Defeating Pornography by the Infallible Word

We must submit to the Word of God to overcome pornography.  It has the power to change our lives and conform us to the image of Christ.  It has the power to bring every thought in captivity to Jesus' obedience.  Looking at perverse pictures or images is wrong.  The Bible does not explicitly mention pornography, but it does mention immorality.  If you have struggled with it, do not feel discouraged but ask for forgiveness of that sin to Jesus.  He never casts out any who come to Him by faith.   Trust Him to forgive and wash you clean.  Live in obedient to God's moral law that points us to Jesus.   It is not the end of the world if you have looked at pornography but it is a serious offense against God and His law.  Listen to sermons and have your mind dwell on the obedience of Christ and His atoning propitiation.  Here are some verses on immorality to mediate on that will help you in the fight against it:

• Matt. 5:27-28, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; 28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."
• 1 Cor. 6:18, "Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body."
• Col. 3:5, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

Peace Be With You

We should seek to leave every situation to peace.  The end of everything in our lives should be peace. 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13 NIV).

 Here is the peace of Christ in our lives:

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."   (John 14:27 KJV).

 Jesus began His statements for peace:

"And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you."  (John 20:26 KJV).

 Romans 12:18 speaks of peace with men:

 "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." (KJV).

A More Loving God than Rome

The basis for Rome’s theology is the free will of man.  That is, it is her secret.  But the will of man is in rebellion against God and His Word.  Jesus said in John 17 that we would know Him through His Word not the Church.  To understand the divine remedy for man we must diagnosis the problem of man aright.  If we do not get the diagnosis right we would not get the solution right.  We must get the solution right in light of the problem of man.  The problem of man was described on EWTN as a limp.  The nature of man is much more than a limp.  A limp does not sufficiently describe the nature of man.  In Reformed theology, we say what Romans 3 says and the New Testament itself.  We say that man is dead in sin and that He is not spiritually alive.  Man is dead in transgresses and sin, but Jesus penetrates our hearts by His Spirit and His Word.  We are in fact spiritually dead sinners.  We do not know the Lord aright.  It was Martin Luther who said that if anyone thinks rightly of free will in the very least he has not learned Jesus aright.  Rome has failed to diagnosis the nature of man.  We are totally fallen creatures outside of the light of Christ.  We are radically corrupt sinners and it is far from a limp.  It is kind to God’s ultimate goodness to understand our radical corruption.  We honor God’s ultimate goodness and righteousness and purity and justice by understanding our fallenness and corruption and wickedness and total disobedience.

Rome does not have free grace.  Her version of free grace is Christ plus Mary, grace plus merit, ritual plus relationship, and the atonement plus purgatory.  In Romanism, Christ is not all-sufficient but we need the merit of other saints to fill the gap.  We do not experience Christ rightly if we add the merit of other saints.  It is an exercise in self-righteousness.  Self-punishment is an error of the Romanists.  In light of the true free grace of the Gospel, it is a demonstration of cruelty to think other saints are worthy of the suffering of merit.  There is no way for us to contribute to someone’s spiritual salvation through our merit.  Free grace is the unified imputed righteousness of Christ alone!  This is the essence of free grace. There is no other kind of free grace than Christ alone.  Mary could never add any kind of merit for she testified and proclaimed the merit of her Savior alone.  We are not co-saviors with Christ our ultimate Savior.  We need Jesus as our total and sufficient and ultimate Savior.  Mary is no co-redeemer, because there is only one Redeemer.  Jesus alone is our Redeemer and Savior and Lord!  How is it possible to find Jesus as our all in all if we have other so-saviors?  In Reformed theology, it is the simplicity of the Good News of the Gospel that prevails.  It is having a trusting-focus, an undying confidence, a living hope and a believing submission in a commitment to His discipleship to Jesus Christ!  This cannot come from water baptism but it comes from sovereign regeneration by the Spirit and Word.  No work can save anyone (Titus 3:5).  It must be the total freedom of God to save because man’s freedom is enslaved to sin and darkness and Satan.  We must set our hopes on the freedom of God in and through Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer!  Jesus has overflowing love for us in His ultimate obedience at the Cross.  His hands are opened wide at the Cross to receive repentant sinners!  It is not a hybrid of merit but the unified merit of Christ alone.  The all-sufficient Christ is enough to save, but the mixture of the Roman saints with Christ shows that He is insufficient to save according to the Roman system.  We should understand the all-sufficient Word of God as the living and written Word of God.  In this, we find a God more loving than Romanism and devoid of error-filled and myth bound tradition. 

We cannot bring death to the state of grace.  Rome teaches that death comes to the state of grace after a commission of mortal sin.  That means someone could go to hell after repenting of other sins.  This mutation of grace is no where found in the holy Word.  We learn from the Bible that God’s grace is stronger enough to keep us to Himself even if we sin a mortal sin.  There is nothing in all creation that can take us out of God’s hand of grace.  Romans 8 speak of nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of Christ.  Is it loving of God to let us go to hell after we have repented faithfully after a mortal sin?  I submit to you that the God of Reformed theology is more loving because He keeps us to Himself without having anything take us away from Him.  He also particularly died for us.  This God does not allow sinners of Judaism and Islam to enter His kingdom unless they come by faith and repentance to the Savior.  A loving God is bound by truth not comfort!  We ought to see the love of God in dying for a chosen race of mankind in all tribes, tongues, peoples and nations!  A loving God would not give us comfort over truth!  Amen.

Is there something lacking in what Jesus did at the Cross?

We learn in the sacred writings that Jesus Christ suffered sufficiently for our sins on the Cross.  He said on the Cross, “It is finished” it meant in the original rendering “paid in full.”  He suffered redemptively on the Cross for us.  Some think they need to add to the work of Christ alone to fill up what is lacking.  However, Augustine does not take this view of self-punishment in a cell of a monk.  But the holy text says, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church…” (Col. 1:24).  Augustine wrote, “In regard to this is that which in another place the very same apostle says: “I now rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up those things which are wanting of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh.”   He did not say “of the afflictions of me” but “of Christ,” because he was a member of Christ and in his persecutions, such as it was necessary for Christ to suffer in his whole body, even Paul was filling up Christ’s afflictions in Paul’s own portion.”  (Thomas C. Oben, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament IX, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, pg. 24).  I don't think Augustine is saying here that the sufferings of Paul were redemptive sufferings.  We suffer our own portion because we are individuals.  There is common place sufferings of the saints and than there is the sufferings of Christ.  We may compare our sufferings to Christ to gain confidence in our feeble state but it should never equal or add to His sufferings.  It cannot add to His sufferings even in God's chastening of us to correct us because we are not God Incarnate like Jesus.   If we suffer, we take Christ as our example of suffering to build our confidence in Him alone to take us through it.

We do not add to the work of Christ alone but we suffer for His sake alone.  We suffer on behalf of Christ alone but our suffering is not redemptive.   No suffering of a saint is redemptive.  However, all the sufferings of Christ are redemptive and for His people alone.  There is no greater merit than the merit of merits in the merit of Christ alone.  He is the King of Merit.  His unified merit alone is enough for us to be right with God.  It is arrogance and pride and idolatry and witchcraft to think our suffering is redemptive.  That is, it is sin.  We are not gods of merit in our sufferings.  The merit of Christ alone is by God Incarnate.  How can anyone with a straight face say that His merit should be lacking or wanting of something?  Is not God all-sufficient?  The union we have with God through Jesus Christ of Nazareth is by faith alone from grace alone.  Jesus died on our behalf and was given for us at Calvary.  Let us rejoice that we possess the unified merit of Christ alone, because of the regenerating work of the Spirit of God in the sovereign application of the unified merits of Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Regarding Being Anxious

Sometimes we get troubled or we are anxious. We see in others worry and fear.  We also see discouragement.  These feelings could render us ineffective for the kingdom of Christ.   We can overcome these feelings by focusing on Christ.  It does not matter what circumstances we face because we have Jesus.

In the world worry is a consistent temptation.  Jesus spoke of worry in the New Testament.  He asked what can worry do for us and how could it add benefit to our lives.  Worry cannot add anything good to our lives; however, God does use evil to bring about good ends.  Worry cannot add one single hour to our lives.

We must trust and have faith in God.  This is the opposite of worrying.  Worry means we are not trusting God.  Repentance should be used to ask for forgiveness when we worry.  God will help us as we trust Him. 

The London Confession of Faith of 1689 on Repentance unto Life

Chapter 15: Of Repentance Unto Life and Salvation

1._____ Such of the elect as are converted at riper years, having sometime lived in the state of nature, and therein served divers lusts and pleasures, God in their effectual calling giveth them repentance unto life. ( Titus 3:2-5 ) 

2._____ Whereas there is none that doth good and sinneth not, and the best of men may, through the power and deceitfulness of their corruption dwelling in them, with the prevalency of temptation, fall into great sins and provocations; God hath, in the covenant of grace, mercifully provided that believers so sinning and falling be renewed through repentance unto salvation.
( Ecclesiastes 7:20; Luke 22:31, 32 )

3._____ This saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth, by faith in Christ, humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency, praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavour, by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things.
( Zechariah 12:10; Acts 11:18; Ezekiel 36:31; 2 Corinthians 7:11; Psalms 119:6; Psalms 119:128 )

4._____ As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, upon the account of the body of death, and the motions thereof, so it is every man's duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly.
( Luke 19:8; 1 Timothy 1:13, 15 )

5._____ Such is the provision which God hath made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation; that although there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent; which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.
( Romans 6:23; Isaiah 1:16-18 Isaiah 55:7 )

The Reformed Doctrine of Eternal Hell and Heaven and the Righteous Gospel

The New Testament says that hell is the final place of those eternally condemned.  Hell is a place of fire and darkness.  No one who has repented of their sins will go to hell.  No one who has Jesus as their Lord and Savior will go to hell.  Hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Hell is a place of destruction.  Hell is a place of torment.  Anything in hell is more terrible than the symbol.  It is meant to fill us with horror.  Heaven is better than we could dream but hell is worse than we could imagine.  Heaven is a place where the imputed righteousness is worn by all kinds of people from earth who the Spirit of Christ made willing.  We stand before God in His robes of righteousness.  All those who do not have Jesus' robes of righteousness will enter hell.  All the elect will go to heaven.  The elect are those who have repented of their sins and wear Jesus' garments of righteousness. 

Hell is the absence of God's mercy and the presence of His wrath and displeasure.   God Almighty is shown to be like a consuming fire.   Hell is where sinners are who hate God and love their sin more than God.  However, there was a time when we loved our sin more than loving God.  This was when we were unconverted.  Sometimes when we were in our converted state we cherished sin over God.  At this time in our converted life, we ought to repent of our sins and turn to God for mercy. 

There is no end to hell.  There is no second chance after death or annihilation.  Hell is a place where people who want to be there are there because of their choice.  No one can go to hell who shouldn't be there.  No human being can take us to hell because God's Triune grip keeps us in His care.  We are forgiven past, present and future.  It doesn't matter how mean and evil someone is to take us to hell God will not allow it because He keeps His promises.  It does not matter what sin we have committed we are forgiven if God has taken the initiative to save us to put our trust in God.  But those of hell they loved darkness rather than light.  They were left to themselves by God without the light of repentance or more importantly Jesus' saving robes of righteousness.  The light of Christ's righteousness is the key to never entering hell.  We must have Jesus' unified and imputed righteousness by faith alone.  It is His grace alone that will see us through and not our works of righteousness.  Those who go to hell love their personal works over God's personal work of righteousness through His Son.  The righteousness of Christ is pure, perfect and personified goodness.