What is Holiness?

This is the first collaborative effort for our video podcasts. The intro music was laid down pretty quick as my main keyboard is in storage, and my drums are packed up as well. I will probably be re-doing this in the future. Please give me your feedback. This podcast is on the topic of holiness, and also a trial run on Tom and I playing off of each other for the shoots. Holiness is not about outward appearances but about the genuine fruits that come from us as a result of the spirit working in us. This is highly misrepresented in churches today.

 

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Is God sovereign in all things? Part 1

It seems these days I am debating a lot about salvation. This bothers me because people who claim to be christians do not know how they are saved.
I grew up in a oneness (modelist) pentecostal church. I was taught that God exists in modes rather than a trinitarian view. I was also taught that baptism was required for salvation. I carried my bible in high school and echoed all these same sentiments. Then around my senior year people began to challenge my views and my faith. I found that when I went straight to the bible with these questions, they did not line up with the doctrine I was being taught in my church. I began a quest for the truth. I wanted to know what the bible said about these topics as well as I wanted to know where the histories of these doctrines came from. I have been blessed by God to learn a lot in the years that followed. One of the key things I have learned is the importance in understanding the sovereignty of God. Lets first look at the definition of sovereign.

Sovereign /Sov´er·eign/ (? or ?; 277), a. [OE. soverain, sovereyn, OF. soverain, suvrain, F. souverain, LL. superanus, fr. L. superus that is above, upper, higher, fr. super above. See Over, Super, and cf. Soprano. The modern spelling is due to a supposed connection with reign.] 1. Supreme or highest in power; superior to all others; chief; as, our sovereign prince.

This was taken from the 1913 websters unabridged which is my preferred dictionary. So God is the supreme or highest power. If this is the case then he is either the supreme power over all or he is the supreme power over nothing. So what does have to do with how are we saved? Well it establishes Gods authority in everything. It also establishes our role in this world. We are going to do an overview here, and dig into this deeper in the coming weeks

“Christ is the Master; the Scriptures are only the servant. The true way to test all the Books is to see whether they work the will of Christ or not. No Book which does not preach Christ can be apostolic, though Peter or Paul were its author. And no Book which does preach Christ can fail to be apostolic though Judas, Ananias, Pilate or Herod were its author.”

Martin Luther

Lets begin looking at some passages that defines God’s sovereignty. We will start in Daniel 4:35

35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done?
So we see here one of the first passages where God says he does what he wants, and that we are nothing. Lets look at

Psalms 115:3
3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

So once again we see God does what he wants. This has nothing to do with us.

 I Timothy 6:15-16

15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

This is a interesting passage because it says God alone has Immortality.  So lets now go a step further with God’s sovereignty and ask a question. If God is the master of everything is he the master of our salvation?  Did Jesus come for a specific group of people?

In Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus says he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  In John 17:9 Jesus says the following.

“9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. “

 So Jesus only prayed for those which the father gave him. Is this sovereign choice of God shown in any other passages. Lets look and see.  In Romans 9:11 it says

“11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call”

 Lets look at some more passages from Romans 9:14-16

 “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy “

 So we see here it depends not on human will or exertion but on God. There is yet still more in Romans chapter 9:17-18

 “For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills”

 So we see that God raised pharaoh up for the sole purpose of revealing his glory. Romans 9 continues to answer questions that someone would be expected to ask surrounding this topic. I will not go into he whole chapter now. I would like to challenge you to read it yourselves. We will continue in part 2

God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.
John Calvin

 Sovereignty Part 1: Download

The New Thorns And Nails

We have been working on revamping the website and unifying everything on one theme. This is the new intro for our upcoming video Podcasts.

Please let us know what you think.

 

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What is the gospel

 

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The Coming Storm Part 1

This an intro to the topic of homosexuality. But homosexuality is not the issue, the issue is the post-modernist concepts of questioning known values. To dilute them with the concepts of “there is no absolutes”. Faustus Socinus would be proud

 

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The Coming Storm Slides Part 1

Here are the slides for our first official podcast

 The Coming Storm Slides Part 1: Download

Reformation Podcast Coming Soon

 

 Coming Soon [0:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download