"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5

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ILLUSIONS AND LEGENDS
LESSONS FROM THE WOMAN OF CANAAN -1
LESSONS FROM THE WOMAN OF CANAAN - II

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

"We take light - whether natural or artificial - for granted today, especially since the remarkable invention of electricity has ushered the light bulb so dominantly into our world. In fact, we barely notice light anymore, even in the nighttime hours, because light is now so common. There is an exception, however. There is a light that causes us to stand up abruptly and take assiduous notice of it. There is a light that grabs us and holds us hostage, and that is when a BRIGHT light, such as a SEARCHLIGHT, is suddenly turned upon ourselves, or some other object, and then instantly without warning brings all that it bathes into razor-sharp focus. It is the BRIGHTNESS of the light that arrests our attention, that captivates us and commands our view. And so it is with Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ HIMSELF who arrests our attention Godward, and who brings God into razor-sharp focus, for Jesus Christ is HIMSELF the very BRIGHTNESS of God's glory, and the express image of God's person, even as the Holy Spirit has revealed in the beginning of the Book of Hebrews... "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; WHO BEING THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS GLORY, AND THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"... The Shekinah glory of God is manifested on numerous occasions throughout the Old and New Testaments, and in varying degrees of intensity and splendor. None of these instances has ever exposed the PINNACLE of God's Shekinah glory, however. None of these instances ever even came close. Only in the man Christ Jesus HIMSELF is the PINNACLE of God's Shekinah glory made manifest. Only in Jesus Christ is the POWER and MAJESTY of God's Shekinah glory set loose, for Jesus Christ is not merely the glory of God, but is rather the very BRIGHTNESS of God's glory, and like the searchlight, Jesus Christ is the attention-getter of God's transcendence. Indeed, the very BRIGHTNESS of God's glory is the highest peak, the most renowned slot, the most esteemed position in all of existence, the Throne of all thrones, far above the stars of God, and higher than the mount of the congregation, into which Lucifer attempted to trespass. And yet, those to whom this same Jesus has manifested himself here, in this world, in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, indeed, those FEW that Jesus refers to in Matthew 7:14 and elsewhere, those FEW who are the "called, and chosen, and faithful," Revelation 17:14, will also be granted to sit with Jesus on his throne in that day, that Throne of all thrones, even as Jesus testified in Revelation 3:21... "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne"... Indeed, all who have seen Jesus Christ as the BRIGHTNESS of God's glory supernaturally by the Holy Spirit in the miracle of the New Birth will be awarded this incalculable and irredeemable honor, but those only. Can you so testify? Don't mistake these words by Jonathan Edwards as hyperbole, for they are nothing so... "There is a discovery of the divine superlative glory and excellency of God and Christ peculiar to the saints; and this is as immediately from God as light from the sun, and it is the immediate effect of his power and will... he that has had a clear sight of the spiritual glory of Christ may say, 'I have not followed cunningly devised fables, but have been an eyewitness of his majesty,' upon as good grounds as the Apostle Peter, when he had respect to the outward glory of Christ that he had seen"... I ask again, can you honestly so testify? You don't find a lost object in the dark by focusing on areas or even looking in areas where the light is not shining, nor do you win souls to God or get born again yourself that way. That is, you don't win souls to God or get born again yourself by focusing on ANYTHING or by looking at ANYTHING besides the BRIGHTNESS of God's own glory, and that BRIGHTNESS - now and forever more - is the man Christ Jesus HIMSELF, even the true Jesus of the Bible. If you haven't already done so, therefore, strive to see this very same Jesus, even the true Jesus of the Bible, in the BRIGHTNESS of his glory supernaturally by the Holy Spirit, for if you haven't seen this Jesus in his glory supernaturally by the Holy Spirit, you haven't yet been born again." Scott Jones, May 17, 2013

"If you have made yourself a Christian, you will fall in the end to everlasting misery and shame. If Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit has made you a Christian, you will rise in the end to everlasting grace and glory." Scott Jones, May 16, 2013

 "It is not man, but God, who determines what is a good work. The flesh thinks it would have been a good work had Jesus healed all the multitude at the Pool of Bethesda that day in the fifth chapter of John, but instead Jesus healed only the one. Not only that, but after healing only the one, Jesus quickly hid himself and conveyed himself away before anyone else could notice. So did Jesus fail to do a good work by healing only the one and leaving the rest in their sicknesses and diseases? Of course not, and such a notion is simply absurd to a truly regenerate Christian. Not to the flesh, though, for while healing the remaining multitudes at the Pool of Bethesda that day would no doubt have been considered a good work by the majority of the world, it nevertheless wasn't a good work in the Holy Spirit's eyes, otherwise the Holy Spirit would have led Jesus to do so. As the world will not long hence discover, God's ways are not man's ways, and thus the Father has his own inscrutable reasons for the manner in which he manages the world, reasons that are infinitely above the comprehension of flesh and blood, and therefore it is God the Holy Spirit who determines what a good work is, not man. Consequently, and while it may not be politic to say so, know this - if the good work that a professing Christian performs gets the glory instead of Jesus Christ the Lord HIMSELF getting the glory - and I mean substantively so - then the work was never indited by the Holy Spirit in the first place, nor is the work or deed - no matter how good in itself - good in God's eyes, nor will it be counted so on the day of judgment. Thomas Boston couldn't have stated the case better... "If ye be not in the faith, ye are reprobate to every good work. Ye can no more serve the true ends of Christianity, than dross can go for gold, or counterfeits pass for current money. For without SAVING FAITH, ye are without Christ; and without Christ ye can do nothing; so that however your works may be in the world's view, some good, some bad; yet there are none of them, however good in themselves, good in God's sight, as they do not proceed from a principle of faith in the heart, and are not directed to the glory of God as their ultimate scope and end"... Behold! Jesus ALONE is worthy. Among angels, men, and all creation, Jesus ALONE is worthy. FAR MORE WORTHY than an innumerable host of a myriad of creations, exactly as Thomas Goodwin noted when he plainly and bluntly declared... "God's chief end was not to bring Christ into the world for us, but us for Christ. He is worth all creatures. And God contrived all things that do fall out, and even redemption itself, for the setting forth of Christ's glory, more than our salvation"... It is one thing to understand those words with the mind, but another thing entirely to understand them by the flash of the Holy Spirit in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth." Scott Jones, May 14, 2013

"When Paul wanted to challenge the Galatian believers about their doctrine, he hit them right at their most critical point, which was that of their New Birth, and he did so simply by asking them... "This only..." ... Did you get that? ... "This ONLY" ... "This ONLY would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"... Paul knew full well that this would settle the issue once and for all with those Galatians who were truly regenerate, for receiving the Spirit in the New Testament is the exact equivalent of receiving the New Birth, and accordingly Paul knew they would remember this, and without fail. That's why he asked this very question, for indeed, Paul knew that nobody who undergoes the experience of the New Birth could ever possibly forget it. That's why he asked this foundational question, for these Galatians could each and every one remember the experience of being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit. Can you?" Scott Jones, May 14, 2013

"Why did Jesus heal only one man out of a great multitude of sick people at the Pool of Bethesda, as recorded in the fifth chapter of John? Oswald Chambers, though not actually addressing this question in particular, nevertheless hit the nail on the head when he accurately observed... "The bedrock in Jesus Christ's Kingdom is poverty, not possession; not 'decisions for Christ,' but a sense of absolute futility"... True words, and wise. Indeed, the man that Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda, the only man out of a great multitude of the sick and ill, the only man of ailing thousands, had no one to put him in the water when the angel stirred it. Everybody else had help. This man didn't. That's why Jesus healed him, and then stole quickly away. Verily, Jesus himself had to supply every ounce of this man's power, otherwise the man's case was hopeless. And so it is with all who come to Jesus savingly. Which is to say, Jesus must not only die for the sinner's sins, and Jesus must not only rise again for the sinner's justification, but Jesus must likewise supply the power for every sinner he saves to even come to him. It is even as Thomas Boston proclaimed... "Christ apprehends the sinner by his Spirit, and draws him to himself... the Spirit of faith furnishes him feet to come to Christ, and hands to receive him. What by nature he could not do, by grace he can, the Holy Spirit working in him the work of faith with POWER"... That's exactly why - or least primarily why - Jesus healed only the one man at the Pool of Bethesda, for that one man was on the bedrock of physical poverty in every sense of the word. He had not an iota of help from any other quarter, and therefore Jesus healed him, for you see, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, saves, regenerates, and manifests himself to those who can't, not to those who can. Behold! It is the man who can't that Jesus saves, and when he does, when Jesus truly saves, he saves with POWER, just as he did that day at the Pool of Bethesda, for the kingdom of God - which a sinner experiences by regeneration alone - is not in word, but in POWER." Scott Jones, May 13, 2013

"I have never met more deceived professing Christians who think they're born again, but aren't, than this kind right here, as so accurately pinpointed in "Christ Set Forth" by Thomas Goodwin... "Christ's person, and not barely the promises of forgiveness, is to be the object of faith. There are many poor souls humbled for sin, and taken off from their own bottom, who, like Noah's dove, fly over all the word of God, to spy out what they may set their foot upon, and eying therein many free and gracious promises, holding forth forgiveness of sins, and justification, they immediately close with them, and rest on them alone, not seeking for, or closing, with Christ in those promises"... Indeed, the masses of professing Christians today rest on the promises of forgiveness alright, but they've never actually PERSONALLY MET the GIVER of the promise of forgiveness itself, and thus they've never actually SEEN Jesus Christ in his GLORY supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. Again, the masses of professing Christians today rest on the promises of eternal life alright, but they've never actually PERSONALLY MET the GIVER of the promise of eternal life itself, and thus they've never actually SEEN Jesus Christ in his GLORY supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. Yes indeed, the masses of professing Christians today rest on all the promises they can unearth in the written word of God alright, but alas, they've never actually PERSONALLY MET the GIVER of all the promises in the written word of God, and thus they've never actually SEEN God by Jesus Christ in his GLORY supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. And that is a deal-breaker, for when the Father draws a man to Jesus Christ, John 6:44, in addition to convicting that man of sin and righteousness and judgment by the Holy Spirit, John 16:8, he also by the Holy Spirit SHOWS that man Jesus Christ in his GLORY, at least to some degree, so that that man cannot help but desire Jesus Christ above all things whatever, whether material or immaterial, so that that man would give ten thousand lives, if he had them, just to be with Jesus and behold him in his GLORY, for verily that man sees - verily that man has been SHOWN by the Holy Spirit - just how INFINITELY GLORIOUS and INFINITELY WORTHY Jesus Christ HIMSELF truly is, without any other thing added, not even to a molecule or an atom. Behold! That is precisely how PRECIOUS Jesus Christ HIMSELF becomes to the heart and soul of the man who gets born again, even how PRECIOUS the man Christ Jesus HIMSELF becomes to the man he PERSONALLY MANIFESTS HIMSELF to. It is exactly - I say, it is EXACTLY - as John Bunyan noted in "Christ A Complete Saviour," when he stated... "Before, therefore, God has been with a man, and has left some impression of his glory upon him, that man cannot be willing to come to him aright... The reason why men are so careless of, and so indifferent about, their coming to God, is because they have their eyes blinded, because they do not perceive his glory. God is so blessed a one, that did he not hide himself and his glory, the whole world would be ravished with him. But he has, I will not say reasons of state, but reasons of glory, glorious reasons why he hideth himself from the world, and appeareth but to particular ones"... Even so, for the GLORY of Jesus Christ is UTTERLY IRRESISTIBLE to ANY creature when Jesus chooses to MANIFEST HIMSELF to that creature, so that just as the earnest - or deposit - of the Holy Spirit is given to the genuinely born again believer here, so it is likewise the case with the GLORY of Jesus Christ, which is to say, the man who is given the earnest of the Holy Spirit here is also, with that earnest, likewise given a supernatural glimpse by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in his GLORY, and thus that man knows very well what that Scripture means when it testifies of Jesus that he is HIMSELF "the desire of all nations," Haggai 2:7, for in that day all nations will also behold Jesus Christ in his GLORY, even those who pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth will wail because of him, Revelation 1:7, for in that day they will SEE the GLORY of Jesus Christ's very Person, and the GLORY of his Sacrifice, which is infinite, and the GLORY of his Worth, also infinite, and the GLORY of his POWER, which is infinite too, along with so much more of the endless and immeasurable GLORY that attaches to Jesus Christ PERSONALLY, even the man Christ Jesus HIMSELF. All of this, and then some, the entire creation will see, and yet, all of this the truly regenerate believer has already had a glimpse and foretaste of here, when he was supernaturally born again in the resurrection miracle of the New Birth, for that is precisely how the Father draws his elect savingly to Jesus Christ, by showing his elect Jesus Christ in his GLORY by the Holy Spirit, exactly as Bunyan correctly noted above. Indeed, from that moment forward - from the very MOMENT of his New Birth forward, after having beheld Jesus Christ in his GLORY - the newly regenerate soul cannot help but announce just as boldly and with just as much authority as the Apostles themselves when they stood before the Sanhedrin and proclaimed, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Make no mistake, that is the very SAME testimony of the GENUINELY born again believer who has beheld Jesus Christ HIMSELF in his GLORY - EVERY GENUINELY born again believer. Is that honestly your testimony as well?" Scott Jones, May 12, 2013

"As almost anyone knows, a baby crying for the bottle cannot be denied. A baby crying for the bottle will not be silent until the bottle is given. The baby cannot simply take it or leave it. He must absolutely have it, otherwise his cries will get even louder, and his wails for the bottle will continue at an ever increasing pace. So it is with true, genuine, effectual, fervent, prevailing prayer. A man who can take it or leave it has not truly prayed, not in God's eyes. The only true prayer in God's eyes is the prayer that the petitioner must absolutely have. No other prayer will do. No other prayer has any force with God. When Jesus said... "ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you"... this was exactly the type of prayer that Jesus was referring to, the importunate prayer. That is, Jesus was referring to the type of prayer that replicates the baby's cry for the bottle. Nothing else will produce the everlasting milk that Jesus gives his secret ones. Moreover, just as the baby's heart is fully engaged in the cry, so must the petitioner's heart be fully engaged in true prayer to God, otherwise the cries are not even noticed, much less heard. To sum up, then, prayer to the Father in the name of Jesus - which means a prayer that is according to God's will - is just as simple as a baby's cry for the bottle... and just as hard, for if the heart of the petitioner is not as hot as the heart of the baby, then the outcome, at least in eternity, will be shown to have been nothing but a waterspout... here a moment, there a moment, gone a moment. Accordingly, if you are truly born again, learn to pray in the Holy Spirit, and don't get ahead of him. Await his lead. Spend time with the Holy Ghost in his classroom of sanctified prayer, for he ALONE can teach you to truly pray, and he ALONE can inflame your heart for holy ends, though you may have to faithfully attend upon him and wait long in his presence, on your knees or on your face, or however you pray, all assuming, of course, that you are truly born again in the first place. If you are not born again, if you have never EXPERIENCED the unmistakable supernatural miracle of the New Birth, wherein Jesus PERSONALLY MANIFESTED HIMSELF to you more certainly than any human or angel is capable of, which is exactly what happens when a man receives the Holy Ghost, when a man is genuinely born again, then learn to pray DIRECTLY to Jesus FOR the Holy Spirit, for it is Jesus HIMSELF who baptizes in the Holy Spirit, and none other, and therefore don't get sidetracked on anything else, no matter how pressing it may seem to be. In other words, let the dead bury their dead, no matter your circumstances. Eternity will be far more intense than the present. Your mission is therefore to get born again, and nothing less. Anything else, and you may be certain that you are not on a mission of God, but only on a mission of your own designs, and that won't cut it before the Throne of Heaven, where Jesus Christ rules and reigns in righteousness by his Spirit, even the Holy Spirit, according to the Father's good pleasure. Yea, this is the same Jesus who royally declared that few, comparatively speaking, will enter his kingdom, and that though there be few, yet one soul is worth more than the whole world, and thus, if you won't likewise prize your own soul above all else in an effort to become one of those few, who will?" Scott Jones, May 10, 2013

"The old-timers knew that it is Jesus Christ who does the accepting, not the other way around, and they were adamantly opposed to the false doctrine which asserts that a sinner can himself actually "accept" Jesus, as noted here by William Gurnall, who talks about SAVING FAITH and the absolute POWERLESSNESS of ANY sinner to come to Jesus Christ SAVINGLY in his own nature, that is, without FIRST being made a NEW CREATURE. Indeed, Gurnall was just one of the many thousands of true ministers in the past centuries who opposed this Satanic doctrine of our day... "The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency... The Spirit finds sinners in as helpless a condition, as unable to repent, or believe on Christ for salvation, as they were of themselves to purchase it. Confounded therefore for ever be the language of those sons of pride, who cry up the power of nature, as if man with his own brick and slime of natural abilities were able to rear up such a building, whose top may reach heaven itself... God himself hath scattered such Babel-builders in the imagination of their hearts, who raiseth this spiritual temple in the souls of men... And therefore, if any yet in their natural estate would become wise to salvation, let them first become fools in their own eyes, and renounce their carnal wisdom, which perceives not the things of God, and beg wisdom of God, who giveth and upbraideth not. If any man would have strength to believe, let them become weak, and die to their own"... If you want to get genuinely born again, forget about accepting Jesus. Rather, pray incessantly for Jesus to accept YOU, and don't give him any rest until he does, until he PERSONALLY MANIFESTS HIMSELF to you more certainly than any human you have ever interacted with in your entire life, for this is what it means to receive the Holy Ghost, to be born again, and this is exactly what the true Jesus of the Bible promises to do in numerous passages of Scripture for those who heed this advice. If and when this occurs, then - and ONLY then - will you know what it means to be a NEW CREATURE, and what it means to believe SAVINGLY, and what it means to actually experience eternal life and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But if you won't do this, then you won't meet Jesus here, this side of eternity, and if you don't meet Jesus here in POWER, on this side of eternity, then you will meet him at his judgment seat on the other side of eternity in everlasting condemnation." Scott Jones, May 9, 2013

"Consider that it is one thing to be convinced, and another to be converted; one thing to be wounded, and another to be killed, and so to be made alive again by the faith OF Jesus Christ... When God brings sinners into the covenant of grace, he doth first kill them with the covenant of works... But how doth God kill with this law, or covenant? By showing to the soul the spirituality of it... Now the spirituality of the law is discovered this way - by showing to the soul that every sinful thought is a sin against it. Ay, sinner, when the law doth come home indeed upon thy soul in the spirituality of it, it will discover such things to thee to be sins that now thou lookest over and regardest not... It showeth that every such sin deserveth eternal damnation. Friends, I doubt there be but few of you that have seen the spirituality of the law of works... God, with a discovery of this, doth also discover His own Divine and infinite justice, of which the law is a description, which backs what is discovered by the law, and that by discovering of its purity and holiness to be so Divine, so pure, so upright, and so far off from winking at the least sin, that He doth by that law, without any favour, condemn the sinner for that sin... O, the very discovery of this striketh the soul into a deadly swoon, even above half dead! But when God doth do the work indeed, He doth, in the next place, show the soul that he is the man that is eternally under this covenant by nature, and that it is he that hath sinned against this law, and doth by right deserve the curse and displeasure of the same, and that all that ever he can do will not give satisfaction to that glorious justice that did give this law; holy actions, tears of blood, selling all, and giving it to the poor, or whatever else can be done by thee, it comes all short and is all to no purpose. I will warrant him, he that seeth this, it will kill him to that which he was alive unto before, though he had a thousand lives. Ah, sinners, sinners, were you but sensible indeed of the severity and truth of this, it would make you look about you to purpose... Now, when the soul is brought into this condition, then it is indeed dead, killed to that to which it was once alive... It is also killed to its own faith, its notion of the Gospel, its own hope, its own repentings, its own promises and resolutions, to its own strength, its own virtue, or whatsoever it had before. Now, saith the soul, that faith I thought I had, it is but fancy; that hope I thought I had, I see it is but hypocritical, but vain and groundless hope. Now the soul sees it hath by nature no saving faith, no saving hope, no grace at all by nature..." John Bunyan, The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded, Posted by Scott Jones, April 8, 2013

"The only man who has read the Bible and who yet denies that saving faith is WHOLLY the gift of God is a man who is determined to deceive himself no matter what. That is, he is a man who is WILLFULLY, INTENTIONALLY BLIND, and he has no one to blame but himself, for he has stubbornly and purposely made himself that way. Moreover, he has no chance WHATSOEVER of ever being genuinely born again as long as he refuses to admit that Jesus Christ - even Jesus Christ HIMSELF - SOVEREIGNLY bestows SAVING FAITH upon whomsoever he will, whensoever he will, wheresoever he will, exactly as Jesus testified in John 5:21... "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will"... The man who denies this simple truth is a graceless man throughout, no matter how righteous or holy or religious he may appear in the eyes of men, even if he is a pastor or a preacher or a missionary or a church planter or what-have-you. Nor will this man ever set foot inside Jesus Christ's kingdom unless he repents. It will be exactly for that man - every such man - as John Bunyan declared ... "There is also that free-willer, who denies to the Holy Ghost the sole work in conversion... the Scripture is plain: these will seek to enter into heaven, and shall not be able"... In fact, this man's only hope is to undeceive himself and acknowledge that Jesus Christ does, in fact, save whom he will, when he will, where he will, and that none can stay his hand. And yet, even if he brings himself to this point, yet the recognition and acceptance of this fact alone is still only the beginning of the battle for him, for the next thing the man will have to come to realize is that he has no SAVING FAITH in himself by nature, and that his own faith is a mere natural faith, a mere fleshly faith, a mere damning faith, and that this faith of his own will do nothing but condemn him, and will damn him eternally. Moreover, and only adding to his consternation, this lack of SAVING FAITH, and his own possession of merely natural faith, is not something that the man by himself can ever come to really know or understand, for until he is actually SHOWN this by the Holy Spirit, that is, SHOWN by the Holy Spirit that his own faith is merely a fleshly faith, a damning faith, and that he needs SUPERNATURAL FAITH, SAVING FAITH, indeed, until he is actually SHOWN this by the Holy Spirit, he will never understand it or realize the experience of it. So his conundrum is thereby multiplied, for he will NEVER be SHOWN by the Holy Spirit that he has no SAVING FAITH of his own, and that he cannot come to Christ SAVINGLY in his own power, until he FIRST admits that Jesus Christ HIMSELF is absolutely, utterly, irrevocably SOVEREIGN in salvation. Not even close. Indeed, until he admits this, until he admits that Jesus Christ is HIMSELF absolutely SOVEREIGN in salvation, then the Holy Spirit will not even BEGIN to work on him in a convincing and saving manner. I mean, not even BEGIN. However, once a man is SHOWN this - I mean SHOWN this by the Holy Ghost HIMSELF - SHOWN that he has no ability WHATSOEVER to come to Jesus Christ SAVINGLY, then consequently he will likewise simultaneously and instantaneously understand on the spot that all of this Satanic nonsense about "accepting Christ as your Saviour" or "making a decision for Christ", ad nauseam, is nothing but fool's gold, and is thus prosecuted solely by proud, self-conceited men and woman who have never even been REMOTELY CONVICTED by the Holy Spirit, much less BORN of the Holy Spirit, and who have therefore done nothing but deceived themselves from head to toe into everlasting damnation and eternal misery, world without end. Indeed, the man who thinks he can come to Jesus Christ without FIRST being given POWER to believe SAVINGLY, that is, without FIRST receiving SUPERNATURAL FAITH, SAVING FAITH, is a proud, arrogant, self-willed man through and through, even though he is wholly unaware of it, no matter how meek or humble or contrite he may appear to the eyes of men, for none who think that they can come to Jesus Christ of their own power realize or understand that they are nothing but proud, arrogant, self-willed men and women through and through - they wouldn't even dream such about themselves - but nevertheless, their delusion will be exposed and come abroad in the day of Jesus Christ, and thus they will likewise see in that day that they are therefore nothing but an absolute abomination and offense to Jesus Christ and his Father, and to Jesus Christ's gospel. Conversely, and in stark contrast to these utterly deceived men and women, the other man who gets genuinely operated on by the Holy Spirit, the man who gets genuinely convicted of his sin, is so devastated and laid low concerning his own natural ability that he LITERALLY sees how utterly, irrevocably, absolutely, completely POWERLESS he is to come to Jesus on his own, POWERLESS to be a disciple of Jesus on his own, POWERLESS to believe SAVINGLY on his own, and that he has no hope of EVER belonging to Jesus Christ apart from some kind of major miracle taking place. Indeed, this man is so far from any ability or strength of himself to come to Jesus Christ savingly that he disdainfully scoffs at the abject foolishness and absurdity of the notion that ANY sinner could be so utterly ignorant and brazen enough to think that he could "accept" Jesus. Such notions to this man are so ludicrously ridiculous that he wonders how it is even possible for anyone to even consider such an egregiously bizarre concept, for this man has seen - this man has been SHOWN by the Holy Spirit - yea, this man has SEEN a slice of Jesus Christ in his GLORY by the Holy Spirit, and thus this man falls at the feet of Jesus Christ as though dead, for that is how POWERLESS he knows he is to become a Christian without supernatural intervention from heaven, even without supernatural intervention from Jesus Christ HIMSELF. This is the man - and he only - who gets saved. All others will miss of heaven. Just wait and see. However, know this... all of the above statements are merely the ARTICULATION of the matter. That is, the man who gets saved doesn't necessarily go through this process mentally, per se, but he nevertheless EXPERIENCES it to one degree or another, he nevertheless FEELS it to one degree or another, that is, he EXPERIENCES and FEELS the fact that Jesus is absolutely SOVEREIGN in salvation, and he EXPERIENCES and FEELS that he is utterly POWERLESS and unable to become a disciple of Jesus by his own natural ability, that he is POWERLESS and unable to believe SAVINGLY in Jesus Christ, no matter how hard he tries, and he therefore EXPERIENCES and FEELS that unless Jesus SOVEREIGNLY reaches down and plucks him from damnation SOVEREIGNLY, then he will never be able to come to Jesus SAVINGLY, to believe on Jesus SAVINGLY, to be a disciple of Jesus SAVINGLY. This is the man who gets saved indeed. All others are excluded from "the general assembly and church of the firstborn." So you see, becoming a Christian is not so simple a matter as you have been falsely led to believe. It is exactly as Richard Baxter noted... "If the way to heaven be not far harder than the world imagines, then Christ and his apostles knew not the way, or else have deceived us; for they have told us that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; that the gate is strait, and the way narrow; and we must strive, if we will enter; for many shall seek to enter, and not be able."... In fact, you can't become a Christian just any old time you please. Therefore, you better start calling on Jesus now, while you still have breath, for Jesus comes when HE wills, not when you will, and thus you will never know this side of heaven if you truly belong to Jesus unless he actually comes - unless Jesus HIMSELF actually comes and MANIFESTS HIMSELF to you more certainly than any human or being you have ever interacted with - so indeed, you will never know this side of heaven if you are going to belong to Jesus eternally unless Jesus HIMSELF comes to you with POWER now, for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in POWER. And if Jesus doesn't come to you here, this side of eternity, then he will not own you there, on the other side of eternity, nor will he allow you into his kingdom. I say again, therefore, call on Jesus now, while you still have breath, and give him no rest until he hears from heaven and HIMSELF answers you DIRECTLY, for even if you start now, even if you start calling on Jesus now, it is yet possible that you will have already started almost too late." Scott Jones, May 7, 2013

 "A man's interest in Christ, or his gracious state, may be known, and that with more certainty than people conjecture; yea, and the knowledge of it may be more easily attained unto than many imagine... Very few have, or seek after a saving interest in the covenant; and many foolishly think they have such a thing without any solid ground... They complain that they know not whether they be in Christ or not; but as few take pains to be in him, so few take pains to try if they be in him. It is a work and business which cannot be done sleeping... It is a business above flesh and blood: the holy anointing which teacheth all things, must make us know the things freely given to us of God... You who judge this below you, and unworthy of your pains, any part or minute of your time, it is probable, in God's account, you have judged yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, so that you shall have no lot with God's people in this matter... True faith in the lowest degree is the gift of God, and above the power of flesh and blood... SAVING FAITH, by which alone a man can heartily close with God in Christ, is above our power and is the gift of God... The Lord commanding this thing, which is above our power, willeth us to be sensible of our inability to do the thing, and would have us to put it on him to work it in us." William Guthrie, The Christian's Great Interest, Posted by Scott Jones, May 5, 2013

"If your heart is not WHOLLY engaged in the prayer you pray, then your prayer is not only ineffective, but it is an offense to God. Your prayer is in fact nothing in God's eyes but a purely hypocritical prayer, and you will answer for your hypocritical prayer on the day of judgment, even if you are truly regenerate, although you won't be condemned for it if you are truly regenerate. Accordingly, here's a tip - It is better to pray a few words STRICTLY with your heart and keep your mouth completely shut if you can't keep the form of your words STRICTLY ALIGNED to the dictates of your heart. Nor am I talking about mere thoughts. There is a world of difference between thoughts and the emanations of the heart, especially a regenerate heart, a heart permeated by the Holy Ghost HIMSELF. Therefore, keep your thoughts likewise WHOLLY subservient to your heart, or else don't even so much as pray a single syllable to God. In fact, God values silence FAR ABOVE an ineffectual prayer, that is, a prayer which emanates only with the lips or the thoughts. Behold! Consult your heart, and then - and ONLY then - cry to Jesus Christ and his Father SOLELY with your heart, making every single thought conform thereto, not vice-versa, and likewise keep your mouth shut. If you must open your mouth, make sure it obeys your heart first, and then your thoughts secondly, keeping in mind that your thoughts also must be second in order to your heart, and therefore must also obey the heart. Then - and ONLY then - do you have a chance that your prayers have been seriously considered by God, but ONLY if you have approached the Father in Jesus' name, which has absolutely NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with simply tacking on Jesus' name at the end of your prayer, but which rather means approaching the Father WHOLLY in Jesus Christ's righteousness and deeds, and not rather in one scintilla or iota of your own supposed righteousness or supposed obedience, while likewise simultaneously praying ONLY a prayer that Jesus HIMSELF would pray if he were in your circumstance. In other words, if you pray a prayer that Jesus himself would not pray, not only have you NOT prayed in Jesus' name, but your prayer likewise won't even get off the ground as far as God is concerned, no matter how strongly you desire it or wish it or lust after it. Accordingly, as an aid to this, and if you want a simple formula, then there is no better guideline in the Scripture with regard to the attitude of prayer than these words in Ecclesiastes 5:1-2... "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few"... Indeed, a few words generated solely by the heart will count more for prayer in God's eyes than all the prayers that are made from all the pulpits in the world in modern Christianity combined. And that ain't no exaggeration WHATSOEVER. Moreover, if you are not truly born again, then the New Birth is all you should pray for, for you have no true SAVING FAITH, SUPERNATURAL FAITH, at all, even if you don't know it, and thus SAVING FAITH by the gift of the Holy Ghost is what you should be praying for continually, and to Jesus Christ HIMSELF DIRECTLY, for it is Jesus Christ HIMSELF who bestows SAVING FAITH, and none other. On the other hand, if you are born again, wait until the Holy Ghost moves your heart to pray with your heart. He will, but not if you won't wait for him, which may sometimes be immediate, and sometimes take quite a while indeed. Of course, once you have developed a genuine habit of effectual, fervent prayer, it will become very natural for your mouth to follow your heart in many cases, but not always, and so this must ALWAYS be guarded. Be warned. So then, in closing, know that this is all the lesson you will need on prayer, for the fact is, once you get genuinely born again - and I mean GENUINELY BORN AGAIN in the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the New Birth - indeed, once this happens, then the ONLY PERSON who can TRULY teach you to pray is the Holy Ghost HIMSELF, and no other. Nobody. Hear it again - the Holy Ghost HIMSELF is the ONLY true teacher of prayer to the genuinely born again Christian, and therefore, if you would learn of him, if you would learn to pray DIRECTLY from the Holy Ghost HIMSELF, and to pray in the Spirit, then you must spend HOURS ALONE with the Holy Ghost HIMSELF in his classroom, otherwise you are nothing but a truant, and you will therefore miss his personal instruction accordingly and respectively. Finally, if you truly are regenerate and if you truly desire to glorify Jesus Christ to the utmost, and to win souls by the MANIFEST POWER of the Holy Ghost HIMSELF in the gospel of Jesus Christ, then these very practical and prescient words from John Bunyan in "Christ A Complete Saviour" should be every Christian's motto, ESPECIALLY every Christian preacher's motto... "There belongs to every true notion of truth a POWER; the notion is the shell -- the POWER is the kernel and life. Without this last, truth doth me no good, nor those to whom I communicate it. Hence Paul said to the Corinthians, 'When I come to you again, I will know not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the POWER. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in POWER.' Search, then, after the POWER of what thou knowest, for it is the POWER that will do thee good. Now this will not be got but by earnest prayer, and much attending upon God; also there must not be admitted by thee that thy heart be stuffed with cumbering cares of this world, for they are of a choking nature." Alas! If you want to know the secret to living victoriously in Jesus Christ, you have just been given it." Scott Jones, May 4, 2013

"In his treatise, "A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit", John Owen describes the scorn that those of us who have been genuinely born again and who have testified of it have experienced. Have you suffered this type of scorn... "As among all the doctrines of the gospel, there is none opposed with more violence and subtlety than that concerning our regeneration by the immediate, powerful, effectual operation of the Holy Spirit of grace; so there is not scarce anything more despised or scorned by many in the world than that any should profess that there hath been such a work of God upon themselves, or on any occasion declare aught of the way and manner whereby it was wrought... yea, the enmity of Cain against Abel was but a branch of this proud and perverse inclination." If not, if you have not suffered this type of scorn, then that can only mean one of two things - either you have only been born again for a very short while, perhaps a few days at most, or you have never been born again at all. It is infallibly one of the two, for a genuinely regenerate man will infallibly proclaim not only that Jesus Christ has personally manifested himself to him, and indwelt him, and made him a new creature, but will likewise declare the way and manner it was wrought. He who doesn't is he who is not born again." Scott Jones, May 3, 2013

"The Holy Spirit himself always teaches every faithful preacher in the church to know that the kingdom of God does not stand in word, but in POWER." Martin Luther, Treasury of David, Vol I, Psalm I, Posted by Scott Jones, May 3, 2013

"Presuppositional apologetics is a fool's gambit, prosecuted by unregenerate men who know nothing whatsoever of the POWER of the Holy Ghost in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The basis of all their efforts and argumentation is wholly of the flesh, and not of the Spirit. Yes, they might be able to stimulate the intellect to wondrous heights and domains, but they instill not an IOTA of the life-giving Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus Christ HIMSELF, and to Jesus Christ ALONE, not to stimulating intellectual arguments, or anything else, nor will you ever find Jesus or the Apostles even REMOTELY proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ this way in the New Testament. Not even close. The truth is, such men have obviously not only never experienced the POWER of the Holy Ghost themselves in the supernatural miracle of regeneration, but they likewise have clearly never personally witnessed that POWER of the Holy Ghost descend on a man while they yet spake, while they testified of Jesus Christ HIMSELF, as happened with Peter in the household of Cornelius in Acts 10:44, for had they, had they ever seen a man MANIFESTLY born again on the spot while proclaiming Jesus Christ HIMSELF, they would know that the kingdom of God is not in word, but in POWER, 1 Corinthians 4:20, and they would likewise know PRECISELY what Jesus meant when he decreed, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life," John 6:63. It is even as Tozer so accurately observed... "If you have to be reasoned into Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it. If you come to Christ by a flash of the Holy Ghost so that by intuition you know that you are God's child, you know it by the text, but you also know it by the inner light, the inner illumination of the Spirit, and no one can ever reason you out of it"... I don't care if the man is an avowed atheist, an avowed God-hater, an avowed Christ-hater, or a habitual sadistic criminal, or any other thing, when a man born of the Holy Spirit proclaims Jesus Christ in the POWER of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will, if Jesus Christ wills, descend on that wicked man and prick him in the heart and convert him MANIFESTLY on the spot in a moment of time, even in the POWER of the Holy Ghost - the MANIFEST POWER of the Holy Ghost HIMSELF, exactly as happened on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached to the crowd in Acts 2:37. Indeed, the truly born again Christian understands this - and if he has any maturity in the Holy Spirit, and any real experience in the Holy Spirit himself, has witnessed it - for he knows that, "we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. It is not the testimony of intellectual argumentation, nor is it even the testimony of the Father, nor is it even the testimony of the Holy Ghost, but it is rather the TESTIMONY OF JESUS that is the spirit of prophecy, Revelation 19:10, and thus that is the ONLY TESTIMONY that the Father and the Holy Ghost honors and will bear witness to. Period. Indeed, indeed, those of us who are genuinely born again know that we are not one whit better than the demoniac of the Gadarenes, who was possessed by the legion of devils, and therefore, because we - like that man - had a MANIFEST MIRACLE wrought and worked upon us DIRECTLY by Jesus Christ HIMSELF in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, we therefore proclaim "what great things Jesus Christ HIMSELF hath done for us," Mark 5:1-19, and thus it is THIS VERY TESTIMONY that the Holy Ghost HIMSELF honors, even the TESTIMONY OF JESUS, and no other, at least for those of us who actually HAVE a PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF JESUS, just like the demoniac - and just like Paul, for just see how many times Paul preaches Jesus Christ via his own personal testimony in the book of Acts - for it is THIS VERY TESTIMONY whereby the Holy Ghost HIMSELF will descend in POWER on the man to whom those of us who are filled with the Holy Ghost speak, whenever Jesus Christ wills, and will prick that man in the heart and convert him MANIFESTLY on the spot, nor will a single syllable of invitation have to be given, as those of us who are truly regenerate and who have any real maturity and experience in the Holy Spirit KNOW, and have witnessed. Alas! What degenerate, ignorant times we live in. Modern Christianity bears NO RESEMBLANCE WHATSOEVER to the true Christianity of the Bible. None. But you yourself will be held accountable to the written word of God, not to modern Christianity, and thus if you dismiss the book of Acts and the operations of the Holy Spirit therein as being relevant only to the first Christians, then you will have likewise dismissed your own inheritance to eternal life in Jesus Christ via the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the New Birth, for whenever in the book of Acts it talks about receiving the Holy Ghost, such as Acts 2:38, along with all the other places, that is the exact equivalent of receiving the New Birth, and therefore know that Romans 8:9 means EXACTLY what it says, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." You have been warned." Scott Jones, May 2, 2013

"It is certain that all who will go to heaven hereafter begin their heaven now, and have their hearts there... It is not only necessary to spend part of our time in actual preparation for another world, but all our time must be spent with a habitual regard to it... See what a hidden life the life of a good Christian is, and how much it is concealed from the eye and observation of the world. The most important part of the business lies between God and our own souls, in the frame of our spirits and the working of our hearts, in our actions that no eye sees except the all-seeing God. Justly are the saints called God's hidden ones, and His secret is said to be with them." Matthew Henry, Experiencing God's Presence, Posted by Scott Jones, May 2, 2013

"The children of Israel, whenever they repented of their sins, turned their thoughts first of all to the exodus from Egypt, and, remembering this, returned to God who had brought them out. This memory and this refuge were many times impressed upon them by Moses, and afterward repeated by David. How much rather ought we to call to mind our exodus from Egypt, and, remembering, turn back again to him who led us forth through the washing of regeneration, which we are bidden remember for this very purpose." Martin Luther, The Babylon Captivity Of The Church, Posted by Scott Jones, May 1, 2013

"Why, if thou art born again, then thou knowest that thou wast not born a Christian at first. Thou knowest that once thou hadst no faith in the Lord Jesus; and wert convinced of sin because thou didst not believe in the Son of Mary... Thou knowest that God hath given thee thy faith... Thou thinkest that thou art a Christian; thou shouldest be sorry else: Well, But when did God shew thee that thou wert no Christian? When didst thou see that: And in the light of the Spirit of Christ, see that thou wert under the wrath of God because of original sin? Nay, dost thou know what original sin means? Is it not the least in thy thoughts?... when did the Spirit of the Lord Jesus shew thee, that thou hadst no faith in thee by nature? And when did the Spirit of Christ convince thee of sin because thou didst not believe in him? It may be thou hast been convinced of sins against the law, by the law, and thine own conscience, as the Pharisees were. Ay, but when didst thou see thyself a lost creature for want of faith in the Son of Mary? If not, thou hast not yet been savingly convinced by the Spirit of Christ; for that, when it convinceth effectually of sin, it convinceth of unbelief; though thou hast been never so much convinced of sins against the law, if thou hast not seen thyself under the power and dominion, guilt and punishment of sin because thou didst not believe in Christ, thou hast not yet been savingly convinced; that that is one work of the Spirit to convince of sin... Art thou born again?... Then thou seest that thy great sin was want of faith in the Son of Mary... then thou knowest that God has given thee thy faith that thou hast in his Son: Then thou art to say through grace that there was a time in which I had no faith; there was a time in which I could not believe in the Son of God for eternal life... If therefore thou hast been convinced aright by the Spirit, thou hast seen that thou hadst no faith in Christ the Son of Mary, the Son of God, before conversion. It shews thee also, that thou canst not believe in thine own strength, though thou wouldest never so willingly; yea, though thou wouldest give all the world (if thou hadst it) to believe, thou couldest not." John Bunyan, Some Gospel Truths Opened, Posted by Scott Jones, May 1, 2013

"When angels and men had sinned, how did they fall and crumble before the anger of God! They had not power to withstand the terror, nor could there be worth found in their persons or doings to appease displeased justice. But behold! Here stands the Son of God before him in the sin of the world; his Father, finding him there, curseth and condemns him to death; but Christ, by the power of his Godhead, and the worthiness of his person and doings, vanquisheth sin, satisfieth God's justice, and so becomes the Saviour of the world. Here, then, is power seen: sin is a mighty thing, it crusheth all in pieces save him whose Spirit is eternal. Set Christ and his sufferings aside, and you neither see the evil of sin nor the displeasure of God against it; you see them not in their utmost. Hadst thou a view of all the legions that are now in the pains of hell, yea, couldst thou hear their shrieks and groans together at once, and feel the whole of all their burden, much of the evil of sin and of the justice of God against it would be yet unknown by thee, for thou wouldest want power to feel and bear the utmost. A giant shows not his power by killing of a little child, nor yet is his might seen by the resistance that such a little one makes, but then he showeth his power when he dealeth with one like himself; yea, and the power also of the other is then made manifest in saving himself from being swallowed up with his wrath. Jesus Christ also made manifest his eternal power and Godhead, more by bearing and overcoming our sins, than in making or upholding the whole world; hence Christ crucified is called the power of God." John Bunyan, Light For Them That Sin In Darkness, Posted by Scott Jones, April 30, 2013

"Here is a truth spoken by John Bunyan in "The Acceptable Sacrifice" that every sentient genuinely born again Christian on this earth has undeniable experience and knowledge of... "Some men think an invitation, an outward call, a rational discourse, will do, but they are much deceived; there must be a POWER, an EXCEEDING GREAT and MIGHTY POWER, attend the Word, or it worketh not effectually to the salvation of the soul... No man can break the heart with the Word; no angel can break the heart with the Word; that is, if God forbears to second it by MIGHTY POWER from heaven... Wherefore, though the Word is the instrument with which the heart is broken, yet it is not broken with the Word, till that Word is managed by the MIGHT and POWER of God... wherefore, I say, though the Word be the instrument, yet of itself doth no saving good to the soul; the heart is not broken, nor the spirit made contrite thereby; it only worketh death, and leaveth men in the chains of their sins, still faster bound over to eternal condemnation. But when seconded by MIGHTY POWER, then the same Word is as the roaring of a lion, as the piercing of a sword, as a burning fire in the bones, as thunder and as a hammer that dashes all to pieces"... Indeed, the kingdom of God, as the Scripture itself testifies in 1 Corinthians 4:20, is not in word, but in POWER. So is the New Birth. There are no exceptions." Scott Jones, April 30, 2013

"Now as Christ suffered by God's hand, so he suffered for sins; but as he suffered from men, so he suffered for righteousness' sake... The power of God is here more seen than in the making of heaven and earth: in that for Christ to bear, and get the victory over sin, when charged by the justice of an infinite majesty, in so doing Christ showeth the height of the highest power, for where sin by the law is charged, and that by God immediately, there an infinite majesty opposeth, and that with the whole of his justice, holiness, and power; so then, he that is thus charged and engaged for the sin of the world, even Christ, must not only be equal with God, but show it by overcoming that curse and judgment that by infinite justice is charged upon him for sin." John Bunyan, Light For Them That Sin In Darkness, Posted by Scott Jones, April 30, 2013

"The only miracle as great as the New Birth is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. These two miracles - the miracle of the New Birth and the miracle of Jesus Christ's Resurrection - are the greatest miracles that have ever occurred, or ever will occur, throughout all eternity. That's because the New Birth is generated by the very same POWER as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ HIMSELF, and there never has been - and there never will be - any greater miracle than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ HIMSELF, and thus this is why not a single, solitary genuinely born again Christian in this universe encounters even the SLIGHTEST problem in believing the miracles of the Bible, for the genuinely born again Christian has EXPERIENCED a FAR greater miracle when Jesus Christ PERSONALLY MANIFESTED HIMSELF to him than all of the other miracles in the Bible combined, including the creation of the very worlds. This is also why no evidence of any means or nature brought by man against the veracity of the Bible can cause a genuinely born again Christian to lose his faith or doubt the veracity of the Bible as a whole, for the genuinely born again Christian has EXPERIENCED a mystery which no man can scientifically or philosophically explain or dismiss. In other words, the genuinely born again Christian possesses knowledge that is INFINITELY GREATER - I say, INFINITELY GREATER - than any knowledge that man can arrive at on his own. In fact, the genuinely born again believer enjoys a certain, particular knowledge that not even the angels possess. Thus, those who grow up in the "church" and who thus begin to lose their faith or have their faith shaken in Jesus Christ as Lord of lords by modern science when they enter the educational system were never genuinely born again in the first place, for not even the gates of hell can prevail against the New Birth, which is to say, no genuinely born again Christian on the planet could ever deny or not remember being born again. It literally isn't possible. Oh, the genuinely born again Christian may in times of spiritual distress come to feel that God has cast him off because of his backslidings or numerous other contrivances and inventions that Satan can assault him with, but in the midst of it all, the one thing the genuinely born again Christian CANNOT do is deny the HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE of his New Birth, wherein Jesus Christ PERSONALLY MANIFESTED HIMSELF to him, and indwelt him, and made him a new creature. No indeed, that is a HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE that no genuinely born again Christian could deny even if he tried to. This is also why Satan will never even attempt to attack a genuinely born again Christian on that very point, the point of his New Birth, for Satan knows that it is game over for him the moment he tries to do so, for the MANIFESTATION of Jesus HIMSELF to the spirit and soul of the man he indwells is stronger than the very creation itself, and this FACT of the New Birth, wherein Jesus PERSONALLY MANIFESTS HIMSELF to that soul, simply cannot be denied by those who have actually EXPERIENCED the supernatural miracle of the New Birth themselves. Accordingly, Satan will always modify his attack against a genuinely born again Christian and come at him in some other way, or any other way, but Satan will NEVER try to convince a man who has been genuinely born again that he never was actually born again, for as I said - and most importantly - as Jesus said, that simply isn't possible. Satan may even be able to go so far as to temporarily make a genuinely born again believer think that God has revoked his inheritance - I know whereof I speak, as did Bunyan - but nevertheless, Satan can NEVER make the genuinely born again believer question the FACT of his New Birth. Not even REMOTELY. Consequently, is your certainty of the New Birth that invincible? If not, you yourself are not born again, nor are there any exceptions relative to this unshakable certainty of the New Birth, for the New Birth is part and parcel of Jesus Christ HIMSELF, and as the Scripture testifies, the one thing that the indwelling Jesus likewise cannot do is deny HIMSELF, even if the believer himself is unfaithful. So I ask you again: are you invincibly - and I do mean INVINCIBLY - certain that you have been born again? If not, then you're not. That is, you are in fact NOT born again, nor are you as of this moment heaven-bound. Which means you need to have a PERSONAL ENCOUNTER with Jesus HIMSELF if you ever want to go to heaven." Scott Jones, April 29, 2013

"Learn to give Jesus Christ his full honour, which God his Father hath given him." Thomas Goodwin, Works - Volume 1, Ephesians - Sermon V, Posted by Scott Jones, April 28, 2013

"Some people do not believe in SUDDEN CONVERSION. But I will challenge any one to show a conversion in the New Testament that was not instantaneous... My friends, don’t build your hope of heaven upon some profession of your faith, but bear in mind you must be born of God.... Why, every conversion recorded in the Bible is instantaneous, and if preachers tell men conversion is a life work they are keeping men out of the kingdom of God." Dwight L. Moody, Sudden Conversion, Posted by Scott Jones, April 27, 2013

"How FEW even of the professing world win heaven at last!" John Flavel, Touchstone Of Sincerity, Posted by Scott Jones, April 27, 2013

"O when a man shall see his misery and danger, and no way to escape but Christ, and that he hath no ability himself to come to Christ, or to open his heart thus to receive Christ, BUT THAT THIS WORK OF FAITH IS WHOLLY SUPERNATURAL, THE OPERATION OF GOD, how will the soul return again and again upon God with such cries as, Lord help my unbelief." John Flavel, The Method Of Grace, Posted by Scott Jones, April 26, 2013

"If ye be not in the faith, ye are reprobate to every good work. Ye can no more serve the true ends of Christianity, than dross can go for gold, or counterfeits pass for current money. For without SAVING FAITH, ye are without Christ; and without Christ ye can do nothing; so that however your works may be in the world's view, some good, some bad; yet there are none of them, however good in themselves, good in God's sight, as they do not proceed from a principle of faith in the heart, and are not directed to the glory of God as their ultimate scope and end." Thomas Boston, Works - Volume II, The Necessity Of Self-Examination, Posted by Scott Jones, April 25, 2013

"Faith is the gift of God, and to him you must apply for it; Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of faith, and to him ye must betake yourselves, that he may work it in you; and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of faith, and it is the effect of his operation: so that you must have recourse to him, that he may fulfill in you the work of faith with POWER... Pray earnestly to God, that he would teach you to believe. Remember faith is his gift, and he bestows it on whomsoever he will. Pray diligently for it; and redeem time for that end. And pray importunately, besieging heaven with your cries for that effect, as resolved to get what ye want. Seek faith from God as a condemned man would seek a pardon: seek this, as a man that sees death before him would sue for his life... All are made to see they are not in the faith before they are brought into it." Thomas Boston, Works - Volume II, The Necessity Of Self-Examination, Posted by Scott Jones, April 25, 2013

"There isn't a genuinely born again Christian on this planet who doesn't know by EXPERIENCE that the following words of Thomas Boston are true... "Regeneration in the order of nature goes before believing, and faith is the first vital motion of the regenerated soul. There is first a passive reception of Christ into the soul, whereby Christ comes into the dead soul, and quickens it, and then actual believing - or active receiving of Christ - is the first motion of the new creature"... This is SUPERNATURAL FAITH, SAVING FAITH, which every sentient genuinely born again Christian on this earth can remember receiving upon the MOMENT of his New Birth, when he was given POWER to believe SAVINGLY in Jesus Christ. If this isn't true of you, you are not born again, and if you haven't received this SUPERNATURAL FAITH, this SAVING FAITH, here, in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, in the supernatural miracle of regeneration, then neither will you be able to produce it there, when you stand before Jesus Christ in the Day of Jesus Christ at his judgment seat." Scott Jones, April 24, 2013

"If you are a preacher and yet you are not insisting to your congregation that they MUST be born again - because you know that the vast majority of them are not, because you know that this is true of the VAST, VAST, VAST MAJORTIY of professing Christians today, including your own congregation - and likewise insisting on the the complete, utter, absolute MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL ASSURANCE AND INFALLIBILITY of the New Birth, wherein Jesus Christ PERSONALLY MANIFESTS HIMSELF to the soul he indwells, and without exception, exactly as he promised in John 14:21 and NUMEROUS other passages in the New Testament, indeed, if you are a preacher and yet are not insisting on these things, and other things material to the New Birth as well, then, first off, you are a soul-murderer, since you've taken it upon yourself to speak for Jesus Christ, and thus you will be called to account on the day of judgment for every soul you murder and keep out of heaven for not issuing the appropriate warnings regarding the New Birth. And WOE, WOE, WOE unto you if you PERVERT the correct teaching of the New Birth by reducing it to a non-experimental, non-manifestative affair. Indeed, if you fail to issue the warnings of the absolute NECESSITY of the New Birth, or if you pervert the teaching of the New Birth by reducing to it to a non-manifestative affair, then WOE unto you. It will be for you even as Bunyan portended... "And you who muzzle up your people in ignorance with Aristotle, Plato, and the rest of the heathenish philosophers, AND PREACH LITTLE, IF ANYTHING, OF CHRIST RIGHTLY; I say unto you, that you will find you have sinned against God, and beguiled your hearers, when God shall, in the judgment-day, lay the cause of the damnation of many thousands of souls to your charge"... And secondly therefore, you need to get born again yourself, because you INFALLIBLY are NOT, not if you're not pressing the New Birth VIGOROUSLY upon your hearers, for indeed, this is an INFALLIBLE PROOF that you yourself are NOT born again, for you are not even remotely able to discern the marks of the New Birth yourself, and you are thus so ignorant of the New Birth yourself that you don't even know that there are in fact very, very FEW who are truly born again today, including in your own congregation, which ANY truly regenerate preacher would have already known, and thus thirdly - if you persevere and actually do get miraculously and graciously born again yourself - then thirdly, you need to start bearing GENUINE FRUIT - REGENERATE FRUIT - in Jesus Christ's kingdom by preaching and exhorting the New Birth and therein describing its unmistakable operations, especially its supernatural operations, for as of this moment, you yourself have never borne a single, solitary iota of GENUINE FRUIT - REGENERATE FRUIT - in Jesus Christ's kingdom in your life, not an iota, having never actually EXPERIENCED the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the New Birth yourself. Alas! The fact that you don't even know that there are very, very FEW who are GENUINELY born again today, including in your own congregation, indeed, the FACT that you don't know this yourself is a CERTAIN, INFALLIBLE PROOF that you yourself are likewise NOT born again. And I do mean CERTAIN and INFALLIBLE. Disregard these words to your own eternal ruin, for I warn you again, you better first get born again yourself, and then you better seek the Lord Jesus HIMSELF and go about bearing GENUINE FRUIT - REGENERATE FRUIT - for it is also CERTAIN and INFALLIBLE that you have not even borne so much as a SCINTILLA of GENUINE FRUIT - REGENERATE FRUIT - thus far in your life, no matter how much praise and how many testimonies you have received from men. Indeed, no matter how much praise or how many testimonies you have received from men, having never EXPERIENCED the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the New Birth yourself, you have nevertheless not borne so much as a SINGLE, SOLITARY IOTA of GENUINE FRUIT - REGENERATE FRUIT - in Jesus Christ's kingdom to this point in your entire unregenerate life. Not a dram, and even if somebody somehow actually got genuinely saved by hearing you speak, it was nevertheless Jesus Christ's fruit in SPITE of you, and thus it will never be credited to you. Wait and see, for the day - and the fire - will declare it. Wait and see indeed." Scott Jones, April 22, 2013

"It hath been the astonishing wonder of many a man, as well as me, to read in the holy Scripture, how few will be saved, and that the greatest part of even of those that are called, will be everlastingly shut out of the kingdom of heaven, and tormented with the devils in eternal fire." Richard Baxter, A Call To The Unconverted, Posted by Scott Jones, April 22, 2013

"Everything hangs on this one central statement of Jesus - YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN - We have lost sight of it, and we have got to get back to it." Oswald Chambers, The Doctrine Of The Holy Spirit, Posted by Scott Jones, April 21, 2013

"What ground also can a man have to think that God the Father is satisfied, being infinite, if he believe not also that he who gave the satisfaction was equal to him who was offended?" John Bunyan, The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded, Posted by Scott Jones, April 21, 2013

"Consider that it is one thing to be convinced, and another to be converted; one thing to be wounded, and another to be killed, and so to be made alive again by the faith OF Jesus Christ... O, therefore, be earnest in begging the Spirit, that thy soul may be enlightened, and the wickedness of thy heart discovered, that thou mayest see the miserable state that thou art in by reason of sin and unbelief, which is the great condemning sin." John Bunyan, The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded, Posted by Scott Jones, April 21, 2013

"It is equally too true, that real Christians, comparatively speaking, are very rare." George Whitefield, Christ The Believer's Husband, Posted by Scott Jones, April 20, 2013

"Judge ye then, whether it is not high time for the true ministers of Jesus, who have been made partakers of this heavenly gift, to lift up their voices like a trumpet; and if they would not have those souls perish, for which the Lord Jesus has shed his precious blood, to declare, with all boldness, that the Holy Spirit is the common privilege and portion of all believers in all ages; and that we as well as the first Christians, must receive the Holy Ghost, before we can be truly called the children of God." George Whitefield, The Indwelling Of The Spirit, Posted by Scott Jones, April 20, 2013

"This blessed Spirit, who once moved on the face of the great deep; who over-shadowed the blessed Virgin before that holy child was born of her; who descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, on our blessed Lord, when he came up out of the water at his baptism; and afterwards came down in fiery tongues on the heads of all his Apostles at the day of Pentecost: THIS IS THE HOLY GHOST, WHO MUST MOVE ON THE FACES OUR SOULS; THIS POWER OF THE MOST HIGHT, MUST COME UPON US, AND WE MUST BE BAPTIZED WITH HIS BAPTISM AND REFINING FIRE, before we can be stilled true members of Christ’s mystical body." George Whitefield, Marks Of Having Received The Holy Ghost, Posted by Scott Jones, April 20, 2013

"Men, even the elect, have too many infirmities to come to Christ without help from heaven; inviting will not do... Beware of resting in the word of the kingdom, without the SPIRIT AND POWER of the kingdom of that gospel, for the gospel coming in WORD ONLY saves NOBODY, for the kingdom of God or the gospel, where it comes to salvation, is not in word but in POWER." John Bunyan, Saved By Grace, Posted by Scott Jones, April 19, 2013

"I found faith was the sovereign gift of God; that I could not get it as if of myself, and could not oblige God to bestow it upon me by any of my performances... I could not find out what faith was; or what it was to believe, and come to Christ... I thought I would gladly come, if I knew how, though the path of duty were never so difficult... For I was not yet effectually and experimentally taught that there could be no way prescribed whereby a natural man could, of his own strength, obtain that which is supernatural, and which the highest angel cannot give." David Brainerd, Life And Diary, Posted by Scott Jones, April 18, 2013

"If you could ask thousands in hell, what madness brought them thither, they would most of them answer, 'We thought we were sure of being saved till we found ourselves damned. We would have been MORE EARNEST SEEKERS OF REGENERATION AND THE POWER OF GODLINESS, but WE VERILY THOUGHT WE WERE CHRISTIANS ALREADY. We have flattered ourselves into these torments, and now there is no remedy.'" Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest, Posted by Scott Jones, April 18, 2013

"That soul is DEAD to which the Spirit of Christ is not given in the work of regeneration; and ALL its works are DEAD works." John Flavel, The Method Of Grace, Posted by Scott Jones, April 17, 2013

"Peter began his second Epistle by speaking about those who had "OBTAINED like precious faith" through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1. This is nothing less than the faith OF Christ, NOT faith IN Christ, but the faith OF Christ, exactly as noted in the Greek and in an accurate translation in Galatians 2:16, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 2:12, Revelation 14:12, and throughout the New Testament, ad infinitum. Indeed, this faith that Peter is here referring to - the faith OF Christ, which sustains the genuine believer's faith IN Christ - is nothing less than SUPERNATURAL FAITH, that very faith which is OBTAINED by the election of the Father, and nothing less. In other words, Peter is in essence merely reaffirming Paul's statement in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, wherein Paul announced... "by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God"... that is, the genuine believer's SUPERNATURAL FAITH, the genuine believer's SAVING FAITH - indeed, IT, true SAVING FAITH, SUPERNATURAL FAITH, indeed, IT is verily the GIFT of God. If you don't know this by EXPERIENCE, if you don't remember the EXPERIENCE of receiving POWER to believe SAVINGLY in a moment of time, John 1:12... "to them gave he POWER"... a POWER which is bestowed at the very MOMENT of regeneration, indeed, if you don't remember being given this POWER to believe SAVINGLY upon the MOMENT of regeneration, wherein Jesus PERSONALLY MANIFESTED HIMSELF to you more certainly than any being you have ever encountered, then you are not born again, and you are not heaven-bound. You may scoff at these words now, but every syllable will ultimately translate into unquenchable fire and will blaze throughout your soul for all eternity if you don't heed my admonition, for the place where you are going, unless you repent and receive the faith OF Christ, that SUPERNATURAL FAITH that is given ONLY in the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE of the New Birth, then where you are going is a place where the worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched. It is even as Owen warned, "If we believe not with faith divine and supernatural, we believe not at all." Alas, you can't become a Christian just any old time you please... but you CAN become one. Except that - if you do - it will be on Jesus' terms, not yours, and you will have to get deadly, deadly honest with yourself, and deadly, deadly serious about Jesus Christ HIMSELF as your absolute Lord if you ever want to receive SAVING faith, SAVING grace, for it is none other than Jesus HIMSELF who bestows such faith, and he does so at his own pleasure, not yours, and thus in the end - and no matter what you think to the contrary now - yet in the end, it is the faith OF Christ which will be the ONLY faith that will be able to withstand the test and produce the birthright in the day of Jesus Christ, and if you haven't received this faith here, neither will you be able to produce it there." Scott Jones, April 17, 2013

"I think the grandest mistake among ministers is that they are talking to dead men, that they are talking to men in the flesh instead of men born of God. Now, let us get them into Christ, and then educate them and build them up to the highest faith. Let us not try to teach men who are not born of God." Dwight L. Moody, Sudden Conversion, Posted by Scott Jones, April 17, 2013

"A lady once asked George Whitefield why he so often insisted on preaching on these words: "You must be born again." Whitefield replied, "Because, Madam, you must." So must you if you ever want to actually go to heaven. I don't care how long you have preached the gospel, how long you have been a missionary, how long you have been a devoted Christian, how many poor you have fed, how many sick you have visited, ad infinitum. The fact is, ALL your works - I say, ALL, ALL, ALL your works - and ALL your proclamations in the name of Christ and Christianity, have been nothing but DEAD works and DEAD proclamations. Verily, it takes a NEW NATURE - an ENTIRELY NEW NATURE - to get to heaven, and Jesus Christ WILL NOT - indeed, Jesus Christ CANNOT, if he is to keep his word and his covenant with the Father - allow you into his kingdom without it, without an ENTIRELY NEW NATURE. You think that because you've been so devoted to Christ and Christianity that Jesus simply would never refuse to let you into his kingdom, and yet, that is PRECISELY what is going to happen if you don't EXPERIENCE the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, for the fact is, you have not really been devoted to the true Jesus of the Bible, but to a Jesus of your own imagination, and you really have no clue how so many people who have done so many mighty works in Jesus' name can be refused entrance to his kingdom by him in that day, and yet you yourself will in fact be one of them, one of those to whom Jesus says, "I never knew you, depart from me," because Jesus never PERSONALLY MANIFESTED HIMSELF to you in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, thereby bestowing upon you an ENTIRELY NEW NATURE, along with that SUPERNATURAL FAITH, that SAVING FAITH, which ALONE will stand the test and be able to produce the birthright in that day. Behold! That is your lot if you don't encounter Jesus HIMSELF in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, and I mean encounter Jesus HIMSELF more certainly than you have ever encountered any other being in your entire life. Why did Whitefield so often preach on the words: "You must be born again?" Because you MUST if you're ever going to set foot inside of Jesus Christ's kingdom, and anyone who tells you that the New Birth is a non-experimental affair, is a non-manifestative affair, indeed, anyone who tells you such a thing has just committed soul-murder, and he - and you also, if you listen to him - will answer to Jesus Christ for that very crime - the crime of soul-murder - on the day of judgment. Fair warning." Scott Jones, April 16, 2013

"There was never a soul that made Christ and glory the principal end, nor that obtained rest with God, whose desire was not set upon him, and that above all things else in the world whatsoever. Christ brings the heart to heaven first, and then the person." Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest, Posted by Scott Jones, April 16, 2013

"Those professing Christian ministers who preach to the flesh, that is, who preach up the rewards that a professing Christian can get in this world, whether it be morality, the good life, money, healing, status, self esteem, happiness, or such-like, will no doubt be very popular and obtain comfortable and even large incomes and large followings from the vast majority of those who likewise profess to be Christians today. But not one of them will set foot in Jesus Christ's kingdom. And neither will you if you support them and listen to them. And don't think for one second that today's Christian "morality" is of God. It is not. It is of the Devil. It is the Devil who preaches "morality." The genuinely born again Christian preaches Jesus Christ and the absolute necessity of the New Birth. The difference is greater than the span of the universe. You have no idea. It is the Devil who teaches that it is God's will to heal everybody. It is the Devil who teaches that God wants his children to be financially well-off in this life. It is the Devil who teaches that Christians should glide through this world with only trifling's of troubles. It is the Devil who teaches that all speak in tongues, and it is likewise the Devil who teaches that the spiritual gifts, including tongues, have ceased. In short, it is the Devil who teaches that God makes the road easier in this world for those who belong to him, when nothing could be further from the truth, for the fact is, the exact opposite of all these, and much more besides, is what's generally true for the genuine Christian. Those who preach morality, money, the good life, healing, status, self esteem, happiness, and such-like - in other words, those who preach up the benefits of "Christianity" in this world and this life, are more wicked than all the villains of the Old Testament combined, for the Old Testament villains never even conceived of a gospel like the gospel of Jesus Christ, and had they, many of them would have repented long ago in sackcloth, dust and ashes. Just wait and see how hot hell is going to be for these ministers who preach up the benefits of "Christianity" in this life and who thus appear as angels of light, but who are very Balaam's and Jezebel's underneath. Hell will be much hotter for them than any criminal in our jails today. And for you too, if you don't repent, for by supporting them and listening to them you have given them your consent, so that just as it is written that he who receives a prophet receives a prophet's reward, so will you that receive them and support them likewise receive their reward, which is nothing but a devil's reward. Wait and see. The fact is, whether you like it or not, the genuine Christian - that is, the man who has been genuinely born again in the unmistakable supernatural miracle of the New Birth - is no longer oriented to this world. His entire nature has been changed - belay that: he has been given an entirely NEW NATURE - LITERALLY - and he knows it. Consequently, along with his NEW NATURE, he has also been supernaturally introduced to the spiritual realm in a moment of time, and he is eminently aware of it. He can remember it, for he is instantly immersed in the spiritual realm as a dimension that he never even dreamed existed a moment before his New Birth. It is literally a totally new dimension for him, yet a very real dimension, one that he never even conceived of, and yet one in which he has communed one-on-one with Jesus Christ HIMSELF, a dimension which, though spiritual, is yet more real and more tangible than the physical dimension by far, and he knows it more certainly than he knows to breathe air, and that experience is more real and more dear to him than his very own life, so that all that he does in this life is for the purpose of the next, and if he begins to stumble and get his focus out of line - for the flesh is weak indeed, and the New Nature will fight bitterly to the death against the Old Nature in every son of God by Jesus Christ - yet the Father will soon chasten him so severely that he will quickly get his focus realigned, and smartly, so that the things of this world become only odious to him, so that he mostly loathes this world, for he has seen and tasted and digested the powers of the world to come. Read Colossians 3:1-4, 1 Corinthians 4:9-13, 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15, ad infinitum. And it is the Father HIMSELF who will see to it that this world becomes odious to those who truly belong to Jesus Christ, and that without fail. And if that isn't already true of you, then something is desperately, desperately wrong. It is even as Tyndale warned, namely, that a man who is getting along well in this world is almost certainly cursed of God, and with very, very FEW exceptions, that is no exaggeration WHATSOEVER. Moreover, this simple truth - the simple truth of the Father's chastening - is only one of the MANY differences between a son and a bastard. See Hebrews 12:5-11. Indeed, those who go through this life without chastening from the Father are bastards for real, and they will never set foot in Jesus Christ's kingdom. Neither will you if you support them and listen to them, so get this straight: if your desire is to get ahead in this world instead of laying up treasures for the next, which UNEQUIVOCALLY means foregoing treasures here, then you will end up cursing the day you were born for all eternity, for those professing Christians who preach up the benefits that "Christianity" brings to this life will fare worse than all the souls in Sodom and Gomorrah combined. So will you if you have received them and supported them and yet don't repent. Fair warning." Scott Jones, April 14, 2013

"When Jesus Christ indwells a man by the Holy Spirit in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, though Jesus Christ comes in first and foremost as LORD, and secondly as SAVIOUR, yet now having revealed his glory by the Holy Spirit to that soul and having thereby indwelt that man's spirit, Jesus nevertheless now instantaneously begins to SUPERNATURALLY COMMUNE with that man primarily as FRIEND, even as "a FRIEND that sticketh closer than a brother", for it is even as the Scripture says, that even though Jesus is HIMSELF the Eternal Son of God, yet "he is not ashamed to call them BRETHREN", and so it becomes, between Jesus and every soul he indwells, indeed, with Jesus and that soul it becomes even far more intimate than it was with Moses, when the Scripture said that "the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his FRIEND". And that is not even the SLIGHTEST exaggeration, as EVERY GENUINELY born again Christian on the face of this earth knows. There are no exceptions. That is precisely the reason that Jesus told the disciples it was expedient for him to go away in the flesh, for he could not send the Holy Spirit to them as long as he was in the flesh, and not even Jesus in the flesh can communicate HIMSELF to another soul as intimately as the Holy Spirit can communicate Jesus HIMSELF to the soul he indwells - again, as EVERY GENUINELY born again Christian on this planet knows, bar none. Accordingly, consider just who this FRIEND is if you have actually met him in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth yourself, for it is written of Jesus that HE HIMSELF laid the foundation of the earth, and that the heavens - that is, the universe - are the works of HIS HANDS. A FRIEND that sticketh closer than a brother, indeed, at least for the souls he truly indwells. If you can't honestly testify that Jesus Christ has PERSONALLY MANIFESTED HIMSELF to you MORE CERTAINLY than ANY human you have ever encountered or interacted with in your life, then you are not born again, Jesus is not yet your friend, at least not in a salvific sense, nor is he currently your Saviour, and unless you experience the supernatural miracle of the New Birth, he never will be." Scott Jones, April 14, 2013

"Now there is no other division or heresy in the world save man's wisdom and when man's foolish wisdom interpreteth the scripture... Man's wisdom is plain idolatry, neither is there any other idolatry than to imagine of God after man's wisdom... God is that only which he testifieth of himself and to imagine any other thing of God than that is damnable idolatry... Thou mayest hereby perceive that all that is done in the world (before the Spirit of God come and giveth us light) is damnable sin, and the more glorious the more damnable, so that that which the world counteth most glorious is more damnable in the sight of God, than that which the whore, the thief and the murderer do." William Tyndale, Obedience Of A Christian Man, Posted by Scott Jones, April 13, 2013

"In the worship of God there is required a divine faith; but there can be no divine faith without a divine revelation of the will of God: therefore whatever is thrust into the worship of God that is not agreeable to a divine revelation, cannot be done but by a human faith; which faith will not profit to eternal life." John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, Posted by Scott Jones, April 12, 2013

"The Scripture tells us in Romans 10:13 that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Leaving aside the utterly crucial portion of what "the name of the Lord" actually means, indeed, leaving that utterly crucial portion aside for the moment, yet the shallow man nevertheless thinks that merely calling the Lord's name with his LIPS is what that Scripture means. He is of course fatally and eternally ignorant. Likewise, and again leaving aside the crucial part about what "the name of the Lord" actually means, yet again, the professing but unregenerate Christian likewise thinks that merely calling on the Lord's name with a SINCERE HEART is the token meaning of that verse. He is also fatally and eternally ignorant, nor does he have a clue as to what "the name of the Lord" truly means, having never actually EXPERIENCED the supernatural miracle of the New Birth himself. Alas, both men are doomed to eternal misery unless prevenient grace overtakes them. On the other hand, the regenerate man who has actually experienced the supernatural miracle of the new birth and who has consequently had SUPERNATURAL FAITH bestowed upon him, even the faith OF Christ, understands EXPERIENTIALLY what this verse means, even if he can't yet articulate it, namely, that one must call on the Lord's name SUPERNATURALLY by the POWER of the Holy Spirit, with SUPERNATURAL FAITH - with SAVING FAITH - given him by the Holy Spirit upon the MOMENT of his New Birth, even the faith of God's elect, even the faith OF Christ, and nothing less. These - and these ONLY - will be truly heard by Jesus Christ SAVINGLY in that day. Or this day as well, for that matter. Does that mean that you shouldn't call on Jesus with your lips and with a sincere heart? Of course not. Just the opposite. It means you should give Jesus no rest until he HIMSELF endues you with POWER from on high, and you will have no one to blame but yourself if you don't do so, and if you don't persist until you receive POWER to believe SAVINGLY in Jesus Christ DIRECTLY from Jesus' own hand. Yet, if you're not willing to admit that you're not genuinely born again, even though you're not, even though you have no genuine supernatural experience with the Holy Spirit, then it's already game over for you, and you won't be able to produce the birthright on the day of judgment. On the other hand, if you know you're not born again, and if you're willing to starkly admit it to yourself, then I were you, I'd do as Whitefield advised, and that is to wrestle with the Lord Jesus in prayer continually, and beg him to hasten the New Birth. But that will never happen until you become completely honest with yourself in light of the Scriptures, especially with regard to your lack of the Holy Spirit, and until you bow wholly to Jesus Christ as Lord, which means OBEYING the Scriptures in EVERY FACET as you understand them, for the Scriptures will definitely show you the way and lead you to Jesus IF YOU OBEY, yet, the Scriptures are not an end unto themselves, which means that ONLY the Holy Spirit HIMSELF can PERSONALLY introduce Jesus HIMSELF to you - and I do mean PERSONALLY - and if he does, he will introduce Jesus HIMSELF to you so certainly that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. However, know this: Jesus will never become your Saviour without first becoming your Lord." Scott Jones, April 10, 2013

"Ask yourselves, therefore, whether or not the Holy Ghost ever powerfully convinced you of the sin of unbelief? You are perhaps so devout (you may imagine) as to get a catalogue of sins; which you look over, and confess in a formal manner, as often as you go to the holy sacrament: but among all your sins, did you ever once confess and bewail that damning sin of unbelief? Were you ever made to cry out, "Lord, give me faith; Lord, give me to believe on thee; O that I had faith! O that I could believe!" If you never were thus distressed, at least, if you never saw and felt that you had no faith, it is a certain sign that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, never came into and worked savingly upon your soul." George Whitefield, The Holy Ghost Convincing The World Of Sin, Righteousness, & Judgment, Posted by Scott Jones, April 8, 2013

"The entrance into heaven is called a gate, to show there is a time when there may be entrance, and there will come a time when there shall be none... They shall not be able to enter in who have not believed with the faith of God's operation; the faith that is most holy, even the faith of God's elect... Therefore, all the professors that have not faith which floweth from being born of God, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, Posted by Scott Jones, April 7, 2013

"No man can believe savingly IN Christ unless he first receives the faith OF Christ in the supernatural miracle of the New Birth. Indeed, every sentient genuinely born again Christian on the face of this earth can remember receiving POWER to believe SAVINGLY in Jesus Christ upon the MOMENT of his new birth, for even if he can't articulate it immediately, he nevertheless knows the POWER and remembers the EXPERIENCE of the New Birth better than he remembers anything else in his entire life, for the New Birth is where Jesus Christ PESONALLY - and I do mean PERSONALLY - introduces HIMSELF to that man, and indwells him, and thereby MANIFESTS HIMSELF to that man more certainly than any human interaction even conceivable. This SUPERNATURAL FAITH, this SAVING FAITH, this faith OF Christ, was wrought and bestowed upon him by Jesus Christ HIMSELF by his Spirit, even the Holy Spirit, through the faith OF the operation of God (Colossians 2:12), thereby giving that man the POWER to believe SAVINGLY and to thereby become a Son of God, which is precisely what that Scripture means EXPERIENTIALLY in John 1:12, a POWER which every single sentient regenerate soul on this planet can remember receiving upon the MOMENT of his New Birth. There are no exceptions, and any man who tells you differently merely intrudes into those things which he hath not seen (Colossians 2:18). Wait and see. Behold! It takes the faith OF Christ to empower a man to believe IN Christ SAVINGLY, and that is exactly why Jesus is called the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), for it is not only the faith OF Christ which is wrought and bestowed upon the genuine believer upon the MOMENT of his New Birth, but it is likewise the faith OF Christ which sustains the genuine believer's faith IN Christ throughout the genuine believer's sojourn in this world, as the Scriptures themselves infallibly testify throughout the New Testament in the Greek and in an accurate translation, such as Galatians 2:20 for just one example of many, and such as ALL who possess genuine experience in the New Birth and the Holy Spirit KNOW. Accordingly, I ask you to search your very own heart down to the dregs, being brutally, brutally honest with yourself, and then ask yourself this question: namely, can you remember being quickened from a dead state by the POWER of the Spirit of Christ in a moment of time, wherein you were made a new creature by the POWER of Jesus Christ, and whereupon the faith OF Christ was instantly bestowed upon you, thereby giving you the manifest POWER to believe SAVINGLY and to thereby become a son of God in a moment of time? For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in POWER (1 Corinthians 4:20). I say, do you remember that? Nothing less will get you into heaven, for as the Lord Jesus HIMSELF warned, not only must you be born again, but likewise, the gate is strait, and the way is narrow which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it." Scott Jones, April 7, 2013

"How long have you believed? Would not most of you say, as long as we can remember; we never did disbelieve? Then this is a certain sign that you have no true faith at all, no, not so much as a grain of mustard seed... you must know that there was a time in which you did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, AND THE HOLY GHOST, IF EVER YOU RECEIVED HIM, CONVINCED YOU OF YOUR UNBELIEF... NONE OF US BELIEVE BY NATURE: but after the Holy Ghost has convinced us of the sin of our natures, and the sin of our lives and duties, in order to convince us of our utter inability to save ourselves, AND THAT WE MUST BE BEHOLDEN TO GOD, AS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, SO FOR FAITH (without which it is impossible to please, or be saved by Christ) HE CONVINCES US ALSO, THAT WE HAVE NO FAITH." George Whitefield, Sermon, The Holy Spirit Convincing The World Of Sin, Righteousness, And Judgment

"Dost thou believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? Then thou standest in awe of, and dost much reverence them... He that believeth the Scriptures to be the Word of God, believeth that men must be born again, and also be partakers of that faith which is of the operation of God, according as he hath read and believed, or else he must and shall be damned. And he that believeth this aright will not be contented until, according as it is written, he do partake of and enjoy the new birth, and until he do find, through grace, that faith that is wrought by the operation of God in his soul. For this is the cause why men do satisfy themselves with so slender a conceited hope that their state is good, when it is nothing so, namely, because they do not credit the Scripture; for did they, they would look into their own hearts, and examine seriously whether that faith, that hope, that grace which they think they have be of that nature, and wrought by that spirit and power that the Scripture speaketh of. I speak this of an effectual believing, without which all other is nothing unto salvation... You say you do believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God. I say again, Examine, wast thou ever quickened from a dead state by the power of the Spirit of Christ?" John Bunyan, A Few Sighs From Hell, Posted by Scott Jones, April 5, 2013

"The written word of God is elective surgery. In that vein, the written word of God is the scalpel, and the Holy Spirit is the Surgeon. That's why the Bible declares that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, and pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. In other words, the Holy Spirit uses the written word of God just like a surgeon uses a scalpel to cut to the quick of a man's heart, but that man must first be willing to actually have the surgery before the operation will ever be successful. Which is to say, until a man is willing to be brutally honest with himself from the heart, and willing to repent from the heart and thereby bring his life and purposes and thoughts and beliefs into STRICT CONFORMITY to the Bible, rather than rationalize uncomfortable passages away, or ignore or disobey certain truths, or read into the text something that simply isn't there, or draw conclusions from obscure texts which diametrically contradict the entire body of Scripture elsewhere, or in ANY WAY marginalize the PLAIN testimony of the word written, then the Holy Spirit will not even show up, much less wield the knife, and there will be no operation, because the patient was unwilling to have it in the first place, for the fact is, the written word of God by itself is not enough. Without the Holy Spirit bearing SUPERNATURAL WITNESS to the word written, then the word written is no better than a scalpel without a surgeon, so if you are not willing to be chastened and scourged by the word written, if you are not willing to be cut to the quick by the word written, then don't even bother, for it will do you no good. As a matter of fact, it will likely only harden you and cause your heart to deceive you further. Moreover, if you are unwilling to have the operation because of doubts about the veracity of the written word of God, that is, if you struggle with doubts that the written word of God is true, then the Holy Spirit has never genuinely borne witness to the word written in your own heart, and therefore you need to be born again. On the other hand, if you don't struggle with doubts that the written word of God is true, perhaps because you were raised that way, or perhaps because the so-called evidence led you to that conclusion, or whatever, then you are still in jeopardy, for if you believe that the written word of God is infallibly true BY ANY OTHER MEANS than the Holy Spirit HIMSELF having SUPERNATURALLY CONFIRMED it to you, either while reading or hearing the word written, then you also have an unprofitable relationship to the word written, even if your creed says otherwise, and thus you also need to be born again. Either way, if you really want to discover true truth, if your heart cries out for lack of foundation, then strictly heeding what is stated above about the written word of God being a surgical operation will infallibly cure what ails thee, for if you are not born again, the written word of God will - if you closely heed what is stated above - lead you directly to Jesus HIMSELF, and if you already are born again, then what is stated above will only bless you and lead you deeper into the covert of the Rock which is higher than you." Scott Jones, April 4, 2013

"God wants everybody to be saved so he sent his only begotten Son to earth to die for mankind's sins, even if men don't repent of them, and thus, God begs people to believe in his only begotten Son, hoping desperately that they will, but, unlike Satan, God doesn't have the authority or skill to influence anyone to believe, for man's free will is sovereign over God, and God is not clever enough to successfully plead with anyone and thereby convince them to believe if they don't want to, for God is unable to change anyone's mind so as to make them believe freely, so that God simply cannot figure out a way to win a soul to himself if that soul puts his foot down, for God is frankly not capable of persuading anyone or drawing anyone who is already dead-set against him, such as a Saul of Tarsus, for example, nor can God give anyone the gift of faith and thereby cause them to believe savingly, even though his arch-enemy, the Devil, as I just said, possesses virtually unlimited powers to make them NOT believe, and moreover, God is not infinite enough or smart enough or powerful enough or whatever enough to have run the creation scenarios through an infinite number of possibilities so that he could have come up with a creation scenario where everybody would be lawfully saved, but rather, God just had to make do with the creation that we now have, for this is what we ended up with, even though God would have preferred a creation scenario where everybody gets lawfully saved, but God was not quite able to work that quite out, although God did make it easier of late by changing the requirements in the past hundred years or so by doing away with the command to "believe" in his only begotten Son and instead replaced it with the command to merely "accept his only begotten Son as Saviour", although I do wonder how you can accept someone as your Saviour if you haven't already believed in him. Oh well, I'll strive to get smarter. Anyway, in the end, God will probably just scrap Hell altogether, for the most part anyway, and forgive everybody regardless of what the Bible says - for the Bible, you know, was only written by men and can therefore be taken with a grain of salt - and so God will almost certainly scrap Hell indeed, at least for the most part, because God is such a human-oriented loving God, and certainly not by any means a God of Glory and Truth, as the Bible seems to say, and as the heavens seem to declare, so that God truly does want everybody to be saved no matter what, because just about everybody knows in their heart that they need something they don't have, and therefore they automatically belong to God's only begotten Son, whether they know it or not, whether they have repented or not, whether they have believed or not, ad vomit, and so even though God couldn't quite work out a way to make everybody believe and come to a knowledge of the truth under the current dispensation with the current laws and specifications, which God desperately tried to do when he first initiated creation in the beginning, yet God will still nevertheless possess enough power at the last to make HIMSELF a liar, at least according to what the diaphanous words of the man-wrote Bible so malleably and undefinitively say, and so God will finally get his own way in the end regardless, because even though God was powerless to work out the details properly in the beginning of creation in the first place, yet, at the last God will still be able to sing "Kumbaya" with his creatures once he lets everybody into his kingdom - except maybe for Hitler and a few like that - thus giving God the last laugh at HIMSELF, for God cares nothing for his own Glory and Truthfulness, but is rather wholly subservient to his love for man, and therefore, just go ahead and eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we live, no matter what... Welcome to modern, mainstream Christianity... Oh... and you can still have complete confidence that God is capable of answering your prayers, so fear not!... Oh yeah also... I couldn't bring myself to mention that Name which is above every Name in this little snippet, just in case you were wondering." Scott Jones, April 3, 2013

"If in your heart Jesus is Lord of your life only in particular areas, but not others, then Jesus is not Lord in your life at all, and your assumption that he is Lord at all in your life is a mere illusion. In fact, if in your heart Jesus is not Lord of your life in all areas of your life, then he's not even an advisor, even though that's what you have vainly tried to make him. Accordingly, if you are to get born again for real, it will be on Jesus' terms, not yours, and if that is to ever happen, you will bow to Jesus in your heart first as Lord, not first as Saviour, otherwise he will not save you at all. And bowing to Jesus first as Lord is precisely what it means to receive Jesus, and nothing less. In other words, "receiving" Jesus and "bowing" to Jesus as Lord are synonymous. You will find - unless you are so stubbornly blind that you are already beyond reach - that Jesus himself consistently teaches and demonstrates the exact same thing throughout the four gospels. So coming to Jesus merely as the Saviour without first having bowed to Jesus as the Lord is not possible with the true Jesus of the Bible, and there are myriads and myriads of deluded multitudes who will find it to be everlastingly and damningly so on the day of judgment. If you refuse to accept this testimony, then the irony is, Jesus will be manifested as your Lord one way or the other before you enter eternity, whether you like it or not, for if you don't bow to Jesus as Lord in obedience now, you will bow to him in judgment then, for Jesus is already now - and forever will be - the King of kings and Lord of lords, and thus it is written of Jesus, that to him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is the same Jesus who said that the gate is strait, and the way is narrow, which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it. How will you yourself know if you find it? Jesus will personally introduce himself to you in the supernatural miracle of the new birth so soundly that it will be impossible for you to deny that you have actually met Jesus Christ personally, even the very same true Jesus of the Bible. That is the only way you will ever know this side of eternity, and if you don't know this side of eternity, then by then it will be too late." Scott Jones, April 2, 2013

"Whenever you come across a professing Christian who is more interested in discussing theology than he is Jesus, know that you have in fact come across an unregenerate religionist, not a born again Christian." Scott Jones, April 1, 2013

"A man who is not willing for Jesus to be Lord in his life is a man whom Jesus is not willing to save. Nor will he. On the other hand, a man who is willing from his heart for Jesus to be Lord in his life in every known way is a man whom Jesus will save to the uttermost, and speedily." Scott Jones, April 1, 2013

"Crucifixion is the worst form of statutory execution that men or devils have ever contrived. That's why Jesus had to undergo it, for crucifixion, along with an intensely brutal scourging, is the worst torment that a man can suffer and still remain conscious and alive long enough to experience such a full scope and range of agonies for any meaningful length of time. Jesus therefore not only had to undergo an intensely brutal scourging and crucifixion as a man so that his elect could go everlastingly to Heaven in the New Jerusalem, but also to exemplify the everlasting death of the reprobate, which is to say, the type of excruciating pain and suffering and torment that Jesus experienced in his scourging and on the cross is in TYPE the exact equivalent of the excruciating pain and suffering and torment that the reprobate will experience for every moment of their existence in the Lake of Fire throughout eternity. In other words, that's what Hell will be like. Hell will be a continual scourging and a continual crucifixion for the reprobate for all eternity, world without end. This is why the Scripture says that Jesus tasted death for every man, that is, he tasted death for his elect savingly, and for the reprobate judgmentally. And yet, all the suffering of all the reprobate for all eternity will still never equal the magnitude or the intensity of the suffering that Jesus HIMSELF underwent during his own scourging and during his own six hours on the cross, for Jesus - even when he was in the flesh - was, and still is, the Son of God, and thus an infinite being in his own right, and therefore it necessarily follows that he experienced an infinite magnitude and an infinite intensity of punishment under his own person and identity as an infinite being in his own right by nature, especially when it is realized that the wrath of an infinite Father was also upon him for his elect's sake, which was inconceivably yet even more torrential than his physical suffering. That is, even though Jesus suffered as a man, yet he still remained GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH throughout all his suffering. Somehow. And no, not even the angels know how, nor will they ever know, nor will we. Not exactly. Only an infinite being can fully comprehend the inner workings of it. That's why it's called THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. Nevertheless, add to this Jesus' POWER and ABILITY to overcome death by his own sinlessness as a man, and to thereby rise bodily from the grave as a man with an immortal human body, according to his own Spirit of holiness, along with becoming the High Priest of a priesthood that will continue forever AFTER THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE, yet still retaining his identity as the Eternal Son of God throughout by somehow keeping his divine nature and his human nature separate and distinct, the one from the other, yet both natures existing simultaneously together in ONE Christ, ONE Person - which is again why it's called THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS - then it suddenly becomes no wonder why the Bible tells us that God by Jesus Christ will be fully vindicated in justifying his elect and damning the reprobate in the Day of Jesus Christ, for when considering the Dignity of his Person, even the Dignity of the Person of Jesus Christ HIMSELF, along with the punishment and torment and suffering that such an Incomparably Dignified Person as Jesus Christ HIMSESLF took upon HIMSELF when he offered HIMSELF without spot to God through the ETERNAL SPIRIT for his elect, then there is simply no possible way to calculate the value of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by any other measurement than INFINITY. So what think ye of Christ now?" Scott Jones, March 29, 2013

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