in this church: Everything I said to the women also applies to you. It is possible to be in a relationship where you are demeaned, demonized, and devalued by the women in your life (more on that next week). It is not okay for you to be treated poorly or talked down to or disrespected by your wife or children. I will say though, that we men tend to set the culture and spiritual climate of our homes; if you have not done a good job at doing that, it is not too late. Permit me to give you an assignment this week, read John 13:1 - 19:30 and take note on what Ephesians 5:25 really means for your marriage: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Especially take note of what you can do differently or better to obey what is commanded of you as the husband of your wife. Finally, the God who raised Jesus from the grave cares more about your marriage than you ever could, so trust and believe that He can make something beautiful out of your mess. It is on this point that I leave you with Ephesians 3:20-21, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. [1] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), 149. [2] Ibid., 151. [3] Richard Coekin, Ephesians for You (The Good Book Company; 2019), 164-65.

The Marvel of Marriage

invest iq guaranteed discovery call truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2024

If there were ever a sentence in the Bible to serve as a trigger for anger, resentment, and resistance towards the Bible it is most likely Ephesians 5:22, Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord. The reason some women bristle at verses like Ephesians 5:22-24 is because they have not known the kind of love husbands are called to demonstrate in verse 25, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her... Before we can even begin to address these verses, I need you to hear something. Marriage is an institution created by God to be celebrated, enjoyed, protected, and fought for within the covenant relationship between God and one man and one woman for a lifetime. However, if marriage (as Gods good gift) is something that you have made into the ultimate thing for your life, then you have potentially done two things: You have set your bar way too low. You have made an idol out of the institution of marriage. When it comes to marriage, how can you set the bar way too low by making it the ultimate thing you aspire to? By making marriage the ultimate thing, you miss its ultimate purpose in that it serves as the only institution on earth designed to reflect Christs relationship with the Church and the Churchs relationship with Christ (v. 32). What is marriage? It is a great mystery because it is, an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one (v. 32; NLT). In fact, in reference to the mystery of marriage, the ESV, NIV, and CSB translate the Greek word megas (έ) as profound while the KJV, NASB, and NLT use the word great. The word can also be translated: large, surprising, or prominent. What is the point? Marriage is a big deal for reasons much more significant than two humans who want to spend a lifetime together. When you read what is written in Ephesians 5 concerning marriage, you must read and study these verses within the context of everything written in Ephesians 1:1 - 5:21. Let me help you understand Ephesians 5:22-33 in light of the overall context of the epistle: In Ephesians 1:1-19, the Christian was chosen before the foundation of the world to be redeemed and forgiven of all sin exclusively through the shed blood of Jesus upon a cross. If you are a Christian, at the moment you believed in Jesus, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of becoming holy and blameless as Gods treasured possession to the praise of His glory, so that Jesus, who is Lord over everything (vv. 19b-21), would be head over all things to the church (v. 22-23). In Christ, those who were dead in their sins are made alive according to Ephesians 2:1-10 because of the rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace of God. The reason why you, Christian, were made alive... is to live out your calling as Gods, workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:1-10). Now that you are alive with Christ, you are a citizen with the saints, and are of Gods household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord... (2:19-21). Because you are in Jesus, you now have a new identity, and as His redeemed people, we all can, know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge as His Church (3:14-19). As those who were once far off but have been brought near as Jesus redeemed people, we are to be known for walking a better way as followers of Jesus, indeed, we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called... (4:1). We do this, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (vv. 2-3). As the Church of Jesus Christ, we are His holy Bride and no longer characterized by the useless deeds of darkness (5:3-13) but are now children of light (5:8-9) who walk with wisdom while the days are evil (vv. 15-16). We do this as the holy temple of the Spirit of God and body of Christ, who will experience a marriage as His beloved Bride. Now, as those who belong to Christ, we are to diligently keep, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace since we belong to each other as, one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (4:4-6). If you are a Christian, then you are the Bride of Christ, and as the Bride of Christ, we come to what I consider to be the hermeneutical key for understanding what Paul states in the verses to follow regarding marriage, children, and work. Here it is: subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ (v. 21). Gods Intended Culture for Marriage It is important to point out that what proceeds what Paul says to wives and husbands is one long sentence in verses 18-21 that begins with an imperative: do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit... So, the culture of a healthy marriage begins by being filled with the Holy Spirit instead of filling yourself with something that leads to debauchery. The way to do that is provided in a list of four participles: 1) Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 2) singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord, 3) always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father, and 4) subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. If you are wondering what Ephesians 5:19-21 looks like in the home, the point is not the songs you sing to one another, but what it is that moves you and motivates you as a wife or as a husband. What Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:19-20 is not all that different than what he wrote to the Colossians: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (3:16-17). To subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ is to do all things, both in word and deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Greek word for subject is hypotassō (ὑά) and it literally means to put oneself under another; here we are to humble ourselves in this way out of a reverence for Jesus. In the case of Ephesians 5:21, we Christians are to mutually subject/submit to one another out of a humility that is empowered by the Holy Spirit which is best experienced as you are filled by the Holy Spirit. The best way I can help you understand what Paul is communicating here is to see it against the backdrop of Philippians 2:3-8, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. Jesus, while equal to the Father, when He took on flesh during His incarnation, humbled Himself by taking the form of a bondservant. What Jesus did, is that He subjected Himself under the authority of the Father to accomplish what was necessary for our redemption. We are told that we must have the same mindset of Jesus in the way we treat one another. Never was Jesus less than God, but He did willingly place Himself under the headship of the Father while He remained fully God and at the same time fully human. We are to humble ourselves in the same way as brothers and sisters in a world where individualism and power struggles are part of the dog-eat-dog culture of the world that we live in. So, against the backdrop of Philippians 2:3-8, consider again Ephesians 5:21, subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ (v. 21). Do you see it? Do you see why this verse serves as a type of linchpin that joins what we read in verses 15-20 and the section in Ephesians that addresses husbands, wives, children, and slaves? How are Wives to Subject Themselves to Their Husbands? So now we come to the word subject and the way it is used for how wives must respond to their husbands and how it is not used to instruct the way husbands are to respond to their wives. We will look more deeply at the husband-and-wife relationship as it is explained in these verses next week, but for now I want to set things up for next week in a way that still helps you today. Within the covenant of marriage, a wife is to, subject herself to her husband, as to the Lord (v. 22). The husband is not commanded to do the same regarding his wife. Instead, he is commanded to love his wife just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her (v. 25). Sinclair Ferguson states in light of Ephesians 5:21-22, there is, of course, an appropriate mutual submission in marriage. The exhortation of 5:21 is to be obeyed by all Christians within the context of their mutual fellowship! But that is not the only aspect to the Christian life. Mutual submission no more obliterates the command in 5:22 than it rescinds the command of Hebrews 13:7 Obey your leaders![1] When it comes to marriage, the God who invented marriage offers a better way than the perversion of marriage propagated by the world. Indeed, marriage was always intended to express, demonstrate, and point to a greater marriage that every Christian was chosen, redeemed, and sealed by the Holy Spirit to experience regardless of your marital status on planet earth (more on this in two weeks)! The better way for the Christian woman, who happens to be a wife, is to illustrate how Christians (the Church) respond to the great love of Christ that compelled Him to willingly go to the cross to redeem her; the response of Jesus wife is to be that of joyful submission. In a world that balks at any notion that a married woman must subject/submit to her husband; the Christian is called to a better way. Listen, just as our response to Jesus should be one of deep and joyful submission to Him because of the love we have experienced from Him, the wife is to joyfully place herself under the loving headship of her husband in response to his self-sacrificing love, care, and protection for his bride. The command for wives to subject themselves to their husbands has nothing to do with value or importance, but Gods design for marriage and the kind of thriving, joy, and companionship He intends His people to enjoy within the covenant of marriage that He instituted. What does it mean to subject yourself to your husband, as to the Lord? Well, it certainly does not mean that you become his doormat so that he can treat you however he wants. There is only One Lord, and that Lord is Jesus Christ. There is a chain of command, and your first obligation is to obey Jesus as your Lord. The reason why I believe the NASB offers a better translation of hypotassō (subject) is because the wife is not commanded to enter subjugation under her husband as an inferior person to a superior human. When a woman enters marriage, she does so as a different but equal counterpart to the man she loves. The wife willingly and humbly places herself under her husbands headship out of a deep trust and respect for him in response to the selfless love she has experienced and rightfully anticipates she will continue to enjoy throughout a lifetime of marriage when they come together as a one-flesh union. Again, Sinclair Fergusons perspective on Ephesians 5:22-24 is very much appreciated: Marriage is not a recipe for the subjugation of a woman, but a blueprint for her true freedom in a healthy, loving relationship with her husband.[2] Richard Coekin, in his little commentary on Ephesians, states: As he [God] committed himself sacrificially to us in covenanted and exclusive love, so the most precious aspect of all our human relationships, and especially marriage, is to love and be loved, not merely with sentimental affection or sensual desire, but with sustained sacrificial kindness in every season of lifean unconditional love based not upon the others glamorous looks, but upon a commitment to be exclusively devoted to their best interests. And what a stunningly wonderful blessing a happy Christian marriage is![3] However, for some of you, your marriage seems anything but a wonderful blessing. Others of you are afraid of entering into marriage because of what you witnessed growing up. The sad truth is that even in the Church, men and women have bought into the lie of a version of marriage that does not reflect what we read in the Bible. You need to hear that when it comes to marriage or any other relationship for that matter, God offers a better way. Nevertheless, to experience that better way, it takes two who desire to walk in a manner worthy of their calling as followers of Jesus for Gods design for marriage to be experienced on some level. In the weeks to come, I hope to offer you some level of help and encouragement for your marriage and your desire to follow Jesus well. Before I conclude, permit me to address the woman and then the men of this church. To the women in this church: You are created in the image of God and there is no man whose love is greater for you than the one your heavenly Father has for you. Any abuse you suffered growing up, the careless words spoken by any of the men in your life, or any treatment of you that has reduced you to an object is NOT a reflection of Gods love for you. You are valued because God has placed value upon you as His daughter! There is no marriage or situation where it is acceptable or okay for you to be abused or mistreated as a daughter of the God who loved you so much that He sent His only Son to die to redeem you. If you are in a marriage that seems more of a misery than the beautiful marvel it is intended to be, I want to encourage you to hang on and trust that the God who raises the dead can bring life to your marriage. If you are in what you believe to be a dead or failing marriage, I would like to give you an assignment this week: Pray for your husband, that the God who created out of nothing, can do something with the man in your marriage. To the men in this church: Everything I said to the women also applies to you. It is possible to be in a relationship where you are demeaned, demonized, and devalued by the women in your life (more on that next week). It is not okay for you to be treated poorly or talked down to or disrespected by your wife or children. I will say though, that we men tend to set the culture and spiritual climate of our homes; if you have not done a good job at doing that, it is not too late. Permit me to give you an assignment this week, read John 13:1 - 19:30 and take note on what Ephesians 5:25 really means for your marriage: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Especially take note of what you can do differently or better to obey what is commanded of you as the husband of your wife. Finally, the God who raised Jesus from the grave cares more about your marriage than you ever could, so trust and believe that He can make something beautiful out of your mess. It is on this point that I leave you with Ephesians 3:20-21, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. [1] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), 149. [2] Ibid., 151. [3] Richard Coekin, Ephesians for You (The Good Book Company; 2019), 164-65.

Evidence → Truth → Trust

WTF Gym Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2024 17:07

If you've lost trust in your employees (or anyone really), this framework might help. —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I solve problems in your business and make you more money. Guaranteed. For over a decade I've been working with gym owners (via one-on-one consulting) to help create tailored solutions to solve their business problems, engineer the game plan and empower them to execute the strategy. Stop wishing your business problems are going to magically go away. Invest in your business and let me solve your problems and optimize your business fast and efficiently. We'll work together daily/weekly, with a monthly call until the problem is solved and then I want you to fire me. Because this is YOUR business, I'm just here to solve a specific problem and then get out of your way. Learn more about what it's like for us to work together. —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want to increase your business IQ by 100x for only $50? Get enrolled in Microgym University - the only online business school that teaches you the best practices and business frameworks from some of the most successful brands in our industry and then lets you decide which ones to install in your business. New courses are added every month. ⁠www.microgymuniversity.com⁠ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Need help leasing or buying a building? I created the Gym Real Estate Company so that gym owners had someone who could go beyond the duties of a typical real estate broker and actually advise them on business aspects as they relate to site selection, market location fit, operational capacity, facility layout, pre-sell marketing, and more. If you're looking for help with your next lease or if you want us to help you along the journey of buying a building - ⁠head over to www.gymrealestate.co and book a Discovery Call. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14-Day Trial of GymsSudio — the last member management software you'll ever need. GymStudio is a gym and studio management software for businesses that want to deliver a frictionless member experience. Our intuitive platform was designed to re-think how traditional gym management platforms organize memberships, payments, schedules, bookings, and more. GymStudio is utilized by small and medium-sized fitness businesses ranging from strength and conditioning gyms to yoga and pilates studios around the world. We offer a 14-day trial and a concierge "transition service" when switching from another gym management platform. This all-in-one platform provides this and much more for less than $150 per month. https://www.gymstudio.com/ —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Macrostax is the #1 nutrition management software that helps gym owners, personal trainers, and other fitness professionals offer customized nutrition plans to their clients without lifting a finger. This scalable, hands-off approach to nutrition saves time, generates additional revenue, and allows them to add an extremely valuable offering to their fitness businesses. With over 1,500 gym clients across the US, Macrostax Team solves a missing yet essential puzzle piece for many gym owners that want to help their members reach their goals. Try Macrostax Team, FREE for 30-days with this link.

Braver Angels Truth & Trust. Francis Collins and Wilk Wilkinson

How Do We Fix It?

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2024 31:21

When renowned physician-scientist Francis Collins was about to have his first conversation with Christian conservative Wilk Wilkinson in early 2022, he admits that he had concerns. "I thought oh boy, this is going to be a tough one". Dr. Collins had recently stepped down as Director of NIH— The National Institutes of Health. He served under Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden, and played a leading role in the federal response to the COVID pandemic. Podcaster Wilk Wilkinson, who lives in rural Minnesota, was intensely critical of how the government handled COVID.Today both Francis and Wilk are friends. They lead the Braver Angels' Truth and Trust Project. The goal is to build trust between ordinary Americans and the public health community in the wake of the pandemic. In each Truth and Trust gathering equal numbers of people from each side of the debate about what happened with public health listen carefully and express their views. In this episode of "How Do We Fix It?", Wilk and Francis discuss their unlikely partnership, what they've learned from those they disagree with, and how they're working together across divides."We're going to have another pandemic," says Francis. "If we do not learn the lessons of what went right and what went wrong with this one then we're going to be in a terrible spot."Both men still have different opinions on the role of government mandates in health emergencies. "When I look at anything that involves the government it's through the lens of liberty," says Wilk. "If the one entity out there that has a monopoly on force is going to restrict the liberty of the individual they better be 100% sure that what they're doing is really the only option.""I learned a lot by listening, and Wilk was a very good person to listen to, about how the pandemic was different for somebody who was in a very different place than I was", says Francis. "I also learned from Wilk and others in the Truth and Trust sessions about how sometimes the pronouncements from people like me in public health communication came across as very elitist... as opposed to really explaining the circumstance about how imperfect the data was and how uncertain we often were that we were recommending was going to turn out to be right."Francis's forthcoming book, to be published in mid-September, is "The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith and Trust". Wilk's podcast is "Derate The Hate." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

covid-19 director health trust donald trump science americans truth joe biden minnesota acast wilkinson wilk francis collins braver angels presidents obama truth trust how do we fix it trust project

Truth, Trust, Together | Bob Hoffman - JAMODI Clips

JAMODI Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2024 13:52

Bob Hoffman - Head Men's Coach at University of Central Oklahoma

university trust coach clips bob hoffman truth trust

Risen With Jesus

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2024

In 2012, D.A. Carson published his book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. Around the time his book released, he spoke on the subject at a conference I attended; I remember thinking that his book was timely and potentially prophetic, but none of us could have fully appreciated the gravity of what was coming. The following quote from Carsons book illustrates exactly what I mean: Neither the old tolerance nor the new is an intellectual position; rather, each is a social response. The old tolerance is the willingness to put up with, allow, or endure people and ideas with whom we disagree; in its purest form, the new tolerance is the social commitment to treat all ideas and people as equally right, save for those people who disagree with this view of tolerance. Advocates of the new tolerance sacrifice wisdom and principle in support of just one supreme good: upholding their view of tolerance. So those who uphold and practice the older tolerance, enmeshed as they inevitably are in some value system, are written off as intolerant. Thus banished, they no longer deserve a place at the table.[1] I would suggest that the older tolerance allowed space to disagree charitably with those who did not share your point of view. Not only are those of the older tolerance banished from a place at the table. Today, we find ourselves in a very interesting state of affairs in that if your ideology does not line up with that of the loudest and most vocal of ideological voices regarding sex, identity, what it means to be human, and what must be tolerated, you will be diagnosed with a certain phobia and placed into the category of mental illness. So, before we get into Ephesians this morning, I thought it would be fun it first define the word Phobia and then consider some phobias that do actually exist to better appreciate Ephesians 5:11-14. So, what is a phobia? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), a phobia is a intense, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Furthermore, NIH affirms that, Although adults with phobias may realize that these fears are irrational, even thinking about facing the feared object or situation brings on severe anxiety symptoms. According to Wikipedia, a phobia is, an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. The definition that Merriam-Webster still provides for phobia is, an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. So, permit me to list a few common phobias and then share with you some other phobias that are not as common. Acrophobia: An intense fear of heights. Claustrophobia: An intense fear of confined spaces. Arachnophobia: An intense fear of spiders. Entomophobia: An intense fear of insects. Here is a list of phobias that you may not have heard of before: Arachibutyrophobia: An intense fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Nomophobia: An intense fear of being without your mobile phone. Plutophobia: An intense fear of money. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (a 36-letter word): An intense fear of long words. Taking a stance against something is not necessarily due to a phobia but possibly a moral conviction. A legitimate question that must be answered is from what standard does your moral conviction come? Does it come from culture, or does it come from something that transcends culture? For the Christian, our moral standard is not culture but the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. Here is how the apostle Paul explained what standard we use to judge what is good or evil, it is Ephesians 2:19-22, So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Jesus, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and serves as the cornerstone of His Church, gave those who make up His Church this command, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). The prophets and the apostles are the foundation of Jesus Church, and it is the prophets and the apostles whose teachings make up the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible is, ...inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we are going follow Jesus and live as though the Bible is the Word of God, we will be labeled by those still in darkness as phobic and intolerant. As a people who, were once darkness, but now... light in the Lord we live for what God loves and we stand against what God hates. Listen, if we are going to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (v. 10), we will be compelled to live counter-cultural in a world that calls evil good, and good evil. As children of light we belong to the God who condemns any culture that calls evil good, and good evil: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight (Isa. 5:20)! We Expose the Darkness by Not Participating in It Now we come to Ephesians 5:11 where we are commanded to avoid all participation in the useless deeds of darkness. What does that mean? The NIV translates verse 11 this way: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. The NKJV gets closer to the heart of what Paul is communicating: And have no fellowshipwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. The word used for participate (synkoinōneō) does not mean fellowship in the Greek, but it does mean share. It is a Greek word that is also used in Philippians 4:14, Nevertheless, you have done well to share [synkoinōneō] with me in my difficulty. To share in something is to have fellowship with it. What are the useless deeds of darkness? Well, they include but are not limited to sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, foolish talk, and vulgar joking. The useless deeds of darkness is what we were once slaves to before we were made alive with Christ when we, lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The useless deeds of darkness is what the apostle John described in 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. You may recall how the holiness of God is used to the third degree unlike any other attribute of God mentioned in the Bible. Day and night the seraphim do not cease to call out to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come (Rev. 4:8). I pointed out how this is a literary devise used in the ancient languages to emphasis a very important point. There is another literary devise I told you about when we began this series in Ephesians, which comes in the form of repeated words or phrases; one such phrase that is repeated over and over again in Ephesians are the phrases in Christ, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus, and in Him; collectively they are used about 33 times. If you are a Christian, your identity and life is in Christ. Pauls description of the Christian as being in Christ is a phrase that is equivalent to remaining in Jesus; here is what Jesus said about remaining in Him: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me (John 15:1-4). Sinclair Ferguson said this about what it means to be in the Lord: To be in the Lord is to belong to a new world, to inhabit a new kingdom in which we become new men and women. In this new kingdom, new powers are at work in us the powers of the Spirit of the crucified, risen, ascended, reigning and returning Christ. Once we were in the darkness. Worse, the darkness was in us we were darkness. Now we have been drawn into the light, illuminated by Christ the Light of the world. More, we have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. In the Lord we are light![2] So, if we are now children of light because of our redemption and union with Jesus, why in the world would we want to have fellowship with or share in the useless deeds of darkness? Not only are we not to participate in the useless deeds of darkness but we are to expose them. What does Paul mean that we are to expose the useless deeds of darkness? Well, it is clear Paul is not telling us to avoid the world, for that would go against the way he lived his life and much of what is written in the both the Old Testament and New Testament. The design and plan for Gods people was always to be on mission by entering into the darkness as His instrument to light up the darkness. Israel was saved from Egypt to be Gods kingdom of priests to be His light in a dark world: Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:5-6). Israels great failure was that they repeatedly and continually and habitually as a nation, participated in the fruitless deeds of darkness when by their mere existence should have exposed the emptiness and uselessness of sin. Israels problem was a heart problem only Jesus is able to fix. Jesus is Gods Yes to the promise of Deuteronomy 30:6, The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live. Jesus is Gods answer to Ezekiel 36:26, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. You, Christian, are the recipient of such promises through and in Jesus, so why would you even want to have fellowship, share, and remain in the fruitless deeds of darkness that rob you of the kind of life you were designed to have in God? Not only are the deeds of darkness fruitless, but the wrath of a holy God is set against such deeds! This is why Paul wrote concerning those who continue to practice sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (5:3), for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret (v. 12). Our Life in Christ Exposes the Uselessness of the Deeds of Darkness The only hope for lost humanity is Jesus! He is the only solution for our sin problem. Only through the life of Jesus and the death that He died for sinners can the spiritually dead be raised to new life. Sinclair Ferguson is spot on in his description of what happened when the Christian was saved from the wrath of God: We have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. Now as those who are alive with Christ, we carry the light of Jesus into the darkness of the world, this is why Jesus said, You are the light of the world.... Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:14, 16). So what happens when light invades a dark room? It exposes what is in the room. One of two things will happen when light exposes what is in the darkness, it will anger those who love the darkness, or it will reveal a better way to those tired and wearied by the darkness. To expose the darkness in the context of Ephesians is to contrast the living against the dead. It is not picket signs on the corner, bumper stickers, or hats that protest the darkness. It is what happens when light pierces the darkness of sins domain. The light of Christ displayed in and through His people reveals to those in the darkness that there is a better way because Jesus is the only way to experience the kind of redemption of our souls and the forgiveness of all our sins that will grant us true salvation and freedom (1:7).Many will reject Christ as the only remedy for our salvation as intolerant and they will run to the darkness, but there will be some whose sin will be exposed by the light of Christ, and they will run to Him for the life only He can give. This is the point Paul makes in verse 13, But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. I think the New Living Translation translates this verse in less confusing way: But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. Legislation and laws are good only in that it helps to suppress the evil we humans are capable of, but it can never fix the evil we are capable of. If you are darkness, you will yield the useless fruits of darkness to one degree or another. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy the dark heart of humanity! The gospel of Jesus Christ alone, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Christian, you are living proof that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is still possible today! You serve as a reminder everywhere you go that either the wrath of God can be avoided through Jesus, or the wrath of God is coming upon those who reject Him (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16). We who were asleep and dead in our sins, are only alive because the light of Christ has shown upon us. It is here in verse 14 that Paul quotes what was most likely an early church hymn composed on the basis of Isaiah 60:1-2 and Christ as the fulfillment of its promise: Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you. Here is what Isaiah 60:1-2 promises: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Here is another one for those who reject Jesus as God! Only Yahweh has the power to redeem and raise the dead, yet Jesus has done in your life what only God is capable of doing. We who were once dead, heard the voice of Christ, and we arose to follow Him and now we live! We who once enjoyed the darkness, delight in walking in light as those who now belong to the One who said, I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life (John 8:12). Pursing Jesus is the only way to fight against our own sin and the temptation to participate in the useless deeds of darkness. Amen. [1] D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 2012), 98. [2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (East Peoria, IL: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), 132.

Risen With Jesus

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2024

In 2012, D.A. Carson published his book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. Around the time his book released, he spoke on the subject at a conference I attended; I remember thinking that his book was timely and potentially prophetic, but none of us could have fully appreciated the gravity of what was coming. The following quote from Carsons book illustrates exactly what I mean: Neither the old tolerance nor the new is an intellectual position; rather, each is a social response. The old tolerance is the willingness to put up with, allow, or endure people and ideas with whom we disagree; in its purest form, the new tolerance is the social commitment to treat all ideas and people as equally right, save for those people who disagree with this view of tolerance. Advocates of the new tolerance sacrifice wisdom and principle in support of just one supreme good: upholding their view of tolerance. So those who uphold and practice the older tolerance, enmeshed as they inevitably are in some value system, are written off as intolerant. Thus banished, they no longer deserve a place at the table.[1] I would suggest that the older tolerance allowed space to disagree charitably with those who did not share your point of view. Not only are those of the older tolerance banished from a place at the table. Today, we find ourselves in a very interesting state of affairs in that if your ideology does not line up with that of the loudest and most vocal of ideological voices regarding sex, identity, what it means to be human, and what must be tolerated, you will be diagnosed with a certain phobia and placed into the category of mental illness. So, before we get into Ephesians this morning, I thought it would be fun it first define the word Phobia and then consider some phobias that do actually exist to better appreciate Ephesians 5:11-14. So, what is a phobia? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), a phobia is a intense, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Furthermore, NIH affirms that, Although adults with phobias may realize that these fears are irrational, even thinking about facing the feared object or situation brings on severe anxiety symptoms. According to Wikipedia, a phobia is, an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. The definition that Merriam-Webster still provides for phobia is, an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. So, permit me to list a few common phobias and then share with you some other phobias that are not as common. Acrophobia: An intense fear of heights. Claustrophobia: An intense fear of confined spaces. Arachnophobia: An intense fear of spiders. Entomophobia: An intense fear of insects. Here is a list of phobias that you may not have heard of before: Arachibutyrophobia: An intense fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Nomophobia: An intense fear of being without your mobile phone. Plutophobia: An intense fear of money. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (a 36-letter word): An intense fear of long words. Taking a stance against something is not necessarily due to a phobia but possibly a moral conviction. A legitimate question that must be answered is from what standard does your moral conviction come? Does it come from culture, or does it come from something that transcends culture? For the Christian, our moral standard is not culture but the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. Here is how the apostle Paul explained what standard we use to judge what is good or evil, it is Ephesians 2:19-22, So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gods household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Jesus, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and serves as the cornerstone of His Church, gave those who make up His Church this command, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). The prophets and the apostles are the foundation of Jesus Church, and it is the prophets and the apostles whose teachings make up the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible is, ...inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we are going follow Jesus and live as though the Bible is the Word of God, we will be labeled by those still in darkness as phobic and intolerant. As a people who, were once darkness, but now... light in the Lord we live for what God loves and we stand against what God hates. Listen, if we are going to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (v. 10), we will be compelled to live counter-cultural in a world that calls evil good, and good evil. As children of light we belong to the God who condemns any culture that calls evil good, and good evil: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight (Isa. 5:20)! We Expose the Darkness by Not Participating in It Now we come to Ephesians 5:11 where we are commanded to avoid all participation in the useless deeds of darkness. What does that mean? The NIV translates verse 11 this way: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. The NKJV gets closer to the heart of what Paul is communicating: And have no fellowshipwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. The word used for participate (synkoinōneō) does not mean fellowship in the Greek, but it does mean share. It is a Greek word that is also used in Philippians 4:14, Nevertheless, you have done well to share [synkoinōneō] with me in my difficulty. To share in something is to have fellowship with it. What are the useless deeds of darkness? Well, they include but are not limited to sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, foolish talk, and vulgar joking. The useless deeds of darkness is what we were once slaves to before we were made alive with Christ when we, lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The useless deeds of darkness is what the apostle John described in 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. You may recall how the holiness of God is used to the third degree unlike any other attribute of God mentioned in the Bible. Day and night the seraphim do not cease to call out to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come (Rev. 4:8). I pointed out how this is a literary devise used in the ancient languages to emphasis a very important point. There is another literary devise I told you about when we began this series in Ephesians, which comes in the form of repeated words or phrases; one such phrase that is repeated over and over again in Ephesians are the phrases in Christ, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus, and in Him; collectively they are used about 33 times. If you are a Christian, your identity and life is in Christ. Pauls description of the Christian as being in Christ is a phrase that is equivalent to remaining in Jesus; here is what Jesus said about remaining in Him: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me (John 15:1-4). Sinclair Ferguson said this about what it means to be in the Lord: To be in the Lord is to belong to a new world, to inhabit a new kingdom in which we become new men and women. In this new kingdom, new powers are at work in us the powers of the Spirit of the crucified, risen, ascended, reigning and returning Christ. Once we were in the darkness. Worse, the darkness was in us we were darkness. Now we have been drawn into the light, illuminated by Christ the Light of the world. More, we have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. In the Lord we are light![2] So, if we are now children of light because of our redemption and union with Jesus, why in the world would we want to have fellowship with or share in the useless deeds of darkness? Not only are we not to participate in the useless deeds of darkness but we are to expose them. What does Paul mean that we are to expose the useless deeds of darkness? Well, it is clear Paul is not telling us to avoid the world, for that would go against the way he lived his life and much of what is written in the both the Old Testament and New Testament. The design and plan for Gods people was always to be on mission by entering into the darkness as His instrument to light up the darkness. Israel was saved from Egypt to be Gods kingdom of priests to be His light in a dark world: Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:5-6). Israels great failure was that they repeatedly and continually and habitually as a nation, participated in the fruitless deeds of darkness when by their mere existence should have exposed the emptiness and uselessness of sin. Israels problem was a heart problem only Jesus is able to fix. Jesus is Gods Yes to the promise of Deuteronomy 30:6, The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live. Jesus is Gods answer to Ezekiel 36:26, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. You, Christian, are the recipient of such promises through and in Jesus, so why would you even want to have fellowship, share, and remain in the fruitless deeds of darkness that rob you of the kind of life you were designed to have in God? Not only are the deeds of darkness fruitless, but the wrath of a holy God is set against such deeds! This is why Paul wrote concerning those who continue to practice sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (5:3), for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret (v. 12). Our Life in Christ Exposes the Uselessness of the Deeds of Darkness The only hope for lost humanity is Jesus! He is the only solution for our sin problem. Only through the life of Jesus and the death that He died for sinners can the spiritually dead be raised to new life. Sinclair Ferguson is spot on in his description of what happened when the Christian was saved from the wrath of God: We have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. Now as those who are alive with Christ, we carry the light of Jesus into the darkness of the world, this is why Jesus said, You are the light of the world.... Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:14, 16). So what happens when light invades a dark room? It exposes what is in the room. One of two things will happen when light exposes what is in the darkness, it will anger those who love the darkness, or it will reveal a better way to those tired and wearied by the darkness. To expose the darkness in the context of Ephesians is to contrast the living against the dead. It is not picket signs on the corner, bumper stickers, or hats that protest the darkness. It is what happens when light pierces the darkness of sins domain. The light of Christ displayed in and through His people reveals to those in the darkness that there is a better way because Jesus is the only way to experience the kind of redemption of our souls and the forgiveness of all our sins that will grant us true salvation and freedom (1:7).Many will reject Christ as the only remedy for our salvation as intolerant and they will run to the darkness, but there will be some whose sin will be exposed by the light of Christ, and they will run to Him for the life only He can give. This is the point Paul makes in verse 13, But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. I think the New Living Translation translates this verse in less confusing way: But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. Legislation and laws are good only in that it helps to suppress the evil we humans are capable of, but it can never fix the evil we are capable of. If you are darkness, you will yield the useless fruits of darkness to one degree or another. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy the dark heart of humanity! The gospel of Jesus Christ alone, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Christian, you are living proof that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is still possible today! You serve as a reminder everywhere you go that either the wrath of God can be avoided through Jesus, or the wrath of God is coming upon those who reject Him (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16). We who were asleep and dead in our sins, are only alive because the light of Christ has shown upon us. It is here in verse 14 that Paul quotes what was most likely an early church hymn composed on the basis of Isaiah 60:1-2 and Christ as the fulfillment of its promise: Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you. Here is what Isaiah 60:1-2 promises: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Here is another one for those who reject Jesus as God! Only Yahweh has the power to redeem and raise the dead, yet Jesus has done in your life what only God is capable of doing. We who were once dead, heard the voice of Christ, and we arose to follow Him and now we live! We who once enjoyed the darkness, delight in walking in light as those who now belong to the One who said, I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life (John 8:12). Pursing Jesus is the only way to fight against our own sin and the temptation to participate in the useless deeds of darkness. Amen. [1] D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 2012), 98. [2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (East Peoria, IL: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), 132.

Living in Light of Your Identity

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2024

John Owen was a puritan who lived in the United Kingdom, the most published author of the 17th century, and considered by many as one of the most important theologians produced by the West. One of his most famous lines ever penned comes from his book, The Mortification of Sin, which was first published in 1656. Mortification simply means to put to death. Owens entire book is really a treatise on Romans 8:13, for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Owens condensed this verse into 9 words: Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Now you may be thinking, Pastor Keith, you said that God loves us too much to leave us as we were. Pastor Keith, you said: Jesus loves His Church too much to leave her the way He found her. Pastor Keith, I thought Ephesians 1:19 was for me and that the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe is the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave and now that same power dwells in me so that I can live the Christian life well? So, what is this business of needing to kill sin because it may kill me? John Owen was right when he wrote of our sin problem, that it is always acting, always conceiving, and always seducing and tempting.[1] Where is that in the Bible? It is all over the Bible, but it is in Galatians 5:17, For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing what you want. It is in Romans 7:23, but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my bodys parts. Even though you can rejoice in your salvation, you still find yourself in places you do not want anyone else to hear, and maybe inwardly you are crying and begging as you grope for words: Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death (Rom. 7:24)? Owens wrote, Every lust is a depraved habit or inclination pushing the heart toward evil.[2] And, if you are honest, you know the terror of the truth of those words as you sit here today and the last thing you want is to feel more guilt over your failures, but instead want help and encouragement as you desire to press forward! There are two words in Ephesians 4:25-32 that I believe will offer you some help and encouragement this morning. The first word is ridding (apotithēmi) and is linked to the sins we were once slaves to. The other word is grief (lypeō) as it relates to the Holy Spirit. But first, let begin by first turning our attention to the word grief because if you can appreciate verse 30, what it means to rid ourselves of sin and how we do it, this will make more sense. Grief is Evidence that We Belong to God There are two types of grief that proves that God made you alive together with Christ. There is the grief the Holy Spirit experiences over your sin and the grief you experience because of your sin. Now that you are a Christian, the grief you experience over your sin is different than the kind of grief you experienced before you became a follower of Jesus. It is a grief that comes by way of being alive with Christ and no longer dead in your offenses and sins (2:1). When you were dead in your sins, you were also a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3)! Now that you are alive with Christ, you are a child of God! Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma (Eph. 5:1). You are not just a child of God, but a beloved child of God! Your grief over sin is different because you are now able to love Jesus in the way the apostle Peter described in his epistle: though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Pet. 1:8-9). Your grief over your sin is the kind of thing James wrote about: Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you (Jas 4:810). If you are born again, you grieve over your sin because of the ways it affects your relationship with God, which is the type of grieving that was impossible when you were dead in your sins. There is another grief that is addressed in Ephesians 4:30, and it is the grief the Holy Spirit experiences over your sins. The reason why your sins grieve the Holy Spirit is because you who were once an enemy of God are now a child of God. Your sins grieve the Holy Spirit in the same way the sins of a child grieves the heart of his mother and father who loves their child and are committed to that child. God as a Trinity is eternally invested in your redemption: the Father chose you for redemption, the Son redeemed you for salvation, the Holy Spirit seals you to powerfully keep you and all of it was motivated by love! We see the same work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Romans 5:1-5, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom. 5:15) The Holy Spirit is grieved over our sins because His sealing and indwelling is evidence of, the love of God poured out within our hearts. Kent Hughes said of the Holy Spirit: He comes to us in the clay of our sinful humanity, and though the walls are covered over with spiritual leprosy, he indwells us.[3] He does not just indwell us, He has come to stay! This is one of many reasons why Paul could write Romans 8:1, Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 4:30 doesnt end with the command, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God but concludes with a promise: by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. If you are still confused over how this is good news, consider Philippians 1:6, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus. It is because the Holy Spirit seals us and dwells within us with power that we are able to sing: No guilt in life, no fear in deathThis is the power of Christ in meFrom life's first cry to final breathJesus commands my destinyNo power of hell, no scheme of manCan ever pluck me from His handTill He returns or calls me homeHere in the power of Christ I'll stand The One who dwells within you and seals you for the day of redemption is the Holy Spirit of God. He is not a power, a force, or a character trait of God; the Holy Spirit is a Person, and He is God Almighty! Christian, because God loves you, the Holy Spirit can be grieved by you. The Holy Spirit is the Promise that We Can Live for God The reason why the Holy Spirit can be grieved is not only because He loves you, but because He has provided you with all that you need to say no to sin. Some of you are passively waiting to gain victory over sin in your life as though there is some magic recipe needed for you to successfully conquer certain sins in your life. Listen, when it comes to victory over sin, there is no easy button you can push! This might shock some of you, but to gain victory over your sin, you must be willing to fight against your sin. There is a list of sins Paul provides in verses 25-32, but do not think that this is an exhaustive list or that the sins listed are worse than others that are not listed. What is provided in these verses are examples, and dare I say it, examples we tend to feel better about than other sins. The point for why the apostle lists these sins is that we are to rid ourselves of them. We are to rid ourselves of falsehood (v. 25), sinful anger (v. 26), theft (v. 28), unwholesome talk (v. 29), ungodly virtues (vv. 31-32). We are to rid ourselves of deceit because God is truth and the devil is the father of lies (Deut. 32:4; John 8:44). We are to rid ourselves of ungodly anger because it does not leave room for the kind of mercy, love, and grace we received from God (see Col. 3:12-13; Matt. 18:21-35). We are to rid ourselves of theft because it feeds our idolatrous hearts into thinking what belongs to God, and how He has blessed others, really belongs to us. We are to rid ourselves of unwholesome talk because what comes out of our mouths really comes out of the heart (Matt. 15:17-19). We are to rid ourselves of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice by replacing those sins with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. What does it mean to rid ourselves of these sins and how do we do it? Well, for starters, do not for a second think that Paul is telling us to do these things to keep our salvation. Bryan Chapell rightly said of these verses: We are not to live to secure grace but to live out the grace that God secured for us.[4] In light of the grace that God secured for us and the power that resides within us from His Holy Spirit, we are able, and we must, rid ourselves of these sins that threaten us. When we were dead in our sins, we were unable to rid ourselves of the sins of our flesh, but after God made us alive with Christ, He gave us a new nature and empowered us to fight our sins and to win against them. This is one of the reasons Jesus called Him the Helper: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever (John 14:16). The word for rid in Greek is apotithēmi. The ESV translates this word put away. The NIV translates this word, put off. The previous version of the NASB before the 2020 update even translated this word, lay aside. All three ways are legitimate ways to translate apotithēmi, but I think the NASB2020 is better! Ridding yourselves of falsehood, sinful anger, theft, unwholesome talk, and ungodly virtues. Be truthful, exercise righteous anger when necessary, work hard and live generously for the good of others, and use your words for the glory of God and the edification of those around you! The same Greek word is used in Hebrews 12:1-2, Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, lets rid [apotithēmi] ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and lets run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Do more than just lay aside your sin, do more than just put it off, do more than put it away; get rid of it! Throw it aside! Put it to death! Why? Because it is dangerous! Just because you are a Christian and have the Holy Spirit, do not be passive about it. Treat it as something venomous and deadly! Your desire to lie, to give into anger and rage, to take that which does not belong to you get rid of it and put it to death! Your unwholesome talk dressed up in gossip, the words you use to tear down others, the poison that comes out of your mouth with cunning words used to get your way, or any other unwholesome speech get rid of it! Put it to death! Why? Because it is deadly, thats why! Be killing sin or it will be killing you. Later in his book, The Mortification of Sin, Owens wrote: If sin is subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we are slothful, negligent, and foolish in this battle, can we expect a favorable outcome? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed upon. It will always be so while we live in this world. Sin will not spare for one day. There is no safety but in a constant warfare for those who desire deliverance from sins perplexing rebellion.[5] How do you get rid of the sin that threatens you? Well, for starters, confess it and get radical about not visiting that sin again. If you keep running back to your sin, find someone who you can talk to and will hold you accountable. God saved you from your sins and idols for a freedom only available in Him. You may be in bondage to a sin or sins, but they have no claim over your life. If you are a man, seek the help of your brothers; if you are a woman, seek the help of your sisters. You have all of the Holy Spirit you will ever need for a power over any bondage that you feel trapped in, but know that you belong to the Body of Christ and your sanctification is a community project. Some of you have grown so calloused to your sin because you have surrendered to it; it is time to stop grieving the Holy Spirit and live in the reality of your new identity in Jesus: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10). Amen. [1] Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way Its Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing; 1995), 88. [2] John Owen (Abridged by Richard Rushing), The Mortification of Sin (Eas Peoria, IL: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2020), p.33. [3] R. Kent Hughes, Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 148. [4] Bryan Chapell, Reformed Expository Commentary: Ephesians (Phillipsburg, NJ: PR Publishing; 2009), 219. [5] John Owen (Abridged by Richard Rushing), The Mortification of Sin (Eas Peoria, IL: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2020), p.11.

Living the Right Way

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2024

There have been men in my life whose influence had such a profound effect upon my life that had they not been a part of it, I would not be the man that I am today. These men include men whose lives continue to shape my life, men like Ralph Robinson and Ed HardestyRalph is home with Jesus and Ed is still faithfully teaching the Bible at a Bible college and faithfully preaches and shepherds at the church he planted years ago. There are others who I will leave unnamed who started out in ministry so well, but were derailed from ministry due to sexual immorality, some are out of the pastorate due to their own arrogance, and others have walked away from the faith all together. There are multiple examples of the way men and women of faith made a mess of their lives throughout the Bible, of all that have done so, none are more notable than King Solomon who turned his heart from God by chasing after the idols of his heart. As an old man, Solomon reflected upon his sins and his reflections are recorded for us in Ecclesiastes, a book that begins with these words: And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom about everything that has been done under heaven. It is a sorry task with which God has given the sons of mankind to be troubled. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is futility and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted (Eccl. 1:1315). Here is how Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes: Remember your Creator before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the spring is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Eccl. 12:6-7, 1314) You, dear Christian, have something that Solomon did not have. You have Christ! You have been chosen before the foundation of the world by God the Father for Jesus the Son to be holy and blameless (1:4-6). You have been redeemed through the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins (1:7-12). You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit through Christ as a child of God (1:13-14). You who were once dead in your sins, are now alive with Jesus and have been raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places all because of Christ! You are, His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:10). Therefore, you are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (4:1). How do you walk in a manner worthy of your calling? You do it within community as a member of the body of Christ who has been gifted to, encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Heb. 10:24-25). By doing this, we are better prepared to engage Gods mission to redeem the nations with the Gospel as His Church. We Live Rightly Under the Guiding Light of the Word of God How do we guard against the kinds of dangers we are warned about in the Bible such as apostatizing, which is a turning away from the one faith that unifies us that is the one faith in Jesus the Christ. In Christians circles the word apostasy has been sanitized and rebranded with a new word known as deconstructing. This is the very thing the apostle John warned about in his epistle: They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us (1 John 2:19).[1] So, how do we guard against falling away? How do we protect ourselves from the dangers of apostasy? The answer is before us in Ephesians 4:11-16. We already looked at verses 11-13 but let me briefly remind you why these verses are so helpful. Last week, I pointed out to you that the list in verse 11 is a list of five offices that Christ gifts to His Church, these offices are filled by those who are spiritually gifted persons, whose sole purpose has to do with the administration and distribution of the Word of God to the people of God. I explained why I believe the offices of Apostle and Prophet are offices no longer being filled today for they ceased with the death of the apostles. I showed you that based on what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:19-22, the offices of apostles and prophets are gifts we still benefit from through the foundation of the Word of God in the Old Testament (prophets) and New Testament (apostles and prophets). The offices of evangelists, pastors, and teachers are still being filled by Jesus with spiritually gifted people, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ (v. 12). For how long are those called to administer the Word of God to the People of God? The answer is in verse 13: until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. The goal is that the people of God would become full of the true and incomparable Jesus, and it is done through the faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God! On this point, Sinclair Ferguson said of the ministry of the Word of God: Its goal is not merely educational but transformational; it informs the mind in order to touch the conscience, mold the will, cleanse the affections and sanctify the whole life. The Word is thus allowed to do its own sanctifying work, as our Lord himself prayed: Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth (John 17:17). This requires intensive treatment.[2] We Live Rightly When We Grow into Maturity in Christ I believe what I am going to say next may be the most important thing you will hear today regarding your life as a Christian. The reason why Jesus has gifted His Church with Apostles (New Testament), prophets (Old Testament), evangelists, pastors, and teachers is so that you will not remain, children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (v. 14). The apostle Paul warns of the great danger we all face related to your growth and maturity as a Christian. The Greek word that Paul uses for children is nēpios, which is used to describe a nursing infant. When you become a Christian, you are what Jesus described as born again (see John 3:1-21). In Hebrews 5:13, the same Greek word Paul used in Ephesians 4:14 is used, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant (nēpios). But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. (Heb. 5:1214) When you were made alive with Christ (2:5), you were born again. Like any newborn child, the only food that can be digested at first is milk, but if you never mature and move on to other types of food you will become sick and weak.According to Hebrews 5, the elementary principles of the actual words of God are the fundamentals of the Christian faith, necessary for a person to receive the good news of the gospel such as: The belief in Jesus Christ, as Gods only Son as our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.[3] However, if you do not grow up as a Christian and you continue to remain an infant that cannot handle anything other than spiritual milk you will be at severe risk of: 1) being carried about by every wind of doctrine, 2) the trickery of people, and 3) the craftiness in deceitful scheming. Infant Christians are gullible and unstable on their own feet. They can be easily knocked over, easily distracted, and are easily deceived because they lack discernment. Cults and false teachers will prey on the immature and will waste little time on the Christian who understands and knows the word of God. The Christian who remains an infant in his/her faith is usually unable to see through the deception of false teachers who pride themselves on things they claim have never been seen before or things in the Bible that have been long covered due to some crazy conspiracy. Behind every false teaching is the great deceiver of whom Jesus said, was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him because he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). To the Corinthian church, Paul warned the immature Christians: But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his trickery, your minds will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ (2 Cor. 11:3). Now listen to 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 in the New Living Translation, it does not comparatively do the best job with translating these verses, but it does really help us understand the danger that faces Christians who never grow beyond infancy: But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed (2 Cor. 11:34, NLT). Later in Ephesians Paul tells the Ephesian Christians to put on the full armor of God to stand against the same scheming that threatens Christians still in their infancy: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:1012). The focus of the enemy is deceive you into believing in a different Jesus and to isolate you from those within Jesus Church who can help you grow in the hope of your calling, which is, one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (4:4-6). The only way you will be able to stand on your own two spiritual feet is through a maturity that can only come by understanding the truth of Gods word within the community of Gods people. The goal in verse 13 is that we all attain the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. This is why Jesus gifts through the Holy Spirit apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the body of Christ so that we will grow as His body: The unity of the faith: That you, Christian will continue to grow in your knowledge and understanding that Jesus is both redeemer and Lord of His Church. The knowledge of the Son of God: That you, Christian will continue to grow in your knowledge and understanding that Jesus is all that He is as the Son of God, and any other Jesus presented outside of the scriptures is a Jesus who cannot save. Maturity as a follower of Jesus: That you, Christian will grow into a mature follower of the King of kings and Lord of lords and see Him for who He really is: The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). The head of the Church has declared: I am the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades (Rev. 1:18). To become full of Christ: That you, Christian, will grow in such a way that you will become full of Christ, so that you are able to say with John the Baptist: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). So how do we grow up in one faith? You do it by truthing in love together. Let me explain what I mean. Notice what Paul writes in verses 15-16: but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from who the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. If we are going to grow up as Christians, we must be people of the truth of Gods word! You will not grow as a Christian apart from the truth of His word as it is read, studied, and received from the foundation of the apostles and prophets (the Bible) and administered through the faithful preaching and teaching of Gods word by evangelists, pastors, and teachers (4:11). However, the goal is not to fill your head with knowledge, but for the knowledge of Gods word to shape the way you live your life! There is one Greek word used for speaking the truth (alētheuō), and it literally means, be truthful. A better way to translate is, but truthing in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head. What is the point? The point is that the goal of understanding the Word of God is not only to grow in your understanding of the Bible but to live out that truth through your life as a follower of Jesus within the community of the body of Christ. According to verse 16, this is the ONLY way to grow as a Christian! Every person in the body of Christ has been called by God, redeemed by Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of living within the community of those God has called, those whom Christ has redeemed, and those whom God has sealed with His Holy Spirit, and we live within the community of the redeemed while truthing in love. Listen, there is coming a day when the Church will be gathered in glory when every tribe and every tongue who experienced redemption through the precious blood of Jesus as the Lamb of God will celebrate Him not only as the Head of the Church, but the triumphant Lion of Judah, and we will celebrate His song that all of heaven will sing: And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. And I heard every created thing which is in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, or on the sea, and all the things in them, saying, To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion forever and ever. (Rev. 5:9-13) What other way is there to live in light of the reality of that truth but to do it by truthing in love together as His people and as the body of Christ? [1] See also 1 Tim. 1:18-20; Hebrews 6:1-8; 10:26-31; Matt. 7:21-23. [2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), p. 110-11. [3] Adapted from The Apostles Creed.

Living the Right Way

Off the Record on the Rocks

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2024

There have been men in my life whose influence had such a profound effect upon my life that had they not been a part of it, I would not be the man that I am today. These men include men whose lives continue to shape my life, men like Ralph Robinson and Ed HardestyRalph is home with Jesus and Ed is still faithfully teaching the Bible at a Bible college and faithfully preaches and shepherds at the church he planted years ago. There are others who I will leave unnamed who started out in ministry so well, but were derailed from ministry due to sexual immorality, some are out of the pastorate due to their own arrogance, and others have walked away from the faith all together. There are multiple examples of the way men and women of faith made a mess of their lives throughout the Bible, of all that have done so, none are more notable than King Solomon who turned his heart from God by chasing after the idols of his heart. As an old man, Solomon reflected upon his sins and his reflections are recorded for us in Ecclesiastes, a book that begins with these words: And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom about everything that has been done under heaven. It is a sorry task with which God has given the sons of mankind to be troubled. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is futility and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted (Eccl. 1:1315). Here is how Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes: Remember your Creator before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the spring is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Eccl. 12:6-7, 1314) You, dear Christian, have something that Solomon did not have. You have Christ! You have been chosen before the foundation of the world by God the Father for Jesus the Son to be holy and blameless (1:4-6). You have been redeemed through the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins (1:7-12). You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit through Christ as a child of God (1:13-14). You who were once dead in your sins, are now alive with Jesus and have been raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places all because of Christ! You are, His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:10). Therefore, you are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (4:1). How do you walk in a manner worthy of your calling? You do it within community as a member of the body of Christ who has been gifted to, encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Heb. 10:24-25). By doing this, we are better prepared to engage Gods mission to redeem the nations with the Gospel as His Church. We Live Rightly Under the Guiding Light of the Word of God How do we guard against the kinds of dangers we are warned about in the Bible such as apostatizing, which is a turning away from the one faith that unifies us that is the one faith in Jesus the Christ. In Christians circles the word apostasy has been sanitized and rebranded with a new word known as deconstructing. This is the very thing the apostle John warned about in his epistle: They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us (1 John 2:19).[1] So, how do we guard against falling away? How do we protect ourselves from the dangers of apostasy? The answer is before us in Ephesians 4:11-16. We already looked at verses 11-13 but let me briefly remind you why these verses are so helpful. Last week, I pointed out to you that the list in verse 11 is a list of five offices that Christ gifts to His Church, these offices are filled by those who are spiritually gifted persons, whose sole purpose has to do with the administration and distribution of the Word of God to the people of God. I explained why I believe the offices of Apostle and Prophet are offices no longer being filled today for they ceased with the death of the apostles. I showed you that based on what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:19-22, the offices of apostles and prophets are gifts we still benefit from through the foundation of the Word of God in the Old Testament (prophets) and New Testament (apostles and prophets). The offices of evangelists, pastors, and teachers are still being filled by Jesus with spiritually gifted people, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ (v. 12). For how long are those called to administer the Word of God to the People of God? The answer is in verse 13: until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. The goal is that the people of God would become full of the true and incomparable Jesus, and it is done through the faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God! On this point, Sinclair Ferguson said of the ministry of the Word of God: Its goal is not merely educational but transformational; it informs the mind in order to touch the conscience, mold the will, cleanse the affections and sanctify the whole life. The Word is thus allowed to do its own sanctifying work, as our Lord himself prayed: Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth (John 17:17). This requires intensive treatment.[2] We Live Rightly When We Grow into Maturity in Christ I believe what I am going to say next may be the most important thing you will hear today regarding your life as a Christian. The reason why Jesus has gifted His Church with Apostles (New Testament), prophets (Old Testament), evangelists, pastors, and teachers is so that you will not remain, children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (v. 14). The apostle Paul warns of the great danger we all face related to your growth and maturity as a Christian. The Greek word that Paul uses for children is nēpios, which is used to describe a nursing infant. When you become a Christian, you are what Jesus described as born again (see John 3:1-21). In Hebrews 5:13, the same Greek word Paul used in Ephesians 4:14 is used, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant (nēpios). But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. (Heb. 5:1214) When you were made alive with Christ (2:5), you were born again. Like any newborn child, the only food that can be digested at first is milk, but if you never mature and move on to other types of food you will become sick and weak.According to Hebrews 5, the elementary principles of the actual words of God are the fundamentals of the Christian faith, necessary for a person to receive the good news of the gospel such as: The belief in Jesus Christ, as Gods only Son as our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.[3] However, if you do not grow up as a Christian and you continue to remain an infant that cannot handle anything other than spiritual milk you will be at severe risk of: 1) being carried about by every wind of doctrine, 2) the trickery of people, and 3) the craftiness in deceitful scheming. Infant Christians are gullible and unstable on their own feet. They can be easily knocked over, easily distracted, and are easily deceived because they lack discernment. Cults and false teachers will prey on the immature and will waste little time on the Christian who understands and knows the word of God. The Christian who remains an infant in his/her faith is usually unable to see through the deception of false teachers who pride themselves on things they claim have never been seen before or things in the Bible that have been long covered due to some crazy conspiracy. Behind every false teaching is the great deceiver of whom Jesus said, was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him because he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). To the Corinthian church, Paul warned the immature Christians: But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his trickery, your minds will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ (2 Cor. 11:3). Now listen to 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 in the New Living Translation, it does not comparatively do the best job with translating these verses, but it does really help us understand the danger that faces Christians who never grow beyond infancy: But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed (2 Cor. 11:34, NLT). Later in Ephesians Paul tells the Ephesian Christians to put on the full armor of God to stand against the same scheming that threatens Christians still in their infancy: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:1012). The focus of the enemy is deceive you into believing in a different Jesus and to isolate you from those within Jesus Church who can help you grow in the hope of your calling, which is, one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (4:4-6). The only way you will be able to stand on your own two spiritual feet is through a maturity that can only come by understanding the truth of Gods word within the community of Gods people. The goal in verse 13 is that we all attain the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. This is why Jesus gifts through the Holy Spirit apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the body of Christ so that we will grow as His body: The unity of the faith: That you, Christian will continue to grow in your knowledge and understanding that Jesus is both redeemer and Lord of His Church. The knowledge of the Son of God: That you, Christian will continue to grow in your knowledge and understanding that Jesus is all that He is as the Son of God, and any other Jesus presented outside of the scriptures is a Jesus who cannot save. Maturity as a follower of Jesus: That you, Christian will grow into a mature follower of the King of kings and Lord of lords and see Him for who He really is: The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). The head of the Church has declared: I am the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades (Rev. 1:18). To become full of Christ: That you, Christian, will grow in such a way that you will become full of Christ, so that you are able to say with John the Baptist: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). So how do we grow up in one faith? You do it by truthing in love together. Let me explain what I mean. Notice what Paul writes in verses 15-16: but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from who the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. If we are going to grow up as Christians, we must be people of the truth of Gods word! You will not grow as a Christian apart from the truth of His word as it is read, studied, and received from the foundation of the apostles and prophets (the Bible) and administered through the faithful preaching and teaching of Gods word by evangelists, pastors, and teachers (4:11). However, the goal is not to fill your head with knowledge, but for the knowledge of Gods word to shape the way you live your life! There is one Greek word used for speaking the truth (alētheuō), and it literally means, be truthful. A better way to translate is, but truthing in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head. What is the point? The point is that the goal of understanding the Word of God is not only to grow in your understanding of the Bible but to live out that truth through your life as a follower of Jesus within the community of the body of Christ. According to verse 16, this is the ONLY way to grow as a Christian! Every person in the body of Christ has been called by God, redeemed by Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of living within the community of those God has called, those whom Christ has redeemed, and those whom God has sealed with His Holy Spirit, and we live within the community of the redeemed while truthing in love. Listen, there is coming a day when the Church will be gathered in glory when every tribe and every tongue who experienced redemption through the precious blood of Jesus as the Lamb of God will celebrate Him not only as the Head of the Church, but the triumphant Lion of Judah, and we will celebrate His song that all of heaven will sing: And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. And I heard every created thing which is in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, or on the sea, and all the things in them, saying, To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion forever and ever. (Rev. 5:9-13) What other way is there to live in light of the reality of that truth but to do it by truthing in love together as His people and as the body of Christ? [1] See also 1 Tim. 1:18-20; Hebrews 6:1-8; 10:26-31; Matt. 7:21-23. [2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study: Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), p. 110-11. [3] Adapted from The Apostles Creed.

E79: Have you Been Involved with Artificial Intelligence Managing Truth/Trust Layers?

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2024 42:28

Back of a dollar bill says “In God We Trust”... if our fiat economy's truth layer is managed by an all-seeing deity, why can't the blockchain be managed by Artificial intelligence? The immutable ledger is but a data set, requiring governance and trust to be validated. AI is the filter on that data set… after all, isn't reality what just happened yesterday? Maybe God.ai is just what the crypto community ordered? An American AI, steeped in separation of Church & State rhetoric, but actually just a government funded Trust layer, filtering and grooming your interpretations!

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THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “A Word to the Wealthy” 1 TIMOTHY 6:17-19

breakfast theology wealthy 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2024

Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 785-798.

Truth, Trust, and Confidence

Restore Church Audio | Yorkville, IL

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2024

Hebrews 6:18 NLT - 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.

god confidence hebrews nlt truth trust

Truth, Trust, and Confidence

Restore Church Audio | Yorkville, IL

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2024

Hebrews 6:18 NLT - 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.

god confidence hebrews nlt truth trust

Why You Should Read Alexander Moody Stuart, w/ Sinclair Ferguson

truth explore scottish stuart ferguson moody banner sinclair ferguson truth trust sinclair b ferguson

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2024 27:51

Last year the Banner of Truth Trust republished Alexander Moody Stuart: A Memoir, with the encouragement of Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson. Banner editor Sam Cunnington, who worked on the project, sat down with Dr. Ferguson to discuss why it is worth reading about this remarkable Scottish pastor today. Buy the book: https://banneroftruth.org/store/history-biography/alexander-moody-stuart/ Buy The Three Marys By Alexander Moody Stuart: https://banneroftruth.org/store/christian-living/the-three-marys/ Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (Print/Digital/Both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Tell us your thoughts on this episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

"The Expulsion from Eden – Its Character and Lessons" (Genesis 3:24) - Charles J. Brown (1806-1884)

Antioch Presbyterian Church Sermon of the Week

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2024 23:03

This sermon from Charles John Brown (1806-1884) is on Genesis 3:24 and is entitled "The Expulsion from Eden – Its Character and Lessons." It can be found in the "The Ministry," pages 95-112, published by The Banner of Truth Trust. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antiochpca/message

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THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “No Darkness in God” 1 TIMOTHY 6:15-16

darkness breakfast theology 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2024

Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 769-783.

Truth & Trust - S3E2 - (I don't want to go to) Chelsea

Lassoing Leadership

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2024 28:50

Summary In this episode, Jason Kerswill, the director of athletics at the Edge School, joins the hosts to discuss the importance of office culture and leadership in sports. They also review and rename the latest episode of Ted Lasso, focusing on themes of truth and trust. The conversation covers key elements of a thriving culture, the support needed for student athletes, and the impact of coaches on team success. The episode concludes with a leadership challenge for listeners to reflect on their own culture and have open conversations about upholding standards. Takeaways Clear expectations and standards are essential for building a thriving culture. Individualized support is crucial for the success of student athletes. Coaches play a significant role in shaping team culture and can make or break a team. Truth and trust are key elements in building a strong office culture. Leaders should reflect on their culture and have open conversations about upholding standards. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Guest Introduction 00:24 - Overview of Jason's Background 03:07 - Introduction to the Episode and Format of the Podcast 03:28 - Summary of the Episode 04:05 - Listener Feedback 04:31 - Theme of Office Culture 05:07 - Favorite Characters 06:16 - Support for Student Athletes 08:41 - Key Elements of a Thriving Culture 10:48 - Importance of Coaches in Team Success 26:06 - Leadership Challenge 27:41 - Upcoming Episodes and Closing

truth leaders coaches ted lasso key elements individualized truth trust

The God Who Works

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2024

Have you noticed that the number three seems to be a big deal for the apostle Paul in Ephesians? For example, in the first fourteen verses we read of the three-fold role our Triune God has in our salvation: God the Father chose us before the foundation of the world (1:3-6), Jesus the Son made our redemption possible (vv. 7-12), and the Holy Spirit sealed us for the Day of redemption (vv. 12-13). We see it in the way Paul prays for the Ephesian Church: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe (vv. 18-19a). I thought one way to help you see this was to reimagine Pauls series of threes as his answer to a series of questions by Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, a character from John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress, a book first published in 1678 and is currently listed as the fifth most translated book in the world. If you are not aware of who John Bunyan was, all you know for now is that he wrote Pilgrims Progress while in prison for twelve years for preaching the gospel, his book is an allegory on the Christian life. In Bunyans book, the protagonist, Christian Pilgrim leaves his home, The City of Destruction, to embark on a pilgrimage for the salvation of his soul and to find the Celestial City where he can live for all eternity in the company of God. While on his journey he is helped and guided by other characters such as Evangelist, who is known as a preacher of the Holy Word and is eager to help those who are seriously concerned about the state of their souls. Christian also meets Interpreter who shows Christian many wonders and shows Christian many exhortations on the way he should go. There are others who join Christian on his journey such as Pliant who quits the pilgrimage after facing his first obstacle, and Hopeful, a refugee from Vanity Fair, who proves to be a faithful companion to Christian all the way to the Celestial City. There are others who Christian encounters that try to turn him away from the narrow way to the Celestial City who go by the names of Giant Despair, Apollyon, Flatterer, and Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Bunyan described Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, in this way: not an ancient relic of the past. He is everywhere today, disguising his heresy and error by proclaiming the gospel of contentment and peace achieved by self-satisfaction and works. If he mentions Christ, it is not as the Savior who took our place, but as a good example of an exemplary life. Do we need a good example to rescue us, or do we need a Savior? Imagine what a conversation might look like if Mr. Worldly Wiseman visited the Apostle Paul in prison during the same time the epistle to the Ephesians was written: Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Paul, tell me how you can be sure that you are Christian since you are now in prison? Paul: Regardless of my circumstance, I am a Christian for these three reasons: I was chosen by God before the foundation of the world (1:4-6), I am redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ for sins I am guilty of (vv. 7-12), and I am sealed by the Holy Spirit for a full and future redemption (vv. 13-14). Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Why spend your years in prison and suffer when you can be free so long as you dont keep blabbing about Jesus in places people dont want to hear it? You know, you can be a Christian and be compliant too! Paul: How can I be quiet about something so important? Jesus commands me not to be quite about my relationship with Him and how he saved me even though I was, Dead to God (2:1), A slave to sin (vv. 2-3a), and A child of the wrath of God because of the sins I committed against Him (v. 3). What this means, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, is that I was once like you: A friend of the world (2:2a), A child of the devil (v. 2b), and A slave to my own flesh (v. 3). Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Im not sure if I should feel insulted or pity for you because you believe such rubbish. So, tell me, what is so different between you and me? Paul: Jesus is the difference between you and me! Jesus lived a perfect sinless life that I could never live; He died a death I deserved on a cross for sins I committed, and He validated all of that by rising from death on the third day. What is true of me is true of every real Christian, and this is why I have chosen to follow Him: I was dead in my sins, but now I am alive in Christ (1:7; 2:4) My nature was bound by my sins, but now I have been raised with Christ (v. 6a) I stood condemned by a holy God, but now I am seated with Christ and am covered by His righteousness (v. 6b). Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Come on Paul! I am a religious person and I admire Jesus as a great example to aspire to. We need to do our best and let God do the rest, but you have taken your Christianity too seriously! Paul: No one can do enough for the kind of salvation you and I need! The only thing God required of me was a faith that was only possible because of His grace. It is a grace that I could not, nor ever will earn, by anything I could ever do! I am the recipient of, A rich mercy we did deserve (v. 4a). A great love God was not obligated to give (v. 4b). An all-sufficient grace no one could earn (v. 5) All of which is only possible in and through Jesus Christ alone! So, now we come to Ephesians 2:8-10 and are immediately faced with another set of three words and why it is that God saved us in the first place. If you were asked the same questions or interrogated in the way I had Mr. Worldly-Wiseman interrogate Paul, how would you answer? My two points are in the form of two questions that this passage answers for us in a way that should be deeply discouraging or encouraging to you. How Does God Save? Now, considering all that we have studied together, we find ourselves at the threshold of Ephesians 2:8-9. What I want to do with you this morning is to walk you through these verses in light of the context of Ephesians 1:3-2:7. I want us to look at these verses together against the backdrop of my warning at the beginning of this sermon series which was this: Beware of imposing your view and thoughts of what God should be like, upon the text of His holy Word. You must allow the authority of Gods Word to impose its teaching upon your heart for the purpose of shaping it in a way that the eyes of your heart are able to see God more clearly. Now, before I go any further, let me say first and foremost that I want you to make your own conclusion with these verses based on the evidence of what you see in Ephesians and the rest of the Bible. I am not concerned if you end up seeing things differently than the way I see them so long as you do not impose what you think the Bible should say upon what it actually says. My only concern before you this morning is that I preach and teach the Bible in such a manner that I am faithful to the Word of God so when I stand before Him, I will do so knowing that I was faithful with what He has entrusted to me. So, here we go! Buckle up because it is going to be a fun ride. Lets start with verses 8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. The three words I want you to see in this verse are grace, saved (i.e. salvation), and faith. To answer the question, How does God save? we need figure out what is the gift that He gives so that no one may boast. Is grace the gift given by God, or is salvation the gift given by God, or is a persons faith the gift given by God? Whatever the gift is, it eliminates any notion on our part that we did something to get it, otherwise Paul would never have felt the need to include verse 9, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. If I am right about what I see in Ephesians 2:8-9, it will open up verse 10 in a way that will encourage you and blow your mind at the same time. So, what have we seen in Ephesians so far leading up to these verses? Permit me to put what Paul lists concerning our salvation in sequential order from spiritual death to life: We were spiritually dead in our offenses and sins (2:1) We know we were spiritually dead because we were slaves to our sin (2:2a) Because we were slaves to our sin against God, we were by nature children of His wrath (2:3). But God, whose mercy is rich, love is great, and grace is sufficient, did three things (vv. 2:4-5): He made us alive with Christ (2:5b). He raised us up with Christ (2:6a). He seated us with Christ (2:6b). As a Christian, you can know that your salvation involved three acts of God Before the foundation of the earth, God chose to adopt you as His child through Jesus (1:4-6). In order to adopt you as His child, God redeemed you through the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of all your wrongdoings (1:7-12). Because God will not lose any who He has redeemed, He has sealed you with His Holy Spirit until your redemption and salvation is complete (1:13-14). So, in light of all that Paul wrote concerning what God has done for the Christian, what does he mean by Ephesians 2:8-9? Let me offer up some fair and legitimate questions: If I am spiritually dead, how can a spiritually dead person respond to God in faith? If I am able to respond to God in faith in order to receive salvation through Jesus, then is my faith exempt from the kinds of works Paul is talking about in verse 9? If faith is a gift God imparts on me on some level, then how is my trust in Jesus for the salvation of my soul legitimate? Does your brain hurt from trying to process these sorts of questions? I have wrestled over these verses for nearly 30 years and have understood them in three different ways that I think may help give you some perspective. In my early years, I was convinced that the gift of God was a salvation that could only be received by faith. Sometime after I started reading guys like Jonathan Edwards and St. Augustine, I leaned towards thinking that it was faith that was the gift of God. To be honest, what makes all of this even more confusing is the Greek allows the person interpreting these verses to make either one of these conclusions. Here is where I sit now, and I believe that how I see it fits best with everything Paul has written leading up to these verses, and it fits with the rest of the Bible. So, what is the gift of God? It is His Grace, our faith, and our salvation in that order! The this is Gods grace, our faith, and our salvation. Think about what grace is for a moment. Biblical grace is Gods unmerited favor; it is favor given to someone who does not deserve it. Do you remember what I said in the second sermon I preached in this series on Ephesians 1:4-6? I told you that at the very least, when it comes to God, what we read in these verses leads to the conclusion that God moved first. We see the very same thing here in Ephesians 2:8! At the very least, it is the sheer grace of almighty God that I had reached a point in my life on July 18, 1991, when all that I heard about Jesus made sense and I surrendered my life to Jesus and was genuinely and categorically saved from the wrath of God and forgiven all my sins! Every step and experience leading up to that moment was also the demonstration of a God who pursued me, found me, and overcame my sin because His mercy was rich, His love was great, and His grace sufficient to do what a 16-year-old teenage boy could not do. God made me alive with Christ, God raised me up with Christ, and God seated me with Christ on that summers day on July 18, 1991, but He did not believe for me; I had to believe to be saved. He did the same thing with you Christian, but He did not believe for you! But my believing in Christ for the salvation of my soul, and your believing in Him for the salvation of your soul is not only a testament of Gods grace, but the proof that miracles happen. For What Purpose Does God Save? So, why did He do it? Why did he save you? Why did He choose you, redeem you, seal you, and made you, who were once dead, the recipient of the, boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (2:7)? After all, what Jonathan Edwards said concerning what we bring to our salvation is the resounding testimony of all of Scripture: You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. God didnt have to do it! God was not morally obligated to do it! But God did it; He saved you and redeemed you for the forgiveness of all your sin according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon you (1:7). But why? The answer is found in Ephesians 2:10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The first word in verse 10 is the word For, which is telling us something. What it is telling us is that considering Ephesians 2:1-9, the following is true! You who were dead in your sins, walked according to the course of this world, lived in the lusts of your flesh, indulged the desires of the flesh and of the mind as a child of the wrath of God (vv. 1-3), God made you alive in Christ, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that you would walk in those good works. This is exactly why God choose you, Christian, before the foundation of the world; listen to Ephesians 1:4 again: He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. What this means, and this is so important to see with the eyes of your heart: We were not saved to coast until we enter into the presence of God in heaven but were saved so that God could reveal His presence through us because of His resurrection power to change us! It is absolute nonsense to think and believe that you can encounter Jesus on the level Paul describes in Ephesians and remain unchanged! It is like saying that you can remain the same after you walk in front of a bus traveling 65 MPH; the force of the bus will change you permanently. Listen carefully, the God who spoke 300 billion suns into existence is the same God who makes alive the spiritually dead through the power of the Gospel of a resurrected Christ! How is it that a person can remain unchanged by a power greater than 300 billion suns? I will tell you; it is because that person has never truly encountered Christ, whose mercy is richer, love is greater, and grace more sufficient than all of our sins and the sins of 8.1 billion people combined! What we read in Ephesians 2:8-10 is that in light of the resurrection power of God through the redeeming work of Jesus the Son, and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit who seals us, it is the grace of God that leads to faith in God, for our salvation by God, for the purpose of a life of good works that glorifies God. The work that God is doing in your life is ongoing. I feel that it is fitting to close with something Sinclair Ferguson wrote concerning these verses: Heaven may be the final showroom; but here on earth God is already showing what he can do.. The church triumphant is an art gallery where God displays reflections of his glory. It is a portrait gallery in which the family likeness is seen in countless different individuals who together display his infinite glory. The church visible, here, and now, is a workshop. The Divine Artist is still painting his likeness on the canvas of our lives, the Divine Potter still has the clay in his hands. The time for final exhibition has not yet come. But one day it will. Then all that God has done in us in secret, invisible to the naked eye, will become visible for all to see. What a day that will be![1] [1] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), p. 53.

The God Who Works

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2024

Have you noticed that the number three seems to be a big deal for the apostle Paul in Ephesians? For example, in the first fourteen verses we read of the three-fold role our Triune God has in our salvation: God the Father chose us before the foundation of the world (1:3-6), Jesus the Son made our redemption possible (vv. 7-12), and the Holy Spirit sealed us for the Day of redemption (vv. 12-13). We see it in the way Paul prays for the Ephesian Church: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe (vv. 18-19a). I thought one way to help you see this was to reimagine Pauls series of threes as his answer to a series of questions by Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, a character from John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress, a book first published in 1678 and is currently listed as the fifth most translated book in the world. If you are not aware of who John Bunyan was, all you know for now is that he wrote Pilgrims Progress while in prison for twelve years for preaching the gospel, his book is an allegory on the Christian life. In Bunyans book, the protagonist, Christian Pilgrim leaves his home, The City of Destruction, to embark on a pilgrimage for the salvation of his soul and to find the Celestial City where he can live for all eternity in the company of God. While on his journey he is helped and guided by other characters such as Evangelist, who is known as a preacher of the Holy Word and is eager to help those who are seriously concerned about the state of their souls. Christian also meets Interpreter who shows Christian many wonders and shows Christian many exhortations on the way he should go. There are others who join Christian on his journey such as Pliant who quits the pilgrimage after facing his first obstacle, and Hopeful, a refugee from Vanity Fair, who proves to be a faithful companion to Christian all the way to the Celestial City. There are others who Christian encounters that try to turn him away from the narrow way to the Celestial City who go by the names of Giant Despair, Apollyon, Flatterer, and Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Bunyan described Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, in this way: not an ancient relic of the past. He is everywhere today, disguising his heresy and error by proclaiming the gospel of contentment and peace achieved by self-satisfaction and works. If he mentions Christ, it is not as the Savior who took our place, but as a good example of an exemplary life. Do we need a good example to rescue us, or do we need a Savior? Imagine what a conversation might look like if Mr. Worldly Wiseman visited the Apostle Paul in prison during the same time the epistle to the Ephesians was written: Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Paul, tell me how you can be sure that you are Christian since you are now in prison? Paul: Regardless of my circumstance, I am a Christian for these three reasons: I was chosen by God before the foundation of the world (1:4-6), I am redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ for sins I am guilty of (vv. 7-12), and I am sealed by the Holy Spirit for a full and future redemption (vv. 13-14). Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Why spend your years in prison and suffer when you can be free so long as you dont keep blabbing about Jesus in places people dont want to hear it? You know, you can be a Christian and be compliant too! Paul: How can I be quiet about something so important? Jesus commands me not to be quite about my relationship with Him and how he saved me even though I was, Dead to God (2:1), A slave to sin (vv. 2-3a), and A child of the wrath of God because of the sins I committed against Him (v. 3). What this means, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, is that I was once like you: A friend of the world (2:2a), A child of the devil (v. 2b), and A slave to my own flesh (v. 3). Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Im not sure if I should feel insulted or pity for you because you believe such rubbish. So, tell me, what is so different between you and me? Paul: Jesus is the difference between you and me! Jesus lived a perfect sinless life that I could never live; He died a death I deserved on a cross for sins I committed, and He validated all of that by rising from death on the third day. What is true of me is true of every real Christian, and this is why I have chosen to follow Him: I was dead in my sins, but now I am alive in Christ (1:7; 2:4) My nature was bound by my sins, but now I have been raised with Christ (v. 6a) I stood condemned by a holy God, but now I am seated with Christ and am covered by His righteousness (v. 6b). Mr. Worldly-Wiseman: Come on Paul! I am a religious person and I admire Jesus as a great example to aspire to. We need to do our best and let God do the rest, but you have taken your Christianity too seriously! Paul: No one can do enough for the kind of salvation you and I need! The only thing God required of me was a faith that was only possible because of His grace. It is a grace that I could not, nor ever will earn, by anything I could ever do! I am the recipient of, A rich mercy we did deserve (v. 4a). A great love God was not obligated to give (v. 4b). An all-sufficient grace no one could earn (v. 5) All of which is only possible in and through Jesus Christ alone! So, now we come to Ephesians 2:8-10 and are immediately faced with another set of three words and why it is that God saved us in the first place. If you were asked the same questions or interrogated in the way I had Mr. Worldly-Wiseman interrogate Paul, how would you answer? My two points are in the form of two questions that this passage answers for us in a way that should be deeply discouraging or encouraging to you. How Does God Save? Now, considering all that we have studied together, we find ourselves at the threshold of Ephesians 2:8-9. What I want to do with you this morning is to walk you through these verses in light of the context of Ephesians 1:3-2:7. I want us to look at these verses together against the backdrop of my warning at the beginning of this sermon series which was this: Beware of imposing your view and thoughts of what God should be like, upon the text of His holy Word. You must allow the authority of Gods Word to impose its teaching upon your heart for the purpose of shaping it in a way that the eyes of your heart are able to see God more clearly. Now, before I go any further, let me say first and foremost that I want you to make your own conclusion with these verses based on the evidence of what you see in Ephesians and the rest of the Bible. I am not concerned if you end up seeing things differently than the way I see them so long as you do not impose what you think the Bible should say upon what it actually says. My only concern before you this morning is that I preach and teach the Bible in such a manner that I am faithful to the Word of God so when I stand before Him, I will do so knowing that I was faithful with what He has entrusted to me. So, here we go! Buckle up because it is going to be a fun ride. Lets start with verses 8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. The three words I want you to see in this verse are grace, saved (i.e. salvation), and faith. To answer the question, How does God save? we need figure out what is the gift that He gives so that no one may boast. Is grace the gift given by God, or is salvation the gift given by God, or is a persons faith the gift given by God? Whatever the gift is, it eliminates any notion on our part that we did something to get it, otherwise Paul would never have felt the need to include verse 9, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. If I am right about what I see in Ephesians 2:8-9, it will open up verse 10 in a way that will encourage you and blow your mind at the same time. So, what have we seen in Ephesians so far leading up to these verses? Permit me to put what Paul lists concerning our salvation in sequential order from spiritual death to life: We were spiritually dead in our offenses and sins (2:1) We know we were spiritually dead because we were slaves to our sin (2:2a) Because we were slaves to our sin against God, we were by nature children of His wrath (2:3). But God, whose mercy is rich, love is great, and grace is sufficient, did three things (vv. 2:4-5): He made us alive with Christ (2:5b). He raised us up with Christ (2:6a). He seated us with Christ (2:6b). As a Christian, you can know that your salvation involved three acts of God Before the foundation of the earth, God chose to adopt you as His child through Jesus (1:4-6). In order to adopt you as His child, God redeemed you through the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of all your wrongdoings (1:7-12). Because God will not lose any who He has redeemed, He has sealed you with His Holy Spirit until your redemption and salvation is complete (1:13-14). So, in light of all that Paul wrote concerning what God has done for the Christian, what does he mean by Ephesians 2:8-9? Let me offer up some fair and legitimate questions: If I am spiritually dead, how can a spiritually dead person respond to God in faith? If I am able to respond to God in faith in order to receive salvation through Jesus, then is my faith exempt from the kinds of works Paul is talking about in verse 9? If faith is a gift God imparts on me on some level, then how is my trust in Jesus for the salvation of my soul legitimate? Does your brain hurt from trying to process these sorts of questions? I have wrestled over these verses for nearly 30 years and have understood them in three different ways that I think may help give you some perspective. In my early years, I was convinced that the gift of God was a salvation that could only be received by faith. Sometime after I started reading guys like Jonathan Edwards and St. Augustine, I leaned towards thinking that it was faith that was the gift of God. To be honest, what makes all of this even more confusing is the Greek allows the person interpreting these verses to make either one of these conclusions. Here is where I sit now, and I believe that how I see it fits best with everything Paul has written leading up to these verses, and it fits with the rest of the Bible. So, what is the gift of God? It is His Grace, our faith, and our salvation in that order! The this is Gods grace, our faith, and our salvation. Think about what grace is for a moment. Biblical grace is Gods unmerited favor; it is favor given to someone who does not deserve it. Do you remember what I said in the second sermon I preached in this series on Ephesians 1:4-6? I told you that at the very least, when it comes to God, what we read in these verses leads to the conclusion that God moved first. We see the very same thing here in Ephesians 2:8! At the very least, it is the sheer grace of almighty God that I had reached a point in my life on July 18, 1991, when all that I heard about Jesus made sense and I surrendered my life to Jesus and was genuinely and categorically saved from the wrath of God and forgiven all my sins! Every step and experience leading up to that moment was also the demonstration of a God who pursued me, found me, and overcame my sin because His mercy was rich, His love was great, and His grace sufficient to do what a 16-year-old teenage boy could not do. God made me alive with Christ, God raised me up with Christ, and God seated me with Christ on that summers day on July 18, 1991, but He did not believe for me; I had to believe to be saved. He did the same thing with you Christian, but He did not believe for you! But my believing in Christ for the salvation of my soul, and your believing in Him for the salvation of your soul is not only a testament of Gods grace, but the proof that miracles happen. For What Purpose Does God Save? So, why did He do it? Why did he save you? Why did He choose you, redeem you, seal you, and made you, who were once dead, the recipient of the, boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (2:7)? After all, what Jonathan Edwards said concerning what we bring to our salvation is the resounding testimony of all of Scripture: You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. God didnt have to do it! God was not morally obligated to do it! But God did it; He saved you and redeemed you for the forgiveness of all your sin according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon you (1:7). But why? The answer is found in Ephesians 2:10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The first word in verse 10 is the word For, which is telling us something. What it is telling us is that considering Ephesians 2:1-9, the following is true! You who were dead in your sins, walked according to the course of this world, lived in the lusts of your flesh, indulged the desires of the flesh and of the mind as a child of the wrath of God (vv. 1-3), God made you alive in Christ, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that you would walk in those good works. This is exactly why God choose you, Christian, before the foundation of the world; listen to Ephesians 1:4 again: He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. What this means, and this is so important to see with the eyes of your heart: We were not saved to coast until we enter into the presence of God in heaven but were saved so that God could reveal His presence through us because of His resurrection power to change us! It is absolute nonsense to think and believe that you can encounter Jesus on the level Paul describes in Ephesians and remain unchanged! It is like saying that you can remain the same after you walk in front of a bus traveling 65 MPH; the force of the bus will change you permanently. Listen carefully, the God who spoke 300 billion suns into existence is the same God who makes alive the spiritually dead through the power of the Gospel of a resurrected Christ! How is it that a person can remain unchanged by a power greater than 300 billion suns? I will tell you; it is because that person has never truly encountered Christ, whose mercy is richer, love is greater, and grace more sufficient than all of our sins and the sins of 8.1 billion people combined! What we read in Ephesians 2:8-10 is that in light of the resurrection power of God through the redeeming work of Jesus the Son, and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit who seals us, it is the grace of God that leads to faith in God, for our salvation by God, for the purpose of a life of good works that glorifies God. The work that God is doing in your life is ongoing. I feel that it is fitting to close with something Sinclair Ferguson wrote concerning these verses: Heaven may be the final showroom; but here on earth God is already showing what he can do.. The church triumphant is an art gallery where God displays reflections of his glory. It is a portrait gallery in which the family likeness is seen in countless different individuals who together display his infinite glory. The church visible, here, and now, is a workshop. The Divine Artist is still painting his likeness on the canvas of our lives, the Divine Potter still has the clay in his hands. The time for final exhibition has not yet come. But one day it will. Then all that God has done in us in secret, invisible to the naked eye, will become visible for all to see. What a day that will be![1] [1] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Lets Study Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust; 2021), p. 53.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “Until Christ Comes” 1 TIMOTHY 6:13-15

jesus christ breakfast theology 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2024

Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 755-768.

"The Mystery of Providence" (Job 23:10-12) - Prof. John Murray

Antioch Presbyterian Church Sermon of the Week

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2024 15:01

This brief sermon from Professor John Murray (1898-1975) is on Job 23:10-12 and is entitled "The Mystery of Providence." It can be found in the "Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume 3: Life; Sermons; Reviews," pages 161-167, published by The Banner of Truth Trust. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antiochpca/message

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THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “The Fight of Faith” 1 TIMOTHY 6:12-14

breakfast theology 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2024

Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 741-754.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “The Antidote to Greed” 1 Timothy 6:9-11

september 11th breakfast theology greed antidote 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 29, 2024

Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 725-40.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “The Secret of Contentment” 1 TIMOTHY 6:5-8

secret breakfast theology contentment 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2024

Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 711-724.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “Beware of False Guides” 1 TIMOTHY 6:3-5

breakfast theology false guides 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2024

Noah is reading this sermon from the following source. Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 697-710.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “Willing Service” 1 Timothy 6:1-2

service breakfast theology 1 timothy 6 truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2024

Noah is reading this sermon from the following source. Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 683-696.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “Our Deeds Laid Bare”

breakfast theology deeds laid bare truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 1, 2024

Noah is reading this sermon from the following source. Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 667-681.

Truth, Trust & Trickery

The PRovoke Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2024 37:47

Finn Partners' Gil Bashe joins the PRovoke Media podcast to discuss the perilous spread of false information — and communicators duty to curb it.

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THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “A Solemn Charge”

charge breakfast theology solemn truth trust

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2024

Noah is reading this sermon from the following source. Calvin, John Sermons on 1 Timothy Tr. Robert White (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2018), 653-665.

THEOLOGY BREAKFAST… “Elders and Their Critics” Calvin