Strength in the Darkness

https://m.youtube.com/watch?is=EGhdWqoO1NjGKOYT&v=EJsKliO8_DY

Your reminder that there is no immediate political solution and jumping into GOP politics again will only lead to heartache. While politics matters and can't be neglected, America is too big and too complex for us to make much of a difference. Any Christian Nationalism requires both at least a Christian elite and coherent nationhood. Neither exists today, and greasing the GOP will not fix either. In fact, we should not expect a great reversal in our lifetimes. We can, however, have a great influence on the Church. There is a great need for reformation (or splits) in our denominations. There are also millions of churchgoers who have never heard the gospel coherently. Much can be done. Happy 250. @Presbyterianism

from "Font of Pardon and New Life: John Calvin and the Efficacy of Baptism" By Lyle D. Bierma (Oxford UP)

The Immutability of God God's consciousness differs from that of his rational creatures, in that there is no succession in it. This is one of the differentia between the Infinite and the finite mind. For God there is no series of decrees each separated from the others by an interval of time. God is omniscient, possessing the whole of his plans and purposes simultaneously. "All things are naked and opened " to his view, in one intuition. God is immutable, and therefore there are no sequences and changes of experience in him. Consequently the determinations of his will, as well as the thoughts of his understanding, are simultaneous, not successive. In the formation of the Divine decree, there are no intervals; but only in the execution of it. Christ, the atoning lamb, "was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times," 1 Pet. 1: 20. The decree that Christ should die for sin was eternal; the actual death of Christ was in time. There was an interval of four thousand years between the creation of Adam, and the birth of Christ; but there was no such interval between the decree to create Adam, and the decree that Christ should be born in Bethlehem. Both decrees are simultaneous, because both are eternal decisions of the Divine will. -Shedd @Presbyterianism

Baptismal Regeneration and the Death of Assurance Regeneration is no slight matter. It is a new birth; a new creation; a resurrection front spiritual death to spiritual life. It is a change, wrought by the exceeding greatness of God’s power, analogous to that which was wrought in Christ, when He was raised from the dead, and exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high. It cannot therefore remain without visible effect. It controls the whole inward and outward life of its subject, so that he becomes a new man in Christ Jesus. Charles Hodge If you believe in Christ, baptism is an objective reminder that God called you by name. It is a sign and seal that His promises are true and everlasting. Yet baptismal regeneration is not that. It is a probation. You have no certainty that you will live forever with Jesus after you die. There is no infallible assurance, as in federal theology. The teaching carries a brutal doctrine of apostasy, in which your state of grace is only known in the past and present. (At least the better versions give you that!) Perseverance is not promised. Your eternal destiny is contingent on something else—what some call a final justification by works. Jesus declares you righteous after you die having done what is necessary to avoid apostasy. Moreover, you are expected to believe that Christ died for and redeems people who go to Hell anyway. In this age, we would have to assume that most of the redeemed perish, including entire liberal denominations. Where's the good news in that? As Presbyterians surrounded by a Baptist subculture, we have a duty to explain what we do and do not mean when we talk about infant baptism. We are not putting people under a covenant of works. Baptism saves you by delivering you from the world into the Kingdom of God, the visible Church. That promise is for us and our children in the covenant of grace. Your regeneration is a separate work of the Holy Spirit that cannot be reversed. What is impossible with man is possible with God. As another Hodge explains it, "the efficacy of baptism, even in cases in which the grace signified is really conveyed, is not tied down to the moment of time wherein the sacrament is administered, but is conveyed to the recipient according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time." See also t.me/Presbyterianism/5134 @Presbyterianism

tinysa.com/sermon/11324130507115

https://www.gracegems.org/SERMONS2/heavenly_birth.htm Excellent Sermon! The Heavenly Birth and its Earthly Counterfeits, Joseph Philpot

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/11926131318731

Strength in the Darkness pinned «Adding Powlison's, Good & Angry to the list; simple, pointed, and challenging exposition of the concept, "Be ye angry, and sin not..." (Ephesians 4:26). It is easy to forget that, while afflictions are signs of God's love and care of His own, and are incitements…»

Strength in the Darkness pinned a photo

Strength in the Darkness pinned a photo

How Spiritual Warfare Really Works A preacher buddy of mine asked me for a video about the spirituality of John Owen. Here it is. Put simply, being a Christian enlists you in a spiritual war. Christ fights for you and gives you weapons for combat. Sin does not disappear after you become a believer. You must fight. You must keep fighting as long as you live, marching behind the Holy Spirit. Christ and His work come first. Applying it means being serious about fighting your sinful nature. This includes but goes far beyond the nagging sins that stare you in the face. This material is precious to me because it was instrumental in my own conversion. You want three books from Owen's large canon: Mortification, Temptation and Indwelling Sin. You probably know about Owen. He was Cromwell's chaplain and a major Oxford Puritan. Like many from this period, his story is obscured by his admirers. @Presbyterianism

And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. The Lord thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath said. Deut 31:1-3 Though Moses indeed brought Israel out of Egypt, yet he could not bring them into the promised land: that office was reserved for Joshua. And certainly, when the law is subservient to the covenant of grace, it tends to drive the elect out of themselves by making them acknowledge their vileness and misery. Nevertheless it is by Jesus only that we are introduced into a state of grace. Moses is to begin the work and prepare the soul, and lead the people round through the wilderness; but it is the office of Jesus to put the last hand to the work, to say, "It is finished," and procure true rest to the souls of his people. -Witsius

Why does God not always keep us from being tempted, or keep us from falling when we are tempted? God, who is almighty, could, of course, keep us entirely isolated from all Satan's temptations, if it were his purpose to do so. He could also keep us from falling into sin when we are tempted. But such is not always his purpose. For his own wise and proper reasons, God sometimes allows his children to be tempted, and even to fall under the assaults of temptation. One reason for this is easy to discern: that we should not become too proud and self-confident by constant freedom from conflict with sin, or by constant success in striving against it. God allows his children to suffer temptation and, sometimes, to fall under it, to keep them humble. But there may be many other special reasons known to God. 127. Q. What is the sixth petition? A. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. That is: since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment, and besides, since our sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh, cease not to assault us, be pleased to preserve and strengthen us by the power of thy Holy Spirit, that we may not succumb in this spiritual warfare but always offer strong resistance, till at last we obtain a complete victory. @Presbyterianism

"When obedience to rulers is the mere dictate of prudence, with no filial honor and reverence, the bonds of society are loosened, and it bears the marks of secret decay." Rev. T.R. Birks Church and State 👆Excellent, but hard to find book; refreshing in our day of wickedness.