THE MINISTRY OF PETER – Chapter 5

October 10, 2013 in Bible Study | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Except Ye Repent
By Dr. Harry Ironside

Pastor Harry A. Ironside

Chapter 5 – THE MINISTRY OF PETER

When the Lord Jesus, in the days of His earthly ministry, sent forth the Twelve Apostles to go throughout the land of Israel heralding His word, He evidently commanded them to emphasize the same message that John the Baptist preached and which He Himself proclaimed; for we are told in Mark 6:12 that “they went out, and preached that men should repent.”

After His atoning death and glorious resurrection, when He commissioned the eleven to go out into all the world and make known His Gospel among all nations, we find Him again stressing the same solemn truth. We read in Luke 24:46 that He “said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” The rending of the veil had ended the old dispensation; His triumph over death introduced the new one; but the call for men to repent was unrepealed. The Gospel of the grace of God did not set this to one side, nor ignore it in the slightest degree. Men must still be called upon to change their attitude toward God and the sin question if they would receive forgiveness of sins.

True, forgiveness is by faith, but there can be no faith without repentance, and no repentance without faith. What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

We are quite prepared, therefore, when we con the pages of the book of the Acts, to see the large place given to repentance. Ordinarily we speak of this book as The Acts of the Apostles. But a closer examination of its twenty-eight chapters shows us that it is occupied largely with the ministry of two apostles, and those are Peter, one of the Twelve, and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles who came in afterwards to complete the Word of God. Very few of the other apostles are even mentioned by name. We may say, then, that in Acts 1-12 we have The Acts of Peter, and in chapters 13-28 The Acts of Paul. I propose at this time to see what place repentance has in the preaching of Peter.

In the great Pentecost chapter we find Peter as the chief spokesman of the Twelve, Matthias being now numbered with them, addressing the multitudes of Jews and devout men, proselytes of the gate, from every nation under heaven. With marvelous clearness and spiritual power and insight he links the significant happenings of that day to Joel’s prophecy of the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit in the last days. He does not exactly say that Joel’s prophecy was at that time being literally fulfilled, but he explains the power manifested as identical with that predicted by the prophet. “This is that,” he declares. That is, this power, this outpouring, this divine manifestation, is the same as that spoken of by Joel.

Then he undertakes to show that, after long years of waiting on the part of Israel, Messiah had appeared in exact accord with the prophecies going beforehand. But the Jews had fulfilled their own Scriptures in rejecting Jesus. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23-24). It was true, God had sent Him into the world to die for sinners, but they were nevertheless terribly guilty who stretched forth their hands against Him and treated Him with such shame and ignominy. They dishonored Him. God had glorified Him and had commissioned them to bear witness that He “hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (v. 36).

This declaration brought sharp and pungent conviction. They were “pricked in their heart.” As the awfulness of their crime burst upon them they realized the terrible position in which they stood. How could they extricate themselves from this? In other words, how could they dissociate themselves from the guilty majority over whom the judgment of God hung like a Damocles sword and might fall in fearful vengeance at any moment? They “said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Do not confound this question with that of the Philippian jailer, who asked, “What must I do to be saved?” He was a godless Gentile, suddenly awakened to a sense of his lost condition, and he was eagerly seeking deliverance from that unhappy state.

But these Israelites were men of the covenant. They had looked expectantly for Messiah. Peter showed them that He had come, and gone! The chosen nation of which they formed a part had rejected Him. Because of that God had set them aside as a people under condemnation. In His righteous government He was about to visit them with His wrath to the uttermost, as Paul afterwards explained to the Thessalonians. If these awakened men, who fully believed Peter’s testimony, were to escape that doom, what was their responsibility? What could they do to dissociate themselves from the crime of the guilty nation? The answer came clear and plain: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:38-39). Surely all this is plain and perfectly appropriate, as we might expect, for Peter was a divinely directed messenger. The call to repent was as though he had said, ‘Change your attitude! The nation has rejected Jesus. You must receive Him. The nation has crucified Him. You must crown Him. Attest your repentance by baptism in His Name. By doing this you, so to speak, identify yourself with the Messiah, as your fathers were identified with Moses, owning him as their leader when baptized in the cloud and in the sea.’

John’s baptism was with a view to the remission of sins. So with this. It was not that there was saving merit in baptism. The merit was in the One they confessed. Governmentally, however, they passed out from their place in the nation that rejected Christ by thus identifying themselves with Him. That this was clearly his meaning comes out in the next verse, “With many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” They could not save themselves from their sins. Only the blood of Christ could do that. But they could save themselves from the doom hanging over the nation by taking sides, in repentance and faith, with the One the nation refused to own as the Anointed of the Lord. He had said ere He went to the cross, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” Those who believed Peter’s message were to leave the desolate house and go forth unto Him, bearing His reproach.

Nor was this responsibility and blessing only for those who that day heard the message. It is still the responsibility of every believing Jew in all the world, and in a wider sense of the Gentile too — of “all that are afar off.” In Ephesians we learn that we who once were “afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” The repentant man, whether of Israel or the nations, judges the world and turns from it to the Christ that the world has spurned. In so doing he finds eternal blessing, though he may suffer now for his confession of the Lord Jesus as His Saviour.

In the third chapter of Acts we have another wonderful scene. After the healing of the lame man who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, Peter preached to the wondering and excited multitude who thronged Solomon’s Porch, telling again the same story of the coming of Messiah, only to be “denied” and “killed,” but whom God had raised from the dead, the efficacy of whose Name had given the once lame beggar soundness of limbs in the presence of them all. The inspired Apostle went on to declare that, though they had ignorantly done this dreadful thing, there was a city of refuge into which they might flee from the avenger of blood. Dramatically he exclaimed, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when [or, so that] the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21).

Observe here, that Peter did not proclaim the eventual salvation of all men, as the Universalists and other teachers would have us believe. There is no absolute universal restoration predicted here. What he did proclaim was the restoration of all things of which the prophets had spoken. Beyond that limit he does not go. This restoration is still future and depends upon the repentance of Israel. When they shall turn to the Lord, His saving health shall be known among all nations.

But Peter called upon his hearers that day to take the course the nation will take later on, and that in view of the promised return of Messiah, to repent and be converted. It is as though he commanded, ‘Change your attitude toward this wondrous Prince of Life. Turn right about face, and take the very opposite ground to that of the representatives of the nation who in answer to the question, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” had vehemently demanded His death, crying “Away with him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”‘ By thus turning to, instead of turning from Him, they would receive forgiveness of sins and so be ready to welcome Him upon His return in power and glory. This was exactly the attitude taken by a dying Jew in modern times, who was heard to exclaim, “Not Barabbas, but this man!” He had reversed the sentence of his people.

Throughout the entire ministry of Peter we see the same dominant note. On every occasion where he is found preaching the Word he exalts the risen Christ and drives home to the people their great wickedness in spurning the One sent of Jehovah to turn them away from their iniquities. Always in no uncertain tone he calls for self-judgment, for the recognition and acknowledgment of their sins, and for personal faith in the Lord Jesus as the only means of deliverance. “This,” he cries, “is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).

Surely no sane, thoughtful reader of the record can escape the conclusion that repentance, while in no sense meritorious, is nevertheless a prerequisite to saving faith. An unrepentant man can never, in the very nature of things, lay hold of the Gospel message in appropriating faith, thus receiving the Lord Jesus as his own personal Saviour.

Why, then, should any preacher of the Gospel be hesitant about calling men to repentance today? If it be objected that the grace of God was not yet fully revealed in Peter’s ministry, I would remind the objector that in his inspired First Epistle he tells us distinctly why he wrote it. In verse 12 of chapter 5 he says, “I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand.” How does this differ from the testimony of Paul in Romans 5:2, “We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”?

If others object on the ground that Peter was the Apostle of the circumcision and that there is a distinction to be drawn between the message to the Jew and that to the Gentile, I would point to the fact that, in the house of Cornelius with a Gentile audience before him, his message is of exactly the same character as when he is preaching to his Jewish brethren after the flesh, excepting that there is no occasion to call for immediate separation from a nation exposed to judgment, and so the stress is put upon the responsibility to believe the Gospel. But he proclaims, as before, the story of the anointed Jesus, of His death of shame, of His resurrection by omnipotent power, and of the fact that He is ordained of God to be judge of living and dead. “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). Undoubtedly, he was addressing a truly repentant group, as Cornelius’ attitude clearly attested. And in a moment the Gospel finds lodgment in their hearts, and they believe the Word and are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ and sealed with the Spirit of adoption as the sons of God.

That this surmise is correct is evidenced from what is said by the brethren in Judea, when Peter later on explains why he went in to uncircumcised Gentiles (11:3), in violation of Jewish prejudices. When his brethren heard the whole story “they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life” (v. 18). This explains the readiness of Cornelius and his friends to receive the Word in faith.

Only recently the statement was made by one who should have known better: “Repentance is Jewish. Jews could repent because they were in covenant relation with God and had violated that covenant. But Gentiles have never known such a relationship. They are dead sinners. Therefore they cannot repent until after they are born of God.” This is a choice bit of ignorant exposition that would be laughable were it not so dangerous. The Gentiles to whom Peter preached were granted repentance unto life. They did not receive life that they might repent, but through the preached Word they were led to change their attitude and to believe the Gospel. Like other Gentiles, they “turned to God from idols,” and through faith in Christ were saved. How this confirms what we have seen to be the general teaching of Scripture, namely, that repentance is not a meritorious act or a wrought-up temperamental or emotional experience, but a new attitude definitely taken toward sin and God which results in a readiness to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save the soul.

It is God who gives repentance unto life, but we may say that repentance comes, like faith itself, by hearing the Word of God. Therefore man is responsible to heed that Word, to face it honestly, and thus allow it to do its own work in the heart and conscience. It is this that brings one to an end of himself and prepares the soul to trust alone in the finished work of Christ and so be saved by free, unmerited grace.

To say that because a sinner, whether Jew or Gentile, is dead toward God, therefore he cannot repent, is to misunderstand the nature of that death. It is a judicial, not an actual, death. The unsaved man is identified with sinning Adam by nature and practice, and so is viewed by God as dead in trespasses and sins. He is spiritually dead, because sin has separated him from God. But actually he is a living, responsible creature to whom God addresses Himself as to a reasoning personality, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18). An examination of the previous verses will show that these words of grace follow a very definite call to a change of attitude, to the bringing forth of works meet for repentance.

It is not incongruous to call upon dead sinners to repent. It is the preacher’s bounden duty so to do, and it is man’s responsibility to obey.

I recognize the fact that the age-long questions concerning the divine sovereignty and human responsibility are involved in this discussion. But why need anyone attempt to explain that which it is above the capacity of the mind of man to grasp? God has said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways … As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Scripture clearly teaches that God is Sovereign and “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” It just as plainly shows us that man is a responsible creature, who has the power of choice and is called upon by the Lord to exercise that power and to turn to Himself. “Turn ye, O, turn ye … for why will ye die?” “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” To those who refused His testimony the Saviour sadly said, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

The truth of God’s electing grace does not come into conflict with that of man’s responsibility. Mr. Moody used to say in his downright, sensible, matter-of-fact manner, “The elect are the whosoever wills; the nonelect are the whosoever won’ts.” What theologian could put it more clearly?

“Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding!
Ransomed souls the tidings swell.
‘Tis a deep that knows no sounding,
Who its breadth and length can tell?
On its glories
Let my soul forever dwell.”

[Dr. Harry Ironside (1876-1951), a godly Fundamentalist author and teacher for many years, served as pastor of Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church from 1930-1948]

Are We Seeing Signs of the Close of the Age?

October 7, 2013 in religion | 1 comment

Mike Ratliff's avatarPossessing the Treasure

by Mike Ratliff

15 Προσέχετε ἀπὸ τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν, οἵτινες ἔρχονται πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐν ἐνδύμασιν προβάτων, ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσιν λύκοι ἅρπαγες. (Matthew 7:15 NA28)

15 “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but within are ravenous wolves.”  (Matthew 7:15 translated from the NA28 Greek text)

The Church in our time appears huge, but this is only in appearance. It is thousands of miles wide, but only a fraction of an inch deep. Much of what claims to be Christian is not and proves it by what is actually its focus and what (or who) it actually worships. The focus has its foundation in pragmatism and its worship is nothing more than self-aggrandizement. They give lip service to their own version of “Jesus” who bears little if any resemblance to the Jesus we read of in God’s Word. This counterfeit Christianity is the majority while the true Church, which…

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CHRIST’S CALL TO REPENT -Chapter 4

October 7, 2013 in Bible, faith, Jesus | Tags: | Leave a comment

Except Ye Repent
By Dr. Harry Ironside

Pastor Harry A. Ironside

Chapter 4 – CHRIST’S CALL TO REPENT

“The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Notice that combination — grace and truth. Men must face facts if they would enjoy grace. Surely there never was a more insistent call to repentance than that put forth by Him of whom it could be said, “Grace is poured into thy lips.”

From the moment He began to preach, His message, like that of His forerunner, John, was, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There is something intensely solemnizing in this. God had come down to earth and was speaking in His Son. He came with a heart filled with love and compassion for men, so bruised and ruined by sin; but He had to wait upon them; He had to press home to them their sad plight; He had to call upon them to acknowledge their guilt and their ungodliness ere He could pour into their hearts the balm of His grace. For God must have reality. He refuses to gloss over iniquity. He insists upon self-judgment, upon a complete right-about-face, a new attitude, ere He will reveal a Saviour’s love.

With this principle the arrangement of the four Gospels is in perfect harmony. In the Synoptics the call is to repent. In John the emphasis is laid upon believing. Some have thought that there is inconsistency or contradiction here. But we need to remember that John wrote years after the older Evangelists, and with the definite object in view of showing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through His Name. He does not simply travel over ground already well trodden. Rather, he adds to and thus supplements the earlier records, inciting to confidence in the testimony God has given concerning His Son. He does not ignore the ministry of repentance because he stresses the importance of faith. On the contrary, he shows to repentant souls the simplicity of salvation, of receiving eternal life, through trusting in Him who, as the true light, casts light on every man, thus making manifest humanity’s fallen condition and the need of an entire change of attitude toward self and toward God.

To tell a man who has no realization that he is lost, that he may be saved by faith in Christ, means nothing to him, however true and blessed the fact is in itself. It is like throwing a life preserver to a man who does not realize he is about to be engulfed in a maelstrom. When he sees his danger he will appreciate the means of deliverance offered. So when the message of the Synoptics has made a profound impression on the soul of a man, he will be ready for the proclamation of eternal life and forgiveness through faith in Christ alone.

When they came to Jesus and told Him of certain Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices as his Roman legions quelled a Jewish uprising, and again when they reported the falling of a tower in Siloam as a result of which many were killed, He solemnly declared: “Think ye that these were sinners above all others? I tell you, nay, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” Whether men are taken away by violence, by accident, or, as we say, by natural death, their doom is the same unless they have turned to God in repentance. We perhaps think of such occurrences as those referred to, as signal instances of the divine judgment against wickedness. But God’s holy eye discerns the sinfulness of every heart and calls upon all to take sides with Him against themselves. Until this is done, saving faith is an impossibility. This is not to limit grace. It is to make way for it. And be it remembered, repentance is not a state automatically produced. It is the inwrought work of the Holy Spirit effected by faithful preaching of the Word. But how seldom today do we hear the cry, “Except ye repent.”

When our Lord looked on to the day of manifestation He declared: “The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Could He have made it clearer that grace is for the repentant soul, and there can only be judgment without mercy for him who persists in hardening his heart against the Spirit’s pleading?

And so, when He upbraided the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, He prophesied their doom because they would not repent. Bethsaida, Chorazin, Capernaum are but ruins today because, although the testimony given was of such character that if it had been vouchsafed to Tyre and Sidon they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, the people in these cities were unmoved. The stones of these Galilean cities are today crying out of the dust of ages, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” But how few there are with ears to hear and hearts to understand!

It has often been noticed with wonder by thoroughly orthodox theologians that, whereas many cultured preachers, whose Gospel testimony is unimpeachably correct, see few or no converts, some fervent evangelist who does not seem to proclaim nearly so clear a Gospel, but who drives home to men and women the truth of their lost condition and vehemently stresses the necessity of repentance, wins souls by the scores or even hundreds. It was so with Sam Jones, with D. L. Moody, with Gypsy Smith, with Billy Sunday, with W. P. Nicholson, with Mel Trotter, and many more. Is not the explanation simply this, that, when men truly face their sins in the presence of God, their awakened and alarmed consciences make them quick to respond to the slightest intimation of God’s grace to those who seek Him with the whole heart? This is not to set a premium upon ignorance, nor to glorify a half-Gospel, for undoubtedly where the full clear announcement of salvation by faith alone in a crucified, risen, and exalted Christ follows the call to repentance, the converts will be much better established than where they have to grope for years after the truth that sets free from all doubt and confusion of mind. The evangelists cited above all came themselves to a better understanding of grace in their maturity than in their early years. But those years were nevertheless wonderfully fruitful in the turning of many from sin to righteousness and from the power of Satan unto God.

And is it not marvelously significant that, in the three Gospels which were first circulated throughout the ancient world, the call goes forth to Jew and Gentile insisting that no unrepentant soul will ever find favor with God? Then, as the Christian testimony was better known, the sweet and precious unfoldings of light, life, and love were given in the Gospel of John. Of course, in the actual testimony of the Lord, the two were ever intermingled, for “grace and truth” are never to be separated.

Our Lord was the master soul-winner, and we who would be used of God in winning our fellows to a knowledge of Himself may well learn His ways and copy His methods, so far as human frailty will permit.

How easily He might have declared to the rich young ruler, who came running to Him asking, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” that there was nothing to do, “only believe and live.” Had He done so it would have been actually true. But He did not so say. Instead He undertook to probe the conscience of the young man by using the stern precepts of the Law, and He put a test upon him that only real faith would have led him to meet. “One thing thou lackest.” What was that? The young man had never realized his need of a Saviour. Self-satisfied and self-contained, he honestly prided himself on his goodness. The test, “sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,” was not putting salvation on the ground of human merit; but it was intended to reveal to the young man the hidden evil of his heart and to show him his need of mercy.

To the Samaritan woman He did not give the living water until He had uncovered her life of sin, so that she exclaimed, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” This was tantamount to saying, ‘I perceive that I am a sinner.’ And after she believed in Him as Saviour and Messiah her own testimony was, “Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did: Can this be the Christ?”

Rutherford complained in his day that there were so few professed believers who had ever spent a sick night for sin. And if this was true then, it is doubly true today.

When our Lord answered the complaining legalists who objected that He received sinners and ate with them, He related the threefold parable of Luke 15. There we see the entire Trinity concerned in the salvation of a sinner. The Saviour seeks the lost sheep. The woman with the light, illustrating the Holy Spirit’s work, seeks the lost piece of silver. And all heaven rejoices when the lost one repents.

The eager father welcomes back the returning prodigal. But we should not overlook the fact, that it was when the ungrateful youth “came to himself” and took the position of self-judgment because of his wicked folly, and actually turned his face homeward, that the father ran to him, though still a great way off, and fell on his neck and kissed him. He did not wait for his boy to ring the door bell or knock in fear and anxiety upon the gate. But, on the other hand, he did not offer him the kiss of forgiveness while he was down among the swine. He hastened to meet him when in repentance he turned homeward with words of confession in his heart.

Does all this becloud grace? Surely not. Rather does it magnify and exalt it. For it is to unworthy sinners who recognize and acknowledge their dire condition that God finds delight in showing undeserved favor.

The weeping harlot in the seventh of Luke, kneeling at the feet of Jesus and washing them with her tears while she dries them with her hair — and a woman’s hair is her glory — illustrates, as perhaps nothing else can, the relation of repentance to saving faith. Her tears of contrition told out the grief of her heart as she mourned over her sins and judged her unclean life in the light of Christ’s purity. His words of grace, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven,” no sooner had fallen upon her ears than she believed His testimony, and she went away knowing she was clean. True, He had not yet died for her sins, but faith laid hold of Him as the one only Saviour who had power on earth to forgive. Her weeping, her washing of His feet, her humiliation had nothing meritorious in them. The merit was all His. He who said to another of like character, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more,” had remitted all her iniquities and won her heart forever.

“It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,
But the blood that atones for the soul:
On Him then, who shed it thou mayest at once
Thy weight of iniquities roll.”

When Bernard of Clairvaux was dying the monks praying by his pallet spoke of his merits. He cried out in Latin words which translated into English mean, “Holy Jesus, Thy wounds are my merits.” Only a repentant man would so speak.

And so our Lord tells us that “there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.” There, where they know what a soul is really worth, every saint and angel rejoices with the Good Shepherd when a lost sheep is reclaimed from its wanderings.

[Dr. Harry Ironside (1876-1951), a godly Fundamentalist author and teacher for many years, served as pastor of Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church from 1930-1948]

8 Symptom’s of False Teaching

October 7, 2013 in apostasy, Bible Study, Church, discernment | Tags: | Leave a comment

 

Here are Bishop J.C. Ryle’s 8 symptoms of false teaching:

1. There is an undeniable zeal in some teachers of error–their “earnestness” makes many people think they must be right.

2. There is a great appearance of learning and theological knowledge–many think that such clever and intellectual men must surely be safe to listen to.

3. There is a general tendency to completely free and independent thinking today–many like to prove their independence of judgment by believing the newest ideas, which are nothing but novelties.

4. There is a wide-spread desire to appear kind, loving, and open-minded–many seem half-ashamed to say that anybody can be wrong or is a false teacher.

5. There is always a portion of half-truth taught by modern false teachers–they are always using scriptural words and phrases, but with unscriptural meaning.

6. There is a public craving for a more sensational and entertaining worship–people are impatient with the more inward and invisible work of God within the hearts of men.

7. There is a superficial readiness all around to believe anyone who talks cleverly, lovingly and earnestly, forgetting that Satan often masquerades himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14).

8. There is a wide-spread ignorance among professing Christians–every heretic who speaks well is surely believed, and anyone who doubts him is called narrow-minded and unloving.

All these are especially symptoms of our times. I challenge any honest and observant person to deny them. These tend to make the assaults of false doctrine today especially dangerous and make it even more important to say loudly, “Do not be carried away with strange doctrine!”

 

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JOHN’S BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE – Chapter 3

October 3, 2013 in christianity, Life, spiritual growth | Tags: | Leave a comment

Except Ye Repent
By Dr. Harry Ironside

Pastor Harry A. Ironside

Chapter 3 – JOHN’S BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE

The New Testament opens with a call to repentance. The ministry of John the Baptist was pre-eminently devoted to emphasizing its importance. Sent of God in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord, he found a self-satisfied, self-righteous nation prating of being the chosen people professedly waiting for the promised Messiah, and yet utterly unready to welcome Him because of their low moral condition.

Like the Tishbite, he appeared suddenly and unannounced, a wilderness preacher, declaring to the abjects of Israel first, and then as others sought him out, to the self-righteous scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees the need of heart preparation for the reception of the Kingdom. His message was summed up in the pregnant words: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was a challenge to face their sins and the true state of their hearts in the light of the holiness and righteousness of God. And we are glad to learn that the publicans and sinners hearing him justified God and were baptized in recognition of the judgment of self and the need of remission of sins.

For with the preaching was linked the rite of baptism. It was definitely declared to be a baptism of repentance for (or unto) the remission of sins. That is, those who submitted to his baptism were practically saying: ‘In this act I declare my change of mind, my new attitude toward myself, my sins, and my God. I own my unworthiness, and I cast myself upon the infinite mercy of God, looking to Him for deliverance, counting on Him to forgive my sins and graciously fit me for the reception of the King and a place in the Kingdom of the heavens.’

I do not say that all who were baptized entered into its full meaning, but I do insist that this was its true import. Baptism, of course, did not procure remission of sins. It was simply the acknowledgment of the need of such forgiveness. Those so baptized might be likened to debtors giving their notes in recognition of their indebtedness. When our Lord condescended to be identified with this remnant by Himself undergoing baptism He was, as it were, endorsing their notes, declaring that He was ready to meet all their responsibilities by fulfilling every righteous demand of the throne of God on their behalf. It was more than three years later that He said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened [or pained] till it be accomplished.” Ah, the notes were fast falling due, and on the cross He must settle in bloody agony for them all.

How much of this John, the forerunner, saw it is not easy to say. But that he did have some insight into the great truth, that Jesus was not only Messiah but Saviour, was evidenced by his words, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” His baptism of repentance was with a view to the remission of sins through the offering up of the foreordained Lamb as a propitiatory sacrifice.

To the haughty, self-righteous leaders John said: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.” And then he warned them that natural relationship to Abraham would not save anybody, but spiritual kinship only; for faith alone makes one a child of the faithful patriarch. “Fruits meet for repentance.” That is, the changed life must evidence the changed attitude; otherwise there is no true repentance at all.

And then he declared: “Now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: Every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” How different this to the ameliorative measures advocated by many who should know better! Some modern preaching might be summed up in ‘the axe is laid to the fruit of the tree.’ Cut off the bad fruit. Prune the tree. Spray it with a religio-philosophical mixture. Change its environment if possible. Attempt by ethical culture, by religious education, to make the tree produce good fruit — then all will be well. No need of repentance. No place for a second birth. But in spite of human reasoning, the divine principle remains unchanged. The tree is bad; that is why its fruit is corrupt. No use experimenting and trying to produce good fruit from so unwholesome a plant. Lay the axe to the root. Hew down the bad tree to make way for a new one of the heavenly Father’s planting.

Repentance is the recognition, the avowed recognition, of God’s estimate of the hopeless character of our hearts till renewed by the Word and Spirit of God. Grapes cannot be gathered from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. It is not the fruit that must be dealt with. The tree must be removed. To attempt to improve it is useless. God Himself has given it up. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately [literally, incurably] wicked.” Therefore the need of a new heart and a new spirit.

It was thus that John prepared the way of the Lord. No matter with whom he dealt, he sought to expose the hidden evil of the heart and the need of self-judgment, which is just the recognition that, “in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” In order to make this manifest, covetous soldiers were commanded to be content with their wages, tax-gatherers to exact no more than their due. Herod, the King himself — who sought to patronize John, while living in vilest incest and licentiousness — writhed as he heard the stern preacher declare, while he pointed to Herodias, “It is not lawful for thee to have her.” A prison cell and later the executioner’s sword might silence the tongue of the preacher of repentance, but his words live on forever, rebuking still the self-indulgent, the self-righteous, the covetous, the lustful, to the end of time, who fancy they can in some way bribe an offended God to overlook and condone their iniquity.

John the Baptist has been described as “the last of the prophets,” and his ministry was certainly most intimately linked with that of the great prophetic brotherhood of the Old Testament. We have already seen how our Lord identifies him in spirit with Elijah; and to His questioning disciples, who were perplexed regarding the prediction in Malachi of Elijah’s return prior to the ushering in of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, the Saviour replies, referring to John, “If ye will receive it, this is Elijah which was for to come.” He came to break up the fallow ground that the word of the Kingdom might not be sown among thorns. Thus he was chosen of God as a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our God. His was a leveling message. There were hills of pride to come down and valleys of degradation to be filled in by grace in order that the divine program might be expeditiously carried out.

In one sense his was a unique ministry which can never again be repeated, inasmuch as the same circumstances will never be duplicated. But there is a wider sense in which a similar message is always in order, for man’s heart remains unchanged and the King is still seeking those who will acknowledge and bow to His authority. Hence the importance of ever insisting upon the need of repentance, a state of soul which must always precede blessing.

The words of the holy Virgin, in the Magnificat, have an ever present application: “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:52-53). This is the same leveling doctrine as that proclaimed by John. It is the “no difference” doctrine of the Apostle Paul. Yet how the human heart rebels against it. How men pride themselves on fancied distinctions which God’s eye does not discern.

“Must I be saved in the same way as my coachman?” indignantly asked a distinguished lady.

“Madam,” was the faithful reply, “you do not need to be saved at all. But if you ever are saved it will be on exactly the same ground as any other poor sinner.”

Years ago I was amazed to hear an eloquent French evangelist, Paul J. Loizeaux, exclaim, “Oh, how hard it is to find sinners! If only I could find one, I have a marvelous message for him.” A moment’s thought made his meaning clear. To be a sinner is one thing; to know it is another.

Faithful preaching of man’s responsibility will drive this truth home to the conscience. Repentance is the recognition of my sinnership — the owning before God that I am as vile as He has declared me to be in His holy Word. Until one comes to this place there is no further word from heaven for any man, except the sentence of doom. This truth does not in the least degree compromise the Gospel of grace. It rather prepares the sinner to know “the grace of God in truth” and to rejoice in it, reveling in the marvellous provision God has made to “satisfy the longing soul.”

Just as one may be hungry and not realize it because of a cloyed taste, and so fail to heed the dinner call, so one may be dying for lack of God’s gracious provision and have no sense of his lost estate, and therefore no appreciation of the message of grace. The call to repentance is designed of God to produce that soul hunger that will make the distressed one come with full appetite to the Gospel feast. Until one is thus aroused and made conscious of his need he will turn from the Gospel story with indifference and contempt. “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”

Too often the earnest Gospel preacher dwells on the hopelessness of obtaining salvation by good works, when addressing men whose works are altogether evil and who have no thought of meriting life eternal but care only for the things of this godless world. We are warned against casting pearls before swine. Is it not possible even in Gospel preaching to do this very thing? We may make it all too simple, so easy that we quite misrepresent the God of all grace, who has in all ages first sought to show men their sinfulness and guilt, and then has offered the remedy to those who confessed to their dread disease.

I am persuaded revival would come to believers and awakening to the lost if there were more faithful preachers of the John the Baptist type, who would cry aloud and spare not, but would solemnly show the people their sins and call upon them in the Name of the Lord to repent, remembering that he who justifies himself must be condemned by God, but he who condemns himself will find complete justification in Christ, who died for his sins and who now is exalted to God’s right hand as a Prince and a Saviour, granting repentance and remission of sins to all who receive His testimony.

“I am not told to labor
To put away my sin,
So foolish, weak and helpless,
I never could begin.
But, blessed truth, I know it,
Though ruined by the fall,
Christ for my sin has suffered,
Yes, Christ has done it all.”

It will be seen that repentance is the very opposite of meritorious experience. It is the confession that one is utterly without merit, and if he is ever saved at all it can only be through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who gave himself a ransom for all.” Here is firm footing for the soul who realizes that all self-effort is but sinking sand. Christ alone is the Rock of our salvation.

[Dr. Harry Ironside (1876-1951), a godly Fundamentalist author and teacher for many years, served as pastor of Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church from 1930-1948]

Basic Training for Disciples

September 30, 2013 in religion | Leave a comment

Great article…..especially with all the strife among ministries these days.

Pastor Joe Quatrone, Jr.'s avatarJoe Quatrone, Jr.

Many people here have served in the military.  According to the U.S. Army recruiting Web site, “Basic Training lasts only nine weeks, but you’ll remember those nine weeks for the rest of your life.  You’ll spend your time learning what it means to be a soldier.  And when it’s over, you’ll discover some amazing things about yourself.  Your mind will be sharper, your body will be lean and hard, and you’ll be more confident than you’ve ever been before.”

A friend of mine who served in the army has some interesting stories about basic training.  He once told me about a surprise inspection of their barracks.  If they passed inspection, they would get a weekend pass, but if they didn’t, they would have to stay and clean all weekend.  My friend and 37 others passed inspection–but two didn’t.  Those who passed were ready to celebrate until they found out the…

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THE BOOK OF REPENTANCE – Chapter 2

September 21, 2013 in Bible Study, Christians, religion, Spiritual Life | Tags: | Leave a comment

Except Ye Repent
By Dr. Harry Ironside

Pastor Harry A. Ironside

Chapter 2 – THE BOOK OF REPENTANCE

“Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).

If asked to give the primary theme of the Book of Job in one word, I should reply, “Repentance.” As Genesis is the book of Election, Exodus of Redemption, Leviticus of Sanctification, Numbers of Testing, and Deuteronomy of the Divine Government, so Job, possibly written by the same human author and at about the same time, is distinctively the book of Repentance. I know all will not agree with me as to this. Most, perhaps, will insist that the outstanding theme of this ancient drama is, Why do the godly suffer? or something akin to this. But they mistake the secondary for the primary theme when they so insist. Unquestionably this book was divinely designed to settle for all time — and eternity too — the problem of why a loving and all-wise God permits the righteous to endure afflictions such as those from which the wicked are ofttimes shielded. But behind all this there is another and a deeper problem; it is the evil in the hearts of the best of men and the necessity of judging oneself in the light of the holiness of God; and this is repentance.

To illustrate this theme in such a way as to make evident to every man the importance and necessity of repentance, God takes up the case of Job, the patriarch of the land of Uz, and gives us in detail an account of the process that led him at last to cry, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

How different is God’s method from the one we would naturally follow! If I had to write a book on repentance, and I wanted a character to illustrate properly this great subject, I fancy I would select a very different man from Job. If searching through the Holy Scriptures for such an illustration I might possibly think of David — so highly exalted, so greatly blessed — yet who in a moment of weakness and unwatchfulness fell into so grave a sin and afterwards repented so bitterly. The sobbings of his heartfelt penitence and self-reproach, as breathed out in the divine ear in the language of Psalm 51, is indeed the classical passage on the repentance of a child of God who has failed.

Or I might select Manasseh, the ungodly son of a most pious father, whose horrid vices and unmentionable wickednesses dragged the name of Hezekiah into the dust and brought grave reproach upon the honor of the God of Israel. And yet Manasseh was brought at last to repentance and humbled himself before God, and was eventually saved in answer probably to that dishonored father’s prayers offered so long before. What a fine picture of a truly repentant soul does Manasseh present as he bows low before the throne of God confessing his manifold transgressions and seeking forgiveness for his scarlet sins.

Or I might turn to the New Testament and endeavor to tell again the story of Saul of Tarsus, blameless indeed outwardly before the Law, but a bitter persecutor of the church of God until the risen Christ appeared to him, as he fell stunned and blinded by “the glory of that light,” on the Damascus turnpike, crying when convinced of his error, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” His after life proved the sincerity of his repentance and the depth of his contrition.

Or if one turned from the pages of holy writ to those of history and biography, he might cite the repentance of the man of the world as seen in Augustine of Hippo or Francis of Assisi, the genuinely changed profligate, or as in the cases of John Bunyan, Ignatius Loyola, John Newton, or, in our own times, of Jerry McAuley, the river thief. In each of these men, when brought into the presence of God, we have a change of attitude indeed that lasted through life.

But if any or all of these were cited as illustrations of the necessity of repentance, how many there would be to say: ‘Yes, we quite realize such men needed to repent. Their sins were many, their wickedness great. It was right and proper for them to repent in the agony of their souls. But I, thank God, am not as they. I have never gone into such depths of sin. I have never manifested such depravity. I have not so far forgotten what is right and proper. I am a just man needing no repentance.’ Do you say that none would literally use such language as this? Perhaps not, yet the spirit of it, the inward sense of the words, has often been uttered in my own hearing, and I am persuaded in the ears of many others of God’s ministers.

Now, in order that none may so speak, when we turn to this ancient book in our Bibles, we find that God searched the world over, not for the worst man, but for the best, and He tells us his strangely pathetic story and shows how that good man was brought to repentance — that thus “every mouth might be stopped,” and all the world of men might be brought in guilty before Him. For if a man of Job’s character must needs repent, what shall be said of me, and of you, who come so far behind him in righteousness and integrity and have sinned so deplorably and come so far short of the glory of God? Can you not see then the wisdom of Jehovah in selecting such a man to show forth the need that all men should repent?

Consider then the case of Job. A wealthy Oriental sheik, apparently, he lived in the days before the knowledge of God had been lost, though it is evident that idolatry, particularly the worship of the heavenly bodies, already had supplanted in places the older worship. For, be it remembered, paganism is not a step upward in the evolution of religion from the lowest fetichism to pure monotheism. It is rather a declension, as Romans 1 shows us. Men turned from the living and true God to these vain idols, and “for this cause God gave them up” to all sorts of unclean practices. But Job had escaped all this. He was perfect in his behavior, upright in all his ways, one who reverenced God and detested iniquity.

In the first and second chapters we get a remarkable revelation of things in the unseen world. Job is the subject of a conversation between God and Satan, the accuser of the brethren who accuseth them before our God day and night. The Lord challenges Satan, asking, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth … one that fears God and eschews evil?” Remark, Job was all that God said he was — a saint, a man of faith, a true child of God. This book gives us, then, not the repentance of a sinner, but the repentance of a saint.

Satan denies the truthfulness of the divine estimate of Job and particularly declares that Job does not love and reverence the Lord for what He is in Himself, but for what Job received at His hand. To prove the contrary, the devil is permitted to wrest from the patriarch all that he possessed. Instead of renouncing God, Job exclaims, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Thus far Satan is defeated, but he is relentless.

On a second occasion he reiterates his implication that Job does not love God because of what He is, but because he really loves his own life most and recognizes that he is indebted to God for it. Permission is given Satan to put his corrupting hand on Job’s body, filling it with a loathsome disease, so that death is really to be preferred to life. In his dire extremity, as he sits mournfully in the ash heap scraping the horrid filth from his open sores with a piece of pottery, when even his wife bids him renounce God, he rises triumphantly above his very great trial, exclaiming, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” He glorifies God in the fires. Satan is defeated. Jehovah has made manifest the fact that this man is loyal to Him and loves Him for Himself alone, and not simply for His gifts. It is a marvelous thing thus to find one to whom God means more than all earthly possessions, yea, than life itself.

Thus the first scene ends with Satan baffled and defeated. In what follows we need to remember that Job knew nothing of that which had transpired in the unseen world. Had he done so, he would never have gotten into the deep perplexity that ensued after his friends came with their bitter accusations against his character.

In the next part of the book God has another object in view altogether. Job was a good man. He was altogether righteous, as God Himself knew and declared. But Job knew it too — knew it so well that he did not realize the actual corruption of his own heart. And after all, it is what a man is by nature that counts, not simply what he does. To repress one’s nature is one thing; to be free of inbred sin altogether is quite another. Job’s life had been such that he had apparently forgotten that he was as sinful in himself as any other, though wonderfully preserved by divine grace. God therefore designed to bring this good man to repentance, to give him to realize that his nature was vile, though his life had been so well regulated, so that thus he might magnify the loving-kindness of the One who had made him His own.

So Job’s three friends, all men of importance like himself, came to condone with him. Each proved true to his own clearly indicated character. Eliphaz of Teman was distinctly the man of experience. An observant student of natural law, he again and again declares, “I have seen.” Bildad of Shuah was the typical traditionalist. Ask the fathers, he says; they are wiser than we. They shall teach thee. Zophar of Naamah was the cold, hard legalist who considered that God weighed out calamity in exact proportion to man’s sin, and dispensed mercies only according to human desert.

For seven days and nights they encamped around the stricken Job, their grief and his too deep for words. But though they spake not, they thought much. Why had these calamities befallen their friend? Could they be other than punishment for hidden sin? Was it not inconceivable that a good God, a faithful Creator, could allow such affliction to come undeserved? Their accusing eyes uttered silently what their lips at first refused to speak.

Job could not stand those eyes. His soul writhed under their implied suggestions that he was suffering for wickedness hitherto concealed. At last he “opened his mouth, and cursed his day,” and vehemently declared his innocence and besought the sympathy of his friends. Then came the long debate. Again and again they charged him with hypocrisy, with overindulgence toward his children, which had brought their ruin, with hidden sin of vicious character, which God was dealing with. They begged him to confess his iniquities and thus give God a chance to show him mercy.

Sturdily, honestly, sometimes ironically, Job answered them, denying their accusations, assuring them of his confidence in God, though admitting his sore perplexity. He even went so far as to declare that, if their philosophies were right, then God was unjust in His dealings with him. At last they were silenced when by his final speech he met all their accusations and vigorously maintained his own righteousness. In three chapters (29, 30, and 31) he used the pronouns “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine” 189 times. But this was before he saw the Lord.

Elihu, a younger man who had listened in silence to the entire debate accepted Job’s challenge for some one to speak on God’s behalf. In a masterly address he showed that affliction may be sent for instruction rather than solely as punishment. He exalted the wisdom of God, who is not obliged to reveal beforehand His reasons for chastening. And he pointed out that the bewildered soul is wise when he asks of God — waiting for Him to instruct, rather than attempting to understand His ways through human reasoning.

As he speaks a thunderstorm startles the friends. The vivid lightnings alarm. Then a great whirlwind moves across the desert, and, as it draws near, the voice of the Lord speaks to the soul of Job propounding question after question which the wisest of men could not answer. He reproves Job for suggesting the possibility of unrighteousness in His ways. And as a sense of the divine wisdom and majesty comes over the patriarch’s afflicted soul, he exclaims: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further” (40:4-5).

But God was not yet through. He speaks again, bringing before Job’s soul a sense of His greatness and power, of His glory and omniscience. As Job contemplates it all he gets a new conception of the holiness and the righteousness of God. His own littleness is accentuated. That God should look at all upon sinful men now amazes him. “The end of the Lord” is reached at last, and he cries out: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5-6). We know the rest and need not dwell upon it here. The great object of the Lord has been attained. Job changes his mind — his whole attitude — both as to himself and as to God. Humbled to the dust, he condemns himself and glorifies the Lord. And this is what God had in view from the beginning. And it is what all must reach in one way or another who are saved by His grace.

“That Thou shouldst so delight in me
And be the God Thou art,
Is darkness to my intellect,
But sunshine to my heart.”

Self-judgment is the sure precursor to blessing, and self-judgment is the work of repentance wrought by the Spirit of God.

[Dr. Harry Ironside (1876-1951), a godly Fundamentalist author and teacher for many years, served as pastor of Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church from 1930-194

Rescued Out of Darkness and Confusion: Robin’sTestimony

September 18, 2013 in Life, religion, Testimonies | 1 comment

Rescued Out of Darkness and Confusion: Robin’sTestimony

September 16, 2013

By Robin Campbell

I was raised in anon-Christian home, and exposed to pagan practices from a very young age. I believed these to be the truth. These practices made me feel special. My friends at the time also influenced me into thinking some of these things were cool to follow.

From about the age of 13, I started practicing astrology, psychic readings, higher consciousness meditation, spirit guides, palm readings, and angel cards, and more. These practices enslaved me. I thought I was in control and that everything happened by random chance. I believed in so many lies like superstitious, and also believed in karma. I thought that bad things would happen to me if I was too negative.

I attempted for many years developing psychic powers and tapping into things that I could not explain. I would tell people whom I didn’t even know about things in their life that I could not have known through normal channels. I would later find out that this information was from demonic powers of darkness. In spite of all this involvement, I was empty and still seeking happiness. I was angry and bitter,and my life was filled with lies and guilt and shame for things I had done. There was even a period of time in my life that getting high and drinking became the norm. I also tried to find fulfillment in things or people, but that never satisfied me.

I felt alone and trapped, and around my late teens and early 20’s, I began meditation and learning about freeing my spirit. I did this by trying to practice a “higher consciousness” and even just thinking more positive thoughts. I read New Ager Eckhart Tolle, medium Sylvia Brown, watched “The Secret” DVD numerous times,tried to live out the so-called Law of Attraction, and sought spirit guides. However,all of these things gave me only a temporary escape. I lived my life trusting in my feelings and my own understanding, taking bits and pieces from different books and religions, like Buddhism. I went as far as trusting in psychics.Again, this brought temporary relief, but soon enough I was back in a vortex of darkness with no light.

Living for myself was depressing. I even tried to be a better person morally, or think more positive and not allow circumstances to control me. I wondered why these things that I had cherished and believed in for years had given me no peace, comfort,or security. There were absolutely no answers to the deep questions I had about life, like why I am here and what happens after I die. I was filled with anxiety, fear, and hopelessness. I was even eager that doctors would diagnose me with some disorder in the hopes that they could fix me. These things were myi dols; they were my God. I was searching for something to free me.

I had no idea that I was enslaved to the lies of the enemy and to my own depravity. I also strongly believed at one point that I was a product of reincarnation. I thought that I was an old soul who had lived over 200 times (I gullibly accepted what a psychic said). I also had an experience in which I felt like a different person in a different era. This was a lie, because Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed for man to die once and then to face judgment.

In 2008, my friend Sharon Ortiz shared her faith with me. That was the first time I had heard the real Gospel message. She pressed the issue of repentance and faith in Christ’s finished work alone. I still thought that I was a pretty good person until God showed me my wickedness and His holiness. As it is written,

“There is none righteous, no, not one,” (Romans3:10).

Sharon and her parents spent much time with me. They shared God’s word with me and answered many questions. It was through the book of Romans that God convicted my heart and I realized I was lost and apart from Him. I started to get an understanding of who the true God is.

I originally came to Christ for relief from my anxiety but learned that the real problem was my need for forgiveness of sins and that I needed a Savior. I repented of my former ways of doing things, and believed in Christ alone to save me.

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.” Deut. 18:10-12

I understood that God is holy and that I deserved judgment, and that I was dead in my sins. But praise be to God, He made a way for me through Jesus Christ! I now have peace,security, and hope. I learned that Jesus bore the wrath of God for me, and I now have his righteousness. I am justified by faith alone in Christ alone.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”Romans 8:1, 2

How marvelous!Jesus lived the perfect life that no one can live. Since God is holy, He demands perfection, and He himself is that perfection!

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

“For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works,so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

FROM WITCHCRAFT TO THE CROSS – BY Michael Morton

September 16, 2013 in occult, Spirituality, Testimonies, Wicca | Tags: | 1 comment

FROM WITCHCRAFT TO THE CROSS

September 15, 2013
MY TESTIMONY 

My name is Michael.   I am in my late 50s at the time I’m writing this, and until almost 5 years ago I had spent nearly 20 years heavily involved in witchcraft.    Where did it all begin?  Well, I think that I can go back to my late childhood and early teens.   I remember reading books on mythology and any other materials on the supernatural , psychic powers, witches that I could lay my hands on.  Of course I read every copy of FATE magazine I could find and when I watched programs like BEWITCHED, I wished that I could have magickal powers.    I started finding books on witchcraft and devoured them.  I tried many spells, but never got them to work .  I think part of the reason is that as a teenager I was scatter brained and had little discipline…certainly not the kind to get spells to work.  And by the way, yes they do work.   As I learned later in life when I was an adult and totally committed myself to witchcraft.   My high school yearbook (Notre Dame High, Cambridge MA 1972) had the note under my picture “practices witchcraft?”   Over the years in my adolescence I studied and read every book I could find, and when I couldn’t afford a book I would go to the bookstores in Harvard Square and go through them, trying to memorize what I could and going home and writing it all down. Well, after high school I went to a communications college in Boston and it was then that I first heard the gospel and committed my life to Christ.  I forsook witchcraft and followed after Him, but again, I lacked discipline and concentration.   However, I was following Him.   After graduating from college with a degree in broadcasting and journalism I worked at a variety of jobs, mostly lived at home and things were going well.   It was during this time that I watched a PBS special bout religions in America, and one was about Pentecostalism.   They mentioned the Assemblies of God, and I agreed with what they believed in.   There was a tiny Assemblies of God church nearby and so I began attending church there.

In 1975 I made what was probably the biggest mistake of my life… I got married and it was for all the wrong reasons.   She and I decided to get married because we were hanging out together and everyone else we knew were getting married.   There was nothing in the line of love…and so for fifteen years we were totally miserable with each other.   And now, almost 40 years later I sit and ask myself “what was I thinking?”   After fifteen years and many serious issues, we broke apart permanently.    The best thing of that entire time is the fact that I have a wonderful, beautiful 30 year old daughter from the marriage, and she has made me a grandfather.

But before I get into how I ended up involved in the occult, let me go on.   In 1978 I joined the Air Force, where I spent over 13 years in service to the country.   Military life is tough on the best of marriages, and brought out some of the worst in ours.  However, I continued following the Lord and she did so too, though to a far less degree.   In the years I served the Lord in a number of capacities.  I’ve been a Sunday School teacher, music leader and worship leader, an announcer on a Christian radio station (WPSM, 91.1 FM Fort Walton Beach), and ultimately, while a member of a Pentecostal Church of God church in Florida was asked by the pastor to pray about becoming a minister in the denomination and coming alongside to minister with him.   And so, I did and in time completed the tenure and studies required to become a licensed minister in the Pentecostal Church of God.

 

In 1989 it all seemed to come apart at the seams.   I was assigned to Thule Air Base, Greenland which was the most difficult assignment I ever had (although I loved the beauty there).   I felt disillusioned with the Air Force for their assignment there (originally I was to go elsewhere, they switched me).  Meanwhile, my marriage which was already crumbling began to implode on itself and we decided to divorce.   Now, in the Pentecostal Church of God, ministers are not allowed to retain their credentials if they divorce for any other reason than the other partner being unfaithful.   That wasn’t the case… and so I was there… disillusioned with the military, my marriage broken irretrievably and having to give up the one thing I felt was going good…my ministerial license.   And, instead of drawing closer to God I did the opposite.  I blamed Him…He was after all in control of all things.   And finally, I decided in a pique of anger at Him to just walk away.   I cursed Him and decided I was going to go right back to witchcraft and the occult that I’d come out of years before.

The years 1989 – 2009 were a time of darkness.   It didn’t seem so, but now in retrospect I see how much darkness I was in and engaged in.   I joined a school of witchcraft and worked hard to be initiated.   Though it did not have formal covens, I found groups and covens to work and worship with, especially after I returned home from the military (I left in 1991) and back to the Boston area where there were many wiccan/pagan groups, a variety of bookstores and occult supply stores, and of course Salem which was a mecca for witches (actually a money trap).    In that time I worked a lot as a solitary witch, performing rituals and spells alone, but I also worked with a variety of traditions and groups.   Ultimately, I came in contact with Silver Ravenwolf, who is a very well known author of books on witchcraft.   Although her books were filled with what some consider “fluff” because it was marketed to the masses, she also had an organization of over 13 covens across the United States and Canada following traditional British witchcraft.   I wanted this and after meeting with her and she learned that I’d been initiated through the Church of Wicca she invited me to join her tradition – the Black Forest Clan as an elevated elder… 3d degree.  And that is where I spent the last eight plus years in the craft.    I began a home study group which met every other week and soon I had others who wanted to follow the Black Forest Clan path and become initiated, and so that became my focus.  In time I trained many individuals.   At least one reached the third degree which is the highest level.   Several others reached second degree, and there were always a few first degrees and dedicants working their way up the ladder.    In 2007, Silver decided to decentralize the Black Forest Clan and almost all of the third degree witches in her tradition became “Clan Heads”…that is leaders of their own autonomous group.    Now, with my own coven and my daughter coven which was run by the member who had attained the third degree I was the Clan Head for all of Massachusetts and running two covens… my own coven near Boston and overseeing my student’s coven near Worcester.

BUT GOD!!!!!!!!!!!

God wasn’t finished with me.   Throughout my time in the craft, I always had been drawn to the teachings of Jesus…and incorporated them into my ethics spiritually.   Around 2007 or 2008 I was scanning through late night television and found some teachings by a woman minister… and it wasn’t your usual fluff religious broadcasting.   Her teachings were intellectual and cerebral and she explored the scriptures using the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages… and this appealed to me.. and I found myself looking for her programming.

Long story short, the Lord was already working on my heart preparing to bring me back home to Him.

After some time, I was invited to attend Calvary Chapel North Shore… and when I asked whether it wsa associated with the Calvary Chapels founded by Pastor Chuck Smith the person who invited me said “yes”.   I talked to my wife and we decided to go on Easter Sunday… and that’s when the Lord grabbed us.

We entered and felt like the ceiling would cave in, but it was nice.   We stood there, not recognizing any of the songs… feeling a little uncomfortable but the message was powerful… and the people very friendly.   And so we decided to go back the next week.

During the following days, my wife and I also had talked about feeling that we should leave witchcraft behind… we were no longer happy serving the gods and goddesses of the pagan paths… and we both were felling drawn towards the Lord.   So, the next Sunday we went.   And Pastor Matt was teaching from the book of Mark.  (Calvary Chapels seldom do topical preaching…they teach the entire bible, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse).   And he was teaching from the ninth chapter about the rich young ruler.   And it was going well.  Then he told the church to turn with him to Acts in the 17th chapter.   And he began teaching about Paul on Mars Hill in Athens… where they had altars to every imaginable god and goddess… and one to the god who wasn’t known.  

 

Wow!  This was amazing to us.   We were thinking about leaving a religion that worshipped and served multiple gods and goddesses!    Then Pastor Matt read the verse where Paul told the people “you are entirely too superstitious!” and where Paul then exhorted the Athenians declaring who the true God was… the crucified one…the buried one…the resurrected one…Jesus Christ.

He had **NO** way of knowing that he had two witches in his auditorium that day, nor that we had been thinking about leaving witchcraft and coming to Jesus for salvation.   Needless to say, at the end of the message he announced he would pray with anyone who needed prayer.   The worship team walked quietly up to the platform and when he asked if anyone needed prayer to come forward, my wife and I went hand in hand to the front and prayed for salvation.

The main point of this story is that God is faithful…even though I was not. It is true that I spent 20 years in witchcraft, and spiritually, had reached the pinnacle.  I was a clan head for a tradition, elevated to elder in the religion and running two covens.     But THAT is not the greatest thing here… the greatest thing is that the Lord showed mercy and received me back… and that He now allows me to walk with Him and learn of Him and serve Him.

My name is Michael Morton.   And I used to be a witch.  But today, I am born again and walk beside the Shepherd of my soul…the one who died for me, is risen again, and is coming again in glory…the one before I gladly bow my knee and who’s name I gladly confess…that Jesus Christ is my Lord.

Lessons from a Leper

September 16, 2013 in religion | Leave a comment

Pastor Joe Quatrone, Jr.'s avatarJoe Quatrone, Jr.

The Bible never promises our lives will be free from pain and difficulties, instead the Bible promises we will have many trials and tribulations in this life.  The secret to a successful life is knowing where to turn for help when you have a problem.  That’s the lesson we are going to learn today from a man who had leprosy.  Let’s read about it in Luke 17:11-17.

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising…

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