Blog Archives - Southside Baptist Church

Fear living! - Charles Spurgeon

9/29/2014

"I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!" Philippians 1:23

Never fear dying, beloved. Dying is the last, but the least matter that a Christian has to be anxious about. Fear living--that is . . .
a hard battle to fight,
a stern discipline to endure,
a rough voyage to undergo.

There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly--and the death of theungodly.

Death comes to the ungodly as a penal infliction--but to the righteous, as a summons to his Father's palace!

To the lost sinner, it is an eternal execution--to the saint, death is an undressing from all his sins, sorrows and infirmities.

Death to the wicked, is the king of terrors!
Death to the saint, is the end of terrors and the commencement of glory!

"Let them fear death--who do not fear sin!" Thomas Watson

Revival: Doing the Will of God - A.W. Tozer

9/29/2014

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.--1 John 5:2-3

We urgently need a new kind of reformation throughout our Christian churches—a reformation that will cause us not only to accept the will of God but to actively seek it and adore it!...

The reformation we need now can best be described in terms of spiritual perfection-which reduced to its simplest form is no more and no less than doing the will of God! This would expose us all at the point of our need, no matter how sound we think we are in doctrine and no matter how great our reputations.

I long for the positive and genuine renewal which would come if the will of God could be totally accomplished in our lives. Everything that is unspiritual would flee, and all that is not Christlike would vanish, and all that is not according to the New Testament would be rejected....

Do we voluntarily and actively observe God's commandments, making positive changes in our lives as God may indicate in order to bring the entire life into accord with the New Testament?

That is the active aspect of the will of God that I would own as reformation in the church, and it would surely result in revival. I Talk Back to the Devil, 89-90.

"Oh Lord, 'I long for the positive and genuine renewal which would come if the will of God could be totally accomplished in our lives.' Let it begin in me...today. Amen.

Deceitful and desperately wicked! - William S. Plumer

9/29/2014

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9

Man is the only creature on earth that practices self-deception. That we should sometimes deceive others is proof of our depravity; but that we should spend our lives in self-deception is truly astonishing! Men of the fewest virtues commonly have the highest thoughts of themselves. How strange and yet how common that he, whose heart has deceived him a thousand times, should yet confide in it as if it had always been honest!

The human heart deceives every being but one--and it would deceive Him, if He were not omniscient. None but God knows all the depths of iniquity and duplicity within us.

Though the language of the Bible is strong, it is just. God declares, and every Christian knows by sad experience--that his heart is deceitful above all things. A perfect knowledge of the treachery of our hearts is possessed by none but God.

The heart is also VILE. It is "desperately wicked."

It loves vanity, and folly, and sin.
It hates holiness, and truth, and divine restraints.

The heart is . . .
a sink of iniquity,
a pool of pestilential waters,
a cage of unclean birds,
a sepulcher full of dead men's bones.
It is torn by wild, fierce, unhallowed passions.
It rejects good and chooses evil.
It is wholly corrupt.
It is full of evil.
There is no soundness in it.

"For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander! These are the things which defile the man." Matthew 15:19, 20

"He who trusts in his own heart is a fool!" Proverbs 28:26

Homosexuality as Dividing Line — The Inescapable Issue - Dr. Al Mohler

9/25/2014

This article is straight from Dr. Mohler's site. Please take the time to read and ponder it. I could not agree more with him!

WEDNESDAY • September 24, 2014

The vote to declare that the New Heart Community Church of La Mirada, California “does not presently meet the definition of a cooperating church” came unanimously as the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention met this week in Nashville. It was a solemn moment and a moment perhaps to be repeated any number of times in coming months and years. Homosexuality was the dividing line.

The SBC Executive Committee was acting in its ad interim capacity on behalf of the Convention itself. Between the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Executive Committee fulfills its functions. When the SBC met earlier this year in Baltimore, Southern Baptists had just learned days before that the New Heart Community Church had affirmed its pastor in declaring a “third way” on the issue of homosexuality — in effect allowing for the affirmation of same-sex sexuality and relationships. In an hour-long video posted to the church’s website, Pastor Danny Cortez explained his personal change of mind on the question of homosexuality and traced his journey back to an August day in 2013 when “I realized I no longer believed in the traditional teachings regarding homosexuality.”

When Pastor Cortez told his 15-year-old son about his change of mind, his son responded with the simple declaration, “Dad, I’m gay.” In short order, Drew Cortez, Danny Cortez’s son, posted a “coming out” video on YouTube and Pastor Cortez told his congregation of his change of mind on homosexuality. As he told his church, his change was a “radical shift” that put him at odds with the historic understanding of the Christian church and the SBC’s confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message.

The church eventually split over the issue, with those remaining declaring their intention to affirm their pastor and to become a “Third Way church” that allows for disagreement on the question of the sinfulness of homosexual acts and same-sex marriage.

But, as I argued at the time, there is no third way. A church or denomination will either believe and teach that same-sex behaviors and relationships are sinful, or it will affirm them. In short order, every single congregation in America will face the same decision — do we affirm same-sex relationships or not? Those who suggest that there is some way around this “binary” choice are fooling themselves and confusing the church.

Consider this — the only way to construct a “third way” is to suggest that one can allow for the affirmation of homosexuality without affirming it. That simply does not work. To allow the affirmation is to affirm.

This was the sad lesson learned by conservatives in the Church of England on the question of woman priests. The “third way” presented then to the Church of England promised that those who believed that women should not be priests could coexist within the church with those who affirmed that women should be priests. The problem is that the church had to decide who would be priests, and they decided for the ordination of women. Thus, the “third way” was just an argument to get to the eventual goal that the church would have women priests.

The third way disappears very quickly when the church has to decide if it will recognize or celebrate a same-sex marriage. There is no third way when that decision arrives, and there are limitless decisions that will eventually have to be made.

In a letter sent by the deacons of New Heart Community Church to the SBC Executive Committee, the church affirmed again its decision to be a “Third Way” congregation, arguing that even as some members of the church affirmed same-sex marriage, the church had taken no position on the question. The church, said the deacons, has “no official stance on same-sex marriage.”

But that statement was followed by these words:

“Finally, while ‘our church’ remains without an official stance on same-sex marriage, our preaching pastor has officiated a same-sex marriage. We do not believe that this alone would confirm that ‘our church’ has acted to ‘affirm or endorse homosexuality,’ but we accept that the SBC may have a different view of such terminology.”

A central fact of free church polity is that every congregation is responsible for its minister and its ministry. The decision to affirm a pastor is a decision to affirm the pastor’s teaching and actions and to take congregational responsibility for them. The claim that the congregation has not taken a position when the pastor they affirm has taken a position is a fiction.

Furthermore, the church — while claiming to have taken no position affirming homosexuality — also informed the Executive Committee that the church “will accept as voting members at least–and possibly as servant-leaders additionally–LGBT persons who we discern are–as leaders–loving, faithful, fitting, worthy, respected, and clean of conscience, that they are disciples in the Way of Jesus.”

There is no third way, and there has never been a third way on a question of this magnitude and consequence. In this sad case it was the issue of homosexuality that defined the dividing line, but there have been many necessary dividing lines before.

I had the opportunity to meet privately with Pastor Danny Cortez when he came to speak for his church before the Executive Committee. He is a gracious and kind man who really seems to believe that there is a third way in this situation — but who also admits that the third way is not a lasting destination.

Division is always painful, but on a clear question of biblical truth, division is sometimes the only act that faithfulness to Scripture will allow. This is one of those moments, and homosexuality and same-sex marriage now loom as the great dividing line that will tear some denominations apart and lead others to define the terms of their convictional cooperation. The unanimous vote by the Executive Committee is a sign that the Southern Baptist Convention intends to stand without compromise on this question — and that the members of the committee saw the impossibility of any third way.

The issue is now inescapable for every congregation, every denomination, every seminary, and every Christian organization. The question will be asked and some answer will be given. When the question is asked, any answer that is not completely consistent with the church’s historical understanding of sexual morality and the full affirmation of biblical authority will mean a full embrace of same-sex behaviors and same-sex relationships. There is no third way, and there never was.

The More Excellent Way - Part 9

9/25/2014

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:9-12)

   Paul is drawing the argument for love’s excellency to a close, and he will return to the more explicit treatment of spiritual gifts in Chapter 14. I have tried to stress that the chapter on love must not be separated from the context of spiritual gifts though because Paul is showing it is the more excellent and desirable pursuit rather than the gifts of the Spirit.

   The main thrust of Paul’s argument from our text today is pretty much an extension of what we saw in verse 8. There Paul said love has no end, but the exercise of the spiritual gifts will come to an end. In verse 9, the first word is “for,” and it shows that Paul is providing further explanation for what he has said.

   He says that the knowledge we currently have is partial at best, and the same can be said for prophesying. This is certainly harmonious with the idea of ongoing, progressive sanctification. At best, we are a work in progress. This side of eternity, we will never be sinless, have perfect knowledge, or exercise our gifts without taints of our fleshly remnants.

   However, there is coming a day when the partial will pass away. The exercise of sign gifts such as knowledge, tongues, prophesying, etc. was never meant to be eternally lasting. Their scope was always of limited duration. The ultimate goal is the coming of the perfect and not the abiding of the partial (v. 10).

    Paul now uses a general analogy to explain himself further. There was a time for the presence and exercise of the more childish, immature things in life. As a child, there will be childish speaking, thinking, and reasoning. This is because there is a lack of wisdom, maturity, experience, and sound reasoning skills.

   Nevertheless, those things will come to an end. The childish is not meant to last, as Paul says he gave those things up. When did he give them up? As he grew into a man, mature, wiser, with more age and experience, the childish was left behind. The childish things are no longer satisfying; the goal is more maturity and wisdom.

   Paul builds on that idea in verse 12. We again see the word, “for.” Paul says that now, in this life, we see only in a dimly lit mirror. There is not clarity and purity of sight. That will come one day when we see face-to-face. Paul’s knowledge now is in part, at best. One day though he will know fully, even as he has been fully known.

   Those ideas are easy to grasp. The questions revolve mainly around verse 10. When the perfect or completed comes, knowledge and prophecies will pass away. There are differences over exactly what Paul means here. Does he mean when Christ comes? Is the perfect referring to Christ, or is it referring to the realization of the promises of God? Others think Paul is referring to the completed, written revelation of God. When the completed, closed canon comes, there will no longer be the need for the sign gifts.

   No matter what view a person takes on this idea, it cannot be denied that Paul is clearly emphasizing that true, biblical love as described in the first past of this chapter should be the goal of Christians. The arguments, divisions, and chaos over focusing on spiritual gifts are all exhibits of childish behavior. Those things will not last, and therefore, they should never supplant the more worthy pursuits of growth in love, holiness, righteousness, humility, and other Christ-like attributes.

   Is your life being built on the more Christ-exalting traits such as humility, love, holiness, gentleness, joy, peace, etc.? Are you laying up treasures in heaven, or are you pursuing those things that will not last?

   Love never ends! – v. 8

Devotion from Puritan Gems

9/25/2014

The little kindnesses and self-denials of Christian living!

(Henrietta Wilson, "Little things" 1852)

"Be kind and compassionate to one another" Ephesians 4:32

Look around you, first in your own family, then among your friends and neighbors, and see whether there is not someone you can show kindness to--someone . . .
whose little burden you can lighten,
whose little cares you may lessen,
whose little pleasures you can promote,
whose little wants and wishes you can gratify.

Cheerfully giving up our own pleasures to minister to others, is one of the little kindnesses and self-denials of Christian living. Doing little things that nobody likes to do, but which must be done by someone, is another.

It may seem to many, that if they avoid little unkindnesses, they must necessarily be doing all that is required. But it is not enough to abstain from sharp words, sneering tones, petty contradictions, or daily little irritations. We must be active and earnest in kindness--not merely passive and inoffensive. [my emphasis]

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12, 14

Revival: Not Just Intensity of Prayer - A.W. Tozer

9/24/2014

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.--John 14:21

Intensity of prayer is no criterion of its effectiveness. A man may throw himself on his face and sob out his troubles to the Lord and yet have no intention to obey the commandments of Christ. Strong emotion and tears may be no more than the outcropping of a vexed spirit, evidence of stubborn resistance to God's known will....

No matter what I write here, thousands of pastors will continue to call their people to prayer in the forlorn hope that God will finally relent and send revival if only His people wear themselves out in intercession. To such people God must indeed appear to be a hard taskmaster, for the years pass and the young get old and the aged die and still no help comes. The prayer meeting room becomes a wailing wall and the lights burn long, and still the rains tarry.

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Let any reader begin to obey and he will have the answer. "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (John 14:21).

Isn't that what we want after all? The Size of the Soul, 20-21.

"Lord, help me to obey Your commandments. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak! I long to live in that obedience, in order that I may know the Father's love and manifestation to me. Amen."

Revival: Don't Substitute Praying for Obeying - A.W. Tozer

9/23/2014

So Samuel said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." --1 Samuel 15:22

Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late-and how little revival has resulted?

Considering the volume of prayer that is ascending these days, rivers of revival should be flowing in blessing throughout the land. That no such results are in evidence should not discourage us; rather it should stir us to find out why our prayers are not answered....

I believe our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying; and it simply will not work....

Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Of God and Men, 55-57.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; show me any wicked way that needs to be corrected in my own life before revival can come. I'm praying for revival; help me to also be obeying. Amen."

The More Excellent Way - Part 8

9/23/2014

In this post we will begin a section in this glorious chapter that is often disputed among Christians. This will make more sense as we work our way through it.

We will also see Paul coming “full circle” to tie in the issue concerning spiritual gifts to this brief excursion on the preeminence of love. Remember that at the end of Chapter 12, Paul told this church to of a “more excellent way.”

Paul begins verse 8 by saying, “Love never ends.” That is easy enough to grasp. This statement is true because God is love. Love is an attribute of God. God being a perfectly holy, sinless, infinite, eternal Being, He is perfect love. As long as God is, love is. He will display and pour out His love on, in, and to His redeemed for all eternity. He does this in, through, and because of Christ.

Once the bodies of the redeemed are glorified in the world to come, love will be more fully realized than ever for humans. We see the clearest revelation of God’s love to us in the cross of Christ. However, even our comprehension of and appreciation for that supreme act of love are not what they should be. There is coming a day when we will possess a fuller, deeper, more glorious apprehension of God in His fullness. That means not only will we better grasp God’s love to creation, and especially His redeemed, but we will have a fuller capacity to love Him and others. Sin will be finally and fully eradicated.

These truths, so briefly stated, should spark hope for Christians as we ponder the future when our faith will be made sight.

Paul goes on to say, “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” Here Paul is explicitly tying in this chapter to Chapter 12. He returns to this theme of spiritual gifts. These Corinthians were panting after the temporary sign gifts. They were overlooking the more excellent, eternal way.

This is the point where Paul’s words are often disputed. While no one would argue vehemently (probably), that the sign gifts will eventually cease, they is a great divide on when that will be. Historically, the Church held that as the Apostles began to die, the sign gifts were already in decline and not as much as emphasized as in the earlier days of the Church in Acts. Once the Apostles were gone, the sign gifts (the gift of healing, the gift of tongues, etc.) ceased. That is not to say that God doesn’t still graciously perform healings in our day, unable to be explained by medical doctors! It is saying that the gift of healing is no longer given to Christians by the Spirit.

In the early 1900’s, the modern-day Pentecostal movement was born and began to take shape. This was followed by the Charismatic movement. These two movements stressed gifts such as speaking in tongues, performing healings, having a word of knowledge, an emphasis on the Holy Spirit, etc. Eventually some of these views crossed denominational lines, and now there are people in many denominations that stress charismatic gifts and abilities. (This is summing up much in a few lines, but it is only meant to illustrate the two views on the sign gifts.)

While there are various implications and issues at stake in the argument over the continuance or cessation of spiritual gifts, I want to point out one truth that cannot be disputed. Love will never end. It is eternal and the more excellent way. All of the gifts, especially those that seemed more desirable, will not be eternal.

The question is, “What are we seeking?” Are we seeking to grow in our understanding and practice of true, biblical love? Do we desire to grasp the depth, height, and width of the love of God which surpasses all natural human abilities to explore?

Maybe you have a different view and would rather seek those things that seem to promote yourself? Is your desire to attain one of these spectacular abilities or “sign” gifts? If so, I implore you to abandon that pursuit for the more excellent way.

J.R. Miller - Devotional

9/22/2014

How much did he leave?

(J.R. Miller, "The Shining Light" 1911)

"What is a man profited, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Matthew 16:26

That is putting the case in its most favorable light. The whole world is the largest possible gain. But suppose a man does get the whole world . . .
it cannot keep him from pain or trouble;
it cannot give him peace of conscience;
it cannot comfort him in sorrow;
it cannot make a soft pillow for him when he is dying;
it cannot purchase Heaven for him when he is gone.

All he can do with the world, after he has it, is to keep it for a short time until he dies--he cannot carry any part of it with him to eternity.

"How much did he leave?" asked one, referring to a millionaire who had just died. "Every cent!" was the reply. He left all. So it is easy to see that there is no profit--but rather a fearful and eternal loss, in gaining even all the world at the price of one's soul.

"Then the rich man said: 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.'
And I'll say to myself: 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry!'
But God said to him: 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Luke 12:18-21