Powerful Videos
April 1, 2010 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Powerful Video Clips
Do you desire God? — Paul Washer
Come To Christ — Paul Washer
What Is Salvation
A Call To Wonder — Paul Washer
Joseph the Masai Warrior – John Piper
You Must Suffer — John Piper
Prosperity Gospel — John Piper
It Will Cost You Everything — Steve Lawson
Heaven or Hell—What Do You Deserve From God?
March 31, 2010 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Knowing God
What do you deserve from God? Your answer to this seemingly simple question will be very revealing about your relationship with God. When I ask this question I mainly want you to think of it in terms of what you deserve from God come judgment day. If you died right now and God opened up the book of your life and examined all of your works, good and bad, what should He do with you? Based on your works, do you deserve to enjoy the presence of God forever in Heaven or should you be sent to eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire (Hell)? These are the only two options God has put before humanity. Before you read on, decide if you deserve Heaven or Hell.
At this point most people I speak to tell me that they are not bad enough to deserve Hell and that they are really pretty upstanding human beings, so they probably deserve Heaven. I then proceed to ask, “If you deserve Heaven based on your works, then why did Jesus die on the Cross?” If the person had claimed to be a “Christian” they usually have a look of bewilderment on their face. The cold hard fact is that one of the primary reasons Jesus came to die on the cross was to rescue humans from the hell that we deserve. Jesus came to drink down the wrath that I deserve at the hand of His Father in Heaven. He said He had come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
This is a hard pill to swallow. Most people think that they are good or righteous in the eyes of God, and if this were true it would make no sense that God would send “Good” people to Hell. A Good God would never send a good person to Hell. The problem is that according to the Bible, in the eyes of God there is not a good person on the face of the earth based on their own merit. Jesus told the rich young ruler in Luke 18:19 that there is no one that is good except God alone. This is a big problem for the billions of people that are banking on their goodness or self-righteousness as their ticket into eternal heavenly bliss. The Bible tells us elsewhere that, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one…there is no one who does good, not one” (Romans 3:10-12) . Ecclesiastes 7:20 tells us, “There is not a just man upon the earth, that does good, and does not sin”, and Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”
Do you still think that you are good enough in the eyes of God? Please examine some common sins with me. How many times have you been prideful, selfish, or greedy? How many lies have you told in your life? Did you know that Revelation 21:8 says all liars will have their part in the lake of fire? How many times have you looked at someone with a lustful sexual thought? In Matthew 5 Jesus said that just looking with lust is considered adultery of the heart (guys, I suggest putting your porn away). The Bible even says that hatred is murder (1 Jn. 3:15). Look at what Galatians 5:19-21 says, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (to look further into the sinfulness of humanity read the Ten Commandments (Deut. 5:1-21), Revelation 21:8, and Ephesians 5:3-7)
How many sins have you committed in your life? There is no way that you can count. I would say that most of the time when we sin we don’t even know we are sinning. Sin is so much more serious than any human fully realizes. Every time we sin we are committing a crime against the infinitely valuable King of the universe. One single crime against an infinitely holy, just and righteous God deserves and infinite/eternal punishment. As an illustration think for a moment if you punched a King in the nose and then punched a homeless man in the nose. For which crime do you think there would be a greater punishment? You would be in far greater trouble for punching the King because of his greater level of authority and dignity. God is the greatest authority in the universe and you have sinned against him thousands of times. You and I are not valuable enough to ever pay the debt we owe to God for one of our sins, much less all of them we have compiled over the years. This is why Hell is forever.
At this point many will object by saying, “God is a God of love and He will forgive if you just ask”. God can forgive every sin, but what about his Justice and Righteousness? In our earthly courts if a Judge let a guilty child molester go with no punishment we would call that judge corrupt! Is God less just than a good earthly judge? By no means! God must punish sin properly or else he is corrupt himself and he is a liar. God has said in his Word, “For the LORD is a God of justice.” (Isaiah 30:18) and “… the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.” (Nahum 1:3)
The only reason God can forgive our sins is because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The infinitely valuable God-Man, Jesus Christ, took the punishment that guilty sinners deserve while on the cross. Jesus then died and rose triumphantly from the grave on the third day. To put it simply, I owed a debt that I could never pay but Jesus came and paid that debt with his blood.
In order for you to receive the forgiveness of sins you must turn from your sinful way of life and turn to Jesus as your King, Savior, and greatest treasure. I beg you to confess and forsake your sins today and to trust in the one and only Savior, the Lord Jesus. The penalty for your sins must be paid, the only question is will it be paid by you in Hell for eternity or by the magnificently loving Savior on the cross?
The following passages nicely sum up what I have been trying to say:
“But God showed his great LOVE for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life.”(Romans 5:8-10)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes (trusts into) in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:16-21)
*All scriptures are from the New International Version (NIV)
College Campus Interview: Moral Relativism & Gospel
March 3, 2010 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Featured Videos, Heaven & Hell Tract, Video, Videos
Poster Boys for Moral Relativism——-Part 1
Poster Boys Hear the Law and Gospel——–Part 2
Meet Mr. Nice Guy—-Gospel
January 14, 2010 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Online Movies, Powerful Video Clips
This may just look like a silly cartoon. Don’t let it fool you, this video has a powerful message!
War On Sin—–Sermon Jam
July 16, 2009 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Knowing God
Watch this on youtube or listen to the audio only (if the pictures are distracting) by clicking on the following link
http://www.1031sermonjams.com/vol4.html
Must See Links
The Bible teaching ministry of Dr. John MacArthur. Download over 3,000 sermons for free.
www.DesiringGod.org
www.MarsHillChurch.org
www.ligonier.org
Seminary level teaching with Dr. R.C. Sproul via video and audio.
Bible Study Tools
www.BlueLetterBible.org
www.BibleQuery.com
Links For Defenders Of The Faith
www.LeeStrobel.com
www.aomin.org
www.AnswersInGenesis.org
Info on Mormons
Mormon Research Ministry
www.bcmmin.org
Berean Christian Ministries
Articles on the Mormon Chruch.
www.MormonChallenge.com
www.BookofAbraham.info
Amazing film proving that Joseph Smith was a false prophet. View free online. Must see!
Info on Jehovah’s Witnesses
www.TowerToTruth.net
Great info on the false teaching and prophecies by the JW/Watchtower organization.
Massive Ponzi Scheme
July 6, 2009 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Knowing God
There is a massive fraudulent ponzi scheme going on that has likely lured you in, and if you are like most of the victims, you are not aware of it yet. In fact, even after many people learn of this scheme they ignore sound reasoning and continue to invest their most precious treasures and resources into the lie. This ponzi scheme does not primarily have to do with your money. It is far more serious than that! This ponzi scheme may cost you your very soul.
Here is how the scheme works. Satan, Sinful Desire, and our wicked human nature have teamed up to convince people that they are basically good or righteous in the eyes of God just as they are. This results in people thinking that when they die there is nothing to worry about because God grades on the curve. The victims are tricked into believing that God will just sweep all their sins under the rug and let them walk right into Heaven after they die. The horrid trio also promises amazing reward and personal fulfillment if you will only commit your life to their false promises. Functionally, these false promises become a god or idol. Some of the common promises are, “dedicate you life to making money and you will have great joy”, “Sleep with your girlfriend or boyfriend. After all, you are in love”, “I’ll just watch a little porn. It is not hurting anyone”, “If I looked a little more like that person I would be happy”, “I was baptized, so I’m good”, “I don’t have a problem with drinking, it is just social”, “I just need to worry about me” and their favorite, “I am just too busy to read the Bible or go to a good church”. (see Revelation 21:8, Galatians 5:19, 1 Corinthians 6:9) (I know this doesn’t fit the strict definition of a ponzi scheme, but you get the point.)
Most People think they have an idea of what God is like, but they really have no idea. They have not examined the bible to see what God has revealed about himself and they have not honestly taken a look to see how he will judge their soul. God is Love and he is forgiving, but that is not even half of the story. God is a God of Justice, Holiness, and Wrath. If God let guilty criminals go free on judgment day he would be more corrupt than a judge that would let a child rapist go free without the proper punishment.
The proper punishment for every sinful human eternal condemnation to hell, and here is one good reason why. If you punch a common man it the nose you will get in a bit of trouble, but if you punch the President of the U.S. the penalty will be much more severe because of the perceived value of the person whom you punched. We punch God in the nose every time we lust, lie, or have a prideful thought. We have all sinned against the most valuable being in the universe every moment of every day. Jesus told that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. No one has ever really honored God like he deserves to be honored. With every sin we commit against God we just store up more wrath that will be released on us on judgment day. O how we need a Savior!
Praise God for Sending His Son to take the Hell I deserve in my place and giving me the righteousness of Jesus Christ in return. 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it like this, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Romans 8:1 says that, “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.
So how do we get “IN” Christ Jesus. The bible tells us to Repent and Put our faith in Jesus as our Master and Savior. We must turn from our sins and turn to Christ and embrace Him as our greatest treasure. The response of a repentant faith is the result of God breathing new life into your soul. Beg God to give you eyes to see your sin as he sees it and a heart, mind, and soul that is willing to embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Please run from the deception of “the world’s” ponzi scheme. They have marked many roads with signs that say “Sin=fulfillment” and “Heaven Ahead”, but there is only one true path that leads to the “abundant life” now and eternal joy with God in that ages to come. It is a very narrow road that runs exclusively through King Jesus and it may only be found through the free gift of faith, not by works lest any man should boast.
21 Things You Must Know About God
July 4, 2009 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Knowing God
You must Know who God is
So obviously you must read this classic book!
10 Reasons the New Testament Writers Told the Truth
July 2, 2009 by Jarod
Filed under 10 Reasons NT Is True, Featured, Tracts
Top Ten Reasons We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Chapter summary of book by Geisler and Turek)
Peter Kreeft said, “Why would the apostles lie? … If they lied, what was their motive, what did they get out of it? What they got out of it was misunderstanding, rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks!” There is a lot of evidence that shows that the NT is true, but how do we really know that the NT writers didn’t exaggerate or embellish what they say they saw? Lets look at the top 10 reasons.
1. The NT Writers Included Embarrassing Details About Themselves
The “principle of embarrassment” (historical test #7) assumes any details embarrassing to the author are probably true, because authors tend to leave out anything that makes them look bad. If you and your friends were creating a false religion would you make your selves out to look like a dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, doubting, cowards? No way, but that is what the writers of the NT did. A made-up story would make the writers look bold, fearless soldiers of Christ.
† Dim-Witted—disciples fail to understand what Jesus is saying (Mark 9:32; Luke 18:34; John 12:16)
† Uncaring—disciples fall asleep on Jesus twice when they were asked to pray on the night Jesus was taken to be crucified. Disciples fail to give Jesus proper burial out of fear for themselves. Jesus was buried by a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin—a member of the same court that sentenced Jesus to die.
† Rebuked—Peter is called Satan by Jesus (Mark 8:33). Paul corrects Peter on a theological issue (Galatians 2:11). Keep in mind that Peter is one of the pillars of the early church, and here’s Paul including in Scripture that he was wrong!
† Cowards—all the disciples but one hide when Jesus goes to die on the cross. Peter denies Jesus three times (Matt. 26:33). While the brave men are hiding, the women discover the empty tomb of Jesus.
† Doubters—despite being taught that Jesus would rise from the dead (John 2:18; 3:14; Matt. 12:39; 17:9, 22-23), the disciples are doubtful when they hear of his resurrection. Some even doubt when they see him risen (Matt 28:17).
2. The NT Writers Abandoned Their Long-Held Sacred Beliefs And Practices, Adopted New Ones, And Did Not Deny Their Testimony Under Persecution Or Threat Of Death—
NT writers don’t just say that Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, they back it up with actions of their own. Virtually overnight they abandoned many long held and sacred beliefs of Judaism. For example, animal sacrifice was replaced with the sacrifice of Christ, the law of Moses no longer had power because of the sinless life of Christ, they now worshiped Jesus as the God-Man considered by the Jews to be blasphemy and punishable by death, and belief in a sacrificial Messiah versus a conquering one (until 2nd coming). Not only were Just the NT writers converted, but thousands of Jerusalem Jews, including Pharisee Priests, followed Christ. History shows that within five weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus more than ten thousand Jews converted to Christianity. How can this be explained if the resurrection did not occur. These converts also adopted new radical practices such as Sunday worship, Baptism, and Communion as a sign of Christ’s sacrifice. NT writers had nothing to gain by trying to pull off a hoax. The only worldly reward they received is persecution and death. The NT writers could have saved themselves by confessing it was all a lie, but they never did. If they had made up the resurrection story they certainly would have said so when they were about to be crucified (Peter), stoned (James), or beheaded (Paul). But no one recanted—eleven out of the twelve apostles were martyred for their faith. Why would any sane person die for a known lie? Don’t forget that all twelve claimed to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. They would have known if the resurrection was a reality or not. The apostles knew for sure that Jesus had resurrected, and they demonstrated that knowledge with their own blood. (people do die for lies [suicide bombers], but they whole heartedly believe the lie is truth)
3. Enemies and Critics of Christianity Confirm the Same Basic Storyline as the New Testament Writers Present in the Bible
† Josephus, a Jewish historian for the Roman government writes in A.D. 94, “At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified, and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day” (Josephus, Antiquities, 20:200 – Maier translation).
† Josephus also writes, “Then James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ was stoned to death by the Sanhedrin (Jews) in the absence of the Roman governor.” (Josephus, Antiquities, 20.9.1) Would you be willing to die for your brother if he claimed to be the sinless Son of God and Savior of the world? James was willing to die in the name of Christ because he saw that Jesus lived a blameless life and he witnessed his resurrection from the dead! You can trust a guy that rises from the dead.
† Talmud—Is a Jewish history book written by the Jewish authorities between AD 70 and 200 that confirms when, how, and why the Jews killed Jesus. Sanhedrin 43a states,“On the eve of Passover Yeshu (Jesus) was hanged … because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.” This tells us Jesus was killed on Passover, had supernatural powers, and he called people to follow him.
4. The NT Writers Left In Demanding Sayings of Jesus
If the NT writers were making up a story, they should have made up a story that made life a little easier on them. For example, the NT claims Jesus said, “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:28); “…do not resist a evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt 5:39); “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matt 5:44); “Do not store up treasures on earth…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19); “Do not judge, or you too will be judged…with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt 7:1). These are not commands the NT writers would impose on themselves because no mere human can live up to the standard set. Only a perfect person could live according to the standard set in the NT. Perhaps that is exactly the point.
5. The NT Writers Carefully Distinguished Jesus’ Words From Their Own
Quotation marks did not exist in first century Greek, but NT writers very clearly distinguished Jesus’ words from their own. Virtually all red-letter editions of the Bible attribute all of the same words to Jesus. This is important evidence towards the credibility of the NT writers because it would have been easy for them to solve theological disputes by just adding to the sayings of Jesus. It would have been easy to make up quotes in relation to circumcision, obeying the Law of Moses, speaking in tongues, and women in the church in order to end all debates. Why were the NT writers so careful about distinguishing their own words form the words of Jesus unless they were telling the truth?
6. The NT Writers Included Events Related To The Resurrection That They Would Not Have Invented
† The Burial of Jesus- Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling council that sentenced Jesus to die for blasphemy. Followers of Jesus were very bitter towards Jewish authorities, so why would they put a member of the Sanhedrin in a favorable light if the story was made up? Furthermore, if Jesus really wasn’t buried by Joseph of Arimathea, this detail could have easily have been exposed making the Luke out to be a liar and his Gospel a fake. The Jews never denied this fact.
† The First Witnesses- All four Gospels say women were the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus. In that day women were not seen as credible witnesses and were not even allowed to testify in court. One of those women was Mary Magdalene, who Luke admits (8:2) was once demon possessed. These are not the kind of witnesses that would be made up if the NT writers were trying to fool the world.
† The Conversion of Priests- Why didn’t the risen Jesus appear to the Pharisees? Maybe they were too proud, and it wasn’t necessary. It is often overlooked that “…a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). This was written in Luke’s letter to Theophilus (Book of Acts). This detail must have been true because this is a detail that could have easily been exposed as false if it were indeed false. When people lie they usually try to cover their tracks, but obviously the writers of the NT didn’t try to do this. Maybe they were telling the truth.
† The Explanation of the Jews- The Jews want people to believe that the cowardly disciples stole the body and created a story of the resurrection, all in order to get themselves beaten, tortured, and martyred. If it were true, how did the disciples get past the elite Roman guards who were trained to guard the tomb with their lives? The Jews said the guards were sleeping when the disciples silently moved the 2-ton stone from the grave. If the guards were sleeping how would they know that the disciples stole the body? Furthermore, no Roman guard would admit to sleeping on the job because he would be killed for the offense. Maybe the biblical story in Matt. is true; the Pharisees created this bad story, paid off the guards, and promised to keep them out of trouble.
7. The NT Writers Include More Than Thirty Historically Confirmed People In their Writings-
The NT could not have been invented because it contains too many historically confirmed characters. The NT writers would have blown their credibility with their audiences by implicating real people in a fictional story, especially people of great notoriety and power. The NT writers would not have gotten away with publicly telling lies about Pilate, Caiaphas, Festus, Felix, and the entire Herodian Bloodline.
8. The NT Writers Include Divergent Details-
The four Gospel accounts are not exactly the same. Critics say this proves it is a lie, but actually it strengthens the case for the biblical story of Christ. How? All four Gospels tell the same main story line (virgin birth, miralcle worker, Son of God, raised from the dead, ect.), but each account includes divergent details. Think of it like this, if a judge hears four stories that are exactly the same word-for-word, he would probably assume that the witnesses got together beforehand to make their stories agree (collusion). The Gospel accounts differ on small details like how many angels were in the tomb, or one account says an angel spoke and another account did not mention it. Just because one account mentions one angel does not mean there were not more, maybe one was just more prominent. The NT shows the nature of eyewitness testimony. I challenge you to read two news articles about the same event. It will usually be the same main story-line, with some differing minor details.
9. New Testament Writers Challenge Their Readers To Check Out Verifiable Facts, Even About Miracles-
For example, In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he declares that he previously preformed miracles for them. Paul was speaking of his own qualifications as an apostle—someone who speaks for God. Paul told the Corinthians, “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Cor. 12:12). Paul would not have written this unless he had really done miracles for them. Why would he have asked the Corinthians to remember miracles that he did not perform, thus destroying his credibility? The only explanation is that Paul was an apostle of God, he confirmed it by performing miracles, and he openly displayed this to the Corinthians.
10. NT Writers Describe Miracles Like Other Historical Events: With Simple, Unembellished Accounts—
Embellished and extravagant details are strong signs that a historical account may be fraudulent. For example, 100 years after the resurrection of Jesus a forgery known as the Gospel of Peter was written in a extravagant manner. The Gospel of Peter speaks of long heads that reached up to Heaven and a cross that walked and talked at the time of Jesus’ resurrection. In the four resurrection accounts found in the Bible there are no extravagant or embellished stories, just bland facts about the greatest miracle in history. If the Gospels were fake, and they were trying to convince the skeptics, don’t you think that they would have claimed to have actually seen Jesus physically rising from the dead, and maybe have thrown a few extra adjectives in to help. Thirty-five other miracles attributed to Jesus are described as if form reporters, not wild-eyed preachers.
Helpful resources: 99.9fm (Fresno), www.leestorbel.com, www.equip.org, www.answersingenesis.org, www.bibarch.com, www.biblequery.com, www.str.org, www.wayofthemaster.com, www.truthsthattransform.org, www.family.org, www.needgod.com
The Best News Ever! – 2 Cor. 5:21
July 1, 2009 by Jarod
Filed under Featured, Featured Videos
John MacArthur explains the heart of the Gospel. 1:26 min