Pester Brat's Saint and Sinner Hypocrisy Blog

The ministry is not for the weak minded. Yet, we are all weak minded apart from the grace of God in Christ. Professing Christians that say they love the Lord and His word yet by their actions are rejecting it. Even those things that as Peter said about Paul's writings, are hard things to understand that the untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction (2Pet.3:15-16). I believe that Peter had at least the doctrines of sovereign grace in mind here. I have seen over and over again, people who are supposed to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit reject these teachings to one degree or another as it manifests itself one way or another. Sometimes using other excuses instead of being honest with what the real issue is. As an expository preacher/teacher, am I to skip over certain verses because they were already dealt with in another book of bible, or another chapter of the same book? Or even in the same passage but dealing with the teaching from a different perspective. Am I to make su...

To the dust you will return! (Horatius Bonar, "The Mortal and the Immortal") "For the wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23 "All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return." Genesis 3:19 Ours is a dying world. We dwell in a world of death--in a land of graves. Immortality has no place upon this earth. That which is deathless is beyond these hills. Mortality is here; immortality is yonder! Mortality is below; immortality is above! Earth is a vast grave-yard. At every moment, one of the sons of Adam passes from this life. At each swing of the pendulum is the death-warrant of some child of time. "Death! Death!" it says, unceasingly, as it oscillates to and fro. The gate of death stands ever open--it has neither locks nor bars. The river of death flows sullenly past our dwellings. We continually hear the splash and t...

Helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless (John MacDuff, "Family Prayers" 1885) O Eternal, Everlasting God, Fountain of all happiness, God of all grace--we desire to acknowledge anew with grateful hearts, Your undeserved mercies. You have made our cup to overflow with blessings. From the very threshold of our being, You have been our Protector and Guardian. You have shielded us from unknown dangers. You have warded off unseen calamities. No earthly friend could have loved us and cared for us, like You! Helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless by nature, we cast ourselves on Him who is help and hope and friend and portion--to all who seek Him. We have no trust but in His work. Sprinkle these polluted hearts with His pardoning, peace-speaking blood. Hide us in the clefts of the smitten Rock. Safely sheltered there, we can make the triumphant challenge, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" We mourn . . . our distance and estrangement from You, our guil...

Excellent resources on the role of men and women in the home and church at the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood at www.cbmw.org . Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote: The more of parental teaching the better; ministers, and Sabbath-school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for mothers’ tears and fathers’ prayers . . . The first lesson for a child should be concerning his mother’s God . . . Around the fire-side fathers should repeat not only the Bible records, but the deeds of the martyrs and reformers, and moreover the dealings of the Lord with themselves both in providence and grace . . . Reader, if you have children, mind you do not fail in this duty . . . As far on as our brief life allows us to arrange, we must industriously provide for the godly nurture of our youth. The narratives, commands, and doctrines of the word of God are not worn out; they are calculated to exert influence as long as our race shall exist. The one object aimed at is transmission; the testimony ...

2. THAT IT IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE FREE AGENCY AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MAN 1. The Problem of Man's Free Agency 2. This Objection Bears Equally Against Foreknowledge. 3. Certainty is Consistent with Free Agency. 4. Man’s Natural Will is Enslaved to Evil. 5. God Controls the Minds of Men and Gives His People the Will to Come. 6. The Way in Which the Will is Determined. 7. Scripture Proof. 8. Further Scripture Proof. 1. THE PROBLEM OF MAN’S FREE AGENCY THE problem which we face here is, How can a person be a free and responsible agent if his actions have been foreordained from eternity? By a free and responsible agent we mean an intelligent person who acts with rational self-determination; and by Foreordination we mean that from eternity God has made certain the actual course of events which takes place in the life of every person and in the realm of nature. It is, of course, admitted by all that a person’s acts must be without compulsion and in accordance with his own desires an...

OBJECTIONS COMMONLY URGED AGAINST THE REFORMED DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION By Loraine Boettner 1. That it is Fatalism 2. That it is Inconsistent with the Free Agency and Moral Responsibility of Man 3. That it Makes God the Author of Sin 4. That it Discourages All Motives to Exertion 5. That it Represents God as a Respecter of Persons or as Unjustly Partial 6. That it is Unfavorable to Good Morality 7. That it Precludes a Sincere Offer of the Gospel to the Non-Elect 8. That it Contradicts the Universalistic Scripture Passages 1. THAT IT IS FATALISM MUCH misunderstanding arises through confusing the Christian Doctrine of Predestination with the heathen doctrine of Fatalism. There is, in reality, only one point of agreement between the two, which is, that both assume the absolute certainty of all future events. The essential difference between them is that Fatalism has no place for a personal God. Predestination holds that events come to pass because an infinitely wise, powerful, and holy ...

Sola Ecclesia: The Lost Reformation Doctrine by Michael J. Glodo With which of the following statements are you in greater agreement? 1. “Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” 2. “Away from [the church] one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.” For the average evangelical Christian the first statement may lack some balance, but the second sounds downright Romish. If this describes your reaction, then your ecclesiology is closer to the author of the first, Lenny Bruce, than to the author of the second, John Calvin (Institutes 4.1.1). Bruce, satirist of organized religion and nemesis to hypocrisy, a comedian notorious for his vulgarity and impiety, nevertheless expressed a common contemporary assessment of organized religion, while Calvin’s statement seemed to betray his role as one of the primary catalysts of the Protestant Reformation. While most of us will admit that the church is a vital aid in nurturing people in the faith, f...

Limited Atonement Loraine Boettner 1. Statement of the Doctrine. 2. The Infinite Value of Christ’s Atonement. 3. The Atonement is Limited in Purpose and Application. 4. Christ’s Work as a Perfect Fulfilment of the Law. 5. A Ransom. 6. The Divine Purpose in Christ’s Sacrifice. 7. The Exclusion of the Non-Elect. 8. The Argument from the Foreknowledge of God. 9. Certain Benefits Which Extend to Mankind in General. 1. STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE THE question which we are to discuss under the subject of “Limited Atonement” is, Did Christ offer up Himself a sacrifice for the whole human race, for every individual without distinction or exception; or did His death have special reference to the elect? In other words, was the sacrifice of Christ merely intended to make the salvation of all men possible, or was it intended to render certain the salvation of those who had been given to Him by the Father? Arminians hold that Christ died for all men alike, while Calvinists hold that in the intention ...