A Few Little Sins: the progress of sin
‘If you put up with a few little sins, you will soon want a few more. Even as an unbeliever, Juvenal* could say, “Whoever was content with only one sin?” Your path will be regularly worse and worse every year. Jeremy Taylor* aptly described the progress of sin in a man: “First it startles him, then it becomes pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed! Then the man is impenitent, then obstinate, then resolves never to repent, and then he is damned.”
‘Young men, if you do not want to come to this, remember the rule I am giving you today: resolve at once to renounce every known sin.’
-J.C. Ryle (d. 1900 AD), Thoughts for Young Men, chap 4
*Juvenal (34-12 AD) was a Roman satirical poet.
*J. Taylor (1613-1667 AD) was a Church of England minister.
(GSiV: Ân điển, chứ không phải những quy tắc / Grace not rules; Gospel Grace Versus Dead Religion–part 6; Sanctification (Sự nên thánh): Erickson–part 1; Earning vs effort: grace, justification, and sanctification; Jerry Bridges; Holiness according to the resources available to us in Christ )
Preach only God’s Word unflinchingly
While I don’t agree with certain aspects of the theology of the radical reformers from the 1500s in Europe, I certainly appreciate that they stood on their convictions for believer’s baptism; and many paid with their lives.
“Seek earnestly to preach only God’s word unflinchingly, to establish and defend only divine practices, to esteem as good and right only what can be found in definite clear Scripture, and to reject, hate, and curse all the schemes, words, practices, and opinions of all men, even your own.”
-Conrad Grebel
Read the whole thing here
(GSiV: Năm Điều Duy Nhất Của Cuộc Cải Chánh (5 onlys, 5 solas); Reformation History;
A Mindset All Reformed Folks Need; Unity; GSiV Resource Page)
The hard work of loving others
‘Peace. By which I mean peace in your heart that expels anger. Very often it’s God’s judgment that we must remember when we’re angry with others at church. Just as smoke indicates fire, anger indicates injustice. The question is how you’ll respond to that injustice. Will you spin your heart into a whirlwind of self righteous contempt by endlessly rehearsing to yourself arguments against those you disagree with? Or will you quench your anger in God’s soothing promise to one day settle all wrongs?’
-Dunlop
Read the whole thing here
Khả Năng Phân Định Là Gì? (Ông Ferguson)
‘Một người quen của tôi mới đây đã chia sẻ quan điểm khiến tôi khá bất ngờ và đôi phần thất vọng. Tôi tự nhủ, “Tôi cứ tưởng anh ấy sẽ có khả năng phân định tốt hơn thế.”
Trải qua chuyện đó, tôi nhận ra tầm quan trọng của khả năng phân định và thấy sự thiếu vắng điều này trong thế giới ngày nay.’
-Ferguson
Đọc Thêm
(GSiV: GSiV Resource Page; Elliff)
Burroughs on being unthankful
‘Unthankfulness is an evil and a wicked effect which comes from discontent. The Scripture ranks unthankfulness among very great sins. Men and women, who are discontented, though they enjoy many mercies from God, yet they are thankful for none of them, for this is the vile nature of discontent, to lessen every mercy of God. It makes those mercies they have from God as nothing to them, because they cannot have what they want. Sometimes it is so even in spiritual things: if they do not have all they desire, the comforts that they would have, then what they do have is nothing to them. Do you think that God will take this well? Suppose you were to give a friend or a relation some money to trade with and he came and said: “What is this you have given me?
There are only a few coins here. This is no good to me.” This would be intolerable to you, that he should react to your gift like this, just because you have not given him as much money as he would like. It is just the same when you are ready to say: “All that God has given me is worthless. It is no good to me. It is only a few coins.” For you to say that what God gives you is nothing and only common gifts, all given in hypocrisy, and counterfeit, when they are the precious graces of God’s Spirit and worth more than thousands of worlds–how ungrateful it is! The graces of God’s Spirit are nothing to a discontented heart who cannot have all that he would have. And so for outward blessings: God has given you health of body, and strength, and has given you some competence for your family, some way of livelihood, yet because you are disappointed in something that you would have, therefore all is nothing to you. Oh, what unthankfulness is this!’
-Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646), The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, pp 154-155.
(GSiV: repentance; Humility; Sanctification; Nhu mì và Khiêm nhường, Part 6; Contentment: Putting our smallness in perspective)
Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân–part 6
Chương 5:Đời Sống Cơ Đốc Trọn Vẹn: Sự Cứu Rỗi
‘Trong chương bốn chúng ta đã xem xét các chi tiết quan trọng của sự nên
thánh. Bây giờ, chúng ta hãy xem xét một biểu đồ khác sẽ giúp chúng ta
hiểu rõ hơn về bức tranh lớn hơn của đời sống Cơ Đốc. Biểu đồ bên dưới
này có ba phần. Chúng ta sẽ tập trung chủ yếu vào hai phần đầu tiên.’
-Ken Hanks
Buy e-book here
(or buy paper copy in Vietnamese at your local Christian bookstore in Vietnam)
(GSiV: Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân–part 1; Key materials on gospel grace ; GSiV Resource Page)
Original Sin & Total Depravity series–part 12
Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại
(bại hoại / depravity)
#7: Heidelberg Catechism (Lord’s Day 3)
Question:
From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come?
Answer:
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,
for there our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.
1.Gen 3.
2.Rom 5:12, 18, 19.
3.Ps 51:5.
(GSiV: Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại–part 1; A Few Confessions of Faith in Vietnamese; Gospel Grace Versus Dead Religion–part 6; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith–part 19; “Thế Nào Là Một Hội Thánh Khỏe Mạnh?”; Năm Luận Điểm: Ông John Piper–part 12; Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại–part 11)
Provisionism: Did God save people or just provide salvation?
Provisionists (those who follow ‘provision-ism’) think God provided (made available) salvation and that man’s will isn’t fallen; and thus, man is free to choose to repent and believe. But the Bible shows that man’s fall was so deep and damaging that his will is corrupt, and that God was gracious to choose certain sinners for salvation knowing we never would choose him otherwise.
Original Sin & Total Depravity series–part 3
If the saved need God to will for them, how much more the lost
How do we stop loving the darkness?
(GSiV: Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại–part 1; A Few Confessions of Faith in Vietnamese; Gospel Grace Versus Dead Religion–part 6; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith–part 19; “Thế Nào Là Một Hội Thánh Khỏe Mạnh?”; Năm Luận Điểm: Ông John Piper–part 12)
Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại–part 11
Original Sin & Total Depravity series
(bại hoại / depravity)
#7: Heidelberg Catechism (Lord’s Day 3)
#7. HỎI:
BẢN CHẤT THIÊN NHIÊN CỦA CON NGƯỜI BỊ HƯ HỎNG TỪ ĐÂU?
ĐÁP:
Từ sự sa ngã và không vâng lời của tổ phụ đầu tiên chúng ta là A-đam và Ê-va trong vườn địa đàng.
Sự sa ngã này làm hư hoại bản chất thiên nhiên của chúng ta, vì vậy chúng ta sanh ra đã là người có tội và bại hoại từ trong tư tưởng.
1. Sáng-thế Ký 3
2. Rô-ma 5:12, 18, 19
3. Thi Thiên 51:5
(GSiV: Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại–part 1; A Few Confessions of Faith in Vietnamese; Gospel Grace Versus Dead Religion–part 6; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith–part 19; “Thế Nào Là Một Hội Thánh Khỏe Mạnh?”; Năm Luận Điểm: Ông John Piper–part 12)
Khi bạn không dễ tha thứ–part 5
‘Thứ ba, xưng nhận tội lỗi của bạn với một tín hữu trưởng thành, đáng tin cậy trong Hội thánh của bạn. Nói cách khác, hãy chạy đến với gia đình hội thánh của bạn. Tìm một anh em đáng tin cậy (hoặc nếu bạn là nữ, thì tìm một chị em đáng tin cậy) trong Hội thánh của bạn. Bạn có thể chia sẻ điều này với mục sư hoặc một người nào khác trong Hội thánh không? (Xem Gia-cơ 5:9, 14-15.)’
đọc thêm
(GSiV: repentance; Humility; Sanctification; Nhu mì và Khiêm nhường, Part 6; Killing Resentment; Khi bạn không dễ tha thứ; When you’re not good at forgiveness)
Contentment: Putting our smallness in perspective
“I deserve nothing. I am nothing, and I deserve nothing. Suppose I lack this and that thing which others have? I am sure that I deserve nothing except it be Hell. You will answer any of your servants, who is not content: I wonder what you think you deserve? or your children: do you deserve it that you are so eager to have it? You would stop their mouths thus, and so we may easily stop our own mouths: we deserve nothing and therefore why should we be impatient if we do not get what we desire. If we had deserved anything we might be troubled, as in the case of a man who has deserved well of the state or of his friends, yet does not receive a suitable reward, it troubles him greatly, whereas if he is conscious that he has deserved nothing, he is content with a rebuff” (pp 87-88).
-Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646), The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
(GSiV: repentance; Humility; Sanctification; Nhu mì và Khiêm nhường, Part 6😉
A great brief summary of Calvinism (in English)
So many Christians misunderstand what this beautiful doctrine teaches. This Crossway interview of pastor Kevin DeYoung is a wonderful resource.
- “Who plays ultimately the decisive role in your salvation?…”
Listen to all of “Calvinism 101” here
(GSiV: When God Elects: A Practical Doctrine for Us; Election; Atonement; Piper; Eternal security; Salvation; Evangelism and Calvinism; TULIP; Reformation History); The practical doctrine of election; What is Reformed theology?)
QUYỀN NĂNG CAO CẢ CỦA ĐỨC CHÚA TRỜI Ở VIỆT NAM (Ê-phê 1:4-5) 