In case you weren’t aware, today is not only Halloween but it is also- and more importantly- Reformation Day.  On October 31st, 1517 Luther nailed the 95 thesis up on the church door in Wittenberg protesting the abuses of the church.  This act is viewed by many as that which began the Protestant Reformation and the recovery of biblical doctrine.

The following are summaries of the reformation slogans and key doctrines which are taken from The Cambridge Declaration.  The Cambridge Declaration is a confessional statement affirmed by The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals on April 20th, 1996. 

Sola Scriptura
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation,which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian’s conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.

Solus Christus
We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.

Sola Gratia
We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God’s wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.

Sola Fide
We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God’s perfect justice.We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ’s righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

Soli Deo Gloria
We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God’s glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.

Praise God for using men like Luther to recover and proclaim such sweet and God-exalting doctrines.

Ligonier Ministries radio ministry “Renewing Your Mind” has a compelling audio rendition of Luther’s famous speech, “Here I Stand,” which he gave his trial before the Roman Catholic authories.  It is done by Max Mclean, a very skilled reader who gives some history of Luther’s life and ministry and then gives the speech.  Enjoy.

Here is the quote used in last Sunday’s Sermon

by Spurgeon

There is not a spider hanging on the wall that doesn’t have an errand; there is not a weed growing in the corner of the church lot that doesn’t have a purpose; there is not a single insect fluttering in the breeze that does not accomplish some divine decree. And I will never believe that God created any man, especially any Christian man, to be a blank, and to be a nothing.

He made you for an end.
Find out what that purpose is;
find out your niche, and fill it.

Even if it is something small, if it is only to be someone who
picks up trash at the side of the road, or one who mows the
church lawn, do something in this great battle for God and truth.

If you drive a lot or have a lot of free time, listening to audio sermons can be a very profitable way to pass the time.  Here are some solid audio sermons that are available online for free download. 

The sermons of John Piper- available at the Desiring God Online Resource Library

Mark Dever and guest speakers from Capitol Hill Baptist

Sermons by Joshua Harris, C.J. Mahaney and others from Covenant Life Church

Tim Keller Sermons and Lectures through Redeemer Prebyterian Church- especially thought provoking on issues of culture and mission.

Audio sermons by Donald Whitney from his website.

Messages from a Marriage Conference at The Bible Church of Little Rock by C.J. and Carolyn Mahaney

Four part sermon series by Kris Lundgaard titled “The Enemy Within” using much of John Owen’s classic works on sin- from Omaha Bible Church.

As always we encourage you to use discernment and seek to measure what you hear with that of the Scriptures.  Enjoy.

The following are exerpts from a post by Mark Dever on the Together for the Gospel blog.  Impatience is a sin that I would guess many of us (particularly men) are susceptible to and perhaps tend to downplay.  Dever seeks to uncover his impatience for what it truly is which is exactly what all of us need.

I confess that I am sometimes, too often, impatient. 

I further confess that as I have meditated on it, it becomes clear to me that this is not a nice, junior kind of sin (at least not in me).  It is a disguise for the sin of pride, the ugliest of all sins, and the most direct rejection of God’s authority and of a humble joy in His provision for me in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Let me give you a little of my thinking.

I’m sitting in a meeting.  I’m sitting there for hours.  The meeting would be no different if I were not there.  I might think, or even say to someone, something negative about the meeting, or about “our” needing to be there. 

Now, let me question my impatient self at this point.  Self, just how important does a meeting need to be before you should spend your time on it.  Just how crucial does my role have to be, and how frequently, in order for me to not experience the temptation to impatience. 

I know that I have to exercise wisdom and be a good steward of time.  But look at how much more you’re (I’m) getting at these meetings than I deserve.  I deserve Hell!  Yet here at this meeting, I’m being cared for.  It’s not raining on me.  My chair is comfortable.  There’s stuff to drink.  And yet, I think that somehow it should take less of my time.  As if I deserve more interesting fare for spending MY time; as if I DESERVE anything for the expenditure of my time!  My response to such situations should be patience.  My tendency is to be patient in situations I like.  And that’s no patience!  Patience is endurance through things that challenge us, and it is rooted in humility, as surely as my impatience is rooted in pride.

I leave you to examine your own impatience.  I know that this is one way pride has tried to assume an “acceptable” disguise in my own life, and I’m trying to unmask it.  Pray for me.

May I add to this by suggesting you read Colossians 3:12-14 and may the Spirit unmask our sin and transform our lives.

Mark Lauterbach from Gospeldrivenlife is in the midst of doing a series of posts entitled “The Gospel and Culture.”  In them he is seeking to help us understand that we cannot comfort ourselves with our holiness when we are failing to be missional and we cannot comfort ourselves with being missional when we are failing in holiness.  The gospel will drive us to both.  By the way- the idea of missional has to do with being involved in the culture for the purpose of purusing social justice as well as proclaiming the gospel of Christ.  Here are some excerpts from the first post in the series.

Shall we be Missional or holy?  My simple response: It is a lie from the pit of hell to pose these two as opposites.  Satan loves false dichotomies and this one is at the top of his list. Pitting these two against each other has done more than most other errors to remove Christians from appropriate relationships with non-believers for the Gospel. I have observed it for years and felt its temptations in my own heart.

and then later…

So, in relating to the culture — it is not a choice of either holiness or mission — it is a call to both.  My mission is an expression of genuine holiness — and how can I claim to be holy and be in direct disobedience to one of the clearest commands of Scripture?  For believers to deliberately NOT plan some form of seeking the lost in their lives is an act of rebellion no different than adultery.   For believers to compromise their godliness in the name of obeying the missional commands is also equally sin.

It is stunning how confused we can be and how self-deceived — to think that I preserve my obedience to God by disobeying his command to bring the Gospel to individuals around me.  I think it is our tendency to see sins of commission much more readily than sins of omission.  It is not our pattern to say too often, “I have left undone the things I ought to have done.”

Finally…

A church is not to think it must choose between caring for its members or bringing the Gospel to the outsider.  Pastors care for the total godliness of their flock by leading them into comprehensive obedience — including dying to self and seeking the lost.  It is false reasoning to say, “Let’s first get our church and family life together and then bring the Gospel to the lost” — that is false because you will never get there — and it is false because you are not the message!

No, we must war against the false dichotomy and labor to be obedient in all things — godliness includes missional living.

In light of our great and glorious salvation may we become a people who are both holy and missional.

In a world where an understanding of beauty is so often and pervasively distorted here is a post from the girltalk blog that has the potential of being quite helpful in adjusting our perspective. 

Consider with me our culture’s physical beauty yardstick–for women then and women now as explained by author David Powlison:  

A hundred years ago women might have compared themselves with the other ten girls in the village. Today, women compare themselves with pictures of the cream of the worldwide fashion industry.

And what ideal image does the worldwide fashion industry put forth as the standard for beauty by which today’s woman is to measure herself?

Well, take a look at what a group of professional hair stylists, make-up artists, and photographers in cahoots with computer graphics were able to create (click on the picture to watch the video):

To think that women are striving to look like someone who doesn’t even look like herself. It’s absurd!

The Dove Campaign got it partially right—the fashion industry has certainly contributed to a distorted perception of beauty. And yet, their solution—“every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is”—is well-meaning and yet fundamentally unbiblical.

You see, women believe that physical beauty will make them happy, successful, popular among the women, desirable to the men – so they pursue it with a fury!

Physical beauty, however, does not deliver as advertised. Proverbs 31:30 reveals the falsehood and the futility of this quest for beauty: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain.

Even if every girl did “feel beautiful just the way she is,” it wouldn’t bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems.

Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God.

God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not!

What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! In fact, we’re better off not even thinking about ourselves. Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.

So while this little video effectively exposes the false front of beauty presented by our culture, let’s not look to Dove’s advertising executives for the solution to the beauty crisis. Rather, let’s join the campaign to tell others of the true freedom that is found in Christ!

May God, not self be supreme among the women of ASGF.  May the gospel, not attention be valued among the women of ASGF.  May God give grace so that our women will adorn the gospel by their godly character and good deeds.

As we move towards officially recongizing members of Auburn Sovereign Grace Fellowship I thought it might be helpful to provide a some resources on membership. 

To start with, here is an outline of our initial membership process assuming you were part of the Grace Group studies on “Stop Dating the Church” and the Doctrinal Statement.

     1. Pick up and fill out a membership application.

     2. Turn in the application to your Grace Group Leader/Elder

     3. Set up and participate in an interview with your Grace Group Leader/Elder

     4. Public affirmation and recognition of membership

ASGF Membership Application.pdf- You can download our membership application here or you can pick one up on Sunday from the information table. 

Grace Community Church Distinctive: Church Membership- a brief but thorough outline of the biblical reasons for church membership. 

The Bible Church of Little Rock Philosophy Statement on Membership- another helpful overview of biblical reasons for church membership.

Mark 6: A Biblical Understanding of Membership- a page full of resources regarding membership, including articles and audio sermons.