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A Humble Soul Overlooks His Own Righteousness

by Thomas Brooks

A second property of an humble soul is this, He overlooks his own righteousness, and lives upon the righteousness of another, to wit, the Lord Jesus. So the apostle, (Philip. 3:8–10), overlooks his own righteousness, and lives wholly upon the righteousness of Christ: ‘I desire to be found in him,’ saith he, ‘not having mine own righteousness.’

Away with it, it is dross, it is dung, it is dog’s meat! It is a rotten righteousness, an imperfect righteousness, a weak righteousness, ‘which is of the law; but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,’ that is a spotless righteousness, a pure righteousness, a complete righteousness, an incomparable righteousness; and, therefore, an humble soul overlooks his own righteousness, and lives upon Christ’s righteousness.

Remember this, all the sighing, mourning, sobbing, and complaining in the world, doth not so undeniably evidence a man to be humble, as his overlooking his own righteousness, and living really and purely upon the righteousness of Christ. This is the greatest demonstration of humility that can be shewn by man, (Mat. 6:8).

Men may do much, hear much, pray much, fast much, and give much, &c., and yet be as proud as Lucifer, as you may see in the Scribes, Pharisees, Mat. 23, and those in Isa, 58:3, who in the pride of their hearts made an idol of their own righteousness: ‘Wherefore have we fasted,’ say they, ‘and thou seest it not? wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge?’

Rome Vs. Augustine on Free Will

In the decrees of the Council of Trent: Canons on Justification, Roman Catholics proclaim a curse (anathema) on anyone who affirms the loss of free will after the fall. In Canon 5, it declares:

"If anyone says that after the sin of Adam man's free will was lost and destroyed, or that it is a thing only in name, indeed a name without a reality, a fiction introduced into the Church by Satan, let him be anathema."

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By doing so, they are anathematizing their own doctor of the church, St. Augustine for he said precisely this: on multiple occassions:

"Man when he was created received great powers of free will, but lost them by sinning." - Confessions

Can they do anything by the free determination of their own will? Again I say, God forbid. For it was by the evil use of his free-will that man destroyed both it and himself. For, as a man who kills himself must, of course, be alive when he kills himself, but after he has killed himself ceases to live, and cannot restore himself to life; so, when man by his own free-will sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his will was lost.
Augustine, Enchiridion 9.30

“Such victory and emancipation cannot, without God's grace, be achieved by the human will, which is by no means to be called free so long as it is subject to prevailing and enslaving lusts; "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." And the Son of God has Himself said, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.“ Letters 145

Preach Only the Christ of the Bible

by J. I. Packer

“If we do not preach about sin and God’s judgment on it, we cannot present Christ as Saviour from sin and the wrath of God. And if we are silent about these things, and preach a Christ who saves only from self and the sorrows of this world, we are not preaching the Christ of the Bible.

We are, in effect bearing false witness and preaching a false Christ. Our message is ‘another gospel, which is not another.’ Such preaching may soothe some, but it will help nobody; for a Christ who is not seen and sought as a Saviour from sin will not be found to save from self or from anything else.

An imaginary Christ will not bring a real salvation; and a half-truth presented as the whole truth is a complete untruth.”

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From J.I. Packer, “The Puritan View of Preaching the Gospel,”

Christianity's High View of Women

by Nancy Pearcy

"Sexual hedonism is another expression of a low view of women. In ancient Greek and Roman culture, it was widely accepted that husbands would have sex with mistresses, concubines, slaves, and prostitutes (both male and female). An ancient Athenian saying was, “Wives are for legal heirs, prostitutes are for pleasure.” In Rome, the taxes collected from prostitution constituted a significant portion of the royal treasury. (This may be one reason Jesus hung out with prostitutes: There were so many of them!)

By contrast, the church fathers wrote sermons urging husbands not to have sex with slaves or prostitutes. These practices were not easy to eradicate. In the fourth century, John Chrysostom was still preaching on why it’s not okay for married men to have sex with their slaves. An ancient Christian treatise on the sufferings endured by married women included the “humiliation” of being replaced by servants in their husbands’ affections.

The Most Dangerous Prayer a Christian Can Pray

by Darrell Bernard Harrison

Prayer is essential to the Christian life.

It is essential to the Christian life because prayer was essential to the life of Jesus (Matthew 6:1-15, 14:23; Luke 5:16, 22:39-41; Hebrews 5:7.)

Theologian Andrew Murray, who arguably has written more than anyone on the subject of prayer in the daily life of the Christian, once declared, “Abiding fully [in Christ] means praying much.”

Those of us who, by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), have come to faith in Christ, serve a God who desires that we come to Him with our prayers and petitions (Philippians 4:6.)

In fact, He delights in it (Proverbs 15:8.)

Three Types of Calvinist

by Steve Hays

There are different perspectives on Calvinism. Different ways of approaching Calvinism. Differences of emphasis or orientation:

1. Soteriological

This orientation stresses doctrines like unconditional election, reprobation, special redemption, spiritual inability, sola gratia, monergistic regeneration, perseverance. It has special reference to the human situation. This is typically the focus of Reformed pastors, preachers, and evangelists.

2. Theological

This orientation stresses doctrines like absolute predestination and meticulous providence. It operates at a more cosmic level. It lays more emphasis on God's relation to the world in general rather than God's relation to mankind in particular. There are people who incline to (1), but distance themselves from (2).

3. Philosophical

This orientation piggybacks on (2). If (2) is true, then everything happens for a reason. There are no random, aimless events. No brute facts. No fortuitous accidents. Everything serves a purpose in a part/whole, means/ends relation. God leaves nothing to chance. Everything unfolds according to his master plan for world history.

This dovetails with the principle of sufficient reason. There are no inherently inexplicable truths. And that's a condition of intelligibility. In principle, there's a rational explanation for everything, although many things may be inscrutable to humans, given our epistemic limitations.

Why Biological Evolution is not a Scientific Fact.

I recall in one of our discussions you asked me about biological evolution and my thoughts on it. Given the broad nature of this topic at the time I only was able to give you a superficial overview of my thoughts... so today I wanted to give you a more complete explanation. It is a big topic to cover but I will try to be as brief as I can about why I don't believe evolution has been demonstrated to be a fact. Thanks for your patience.

Let me first confess up front that I affirm the truth of scientific discovery and will not reject facts if they can be demonstrated through the scientific method. I grew up in a secularist him and simply assumed that evolution was true because it is what I was taught in school, on TV and at home. I recall a Time-Life book in our home on evolution that I used to look through frequently above the round table off our den where I ate breakfast and where my parents used to play poker. When I went off to college to the University of Colorado I carried this belief with me as a given unquestionable fact. I even had friends in college who were staunch evolutionists and I attended their debates about it, where they defended the position for biological evolution against skeptics of it. The first time going I simply assumed the other position was laughable so I entered the debate biased against it but the more I heard what was actually being debated the fuzzy nature of the “facts” of evolution began to put sow a seed of doubt in my mind ... and eventually after my sophomore year I took two classes on evolution, including evolutionary biology/the study of DNA. What I learned there was definitely helpful but it only solidified to me the notion that evolution was not actually all that it claimed to be.

For Those Who Seek to Eradicate Christianity

When I hear atheists and liberals mock and attack Christianity I always encourage them to migrate to a country where none of the influences of Christianity are present. I tell them that it would be better for them to live in a country where none of the plagues of Christianity has taken root — Better to go to North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Libya, Burma, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nigeria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Jordan, Algeria, and Angola. Better to go to a country where Christianity has not spread its influence. Better to live in a country where there is virtually no freedom of speech, no free enterprise, no representative government, no civil liberties, virtually no rights for women than live in a country where Christianity has installed and disseminated such vile values.

Better to live in a country where Christianity has no place to install its principal value of high regard for human life, high regard for women, freedom of speech, civil liberties, representative government, free enterprise, and the elevation of human sacredness.

Who wants to be imposed upon by the Good Samaritan with its ethic that extends sacred value and worth to the individual? Who wants an ethical system that’s responsible for ending cannibalism in nations all around the world or the predominant principle of helping the weak and destitute that has alleviated the suffering of the poor to the farthest corners of the globe with the intervention of medicine, hospitals, clean water, welfare, orphanages? In fact, Christians are singlehandedly the largest providers of healthcare, charity and education throughout the world.

Pop Culture Coram Deo Lists Top 50 Christian Pop Culture Blogs

Yesterday Jared Moore, the mastermind behind the Pop Culture Coram Deo Blog listed the top 50 Christian (orthodox evangelical) blogs based on web traffic. We are grateful to see that two of our websites made the list: Monergism.com at #9 and ReformationTheology.com at #20.

Their list is solely based on Alexa’s 3 month global traffic rankings checked on February 26, 2018. They attempted to only include blogs from evangelical Christians who are considered orthodox, and who interact with pop culture often. Although some of the sites listed may have rankings that are inflated because Alexa does not provide traffic rankings for subsites and subdomains for blogs which use hosts such as Patheos’ and Christianity Today.

Here is the link to the entire list of 50 sites.

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About Jared Moore

Jared Moore was dead in his sin and God raised him to life in Christ Jesus. Because of Christ, he will live forevermore. Jared has served in pastoral ministry in a Southern Baptist context since 2000. He pastors Cumberland Homesteads Baptist Church in Crossville, TN. His wife’s name is Amber, and they have four children. Jared is also a PhD Candidate in Systematic Theology (ABD) and a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Kyle Claunch at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A Sound Conversion

by Richard Sibbes

It is evident that our conversion is sound when we loathe and hate sin from the heart.

A man may know his hatred of evil to be true, first, if it is universal- he that hates sin truly, hates all sin.

Secondly, true hatred of sin is fixed- there is no appeasing it but by abolishing the thing hated.

Thirdly, true hatred of sin is a more rooted affection than anger- anger may be appeased, but hatred of sin remains and sets itself against the whole kind.

Fourthly, if our hatred of sin is true, we hate all evil,
in ourselves foremost, and secondarily in others-
he that hates a toad, would hate it most in his own bosom.Many, like Judah, are severe in censuring others (Genesis 38:24), but partial to themselves.

Fifthly, he that hates sin truly, hates the greatest sin in the greatest measure; he hates all evil in a just proportion.

Sixthly, our hatred to sin is right if we can endure admonition and reproof for sin, and not be enraged- therefore, those that swell against reproof do not appear to hate sin.

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Source: Richard Sibbes commentary, Psalm 97:10

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