Preacher Blog

Sound Theology

Frederick — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:34:59 +0000

Sound Theology is Essential!

How Spurgeon Came to Believe the Doctrines of Grace

Frederick — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:26:45 +0000

Well can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when I first received those truths in my own soul – when they were, as John Bunyan says, burned into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man – that I had made progress in Scriptural Knowledge , through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God.”

“One week night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, “How did you come to be a Christian?” I sought the Lord. “But how did you come to seek the Lord?” The truth flashed across my mind in a moment – I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make my constant confession: “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

Seeker-Sensitive Evangelism?

Frederick — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:05:47 +0000

Some churches pack-em in!

A Sermon from the Past

Frederick — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:24:51 +0000

A member from a former church that I helped to pastor whilst the church was seeking a new pastor, presented me with a bag of cassette tapes of quite a number of my sermons that I had preached there. One of them “The Spirit and the bride say ‘Come’” was a ‘gospel’ sermon preached in 1995, which has now been recorded on CD that can be played on any CD player. This is available for free distribution. You can listen to the sermon at www.sermonaudio.com/fredk (search for the sermon title).

Something lighter that you might like!

Frederick — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:57:24 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iGC7OEG2TUU
MIke Oldfield with Mike Oldfield with Mike Oldfield etc., etc…..

The Blood of Jesus

Frederick — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 10:24:21 +0000

Do You Really Believe in the Blood?

One night in a church service a young woman felt the tug of God at her heart. She responded to God’s call and believed on Jesus as her Lord, Savior and Redeemer. The young woman had had a very rough past, involving alcohol, drugs, and prostitution. But, the change in her was evident. She, by grace, turned her back on her past way of life.

As time went on she became a faithful member of the church. She eventually became involved in the ministry, teaching young children. It was not very long until this faithful young woman had caught the eye and heart of the pastor’s son. The relationship grew and they began to make wedding plans. This is when the problems began. You see, about one half of the church did not think that a woman with a past such as hers was suitable for a pastor’s son.

The church began to argue and fight about the matter. So they decided to have a meeting. As the people made their arguments and tensions increased, the meeting was getting completely out of hand. The young woman became very upset about all the things being brought up about her past. As she began to cry the pastor’s son stood. He could not bear the pain it was causing his wife to be. He began to speak and his statement was this:

“My fiancée’s past is not what is on trial here. What you are questioning is the ability of the Blood of Jesus to wash away sin. Today you have put the blood of Jesus on trial. So, does it wash away sin or not?”

The whole church began to weep as they realized that they had been slandering the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Too often, even as Christians, we bring up the past and use it as a weapon against our brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is a very foundational part of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the blood of Jesus does not cleanse the other person completely then it cannot cleanse us completely. If that is the case, then we are all in a lot of trouble.

“What can wash away my sins,
nothing but the blood of Jesus…”

— Author Unknown

A Radical Reformation?

Frederick — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:38:12 +0000

How many ‘reformed’ men know anything of what has been called the “Radical” Reformation?

Back in 1964 Leonard Verduin publishec his book entitled ”The Reformers and their Stepchildren“. It is a book which echoed so much of my struggles concerning the “establishment” of the Church of England. My memory is a bit vague as to when I first read it but I think it was about 1973 – two years before I resigned my ministry in the C of E.. I was reading then, anything I could find about the search for and expression of “New Testament pattern churches”.

After I left and was studying for a B.Ed. I wanted to take this subject for my thesis, but was dissuaded by my tutor and I compromised with a thesis on “The House Church Movement” – in those days with the emergence of the Charismatic movement, this was a hot potato!

Since those days, I have found a great reluctance on the part of “reformed” men to give much, if any, consideration to the existence of a “radical reformation”. The chains of ‘Constantinianism’ drag, if not bind them in ways that seriously affect the dissemination of a truly gracious gospel.

The brief Foreword by H.L.Ellison ought to be enough to excite anyone who has a desire to see the church free to be in our own times and culture, and be more as it was in New Testament times. (Even Patristic studies, in my view, cloud the issue, because even before Constantine, there was the desire for a marriage between Church and State.)

Today, the evangelical cause is being diverted by the same subtle hopes that the world can be “christianised”. I see this in the vast amounts of christian giving being diverted from the work of the gospel to “Christian Institute“ “Christian Watch” etc. and attempting to change the morals of society by the means of laws passed by Parliament etc. (Homosexuality, Abortion, Alchohol, Drugs etc. etc.)

I get literature through the post every week asking me or our church to support these causes by giving money and for prayer. (I suspect it may be more for money than for prayer.) I get only a fraction of literature in comparison promoting the spread of the gospel!

Are Kings and Rulers in the hand of God or not? Do we find anything in the N.T. to suggest that Herod or Nero should be ’lobbied’ to change their objections to and persecution of believers and bring in “christian” laws? Only the briefest mention is made about it – and that concerned prayer for our rulers. (Luke 21:12 1 Tim 2:1,2 - also Jesus declared “My kingdom is not of this world.” )

What we do read (Phil 4:22) is that the gospel gained an entrance into Caesar’s household. It is the Gospel that changes men from within, not by laws from without, and these men in turn affect the society amongst whom they live, provided they are not subsumed by its wordly culture.

Beasley-Murray’s postscipt too is perceptive, but the years between when it was written (1966) and the present day show little has been accepted or advanced since then. (The whole period of my ministry.) Today, the ”reformed constituency” is still dominated by the “Magisterial Reformation” and fearful of anything that may question its position. How sad it is that many Baptists, of all Christians, should have become so compromised! Reformed Baptists? Or Semper Reformandum Christians?

Enough said! I did not mean to prattle on, but the subject is very close to my heart.

P.S. If you can get or borrow a copy, read “The Radical Reformation” by George.H.Williams.

I Saw One Hanging on a Tree

Frederick — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:50:27 +0000

John Newton

In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
‘Til a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair;
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may’st live.”

John Newton – (Former Slave Trader) – 1725-1807

Repentance Doesn’t Save Us

Frederick — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:03:54 +0000

Repentance is a vital truth and God does not open heaven without it! But we need to be clear about this; our repentance is not the basis of our welcome into God’s presence. Repentance, properly speaking, is a profound change of mind about God and about sin, but we repeat, it is not the ground or basis of our salvation.

Likewise, regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit that gives us a new heart towards God, but this is not our foundation of acceptance either. Many who believe themselves to be Christians have false trusts. Some trust in their reformation of life, but reforming our lifestyle does not give us our welcome from God.

Many things change because of the gospel. We are adopted and receive a change of family and now have a new relationship to God. Yet, powerful as these changes are, none of them are the basis for our welcome and acceptance before God.

People have such strange notions as to why God welcomes us. Most seem to think that their attempts at living a good moral life will assure them of a welcome in heaven. I seem to have heard more foolish rubbish spoken at the funerals of men and women, who it was assumed had gone to heaven, without any perceivable claim on their part to be Christians, than I care to remember.

Without the shedding of Christ’s blood there is no remission and no welcome.

God welcomes us because of one man and one man alone, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is our welcome. There is nothing that we can do, whether acts of obedience or copious amounts of unselfishness, can move God to welcome us.

Those whom God welcomes to His heavenly presence are already welcomed in Christ alone. When the Lord Jesus died as our substitute on Calvary, he purchased our salvation. On the cross he paid for the sins of all those who believe on him. He gave us a new standing before God and made us “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). This means that even the experience which we may have as a result of the gospel cannot possibly be the basis of our acceptance. We must always hold the truth “That a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,” (Galatians 2:16).

God’s way of acceptance is perfect! The crucified and risen Jesus, plus nothing, brings us to God. The crucified and risen Christ alone reconciles us to God. The crucified and risen Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes (Rom 10:4). He gave awful evidence that the wages of sin is death, when He, by His own blood, opened the only way of salvation (Rev 1:5). Now through Him, the very worst, the weakest, the lowest and the most despicable of us are welcome.

It was by the blood that He accomplished our welcome. It was with His blood that He purchased our redemption. It was by His blood that He accomplished the Father’s purpose and reconciles us to him. If we want to understand the foundation of our acceptance we must look away from ourselves to the Lamb whose blood has taken away our sins and makes us kings and priests unto our God. (Heb 12:2 and Rev.1:5,6)!

“Round the altar priests confess,
That their robes are white as snow,
‘Twas the Saviour’s righteousness,
And his blood that made them so.”

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

How do sinners like you and me get born again?

Frederick — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:41:36 +0000

Anyone who understands the nature of man and the nature of the new birth realizes that divine, sovereign power and grace is required to give dead sinners life. Moral reason may persuade you to change your behavior, but it cannot give you life. A preacher may,by eloquence and logic, or by playing the emotional strings, make you religious, but he cannot give you life. The mere exercise of the will may enable an alcoholic to remain sober, with a little psychological help from AAA, but your so-called ‘free will’ cannot give you life. “You must be born again.” Regeneration is the sovereign, irresistible work of God the Holy Spirit. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is every one who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

At the time appointed by God, the Holy Spirit comes to the sinner who was chosen by grace in eternal election and redeemed by Christ at Calvary, and creates life in that sinner by his sovereign, irresistible, effectual grace (Galatians 4:4-7). The instrument by which the Holy Spirit causes men and women to be born again is the gospel of Jesus Christ (John 3: 12-16).

Let foolish men argue and debate all they please about this issue; but the Word of God is crystal clear about the utility of the gospel. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.” (1 Cor.1:21) ”Of his own will he brought us forth (literally:begat) us with the Word of Truth.” (James 1:18) Sinners are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which lives and abides forever…And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Peter 1:24,25)
God does not save sinners apart from the preaching of the gospel.

This does not, in any way, place a limitation upon God’s sovereignty. Were it his pleasure to do so, God almighty could save sinners without the use of any means at all. But that is not his pleasure. In this gospel age, the Lord God saves chosen, redeemed sinners through the instrumentality of gospel preaching, not merely through the instrumentality of preaching, but through the instrumentality of gospel preaching. God does not save his elect by the preaching of the satanic lie of a ‘free will’, works religion. We are saved by grace alone, through God-given faith alone. The false ‘gospel’ of Arminianism, is often preached in ignorance by many who think themselves evangelicals, but the salvation of souls comes about through through the preaching of the gospel of grace - by the word of truth.

The Word of God is truly preached only when the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ is preached. All other preaching is just a lot of noise about nothing! You may ask, “What if no preacher is around?” That is of absolutely no consequence. God does not have any trouble bringing gospel preachers to chosen sinners or chosen sinners to gospel preachers at the appointed time of mercy. He managed to get Paul to go to the river side outside Philippi when the time of mercy had come for Lydia. He brought him to the prison when the time of conversion came for the Philippian jailer. He brought Philip to the Eunuch at the appointed time when he would be gracious to him and by shipwreck to the island of Malta when he was pleased to carry his gospel there. When the time came for the salvation of that chosen, redeemed runaway slave called Onesimus, God had no problem bringing the object of his grace to the appointed messenger of his grace.

Because God saves by sovereign grace it in no way diminishes our responsibility to preach the gospel. On the contrary he gives us massive encouragement to do so in all circumstances - in times of persecution, in times when few appear to be being saved, or when we preachers are discouraged or tired out, for we know that none of those whom the Father gave the Son before the foundation of the world will be lost.

What a glorious powerful God-glorifying gospel the true gospel is!

John 10:26-29 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. NKJV