A Concise Sermon on Cosmic Apostasy

"Remember that if you are a child of God, you will never be happy in sin.  You are spoiled for the world, the flesh, and the devil.  When you were regenerated there was put into you a vital principle, which can never be content to dwell in the dead world.  You will have to come back, if indeed you belong to the family."  (C.H. Spurgeon)

Apostasy is an act of the volitional will against Christ.  It is falling away from a holy God and His written Word.  It is siding with the dark world in subjective wickedness.  The nature of man seeks to side with Satan.  He was our former "Master" before spiritual rebirth.  It is possible for a converted elect sinner to commit partial apostasy.  Look no further than Galatians chapter 2.  St. Peter stood condemned on the divine truth of the gospel.  He committed what we call something like partial apostasy.   That is, he added circumcision to the exclusive Cross of Jesus Christ.  

St. Paul set him straight through the message of God-speaking.  He declared the unknown grace of Jesus Christ in His unified righteousness alone in how to be right with a holy God.  There is no other way to be right with God than through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).  Something like full apostasy is the outward actions of Judas Iscariot.  Full apostasy is most likely the evidence of God's choice of damnation.  There is also a sense where God could really work on a apostate heart.  That is, there is no telling where the sinful nature will led a cosmic sinner.  

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
"E'en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."  (TH, 80).

Damnation today would be seen in people who outwardly loved the Reformed gospel but went to the Roman gospel that is not another gospel but a different gospel.  We must remember true biblical history.  The Book of Romans speaks of the one-true gospel of the only God-man Jesus Christ.  Hence the first schismatic was the Roman Church because she no longer holds to faith alone in Christ alone.  To deny the gospel in the plain testimony of Scripture is a sign of cosmic damnation through a willingness of apostasy which if left to itself will led to hell.

"Yes, apostasy happens.  Sometimes the catalyst is flagrant sin.  The pain of conviction and repentance is refused, and the only alternative to it is wholesale rejection of Christ.  But sometimes the catalyst is a thorn growing quietly in the heart, an indifference to the way of the Cross, a drifting that is not reversed by the knowledge of biblical warnings."  (Sinclair Ferguson, Apostasy and How it Happens, Tabletalk, April. 2004, p. 28, Used by Permission).

Again on apostasy,

"The universal witness of the New Testament is that apostasy if persisted in not only damns but shows that salvation was never real in the first place. The New Testament reveals how close one may come to the kingdom – tasting, touching, perceiving, understanding. And it also shows that to come this far and reject the truth is unforgivable."  (D.A. Carson, Matthew, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, 1984, p. 292).

Hence the motivation of apostasy,

"No one sets out to become an apostate - it's never the result of one abrupt, drastic turn away from the Lord. Instead, apostasy is most often the product of a pattern of sinful compromises that harden and gradually steer a professing believer away from the truth."  (John MacArthur GTY Newsletter, May 15, 2009, www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission).

Those of apostasy sink into hell, 

"None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven, because they fall from the greatest height."  (William Gurnall, A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 20).

 The causes of apostasy are Satan (Lk 22:31), false teachers (Acts 20:29, 30), perversion of Scripture (2 Tim. 4:3, 4), persecution (Mt 13:21), unbelief (Heb. 4:9-11), love of the world (2 Tim 4:10),  hardened heart (Acts 7:54, 57), spiritual blindness (Acts 28:25-27).  Apostasy is manifested in resisting the truth (2 Tim 3:7, 8).  It is possible to hear God's truth but hate it.  It is possible to hear God's truth but turn away from it.  This happens because of the absence of the Spirit of God in a sense of spiritual rebirth or illumination touching Christian living.  Apostasy is resorting to cosmic deception (2 Cor. 11:13-15) and reverting to immorality (2 Pet 2:14, 19-22).   The safeguard against apostasy is God's written Word (Ps. 119:11; 2 Tim 3:13-17), spiritual growth (2 Pet 1:5-11), sound doctrine (Acts 20:29-31), faithfulness (Mt 24:42-51), spiritual perception (1 Jn 4:1-6),  being grounded in the truth (Eph 4:13-16), using God's armor (Eph 6:10-20) and preaching God's holy Word (2 Tim 4:2, 5).

My Saviour's praises I will sing,
And all his love express;
Whose mercies each returning day
Proclaim his faithfulness.
"Ev'ry day will I bless thee!
Ev'ry day will I bless thee!
And I will praise will praise thy Name
For ever and ever!"
Redeemed by his almighty power,
My Saviour and my King;
My confidence in him I place,
To him my soul would cling.
On thee alone, my Saviour, God,
My steadfast hopes depend;
And to thy holy will my soul
Submissively would bend.
O grant thy Holy Spirit's grace,
And aid my feeble powers,
That gladly I may follow thee
Through all my future hours.   (TH, 703).

The nature of fallen man will led to false doctrine,

"There are very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature. Wrong views of the disease will always bring with them wrong views of the remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and cure of that corruption."  (J.C. Ryle, Quoted in: TULIP, The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture by Duane Edward Spencer, Baker, 1979, p. 23).

Again we read on false teachers,

"What is the best safe-guard against false teaching? Beyond all doubt the regular study of the word of God, with prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm. 119:105). The man who reads it aright will never be allowed greatly to err. It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear. They would have us believe that "they are not learned, and do not pretend to have decided opinions." The plain truth is that they are lazy and idle about reading the Bible, and do not like the trouble of thinking for themselves. Nothing supplies false prophets with followers so much as spiritual sloth under a cloak of humility."  (J.C. Ryle, Commentary, Matthew 7).

False teachers twist things.  Dr. Luther wrote,

"The most damnable and pernicious heresy that has ever plagued the mind of man was the idea that somehow he could make himself good enough to deserve to live with an all-holy God"

False teachers stray from God's truth,

"The mark of the false prophet or teacher is self-serving unfaithfulness to God and His truth. It may be that he says what he shouldn’t; but it is far more likely that he will err by failing to say what he should. He will gloss over all the tough questions and issues as did the false prophets in the Old Testament who went around saying, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace (Jer. 6:14). They wouldn't speak the tough word calling for repentance nor suggest that Israel was out of sorts spiritually. Instead they brought groundless comfort, lulling people into a false sense of security so that their hearers were totally unprepared for the judgment which eventually came on them. There are teachers in the church today who never speak of repentance, self-denial, the call to be relatively poor for the Lord's sake, or any other demanding aspect of discipleship. Naturally they are popular and approved, but for all that, they are false prophets. We will know such people by their fruits. Look at the people to whom they have ministered. Do these folks really know and love the Lord? Are they prepared to take risks, even hazard their lives, for Jesus? Or are they comfortable, inactive, and complacent? If so, they are self-deceived, and those who have irresponsibly encouraged their self-deception will have to answer for it. Anyone who is in a position of spiritual leadership who fails to teach the more demanding, less comfortable, “narrow gate” and “rough road” side of discipleship becomes a false prophet."  (J.I. Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, page for September 19).

The Christian should always stand by the Cross.  There is no escape through man-made thinking.  Rather the good Lord is behind the Christian.  False teachers hate the Cross.  Some take away from the power of the Cross.  Others add things to the Cross.  I am not saying we should exclude the life of Christ in how we are right with a holy God.   I suggest to you that the offense of the Cross is that Jesus Christ freely forgives through His own all-exclusive sacrifice.  No one can stand before a holy God but through Christ alone.  Many fail at the teaching of the Cross.  The Cross is supposed to be the center of the Roman faith.  We see that she adds to the Cross but much worse than Peter.  She has fallen from grace.  She is the essence of apostasy and the pursuit of hell.

Forever trusting in the Lord,
Take heed to do his will;
So shalt thou dwell within the land,
And he thy needs shall fill.
Delight thee in the Lord, and he
Will grant thy heart's request;
To him commit thy way in faith,
And thus thou shalt be blessed.  
And he shall make thy righteousness
Shine brightly as the light,
And as the burning noonday sun
Thy judgment shall be bright.  
Rest in the Lord with quiet trust,
Wait patiently for him;
Though wickedness triumphant seem,
Let not thy faith grow dim.  (TH, 569).

A Sermon on the Perfect Justice of the Cross and the Imperfect Justice of Sinners

 Dr. MA Petillo

Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life;
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty,
Teach me faith and duty:
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.
Christ, the blessed One, gives to all,
Wonderful words of life;
Sinner, list to the loving call,
Wonderful words of life.
All so freely given,
Wooing us to heaven:
Sweetly echo the gospel call,
Wonderful words of life,
Offer pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life.
Jesus, only Saviour,
Sanctify for ever:  (TH, 722).

The Apostle Paul accomplished much in Christian ministry.  That is, he wrote much of the NT Scriptures.  However, his very name means "little."  All of us creatures are finite and God does not necessarily need us.  Sinners should not think of themselves as the center of the universe.  Man is not the sum and substance of this world.  Rather the centrality of our attention should be the Triune God alone.  The NT Scriptures speaks of God's people decreasing and Jesus increasing.  It means that Jesus must increase in our lives and we must allow God to have His way with us in the pursuit of holiness.  Every Christian ministry is foreordained of God.  He used the Apostle Paul to share the Good News with the Gentile people.  Paul knew that the Gospel could save sinners.  The power of God is not in man, but in the Gospel (Rom 1:16-17).  For Paul was a great sinner who was called from his mother's womb (Gal 1:15) like the OT prophet Jeremiah.

But I observed that, although I was such a great sinner before conversion, God never burdened me heavily with the guilt of sins committed while I was in ignorance. He only showed me that I was lost if I did not have Christ because I had been a sinner. I saw that I needed a perfect righteousness to present me without fault before God, and this righteousness was nowhere to be found but in the person of Jesus Christ.  (John Bunyan , Grace Abounding, Evangelical Press, 2000, p. 143).

Paul calls himself the chief of sinners,  "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 Tim 1:15 KJV).  Every sinner whether small or great should view themselves as the greatest sinner whoever lived.  If it is done through the heart, it is evidence of the Spirit's mighty work.  For JC Ryle wrote,

"If Christ had not gone to the cross and suffered in our stead, the just for the unjust, there would not have been a spark of hope for us. There would have been a mighty gulf between ourselves and God, which no man ever could have passed."  (The Cross: A Call to the Fundamentals of Religion).

Paul preached Jesus as the ONLY WAY (Acts 4:12), 

The summary of the gospel is that our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, has revealed the will of His heavenly Father to us, and with His innocence has redeemed us from death, and has reconciled us with God. Therefore, Christ is the only way to salvation for all those who have been, are, and will be.  (Ulrich Zwingli, Quoted in: Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 45).

Before Paul's conversion, he was a pre-converted sinner outside of Christ.  God freely chose him without regard for civil works (Rom 9:11, 16).  Paul was born at Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts 22:3) and he was born as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25-28).  Paul before Christ found him was called Saul (Acts 9:11; 13:9).  God is behind all the affairs of human history, but especially St. Paul.  That is, God changed the name of Saul (who was Paul) to Paul.  God changes the name of His people at a special time for a call to Christian service.  Some doubt that this was of Jesus Christ but simply providential coincidence.  The Bible refers to the apostle Simon but his name is changed to Peter by Christ.  This is a clear example of God's special Hand at work to glorify Himself through His chosen vessels for Christian ministry in the cases of Paul and Peter.   

Alexander MacLaren writes, "The gospel is not speculation but fact. It is truth, because it is the record of a Person who is the Truth."  R.W. Dale writes, "The real truth is that while He came to preach the gospel, His chief object in coming was that there might be a gospel to preach."  The Gospel is Jesus Christ alone.  It is meant to give Him alone the glory.  

The Father punished sin upon the eternal Son alone.  This is the essence of perfect justice.  No earthly court could equal this perfect justice.  Those who say it is an easy way to escape true justice simply do not understand the perfect satisfaction of Jesus Christ at the Cross.  No sinner has their sins excused through injustice or a mishandling of the facts in dealing with a holy God.  Some escape justice through injustice.  The Cross is a way to escape punishment through the punishment of another who was supernaturally able to bear the infinite wrath of God.  This is why the Cross is unequaled compared to court or prison.  The Cross in the final analysis has no equal.  There is a greater justice than imperfect justice.  The supreme court is not in the United States of America.  Rather the Supreme Court is the throne room of Jesus Christ alone.  He must pronounce or forensically declare the sinner righteous or just.  He does this through the historical, prophetical and supernatural Cross of Jesus Christ where our sins are imputed to Him alone and His unified righteousness alone is imputed to us (Phil 3:9) through a heaven-born faith (Eph. 2:8-9).  No court system could equal this cosmic and eternal justice.  It does not mean that there is not a place for civil government or civil prosecution.  We are called by God for the approbation of civil government (read Romans chapter 13).  Sometimes (not all the time) civil prosecution for civil crimes committed are forgone.  Is it better to forgo a criminal case through more injustice or non-justice (mercy)?  

It is not wrong to provide mercy for a crime but justice must be satisfied.  It takes a discernment in light of a future that possesses Jesus Christ.  How can justice be satisfied if they give mercy?  Look no further than the Cross.  No one will escape the justice of God unless Jesus has taken their place.  There is a place for those who practice injustice and habitual cosmic treason against the innocent in the land.  There is testimony for criminals excusing themselves through more injustice.  It just heaps sin upon sin that travels all the way to heaven.   God is ever watching and He knows everything.  In one moment, He could wipe a criminal off the face of the earth, because He deals with His enemies face to face.  Criminals unawakened whether providentially or salvationally do not invite correction.  

There is no way of escape though by appearance it would seem that they have escaped the civil law of God.  In addition, they despise Christ and His work.  This is the case of fallen man by nature.  If God leaves it unchanged, there is no spiritual hope.  Indeed, there is a civil reformation among criminals.  Is this the reformation God is talking about in His written Word?  Does this have real eternal value?  Civil reformation is worthless without the Spirit of God.  I suggest to you that a civil reformed sinner could enter hell and come back but still live an abomination in death turned forwards to hell again in light of what God really thinks.  How do we know?  God has revealed it in His written Word.  This civil reformation is something that hell has produced on earth.  Yes, the gates of hell have fallen because of Jesus Christ.  There is also a sense where hell has waged war in a pursuit of its own furtherance.  Sinners need an alien righteousness of Jesus Christ alone in extra nos (Gal 2:20) through God's free choice (Rom 9:11, 16) by faith (Rom 1:16t-17) and repentance (Mk 1:15). 

All the spiritual crimes of God's elect fallen creatures are paid on Christ.  That is, He satisfied divine justice through imputed sin to Him alone.  That is not the end of it.  Rather He imputed the divine righteousness of Himself alone to His chosen sinners.  No sinner escapes the divine justice of God or man through something unjust.  All sin was paid by Christ who literally took the place of His chosen people in Christ alone.  The sinners who do not have Christ as their sole substitute will have to pay their own debt for all eternity.  We call sinners to trust Christ, because Jesus commands the preaching of the gospel to every tribe, tongue, people and nation.  Everyone that belongs to God will respond in real faith in the real Christ.  In the final analysis no one escapes God's justice.  To the one it is perfectly satisfied at the Cross, but to the other justice never ends in eternal torment.  If you find yourself unable to believe, it may be a sign of blessed self-despair.  Blessed self-despair is when you come to terms that you cannot save yourself.  Everyone is called to make a choice, but a finite choice never saved anyone.  That does not mean there should not be a decision for Jesus Christ.  Everyone is called to make a decision for Jesus Christ.  Is God behind that decision or is it merely providential awakening (see Rom 1:19)?   The way you know you belong to Christ is an awareness of the Spirit's work of saving knowledge (1 Jn 5:13).  Do you repent of your sins through the all-exclusive Cross of Jesus Christ?  Remember what Jesus said to His few chosen, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (Jn 15:16 KJV).  George Whitfield writes, "Other men may preach the gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel."

  

By the cross of Jesus standing,
Love our straitened souls expanding,
Taste we now the peace and grace!
Health from yonder tree is flowing,
Heavenly light is on it glowing,
From the blessed Suff'rer's face.
Here is pardon's pledge and token,
Guilt's strong chain for ever broken,
Righteous peace securely made;
Brightens now the brow once shaded,
Freshens now the face once faded,
Peace with God now makes us glad.
All the love of God is yonder,
Love above all thought and wonder,
Perfect love that casts out fear!
Strength, like dew, is here distilling,
Glorious life our souls is filling,
Life eternal, only here!
Here the living water welleth;
Here the Rock, now smitten, telleth
Of salvation freely giv'n:
This the fount of love and pity,
This the pathway to the city,
This the very gate of heav'n.  (TH, 185).

The Divine Perpetuity of Divine Providence: A Mere 11-Point Defense of the Foredetermined Christ-Appointed Approbation of the Slaughter of the Divine Lamb of God Through the God-Destined Cross of Jesus Christ and a Scriptural Examination of the Apostle Peter and Judas Iscariot Regarding the Providential Outcome of the Most Bitter Crucifixion of the Matchless Mediator Jesus Christ

 Dr.  MA Petillo

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;
Living with Jesus, a new life divine;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Moment by moment, I'm kept in his love;
Moment by moment, I've life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Never a trial that he is not there,
Never a burden that he doth not bear,
Never a sorrow that he doth not share,
Moment by moment, I'm under his care.
Never a weakness that he doth not feel,
Never a sickness that he cannot heal;
Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,
Jesus my Saviour, abides with me still.  (TH, 708).

1.  The Cross of Jesus Christ was the predestinarian plan of God.

2.  Through the doctrine of high compatiblism, God caused, designed and brought forth every single detail of the appointed hour of Jesus Christ the only God-man.  That is, the appointed hour was the very Cross of Jesus Christ where He bore the sins of God's people in Christ alone.

3.  God is not at a distance, but He is meticulously involved in the providential display of His outward creation for mercy or for wrath.

4.  God used the free choice of wicked man without violating their fallen wills to bring about redemption through the secondary means of fallen humanity to bring about the predestinarian slaughter of the innocent Lamb of God at His bitter Cross at Calvary.

5.   God is the ultimate cause of the redemption of His people alone though He used wicked man to accomplish His prophetic and supernatural purposes in bringing out life for His people.

6.  God brought about the fall of humanity to ultimately glorify His eternal Son either for mercy or for wrath in the redemption of His people alone in Christ, because ALL THINGS work together for the good of His people according to those called according to His redemptive purpose in divine love.  If this is not true, something was out of His control.  Nothing is out of His control.

7.   Though the Father crushed His own Son for the redemption of God's people alone in Christ alone, He is not the Author of sin.  How?  God is not the Author of any sin, because He has the ultimate and sovereign right to do whatsoever He pleases except to have a motivation of sin in the cosmic darkness of second causes in fallen humanity and the evil one.

8.   It is possible for a holy God to forgo second causes and divinely intervene without fallen man and the prince of darkness, because He is wholly and perfectly sovereign.  Make no mistake: God needs no body to accomplish His purposes in the absolute sense.  That is, He alone decides without counsel from fallen man or Satan whether He will use them for second causes either for His glory unto mercy or unto wrath.

9.  Some think Judas brought about redemption.  No, no!  Has Satan and the Father agreed that the eternal Son be put to death?  We see it is the Father's will from OT prophecy that He designed the Cross of Jesus Christ before it all happened, but didn't Judas Iscariot in a sense "obey" God by betraying Jesus (because Judas seemed to bring about redemption in handing Him over)?  Satan was aware of God's plan since the Garden, but he used Judas to betray Jesus.  There is no where in the Bible where it says that betrayal is a NT command.  Judas committed the cosmic sin of Satan, but the Father used the sin of Judas to bring about redemption.  Wait a minute!  Isn't it condemned to do evil that good may come?  Indeed.  Judas brought about the betrayed of Jesus, but it was God that brought about spiritual goodness through Jesus Christ alone (Phil 3:9).  The sin lies with Judas because he sinned through doing evil that good may come.  That is, this is condemned in Romans chapter 3.  

10.  When Jesus permitted Judas to hand Him over was He partaking of his sin?  No, no!  Jesus alone is the God-man apart from sin!  That is, He sovereignly decided whatsoever He wanted with His creature (in this case Judas Iscariot).  We must remember Jesus is the Living Creator.  He decides everything because the Potter has right over the clay.  It means Jesus was not partaking of the sin of Judas, but He was obeying His Heavenly Father in turning Judas over to himself and Satan in the ultimate plan of God foretold in ancient times (see Gen 3:15).  Again He has the divine right to choose what to do with each of us.  No one receives injustice by God but through His Cross God's people alone in Christ alone receive mercy alone though He also uses corrective judgment for His people that stray in cosmic sin, but this corrective judgment adds nothing to His unified redemptive merits of Christ alone (Gal 2:16).  CH Spurgeon wrote,

"And as I looked upon that corpse [of Jesus], I heard a footstep, and wondered where it was. I listened, and I clearly perceived that the murderer was close at hand. It was dark, and I groped about to find him. I found that, somehow or other, wherever I put out my hand, I could not meet with him, for he was nearer to me than my hand would go. At last I put my hand upon my breast. “I have thee now,” said I; for lo! he was in my own heart! The murderer was hiding within my own bosom, dwelling in the recesses of my inmost soul. Ah! Then I wept indeed, that I, in the very presence of my murdered Master, should be harbouring the murderer, and I felt myself most guilty while I bowed over His corpse, and sang that plaintive hymn: “Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were; each of my crimes became a nail, and unbelief the spear.” My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorns those bleeding brows. My sins cried, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” and laid the cross upon his gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity; but my having been His murderer is more, infinitely more grief, than one poor fountain of tears can express..."

11. What about Peter who became an incarnation of Satan in advising Christ not to go to His Cross?  The Apostle Peter rejected the plan of God that Jesus should die on His Cross.  In this case, Peter sinned against a holy God and His holy plan.  Satan had enticed him to bring about a plan after the interests of man.  The plan of God is not about the interests of man, but the interests of God.  Judas sinned in being a demi-god to take upon himself a divine prerogative in idolatry, but the Apostle Peter sinned in furthering the hidden plan of Satan to stop Jesus in redemption.  God brought this about for our learning and for the good of Peter.  He even works out the temptations of Satan for the good of His people.  How does He do this?  He alone knows the secrets where he is able to bring good out of evil without saying evil is good and good is evil.  Satan would say that evil is good, because it brought man a special knowledge.  The knowledge brought man to a place where he thinks of himself as a demi-god.  The plan of Satan is to rise above God in cosmic idolatry through rebellious sin.  That is, the father of lies loves sin more than the honor of Jesus Christ.   This is what happens to men when they go astray.

Jesus lives, and so shall I.
Death! thy sting is gone forever!
He who deigned for me to die,
Lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me from the dust:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, and reigns supreme,
And, his kingdom still remaining,
I shall also be with him,
Ever living, ever reigning.
God has promised: be it must:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, and by his grace,
Vict'ry o'er my passions giving,
I will cleanse my heart and ways,
Ever to his glory living.
Me he raises from the dust.
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, I know full well
Nought from him my heart can sever,
Life nor death nor powers of hell,
Joy nor grief, hence forth forever.
None of all his saints is lost;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
Jesus lives, and death is now
But my entrance into glory.
Courage, then, my soul, for thou
Hast a crown of life before thee;
Thou shalt find thy hopes were just;
Jesus is the Christian's Trust.  (TH, 596).

A 30-Point Apologetical Sermon on a Concise Teaching of the Historical, Scriptural and Doctrinal Understanding of the Real Story of Noah's Ark, Pt 1

 Dr. MA Petillo

With grateful heart my thanks I bring,
Before the great thy praise I sing:
I worship in thy holy place
And praise thee for thy truth and grace;
For truth and grace together shine
In thy most holy Word divine.
I cried to thee and thou didst save,
Thy Word of grace new courage gave;
The kings of earth shall thank thee, Lord,
For they have heard thy wondrous word;
Yea, they shall come with songs of praise,
For great and glorious are thy ways.
O Lord, enthroned in glory bright,
Thou reignest in the heavenly height;
The proud in vain thy favor seek,
But thou hast mercy for the meek;
Through trouble though my pathway be,
Thou wilt revive and strengthen me.
Thou wilt stretch forth thy mighty arm
To save me when my foes alarm;
The work thou hast for me begun
Shall by thy grace be fully done;
For ever mercy dwells with thee;
O Lord, my Maker, think on me.  (TH, 76).

1.  The name Noah means "rest" (Gen. 5:29).

2.  There really was an historical figure named Noah.

3.  The father of Noah was Lamech.

4.  Noah had brothers and sisters in the family of Lamech.

5.  Noah found favor with a holy God (Gen. 6:8).  That is, he was found by God through His outstretched arm of His choice alone (Jn 1:13).

6.  Noah lived for five hundred years.  That is, the age of Noah is not something made up or mythology.  Rather the age of Noah is real because of a real preserved and an early humanity.

7.  Noah had three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen 6:10).

8.   Noah was a just man.  That is, the Bible says that the just live by faith (for example Gal 2:20).  

9.  Noah is said to be "perfect."  It refers not to a perfection unto future glorification through sinlessness, but that comes later in heaven by God in the glorification of the merits of Christ alone through an elect sinner chosen by God alone.  Rather it refers to being "complete."  Job is described in the same way.  The Bible says that only the unified divine righteousness of Christ alone avails in how someone is right with a holy God (Phil 3:9).

10.  Noah walked with God.  That is, it refers to a way of life that is set apart (or holy).  Noah had his obedience captive to every way of Jesus Christ. 

11.  Genesis 6:13 refers to God speaking to Noah.  That is, God spoke to Noah face to face as with a friend.  We see this later on in ancient Israel with Moses.

12.  God told Noah that He brought the divine revelation of the end of all flesh that has come before Him.  That is, God sovereignly chose according to His supernatural freedom to bring about the destruction of the world through water in early human history, because of the abundant lawlessness.  God does not have the obligation to save, but only through His graciousness.  However, He may chose according to His good pleasure to grant wrath to His fallen creatures, because it is no surprise that men deserve divine punishment for cosmic treason.  The Bible also refers to the destruction of the world at the end through fire, but it says that God will never destroy the world again through water.   Hence it must be a global understanding of God's way to end the world in a catastrophic flood and later by fire.

13.  Ancient man was filled with violence.  The Bible says a holy God hates a soul that loves violence, because it is extreme lawlessness.  Lawlessness is a characteristic of damnation.   

14.  All of ancient man was spiritually damned by God's choice alone (Rom 9:11, 16).  That is, they rebelled against a holy God that was left to the mutable subjection of their wills toward cosmic rebellion and followed their fallen parents (the historical Adam and Eve) in the sin that rises above a holy God in treasonous idolatry.

15.  God did not chose to be merciful to ancient man.  That is, He destroyed all living things including many millions of fallen sinners.  They must have spread over the lands of the ancient earth.  No matter where they were, He would find them.  No one can escape the divine presence of God.  The world-wide flood missed nobody, and so the ancient world perished.  Do you doubt this historical truth?  If the world did not perish by water, how will the world not perish through fire?  The past world perished through water in a real global sense, but the future world will perish in a real global sense by divine fire where a holy God will make a new heaven and earth for the glory of Jesus Christ alone.

16.  The global flood that destroyed ancient man was for the glory of God alone unto His matchless wrath alone for reprobate man alone, but the eight historical and real people (who were saints of God in Christ that He preserved Noah's Christ-centered family) survived from God's supernatural and providential protection in a real Ark made of real ancient wood received God's choice of mercy alone in general benevolence (in constructing and building the Ark for Noah's family only) and redemptive mercy (in salvation of their spiritual souls).


17.  God blessed the few in ancient history.  That is, He spiritually and really saved eight particular saints.  They did not become saints by their own efforts.  Rather it was the work of God alone.  It's not that Noah and his family never sinned, because the Bible tells us that everyone sins.  However, it means Noah and his family was not engaged in the violent lawlessness of fallen humanity at that time in history.  God preserved Noah and his family in the historical time of hyper-violence on the old earth.  Are you one of the eight people in Christ who serve Him and trust Him?  Remember Jesus Christ as a picture of Noah's Ark.  That is, He is the real Incarnate Ark as a Divine Incarnate Person that rescues His people without additions in how someone is right with their holy Creator.

18.  God designed the predestinarian plan for Noah's Ark through a picture of His eternal Son (though it was a real historical event but still foreshadows Jesus Christ alone in ancient times) by the Spirit's redemptive work in spiritually changing eight souls for the sole glory of His mercy alone.

19.  Noah obeyed the Lord.  That is, we see this with Moses that he also obeyed a holy God.  How did Noah obey God?  Obedience can only come from God's work of a changed heart.  Do you have a changed heart before God and man?  We ought to obey God in all He commands.  You may seek to obey the Ten Commandments, but what about the NT commandments?  Have you obeyed them?

20.  Noah obeyed God to demonstrate his living faith born of God (Eph 2:8-9; Tit 3:5; Jn 1:13), but he did not obey God to earn favor with Him, because Noah had favor by God through His grace alone before He obeyed God (see Eph 2:10; Js 2ff).


21.  God speaks to Noah and He gives a command (Gen 7:1).  That is, God speaks now through His written Word preached.  Do you want to hear the very voice of Jesus Christ?  Here, take up and read!  It is the written Scriptures that is the very voice of God.

22.  Noah was able to obey the holy Lord.  That is, Noah and his real family entered the constructed Ark.  Ancient man was able to build such a structure like the Ark.  There are historical examples of ancient structures that ancient man was able to build.  


23.  Why Noah and his family?  God was fully aware of other ancient civilizations around the ancient world at Noah's time, but He solely chose Noah and his family alone simply because of His good pleasure without regard to the mere opinions of fallen man.

24.  Noah was six hundred years old when God brought the world-wide flood of Noah upon the ancient world.  God was able to wait from the historical fall of Adam to Noah's time until He freely decided in light of man's cosmic rebellion to destroy the world through His furious indignation in His outstretched wrath according to His good pleasure for the glory of His perfect justice alone.


25.  We ought to be very careful in how we view ancient man in light of our ungodly times.  That is, we would be grossly mistaken to suggest that we are not living in a crooked and wicked generation like the days of Noah. 

26.  Where did the world-wide water come from?   Very simply, it did not rain unto the time Noah entered the Ark, because there was a different way for God to water the earth (see for example Gen 2:6).  The water that overflowed the earth or filled the earth to the brim came from the sky and subterranean chambers underneath the deep surface of the earth (see Gen 7:11).  God caused the rain and the deep waters to come forth and radically flooded the earth for cosmic judgment.  It is atheistic and agnostic foolishness in blind science to say that storms come without the meticulous Hand of God.

27.  There was most likely a natural built-in awareness (created and furthered by God's outworking Hand alone) among the ancient animals of pending danger, doom and destruction concerning some kind of pending disaster upon the earth, but also it was Noah's cosmic responsibility to gather the male and female animals to the ancient Ark for preservation and protection of life (Gen 7:9).  

28.   Does the interpretation of God's supernatural work in causing a world-wide flood and saving only eight people in ancient world history cause us to doubt and consider the ancient account superfluous mythology?  I suggest to you that to deny God's detailed work in Noah's ancient account is to deny essential Christian truth.

29.   Noah's favor was not extra-goodness, because he had the unified divine merit of Christ alone (Gal 2:16; Ez 14:14; 14:20).

30.  The err-free Christ spoke of the LITERAL account of ancient Noah as a real historical example of the future Second Coming of Christ (Mt 24:37), but He curiously asks if there will be faith (Lk 18:8).  The power of Christ is greater than the power of wickedness.  If you will not believe the sinless Son of Man on the interpretation of early history of man, who will you believe?   Where does your allegiance lay if not with King Jesus?

Almighty God, thy lofty throne
Has justice for its cornerstone,
And shining bright before thy face
Are truth and love and boundless grace.
With blessing is the nation crowned
Whose people know the joyful sound;
They in the light, O Lord, shall live,
The light thy face and favor give.
Thy name with gladness they confess,
Exalted in thy righteousness;
Their fame and might to thee belong,
For in thy favor they are strong.
All glory unto God we yield,
Jehovah is our Help and Shield;
All praise and honor we will bring
To Israel's Holy One, our King.  (TH, 619).

A Concise Study on "So That Death May Die": A Sermon on the Power of Christ in Death Turned Backwards

 Dr. MA Petillo

Now unto Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty,
All glory and strength and dominion accord;
Ascribe to him glory, and render him honor,
In beauty of holiness worship the Lord.
The voice of Jehovah comes down on the waters;
In thunder the God of the glory draws nigh.
Lo, over the waves of the wide-flowing waters
Jehovah as King is enthroned on high!
The voice of Jehovah is mighty, is mighty;
The voice of Jehovah in majesty speaks:
The voice of Jehovah the cedars is breaking;
Jehovah the cedars of Lebanon breaks.
Each one, in his temple, his glory proclaimeth.
He sat on the flood; he is King on his throne.
Jehovah all strength to his people imparteth;
Jehovah with peace ever blesseth his own.   (TH, 36).

The Fall of Adam brought physical, spiritual and eternal death.  Death would never die unless for the deathless risen Christ.  Death turned backwards through the plan of God to cause His eternal Son to defeat Satan (see Gen 3:15).  The predestinarian purpose of the Triune God is to glorify, exalt and honor the eternal Son of God in the outworking of His foreordained design before creation began (Eph 1:11).  He controls the meticulous details and ultimate outcomes of the outworking of history in His providential design to bring glory to the victory of His dear Son.  Everything is arranged from His design for His victory (for example The Book of Revelation).  That is, the purpose of the fall of Satan is the glorify of the eternal King unto His glorious wrath alone.  Moreover, the plan of God in the Fall of man was also to glorify the Incarnate Word alone unto His choice alone according to His good pleasure alone through the divine accomplishment of either His eternal mercy for the converted elect or the divine achievement of His eternal wrath for the unconverted non-elect.

So that death world die.  That is, death took an eternal hit at the matchless, sinless and impeccable life of the divine Lamb of God.  The eternal Christ lived a sinless life in behalf of God's elect alone.  We are to have faith, confidence and hope in the sinless life of Christ in how we are right with God.  That is, He earned spiritual salvation for all the believing ones.  It means that death cannot conquer us because of the life of Christ that crushes death.  Some say Jesus Christ got His sinlessness from the Virgin Mary.  I suggest to you that He got His sinlessness touching His sacred humanity through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit in the virginal conception of our Lord and Creator Jesus Christ.  Some have also dared to suggest that the deity of Jesus Christ was received  through the alleged godhood of the Virgin Mary.  No, no!  The matchless deity of Jesus Christ is eternally self-existent.  That is, touching the deity of Jesus Christ He existed from everlasting to everlasting: He was, and is, and is yet to come.  There is no doubt that Jesus received His humanity from the Virgin Mary, but He also possessed a temporary body in OT times that pointed to His divine incarnation by the Spirit of God.  Being born of a virgin does not take away from the glory of God.  Rather it demonstrates not the greatness of God's creation, but the greatness of Jesus alone.  Death turned backwards because of the life that moves forward in His perfect life into eternal bliss through Jesus Christ alone.

So that death would turn backwards.  That is, the overall death the Fall brought to fallen humanity leads us all to hell.  A Reformed theologian commented that he is surprised that fallen man is not born in hell because of original sin.  Sin is cosmic treason.  Sinners make sin out to be less than it is.  Death could not turn backwards if left without the eternal Christ.  Sinners were immersed in death without Christ.  We are called to remember the spiritual life in the death of Christ.  The death of Christ turned death backwards.  How?  The very death of Christ won life for God's people who are born, not of might nor by power, but from the Spirit and Word in effectual calling.  The death of Christ has eternal value for all the believing ones alone.  Only the death of Christ could remove death.  The enemy sought to destroy Christ through death.  The destruction of Christ brought the destruction of death.  Through the very means of destruction, God brought life out of death.  It is not that man had power over Christ, but that Christ had power over man.   That is, He sovereignly chose to lay down His life only to take it up again. No doubt the death of Christ destroyed death.  That means the death of Christ brought spiritual life for those it was intended for through God's meticulous outworking providence through His foredetermined plan through the wicked schemes of abominable sinners and Satan as the providential second cause.

So that death would die.  That is, God's people will never die.  The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ destroyed death.  God's people will die a physical death that is a way to heaven.  Heaven is not the end but the beginning.  Death is a gateway to joy for those who have been chosen by God alone unto everlasting mercy.  No child of God will taste the second death.  The second death is eternal hell.  Are you a child of God that has caused sin up to the white clouds of heaven in blazing fires of hell like the ancient but historical city of Sodom?  The way to know you are right with a holy God is through the verification of the risen Christ.  That is, the historical sign of Jonah in Jesus' bodily resurrection shows the many infallible proofs of the reliability and trustworthiness of the life and death of Christ in justification by faith alone unto good works (Eph 2:8-10). 

"We need not wonder that so much importance is attached to our Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and headstone of the great work of redemption, which He came to do. It is the crowning proof that He has paid the debt which He undertook to pay on our behalf, won the battle which He fought to deliver us from hell, and is accepted as our Surety and our Substitute by our Father in heaven. Had He never come forth from the prison of the grave, how could we ever have been sure that our ransom had been fully paid? (1 Cor. 15:17.) Had He never risen from His conflict with the last enemy, how could we have felt confident, that He has overcome death, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil? (Heb. 2:14.) But thanks be unto God, we are not left in doubt. The Lord Jesus really “rose again for our justification.” True Christians are “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” They may boldly say with Paul, “Who is he that condemns – it is Christ that died, yes rather that is risen again” (Rom. 8:34. Rom. 4:25. 1 Pet. 1:3)." (J.C. Ryle, Matthew Commentary, Chapter 28).

 How calm and beautiful the morn
That gilds the sacred tomb,
Where Christ the crucified was borne,
And veiled in midnight gloom!
O weep no more the Saviour slain;
The Lord is ris'n; he lives again.
Ye mourning saints, dry ev'ry tear
For your departed Lord;
Behold the place, he is not here,
The tomb is all unbarred;
The gates of heath were closed in vain:
The Lord is ris'n; he lives again.
Now cheerful to the house of prayer
Your early footsteps bend;
The Saviour will himself be there,
Your Advocate and Friend:
Once by the law your hopes were slain,
But now in Christ ye live again.
How tranquil now the rising day!
'Tis Jesus still appears,
A risen Lord to chase away
Your unbelieving fears:
O weep no more your comforts slain;
The Lord is ris'n; he lives again.
And when the shades of evening fall,
When life's last hour draws nigh,
If Jesus shine upon the soul,
How blissful then to die!
Since he has ris'n that once was slain,
Ye die in Christ to live again.  (TH, 209).

Sold Out Obedience to Jesus Christ: A Sermon on Romans 16:19

 Dr. MA Petillo

Come, ye souls by sin afflicted,
Bowed with fruitless sorrow down;
By the broken law convicted,
Through the cross behold the crown;
Look to Jesus;
Mercy flows through him alone.
Take his easy yoke and wear it;
Love will make obedience sweet;
Christ will give you strength to bear it,
While his wisdom guides your feet
Safe to glory,
Where his ransomed captives meet.
Blessed are the eyes that see him,
Blest the ears that hear his voice;
Blessed are the souls that trust him,
And in him alone rejoice:
His commandments
Then become their happy choice.
Sweet as home to pilgrim's weary,
Light to newly opened eyes,
Or full springs in deserts dreary,
Is the rest the cross supplies:
All who taste it
Shall to rest immortal rise.  (TH, 390).

Romans 16:19 NASB

For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

We ought to demonstrate our Christian faith through obedience.  Obedience is something that spreads everywhere once it is noticed, because God is the Author of Christian obedience.  Obedience is something worth fighting for.  It knows no compromise with the world, the flesh and the devil.  Obedience does not yield to sin because Christ will no doubt forgive, but obedience is something that lasts through the temptation of Balaam.  Johnathan Edwards wrote of obedience,

"...This commitment to total obedience does not mean a mere negative avoidance of evil practices. It also means positively obeying God’s commands. We cannot say that someone is a true Christian just because he is not a thief, liar, blasphemer, drunkard, sexually immoral, arrogant, cruel or fierce. He also has to be positively God-fearing, humble, respectful, gentle, peaceful, forgiving, merciful and loving. Without these positive qualities, he is not obeying the laws of Christ..."

Again on obedience, C.H. Spurgeon wrote,

"...I cannot conceive it possible for anyone truly to receive Christ as Savior and yet not to receive him as Lord. A man who is really saved by grace does not need to be told that he is under solemn obligations to serve Christ. The new life within him tells him that. Instead of regarding it as a burden, he gladly surrenders himself – body, soul, and spirit- to the Lord who has redeemed him, reckoning this to be his reasonable service..."

If you find yourself at ease with the world, you are likely a compromising Christian that has went astray.  Do you agree with the world, the flesh and the devil?  Have you sided with the world in at least one area?  Why, why, why?  If your obedience is seen as madness with uncompromising zeal even among outward Christians engaging in fornication, you ought to continue to stand with Christ.  

That is, it is because of God's predestinarian motivation for holy living in light of the immaculate holiness of the Lord Christ.  We ought to think like Jesus, speak like Jesus and live like Jesus.  That means we are to be holy people set apart from the world.  We are to be Christian people who live in this world but are not of this world.  Such a teaching is contrary to the kingdom of Satan.  The father of lies has already planned the scheme of the failure of Christians.  That is, he wants them to fall into the sexual immorality in advancing through wrongdoing and not yield to the NT commandments of Jesus Christ.  If you are a Christian, you must not be a friend of the world.  If you are a friend of the world, you have fallen from grace.  Do not take part in the plagues of the apocalypse.

Have you not read Third John about the obedience of Demetrius?   "Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true."  Demetrius is contrasted with Diotrephes (3 Jn 9), but he was practicing evil in the pastoral leadership of the local church (3 Jn 11).  Pastoral evil is a greater kind of wickedness than a Christian in the pew, because the pastor has the highest calling.  The OT Psalms contrast the godly with the ungodly (Ps 1), so the Apostle John in the Epistle of Third John practices the same understanding in constructing his NT epistle.   This begs the question on the moral law of God in the Christian life. What place does the moral law of God have in the Christian life?  I suggest to you that the moral law of God is God's standard for our practice in Christian living.  That is, God's Spirit-based commandments should not be only written on the outward man but written upon the heart of the Christian.  RC Sproul author The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians wrote,

"...The Antinomian heresy is the view that the law of God revealed in the Old Testament has nothing to do with the New Testament church; that the New Testament church is a church without law, a church that lives and breathes exclusively on the basis of grace… But the New Testament is far from abolishing God’s moral law. Jesus calls His disciples to obedience. He says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15)..."   (ref., Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 64-65).

The gospel should shape the way we live out the Christian life.  It does not mean that we should continue to sin because Jesus always forgives.  The truth is that Jesus will always forgive, because there is no limitations to the forgiving power of the Cross.  The Cross has no limitations, but it does not mean to sin with license.  The NT through the superintendence of God's Spirit clearly commands us not to use our freedom for sinning for the Apostle Peter wrote, "Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God" (1 Pet 2:15 ESV).  That is, obedience is sold-out service to a holy God.  Rather the obedience of a steadfast recognition and practice of the moral law of God in the Christian life is the work of God's written Word in the power of God's Spirit.   We ought to dwell upon the moral law of God and practice it through the outworking plan of Jesus Christ.  

Everything we do is seen by God.  For the written Word says, "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known" (Lk 12:2 ESV).  We ought to live in light of God's holy Word because it teaches us about living in the holy presence of God.  To God everything is revealed, but as a Christian this should not cause us to fear unto torment, but rejoice unto obedience.  God has willed that the work of the Christian is not in vain.  "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Core 15:58 ESV).  For the good Lord knows those who are His.  That is, every motivation for every deed whether good or bad will come into account at the Last Day before King Jesus.  "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Ecc 12:13-14 ESV).  It does not mean we are saved in anyway by our works (Gal 2:16), but God will "judge" His people through Himself (Gal 2:20) because we possess His ultimate righteousness through faith alone (Phil 3:9; Eph 2:8-9) by imputation not infusion (Rom 4ff).  

Christians are never to practice what is evil.  Has the world, the flesh or the devil tempted you to sin because Jesus will forgive?  It is true that God gets glory unto justice or glory unto mercy (Rom 9ff).  Every time a Christian sins God cleanses us from our dead works, "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Heb 9:14 ESV).  This means God is always there for a sinner (but we ought to never sin), but the Cross is there for sinners and Jesus Christ is our Advocate with the Father who is able to pardon (1 Jn 2:1).  This does not mean we are called to indulge the sinful nature.  For the infallible Word says, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"  (Heb 10:29 KJV).  

It is true that the second death of damnation cannot touch a converted elect sinner, because there is no condemnation for those who are forever in Christ (Rom 8ff; Jude 1ff).  If the second death cannot touch us, why do we live in the deeds of the flesh?  We are called to live a predestinarian lifestyle of holiness.   Do you mortify and crucify the sinful nature through sold-out, contrite repentance?  It is true that the plain testimony of the written Word says that we are legally dead to sin and alive to Christ (Rom 6:11).  Do you live this out in your Christian life?  Instead of being dead to sin, are you now alive to sin?  That is, why do you grieve the free Spirit of God through yielding to Satan?   Remember the deeds of the end times started with the murder of the innocent Lamb of God.  Do you wish to partake of those same deeds that put the Savior to a brutal death?  Do not mock on, but mind your ways!  Those of the second death yield to the works of the flesh (Gal 5:18-20), but it is also possible for the Christian to fall into that which is evil with the total neglect of renewing one's mind in the sold-out commitment of obedience to Christ (Rom 12:2) in the transformation of our souls by God's Spirit who conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom 8:29).  Is your whole life captive to the unrestrained sinless obedience of Jesus Christ?  We ought to be obedient to Christ in every thought, in every word and in every deed (2 Cor 10:5).  We are no longer under the domination of sin as unregenerate men.  Rather we are Spirit-filled Christians that are set-apart for every good work because of God's creation and ordination (Eph 2:10).  Why remain any longer captive to the will of Satan in your willfil submission to him in the Christian life that has been set free by Christ (2 Tim 2:26; Gal 5:1)?   

"...From all this it is easy to perceive on what principle good works are to be cast aside or embraced, and by what rule all teachings put forth concerning works are to be understood. For if works are brought forward as grounds of justification, and are done under the false persuasion that we can pretend to be justified by them, they lay on us the yoke of necessity, and extinguish liberty along with faith, and by this very addition to their use they become no longer good, but really worthy of condemnation. For such works are not free, but blaspheme the grace of God, to which alone it belongs to justify and save through faith. Works cannot accomplish this, and yet, with impious presumption, through our folly, they take on themselves to do so; and thus break in with violence upon the office and glory of grace...We do not then reject good works; nay, we embrace them and teach them in the highest degree. It is not on their own account that we condemn them, but on account of this impious addition to them and the preverse notion of seeking justification from them. It is not from works that we are set free by the faith of Christ, but from belief in works, that is from foolishly presuming to seek justification through works. Faith redeems our consciences, makes them upright, and preserves them, since by it we recognize the truth that justification does not depend on our works, although good works neither can nor ought to be absent...(Concerning Christian Liberty. Found in Luther’s Primary Works (London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1896), Henry Wace and C.A. Buchheim Ed., , pp. 275-277, 288)

Fight the good fight with all thy might;
Christ is thy Strength and Christ thy Right:
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.
Run the straight race through God's good grace,
Lift up thine eyes, and seek his face;
Life with its way before us lies,
Christ is the Path and Christ the Prize.
Cast care aside; upon thy Guide
Lean, and his mercy will provide;
Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove,
Christ is its Life and Christ its Love.
Faint not, nor fear, his arms are near;
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.  (TH, 484).

A Scriptural Call for Radical Reformation in a 10-Point-by-Point Sermon in an Exegetical Study of Biblical Verses on the Reformed Baptist Doctrine of the Bodily Ascension of our great Incarnate Savior and Creator Jesus Christ, Pt 1

 The Heidelberg Catechism

Question 46. How dost thou understand these words, "he ascended into heaven"?

Answer: That Christ, in sight of his disciples, was taken up from earth into heaven; (a) and that he continues there for our interest, (b) until he comes again to judge the quick and the dead. (c)

(a) Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. Matt.26:64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Mark 16:19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. Luke 24:51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. (b) Heb.7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Heb.4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Heb.9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Rom.8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Eph.4:10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) Col.3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. (c) Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Matt.24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Psalm 68:18 NASB
¹⁸ You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives;
You have received gifts among men,

Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there.

1.  Psalm 68:18 refers to a single prophetic and historical account of the bodily ascension of the Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, because He divinely accomplished redemption in His person and work in behalf of His people alone.  

2.  The Lord has set the captive free by His perfect life and death alone in how someone is right with God through faith alone.  The Lord Jesus bodily ascended into heaven like the fragrant and soothing aroma of incense in the ancient temple of God.  There is no doubt that He ascended in His glorified and sacred humanity where He is the eternal God-man.

3.  Jesus has absolute power over the air in which He ascended through His eternal self-existence in the power of being.  He rose above His cosmic enemies but provided the only way to be right with God that is only through Him. 

Ephesians 4:8-10 NASB 

⁸ Therefore it says, 

“When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
And He gave gifts to men.” 

⁹ (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.

4.  The Lord Jesus Christ ascended on high.  That is, He was lifted up to and beyond the heavens.  He set free the men in spiritual bondage to sin through the unspeakable gift of Himself in how someone is justified before a holy God.  

5.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Person who ascended into heaven.  What does descended mean?  It means God became man in the Person of Jesus Christ.  He alone is the Incarnate and eternal Word.  It does not mean He descended into hell, but He bore hell upon the Cross to pay for all of the sins of God's people in Christ alone.  I am not saying He is not everywhere, because He is touching His deity.  That is, the eternal Incarnate Consuming Fire is present in eternal hell where He torments the residents of hell in the holy presence of His elect angels.

6.  Jesus ascended into heaven body and soul, but He came from heaven to be virginal conceived of the Virgin Mary and became man.  God descended into the lower parts of the earth and was born of a holy woman.  Jesus said that He was the greatest above all.  That is, Jesus is the greatest even greater than the heavens itself.  Jesus must have the First place in all things (see Col. 1:18).  He fills all of the elect which are His people alone that emerge to be an innumerable multitude.

John 20:17 NASB

 ¹⁷ Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

7.  Jesus rose bodily from the grave, for He communicates with Mary.  Jesus was set apart from sinners.  That is, He is immaculate Son of Man and He spent time on earth after His real, bodily and historic resurrection.  

8.  He ascends to God the Father.  There is an economic distinction in the Triune Godhead in the Three distinct Persons: the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  The Father is the First Person, the Son is the Second Person and the Spirit is the Third Person.  

9.  Jesus has God as His eternal Father because Jesus is submissive to His Heavenly Father as the Second Person in the Triune Godhead.  He refers to His disciples as "My brethren."  That is, the people of God in Christ alone are His brothers and sisters, but they are not equal to Him.  Jesus has the divine prerogative, authority and power to bodily ascend to God the Father as His God and Your God.

Luke 24:48-51 NASB
⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”  ⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

10.  Jesus has witnesses that demonstrate He is God in human flesh, His radical miracles and His bodily resurrection.  Jesus speaks of the Father's Spirit upon His people.  The Spirit comes at the appointed time to cloth the people of God with power from on high.  The Lord leaves with a blessing.  No Roman priest can be "another Christ."  Rather only the blessing of the divine words of Christ avail.  He blesses and departs.  He always gives in His mission from the Father.  He not only ascended into heaven by His own power but by the power of the Father, Spirit and His elect angels.  The Triune Majesty always works together and surely the ascension is no different.  That is, it was a Trinitarian work of God in the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
 

"When Christ returned to heaven, He withdrew His physical presence from our sight.  He didn’t stop being with the disciples but by the ascension fulfilled His promise to be with us to the end of the world.  As His body was raised to heaven, so His power and reign have spread to the uttermost parts."  (John Calvin)