Friday, August 10, 2007

A Little More From the Doctor - Good Medicine on the Exclusivity of Jesus Christ

When Peter said, “there is none other name,” he was insisting that no other individual who has ever lived in this world, or who ever will live here, can make this claim for himself. We maintain that Jesus of Nazareth is unique. He does not belong to any category; you cannot put anybody else in the same class. He is on His own. He is not one of many. He is not simply the best of many. There are people who talk about him like that. They have a list. They talk about Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Moses, Jeremiah, Jesus, and then various other great thinkers since then. But that is utterly to deny Him. There is no other; there is no second. It is not a question of whether He is better than everybody; He is different. He and he alone saves.

We can put that in another way also: The apostle is not only asserting that nobody else can ever save or deliver us, but also that our Lord needs no help. Jesus alone saves, and He saves perfectly. Let me say it with reverence: He does not need the help of the Virgin Mary. She is not a “co-redemptress,” because He is the full, sufficient, complete Redeemer in Himself. He is all and in all, and to add anybody to Him, even His mother, is to deny Him, and it is blasphemy.

To talk, therefore, about syncretism or eclecticism is to deny the Gospel.



From Acts Commentary, volume 2, p. 55.

Martin Lloyd-Jones on Acts 4:12 - Jesus is the Only Saviour the World Will Ever Know!

Have you realized that Christ is the only Savior? It comes to this: Either like the clever builders you reject Him, or else you believe in Him. It is one or the other. Standing before you is the one and only Savior. Reject Him, and you will go on being as you are. Only you will get worse and worse, and at the end of your life, you will be completely without hope, filled with horror. You will go on to an eternity of misery and shame and useless remorse. You will find that your cleverness was of no value. The fact that you belong to the twenty-first century makes not the slightest difference. Reject Him—the builder, the cornerstone—and you are left to yourself, to your wretched failure and the eternal misery that follows it.

Believe in Him. Listen to His voice. Listen to the message of His apostles. Confess your sin. Acknowledge your utter helplessness and hopelessness and cast yourself solely upon His name. Say, “Yes, He is the only one; He is the Savior of the world, and He is my Savior.” Turn to Him now and say this:

O Christ, in Thee my soul has found

And found in Thee alone

The peace, the joy I sought so long,

The bliss till now unknown.

Now none but Christ can satisfy.

None other name for me.

There’s love and life and lasting joy,

Lord Jesus, found in Thee.

- Anonymous

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk now. He has done it all. In His name I command you—believe now, rise up out of your sin, and go through the remainder of your life walking and leaping and prais­ing God.



This quote from Volume 2 of MLJ's Acts Commentary, p. 63-64.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Wayne Grudem's Response to Piper :: Desiring God

Wayne Grudem's Response to Piper :: Desiring God

I think Wayne should listen to his wife. :-)

Why Calvinistic / Reformed Theology is Seeing Such Resurgence

Church Matters: 9Marks Blog

I think my friend Mark Dever's keyboard might have caught on fire as he typed this aritcle. It is must reading! And here is a snippet to bait you into reading the whole post:

And it’s this line of questioning that I think has quietly, deeply, perhaps subtly been re-shaping the field into one in which the half-measures of Arminianism are not even beginning to be satisfying. They are attractive to fewer and fewer people. Their adherents average age will grow even as their numbers shrink. They will be recruited mainly from the churched, and perhaps even those who’ve nurtured grievances against God, for allowing this or that to happen.

Reformed theology, on the other hand, teaches about a god who is GOD. The kind of objections that seem to motivate Arminianism are disallowed by the very presuppositions Calvinism understands the Bible to teach about God. This God is sovereign and exercises His sovereignty. This God is centered on Himself. And this God is understood to be morally good in being so Self-centered. In fact, it would be evil, wrong, deceptive for Him to be centered on anything other than His own glory. There is no apology about this.

Response to Grudem on Baptism and Church Membership :: Desiring God

Response to Grudem on Baptism and Church Membership :: Desiring God

John Piper replies to his friend Wayne Grudem's flip-flop on the baptism/membership issue.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Ancient skull tangles path of human evolution

Ancient skull tangles path of human evolution

Did Mr. Sapiens have a pet monkey?

Just note how many times words like "suggest" "suppose" and "speculate" enter into this article on the CBC.

The Power of Encouragement

Monday was a civic holiday here in Canada, locally known as Simcoe Day. I say, “locally known,” since every part of the country gives it another name. [But that is another, and very Canadian, story!] Anyway, a day off meant a day to work with my neighbour to build a fence between our lots.

We had rented a mongo, earth-moving, two-man auger and had all the supplies, but I knew we were going to be hard-pressed to finish the job in a day. So, I mentioned to a couple of guys at church on Sunday that I could use the help if they were around.

Monday morning at 7AM Paul and Steve showed up! Booyah! What an encouragement! Even more – they stayed and worked hard for 14 hours... with only two small breaks to eat. And not once, not even slightly, did they ever complain, drag their feet or look for ways to back out. I cannot tell you how deeply encouraging that was for me. Now, the fence did not seem so daunting and the labour did not feel so hard. And we almost got done! [And would have got done had I not crushed my hand between the gas auger and my shed... but again, that’s another story!]

Yesterday, I was making some pastoral visits and had the opportunity to encourage some discouraged brothers and sisters. In one instance, I watched one of these saints transform before my very eyes – from defeat and discouragement to hope and life!

These last two days have reminded me of the incredible power of encouragement. No wonder the Bible tells us to “encourage one another day after day.”

When was the last time you deliberately encouraged another saint?