“It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.” -- A.W. Tozer
This morning I awoke just before 10:00AM and prayed a little. Still the presence of God is still very dim to me. Nonetheless, I left around 10:30PM to attend the church service. I got there just after 11:30AM. This morning what was being taught on was Gods grace. There were many solid truths preached. However, something is wrong when you preach 45 minutes on grace and out of that about 1 minute on sin, law, righteousness, judgment, holiness, repentance, justice. I'm not being critical for the sake of being critical, God is my witness, but how can someone repent if they aren't told to repent? Not once was the word repentance or anything of that sort, used. If it was, it was so unnoticable that I didn't hear it. I heard numerous times that God accepts you just as you are this morning. What I perceived was that God accepts me with all my bagage, that He loves me just the way I am and if I come to Him, He will give me grace and I will begin a journey. No, the truth is, you knock on the door and Jesus Christ says leave your bagage out there, lest you die! "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2).
I heard one woman on the stage, with a spotlight on her, saying something about the presence of God being there this morning. Well I guess I didn't notice He came through the door! I sensed no presence of God this morning and I don't think that God dwells in entertainment centers. Leonard Ravenhill often used to say that "entertainment is the devils substitute for joy" and I agree with him.
When will men understand that the only way to live, is to die and to be crucified with Christ! Jesus Christ is not some "cherry on top of your world." The truth is, is that if you aren't crucified with Him and if He hasn't given you resurrection life, If Jesus Christ is not whom you serve with all your might, whom you obey because you love Him, than your life is nothing more than a "dung hill," and all that you do and have ever done will be nothing more than dung being added to your heap of dung.
Now, with that said...last night I met with Malcom, Elias and Angelo. Malcom preached as usual and for the first time, I preached as well. The Lord held me up last night. We all got into one-on-one conversations and passed out tracts. After we got back to the church just after 10PM, we all prayed and gave thanks to God. Elias and Angelo left, but I went with Malcom to Los Olas. The wickedness and sin that was there, I've never seen in my life! Perhaps for 2 or 3 miles you have bars and strip clubs. Hundreds upon hundreds of people walking up and down being entertained! Enjoying the pleasues of sin for a season! Getting drunk and lusting! Words cannot describe the wickedness that was at this place.
Malcom and I passed out tracts and spoke to a few people. I spoke to one man who told me he'd been thinking about spiritual things on his way down there. He was sincere as I could see and I told him that perhaps God brought him down here to meet with me. I brought him through the Law and revealed the grace of God in Jesus Christ because he was humbled and wasn't justifying anything but agreed to being guilty before God and deserving of hell and was concerned about it. I asked him what he was doing down here, because he had mentioned before that he used to go to a Calvary Chapel and was a Christian. He told me he had fallen into rough times and so I told him that there are false conversions and true conversions and told him to pick up his bible and read and obey it and God wouldn't ever let him down.
We left Los Olas and I got home around 1:00AM, tired and exhausted. May God be glorified.
http://www.paulmcgrade.com/Preaching1-Paul.mp3
*Here is the audio clip of me preaching last night for the first time. (Malcom saves me a few times when I run out of steam.) Thanks be to God for holding me up.
A servant of the most high God,
A son by Jesus Christ,
Paul Mcgrade
4 comments:
Sounds like a not-so-good church! By the way, what kind of church do you go to? What you believe about God and the Bible is most important of all. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"
I would consider when I go every saturday to meet with Malcom, Elias and Angelo to be my Church. The only church I attend is the one thats a "not-so-good church." I believe:
"The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are the only sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience."
"There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence and obedience."
"God is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being."
"God, from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events; yet not in any way as to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures."
"God originally created man in His own image, and free from sin; but, through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity [i.e. descendants] inherit a nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors."
"Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the divinely appointed mediator between God and man. Having taken upon Himself human nature, yet without sin, He perfectly fulfilled the law, suffered and died upon the cross for the salvation of sinners. He was buried, rose again on the third day, and ascended to His Father, at whose right hand He lives forever to make intercession for His people. He is the only Mediator, the Prophet, Priest, and King of the church, and Sovereign of the Universe."
"Regeneration is a change of heart, wrought by the Holy Spirit, who makes alive those who are dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the Word of God, and renewing their whole nature, so that they love and practice holiness. It is a work of God’s free and special grace alone."
"Repentance is an evangelical grace, wherein the Holy Spirit makes a person aware of the manifold evil of his sin, so that he humbles himself with godly sorrow, detesting sin, and abhorring [i.e., hating] self, with a purpose and endeavor to walk before God so as to please Him in all things."
"Saving faith is the belief, on God’s authority, of whatsoever is revealed in His Word concerning Christ; accepting and resting upon Him alone for justification and eternal life. It is wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and is accompanied by all other saving grace, and leads to a life of holiness."
"Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal of sinners who believe in Christ, from all sin, through the satisfaction that Christ has made. It is given not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith."
"Those who have been regenerated are also sanctified by God’s Word and Spirit dwelling in them. This sanctification is progressive through the supply of Divine strength, which all saints seek to obtain, pressing after a heavenly life in cordial [i.e., willing] obedience to all Christ’s commands."
"Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall, through neglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be renewed again unto repentance, and be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."
"The Lord Jesus is the Head of the Church, which is composed of all His true disciples, and in Him is invested supremely all power for its government. According to His commandment, Christians are to associate themselves into particular societies or churches; and to each of these churches He has given needful authority for administering the order, discipline and worship which He has appointed. The regular officers of a church are Bishops (or Elders) and Deacons."
"Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus, obligatory upon every believer, wherein he is immersed in water in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as a sign of his fellowship with the death and resurrection of Christ, of remission of sins, and of his giving himself up to God, to live and walk in newness of life. "
"The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of Jesus Christ, to be administered with bread and wine, and to be observed by His churches till the end of the world. It is in no sense a sacrifice, but is designed to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith of Christians, and to be a bond, pledge, and renewal of their communion with Him, and of their church fellowship."
"The bodies of men after death return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God - the righteous to rest with Him; the wicked, to be reserved under darkness to judgment. At the last day, the bodies of all the dead, both just and unjust, will be raised."
"God has appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world by Jesus Christ, when every one shall receive according to his deeds: the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment; the righteous, into everlasting life."
Those are my beliefs taken from Heartcry Missionary Society.
I just listened to that clip, and a verse came to mind: 1 Corinthians 2:14 "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Truly, "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
Aw. this was a really quality post.
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