brianhenryblog

Thank you for the great response to my testimony about “How I met the Master.”  Remember a testimony for the Lord is not about joining a church or joining anything! In fact scripture teaches it is nothing about what you have done, or have not done. It is telling how the Lord in His mercy called you to repent, follow Him, and telling how he saved you, transformed your life, and gave you the gift of eternal life.

It’s not about temporary life!! Who wants to hear about that?? We all get that from our parents! In Acts chapters 9, 22 & 26 we have three accounts of the Apostle Paul’s testimony. These give us a good example of what a true Christian testimony is all about.
2 Tim 1:8  “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord,nor of me his prisoner,  but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,”  All true believers have a mandate to testify to the saving power of Jesus as it relates to their new birth. However, if you have never been born again, nor saved, nor have eternal life, then it would be rather difficult to feel inclined to write out a lie.

My testimony is not intended to make you doubt your salvation unnecessarily – not at all. Taking spiritual inventory, however, is a good thing for all of us to do. You might want to ask yourself some of these questions:
Do I have ETERNAL LIFE sin (John 3:16)?
Do I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the ONLY provision for my sin (John 8:24)?
Do I have a LOVE for the Person of Christ which is marked by obedience to His commands (John 14:15; 2 John 1:6)?
Do I have a HATRED of my sin and godly sorrow over it (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)?
Do I have a LOVE and HUNGER for the Word of God (Psalm 119; 1 Peter 2:1-3)?
Do I have a LOVE for the brethren (Hebrews 13:1)?
Is there an increasing pattern of HOLINESS in my life (1 Peter 1:15-17)?
Is my life characterized by UNREPENTANT SIN (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) or am I walking in Christ and in newness of life (Colossians 2:6-7; Romans 6:4-6)?
If you have also met the master, how about sharing it with us. It would be such an encouragement to us.

I was born in Belfast Ireland and lived in a very religious environment. My dad was saved as a 17 year old. He had been invited to a Four Square Gospel church and repented, and started following Jesus. After his marriage to my mother, they attended a Congregational Church briefly, and I was sprinkled there as an infant. Later my mother was also saved, and we started attending a gospel hall in Belfast.
As an elementary school child I was privileged to hear the gospel, learn scripture verses and have many church friends. I saw many down and outs, drunks and immoral people repent, and join the church. But I felt that I was good enough, and didn’t need to repent. I even misunderstood a bible verse to justify my position. After all, didn’t Jesus say, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” Luke5:32

However, I found the constant reminder of death by the interminable funeral processions, and Irish wakes that paraded down a nearby street to be very disturbing. As a young child this constant exposure to death caused me great fear. I knew I was not prepared for death, but did not think that I needed to repent.

When I was nine years old Mom, Dad, and my two sisters and I went to live in Africa. Dad had found a good job there, and he also wanted to preach the gospel to the mixed race people. Well, with a two week sea cruise, followed by a land of bright sunshine the “funerals and death” faded and I lived as a very happy chap for three years.

When I was twelve those carefree years ended. I had attended a week long series of gospel meetings. A Mr. Lee Spratt was the preacher, and I came under great conviction of sin, and although I had lived a sheltered life, I realized that I was a sinner, by nature as well as by choice. At my bedside that night I repented, and placed my faith and trust in my savior.

Four years later at the age of sixteen I had the joy of following my Lord through the waters of baptism, with my two best friends, Royston and John.

It is now almost sixty years since I made that momentous decision to trust, and obey – the voice of God. You might well ask, “What difference did it make?” Unending peace of mind, peace with God, and an assurance of sins forgiven, and the hope of eternal life with my Lord and Savior. I am truly saved for sure and know it.  I am ready to see the master face to face, what about you?

How can we spot the religious deceived?

I am convinced that in the name of Christianity there are many places that call themselves churches and they’re not churches. And they have men leading them who call themselves pastors and they’re not pastors. And they have congregations who call themselves Christians and they are not Christians. They’re not churches, they’re not pastors, and they’re not Christians and yet they proudly post the label Christian. This then, begs the question:

“How can we spot someone who is deceived and deceiving?”

Let me give you a few suggestions. Here’s what to look for.

1. People only interested in the byproducts of the faith, not in Christ.

These people are not consumed with the glory and the honor and the wonder and the beauty and the magnificence of Christ. They’re not consumed with honoring Him, loving Him, oserving Him, obeying Him, submitting to Him, exalting Him, proclaiming Him, worshiping Him, confessing Him.

They’re only there for the byproducts of that which is attached to Him…give me blessing, give me spiritual experience, give me a spiritual high, give me good feelings, give me healing, give me prosperity. So you look for the people who are looking for all the byproducts that they want in their unredeemed condition, rather than Christ.

2. People who are more committed to churches than Scripture

These people who are more committed to denominations, movements, and groups because it very likely is a social thing. Oh not just purely social, but it’s sort of social with a spiritual twang, you know? Ah, it feels good to be involved in a God thing. And you even hear people say that. Hey, come and meet with us, we have a God thing going here. It’s a kind of a God social amalgam. And that’s what they’re committed to, not to the Word of God.

How could you be committed to God and not to His Word? How can you say, “Oh yeah, I really want to connect with God.” Okay, you want to connect with God? Here’s what God says. Confess your sin, repent and embrace His Son as your only hope of salvation. That’s the first thing He says. And if you don’t agree to do that, you’re going to hell forever

3. People with purely academic interests in scripture

These people are more involved in theology as an academic interest, than for personal holiness. I hate to say it, but seminaries and pulpits all over this country are filled with professors who have an academic interest in Scripture. They have an academic interest in theology, who don’t know God at all. And so whatever they think the Bible means is probably not what the Bible means, since the natural man even though he’s a scholastic, cannot understand the things of God.

It’s no wonder that seminaries full of unsaved professors can’t get the gospel right, can’t get Genesis right, can’t get the Old Testament right, can’t get anything right because unregenerate people no matter how well they’re educated or theologically trained still can’t get it right. Because, as 1 Corinthians 2 says, only the Spirit of God knows the mind of God and only the Spirit can give understanding

4. People overindulgent in cheap grace

These people lack penitence. With true Christians, there’s just an ongoing brokenness. There’s just an ongoing kind of recognition that they fall short. But the these Cheap grace folks are going to defend their right to conduct their life in a certain way, and live a certain way because of grace, sort of super-grace, indulgent grace, and they lack penitence and brokenness and a measure of humility.

True believers are the ones who hate their sins, and always confessing their sins and thereby, 1 John 1, we give evidence of being ones that are always forgiven.

5. People who see God as the means to their own ends

These people are “me” centered instead of “God ” centered. I want to be…I want to get to God because I’ve got all these deals that I want to do, I’ve got all these plans, I’ve got all these dreams, I’ve got all these ambitions and hey, if you tell me God will help me get there, that’s Joel Osteen. He’s a heretic. That’s not Christianity. And that is not a church. It’s heresy. God is not the genie in your bottle who jumps out when you rub it and says, “Tadaa three wishes.” That is not Christianity.

From the forgoing its is clearly evident that nothing in these five groups has anything to do with Christianity! They don’t even approximate true Christianity. We need to pray for these people and need to help them see the genuine article.

You would think that someone like myself who has spent a great portion of my lifetime trying to clarify the gospel and clarify what it means to genuinely repent, and what it means to genuinely put your faith in Christ, would be welcome.

The fact is I am considered to be a troublemaker by many religious folk. I’m treading, as it were, on people’s feelings, I’m invading the comfortable bed of their tolerances, I’m being divisive. But then, presenting the truth always does that!

Recently I was listening to a wolf in sheep’s clothing whose name you all know. He said:

“Listen, don’t dangle people over the fires of hell. . . . Listen, that doesn’t draw people to God. They know what kind of life they live. They know how bad they’ve lived. What you’ve got to do is talk about the goodness of God. Listen, it’s the goodness of God that brings people to repentance.”

Romans 1–3 is undeniable proof that Paul began his exposition of the gospel by first addressing the universality of sin and the justness of God’s wrath against sin.

The biblical order in any gospel presentation is always first the warning of danger and then the way of escape, first the judgment on sin and then the means of pardon, first the message of condemnation and then the offer of forgiveness, first the bad news of guilt and then the good news of grace.

The whole message and purpose of the loving, redeeming grace of God offering eternal life through Jesus Christ rests upon the reality of man’s universal guilt of abandoning God and thereby being under His sentence of eternal condemnation and death. Consistent with that approach, the main body of Romans begins with 1:18, a clear affirmation of God’s wrath “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”

Jesus was fully reformed in His theology. He understood the sovereignty of God. He understood the doctrine of election and the doctrine of predestination. He understood that God’s plan would come to its fulfillment. He believed and understood perfectly the doctrine of predestination.

However His theology had no negative impact on His grief over those that were lost. Jesus says, “You will not come to Me, how often I’ve tried to gather you.”

Jesus called sinners to repentance. How can we as his followers do less! What are you planting – is it merely a religious club running courses teaching people in how to be financially successful, instead of calling them to repentance. Why don’t you tell them they are on the broad road that is labeled “Heaven” but actually going to hell, and need to repent and place their faith in Christ and go through the narrow gate that leads to heaven?

Are you merely planting a club, that is very religious, but nevertheless lost?

Does anyone ever get saved and follow the Lord in believers baptism?

These 10 items will help you decide if you are part of a religious club, or the true church!

Entertaining those on the road to hell instead of calling on them to repent.
Using books instead of the Bible in Bible study.
Teaching that there is more than one way to God besides Jesus.
Being embarrassed to say that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Teaching that there is no absolute right and wrong.
Being careful to not offend anyone at the expense of biblical truth.
Pastors preaching moralism instead of Christ centered messages focused on the cross of Christ.
Approving of homosexuality.
Psychology as an authority on human nature.
Evolution – Either not condemning it, or not taking a stand on it.

So how was the Sunday sermon? Was there any call for repentance from your pulpit? Was repentance even mentioned? Did the message of the man of the cloth convict you, or was it just another “feel good” message? What about “hell” was the word even uttered?

Let’s do some catch up!

Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in the bible! In fact he spoke more about hell than everybody in the bible combined. And he defined it as conscious, eternal punishment. Our Lord Jesus believed in eternal hell. He continually spoke about hell and He warned sinners to escape hell, to avoid hell, to avoid this horrible reality.

Yes! Jesus was a hell fire preacher. When we talk about salvation we have to use that word! The word has to be used because we are talking about rescue. Salvation is a word that means deliverance or rescue, and the question is…. saved from what?

The contemporary kind of corrupted Christianity even found in reformed circles offers many psychological and material substitutes for hell. They would say:

Jesus wants to save you from financial loss,or

He wants to save you from purposelessness, or

He wants to save you from anxiety, or

He wants to save you from poverty, or

He wants to save you from failure. Or

He wants to save you from sickness, or

He wants to save yo from disappointment.

NO! NO! He desires to save you from hell! From fiery hell, the lake of fire that is eternal. The message of Scripture is that salvation is a rescue, from a real place called Hell!

So then, how are you born again, saved and how do you escape hell and enter heaven.

Believe!! Believe what?

*Believe that you’re a sinner, believe you’re in a desperate situation, you’re desperately alienated from God and must truly repent and turn from your sin.

*Believe that you have no hope of reconciliation and you will in this life live godlessly and in the next life you will suffer eternal torment.

*Believe that you are “condemned already” and need a pardon.

* Believe that God sent His Son into the world in the form of a man to die as your substitute.

* Believe that Jesus took your place and that He took the full fury of the wrath of God upon Himself and He is waiting to pardon you.

*Believe that the affirmation that God’s justice was satisfied by the fact that God raised Jesus…from the dead. And when God raised Him from the dead He was saying, “I am satisfied.”

That’s what you believe. That’s the gospel.

That’s Christianity. 2 Cor 5:21 “For he (GOD) hath made him (JESUS) to be sin for (US) who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

The BENEFACTOR – is GOD – it’s all His plan, it comes out of His love.

The SUBSTITUTE – is JESUS CHRIST, who took your place, the perfect God/Man. He knew no sin, but was declared sinful with your sin.

The BENEFICIARIES – all of us for whom Christ died, those who will believe.

AND THE BENEFIT – you receive the righteousness of God credited to you as if you were equal to Jesus Christ in holiness. You are DECLARED holy, and some day you when you receive a glorified body, will be made holy.

My prayer is that you will stop playing church in your club plants, and believe, repent, and put your faith in Jesus Christ in full obedience! I mean, can you imagine Matthew telling Jesus he was going to conduct a 12 week Finance Class to help people with their Roman taxes? Of course not, the very idea is ridiculous!!

There are at least five reasons why we must reject infant sprinkling as an unbiblical rite and in this post I am going to focus on just one, which should be really sufficient.

Infant sprinkling is not in the Scripture. Scripture nowhere advocates or records any such thing as the sprinkling of an infant. It is therefore impossible to support infant baptism from the Bible. It is not in the Bible. There’s not an incident of it, there’s not a mandate, there’s not a call for it, there’s not a description of it. It doesn’t appear. In fact, theological leaders in generations past have affirmed this truth.

B. B. Warfield who was a noted Presbyterian, (Presbyterians do infant baptism), affirmed that infant baptism does not appear in the Scripture. We might think that since this is true, that the Calvinistic regulative principle might be applied, the regulative principle of the Reformation said “if Scripture doesn’t command it, don’t do it!”

We expect the Roman Catholic Church to engage in such practices because the Roman Catholic Church is full of things that aren’t in the Bible! They also believe in a whole source of revelation outside the Bible which they call Tradition, or the Magisterium, church councils, the Pope speaking ex cathedra. We expect the Roman Catholic Church to come up with things that aren’t biblical.

But what is sad though, is that infant Baptism is not even consistent with Reformation soteriology! What do I mean by that? Well, the Reformers rediscovered the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone…the doctrine of justification. The doctrine of imputation, that our sins are placed on Christ in His death, and His righteousness is given to us. This is imputation. This is the great doctrine. Faith alone is the condition by which salvation is received, faith alone…faith alone.

Here is the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism, question #74, “Shall one baptize young children also? Yes, for they, as well as the old people, appertain to the covenant of God in His church and in the blood of Christ the redemption from sins and the Holy Spirit who works faith has promised not less than to the older.” Baptize them because they’re promised salvation in the Holy Spirit.

Scripture teaches justification…justification not by sacrament, not by ceremony, not by symbol. Justification by faith through grace, how could they understand that, and then come up with something like infant Baptism which by a rite on a baby, promises “baby salvation”?

Scripture is clear! Infant Baptism is nothing, has no saving efficacy, delivers no grace, confers no faith, is a symbol of nothing. Repentance is totally absent! So, since it is absolutely and totally pointless.

Then why do it?

Would you tell your children, “Bathe regularly; if necessary, use water.”

Would you advise a friend, “Be a faithful husband; if necessary, love your wife.”

Those redundant instructions defy logic. They also beg the question about what other means you would employ to accomplish those goals. You might as well tell someone,

“Stay alive; if necessary, breath oxygen.”

And yet many Christians rally around a similarly illogical statement when it comes to evangelism. “Preach the gospel; if necessary, use words,” is a mantra that is a darling of RELATIONAL gospel activists. That quote which is wrongly attributed to Francis of Assisi, is wielded when it’s time to poke zealous evangelists in the eye, or rebrand the “RELATIONAL THING” as a form of evangelism.

Paul never said, “How will they see without a preacher?” He said, “How will they hear without a preacher” (Romans 10:14). That is because every time the word “preach” appears in the New Testament it refers to vigorous verbal proclamation. It is verbal in its testimony of the works of a Savior who fulfilled the law that we have continually broken (Matthew 5:17–18; Romans 3:23), suffered the punishment that we could never bear (Isaiah 53:4–6; 1 Peter 2:24), and defeated the grave (2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14).

And because Christ’s people depend entirely upon His unique work done on their behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21), there is no way to fully demonstrate it through actions alone. So where does that leave works of social justice such as feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and caring for the oppressed? No one would argue that they are bad things to do. Indeed James defines them as integral to pure religion (James 1:27). But do those acts of mercy have any role to play in a person’s salvation?

Advocates of the RELATIONAL gospel argue “yes,” and appeal to Matthew 25 as their apex argument. But was Jesus saying that our eternal destinies hinge on feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, clothing the naked, and visiting the oppressed? And how would that square with salvation by grace through faith apart from works Ephesians2:8-9

It is quite obvious that Matthew 25:34­ was never written as a blueprint for salvation through social work nor should it be employed as a “relational technique” as such. It’s not an argument for preaching the gospel through our actions alone, but rather that our actions authenticate the gospel we preach. And those actions must be prioritized towards our suffering fellow believers.

So please, care for other believers because Jesus commanded us to. Realize that a lack of care may point to a lack of saving faith,
AND PREACH THE GOSPEL WITH WORDS BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS NECESSARY!!

One of my most memorable pets growing up in Africa was a large Chameleon. I loved the idea that it would change colors to adapt to the environment that it was in. If its surroundings were green, it would change to a green color. If its surroundings were brown it would change to a brown color. It eventually died, but the concept of changing colors for the sake of adapting is unfortunately the trend of modern Christianity.

When a religious chameleon is around church friends, he acts like a person who goes to church.

He prays, he sings songs.

He even goes to the church Bible study.

He may sing in the choir

He may be a deacon or elder

He may be a man of the cloth, and even preach from the pulpit

However, when he’s around his non-Christian friends, something very unusual happens. He starts to change. He starts to act like them.

If they smoke, he smokes.

If they tell bad jokes, he listens to them and may even tells bad jokes.

If they use the Lord’s name in vain he does not object, and may even blaspheme himself

If they get inebriated, so does he

If they are addicted to worldly movies, so is he.

The religious chameleon changes according to his environment or who he’s around. If he sees his Christian friends again, he immediately changes back into a Christian again. He really likes the many good things in the Christian life, but is not interested in being a true follower of the Lord. He likes the idea of a fire insurance to keep him from hell.

All chameleons die sooner or later. Mine did? But what happens to the religious chameleons after death. Matthew 7:21

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but the one who does the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
I have to confess to you that the biggest grief in my life, and of course of the Lord’s, is that I find no pleasure in the death of religious chameleons. I find no delight in people who are condemned to hell. I long that people be saved. That is the great heart cry of every true Christian.