Fearing the Lord
In the context of a godly person fearing the Lord, John Calvin has some wise things to say about fearing and loving God. While the godly man doesn’t want to stir the anger of the Lord, that’s not his primary motivation. Love is.
- ‘Besides, it is not the mere fear of punishment that restrains him from sin. Loving and revering God as his father, honouring and obeying him as his master, although there were no hell, he [the goldy man] would revolt at the very idea of offending him [God].’
-J Calvin, Institutes
(GSiV: John Calvin; Sanctification; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; Holiness is the key principle)
Đức Chúa Trời là Phúc âm, Piper–part 1
God is the Gospel
‘Quà tặng tốt lành nhất và tối hậu của Phúc âm đó là chúng ta có được Đấng Christ. “Tôi cũng xem tất cả mọi sự như là lỗ, vì sự nhận biết Đấng Christ Jêsus, Chúa tôi, là quý hơn hết. Vì Ngài, tôi đành chịu lỗ tất cả, và xem những điều đó như rác rưởi, để được Đấng Christ” (Phi-líp 3:8). Đây là món quà tình yêu của Đức Chúa Trời dành cho tất cả mọi người qua Phúc âm — để nhìn thấy và nếm biết vinh hiển của Đấng Christ mãi mãi.’
-Đức Chúa Trời là Phúc âm (Lời Giới Thiệu), tr. 1
(hoặc mua tại nhà sách Cơ Đốc nhân địa phương ở Việt Nam)
(GSiV: Piper;
Năm Luận Điểm; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; Prosperity Gospel?
; Elliff)
Holiness is the key principle
‘1. The plan of Scripture for a Christian walk is twofold: first, that we be instructed in the law to love righteousness, because by nature we are not inclined to do so; second, that we be shown a simple rule that we may not waver in our race.
‘Of the many excellent recommendations, is there any better than the key principle: Be thou holy, for I am holy?’
-John Calvin, Golden Booklet, chp 1 [and, Institutes, Book III, chp 6]
(GSiV: John Calvin; Sanctification; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân)
Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân–part 2
Chương 1: Ai Cần Đến Phúc Âm?
‘Thông thường, chúng ta nghĩ Phúc âm là thông tin chỉ dành cho người hư mất. Ở đây chúng ta sẽ suy ngẫm về điều này và nghĩ về Phúc âm dành cho Cơ Đốc nhân, Phúc âm ấy chứa dựng hai yếu tố quan trọng: sự xưng công chính và sự nên thánh.’
-Ken Hanks
Buy e-book here
(or buy paper copy at your local Christian bookstore in Vietnam)
(GSiV: Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân–part 1; Key materials on gospel grace ; GSiV Resource Page)
Nữ và vai trò mục sư
‘Bởi sự ban cho của Đức Chúa Trời, chúng ta thấy ngày nay có nhiều người nữ rất thành công trong hầu hết mọi lĩnh vực. Có thể nói, sau phong trào “quyền bình đẳng nữ giới”, người nữ ngày càng thể hiện năng lực và chỗ đứng ở mọi vị trí của nhà nước, xã hội, tập đoàn công ty. Trong mục vụ cơ đốc, người nữ cũng có những thành công phi thường. Tuy nhiên, điều này không thể thay thế ý định của Đức Chúa Trời về vai trò của người nam và người nữ giữa vòng hội thánh. Hội thánh là hội thánh của Đức Chúa Trời, không phải là tổ chức xã hội, nên Ngài toàn quyền thiết lập luật định trong hội thánh.
‘Đức Chúa Trời đã xây dựng vai trò khác nhau trong cơ cấu nam nữ trong chính sự sáng tạo ban đầu. Chúa dựng nên A-đam (người nam) là đầu, người lãnh đạo, có thẩm quyền và Ê-va (người nữ) là người giúp đỡ phù hợp cho người nam (Sáng 2:18; 1 Cor 11:3,7-9). Người nam và người nữ đầu tiên đã thất bại phạm tội cùng Đức Chúa Trời, tội lỗi đã làm cho vai trò khác biệt này bị ảnh hưởng, dù vậy đây chính là khuôn mẫu mọi thời đại vì nó là trật tự sáng tạo của Đức Chúa Trời.’
-VietChurch.net
xem thêm
(GSiV: Unity; Pastors; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; More Resources)
Teaching us to long for heaven
- ‘That they may not become too complacent or delighted in married life, he makes them distressed by the shortcomings of their partners, or humbles them through wilful offspring, or afflicts them with the want or loss of children. But, if in all these matters he is more merciful to them, he shows them by diseases and dangers how unstable and passing all mortal blessings are, that they may not be puffed up with vain glory.’ (4:1:3)
- ‘It should not surprise us, indeed, if our natural feeling should be alarmed at hearing of our separation from this life. But it is intolerable that there should not be sufficient light and devotion in a Christian’s breast to suppress all that fear with an overwhelming consolation.’ (4:5:1)
- ‘But this we may positively state, that nobody has made any progress in the school of Christ unless he cheerfully looks forward to the day of his death and to the day of the final resurrection.’ (4:5:3)
-John Calvin, Golden Booklet [& Institutes, Book III, chp 6]
(GSiV: Heaven; John Calvin)
Tìm kiếm Phúc Âm Thật: Thịnh vượng chăng?
‘Ngay cả thiên sứ mà rao giảng một phúc âm ngược lại lời Đức Chúa Trời, cũng vẫn bị nguyền rủa. Trên đời nầy không hề có Cơ Đốc nhân nào không cần nghiêm túc suy ngẫm lời của Phao lô viết cho người Ga-la-ti.’
-J. Piper, W. Grudem, M. Conrad, etc.
Mua đây
(GSiV: Elliff; Piper; Is “Being Slain in the Spirit” biblical?; Prosperity Gospel?)
If the saved need God to will for them, how much more the lost
If the believing Psalmist asked God to “incline his heart,” and Paul in the NT looked to the Lord to “grant” what the Christians at Rome needed, and trusted that God would “empower” the Corinthians, and he confessed to other believers that it was “God who works in you, both to will and to work,” and acknowledged that it was God who would “fulfill every work of faith by his power,” and Peter said that prophecy itself came not by the will of the prophets but that they “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,” then it should be easy to accept that non-Christians, who live in darkness, need God to regenerate them so they can repent and believe. The saved were born not “of the will of man, but of God,” for the natural man “is not able to understand” spiritual things. The Lord’s mercies are undeserved; praise be to him for showing anyone mercy.
Psalm 119:36 (ESV) — 36 Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!
Romans 15:5 (ESV) — 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,
1 Corinthians 12:6 (ESV) — 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
Philippians 2:13 (ESV) — 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
2 Thessalonians 1:11 (ESV) — 11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
2 Peter 1:21 (ESV) — 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
John 1:13 (ESV) — 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) — 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Romans 9:15 (ESV) — 15 For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
-GSiV
(GSiV: No Free Will: Bondage; The human will in bondage to sin; Traditionalism/Provisionism;
ĐỨC CHÚA TRỜI VÀ SỰ CỨU RỖI: Tín Lý Về Ân Điển Quyền Năng; How do we stop loving the darkness?; How the gospel works–election ; A God who can’t be stopped)
Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân–part 1
- Chương 1: Ai Cần Đến Phúc Âm?
- Chương 2: Đời Sống Cơ Đốc Nhân
- Chương 3: Được Xưng Công Chính Là Gì?
- Chương 4: Được Nên Thánh Là Gì?
- Chương 5: Đời Sống Cơ Đốc Trọn Vẹn: Sự Cứu Rỗi
- Chương 6: Hội Thánh — Nơi An Toàn Của Ân Điển
-Ken Hanks
Buy e-book here
(or buy paper copy at your local Christian bookstore in Vietnam)
A God who can’t be stopped
Deuteronomy 32:39 (ESV) — 39 “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.’”
Job 42 (ESV) — 1 Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’”
Psalm 33 (ESV) —9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 10 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
Psalm 115:3 (ESV) — 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Isaiah 46:9–10 (ESV) — 9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Lamentations 3:37–38 (ESV) — 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
-GSiV
(GSiV: No Free Will: Bondage; The human will in bondage to sin; Traditionalism/Provisionism;
Đức Chúa Trời và Sự Cứu Rỗi: Tín Lý Về Ân Điển Quyền Năng; How do we stop loving the darkness?; How the gospel works–election; Sovereignty verses)
How the gospel works–election
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him….’ (Ephesians 1:3-4)
Note, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ponder that: God. Chose. Us.
Why do some people choose to trust Christ while others die in their sins? Is it because some people just make better decisions? Unfortunately, some teachers would say this. But according to the Bible, key concepts like predestination, election, choosing, foreordaining are there in Scripture to show how big God is. They also show who God is; he has a plan and is making it happen. These doctrines (predestination, election, choosing, foreordaining) assure our hearts of how sovereign God is and how much he loves his elect. If he hadn’t loved us first by choosing us (people), we’d never have chosen him.
- John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
- John 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
- Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”
- Revelation 13:8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
- Revelation 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
If we get nervous when we hear predestination, election, choosing, foreordaining, we must ask our hearts why. Is it because we don’t like conflict and we know that Christians often fight over these concepts? OK, that’s legitimate. We shouldn’t like conflict. But God wants to teach us something wonderful and reassuring about himself through these doctrines. He is sovereign–and he is going to make sure his plans come to pass. Even sin and depravity won’t stand in his way.
- Job 42:1-2 Then Job answered the LORD and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
- Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.
- Exodus 4:11 Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
- Lamentations 3:37-38 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
- Deuteronomy 32:39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand….’ ”
- Isaiah 46:9-10 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
- Psalm 115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
- Psalm 33:10-11 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
So, in one real sense, election is not the gospel. But it’s connected to it. It tells us why we believe–and why others don’t. It emphasizes how great God is.
(GSiV: Sovereignty verses;
Election; Atonement; Piper; Eternal security; Salvation; How do we stop loving the darkness?😉
QUYỀN NĂNG CAO CẢ CỦA ĐỨC CHÚA TRỜI Ở VIỆT NAM (Ê-phê 1:4-5) 