Friday, August 23, 2013

Why I Reject Synergism


I am not saved because I loved God and choose Him, the truth is I hated God, I hated truth and loved sin. You might say that is a horrible thing to say, and I agree. That we should hate our creator and love sin is a horrible thing, but it is true nonetheless, and I now by the grace of God love truth and hate my sin. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." (John 8:34 NASB). And in Luke 16:13 when talking about serving God and Mammon, He makes the point , you cannot be slave to two masters, you will hate the one and love the other. I love God not because I choose Him. I love God because He loved me first. I am saved because it was His sovereign will to love me and draw me to His Son and it was not my own free will in anyway. How can one opine that faith is a decision, that a man makes in and of himself when the requirements for saving faith are a regenerated heart and mind; being born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, being baptized by the Holy Spirit of God?

Something I have been considering lately in watching, listening to, and talking to people. Ephesians 2:8, 9 says; "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." If you have trusted in Jesus alone and His gospel you are saved, that is a promise from the Sovereign God. We often talk about carnal Christians, those who profess the name of Christ but live a life not keeping with repentance. May I suggest that they have actually believed a different gospel. A gospel not proclaimed by scripture alone but a gospel proposed by modern American churchianity. Their lifestyles would suggest that they believe that Jesus died for them to sin. In other words, He died so that you can sin and get away with it, besides, Jesus said, "do not judge". 

Think about this for a moment, logically. The Son of God left heaven were He had dwelt with the Father in eternity past, humbled Himself, walked amongst wicked and sinful men who hated Him, He then aloud these same men He created to beat Him, and hang Him on a cross for all to see, and while on that cross was forsaken of by the Father He had dwelt with in eternity past, because He became sin on our behalf; and He did all this so that you can go on sinning that grace may abound? As the apostle Paul said, "May it never be".

Christ did not die for you to sin and get away with it, Christ died to save you from the wrath of God for your sin so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. If this is you, repent and put your faith in Jesus alone, the Christ the Son of the Living God. "So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “ If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)


Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

Monday, August 19, 2013

Do You Know Good?

Yesterday I wrote a note to a friend and brother, afterwords it got me to thinking. The world calls good evil and evil good. Good is not what is in your heart; ""The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 NASB). Good is not what gives you pleasure or happy feelings; good is defined by Scripture alone. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil." (Proverbs 3:5-7 NASB). God is good and is defined through Scripture alone. Jesus said; "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3 NASB). To know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent is to know good; do you know good? Repentance is a change of mind; to call what Scripture alone calls good, and call what Scripture alone calls evil. To worship God alone, that is to embrace that which Scripture alone calls good and to abhor what Scripture alone calls evil. Do you know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent; do you know good? 


Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Righteousness Based on What?


“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4 NASB).

Now that is what I call good news! Jesus Said; “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NASB). Why do people go to hell? Is it because they have sinned? Yes they have broken God’s law; but more than that, it is because God is righteous. If God who is righteous were to allow a man who is not righteous into heaven (God’s dwelling place) God would no longer be righteous. In order for a man to enter into God’s home (heaven), that man must be just like God, perfectly good, that is righteous.

The law of God says do not worship anything but God alone, do not create false gods and worship them, do not take His name in vain, honor the Sabbath, honor your mother and father, do not murder or even hate, do not have sex even by thought outside of marriage, do not steal, do not lie, do not covet. “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness” (Romans 10:5 NASB). In order to be righteous based on God’s law you must keep the law perfectly from conception until death, which is your entire life span in this temporal realm. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10 NASB). Breaking God’s law even once means that we are not perfect and most of us have broken His law a multitude of times. Our heavenly Father is perfect, and therefore we cannot enter into heaven (God’s dwelling place) by the righteousness based on law. This is not good for us, because to be outside of heaven is to be outside of the presence of God, only God is good, and therefore there is nothing good outside of God; only weeping and gnashing of teeth, unimaginable pain and longing, hell.

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4 NASB). This does not mean that Christ is the end of the law all together (Romans 3:31), because the law is good; it is us that are not good. But what it does mean however is that Christ is the end of the law as far as being the way you can be counted righteous before God. Faith in Christ alone means that your righteousness is not based on your own personal righteousness, but on the righteous of another. Namely the righteousness of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God; who lived that perfect life in the flesh that we should have lived, never breaking God’s law even once. He willingly died, separated from God for our sins, because He loves us. Then after fully satisfying the wrath of God for our sins, as only a perfect sacrifice can do, God raised Him from the dead, furnishing proof to all men that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and that through faith in Him alone, we are made righteous, and can come into the presence of God in heaven. This not based on our own merit, but on Christ’s alone. Yes, this is good news, this is good news indeed!



Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ