Soli Deo Gloria

“[A Christian] does not make election his opiate and say, I am safe, I may sleep or wake as I please. He says, I am safe but this only makes me doubly vigilant that I may not dishonor Him who has saved me; and even though I may not finally fall away, I know not how much I may lose by one day’s slothfulness or how much I may gain by maintaining that watchful attitude to which, as the expectant of an absent Lord, I am called. ‘Blessed is he that watches,’ and even though I could not see the reason for this, I will act upon it that I may realize the promised blessedness. He who has called me to vigilance can make me partaker of its joy. He can make my watchtower, lonely and dark as it may seem, none other than the house of God and the very gate of Heaven.”

- Horatius Bonar from The Everlasting Righteousness

“Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”  2 Peter 2:2-3

One thing that should never surprise a believer is the fact that true Christians are truly a minority. Our Lord taught over and over that many would follow the broad way to destruction and few would follow the narrow path that leads to eternal life. (Matthew 7:13) So it should not surprise us that Peter tells us that many, not few, will follow after the false teachers. As Paul wrote Timothy, people will simply want to have their ears tickled and to hear not the gospel of Jesus Christ but things that their carnal minds and hearts want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3)

These false teachers will be popular among the crowds of the world and because their carnal minds are corrupt they will also fall for the sensuality of the false teachers. The Bible puts much emphasis on the fruit of false teachers. In the same way that Peter has taught in the first chapter that true salvation produces a life of godliness here we see the contrast of the false teachers exemplifying a life of sensuality and carnal appetite. This is what the world revels in so naturally the world will follow after teachers who cater to that worldly mindset and heart. Through their wickedness and carnality they will maligned. The Greek word used here is actually blasphemy. So in their wickedness and false teachings they will actually be slandering the truth! It is precisely why Paul urges Timothy to quiet such false teachers in the church so that they will not introduce their destructive heresies. (Titus 1:11) Pastors and leaders in the church are called to protect their flock from false teachers and their heresies, not to simply ignore them as most do today.

These false teachers are greedy and through their false teachings will seek to exploit their followers from all that they own. One need only turn on the television to most “Christian” television stations to see that the majority of those on the airwaves are non other than what Peter is describing here. Their god is money and they will stop at nothing to rob people of money.

I agree with Paul Washer that God has allowed and may even setup false teachers within the church as a form of judicial punishment on people whose god is their belly and money. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3) The statement Peter makes about the judgment of the false teachers being from long ago also supports this idea.

May we constantly be renewing our minds in the living Word of God so we can properly discern truth from error and be a people of God who not only shields our own hearts and mind from false teachings but actively encourages and exhorts others in the household of faith to stand firm in the Biblical tenants of the Christian faith.

Let us marvel at the absolute and wonderful sovereignty of God in all things – even false teachers. May He forever be praised for His unsearchable greatness and wisdom and all glory, laud and honor to Him for His mighty sovereign grace in the lives of His elect!

Soli Deo Gloria

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:5-8

“‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”

- William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army

“For the cross saves completely, or not at all. Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgement that the cross alone saves, and it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross nor to its healing virtue. It owns the fullness and the sufficiency and the suitableness of the work done there and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see the glorious spectacle of all things done and to accept this completion without misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the “It is finished” of the sin-bearer and says “Amen!” Where faith begins, there labour ends–labour, I mean, for life and for pardon. Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up of all the former weary efforts.”

- Horatius Bonar from The Everlasting Righteousness

Mike Ratliff over at Possessing the Treasure has written an excellent article that gets to the heart of the true Biblical gospel and why the many false gospels today (such as the Purpose Driven drivel) simply have people flocking to churches as unregenerate nominal Christians.

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8 ESV)

Relativism is the fatal disease of the unregenerate heart. Of course, it is a self-focused relativism. Everyone is unique, of course, but we have this built-in sense of ‘fairness’ that is antithetical to God’s Sovereignty. I have been a “mostly” silent observer in much of the Ergun Caner debacle. I listened to several of Dr. James White’s Radio shows in which he took on callers who wanted to discuss his stance on Dr. Caner’s obvious misrepresenting of himself as a Muslim Jihadist converted to Christianity when, in fact, he was just a normal teenager in Ohio during that time. Some of the callers though just astounded me with their attacks on Dr. White in his stance that Dr. Caner should come clean about all this. It sorta’ reminded me of an article I read several weeks ago attacking my friend Ken Silva. The article was a satirical portrayal of Ken killing a beast on the beach called an EvanJellyFish even though every now and then the beast said something that might be considered edifying. Ah, now we are back in that comfortable realm of relativism. It goes something like this, “Hey man, why are you attacking this brother in Christ? Look, he may practice Yoga and Contemplative Prayer and lead his congregation to pray to Mother God, but hey, look at all the edifying and nice thing he says in this book he just wrote!” That my brothers and sisters in Christ are the words of someone who thinks that the truth is truth because they think it is, but they do not know the words of God, the truth, because they do not hear them (John 8:46).

Continue reading …

Q. How does Christ’s ascension to heaven benefit us?

A. First, He pleads our cause in heaven in the presence of His Father (1). Second, we have our own flesh in heaven – a guarantee that christ our head will take us, His members, to Himself in heaven (2). Third, He sends His Spirit to us on earth as a further guarantee (3). By the Spirit’s power we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand (4).

(1) Rom. 3:34; 1 John 2:1; Heb. 7:25
(2) John 14:2; 17;24; Eph. 2:4-6
(3) John 14:16; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5
(4) Col. 3:1-4

Question 49 from the Heidelberg Catechism