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Thread: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

  1. #921
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    That's the race that Paul talks of. It would be better explained as an obstacle race for we compete with a power which never gives up and won't until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back.

  2. #922

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Paul's Gratitude for God's Mercy

    Quote Originally Posted by 1 Timothy 1
    12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

    15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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  3. #923
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Prodromos,

    Aye, when ye think about it, he, Paul or as Saul, was once the hunter and in the great plan of God subsequently became the hunted. This man who had studied the Law was soon to learn that the Law could save no-one yet that it pointed to the One Who could save, the One being Jesus Christ.

  4. #924

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Paul says that even though under the Law his righteousness was faultless, he regards that as garbage compared to the righteousness of Christ that he has through faith.

    Quote Originally Posted by Philippians 3
    4 If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

    7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
    Isn't it funny how Christians are frequently accused of being "self-righteous", when we're literally the only people on Earth who don't think our righteousness is going to get us into heaven?

    Quote Originally Posted by Augustus Toplady
    When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread garments in the way: when He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ's feet but even trample upon it ourselves.
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  5. #925
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Podromos,

    Until that day when He comes back to gather in His own, saved or unsaved we are but sinners in corrupt bodies even if covered by His blood. Any righteousness we do have is His not ours. Only when our bodies are replaced by the promised heavenly garb will we be truly righteous like Him.

  6. #926

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Abraham, Father of the Faithful



    Quote Originally Posted by Genesis 22
    6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

    “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

    “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

    8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
    Quote Originally Posted by Hebrews 10
    5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

    “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;
    6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you were not pleased.
    7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
    I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”

    ...

    10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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  7. #927
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Abraham believed God and so he was accounted righteous before Him. Through Isaac would come Christ the true sacrifice.
    Last edited by basics; October 26, 2021 at 02:45 AM.

  8. #928

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    "Men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see Him and wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of His glory."

    - John Calvin, Institutes Of Christian Religion, Book 1, 5.1.
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  9. #929

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Quote Originally Posted by Psalm 146
    5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.

    6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—he remains faithful forever.
    7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.
    9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

    10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.

    Praise the Lord.
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  10. #930

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    This is a phenomenal article about the psychology of theological liberalism.

    The Neo-Liberal Stealth Offensive - Phil Johnson

    The gospel’s most dangerous earthly adversaries are not raving atheists who stand outside the door shouting threats and insults. They are church leaders who cultivate a gentle, friendly, pious demeanor but hack away at the foundations of faith under the guise of keeping in step with a changing world. ...

    Theological liberalism is particularly dependent on the stealth offensive. A spiritually healthy church is generally not susceptible to the arrogant skepticism that underlies a liberal’s rejection of biblical authority. Liberalism must therefore take root covertly and gain strength and influence gradually. The success or failure of the whole liberal agenda hinges on a patient public-relations campaign.
    To help you withstand the drift, here are four major trends today’s crop of neo-liberal leaders are fostering and taking advantage of:

    3. Their “faith” comes with an air of intellectual superiority.

    Liberals treat faith itself as an academic matter. Their whole system is essentially a wholesale rejection of simple, childlike belief. Their worldview foments an air of academic arrogance, setting human reason in the place of highest authority, treating the Bible with haughty condescension, and showing utter contempt for the kind of faith Christ blessed.

    Consequently, liberals are and always have been obsessed with academic respectability. They want the world’s esteem as scholars and intellectuals—no matter what they have to compromise to get it. They sometimes defend that motive by arguing that the secular academy’s acceptance is essential to the Christian testimony.

    Of course that is a quixotic quest. It is also a denial of the Bible’s plain teaching. Believers cannot be faithful to Scripture and win general accolades from the wise men, scribes, and debaters of this age. The world hated Jesus, and he made it clear that his faithful disciples mustn’t expect—or seek—the world’s honor (Jn. 15:18; Luke 6:22; cf. Jas. 4:4). Paul, himself a true scholar in every sense, wrote this world’s wisdom off as sheer foolishness: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” (1 Cor. 3:18-19).

    True Christian scholarship is about integrity, not accolades. Liberalism covets the latter, and that explains why liberals are always drawn to ideas that are stylish and politically correct, yet they are resistant to virtually all the hard truths of Christianity, starting with the authority Scripture claims for itself.

    Be on guard against that tendency.
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  11. #931
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Prodromos,

    The number of times I have heard people pray for the church to move on because the times are different has been many. So, when leading our church in prayer I asked where the church was supposed to go? If Jesus Christ is the Same, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow then surely His church must be the same standing on what He was, He is and He will be. If a modern day preacher does not offend his audience as Jesus offended His then they are not preaching the Gospel, rather what might be pleasing to that audience. It means that any commitment by a partaker would be shallow or false and regeneration still as far off as ever.

  12. #932

    Icon11 Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Quote Originally Posted by basics View Post
    Prodromos,

    The number of times I have heard people pray for the church to move on because the times are different has been many. So, when leading our church in prayer I asked where the church was supposed to go? If Jesus Christ is the Same, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow then surely His church must be the same standing on what He was, He is and He will be. If a modern day preacher does not offend his audience as Jesus offended His then they are not preaching the Gospel, rather what might be pleasing to that audience. It means that any commitment by a partaker would be shallow or false and regeneration still as far off as ever.
    J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism:

    The fundamental fault of the modern Church is that she is busily engaged in an absolutely impossible task—she is busily engaged in calling the righteous to repentance. Modern preachers are trying to bring men into the Church without requiring them to relinquish their pride; they are trying to help men avoid the conviction of sin. The preacher gets up into the pulpit, opens the Bible, and addresses the congregation somewhat as follows: “You people are very good,” he says; “you respond to every appeal that looks toward the welfare of the community. Now we have in the Bible—especially in the life of Jesus—something so good that we believe it is good enough even for you good people.” Such is modern preaching. It is heard every Sunday in thousands of pulpits. But it is entirely futile. Even our Lord did not call the righteous to repentance, and probably we shall be no more successful than He.
    The liberal church has for over a century now tried to take away every possible offensive doctrine from Christianity to make it more palatable to unbelievers, to the point where we now have churches looking the other way on fornication, sodomy, statism and a whole host of other evils. They've tried and tried, but at the end of the day even the existence of a God is going to be offensive to people who consider themselves their own god. They can keep trying to make it more palatable, but we see where that's going: it's killing any church that makes even one step in that direction. Ironically, though its proponents claim that liberalism is the only way for the church to survive, it's liberal churches that are rapidly dying out while orthodox churches are growing steadily.
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  13. #933

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    On July 6, 1415, the Czech reformer Jan Hus was burned alive by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of proclaiming that Christ is the head of the church and that salvation is in Christ alone. Shortly before his sentenced was carried out, he turned to his executioner and said, "Today you burn a goose (hus), but in one hundred years a swan will arise which you will prove unable to boil or roast."

    On October 31, 1517, the small-town monk Martin Luther marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg and nailed his 95 Theses to the door, thus lighting the flame of the Reformation.



    On April 16, 1521, Luther was brought to Worms by the Emperor, who wanted him to recant his teachings while he was there. Luther didn't see any proof against his theses or views which would move him to recant: "Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

    When Luther and the princes who supported him left Worms, the Emperor imposed an Imperial Act (Wormser Edikt): Luther is declared an outlaw and may be killed by anyone without threat of punishment. On the trip home, Elector Friedrich of Saxony allowed Luther to be kidnapped (Luther knew about it beforehand). Luther was taken to the secluded Wartburg and the Reformation had time to stabilize and strengthen itself.

    Happy Reformation Day
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  14. #934
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Podromos,

    Thank God for men like Luther, Calvin and Knox!

  15. #935

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    The Wife of Noble Character

    Quote Originally Posted by Proverbs 31
    10 An excellent wife, who can find?
    For her worth is far above jewels.

    11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
    And he will have no lack of gain.

    12 She does him good and not evil
    All the days of her life.

    13 She looks for wool and flax
    And works with her hands in delight.

    14 She is like merchant ships;
    She brings her food from afar.

    15 She rises also while it is still night
    And gives food to her household
    And portions to her maidens.

    16 She considers a field and buys it;
    From her earnings she plants a vineyard.

    17 She girds herself with strength
    And makes her arms strong.

    18 She senses that her gain is good;
    Her lamp does not go out at night.

    19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
    And her hands grasp the spindle.

    20 She extends her hand to the poor,
    And she stretches out her hands to the needy.

    21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
    For all her household are clothed with scarlet.

    22 She makes coverings for herself;
    Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

    23 Her husband is known in the gates,
    When he sits among the elders of the land.

    24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
    And supplies belts to the tradesmen.

    25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    And she smiles at the future.

    26 She opens her mouth in wisdom,
    And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

    27 She looks well to the ways of her household,
    And does not eat the bread of idleness.

    28 Her children rise up and bless her;
    Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:

    29 “Many daughters have done nobly,
    But you excel them all.”

    30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
    But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

    31 Give her the product of her hands,
    And let her works praise her in the gates.
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  16. #936
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Prodromos,

    It's sad to say that our church just held a remembrance service for a lady who passed recently from our midst, one who held most of the above. She was indeed some lady of God.

  17. #937

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.



    "Hold baby Jesus hostage until Tony finds your lost keys for you"
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  18. #938
    basics's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Prodromos,

    Is that real? What some people will do to make a buck especially bringing the name of our Lord and Saviour into the equation is just beyond acceptance.

  19. #939

    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    It's real.

    https://www.autom.com/product/st-ant...s-statue-MC133

    I don't know if this kind of thing is officially church-sanctioned, but it might be an example of the old practice of the "humiliation of the saints."

    "The Miracles of Saint Benedict at Fleury tell of a certain Adelard who persisted in mistreating peasants on monastic lands. Once he stole something from a woman, who then ran to the saint's church. There she threw back the altar cloths and began striking the altar, crying to the saint, "Benedict, you sluggard, you sloth, what are you doing? Why do you sleep? Why do you allow your servant to be treated so?"

    Because the serfs of the monasteries were the servants of the saints to whose monasteries they belonged, they believed that the saints were obliged to protect them. Oppression was therefore the fault of the saints. The ritual by which they attempted to rectify the situation was an inversion of their usual relationship to the saint, just as the monks' ritual was an inversion of theirs... Likewise, the physical action against the saint was one most appropriate within a peasant culture and not a monastic one. Punishment in lay society comes not in the form of hair shirts, thorns, or prostration but in blows. Thus the peasants beat their saints, just as they would beat a reluctant beast of burden, to awaken him and force him to do his job."

    -- Patrick J. Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages
    https://tantumdicverbo.blogspot.com/...of-saints.html

    Stories of saints who bless and punish are familiar enough to us, but tales of "erring" saints who are on the receiving end of punishment are rarer. ... The point of this humiliation of the saints, as expressed in the symbolic debasement of his relics, was to show their impotence and failure in living up to their reputation as the undisputed lords of the realm. ... The patron saint of the land, newly rendered impotent, is thus seen to have failed his people, most especially his immediate and most powerful vassals, the monks.

    It is curious, but not really surprising, that the humiliation of the saints would die out in the years leading to, and immediately following, the Council of Trent. The Council, which developed a more efficient, more legalistic framework for Catholicism, I think, can rightly be called the first instance when the Church became "self-conscious" as Roman Catholicism-- Western European in mind, culture, and structure. Its move from what was essentially a sacrificial, ritual cult-- which dealt primarily with the invincible powers of Heaven-- into a bureaucratic, technocratic, clericalist system shifted the object of veneration from the saints to the priests themselves. Hierarchy, as in a military structure that flowed from the Pope down to the foot soldiers (ordinary priests), came to exclusively define the relationship between man and divine. Any naive beating of a saint's tomb, now, becomes a grossly political act that is seen as subversive of clerical power.

    But if these stories tell us anything, it is that to live in a universe saturated with the presence of the sacred does not always mean these powers are ready to fight our battles for us. Disturbingly, it seems as if the saints were often viewed with a certain regard for the "mischief" they may sow, or the "arbitrariness" of their help. In that respect, we can see how they were probably more feared than Christ Himself. At the same time, they were indispensable to the life of the community, as the benefits they bring more than outweighs any arbitrariness that could be blamed on them. Again, it must be said that while I do not think of orthodoxy as merely an ecclesiastical fiction, one has to wonder if majority of Catholics-- the unschooled, unchurched bunch-- ever fully imbibed the Church's rationale on the matter.
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  20. #940
    mishkin's Avatar Dux Limitis
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    Default Re: Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning preaching.

    Hey I watched Benedetta last week. It is not very good narratively, but it does describe the pragmatism / cynicism / hypocrisy of the Catholic Church quite well.

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