Justification by Faith ALONE - Sola fide

For some reason the Lord has been having me defend this truth more and more lately. So I thought why not put up some information on what others like minded as myself have thought on the matter.


Martin speaks my heart on the matter here...


"This doctrine [justification by faith] is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour…. For no one who does not hold this article – or, to use Paul's expression, this 'sound doctrine' (Titus 2:1) – is able to teach aright in the church or successfully to resist any adversary . . . this is the heel of the Seed that opposes the old serpent and crushes its head. That is why Satan, in turn, cannot but persecute it."

"Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know God and is an idolater . . . For when this article has been taken away, nothing remains but error, hypocrisy, godlessness, and idolatry, although it may seem to be the height of truth, worship of God, holiness, etc."


Here John puts into words perfectly why this doctrine is so important...

What's the Big Deal?

The difference between Rome and the Reformers is no example of theological hair-splitting. The corruption of the doctrine of justification results in several other grievous theological errors.

If sanctification is included in justification, the justification is a process, not an event. That makes justification progressive, not complete. Our standing before God is then based on subjective experience, not secured by an objective declaration. Justification can therefore be experienced and then lost. Assurance of salvation in this life becomes practically impossible because security can't be guaranteed. The ground of justification ultimately is the sinner's own continuing present virtue, not Christ's perfect righteousness and His atoning work.

What's so important about the doctrine of justification by faith alone? It is the doctrine upon which the confessing church stands or falls. Without it there is no salvation, no sanctification, no glorification--nothing. You wouldn't know it to look at the state of Christianity today, but it really is that important.



Read on what great minds blessed by Gods wisdom think...


What Edwards Thinks.


John MacArthur, Jr.


Marin Luther

What Makes you Happy?

"Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle." Proverbs 23:5

People are badly cheated in this world. They imagine that the things they can see are the real things--that the gold, lands, and stocks are the true treasures. So they toil for those things and gather them into their possession, piling up what they suppose to be wealth. Thus they live in pomp, with their fine houses, and all their brilliant show. But one day their supposed riches sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Or they may keep their wealth, perchance, and die at last in the midst of it, and have a great funeral; but they find that they cannot carry a penny of it with them. "How much did he leave?" was asked about a rich man who had died. "All of it!" was the answer.

If only people knew that there are things which will never fly away--they would no longer live for fleeting worldly wealth. They would pass by the glittering unrealities, to lay hold of the true riches. He who is rich toward God--is the truly wealthy man

Go Steve!

Directions for Hating Sin, By Richard Baxter

Direct. II. Yet must you be willing and obedient in applying the remedies prescribed you by Christ, and observing his directions in order to your cure. And you must not be tender, and coy, and fine, and say his is too bitter, and that is too sharp; but trust his love, and skill, and care, and take it as he prescribes it, or gives it you, without any more ado. Say not, It is grievous, and I cannot take it: for he commands you nothing but what is safe, and wholesome, and necessary, and if you cannot take it, must try whether you can bear your sickness, and death, and the fire of hell! Are humiliation, confession, restitution, mortification, and holy diligence worse than hell?




Read the whole sermon here

This one hit me right between the eyes.

This is devastating but True!

This may sting some of you and may even hurt your feelings. That is not my intention but to see your soul saved and Christ glorified.



- Aaron

It WILL COST YOU to follow Christ.

Advice to Missionary Candidates by Adoniram Judson

To the Foreign Missionary Association of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, N. Y.

DEAR BRETHREN: Yours of November last, from the pen of your Corresponding Secretary, Mr. William Dean, is before me. It is one of the few letters that I feel called upon to answer, for you ask my advice on several important points. There is, also, in the sentiments you express, something so congenial to my own, that I feel my heart knit to the members of your association, and instead of commonplace reply, am desirous of setting down a few items which may be profitable to you in your future course. Brief items they must be, for want of time forbids my expatiating.

In commencing my remarks, I take you as you are. You are contemplating a missionary life.

First, then, let it be a missionary life; that is, come out for life, and not for a limited term. Do not fancy that you have a true missionary spirit, while you are intending all along to leave the heathen soon after acquiring their language. Leave them! for what? To spend the rest of your days in enjoying the ease and plenty of your native land?

Secondly. In choosing a companion for life, have particular regard to a good constitution, and not wantonly, or without good cause, bring a burden on yourselves and the mission.

Thirdly. Be not ravenous to do good on board ship. Missionaries have frequently done more hurt than good, by injudicious zeal, during their passage out.

Fourthly. Take care that the attention you receive at home, the unfavorable circumstances in which you will be placed on board ship, and the unmissionary examples you may possibly meet with at some missionary stations, do not transform you from living missionaries to mere skeletons before you reach the place of your destination. It may be profitable to bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps.

Fifthly. Beware of the reaction which will take place soon after reaching your field of labor. There you will perhaps find native Christians, of whose merits or demerits you can not judge correctly without some familiar acquaintance with their language. Some appearances will combine to disappoint and disgust you. You will meet with disappointments and discouragements, of which it is impossible to form a correct idea from written accounts, and which will lead you, at first, almost to regret that you have embarked in the cause. You will see men and women whom you have been accustomed to view through a telescope some thousands of miles long. Such an instrument is apt to magnify. Beware, therefore, of the reaction you will experience from a combination of all these causes, lest you become disheartened at commencing your work, or take up a prejudice against some persons and places, which will embitter all your future lives.

Sixthly. Beware of the greater reaction which will take place after you have acquired the language, and become fatigued and worn out with preaching the gospel to a disobedient and gainsaying people. You will sometimes long for a quiet retreat, where you can find a respite from the tug of toiling at native work -- the incessant, intolerable friction of the missionary grindstone. And Satan will sympathize with you in this matter; and he will present some chapel of ease, in which to officiate in your native tongue, some government situation, some professorship or editorship, some literary or scientific pursuit, some supernumerary translation, or, at least, some system of schools; anything, in a word, that will help you, without much surrender of character, to slip out of real missionary work. Such a temptation will form the crisis of your disease. If your spiritual constitution can sustain it, you recover; if not, you die.

Seventhly. Beware of pride; not the pride of proud men, but the pride of humble men -- that secret pride which is apt to grow out of the consciousness that we are esteemed by the great and good. This pride sometimes eats out the vitals of religion before its existence is suspected. In order to check its operations, it may be well to remember how we appear in the sight of God, and how we should appear in the sight of our fellow-men, if all were known. Endeavor to let all be known. Confess your faults freely, and as publicly as circumstances will require or admit. When you have done something of which you are ashamed, and by which, perhaps, some person has been injured (and what man is exempt?), be glad not only to make reparation, but improve the opportunity for subduing your pride.

Eighthly. Never lay up money for yourselves or your families. Trust in God from day to day, and verily you shall be fed.

Ninthly. Beware of that indolence which leads to a neglect of bodily exercise. The poor health and premature death of most Europeans in the East must be eminently ascribed to the most wanton neglect of bodily exercise.

Tenthly. Beware of genteel living. Maintain as little intercourse as possible with fashionable European society. The mode of living adopted by many missionaries in the East is quite inconsistent with that familiar intercourse with the natives which is essential to a missionary.

There are many points of self-denial that I should like to touch upon; but a consciousness of my own deficiency constrains me to be silent. I have also left untouched several topics of vital importance, it having been my aim to select such only as appear to me to have been not much noticed or enforced. I hope you will excuse the monitorial style that I have accidentally adopted. I assure you, I mean no harm.

In regard to your inquiries concerning studies, qualifications, etc., nothing occurs that I think would be particularly useful, except the simple remark, that I fear too much stress begins to be laid on what is termed a thorough classical education.

Praying that you may be guided in all your deliberations, and that I may yet have the pleasure of welcoming some of you to these heathen shores, I remain

Your affectionate brother,
A. JUDSON
Maulmain, June 25, 1832

Do Not Try to Save Yourself!

If you think about it, God's value of heaven and yours are very different things. His salvation, when he
set a price upon it, was to be brought to men only through the death of his Son. But you think that your good
works can win the heaven which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, procured at the cost of his own blood! Do you
dare to put your miserable life in comparison with the life of God's obedient Son, who gave himself even to
death? Does it not strike you that you are insulting God? If there is a way to heaven by works, why did he
put his dear Son to all that pain and grief? Why the scenes of Gethsemane? Why the tragedy on Golgotha,
when the thing could be done so easily another way? You insult the wisdom of God and the love of God.
There is no attribute of God which self-righteousness does not impugn. It debases the eternal perfections
which the blessed Saviour magnified, in order to exalt the pretensions of the creature which the Almighty
spurns as vain and worthless. The trader may barter his gold for your trinkets and glass beads, but if you
give all that you have to God it would be utterly rejected. He will bestow the milk and the honey of his
mercy without money and without price, but if you come to him trying to bargain for it, it is all over for you;
God will not give you choice provisions of his love that you do not know how to appreciate.
The great things you propose to do, these works of yours, what comparison do they bear to the blessing
which you hope to obtain? I suppose by these works you hope to obtain the favour of God and procure a
place in heaven. What is it, then you propose to offer? What could you bring to God? Would you bring him
rivers of oil, or the fat of ten thousand animals? Count up all the treasures that lie beneath the surface of the
earth; if you brought them all, what would they be to God? If you could pile up all the gold reaching from
the depths of the earth to the highest heavens, what would it be to him? How could all this enrich his coffers
or buy your salvation? Can he be affected by anything you do to augment the sum of his happiness, or to
increase the glory of his kingdom? If he were hungry he would not tell you. “The cattle upon ten thousand
hills are mine,” he says ( Psa 50:10). Your goodness may please your fellow-creatures, and your charity may
make them grateful, but will God owe anything to you for your gifts, or be in debt to you for your influence?
Absurd questions! When you have done everything, what will you be but a poor, unworthy, unprofitableservant?
You will not have done what you ought, much less will there be any balance in your favour to make
atonement for sin, or to purchase for you an inheritance in the realms of light.
You who are going to save yourselves by reforms, and by earnest attempts and endeavours, let me ask
you, if a man could not perform a certain work when his arm had strength in it, how will he be able to
perform it when the bone is broken? When you were young and inexperienced, you had not yet fallen into
evil habits and customs. Though there was depravity in your nature then, you had not become bound in the
iron net of habit, yet even then you went astray like a lost sheep and you followed after evil. What reason
have you to suppose that you can suddenly change the bias of your heart, the course of your actions and the
tenor of your life, and become a new man? “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” (
Jer 13:23). Are there not ten thousand probabilities against one that as you sinned before you will sin still?
You found the pathway of evil to be so attractive and fascinating that you were enticed into it, and you will
still be enticed and drawn away from that path of integrity which you are now so firmly resolved to tread.
The way to heaven by following the law given at Mount Sinai is very steep and narrow, and it takes only
one wrong step for a man to be dashed to pieces. Stand at the foot and look up at it if you dare. On its brow
of stone there is the black cloud, out of which lightning leaps and the blast of the trumpet sounds loud and
long. Do you not see Moses tremble, and you will dare to stand unabashed where Moses is fearful and
afraid? Look upwards, and give up the thought of climbing those steep crags, for no one has ever striven to
clamber up there in the hope of salvation without finding destruction among the terrors of the way! Be wise,
give up that deceitful hope of salvation which your pride leads you to choose and your presumption would
soon cause you to rue.
Suppose you could do some great thing, which I am sure you cannot, and it were possible that you could
from now on be perfect, and never sin again in thought, or word, or deed; how would you be able to atone
for your past delinquencies? Shall I call for a resurrection in that graveyard of your memory? Let your sins
rise up for a moment, and pass in review before you. Ah, the sins of your youth may well frighten you; those
midnight sins; those midday sins; those sins against light and knowledge; those sins of body; those sins of
soul! You have forgotten them, you say, but God has not. Look at the file! They are all placed there, all
registered in God's daybook, not one forgotten—all to be read against you in the day of the last judgment.
How can future obedience make up for past transgression? The cliff has fallen and though the wave
washes up ten thousand times, it cannot set the cliff up again. The day is bright but still there was a night,
and the brightest day does not obliterate the fact that once it was dark. The self-righteous man knows that
what he is doing cannot satisfy God, for it cannot satisfy himself; and though he may perhaps drug his
conscience, there is generally enough left of the divine element within the man to make him feel and know
that it is not satisfactory.
To believe what God says, to do what God commands, to take that salvation which God provides—this
is man's highest and best wisdom. Open your Bible. It is the pilgrim's guide, in which God describes the
glory yet to be revealed. This is the one message of the gospel, “believe and live.” Trust in the incarnate
Savior, whom God appointed to stand in the place of sinners. Trust in him and you shall be saved.

35 Reasons not sin.

35 Reasons Not To Sin
By Jim Elliff

1. Because a little sin leads to more sin.
2. Because my sin invites the discipline of God.
3. Because the time spent in sin is forever wasted.
4. Because my sin never pleases but always grieves God who loves me.
5. Because my sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders.
6. Because in time my sin always brings heaviness to my heart.
7. Because I am doing what I do not have to do.
8. Because my sin always makes me less than what I could be.
9. Because others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin.
10. Because my sin saddens the godly.
11. Because my sin makes the enemies of God rejoice.
12. Because sin deceives me into believing I have gained when in reality I have lost.
13. Because sin may keep me from qualifying for spiritual leadership.
14. Because the supposed benefits of my sin will never outweigh the consequences of disobedience.
15. Because repenting of my sin is such a painful process, yet I must repent.
16. Because sin is a very brief pleasure for an eternal loss.
17. Because my sin may influence others to sin.
18. Because my sin may keep others from knowing Christ.
19. Because sin makes light of the cross, upon which Christ died for the very purpose of taking away my sin.
20. Because it is impossible to sin and follow the Spirit at the same time.
21. Because God chooses not to respect the prayers of those who cherish their sin.
22. Because sin steals my reputation and robs me of my testimony.
23. Because others once more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins.
24. Because the inhabitants of heaven and hell would all testify to the foolishness of this sin.
25. Because sin and guilt may harm both mind and body.
26. Because sins mixed with service make the things of God tasteless.
27. Because suffering for sin has no joy or reward, though suffering for righteousness has both.
28. Because my sin is adultery with the world.
29. Because, though forgiven, I will review this very sin at the Judgment Seat where loss and gain of eternal rewards are applied.
30. Because I can never really know ahead of time just how severe the discipline for my sin might be.
31. Because my sin may be an indication of a lost condition.
32. Because to sin is not to love Christ.
33. Because my unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it an authority over me greater than I wish to believe.
34. Because sin glorifies God only in His judgment of it and His turning of it to good use, never because it is worth anything on it's own.
35. Because I promised God He would be Lord of my life.
Relinquish Your Rights - Reject the Sin - Renew the Mind - Rely on God