Design of the Week – Eyesore
August 31, 2011 at 9:41 pm | Posted in Designs of the Week | Leave a commentTags: abortion, America, ateasetees, Bible, Christian, church, compromise, death, design of the week, evangelism, Eyesore, faith, God, gospel, grace, hell, holy, homosexuality, hope, Islam, Israel, Jesus, Judge, judgment, law, life, love, marriage, mercy, money, Motee, murder, Muslim, passage, pastor, peace, prayer, repent, righteous, salvation, scripture, sin, speck, ten commandments, truth, wrong
This week’s design is called Eyesore.
The basis of the design comes from Matthew 7:1-5. This is probably one of the most misused passages in the entire Bible. There are many people today (including many non-Christians) who say that it is flat out wrong for Christians to judge anyone, for any reason. They use phrases like the following:
“The Bible says ‘Don’t judge'”
“You can’t judge me, only God is my judge!”
“I’m the same as everyone else.”
These are interesting to say the least and I have a response to each of them. When people say that the Bible says not to judge, my first response is “Where?”. I find that 90% of the time, they don’t even know where it says that and they’re just repeating something they heard from someone else. When someone tells me that I can’t judge them because only God is their judge, I can’t help but smile. I wonder if the people actually realize what they’ve just said. My response is something along the lines of “Well, at least we agree that God is going to judge you…” My response for the last statement is different depending on the attitude of the person, but usually talks about how they are like everyone else. I tell them about how all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That their sins will send them to hell just like everyone else.
The truth is, the Bible doesn’t say that it’s wrong to judge. In John 7:24 Jesus says, “Do not judge by appearance, judge by righteous judgment”. He doesn’t say that it’s wrong to judge, just that we shouldn’t judge by appearance. This coincides with Matthew 7:1-5. In this passage, Jesus talks about not judging and says that we should take the log out of our own eye before we take the speck out of our brother’s eye. He never says that we shouldn’t take the speck out of our brother’s eye, only that we should take the log out of our own eye first. This means that if we are dealing with a sin and committing that sin, then we really don’t have any ground to tell someone else that that sin is wrong until we deal with it in our own life. Jesus says this because He has just gotten done telling His disciples not to act like the Pharisees (who were judging others for sins they were committing) and pagans.
Christians have been given the righteous judgment of God. If we use His judgment to determine where others stand in relation to Him, or to tell others that something is wrong, then we have judged by righteous judgment (if the scripture is in context!). We are to tell others that sin is wrong so that they understand their need for a Savior and will repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ. Where do you stand?
Sermon Sunday – J.C. Ryle – Authentic Religion
May 22, 2011 at 6:30 am | Posted in Sermon Sunday | 2 CommentsTags: abomination, abortion, action, affection, Ahab, alive, America, angel, ateasetees, authentic, banquet, betray, Bible, bishop, blaspheme, blemish, brass, brethren, brood, builder, Christian, church, churchianity, churchmanship, comfort, common sense, compromise, comtempt, condemn, conduct, confidence, counterfeit, cruel, curse, dead, death, decent, Deliverer, delusion, denomination, detestable, devil, disciple, doctrine, evangelical, evangelism, examine, extreme, faith, false, feeble, feeling, formal, friend, fruit, garment, genuine, God, gold, good, gospel, grace, greed, guilty, heart, heathen, heaven, hell, Herod, holiness, hollow, holy, honest, hope, hospitality, humility, hypocrite, idol, ignorant, imitation, independent, inferior, influence, injury, intrinsic, inward, iron, Israel, J.C. Ryle, Jesus, Jonah, Judas Iscariot, Judge, judgment, kindness, law, life, living, lost, love, lust, make believe, marriage, married, Mediator, meekness, merciful, mercy, mina, minister, money, moral, murder, net, nominal, outside, parable, pastor, Paul, peace, persevere, piety, pleasure, poet, pray, prayer, pretense, pride, priest, profession, prostitute, proud, pulpit, reason, Redeemer, religion, repent, respect, revival, ritual, root, salvation, sanctuary, Saul, scripture, sham, silver, Simon Magus, sin, sincere, slur, snake, solid, sons, soul, sower, substantial, talents, tax, ten commandments, thief, thorough, tongue, traitor, truth, unjust, unselfish, viper, virgin, war, weak, weeds, wickedness, words, works, worldliness, worship, wrath, wretched
Authentic Religion
by
J. C. Ryle
(1816-1900)
“Rejected silver” (Jeremiah 6:30)
“Nothing but leaves” (Mark 11:13)
“Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”
(1 John 3:18).
“You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1)
If we profess to have any religion at all, let us be careful that it is authentic. I say it emphatically, and I repeat the saying: Let us be careful that our religion is authentic.
What do I mean when I use the word “authentic.” I mean that which is genuine, and sincere, and honest, and thorough. I mean that which is not inferior, and hollow, and formal, and false, and counterfeit, and sham, and nominal. “Authentic” religion is not mere show, and pretense, and skin-deep feeling, and temporary profession, and works only on the outside. It is something inward, solid, substantial, intrinsic, living, lasting. We know the difference between counterfeit and authentic money–between solid gold and tinsel–between plated metal and silver–between authentic stone and plaster imitation. Let us think of these things as we consider the subject of this paper. What is the character of our religion? Is it authentic? It may be weak, and feeble, and mingled with many defects. That is not the point before us today. Is our religion authentic? Is it true?
The times in which we live demand attention to this subject. A want of authenticity is a striking feature of a vast amount of religion in the present day. Poets have sometimes told us that the world has passed through four different states or conditions. We have had a golden age, and a silver age, a brass age, and an iron age. How far this is true, I do not stop to inquire. But I fear there is little doubt as to the character of the age in which we live. It is universally an age of cheap metal and alloy. If we measure the religion of the age by its apparent quantity, there is much of it. But if we measure it by its quality, there is indeed very little. On every side we want MORE AUTHENTICITY. Continue Reading Sermon Sunday – J.C. Ryle – Authentic Religion…
Genesis 6:9-22
February 7, 2011 at 11:40 am | Posted in Bible Study | Leave a commentTags: abortion, all, America, animal, ark, ate, ateasetees, Bible, blameless, breed, build, bull-headed, carnivore, cat, chaos, Christian, church, clean, compromise, corrupt, cubit, damage, death, deck, destroy, dimension, dinosaur, dog, drank, drink, eat, evangelism, everything, evil, expertise, faith, fill, flesh, flood, generation, Genesis, God, gospel, grace, Ham, heaven, hell, holy, hope, horse, instruction, Israel, Japheth, Jesus, Jew, Judge, judgment, kind, land, last days, law, Leviticus, life, love, ludicrous, marriage, marry, meat, mercy, mock, money, murder, Noah, obedient, pastor, peace, perfect, perish, prayer, preacher, prepare, repent, ridiculous, righteousness, salvation, saved, scripture, sea, sheep, Shem, ship, sin, son, space, standard, stubborn, study, ten commandments, truth, type, unclean, ungodly, vegetarian, violence, wife, window, wrath
These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. “This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark–you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. “As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Continue Reading Genesis 6:9-22…
Genesis 3:14-19
November 22, 2010 at 1:22 pm | Posted in Bible Study | Leave a commentTags: abortion, Adam, America, anger, angry, ateasetees, beginning, betray, Bible, blame, Born Again, bruise, childbirth, Christian, church, compromise, confess, covet, creation, cross, crucify, curse, death, descendant, desire, devil, die, disobey, emnity, eternal, evangelism, Eve, faith, family, federal head, fellowship, flame, flesh, Genesis 3, glory, God, gospel, grace, gracious, hate, hatred, head, heart, heel, hell, holy, honor, hostility, husband, Jesus, Judas, Judge, judgment, just, law, leader, lie, life, love, lust, man, marriage, mercy, money, moral, murder, New Testament, Old Testament, omniscient, open theism, pain, pastor, peace, perfect, Pharisee, praise, prayer, promise, Protoevangelion, punishment, rebellion, repent, rule, salvation, Satan, scripture, seed, serpent, sin, sovereign, steal, sweat, ten commandments, thistle, thorn, truth, universe, unjust, value, wife, woman, world
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” Continue Reading Genesis 3:14-19…