Fundamental Baptist Christian

The fact that the final week of Lent or Holy Week is coming next week means another opportunity to talk about salvation and self-righteousness. I really remembered how often back when I was still a Roman Catholic - I never understood why Jesus died for sin and I was told that salvation was still by works. Galatians 2:21 says that if the righteousness came by the Law then Christ is dead in vain. A good topic that would be worth bringing up is about Zacchaeus. His conversion brings in two types of people - repentant sinners and the so-called "righteous saints" who never saw themselves as sinners. Now let's read the familiar passage of the story of the tax collector who met Jesus: And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. 4 And he ran before, and climbed up i...

Solomon became the wisest king Israel ever had yet he made a lot of foolish decisions. Even before his dream at Gibeon - he already made the mistake of marrying a pagan princess from Egypt. We know Egypt is an ungodly nation and God already warned not to make such ill alliances. Also, Deuteronomy 17:17 warns that a king must not take multiple wives or greatly enrich himself. Yet's that's what he did - he enriched himself and took multiple wives! 1 Kings 11:1-4  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: [2] Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. [3] And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. [4] For it came to...

The story of Nehemiah takes place after the Babylonian Empire's collapse and in fulfillment of the 70- year exile period. The nations of Israel and Judah were divided and later they were destroyed by the Assyrians (Israel) and the Babylonians (Judah). The story of Nehemiah takes place during the reign of King Artaxerxes on the 9th Hebrew month or Chislev - which takes place around November to December in the Gregorian calendar. Nehemiah was taking the initiative to rebuild the walls or defenses of Jerusalem. He was having his prayer said in Nehemiah 1:4-11 where he acknowledges the guilt of his people and the need for repentance before restoration can be done. Nehemiah 6 reveals how the hero of the book was getting so much trouble with Sanballat the Horonite (or Moabite), Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshen who was an Arabian. Remember these three were from the enemies of Israel. The Moabites and Ammonites came from Lot's incestuous sin with his daughters. The Arabians are both ...

Here is the record of Nehemiah's prayer of confession before petition: And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments: [6] Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. [7] We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. [8] Remember, I beseech Thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: [9] But if ye turn unto Me, and keep My commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of ...

If salvation by works is leading people to Hell then so is an incomplete presentation of the Gospel. Many people today think that they're really once saved, always saved but do they even know that true salvation is to be saved from sin? The doctrine of eternal security has been twisted to look like a license to sin whenever you have people who say you can get saved and sin all you want. Let's take time to examine the dangerous modern gospel. This phenomenon of "Easy Christianity" is one of the many reasons why so many fake converts exist today. What's causing the phenomenon that many people think they're once saved always saved but they were never saved? It's all thanks to a group of fake preachers who preach a the modern gospel which is not another. Many preachers today only care about numbers but never about whether or not these people are truly converted. While some people have had genuine conversions from a sinner's prayer evangelism it was becau...

It's a heresy today to try and divide the Lordship of Christ and His office as Master from His role as Savior when all three offices come together. While salvation is indeed not by works but there's one thing we can't deny: Christ is not someone who is divided into portions where one can receive Him as Savior but not as Lord. The teaching itself has been one of the biggest reasons why so many false converts abound today. It's a heresy today to preach a Christ who is a Savior but not Lord. To say that it's optional to submit to Jesus as Lord is an utter heresy for this reason. Jesus is Lord and you must submit to His Lordship whether you like it or not. Christians are not just required to submit but they will submit. A true and real salvation submits to Christ for salvation and submits to Him in the process of sanctification. The Christian will delight to submit to Christ's Lordship and they delight to see their imperfect but genuine repentance perfected at a...

Some Christians may be getting mad with all the worldly happenings this December yet one can still take Christmas as a time for revival. This also involves remembering the incarnation of Christ from God the Son to becoming Immanuel or God with us. God the Father willed it so much that the Son should be born of the virgin Mary as to fulfill Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7:14 about the virgin birth. Everything was planned ahead by God the Father to redeem mankind from sins (Matthew 1:21). The very birth of Christ into the human world was so He can fulfill the Law because sinful humanity couldn't fulfill it according to God's perfect standards. What may have been forgotten was that Christ was born of a virgin so Christians can be spiritually born again or as the Greek says "born from above". Nobody is ever born again by what they do or by infant baptism or participating in baptism. The act of being born again is a supernatural work of God. The whole message of being born agai...

There's a quote that says that sin wouldn't be so attractive if the wages were paid immediately. While some sins do result in direct punishment but others don't. The consequences of playing with a knife are obvious but the consequences of other sins like extramarital affairs and drunken behavior don't necessarily show up immediately. In a world where political correctness is becoming more and more acceptable over biblical correctness, sin has become more and more encouraged. After homosexual marriages were made legal in some parts of the world, the fight to defend any immoral relationship in the name of "love" has become more and more mainstream. The whole wrong idea about right and wrong in the world has a very limited view due to man's fallen nature. They think that as long as you don't suffer or everyone agrees with you then you haven't done anything wrong. There's the tendency to think that as long as you do what's right then you do...

The Gospel can't be destroyed because it's the truth of the Word of God. If Satan can't destroy the Gospel, there are other ways he can make sure people don't get hold of it. According to the Anglican preacher J.C. Ryle, these are by addition, subtraction or substitution to present a wrong picture of the Gospel. When you get the Gospel wrong then you're pretty much wrong on everything. I. ) Adding something to the Gospel The declaration of the Bible is that salvation is by faith alone. Satan can deceitfully work against that truth by adding works, sacraments or extra mediators to the Gospel. Here are a few examples one can observe: Conditional security requires that every saved person must do good works to stay saved rather than declare that good works is the inevitable result of being saved. The Roman Catholic system adds Mary the mother of Jesus as a co-Mediator with Jesus that all must pass through her first before they can enter Jesus. It has woefull...

It's indeed a cause to be outraged if anybody can say that repentance of sin equals salvation, that repentance doesn't save anyone and that you can be saved and still remain the same. It should be a ground to warn the person of the possibility of a false conversion. Such people who want Christ and their sinful pleasures, covetousness and immorality are misled by this deadly heresy. Except people repent they will all likewise perish. Even in the announcement of Jesus' birth, Matthew 1:21 says that Jesus came to save people from their sins and not in their sins. It's a horrible heresy to each that Jesus saves people in their sins and not from their sins and that sinners may remain the same after conversion. Its' the doctrine of the perpetually carnal Christian today that has already sent a lot of people to Hell today. Many today just "pray a prayer" and they never understood the Gospel. While I have nothing against sinner's prayer evangelism because...

There's a statement that the church is not a museum of saints but it's a hospital for sinners.  The statement can be very misleading because what kind of sinners is the church a hospital for?  Isn't the church also a museum for the righteous saints that have gone before the forgiven sinners who are still alive in this world?  The statement might be best said as, "The church is both a museum for saints who's gone before as while it's also a hospital for repentant sinners." Why should the word repentant be emphasized?  Remember in Matthew 18:15-18 talks about the ministry of reconciliation.  While true Christians will not completely fall away but there are seasons that they fall away.  Just because Christians can't live like the rest of the world doesn't mean that they can't backslide for a season.  Righteous saints are repentant sinners saved by the grace of God.  1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 2:8-10 and Titus 2:11-14 shows how God's gra...

John 1:8-9 is the Christian life.  If we way we have no sin, there is no truth in us but if we confess our sins to God, He will not only forgive but also cleanse the forgiven Christian from their unrighteousness.  Like it or not, sanctification is never instantaneous, the repentance of one's sin during salvation is not perfect and it's still growing. With this video of Paul David Washer, I really admire how he preaches against false conversion but also gives a guarantee to true converts.  There are many times true believers can doubt their salvation so it's best to tell them, "Look, you repented, you'r bearing fruit.  Just because your flesh is not 100% nailed to the cross doesn't mean you're not saved.  You experience church discipline every time you foul up and you do good works because you love God.  Your repentance is being perfected.  It's not just the start, you repentance is still continuing.  Struggling with sin is a healthy sign. ...

1 Peter 4:17 states, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" It's good to call for national repentance but how can that happen if that local New Testament church is filled with backsliders and apostates?  Repentance must start with the churches before they can reach the nation.  If a church doesn't repent of its indifference then how can it reach others for Christ and call a nation to repentance?  It can't because there's no light to lead others.  How can one lead a person out of darkness if there's no light.  It's foolish to think one can do that because that's the blind leading the blind into the ditch. Many churches today are better called dead churches.  It's because these churches hardly go soulwinning or have become social halls.  What may have started out as an organization sold out for Christ gets infiltrated by a...

While repentance does involve feeling sorry for your sin but that is not the entirety of it.  What does it mean to repent?  As the Greek word for repent is metanoneia, it means to have a change in mind that begets a change in purpose.  It means that if you repent of your sins, it makes you change your mind about your sins and it results in having a change in purpose not to live in sin.  Judas Iscariot may have felt sorry for his betrayal but he never repented towards Christ for forgiveness.  What he did was not unforgivable but he chose to commit suicide instead. Many people confuse repentance with regret.  While repentance does involve some regret but having regret does not necessarily mean the person has repented.  Let us take a cookie jar scenario.  You regret you stole the cookie because you got punished.  If you repent of the act, it is because you see that stealing is wrong and offensive.  You realize that whether you get ca...

I am afraid today's churches are just all love and no repentance.  The idea of a repentless salvation or to equate repentance of sin to works salvation is just stupid.  The Greek word for salvation is "metanoneia" or a change of mind which results to a change in purpose.  When a person repents of their sins, it means they change their mind about sin, how offensive it is to God and how it really makes them deserve nothing but Hellfire for that sin.  Anybody who removes repentance as a necessity for salvation has been leading people to a false conversion.  Listen to this video to understand more about repentance.  

A true repentance is not merely a one-time event but it slowly grows. As the Greek word for repentance is "metanoneia" meaning a change in mind which begets a change in purpose, Romans 12:2 talks about the Christian's walk with the Lord Jesus Christ results to a renewing of one's mind. When the mind is renewed, one must expect a continuous change of mind that results in a change of purpose. A true Christian is never satisfied with one's own repentance showing one's true repentance because it continues to grow in grace. The more one grows in grace, the more one hates one's own sinful nature and this repentance of sin started during salvation then it continues during sanctification. It is not merely, "Well I repented years ago." and it stops there but rather it grows as a sign of one's true conversion. You cannot say, "Well I repented years ago. I am not repenting now." and you are sorry for whatever shortcomings you had. If you a...

It is a heresy to teach that a person can be saved without repentance.  The reason why is because the Bible says in Luke 24:47 saying, "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."  It is both repentance and remission of sins and not just remission of sins.  Pardon cannot be valued until the person sees the gravity of their sins.  When you know that you are pardoned, this causes the deepest draught (draft) of repentance to be taken because knowing one's pardon in spite of one's guilt, causes people to have that attitude of gratitude that makes them want to only please God.

The Antinomian "gospel" is just as twisted and perverted as the gospel of works - both of them have a wrong definition of repentance.  In works salvation, repentance of sin means repenting by doing good or doing rituals.  In Antinomianism, repentance may either be merely a change of mind but not about sin or it declares repentance as works.  To repent of your sins is not works salvation because to repent means a change of mind.  When a person changes their mind about their sins, it makes them see that they cannot work for their salvation and that it leads to repentance of unbelief to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.  When a person has changed their minds about their sins and has gotten saved - there is no reason for such a person to think that they are free to sin all they want.  Instead, they are slowly freed from sin, they desire to be free from sin and they want to live better because of an attitude of gratitude for the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 17:...