Can Man Resist the Grace of God? (Ep. 254)

If grace is the goodness of God, then it seems obvious that some goodness can be resisted while others can’t. Think about a baby being born. If the mother and father want to bring the baby out of the womb there’s nothing the baby can do to stop it. Or consider an unconscious man whose heart has stopped or is beating irregularly.. He will find it impossible to resist the emergency surgery or the doctor shocking his heart back into a normal rhythm. But other types of grace can be resisted. That same child years later can refuse to celebrate his birthday with his family and can sulk and pout even if his parents force him to come to the party. The man whose heart has been restarted can refuse to take his prescribed medicines or to exercise as he should. It is similar in the Christian life. Scripture talks about man resisting the grace of God. But it also talks about man being born again and the Spirit blowing where it will. It talks about God giving man a new heart and replacing the heart of stone with one of flesh. If an earthly parent can show irresistible grace to their child then it is hard to argue that the Father of Spirits cannot do the same.

For those who hate to think of God as God, as the One who sovereignly rules in heaven, irresistible grace or effectual calling is considered something immoral. But scripture says that it is about the glory of God. It is about God choosing to show compassion to those who He wants to show compassion. We are saved by grace and if you don’t want to receive grace from God, you should question if you are saved. So let’s start off with a question: Is there a biblical reason why we would want saving grace to be resistible?

Timecodes
00:00:00 Intro
00:08:04 Why Grace has to be Irresistible
00:12:29 Fallen Man Cannot Understand Good Gifts
00:21:25 Hate the Prerogative Belonging to God
00:26:14 This Grace is Given Throughout a Believers Life
00:34:24 It is God’s Work and God’s Purpose
00:38:59 Irresistible Grace from Scripture
00:43:41 Picture of Jonah
00:48:23 Example of Those that did not Receive Grace
00:52:51 Resisting the Holy Spirit

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Can Man Resist the Grace of God? (Ep. 254 Audio)

If grace is the goodness of God, then it seems obvious that some goodness can be resisted while others can’t. Think about a baby being born. If the mother and father want to bring the baby out of the womb there’s nothing the baby can do to stop it. Or consider an unconscious man whose heart has stopped or is beating irregularly.. He will find it impossible to resist the emergency surgery or the doctor shocking his heart back into a normal rhythm. But other types of grace can be resisted. That same child years later can refuse to celebrate his birthday with his family and can sulk and pout even if his parents force him to come to the party. The man whose heart has been restarted can refuse to take his prescribed medicines or to exercise as he should. It is similar in the Christian life. Scripture talks about man resisting the grace of God. But it also talks about man being born again and the Spirit blowing where it will. It talks about God giving man a new heart and replacing the heart of stone with one of flesh. If an earthly parent can show irresistible grace to their child then it is hard to argue that the Father of Spirits cannot do the same.

For those who hate to think of God as God, as the One who sovereignly rules in heaven, irresistible grace or effectual calling is considered something immoral. But scripture says that it is about the glory of God. It is about God choosing to show compassion to those who He wants to show compassion. We are saved by grace and if you don’t want to receive grace from God, you should question if you are saved. So let’s start off with a question: Is there a biblical reason why we would want saving grace to be resistible?

Timecodes
00:00:00 Intro
00:08:04 Why Grace has to be Irresistible
00:12:29 Fallen Man Cannot Understand Good Gifts
00:21:25 Hate the Prerogative Belonging to God
00:26:14 This Grace is Given Throughout a Believers Life
00:34:24 It is God’s Work and God’s Purpose
00:38:59 Irresistible Grace from Scripture
00:43:41 Picture of Jonah
00:48:23 Example of Those that did not Receive Grace
00:52:51 Resisting the Holy Spirit

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Who is Israel? The Madness of Huckabee vs Carlson (Ep. 253)

Recently, Tucker Carlson interviewed Ambassador Mike Huckabee and asked him questions that he struggled to answer. Questions like: Who are the children of Abraham? Who are the Jews? What is the land that God promised? And what was the nature of that promise? And, in this present time, how do we identify the people God promised that land to?
Many people say the answer is obvious because there are people that call themselves Jews, but when you consider that many Christians believe America should support Israel militarily as ones who have a God-given right to the land, the answers matter a great deal. This becomes even more important when you consider that Israel does not allow Jews who have converted to Christianity the right to return, so it is not purely genetic in national Israel’s eyes. So before we talk about the problems with both Huckabee’s and Tucker’s arguments, who was the promise of the land that was given to Abram?

Thumbnail image by patrick brennan on Flickr under CC BY 2.0

Timecodes
00:00:00 Tucker and Huckabee
00:05:35 Promise to Abraham
00:13:33 Israel Divorced
00:14:43 How God Gives Land
00:22:52 Two Promises
00:29:13 Descent by Father or Mother?
00:47:44 What is the Promised Land?
01:00:10 Conclusions

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Who is Israel? The Madness of Huckabee vs Carlson (Ep. 253 Audio)

Recently, Tucker Carlson interviewed Ambassador Mike Huckabee and asked him questions that he struggled to answer. Questions like: Who are the children of Abraham? Who are the Jews? What is the land that God promised? And what was the nature of that promise? And, in this present time, how do we identify the people God promised that land to? 

Many people say the answer is obvious because there are people that call themselves Jews, but when you consider that many Christians believe America should support Israel militarily as ones who have a God-given right to the land, the answers matter a great deal. This becomes even more important when you consider that Israel does not allow Jews who have converted to Christianity the right to return, so it is not purely genetic in national Israel’s eyes.  So before we talk about the problems with both Huckabee’s and Tucker’s arguments, who was the promise of the land that was given to Abram?

Listen to the audio version here:
Timecodes
00:00:00 Tucker and Huckabee
00:05:35 Promise to Abraham
00:13:33 Israel Divorced
00:14:43 How God Gives Land
00:22:52 Two Promises
00:29:13 Descent by Father or Mother?
00:47:44 What is the Promised Land?
01:00:10 Conclusions

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Reformed Free Will: How Man’s Will Is Subservient to God’s (Ep. 252)

Arminians want to argue that to have free will is somehow against predestination and the election of God in salvation, but that is not what the Reformed confessions teach. For example in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith it says, “God hath decreed … all things, … yet God [is] neither the author of sin … nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor is liberty taken away, but rather established”. When people claim that Calvinism says that there is no such thing as free will, nothing could be farther from the truth. The issue is the definition of free will, because many Arminians hold to a definition of free will that according to the Bible, not even God Himself has. So let’s start with a question: what is the nature of God’s free will?

Listen to the audio version here:
Timecodes
00:00 Nature of Free Will
05:08 Libertarian Free Will is False
16:17 You can only choose what pleases us
25:58 Fallen Man Chooses Evil
30:16 The Heart is the Problem
32:53 God Gives us Light to Make the Right Choice
51:11 How God’s Means Affect our Choices
59:09 Who Are We to Reply Against God

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Was Epstein Really a Monster? Man’s Depravity and God’s Justice (Ep. 251)

When people talk about Jeffrey Epstein or other evil men, like Jeffrey Dahmer or Adolf Hitler, they tend to label them “monsters” or “sub-human”. They do this in an attempt to not only distance themselves from their evil acts, but to separate themselves further by saying that these evil men had a different nature from “normal” men. The problem with this is that all men have the same nature, and it is only due to God’s mercy that He constrains their sin and limits the depravity of their actions. Jeffrey Epstein was, without a doubt, an evil man, but if you understand history and the nature of human behavior, you will find that many men have and would act in similar ways. For a man who has vast financial resources and no fear of God, this type of behavior is more typical than exceptional.

In this episode, we focus on the nature of evil and the outworking of man’s depravity. We discuss how easy it is to magnify the sins of certain men while completely overlooking the sins of others who have done far worse. While Jeffrey Epstein did great evil, the Catholic church has in the same general time period, molested thousands upon thousands of young boys and girls worldwide, with very little prosecution or media attention.

Listen to the audio version here:
Timecodes
00:00:00 Intro
00:05:36 Love of Monety
00:13:49 Underestimating Depravity
00:28:00 A Long History
00:34:22 Unchanged Nature
00:45:07 Epstein Truth and Sensation
01:03:25 Selective Outrage
01:14:27 Stand Against Evil

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

How the Super Bowl Has Ravaged the Church (Ep. 250)

There are churches that hold Super Bowl parties or cancel Sunday evening services so people can watch the Super Bowl. If the Sabbath is a day of rest, why shouldn’t we do what we want to relax on that day?

Thumbnail image by Alan Owns under BY-NC-SA 2.0

Timecodes
00:00 Sabbath Made for Man
09:56 Superbowl Idolatry
13:22 Sabbath Sports
28:57 Joy in God
40:05 Childrens’ Sunday Sports
42:54 Fighting for the Sabbath
57:28 Community Testimony
01:01:33 Are Sports Special?

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

How the Super Bowl Has Ravaged the Church (Ep. 250 Audio)

There are churches that hold Super Bowl parties or cancel Sunday evening services so people can watch the Super Bowl. If the Sabbath is a day of rest, why shouldn’t we do what we want to relax on that day?

Thumbnail image by Alan Owns under BY-NC-SA 2.0

Timecodes
00:00 Sabbath Made for Man
09:56 Superbowl Idolatry
13:22 Sabbath Sports
28:57 Joy in God
40:05 Childrens’ Sunday Sports
42:54 Fighting for the Sabbath
57:28 Community Testimony
01:01:33 Are Sports Special?

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

The Big Lie of Easy Believism (The Death of Scott Adams) (Ep. 249)

Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert, died recently, and as part of his final public statements, made a very disturbing profession of non-faith while claiming to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. The general response to this within Christian circles was even more disturbing, with many seeing it as a positive thing and reacting negatively toward any attempt to examine, analyze, or comment on what happened. And while we are going to discuss Scott Adams, our goal is much more to focus on the state of the church, and how easy believism has progressed to such a point that saying you do not believe is considered acceptable.

Thumbnail image by Art of Charm under CC BY 3.0

Timecodes
00:00:00 Scott Adams
00:06:18 Fear of God Beginning of Understanding
00:15:40 A Heart to Fear God
00:20:57 Words Seperated from Hearts
00:24:05 The Problem with Pascal’s Wager
00:29:54 The Small God of Arminianism
00:40:47 This is a Hard Heart
00:45:53 Bringing God to our Level
00:52:57 Purpose of the Gospel
00:56:29 The Cost of Being a Disciple

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Moses Was Not a Dispensationalist (Ep. 248)

Dispensationalists often argue that Old Testament promises to Israel must only be fulfilled in a physical way to the earthly nation of Israel. There are many complexities with that view because even in the Old Testament, the word “Israel” is also used to mean the promised land, the northern kingdom, the church, or even Jesus Christ. And while there are promises that were made to the physical nation, it is important to understand that God laid the groundwork for bringing in the Gentiles to Moses all the way back in the Pentateuch. In Deuteronomy, in the Song of Moses, Moses understood that the earthly nation of Israel was just a type and that those to whom God gave the gift of faith are the true Israel.

In this episode, we look at how fundamental the typology of Israel is to redemptive history and how easy it is to miss it because of how strongly dispensationalism has been pushed in the US and much of the rest of the world.

Timecodes
00:00:00 Song of Moses
00:09:47 Tower of Babel
00:22:01 Rejoice O Gentiles
00:32:57 Israel’s Rebellion
00:49:40 Dispensationalism

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson